I went home after school at around 1:30 p.m. I dropped my bag home and went to my aunt’s house nearby. My aunt told me to go and look for her son Rami. I found Rami and as we walked home we saw about six Israeli soldiers not too far away.

 

The soldiers fired rubber bullets although there were no clashes going on. I was scared and ran towards my aunt’s house but I was surprised by two other soldiers who came from the opposite direction. I had no other way to go except to run towards the valley. I ran with some other boys through olive groves towards the valley where I saw four military jeeps on the main road.

 

I wanted to run all the way to the nearbouring village but with the jeeps on the main road I decided to hide behind a rock and some trees. By this time I was with two other younger boys. I crouched under an oak tree for about 45 minutes. 

 

After 45 minutes I saw about six soldiers approaching us and a few military vehicles came from the direction of the nearby settlement of Halamish. The mothers of the two boys who were with me came to try to intervene with the soldiers. At this point I felt I could leave the younger boys with their mothers and I started to run but one of the soldiers pushed me to the ground. He kicked me on the knee and two other soldiers twisted my arm to the back and beat me with the back of a gun. I was in pain.

 

Then the soldiers dragged me towards the main road where the military jeeps were waiting. They pushed me into the back of a jeep and made me sit on the floor. They also blindfolded me and tied my hands to the front with one plastic tie. The tie was very painful. When I complained the commander pushed me then cut off the tie and aggressively twisted my arms to the back and handcuffed me with metal handcuffs. He also shackled my ankles. I remained in the jeep for about an hour.

 

The jeep then drove to the entrance of Halamish settlement. I was taken out of the jeep and the guard at the gate told me to walk. When I bumped my head against an electricity pole because I was blindfolded, the guard started to laugh. Then they removed the blindfold and made me kneel down together with the other boys who were arrested with me and they displayed us to about 10 settlers who laughed and seemed pleased that we were detained. I felt humiliated to be displayed to the settlers. This lasted for about 15 minutes.

 

Then I was taken to the military watchtower at the entrance to the nearby village of An Nabi Saleh. My ankle shackles were removed but I remained handcuffed and blindfolded. The soldiers made me lie down on my back while handcuffed and blindfolded until around 11:30 a.m. I was in pain and I was very cold. I tried to fall asleep but a soldier kicked me to wake me up.

 

At around 11:30 a.m. I was taken to the back of a jeep where I sat on a seat and the jeep drove for about two hours to the police station in Binyamin settlement. At Binyamin I was taken to a room and a soldier from an Ethiopian background lifted the blindfold and looked at my face and made a gesture as if he had positively identified me. I was never told what I was accused of but they made me feel like I was a criminal. Then I saw my father and uncles from a distance but the blindfold was pulled to cover my eyes and I was immediately taken for interrogation and I did not speak to them. By this time I was exhausted.

 

The interrogator wore civilian clothes and was physically big. He aggressively slammed the door behind him. I asked him whether he spoke Arabic and he said he did. He removed the handcuffs and the blindfold.

 

I asked him for the reason for my arrest and he told me I was accused of setting a fire by the settlement and assaulting a soldier during my arrest. I asked him for evidence but he said the evidence was on its way. When I asked him to explain what sort of evidence he had against me he got upset and banged the table. Then he gave me a document written in Hebrew and asked me to sign it. I refused to sign and asked for somebody to translate the document for me. The interrogator got angry and made a gesture as if he was going to bang the table.

 

Then the interrogator handed me a telephone and told me to speak to a lawyer. The lawyer told me to remain silent but also told me to say yes if the interrogator accused me of throwing stones at soldiers because this would be a lesser offence than starting a fire in a settlement. I told the interrogator I didn’t want this lawyer to talk to me. The interrrogator did not inform me of my right to silence. 

 

The interrogator then left the room and a soldier walked in and started to verbally abuse me. He said bad things about my mother and sister and called me "a son of a whore". I felt I wanted to punch him in the face but held myself back.

 

A soldier then took my fingerprints and asked me for my age. Then I was then searched manually and taken to a small room without external windows; just a small window in the door. I felt claustrophobic in the room and asked them to open the door. They opened the window in the door and I gasped for fresh air through the window.

 

A couple of people walked into the cell and said things that scared me. One of them told me I was going to be questioned by an intelligence officer. Another told me I was going to be kept in prison for five years. I was very worried. He told me to go to sleep but each time I tried to fall asleep a soldier would walk in and kick me to wake me up. I think they saw me through a camera in the room.  At one point I was kicked in the shoulder and I nearly passed out. I was still without any food or water and I wasn’t allowed to use the toilet.

 

I was scared and started to talk to myself. At around 8:00 a.m. I was taken to a police car which took me to the settlement of Beit El where I was handed over to the Palestinian police. I was released without charge and I arrived home at around 11:00 a.m.