“Creating a feeling of persecution” is the code name for the Israeli Defence Forces' (IDF) activities intended to make the lives of the Palestinians a living hell, using mental and physical terror that condemn an entire population to a life of fear. Soldiers that “break the silence” speak of this in their testimonies that are documented in the organisation's archive. One testifies that: “Part of the idea of getting those that are wanted to feel constantly persecuted is that you have to be on site, to show up from unexpected places, to cause the population to feel discomfort. It's all part of the deal, it's necessary for operational reasons.” Another soldier says: “Sometimes there is something that has to be done, sometimes there are also rookie companies that need training. And so they search for a house that seems, on the aerial photos, to be convenient from operational aspects… and then they enter the house at night and perform a lock-up routine on the house; they send squads that surround the house and shout at the people to come out. Then they take them outside and check who is inside and that's it. You could say the aim is to cause an unspecified disturbance. Creating a feeling of persecution, a situation in which the army enters villages and performs inspection trainings — and many times it's these rookie companies that do these kinds of things.” The means to create a feeling of persecution include violent patrols inside villages and towns during all hours at whatever time patrollers see fit, and bursting into homes in the dead of night and making false arrests of adults and minors. They are all brutal, they all erase the individual, and their goal is to spread fear in the community without there being an operational or defensive need for it. Not even the army claims there to be one. Nineteen-year-old Ahmed Abdel-Raouf is one of many that became victims to false arrests. Abdel-Raouf was born and raised at Qalandiya refugee camp. On 4 June 2013, the military court at Ofer sentenced him to 16 months in prison and a fine of 1,500 Shekels, with a probation sentence of eight months for a period of three years. People know each other at Qalandiya refugee camp, and the rumour spreads throughout the winding alleys and grabs all residents of the camp. Abdel-Raouf's story doesn't begin on the day of his arrest but years earlier, in the midst of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, on the day death took hold of his father. “He was a good man. No one had a problem with him. He would just walk through the streets. Back then, kids used to throw stones and the soldiers would fire. They shot him in the back,” a friend who witnessed the event said. Abdel-Raouf was eight when he lost his father and as the elder son of a destitute family, he was forced to take it upon himself to provide for his family from an early age. Friends describe him as a good child that “would help his mother”. Even on the day of his arrest, 1 January 2013, which was the day the refugee camp marked the 48th anniversary of the foundation of Fatah, Abdel-Raouf was not among the celebrators — he proceeded to work his shift at the falafel stand. Abdel-Raouf also wasn't among the tens of youngsters who came to the streets at the end of the rally to protest against the occupation and stone the fortified tower nearby. Israeli soldiers exited a checkpoint and shot at protesters in order to push them back. Some crossed the road towards shops at the front of the refugee camp and came back with prisoners. One of them was Abdel-Raouf who was hunted down with a half-eaten sandwich in his hand. I took a photo. Abdel-Raouf was transferred to Ofer Prison and he was charged with throwing stones and gasoline bottles. I believed that some of the photos I took were proof of his innocence. I distributed the photos that showed Abdel-Raouf took no part in the events of that day and arrived at the court to hand them over to a lawyer, and to say that I would be happy to testify to the fact that Abdel-Raouf stood on the opposite side to the location from where the stones were thrown and that on that day no gasoline bottles were thrown. Only stones. Then reality took a strike at me. The lawyer told me of the twist in the plot, the date stated by the prosecution as the one in which Abdel-Raouf threw the gasoline bottle had been changed to 14 November 2012 — a month and a half before the event I had documented. The bottle hit an officer's leg and that officer was at Qalandiya on the day of the arrest; he identified the person who hit him by the shirt he was wearing that had the word FOX written on it — apparently. The prosecution asked that Abdel-Raouf be sentenced to three years imprisonment. The lawyer reached a settlement with the prosecution. Hava Halevi who documented the events inside the court writes: “The charges to which he had admitted were that during public riots near Qalandiya checkpoint he threw a ‘hive of fireworks' (sic) at IDF soldiers. That is to say, beforehand perfect order was preserved and everyone knew their place. This euphemism comes to show how language creates consciousness; if you call a protest ‘a riot', it is obviously a bad thing, because everyone knows that order is good and when there is no order, it should quickly be restored. And indeed, the IDF soldiers hurried to Qalandiya checkpoint and imposed order, and among the imposers of order was an officer that goes by the name of Refael Dov Malhi who claimed to have been injured by fireworks. How was he injured? What happened to him? Is there any medical documentation of this? No. Instead, there was insufficient evidence to prove that there was such an injury. Officer Malhi testified that he was injured but ‘there was no need for medical treatment'. The officer will be compensated for his unproven injury for which he did not need any medical attention with a sum of 1000 Shekels that will come out from the pocket of the man that may or may not have injured his leg.” Since the arrest, the phrase “creating a feeling of persecution” has been echoing in my head, as well as something a resident of Deheishe refugee camp told me: “There are no families [in Palestine] that don't have or have never had one of its members in jail.” During the long period of time in which I was waiting outside to be let into court, I saw in my imagination around me the tens or hundreds or thousands of people who have waited lifeless to see their loved ones tried, and I felt that survival was the heroism of these people, and this passive resistance perhaps harder and more demanding of strength of spirit than active resistance.
