caught in the Israeli mass roundups
The following is an interview with a member of the Lebanese section of the Fourth International made in Beirut in Question. Can you tell us how you were arrested and what were the accusations Answer. I am from a village of a few thousand in Southern Lebanon. It does not border Israel and the Palestinian fighters have no bases there. So, there were no mass roundups in my village, as was the case in the Palestinian camps or in the southern cities such as Sidon, Tyre,
In early July, about one month after the occupation began, the Israeli soldiers came to my house and took me for questioning. First I was interrogated in the village, then I was transferred to the Safa concentration camp (Safa was previously a factory situated at the south of Sidon and near al-Ghazieh). During the interrogation, I was accused of being affiliated to Fatah. The accusation was false, and the Israeli soldiers did not present any proof. Nevertheless they stuck to the accusation, and I was arrested. I was arrested because I had been fingered by a person in prison who cooperated with the
Q. What were the conditions in Safa concentration camp like?
A. Safa was a transit camp. The prisoners were sent there before being transferred to other camps in Israel or else-
The day I arrived, about 1,000 prisoners there.
When I reached Safa camp, there was neither food nor water. When food was demanded, if you got any, it was one piece of very rotten bread that you would never eat at home and only one tomato. This was the only meal of the day. It was not regular; we might get it in the morning or at night. We were also given water to drink only once per day. The prisoners were left all day under the sun without any shelter, and at night they had to sleep on the ground without blankets. sleeping hours they were not allowed to move, and the Israeli soldiers are free to walk on the prisoners' bodies and heads. Once because I tried to move from one side to the other to be more relaxed while sleeping, I received a hard beating and many kicks from the soldier nearby. Besides that, we had to wait about four or five hours to urinate.
Humiliation and beatings were random and depended on the mood of the Israeli soldiers. An Israeli soldier might pick any prisoner and tell him to kneel and start beating him; or in front of all the other prisoners force phrases such as: "I am an idiot," or to curse Abu Ammar or George Habash or curse himself or his friends. Even talking between prisoners was very difficult. An Israeli soldier could pick any two prisoners talking to each other and start beating them. Anyway, this did not happen to me because during the first days of detention I was not in the mood to talk to anyone. Prisoners who were weak and used to shout "I am innocent," were subjected to very severe beatings. One of these prisoners had his legs broken quite badly on the orders of the Israeli official at Safa with the Arab name of "Abu Nimer." Another prisoner had his nose broken.
Then there were the interrogations. Some prisoners were not interrogated and were shipped off to Israel. Those who did not confess during interrogation were severely beaten, some were critically injured. One of the prisoners from Sa'eqa fainted during interrogation, the interrogation did not stop, they brought him around and continued beating him. They threatened to bring his wife and rape her in front of him. After interrogation, some prisoners would return to the camp in very bad shape. The one who had his leg broken was left in the camp with only a small band on his leg. The Israeli doctor said that the wounded and sick would be treated when they reached Israel (because all the prisoners go to Israel). But this was a lie. Nothing changed in Israel. Those who needed treatment were given tran-
I was not interrogated in Safa. I stayed there only for three days before I was transferred to Israel. Other prisoners stayed for 10 or 15 days.
Q. Was the Safa concentration camp the only one in Southern
A. I'm sure it was not. I think that where there were mass detentions there were local concentration camps. I met a prisoner in Safa who told me that before coming to Safa he was detained in a school in Sidon. There were about 130 prisoners and they stayed there ten days without food and were beaten continuously. Twelve prisoners died as a result.
Q. Were Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners treated differently?
A. Certainly, and this is still the case.
Palestinian is a (saboteur) according to the Israelis. They took all the men from the Palestinian camp of Ain el-Helweh, arresting boys above the age of ten.
There was no different treatment between groups of prisoners, we were all put together. But they made distinctions on an individual basis. For instance, I saw a prisoner ask for food. The guard asked was Palestinian or Lebanese. When he said that he was a Palestinian, the answer was: "a Palestinian and you want to eat!"
Q. Were visits permitted?
A. Not during the entire three months
You cannot even send any message to your parents, nor receive any. For the first two months my parents didn't even know what prison I was in. But thousands of women and children used to crowd around the concentration camp in South Lebanon.
