My three sons are detained, home leveled

Translated by Saed Bannoura

“They arrested my three sons, and leveled our home, but we will
remain steadfast in our land, the occupation is punishing us for
defending out land, until when will it remain?”

Abdul-Samee’ Mohammad Zeid, 48, a resident of
Al-Zababda, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, after loosing
his son, who was killed by the army, and the arrest of his three other
sons, never stop asking “Why, Why did they do this to us, there are no
words to express our situation, we only have God to pray to and ask him
help us”.

Abdul-Samee’ said that soldiers started chasing his
son Saed, 26, after breaking into their home and held the family
claming that Saed is wanted by the Israeli security for his membership
in the Islamic Jihad and resistance activities.

Saed was not there, soldiers demanded the family to
make him surrender; the home of Abdul-Samee was attacked and searched
on daily basis.

“One day, a military officer said that he will catch my son and bring his body to me and demolish my home”, the father said.

Saed was arrested during a military invasion and
searches carried out in the village on October, 18, 2004, spent three
months under interrogation and torture in Al-Jalama detention, he was
not allowed to meet his lawyer of any member of his family.

Soldiers wanted him to confess of killing one
settler in Baqa Al-Gharbiyya, membership of the Islamic Jihad, and
Al-Quds brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad.

“One night they broke into our home, and forced us
to leave it before they detonate it, they did not allow us to remove
our furniture and belongings out, then they charged the home with
explosives and detonated it”, the father said.

“These are moments I will never forget, when they
forced me and my family out of our home and made us watch it being
leveled, it took me years to build it, and now they made us homeless”,
the father added.

Israeli prosecution demanded a sever sentence
against Saed, they demanded one life term and 15 consecutive years,
which eventually became the sentence that the court adopted.

The brother of Saed, Shady, a P.A policeman, was
arrested on 14/4/2003, and was sentenced to one life term and
additional 30 consecutive years after charging him of killing three
settlers and wounding another, near Jenin.

Shady is currently held in solitary imprisonment in Al-Jalama detention.

Yet, the suffering of the family did not stop at
this stage, on November 29, 2003; Israeli soldiers arrested Usama, 20,
the son Zeid, and placed in under administrative detention without any
charge or trial until now.

“In spite all of this, we will remain in our land,
we will not subdue to the occupation, they arrested my three sons, but
I want to tell the whole world that the occupation will not be able to
defeat our determination, with God’s help, we will overcome and achieve
our liberation”, the father added.