[News] Nadia Hasan – Interrogation and Denial: How Israel Keeps Palestinians Down and Out

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Thursday, May 3, 2007

http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/


Nadia Hasan – Interrogation and Denial: How 
Israel Keeps Palestinians Down and Out

Note: Nadia is a Palestinian woman with a Chilean 
passport. She is a human rights activist and 
translator. Her only "sin" is wishing to set foot 
in the land that gave birth to her family, the 
land that is part of her. For this sin, for the 
racist prejudice against Palestinians, for the 
fear that Israelis have of facing the fact that 
the land they came to live on is the land that 
others yearn for and have been attached to for 
countless generations, she is paying the price. 
Justice will come, one day, Nadia. It may take time, but the day will come.

Dear friends,
Some of you didn’t know I was planning to enter 
in Palestine again but I did. I got a letter from 
the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying I 
was no longer refused entry into Israel. I was so 
happy. I packed my bag, I closed my house in 
Amman and I took a plane to Tel Aviv yesterday 
morning. Now I am writing you from Amman, I was deported again.

Everything is posted here. Sorry for my English, 
I hope you will be able to understand everything.
Salam
Nadia

First of all, I want to thank all of you for your 
nice words to me and your continuous and infinite support.

What happened to me yesterday is something I 
couldn't imagine to be possible before, not 
because I didn't think I could be refused again, 
it always was a possibility, and even I knew 
about the "interrogation" I would be expected to 
pass, but not in the way they did it.

I landed in Tel Aviv at 7 AM, I gave my passport 
in the passport control and after less than 2 
minutes, 3 guys came to me saying they had been 
waiting for my arrival. They took me to a big 
room with all my stuff. More than 20 people there 
started to check every single thing. First of 
all, they took my mobile and wrote down in front 
of me every single phone number and name I have 
in it, they check my sms, the latest calls I made 
and received, the pictures on my camera, everything.

After that, they checked me, my body, my clothes, 
my hair, my ears, even my nails.

One guy was introduced to me as Samy (I don't 
remember the last name). "I am Samy, from the 
Ministry of Defense, it’s been a few days that 
I’ve been waiting for your arrival, I will work 
on you today, we will put everything on the 
table, it will be hard because I am not a nice 
person, I am strong, this is why they chose me 
for you, you are a special person Nadia, and you 
will get the best security system we have, if you 
collaborate with us we will help you."

Samy took me to a room very far from the main 
center of the airport. The office has the logo of 
Ministry of Defense, one woman was with us all 
the time (according to him it was so that it 
wouldn’t make me feel bad. He told me, "I know 
Arabs girls, they don't want to be alone with a 
man, we respect you, don't worry”). First of all, 
he took several pictures of me and opened a file 
in his computer. Asking me about my family, phone 
numbers, professions, number of children, 
addresses, everything. He made copies of my 
credit card saying he must check the previous 
movement activities on it, made copies of my ID, 
driver’s license, the pictures of my family I 
have with me, writing down who is who, etc.

After all this, he started, “I am here not to 
check what you did in Nablus, if you worked or 
not, if you stayed more than the permitted time, 
if you engaged in illegal activities, etc. There 
are people working on it, my job is check about 
TERRORIST ACTIVITIES YOU CAN BE INVOLVED WITH. 
For that we need to check on the people you are 
related to because WE KNOW that you know 5 
people, terrorist ones, the worst people here are 
close friends of yours. If you give us their 
names (despite the fact that we already have 
them) you will enter, if you collaborate with us, we will help you Nadia.”

And the show started.

He started with people in my mobile, one by one, 
the 163 numbers I have. “Who is he/she, how did 
you meet this person, are you in touch with him 
until now?” etc. Every single person in my mobile 
(the Palestinian numbers and Jordanian numbers) 
were checked on his computer and immediately a 
picture of this person was shown. I saw Sam' s 
picture, Anita's picture, Yusra's picture, 
Sumaida's picture, etc. The problem was not with 
them. At one point he started asking me about 
people in Balata and Askar Camp, people it is 
supposed that I know and he was waiting for me to 
mention them. He told me that he’s been checking 
on me for a few months. "Many people you know in 
Nablus were interrogated, and almost all of them 
coincide in 5 names, saying you are a very close 
friend of theirs. Many people in Nablus know you 
Nadia, and we contacted all of them. Now you must start speaking."