Q. What happened to you after Safa?
A. I stayed a few days in Safa and I was then transferred to Israel. The journey to Israel was very tough. It was a four hour journey - four hours of continuous beatings and humiliation. This was in
We did not have any food during the day, and had only taken the famous meal of one piece of rotten bread and a tomato the day before, in the morning. We were transferred in buses, seated with our hands chained and a band fastened around our eyes, and our heads turned down. After any slight movement of the head we would receive a blow. During the journey the prisoners would be forced to repeat things like: "long live... name of the Israeli soldiers on the bus), "long live Begin," and curses against Abu Ammar. I was able to see because the band around my eyes was not very tight.
On the way we arrived at an Israeli settlement (I don't know the name). I saw a crowd of settlers - women, men and children - armed with sticks, knives and chains approaching our bus shouting But the bus closed its doors and started moving. Later the bus stopped in a station where there were crowds of Israeli soldiers. The doors were opened and the Israeli soldiers got in carrying sticks in their hands, and started beating the prisoners. No one was safe from their blows. When they finished, the bus continued on reached the prisoners camp in Israel. I knew then from an old Palestinian prisoner that we were in Jaffa. It was an agricultural area covere with lemon and orange trees.
They then took the bands off our eyes, but our hands were still fastened. There was a row of about 20 soldiers carrying iron bars waiting for us in front of the camp door, and each prisoner had to pass by every soldier and was hit many times.
The Israeli camp was like the one in Safa. The same treatment and the same suffering. 600 prisoners arrived the day I did. We stayed together for about two days before being transferred to other places in the camp. There were masked men there. Five prisoners at a time are introduced to them. If a masked man points at a prisoner, the prisoner must confess something, otherwise he may suffer more torture. The interrogation took place in a hole surrounded by reinforced sand.
Other interrogations, (less serious) took place in the open air. This is what happened to me. All the prisoners were lying down on the ground. An Israeli officer moving around, picks a prisoner, interrogates him, and then goes to another one. On our clothes was written something in Hebrew. I don't know what was written, but I suppose it was something related to the charge. The officer asked me if I was in Fatah, and I said no. He then accused me of being a liar and the beating started. I was left bleeding on the ground. He then moved to another
The Israelis also used tricky methods. An officer might come and speak calmly. He would say: "We know that there are innocent people among you and we will try our best to send them home in a day or two. We urge you to cooperate with us. Those who are affiliated to some organizations have to confess, and we promise not to hurt them. And those who know something about a prisoner must tell us and we promise to release them ... etc."
Other lesser incidents occurred. Many prisoners were robbed (rings, watches, money) in Safa camp, on the journey to Israel or in the Israeli camp. One of the prisoners was courageous enough to say so, and he was beaten very severely as a consequence. Later they came and said that those who had been robbed should put down on paper the time and place of the incident. Many prisoners wrote things down, but nothing happened.
After about two days we were given military clothes and blankets and some kitchen utensils, and were then divided
Each part consisted of twenty tents with a tent for every sixty prisoners. There were 1,200 prisoners in the camp. The tent was open on four sides, and not fit for sixty prisoners, so many used to
For the first time the prisoners had a meal. There was a kitchen in twenty prisoners worked, and we had three meals per day. The food was very little and very bad: an egg for two when there were eggs, and a loaf of bread (half a kilo) for six. The prisoners were not satisfied but at least they had
Lebanese prisoners taken by Israeli soldiers (DR).
The beatings did not stop. Each morning the Israeli soldiers came for inspection. They used to stand us in rows with our hands on our heads. Any slight movement would be followed by a beating.
I stayed there eight days. They named 300 prisoners and I was among them. Our eyes were covered by a band and we were tied up with chains and taken in buses to Ansar concentration camp in South Lebanon. The return journey was not as tough as the previous one, but the beatings were inevitable after any unwanted movement from the prisoners.
Q. Were the prisoners' conditions better in Ansar?
Awaiting us in Ansar concentration camp was a row of soldiers carrying sticks and iron bars, and each one of us had to pass by them to receive his punishment. We were placed in tents smaller than those in Israel but less crowded because
25 prisoners in a tent. Each part of Ansar's camp consisted of twenty tents, and therefore contained 500 prisoners. There were twenty parts, so the total number of prisoners 10,000. Each three parts were separated by a road and between each part there were coiled iron fences two and a half meters high. Water came by wagons and was distributed two hours per day, a can of twenty liters per tent. This means that each prisoner had less than a liter for all uses, which was not enough.
The prisoners were forced to stay seated in the tents 24 hours per day. They were not permitted to move around or stand up or even talk. One could move only when his turn came to go and urinate. The Israelis chose a chief among the prisoners to be a relay between them and the soldiers. The chief had to be put to a test: he was asked to beat his fellow prisoners and if he did not he would be replaced. To be beaten by a chief was more painful, for psychological reasons.
