Palestinian Mother Recounts Detention Of 13-Year-Old Son
By Ma'an News
25 April, 2010
Maannews.net
A photo of 13-year-old Ahmad Salim As-Sabah,provided by his parents on 25 April 2010. [MaanImages, HO]
Bethlehem – Ma’an – "He was shivering and crying hard, he grabbed onto my nightgown and looked at me terrified, as sniffer dogs and armed soldiers scrabbled around me," the mother of 13-year-old Ahmad Salim As-Sabah described.
As-Sabah was taken from his family home in Tuqu, south of Bethlehem, at 2am Thursday morning after invading the home and demanding all of the children wake from sleep and present themselves before armed soldiers, accompanied by dogs.
"They knocked violently at the door," Umm Mohammad recounted, "when we opened the door they asked us about our children, we thought about the, Ahmad our youngest is only 13-years-old, and Mohammad is the oldest and just 17, we wondered if they would be taken, and the soldiers suddenly said 'bring them to us.'"
Umm Mohammed said she was terrified, "I could not control my anger," she said.
After the soldiers were in the home, "they asked Mohammad to put on his clothes, I decided to go with him to calm him down and prepare him, as I left the room, I was surprised that they then ordered Ahmad to dress as well. I turned around and saw him shivering in fear.
"Running quickly towards me Ahmad grabbed my nightgown, I tried to convince the officer to leave him. I asked him, 'do you have small children? would you like to see your child in such a situation?' and he answered with a sneer, 'my child does not throw stones.'"
Umm Mohammad said she and her husband argued with the soldiers, insisting that they had no right to take a 13-year-old boy, saying that it violated international law. "The argued about it for a moment," she said, but then insisted that he would have to go with them.
Worried about her son, Umm Mohammad said she "appealed to them, asked if I could give him a drink of water, they said no right away, but I continued to ask and they changed their minds. He drank and then they snatched him from my lap, and his brother Mohammad too."
"As I watched him handcuffed, blindfolded, walking in the middle of dozens of soldiers amongst the sniffer dogs, he looked as if he were 30 years old, and they took him off to prison."
The family heard later, Ahmad’s father said, was that Ahmad had been transferred to the Ofer detention center near Ramallah, while his older brother remained in the Etzion facility where the two were taken.
"It gave us some comfort that they had been taken together," Ahmad's father said. "But now we don't know what could happen to him, and we are worried for his life."
Handing over a photo of their youngest son, Ahmad's parents said they hoped he would be home any minute, "he is just a child," his father said, "if he is not home soon we think we must contact human rights groups to defend him, we cannot believe our youngest child, a minor, was arrested and is guiltless."
His mother wondered, "what law is there that obliges these soldiers to come into my home with weapons and snatch my child?"
