Suliman Besharat
Israeli occupation forces have adopted a new tactic in detaining what they call “ Palestinian suspects”, based on detaining their wives to get them to surrender in return for releasing their women, according to reports from the region.
Tamam Abdel Wahid, wife of Anad Salah El-Refae, who is one of those wanted by the occupation forces, said how Israeli soldiers broke into her house and arrested her on October 25th. “My seven-month-old baby kept crying but his tears failed to move any feelings inside the soldier who grabbed and threw him on the bed. Then, the Israeli soldiers arrested me.” She added that she had nothing to do but to comply with instructions and accompany the soldiers to their military jeep, after blindfolding her and leaving her baby with her boy and two girls.
Tamam’s tragedy was not a first or a last among Palestinian wives of Palestinian resistance fighters, as internal Israeli intelligence adopted such a policy against the wives of senior leaders of Islamic Resistance movements in the West Bank. Occupation forces arrested the wife of Sheikh Gamal Abu El-Heiga, a Hamas leader, in the northern West Bank to force him to surrender. A surgery for removing a brain tumour was due to be carried out on her before detention. Even after arresting her handicapped husband, occupation intelligence did not release her but she remained in a prison for Palestinian women so far.
The family of Amgad Ebeidy, 25, who comes on top of the list of the wanted and who is accused of being the head of Al-Quds Brigades, military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, was also a victim of this tactic, as his wife Kamilia was arrested after destroying their home on October 27. “A large force came to us in the middle of the night and forced us to get out of our house and told us they would destroy it,” said Ebeidy?s mother. “They refused to let us take anything with us. We begged them to allow us to take out the furniture and they paid no attention,” she maintained, adding that the occupation soldiers brought down the two-storey building that housed 12 people.
Kamilia, released by the Israeli forces after being released from prison, said, “since I was arrested, they insulted me and threatened to leave me in detention for a long time and to be exposed to horrible torture. The soldiers gathered around me and asked me about Amgad and I said that I don?t know his whereabouts but they accused me of being a liar and an accomplice and threatened me of life imprisonment,” Kamilia added that “officers started to practice psychological pressures on me and asked me to persuade my husband to surrender.”
“If they think that such measures will humiliate our people, they are mistaken. Yet, where are human right defenders? Where is the Arab conscience? Where is the justice they demand day and night?” she wondered. It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of POW and the Released Affairs has declared in August 2003 that the occupation authorities were still detaining 73 Palestinian women, including 11 girls.
Article courtesy of Islam Online