I didn't know who they were looking for, as you 
can imagine. He continued with my mobile list and 
he found two of these 5 names he was looking for. 
3 hours of the interrogation was about a friend 
of mine, actually a close friend of mine. He 
showed me his picture, and his brother’s picture. 
In my mobile I have an sms from him wishing me 
good luck for my trip, and in my camera I had a 
picture with his brother because I visited him 
two days ago in a Camp here in Jordan. I 
explained to him that we are friends, I told him 
how and where and when we met and what kind of 
relationship we have. The guy didn't stop calling 
someone by phone asking for things and 
immediately new pictures of people were shown on 
his computer and he asked me about these people, 
most of whom I’ve never seen in my life, but some 
of them I had seen, and even their numbers were in my mobile.

He told me that these people are the worst people 
here, related with terrorist activities, and how 
is it possible that I don't know about that if it is clear we are good friends.

I told him that I can’t be blamed for what 
someone else did or didn't do, that I don't know 
what he is taking about. I explain again to him 
how I met these guys and everything, but he 
continues saying I was not telling him all the 
truth because he already knows the truth and I 
will not enter again in Israel if I don't 
collaborate with him providing him with more details.

After he checked my mobile again and asked me how 
it can be possible that from the 163 numbers I 
had on it only 13 are from people in Jordan and 
all the rest are Palestinians. "How is it 
possible Nadia, that a woman like you, smart, 
good looking, attractive woman, doesn’t have more 
relationships with people in Jordan? How is it 
possible Nadia, that you go everyday from your 
work to your house in Amman and you don't do 
anything else for more than a year, because we 
know that. What are you planning to do, why you 
insist so desperately to enter in Israel, why you 
are so related to these terrorists? Did they ask 
you to do something? Have they asked you for 
money? Have they asked if you are married? What 
are you planning to do with them as soon you 
enter here???? We know the truth, but we want to 
hear it from you, and again, if you don't 
collaborate with us we can not help you."

After a few minutes, another guy enters in the 
room, Amir, and he looks at me and tells me, 
"Stop lying, you are hiding something and we know 
it. You have bad friends and your relationship 
with them makes you related to their activities. 
I don't trust you and you will not enter because of that."

After he left and I was alone again with Samy I 
started crying, crying like a baby, and I told 
him that I want to stop with this interrogation 
and khalas. Send me back to Jordan because I 
don't know what they are looking for and I am not 
related to anything they were thinking. Samy sat 
next to me and kindly told me, "You are a nice 
person, a strong woman, I can see, well educated. 
Don't make mistakes, this is your opportunity to 
tell the truth. We will help you: give me the 
other 3 names we know you know, and don't cry 
anymore. Why are you so nervous? Why is this is 
so important to you? I don't understand and if I 
don't understand, I can only think about you what 
I already think about you... I WILL NOT LET YOU 
ENTER IF I DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING BECAUSE I WILL 
BE RESPONSIBLE WHEN YOU BLOW YOURSELF UP IN TEL AVIV."

The interrogation continued, he made copies of 
all the pictures I have and started writing down 
next to each person their names and looking in 
his computer. He found another person in my 
pictures that according to him is a terrorist and 
he said, "Nadia, maybe you have clean hands, but 
if any person puts their hands in a dirty water, 
with time their hands will be dirty, and your hands are already black."

To make everything short, he told me, "You don't 
look good, your situation here is not good, you 
have strong connections with bad activities here, 
and because this world is not safe because of 
MUSLIMS (Nadia, remember how the world is now 
after September 11 because of Muslims) you are a 
big risk for the security of Israeli people and 
all the visitors of this country. Israel is a 
democracy, one of the best countries in the 
world, not like the Arab ones, and we work hard 
to prevent any terrorist activities here and you 
are not helping us with our mission."