The situation remained this way for one month. Later with the increased intervention of the Red Cross, things became better.
Q. How did the Red Cross help?
A. On the day of my arrival the Red Cross was getting out about 100 prisoners who were less than 15 years old.
On July 21, a member of the Red Cross visited our camp, and said that everyone was permitted to write two letters. But the Israeli forces stopped the distribution of the letters, or at least made sure they were not sent on time. The letter I wrote on July 21 reached my parents a month after I was released; that is, in November.
A week later the Red Cross made another visit. This time they said no letters could be sent, but we could write down on cards our names card reached my parents on time.
After that the Red Cross started to help us in other ways. For instance we could tell them about the torture the prisoners were subjected to during interrogation. The interrogation took a week and more. The prisoner would be taken outside the camp during the whole period. His hands and legs would be with chains, his eyes closed with a band, be placed in a small hut made of tin, difficult to stand up in. The hut is in the sun all day so it becomes very hot and painful. Soldiers would knock with iron bars on the tin all day making very harmful sounds. The prison-
er remains in this situation for two days before the interrogation starts. During the whole period of interrogation no food is offered except a carrot or a piece of bread with a tomato per day. Besides this there is the beating during the interrogation.
A medical unit from the Red Cross came later to check for those with chronic diseases and give them medicine. We also had a chance to show them how bad the food was.
With the increased intervention of the Red Cross, the beatings were stopped. That is, there were no arbitrary beatings inside the camps, but only when there was a "reason" for it and of course during interrogation. Now we were inside the prison camp and the Israelis were outside. Their supervision was not as tough as before. We used to see them once per day, every morning. We could move more free. ly now, talk and discuss and sometimes
Forces in South Lebanon.(1) Later an Israeli car came and took him from Safa and I do not know what happened to him later.
Q. Did the prisoners rebel against the prison conditions?
A. There were three main incidents. The first was an attempt in a nearby camp to escape. The prisoners tried to dig an underground trench in the hole in which they used to urinate, using their kitchen utensils. They were almost finished when the trench collapsed under the wheels of an Israeli car, and their attempt was discovered. The whole camp (500 prisoners) was subjected to very brutal beatings as a result, and those accused were interrogated and tortured.
The second incident occurred in our camp. This was on September 23. Before that day we were preparing for a rebel lion; the most active were communists. We told the Red Cross that we were going to burn the camp if the prison conditions sands of women and children croweded around Ansar camp asking for their relatives. Then suddenly the women started pushing towards the gates. The Israeli soldiers started shooting in the air. The prisoners then began their own rebellion. They began shouting, "God is Great (Allah Akbar)," "Palestine, Palestine is Arab," "Revolution, Revolution victory," "Communism, Communism, and started to throw stones at the Israeli soldiers. The Israeli soldiers quit shooting in the air and started shooting at the prisoners. More than twenty prisoners were wounded. Half an hour passed before everything calmed down.
Q. How did the prisoners benefit from the relative freedom of movement per mitted after the increased intervention of the Red Cross?
A. We stayed about a month in Ansar under very effective control of the Israeli soldiers. After that the control was lifted a little bit. We were inside the camp and sing.
were not made better or if they did not the Israelis outside it. Many restrictions
Q. What else can you tell us about the interrogation?
ously on that, writing letters and throw- instance, I would pass my time in another
A. I have told you about the kind of torture that took place. But that happen-
The tent before the time for inspection. This ed to those who later (after a week or more) would come back and tell us. We do not know about those who went and did not come back. When I was in Israel, twenty-five prisoners from my camp were taken and we have not yet heard anything about them. It was the same with those pointed at by the masked men or those who were known to have responsible positions in Palestinian organisations. For instance when I was in Safa camp I saw release us. We started working very seriing them to other camps, so that the rebellion would include all Ansar. Israelis knew about our plans. On September 23 they came and took the 500 prisoners out of the camp and picked up twenty-five for interrogation. One of those taken was a friend of mine, a doctor. This man was a doctor in Tyre and was not engaged in military activities. He is still in prison.
The third incident was very spontaneous, without any previous preparation.
remained but we could ignore them. For tent with some friends and go back to my freedom of movement helped me to build many friendships and to pass my time in political discussions. We were also able to sing together and lift our morale and that of others.
We had some paper and pens, very few indeed, but I was able to write something about my experience in prison and to write a poem about Palestine
It was a feast day for the Muslims. Thou- (1). Palestinian-Lebanese left.
the Deputy Commander of the Joint