From attack dogs to prison time, this is how Israel is trying to thwart my activism
The Israeli army wants to make an example of Palestinians who protest the occupation — a campaign my village At-Tuwani has faced for generations.
On the evening of Sept. 29, Israeli soldiers arrested me during a raid on my house in At-Tuwani, a village in the Masafer Yatta region of the occupied West Bank.
The occupation soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded me before taking me to a military base nearby, where they sat me on the cold ground. One of the soldiers threatened me, saying I should prepare to meet God; he mocked and humiliated me and told me I should leave Palestine and go to Italy. All the while I remained silent. A few moments later, another soldier called me a dog and spat on me.
After about two hours of sitting in the military base, the soldiers brought dogs that barked loudly as they moved closer and closer to me; I increasingly feared that they would bite me. One of the soldiers shouted at me from a few centimeters away, twice asking me why I had filmed the raid on my house.
The soldiers continued to harass and humiliate me. Still barking, the dogs drew so close that I could feel them on my legs, while the soldiers kept screaming, clearly enjoying themselves. I tried to protect myself, kicking at the dogs to try and stun them, but my attempts failed. At that moment, I was so terrified that I could feel my whole body shaking, until the soldiers and their dogs abruptly left.
About 20 minutes later, the soldiers brought the dogs back, and the whole terrifying scene repeated itself. The barking dogs were aggressively jumping and trying to bite me. I shouted at the soldiers to take them away, and I desperately kicked my legs at them again. After what seemed like an eternity, the soldiers finally took the dogs away, and threatened me not to film the army again. I was still shaking.
After about four hours of this harassment and humiliation, the soldiers put me in a car and drove, before throwing me out of the car about 10 kilometers from my home. It was only after they drove away that I was able to remove the blindfold and call my family to pick me up. I thanked God I still had my phone.
An unfair trial
This is not the first time I have been arrested, humiliated, and tortured by the Israeli army. In fact, this latest incident is one part of an ongoing and targeted campaign of harassment against me, which began over three years ago, and against my community for decades.
In early January 2021, I, along with 200 other Israeli, Palestinian, and international activists, participated in a demonstration in the neighboring village of Al-Rakeez after the Israeli army shot and paralyzed my friend and fellow activist, Harun Abu Aram, when he refused to let them confiscate his electricity generator. The next day, the army stormed my house at 2 a.m. and arrested me on charges of disturbing the peace, assaulting an Israeli soldier, and violating a closed military zone.
I was released a few days later on bail of NIS 10,000 (about $3,000) under the condition that I appear at the Hebron police station — located in the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba — on Fridays between the hours of 8 a.m-3:00 p.m..
Neither the day nor the hour were random. In fact, it is on this day of the week and between these hours that most demonstrations in the West Bank against Israel’s theft of Palestinian land, the military occupation, and creeping annexation take place. For good measure, I was also formally prohibited from joining any more protests.
More than two years later, in August 2023, I was convicted by the Ofer military court on two counts: “assault of a soldier” and “obstructing a soldier during duty.” These charges could lead to a sentence of up to 12 years.
The prosecution did not provide any physical or video evidence to the court that I had acted violently; they based their case exclusively on oral testimony from Israeli security forces. Meanwhile, video evidence from the demonstration, along with statements of multiple witnesses, many of whom were Israeli, testified to my innocence.
Israeli forces shut down the West Bank village of At-Tuwani to support the entry of dozens of Israeli settlers, Masafer Yatta, West Bank, August 14, 2024.(Omri Eran Vardi/Activestills)
Evidence aside, the trial was never fair or transparent to begin with. My lawyer at the time, Gaby Lasky, was denied participation in the interrogation process, and the trial was conducted entirely in Hebrew with no interpretation.
Two days before my latest arrest, I showed up to my sentencing hearing, only for it to be postponed. My current lawyer, Reham Nassra, and I have not received any information about when it might take place. It could take months, years even.
Reham predicts that it is more likely that I will receive a suspended sentence than serve time in jail. This outcome would also be far from ideal. If I am convicted of the same charge again during my probationary period, I will go to prison.
Making an example of activists
Even before this legal persecution began, it was clear that the Israeli army uses these tactics — arbitrary arrests, beatings, perpetually delayed legal proceedings, and long jail sentences — to make an example of human rights activists, to discourage and frighten Palestinians from exercising their basic right to protest the occupation and theft of their land. It is something my family members have dealt with for generations.
Ever since the Israeli military built the illegal settlement of Ma’on in 1981, within shouting distance of our land in At-Tuwani, my grandmother, Fatima, and my father, Hafez, were frequently subjected to army and settler violence alike. My grandmother was regularly assaulted by settlers while grazing her sheep. My father, a prominent resistance activist in the South Hebron Hills, experienced persistent beatings, arrests, and nighttime raids at the hands of the army.
Each time I am arrested, I am subjected to different methods and tactics of harassment, assault, and torture. When I was arrested on Aug. 31, I was brutally humiliated by two soldiers who are also local settlers; they put a plastic bag over my head and covered my nose and eyes with black tape.
As Palestinians living under Israeli military law and colonialism, we are not seen or treated as human beings. The occupation — declared illegal by the International Court of Justice — allows Israeli soldiers and settlers to act with complete impunity.
We have seen this on countless occasions where Palestinians have been brutally murdered with no consequences. We have even witnessed Palestinian-Americans and internationals being killed with no accountability, and although the United States condemned such acts and promised thorough investigations, nothing has come of them.
The world remains paralyzed in the face of genocide, murder, and annexation. But it is we, the Palestinian people, who remain steadfast and continue to resist.
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