A
Story From The Heart Of
Israel's Secret Prison
By Mohammad
Daraghmeh
Al-Ayyam daily
newspaper,
11July, 2003
Despite spending a long time in prison (38 days of continuous torture),
Bashar Joudallah (50 years old) from Nablus does not remember much from
the place except black walls, or maybe grey, he doesn't remember, a
"modern" interrogation room and sounds of planes landing and
taking off in a nearby place.
Bashar did not know much
about the prison he was in except after he was transferred to other
prisons such as 'Majido' and 'Ofer', where he was detained for 3 months.
Other detainees later explained to him that he was in one of the secret
prisons located in distant areas, used to for interrogation with detainees
with serious accusations.
Bashar, a known tradesman
in Nablus had just returned from Turkey that day, 22nd of November last
year, after a business visit to import a shipment of clothes to his
own shop in the city, when he was arrested with his cousin Mohammad
(23 years old), who was accompanying him. They were taken from the bridge
directly to prison.
It seemed ambiguous from
the moment they were arrested. They were handcuffed and blindfolded
and placed in a truck, as well as forced to keep their heads down throughout
the journey, estimated between 5 to 10 hours.
"I don't remember, the
truck was moving and moving, the blindfold tight on my eyes to an extent
that I could not even see daylight," said Bashar.
"I remember the sound
of the prison gate opening from the inside by an electric button and
that we were on the ground floor and not underground as one would imagine,"
he said.
Bashar was placed in a cell
with black or gray walls that contained a cement bunk bed, an hole for
a toilet and a water hose pipe controlled by a guard from the outside.
This cell was in one of two
long lines of cells facing each other and guarded closely. Detainees
can see nothing but their cells.
"They made us wear dark
glasses that cover the whole area of the eyes, before getting us out
of the cell, to take us to a specific room, whether the interrogation
room or the clinic, and they do not lift the glasses except after we
enter the specific room."
Bashar was getting to know
the place through his senses.
He said, "It seemed
to me that the interrogation section is separated from the cells, as
I used to hear the sound of the door opening with an electric button
each time I was moved from the cell to the interrogation room."
Throughout his arrest, Bashar
used to hear continuous movement of planes in the place.
"I used to hear sounds
of different planes, including the observation planes that work without
pilots and make a loud noise."
He added, "This plane
used to take off and land several times a day, which gave me the impression
that I was detained in a prison inside a military base."
After a while Joudalalh tried
to find out what the name of the place was, but the interrogator did
not answer him.
"Despite all the constraints
surrounding me, it occurred to me to ask about the location, so the
interrogator replied by saying, 'You are on the moon', so I remained
silent after that."
One day, the interrogator
told Bashar's cousin that Fateh leader Marwan al-Barghouti was interrogated
in the same prison.
Bashar said, "The interrogator
said that Marwan's legs were dangling down the chair during interrogation
because he is too short."
The detainee feels complete
isolation in the prison and does not know anything about what surrounds
him.
Bashar said, "It seemed
to me that I was going to be in that prison for ever, boredom was eating
me up to an extent that I wished I would die to end the never-ending
daily torture."
What saved Bashar from the
continuation of interrogation without mercy was that his cousin, the
owner of a computer company in Nablus, admitted that he was a Hamas
activist.
Bashar said, "I am a
normal resident. I work in trade and never thought for one day that
I would be arrested but it seems they arrested because of my cousin."
The prison guards confiscated
3,500 Jordanian Dinars from Bashar, which have not been returned to
date.
It was revealed lately that
such a prison exists when a lawyer asked a judge in 'Beit Il' court
about the whereabouts of his client and the judge replied by saying,
"There is a secret place that I cannot give you any details about."
Head of the Palestinian Detainee
Center Issa Qaraqi' said that news concerning this prison was also revealed
lately in an American report.
This prison is no different
from the 22 other Israeli prisons, in which 6500 Palestinian detainees
are held, many in complete isolation.
Bashar said, "The interrogators
made me feel that I was going to be placed there until the end of my
life, and I reached a point of wishing I had something to say so I can
end this agony, and once I even asked them to write down whatever they
wanted so I can sign and get it over and done with, but they refused."
(The article was originally
published in Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayyam. Translated by Hear
Palestine.)