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My husband, Iyad
Jawad a-Shaloudi, aged 23, and I live in my in-laws' house, on
a-Shalala Street, about a hundred and fifty meters from Beit Romano
[a Jewish settlement]. The house has three rooms, and we live in one
of them.
In the afternoon of Tuesday, 7 January 2003, I was in my bedroom
with my sister in law, Nivin, 8, listening to music. Ziyad was on
the front balcony. He was sitting on a big sofa, next to the door
leading from the balcony to my room.
Around 1:30 P.M., I heard Ziyad saying that the army had come to the
house. I thought he was kidding, but Nivin left the room and
returned saying that soldiers were really coming. We remained in the
room.
I saw four soldiers enter the house through the main door. They came
back out and headed toward my room. I started putting on the head
cover, and held it with my hands because I could not find a pin to
fasten it. The soldiers came into the room and one of them
introduced himself as 'Rocky' and said: “Wow!” leeringly. He asked
me in Arabic: “How are you?” I didn't answer him. He answered for
me, jokingly: “I'm fine, I'm fine”. He approached me and told me to
say I was fine. I stepped away from him. He and another soldier
approached the vanity table and “Rocky” started to call out the
names of the perfumes. Two other soldiers went to the tape player,
looked at the tapes, and threw them next to the stereo.
Ziyad came in and stood next to me and Nivin. The commander,
“Rocky”, came closer and closer until he was almost touching me. He
reached out his hand toward my face and almost touched me, but I
jumped and ran toward the closet holding Nivin's hand. Ziyad stood
between me and the soldiers. The commander asked Ziyad why he was
standing there and told him to move away, but Ziyad refused and told
him to leave the room. Ziyad said that he'd stay until the soldiers
left, or that he'd go out with the soldiers and the girls. The
commander pushed him to the closet, where I was standing with Nivin.
Ziyad crashed into us. Ziyad got up and all four soldiers beat him.
He tried to resist and pushed them back. Ziyad said to them: “get
back, get back”. Nivin tried to move one of the soldiers to get to
her brother, but another soldier pushed her. Then the soldiers
dragged Ziyad outside and threw him onto the sofa on the balcony. I
was standing in the doorway. I was screaming, asking the soldiers to
leave him alone. I couldn't leave the room because one of the
soldiers was standing in the doorway. When the soldiers started
beating Ziyad, Shuruk, 13, my sister-in-law, came into the room
through another door and I sent Nivin out to call the neighbors.
Out on the balcony, one of the soldiers grabbed a plaster statuette
and threw it at Ziyad who was sitting on the sofa. Ziyad managed to
divert the statuette with his hand. One of the soldiers tried to
bend Ziyad's hand. Another soldier was pulling his hair and a third
was punching him in the back. The beating went on for about ten
minutes. Shuruk and I tried to get outside to help Ziyad. “Rocky”,
the commander closed the iron door leading from my room to the
balcony and Shuruk and I tried to open it again. Eventually Shuruk
managed to get out and tried to get the soldiers to leave her
brother alone. One of the soldiers pushed her. Shuruk slapped him.
Ziyad yelled at the soldiers not to hit his sister. He rose to his
feet, but a soldier who was wearing a helmet head butted him.
Ziyad's head slammed against the wall and he fell back on the sofa.
Ziyad's aunt, Nafiza Bader (Um Kamal), came to the house and tried
to help Ziyad. She grabbed his arm, but the soldiers pushed her and
tried to free him from her grasp. Eventually, I saw the soldiers
handcuff Ziyad from behind and drag him out of the house. Um Kamal
was still holding on to his arm.
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