Day 3 of the Yachad Student Trip. I think this will be the hardest one to write so far so here goes. We knew that this day was going to be intense but I dont think any of us were really prepared for what lay ahead. The day was spent with Military Courts Watch (MCW), learning about the military court process and structure, visiting Ofer military court and finally visiting Palestinian families who were either in jail or have family currently in jail. We started with a briefing by the co-founders of MCW at a hotel in East Jerusalem. They explained the legal nature of a military court structure in an occupation and how it can work well in a temporary situation (ie not 47 years and counting...). He praised the IDF for its incredible achievement of keeping relative calm in what could be a very volatile area in the West Bank with having so few boots on the ground. But the psychological occupation that he went on to talk about and that we saw lots of evidence of during the day seemed to us far worse than every Israeli soldier being deployed as a military presence in the West Bank. The constant night raids, a town we visited in the afternoon had 16 night raids just in the month of May. The breaking down of doors if they are not answered quick enough. The fear instilled into young children who are woken up by soldiers with large guns. The aggressive nature that soldiers speak to families of the person who they have come to arrest. The silence of soldiers when asked why the person is being arrested. The blindfold and plastic zip ties placed on the arrestee that are often left on for hours, long after the journey to the interrogation facility has ended and sometimes even after the interrogation has ended. The failure to read them their rights, especially of a right to a lawyer and a right to silence. The metal floor that the Palestinian is placed on for the journey when all seats are taken up by soldiers in the jeep. The threat or the use of violence against the person for confessions or even just horseplay. The wait between the arrival during the night at the interrogation facility and the interrogator to start work in the morning. The use of Hebrew documents (a language not spoken and especially read by many West Bankers) to confuse and intimidate suspects. I could go on but surely this list is enough to see the injustices that occur in many cases of these arrests. This is also only just in the period of time from arrest to charge. After visiting the military court, the situation only gets worse from here on. I think this is a good point to pause on some of the devastating things we heard today and put it in some perspective. These are not injustices because the army is targeting a bunch of innocent people. Many, in fact I would say the vast majority of those arrested are guilty, usually of either stone throwing or infiltration (going from West Bank to East Jerusalem or Israel without the correct permit). It is also true that none of the above is legal under Israeli law but are instead practices that go on without repercussions. Im sure some people reading this will tell me that all of the happen in such a small number of cases and the soldiers are brought to justice for it. But the evidence suggests it is much more widespread than that. 12% of cases were informed of their rights. 46% were transferred on floor of vehicle. 5% consulted with a lawyer before interrogation. Again I could go on... Also remember that children from the age of 12 are able to be arrested and tried in this system. Imagine the fear and trauma instilled into a boy of that age who is taken from his parents during the night, subjected to intimidation and spends the next day or so in jail. Palestinian youths who we spoke to in the afternoon told us that once they were released were scared of all soldiers they came across. It brought home for me the fact that this is far from a temporary military occupation in which the end game is a peaceful resolution between both sides. How will the next generation be able to make peace when they have grown up in this system? When they are in such fear of the other, either too scared to progress in life or radicalised in anger against the IDF. Now for the actual trial system! We arrived at Ofer and after going through security, we sat in the waiting room and heard from a couple of mothers who were waiting for their sons trials and from an incredible Israeli defence lawyer, a man who gave us all so much strength to get through the day. MCW found us a courtroom/caravan (remember its a temporary occupation right?) with ongoing trials. The 10-15 minutes sat inside this room broke most of the group. We sat in a row of seats at the back of the room, mine next to the father of the next defendant. In our conversation with his limited hebrew, he told me his son, 22, was arrested for working in the West Bank without a permit. He started to well up when he son stood up for the start of his trial and turned to his father and smiled. The proceedings were nothing like I have ever seen before. Army officers running around and chatting on phones. The army translator who clearly was not translating the full court proceedings to the defendant, backed up by our guide later and was often told off for not listening to the proceedings and forgetting to translate. At the same time, a group of Palestinian men sat behind the defendant in prison clothes, feet shackled waiting for their trial. I would like to think that these were fair trials but with a supposed conviction rate of 99.74% and the extra time in prison needed to plead innocence rather than just admitting guilt really puts doubts in my mind. Our afternoon was spent hearing multiple testimonies from residents of Deir Nidham, all of whom spoke about many of the things we saw and heard. Each testimony was equally distressing and by the end of the time we had spent there we could not take anymore. All the stories became the same. Throughout the day we continued to talk about future campaigns. This is one of the few positive lights we can take from this trip, knowing that after having seen what we have, we have to do something about it. There are many more incidents and stories that I just do not have time, space and energy to write here but feel free to message me on specific points or for general interest! Finally, I have been very moved by the messages of support I have received from a range of people. It has been very much needed on this very difficult trip and so for that I thank you all!
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 22:28:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015