I Saw it in Palestine

Soldiers attack Palestinians in At-Tuwani, Arrest One

Yesterday in At-Tuwani, after they consulted with a settler, soldiers attacked Palestinians grazing their sheep. When members of the shepherd’s family came to the scene, soldiers attacked them as well, pushing Palestinians, including an elderly woman, to the ground. They smashed a video camera carried by a college of mine who was recording the attack. In the end, soldiers arrested one of the shepherds, a very dear friend of mine.

I know all too well how it feels to have my friends locked away, to wonder what might be happening to them in jail, to not know when they will come home. It feels like drowning, like knowing you simply must up for air.

But as familiar as this feeling is, I don’t know what to say about it. There is no way to believe that my friend will be treated justly. He is locked away in the jail of the occupying power and he’ll leave only when the Israeli authorities decide to let him go. There is no one to whom we can plead. We wont even be allowed to attend his trial.

Thousands of Palestinians are suffering in Israeli prisons. Today my friend became one of them. And I just want him to be able to come home.