I'm Mouny Odeh from Bethlehem Dheisheh Camp
I'm 16 years old
My favourite sports is swimming and basketball
just
My name is Safa Arafa
And I live in Dheisheh Camp for Refugees
Originally from Al-Qastina
I study in Bethlehem University English Literature...
And...
I'm 19 years old
With me, we are 5 sisters
We are all living in this room...
We sleep in this room
And there is Moussa my little brother
And Ibrahim, he is one year younger than me
My name is Maram
I am 11 years old
I live in Palestine, Bethlehem
I love my family, I have 3 sisters and 3 brothers
And I love to eat Msakahn
I love the colour red
I love my friends, my family
AT NIGHT THEY CAME TO OUR HOUSE
It was on the 9th of September
You know the climate is summer
it's nice weather, it's not cold
but in that night, its becomes a strong wind
I dont know why
The night they came to our house
it was at the beginning of Ramadan
It was like the 5th of Ramadan
22 of November 2005
It was 2am
They knocked on the door for the first time
I was awake and from the first moment
I knew it had to do with Ibrahim
I wake up like at 2 o'clock in the night
There was a lot of noise
Just I wake up, I find all my family wake up
Just I wake up I as my mother : what happened, mom?
She just tell me : there is some army outside,
Israelian
and in the night if the jaysh (army) come
I hear the jaysh,
and if I don't wake up
my mom come and wake up me
I was scared to much, I remember my dad
To be honest, I start to cry,
And my mom hug me and tell me
don't be scared, they will go in just one half hour
I thought that they will come and take us all,
and kill us, or do something,
put us in the jail
They came, they didn't knock the door
just shout : open the door in a high voice
and he become afraid
because it's in the midnight and he was sleeping
and he wake up to a very noisy sound
so how can he imagine that
he was dreaming maybe
and something entered his life
For all the people, they start thinking
Who is tonight? Who has the bad luck?
Who will be taken, who will be arrested?
For how many days, how many years?
And like this stuff
THE SECONDS ARE VERY LONG
They knock on the door very hard with their weapons
And at that night they put "leaders"
on our neighbours' houses
And it was in a very savage style
There was a lot of soldiers like...
I can't give you the number, but there was a lot of soldier
and a lot of Jeeps like maybe 12 jeeps
and one big tank
it was near the street, near here
in my street
They was colouring their faces with some colours
like in the United State, like commandos do
And they ask us...
our identity, to give them
And they read the names
and they ask us : Who is Ahmad, who is Kamal, who is Adel, who is Qusay ?
Then they said : I need Adel, I want to talk to him.
Specialy they ask about the brother
they ask the mother and the father : Where is your son ?
After searching for like half an hour
There was a soldier, he was very mean
And he was asking for Ibrahim Where he is ? Where he is ?
And my mother did not tell him, because she know that,
if she tell him, they will take him.
Adel went with the soldier
with the captain sorry, with the captain
And the captain...
they go outdoor
And the captain return to our house and tell us we will arrest him.
After that, they put me outside the house
they put like handcuffs on my hands
and they put like something on my eyes
they put the weapons on his face
and they yelled at him
they said : Wake up ! Wake up !
Ibrahim didn't wake up from the first moment
It took him some seconds
the seconds are very long in that...
you feel the seconds are very long
He woke up and when he saw them in his face
he jump in the air and he came here
And I came to his side and I said to him : It's OK, be a man...
She come near me and she go through the soldiers
and she hug me and she told me this three or four things
and she said : Don't care, you're a man, we trust you, Yalla, let's go.
