On 23 November 2015, a 14-year-old minor from Deir Nidham was arrested by Israeli soldiers from home at 2:00 a.m. and accused of throwing stones. He reports being denied his basic legal rights under Israeli military law. He reports being released on payment of NIS 2,000 around 14 hours after he was arrested. 

 

My brother woke me up at around 2:00 a.m. and told me there were Israeli soldiers surrounding our house. I heard a knock at our front door and when I went to the living room I saw about 10 soldiers there. I was shivering as I watched my father talk to them in Hebrew trying to understand what they wanted.

 

The soldiers then went to my bedroom and conducted a search. They took my father with them. They made a mess and tore my books as they searched my school bag. My father came back and told me to get dressed. Two soldiers then took me outside. My brother had an argument with the soldiers as he tried to tell them I was too young to be arrested but they just beat him. I didn’t see them give my family any documents.

 

The soldiers led me for about five minutes on foot towards the entrance to our village before they tied my hands to the front with three plastic ties: one on each wrist and one connecting the two. The ties were not painful. They did not blindfold me. Then they took put me in the back of a jeep and made me sit on the floor.

 

The jeep drove for about 30 minutes to the Israeli police station inside Binyamin settlement. I was put in a room where I waited until around 3:30 p.m. I wasn’t given any food but I was allowed to use the toilet and to drink water. During this time a doctor gave me a medical form to fill out. An interrogator then took me to the interrogation room.

 

The interrogator told me that when I appear in the military court I could remain silent. He called my father and asked him to appoint a lawyer for me. Then he accused me of throwing stones and showed me a photograph. I denied the accusation and denied that it was me in the photograph. I told him many boys in the village look like me and if he didn’t believe me he could ask the other boy from my village who was arrested at the same time. I told him I don’t throw stones and that I go from home to school and back and on Fridays my father takes me to Ramallah to play soccer. He accused me of lying and told me he was going to let me rot in prison.

 

At the end of the interrogation the interrogator took my photograph and my fingerprints and took me back to the room where I waited until around 4:00 p.m. My father came to the police station and he was told I was going to be released on bail. They told him he had to pay NIS 2,000. My father told me my military court hearing is scheduled for 30 December 2015.