He left me saying, “My team will decide now about 
what we will do with you but I don't think you 
will be able to enter here again, you are a risk 
for yourself and for others, and you can do 
whatever you want, like go to the COURT. If you 
do that, I will be happy to go there personally 
and make sure YOU WILL NEVER ENTER HERE AGAIN.”

All this interrogation lasted from 7:20 am until 4:15 pm.

Downstairs the Chilean consul was waiting for me, 
I was allowed to speak with him and go out 
accompanied by security, to smoke a cigarette. I 
never saw Samy again, he didn't come back to tell 
me the results of the meeting, but since before I 
finished the interrogation, people from security 
told the consul I was not allowed to enter in Israel.

They asked me to go to the check room again, they 
checked all my bags and myself again and put me 
on a plane back to Amman at 7 pm.

I will finish writing this saying to all of you 
that I did my best yesterday. I don’t think 
anybody is ready to face something like that, at 
least not me because I am not used to being 
treated as a terrorist. I feel sorry for all the 
people who are related to me; now they have all 
their names and phone numbers, they can check on 
them because of my fault. I feel like the worst 
collaborator in the world and I am making the 
life of others harder than it already is.

I don't know in which point everything turned so 
dirty. In my 8 months in Palestine I only did 
translations, met people, drank coffee with them, 
learning about the life in Palestine without 
judging anyone. I will never regret having such 
beautiful friends, specially this guy that for 
the Israelis is one of the most dangerous people 
in the West Bank, but I want be sure he and the 
rest will not have any problem because of me. I 
will keep apart, I don't want to collaborate to 
continue with the injustice they are facing since 
the same day they were born, only because they were born as Palestinians.

Salam to all
Nadia

Today, the day after this horrible and inhumane 
experience, Nadia’s regained her perspective and 
her inner strength. This is her reply to a letter:


I am not afraid anymore. I know they were 
playing with me yesterday, they want to defeat me 
but they will never do it, I am not the weaker in this evil game, they are.

For a few months, I had been working in getting 
the support of the Chilean Government and I did. 
The Chilean Government made a very strong 
complaint to the Israeli Government about my 
previous deportation. I got the support of more 
than 50 deputies in Chile that personally 
committed with me in support of my case. I spent 
one month in Chile having meetings, the 
Chancellor included, and after all this, the 
Israeli Foreign Ministry provided me with a 
letter saying I was no longer refused entry into Israel.
Now I know the truth.

They wanted to orchestrate all of this show to 
humiliate me and torture me on one side and also 
to claim that I was linked to terrorists and 
that's why I was always denied entry and that's 
why I am denied entry now so they could fight me 
back on the political and diplomatic level. They 
want to use this ploy to repair some of the 
damage I caused to their foreign policy, at least 
with Chile. They sent me that communication to 
make me think that my efforts are bringing some 
results. At the same time, they prepared a 
special team to give "special" treatment. It is 
obvious that those doing it were instructed by 
the highest political authority. It's a crime. To 
make it look justified, they invent stories 
against people. I do not even know what these 
people are accused with anyway. If you know them 
or you do not is not that important even. Those 
people might be accused of anything, but who says 
that they are guilty? Which court proves those 
people's guilt of anything? An Israeli Army 
Military Court? Hell! Over 700 thousand 
Palestinians were arrested and detained by 
Israelis. How many were proved guilty of any 
offense, even if accusations are based on Israeli 
military orders that are way worse than South 
Africa’s Apartheid system? It is them we have to 
bring to court. They are guilty!

About Nadia’s previous experience with “Israeli 
Security” and interrogation: 
<http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_21608.shtml>here 
and 
<http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2006/03/nadia-hasan-you-cant-go-home-again.html>here

Nadia’s <http://palestinaresiste2.blogspot.com/>blog in Spanish




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