'They cursed Mohammed,' claims beaten man

April 13, 2002


THE MIDDLE EAST: Israeli Defence Forces have been claiming they are able to spot terrorists, writes Elaine Lafferty from Jenin

Could you spot a terrorist? Could I? Would we know them by their swarthiness, the hatred in their eyes? Would we recognize them by their passionate voices or would it be an eagerness to die for their cause that would reveal them to us, plainly?

For the better part of the last two weeks, the Israeli Defence Force says it has been able to spot them. They say they have been killing terrorists, rounding up others, questioning them and arresting them. The spate of Palestinian suicide bombings that have made the matter of having coffee in a Jerusalem sidewalk cafe an act of death-defying bravery has driven Israel to this action, they say. It is a matter of the nation's survival. The terrorists must be defeated.

An unimportant city called Jenin on the West bank, a place of no religious or cultural significance, has become the bloodiest focal point for the military operations. It is a breeding ground for terrorists and suicide bombers, says the Israelis; if the Palestinian terror campaign is to be stopped, it will be stopped here, they say.

In the last two weeks, Israeli missiles have been fired from helicopter gun ships into the Jenin refugee camp. Bulldozers have blocked roads, tanks have flattened houses, and gunfire has rung out here day and night. Palestinian men and boys have been "detained," questioned, and some have been released.

Also in the last week, journalists and international aid workers have been trying, largely without success, to get into the Jenin refugee camp. The attempt to talk to Jenin residents has been thwarted it must be said, at every turn by the Israeli army.

There are a number of villages surrounding Jenin, including two Rumane and Burquin, where word had it that the Israeli army had dumped a number of men who had been detained for days. The problem was getting to the villages. Not because they are inherently inaccessible. In fact, the villages are served by good roads. But in the past few months, the army has blocked roads, using bulldozers to dump dirt and rock, cutting the villages off from the outside world.

One day this week we attempted to get into the area, which is not supposed to be a closed military area as it is outside Jenin, on foot, crossing a field adjacent to the village of Salum. After a 10-minute hike we were spotted by Israeli soldiers who popped up literally from the bushes. Our identification cards - there were about seven journalists - were confiscated and we were detained for an hour, even though we were not going to Jenin.

The next day we attempted the same destination, this time parking our car in a different village called Um Al-Fahm. From there we walked through a purple-thistled field, a beautiful walk actually, until we got to a road.

From there a local taxi driver brought us to Rumane.

This is a small village of 3,000 people, narrow cobbled streets and stone buildings made thousands of years ago of the light stone that gives this part of the world a pinkish glow. In the centre is a mosque, bustling with people, and in the mosque is Nawef Shaml. He speaks English and takes us to a house down the road.

In a large room sit some 15 truly bedraggled looking men, all of them on couches against the wall. All of these men are residents of the Jenin camp. All of them were captured, blinded-folded and wrists bound, and interrogated.

Then, on Tuesday, they were put into a bus and brought to a road 3 km outside Rumane. Naked except for their underpants, they were taken off the bus and told to go left or right.

Hamid Khalidi is grimacing in pain, and a quick look at him explains why. He has been beaten about the forehead, which is cut, bruised and lumpy. His ribs are broken; he reluctantly lifts his shirt to show a back of cuts, and purple and yellow bruising. An imprint of a boot is visible on his back. There are cigarette burns on the back of his neck.

"I was not armed. I am a civilian. I am not a terrorist. They came and took me and my brother. They cursed Mohammed and said our religion was bad," he said.

Mr Khlaid has two daughters, ages 18 months and 3½ years. He does not know where they are.

Mohammed Ghabariyh (33), was not beaten, but he said he could not understand why he was taken. "I am a vegetable seller. How can they roll tanks into houses with children? It is terrorism," he said.

Several of the other men said the Israeli tanks had rolled over houses with women and children still in them. None of the men - there are 350 of them here altogether - have been allowed to go home. Now they are sleeping in the mosque, or in homes, wondering about their wives and their families.