telling me whether it is you who wanted to stab or not this is a lesson for you
to learn so you won't do anything similar in the future. What happened is not
something that only happened to me, this is an Israeli policy to punish people
and stop them from resisting. I used to hear people's voices in the military
camp where I was being tortured as well, I wasn't alone. When they used to
move me from sitting on the concrete piece, they used to put me in a small
cell where I couldn't even stand, and then while sitting in this cell they used to
throw cold water on me every ten minutes. The military camp was really cold,
they used to give me only one small piece of cake every day and when I took
a shower the water was mixed with salt which made the burns even worse. I
stayed in that camp for twelve days.
I still suffer from the torture I experienced. My wife suffers from it too. I
can't sleep at night, most of the times I get cramps and I feel that I'm dying. I
start hitting the walls with my hands and I can’t remember most of what I do
and say. I even asked my wife to move away from me whenever she sees me
in this condition because we don’t know exactly what might happen. People
around me told me that when I lose control and start hitting things around me
I scream things like ''don’t put out the cigarette'' so I think I relive the torture I
experienced and this is why I lose control and don't remember what I do or say.
I know this is all influencing my relationship with my wife and family and I'm
also trying to limit it as much as I can, I even try to joke about it and try not to
think about it at all.
My relationship with society has also changed. Now I think of every step I
make before I make it, so as not to go back to the Israeli prison. I even stopped
going to visit people, I don’t even go to my in-laws and when I do I only stay
for a few minutes and then just go back home. At night, even if I hear people
yelling or I hear shootings or anything I don’t leave my home. People know
me really well in the area, my home was always open, if anyone got injured by
the soldiers they used to come to me, but now I refuse all of this. What made
me change isn’t that I have a family now; it's the torture I experienced. If I
was single now I would just leave Palestine, but I can't, I have a wife who is
expecting any time now. One time, after I got released from prison, I smuggled
myself out of the country, I went through Israel to Jordan and then to Turkey.
I stayed in Turkey for more than three years and when I got back to Palestine
I had money with me and a Turkish passport, but now the passport is in the
drawer, there is no use for it.”
Former prisoner and victim of torture, Nablus
Interview: 24 November 2016
Current regulations on the use of these interrogation methods by ISA
interrogators were laid down by Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) in 1999.
They declared that these interrogators were authorized to use physical
methods in interrogation only if they are “fair and reasonable.”219 However,
219 Israel High Court of Justice, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel et al., v The State of Israel
et al., HCJ 5100/94, Judgment of 6 September 1999
60