The Israeli state does not recognize the Palestinian Bedouin’s right to despite proper deeds.
By Marwa Koçak and Amy Addison-Dunne
They busted down the door before sunrise and about 30 Israeli soldiers swarmed the family home.
The subject of their arrest? Twelve-year-old Ammar, whom they accused of attending a protest against the land clearances in the Naqab region. But his mother says the family is still not sure why they took him, as the boy was at home at the time.
“We don’t know exactly why they arrested him. At 5:30am, 30 Israeli soldiers hit the door with their legs. We freaked out and they asked for him while he was sleeping,” recalls Ammar’s mother.
“He is 12, he can’t go to school because he is under house arrest. The Israeli authorities banned him from going to school for 10 days starting from yesterday. I was shocked when they informed us of this. I screamed at them: ‘What could a 12-year-old do to you?’ I was so afraid they would hit or torture him in prison, he was so scared and cried,” she says.
Ammar was detained and eventually sent home. He has not spoken a word since he returned, and his family are worried about what happened to him in custody.