So much has been destroyed
I'm just feeling kind of sad. Drew Herbert has left the team; the agents who wanted to see my novel manuscript before I left the country have politely declined to represent it; I was out visiting friends in the Beqa'a yesterday who are barely making it financially; young kids in our neighborhood keep getting detained and blindfolded as "practice" for the soldiers; and I can't see the situation here ending other any other way than sadly.
I was thinking of this Adrienne Rich poem today,
"My heart is moved by all I cannot save,
so much has been destroyed.
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power
reconstitute the world."
It's one of my favorite poems, and it sounds very noble, but doing that makes you so very tired at times.
A few nights ago, someone from the At-Tuwani team came in and told us the following story at supper. I saw that he just didn't have it in him to write the release about it for CPTnet, and when I found out that the At-Tuwani team was dealing with a settler menacing the children walking to school (the army is supposed to escort them and didn't show up. They got to school an hour and a half late and this is exam week), I offered to write the release and sent a draft to our project support coordinator, who wrote back, "The images of Mus'ab putting his head into his lap, his hands and feet tied and his eyes blindfolded are the images of Jesus suffering." Good to remember that Jesus has been through this and understands.
CPTnet 12 January 2010 AT-TUWANI: Shepherd tortured for five hours by Israeli soldiers and police
On 7 January 2009, soldiers detained Musab Musa Raba’i after attacking him and members of his family as they were complying with the soldiers' order to move their flocks off their family-owned land.(See 8 January 2010 release, AT-TUWANI: Israeli soldiers attack and injure Palestinian shepherds and CPTers; arrest Musa Raba’i)
The same eight soldiers who arrested Raba’i and attacked his family took him to a military base at the nearby Suseya settlement. For four hours, soldiers struck him in the back, in the face, and slammed him into walls. The soldiers questioned him about his brothers. Raba’i refused to give any information and refused to speak Hebrew with the soldiers, which infuriated them. The soldiers told him that they would come to his house in the following days and beat or kill him and his brothers. They tried to force him to say that they were the best soldiers in the IDF and beat him when he would not. Raba’i told CPTers the soldiers tied his hands and feet, blindfolded him, and sat him on a chair. Raba’i put his head in his lap, in an attempt to protect his head and his genitals, and refused to lift it. He said that at one point, a soldier cocked his rifle and told him to lift his head or he would shoot him. Raba’i refused. When another soldier tried to bring him food and water, as the military is legally obligated to do in such situations, the soldiers who were torturing him swore at the soldier and told him to leave. The soldiers also refused to allow Raba’i to pray.
After four hours of this interrogation and torture, they took Raba’i to Israeli police station in Kiryat Arba settlement. The Israeli police told him that they usually offer detainees food and water, but were giving him nothing because they wanted to punish him. They said that if they ever saw his face again, they would kill him. After thirty minutes, the police tied his hands and feet, blindfolded him, drove him to a location unknown to him and threw him out of the jeep. Fearing that soldiers, police or settlers might see him, he hid in a bush until he saw his family's car.
Raba'i was able to call his family, who, accompanied by CPTers, found him and brought him home.
For photos of Raba'i’s injuries click here.