march 2005
The Prison experience of Sameh Samha of Jayyous
By Pat O'Conner
The following is the second in a series or interviews I conducted by cellphone from Massiyahu prison with Palestinian leaders of non- violent resistance to Israel's military occupation. The interviews focused on these Palestinians' experiences in Israeli prisons. One striking element of these interviews has been the matter-of-fact manner with which our Palestinians colleagues narrate
these stories of torture and abuse. While to us the stories may be shocking, to Palestinians they are
sadly a part of daily life under Israel's military occupation. When I ask at gatherings of Palestinian men, typically I find almost all have spent years in Israeli prisons.
Sameh Samha has been one of the leaders of non-violent resistance to Israel's Apartheid Wall in the village of Jayyous. Jayyous was one of the first villages to mount a sustained non- violent campaign against the wall. Beginning in the fall of 2002 Jayyous conducted 38 peaceful protests against the wall. Jayyous helped to draw international attention to the large scale seizure of Palestinian land resulting from the wall's construction. Sameh is a wonderfully kind person, dedicated to his homeland and his people and committed to his work as a farmer and as a public servant. Sameh is also an excellent organizer and leader of peaceful protest activities.
This is his story that I translated from Arabic.
I was first arrested in 1988 at the age of 18. I was held for 3 days. During those 3 days I was handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten continually. I was told that I was arrested because I and my friends were "troublemakers". We were kept in a room that should hold 40-50 people, but was instead crammed with 100 people. As a result, we had to sleep in shifts and to actually sleep on top of one another.
I was arrested for the second time in September 1989. First I was beaten and then I was held with 120 people, again in a small space that required us to sleep in shifts and on top of one another.
After this, I was interrogated for 38 days. At the beginning, I was interrogated for six days continuously. The interrogation included beatings and the "shebeh". The shebeh involves sitting on a chair which has legs of different lengths, so that it is impossible to sit comfortably, and I had to continually rebalance myself, never able to rest. My hands and legs were cuffed to the chair, and a dirty bag was placed over my head. I was held on this chair for days at a time while being beaten and interrogated.
After the first six days of continuous interrogation and shebeh, the routine changed. I was then interrogated for two days continuously followed by "breaks" of one day. Throughout this period I was beaten all over my body in sensitive areas including the groin, my head, and my feet. During the one day "breaks", I was placed in a dirty 2 meter by 2 meter cell with a bucket for a toilet, a thin mattress and bad food. Sometimes I was in the cell by myself, and sometimes other people were crammed into the tiny cell with me.
My interrogators attempted to make me confess to things I did not do. After 38 days without confessing, I was then brought before a judge. Two soldiers insisted that I had thrown stones, though I had not. Based on their testimony, I was sentenced to ten months in prison which I served.
In March of 1993, I was arrested at my home and beaten in front of my father, mother, brothers and sisters in my house. This was the eve of Eid Al-Fitr, one of Islam's holiest holidays. I was accused generally of being a "troublemaker" again, but I knew I was not guilty of anything. Despite my innocence, I was then interrogated and tortured for 97 days.
The first 14 days were continual interrogations, the shebeh and beatings. After 18 days I began to lose my memory. I was beaten in the head. My left hand is still damaged from the beatings. Two
chairs were broken over my body. With my hands and legs cuffed together and a bag over my head, I was pushed down a staircase.
When I needed medical treatment, I was taken to the prison clinic, but the doctor there was also part of the interrogation process. The doctor said he would treat me if I confessed. I refused.
At one point, my brother and I were beaten in front of each other. We were each told that if we confessed, the other would receive better treatment. I was also told that my father and mother would be brought for interrogation. During my brother's interrogation, at one point he was given my clothes and told to wear them because I no longer needed them. They told him I was dead.
During my interrogation, I was not allowed visitors. My family did not know where I was, and the Red Cross was not allowed to see me. I was not allowed to change my clothes. I only knew what day it was because each week my Israeli interrogators took a break on Saturdays for Shabbat. The food I received seemed old, passed its expiration date. It was always just enough to survive on.
After the 97 days of interrogation, I was sentenced to two years imprisonment for "Intifada activities", based on secret evidence, and with no confession despite the torture. I served a total of 22 months. The remaining 19 months that I served in Megiddo prison and the Negev prison were easy compared to my interrogation. The conditions varied between the prisons, but I was never allowed visitors, perhaps as punishment for not confessing.
I was arrested twice for brief periods in 2003. In May 2003 I was arrested by the Israelis because as part of my work I was investigating a theft by a Palestinian who was also a collaborator with the Israelis. I was released within one day after Red Cross intervention.
In October 2003, I was arrested during the daytime on Jayyous' agricultural land near the Apartheid Wall by Israeli soldiers who said I was on Israeli land. I was beaten a bit, and then released at 1:30am.
I believe that like many others I was imprisoned simply for being a Palestinian and nothing more. But even if we are imprisoned 100 times, we will not give up because this is our land, and the occupation must end.
In prison the Israelis tried to take away Palestinian prisoners' freedom, but instead we turned the prisons into universities. We organized lectures and classes and taught one another. Many Palestinians "graduated" from these universities.
The prison experience strengthens Palestinians' feelings of nationalism, and our unity. While the physical pain of the torture passes with time, what remains are the memories of how we confronted
the occupation together and refused to be broken by it.
Israel tried to divide Palestinians in prison and to destroy our dignity, but we remained united and maintained our struggle for our rights and our country.
from Neta Golan
