I was still awake at around 2:00 a.m. when I heard a commotion outside our house. I looked out the window and saw a group of Israeli soldiers. I woke up my father just as the soldiers started to aggressively bang at our front door.

 

My father opened our front door and the soldiers told him to bring all the boys to the living room. Then they asked to see my birth certificate and then told my father they wanted to arrest me. My father refused to receive or sign a document they wanted him to sign. The soldiers told my father they wanted to take me for a short time and would return me home soon. They also told my father to look for me at the police station in Etzion settlement if I didn't return home.

 

The soldiers allowed me to get dressed and then took me outside. I had a fractured arm which was wrapped in plaster so the soldiers tied my hands separately to my trousers on each side. They also blindfolded me and then took me to the back of a military jeep where they made me sit on the floor.

 

The jeep drove for about 10 minutes to the nearby military base at the settlement of Bitar Ilit where I was put in a shipping container and I sat on a chair. I slept on the chair until around 8:00 a.m. when soldiers took me back to the jeep where I sat on the floor again. The jeep drove for about 30 minutes to the police station in Etzion settlement. On arrival at Etzion I was searched made to stand in a courtyard for about 30 minutes and then I was taken for interrogation.

 

The interrogator removed the blindfold and untied me. He did not inform me of my rights but I told him I wanted to speak to my father. He did not allow me to speak to my father until after the interrogation was over. The interrogator accused me of throwing stones at soldiers but did not present me with any evidence. He told me there was secret evidence in his possession that I was involved in throwing stones at soldiers. I denied the accusation and told him this was not true.

 

The interrogator questioned me for about two hours and I continued to deny the accusation. In the end he printed out my statement in Hebrew and asked me to sign it and I did without understanding it. I didn’t know I had the right to have my statement translated into Arabic. The interrogator then took my photograph and my fingerprints and I spent a night at Etzion.

 

At around 9:00 a.m. the following day soldiers handcuffed me to the front and shackled me and took me to the back of a police car where I sat on a seat. The car drove for about an hour and then stopped at Hadassah hospital, in Jerusalem, where they removed the plaster on my arm. The car then took me to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem, where I was immediately taken to the military court.

 

My father was in the military court and I was allowed to speak to him. My lawyer was there too. The hearing was adjourned. I had about 10 military court hearings. On one occasion in court my father wanted to see any video tapes of my interrogation. The military judge agreed but the prosecutor refused.

 

At the last hearing I confessed to throwing stones at soldiers in a plea bargain with the prosecutor and I was sentenced to three months in prison; fined NIS 2,000; and given a suspended sentence of one year in prison valid for three years. My lawyer advised me to accept the plea bargain because initially the prosecutor was asking for a sentence of one year and a fine of NIS 5,000.

 

I spent my sentence at Ofer prison. My parents did not visit me because they were denied a permit for security reasons. In prison I studied Arabic and Mathematics. I was released from prison on 1 September 2016, about two weeks early.