We keep silent, me and my brother
and they...
and we ask the captain if we can bring some clothes for Adel when they arrest him
They said yes we can
They put me in the Jeep
And in the beginning when I enter the Jeep
I can't hear anything
only they started to beat me
from here to Asyoun
So, when they put the bandage on my eyes
I didn't see anything
And my head, my mind goes like this
I start to remember everything, to remember how
How my brothers, all of my friends tell me how to be in this moment
EVERYDAY THE JAYSH TOOK ONE
They took him
The camp have many people
everyday the jeysh took one or two or three like that
And I was sad
We shocked, we shocked
It was a horrible night
just remembering it
gives a lot of emotions...
emotions yes
When they arrest my brother, maybe
when they arrest him
I feel they arrest me, it's the same way
they didn't catch me, they catch him
THE DAY AFTER
The day after, I had an exam
All my sisters, my father, and my mother, they stayed awake
And in the morning, I went to the school
and I took a permission not to do the exam
because I was not able to, even if I study
I still waking...
at 7 o'clock and I go to my school
as a normal day
then I return
All of our family
my uncles, my cousins and my aunts, my grandmother
the most was crying
If they arrest one
Just we go to check his house
his mother maybe
tell her that's normal, don't care, he will come back to you.
PEOPLE I KNOW
This is Adam, my little brother
he's 9 years old
he is in Dehisheh school in 4th grade
And...
I ask him : Do you know somebody who got arrested ?
He said no
I said do you afraid when they come here ?
and he said of course not
He said I don't know maybe Qays al-Laham
I don't know if they took him
Do you know friends of you who are in jail ?
Yes
who ?
Like Mouhanad, you know Mouhanad
Like Ibrahim
Like... Its more...
...a lot
a lot of friends, you want me to tell you ?
I have five brother with me
I'm the 6th
So when they come, there was 3 of my brothers inside the jail
And I know that, they come to catch me
Have they taken away people that you love ?
Yes You know people in jail ?
Yeah
My friend, boyfriend is Izz ad-Din, he is dead
he is small, just like me
Another one, Mahmoud
small like me
They was 12 years old
Everyday, they was come here and they play
everything, like football, basketball
and we play Tom and Jerry
One is Tom, another one is Jerry
you go like a circle
IN JAIL
For the first two months, we didn't know anything about him
And for like forty days they were investigating him
Then they moved him to Aufar prison
and they accused him of throwing stones on the soldiers
and organizing for a movement...
to defend the country...
There is a reason, they won't catch you without a reason
it's a rule
They will not catch you without a reason
But reason is like stupid reasons
when I throw stones, that's why they catch you
and they put on my shoulders another thing I did not do
to make the years that I will spend in the jail more
that's what they do
and that's in the mahkame (court)
For us, it is very strange event
because he is the first one in my house
after my father, my father was a prisoner in the 80s
It's not in my imagine, it's in my imagine
I mean, I can imagine that
that one day they can come and catch me and arrest me
I spend one year in the jail
It's broke my future a little bit
but I am ready to do many things for the home and for my home
For me, I build myself inside the jail
I read a lot of books
I read about Marx, Lenin, Hegel, Yasser Arafat, George Habash
HAPPY THINGS IN LIFE
They came to take him, he was 16
he got out of prison he was 17 and a half
I spent in the jail 2 years
And when he got out of prison
we kept welcoming people for like a week
They were coming for a week
Everyday they come from 12pm to 10pm
It was very good
And when he came, we made a little...
it's not a party, we celebrated him a little
like he was a hero or something
I have something on my phone, I will show it to you
later
There is 3 things you will be shocked
You will be like shocked
You will become happy
The first thing when you get your high school – tawgihi
And the second thing when you go outside the jail
and the third thing when you marry
So I go outside the jail
and I get my high school inside the jail
PALESTINIAN ROUTINE
They are crazy
they come to catch a small children
like 16 years old with all of this army ?
It's like...
any... What they... What they do ?
How they think about the Palestinian people?
When they start the horrible things
I was shocked why they were doing this...
I ask myself why? Why? Why?
But I dont have any answer for this
And I think this is normal
or something from the routine
the routine
the Palestinian routine
Day after day we...
ok, so they come to the camp I dont care
because they come to the camp a lot
just do the same thing, the same thing
And they don't come at day
they come at night.
I was small children,
I was like this
I like everything
And that's what happened
just
So cut this part
Thank you Safa
You are welcome
that's it?
I think so
ok
Thank you Tamer
You're welcome FINALLY!!!!