Omar Qassis

In the middle of the night on March 27, 2008 Omar Qassis, a student at Birzeit University in the West Bank, was woken from his sleep and arrested at his family's home.  He remains in prison now in Israel even though, since he is from the West Bank, it is against international law for Israel to transfer him across territories. He was eventually charged as an adult with "throwing stones" sometime during 2001-2002 when he would have been 16 years old.  This charge does not require that the charge be connected to a particular incident or a particular day. So it is impossible for him to present a defense and an alibi. Below is communication that Birzeit University's "Right to Education" campaign received from him on May 17th:

"I am O.K. but since my arrest my weight has dropped from 67 to 59 kilos.  Since arriving in Ofer I have not been given enough sugar so I have been feeling dizzy and dehydrated, and I couldn't sleep for the first 4 days.  I had hemorrhoids which were painful but my requests to see a doctor were ignored.  In the end I had to skip meals to be able to see a doctor.

The hemorrhoids developed while I was under interrogation because I wasn't given any clean clothes and the solitary confinement cell I was in - 'the hole' - was really humid.  I was in 'the hole' for 11 days.  Also when they started interrogating me I was tied down to a chair while intelligence officers questioned me for 4 hours at a time. Some soldiers told me that I would get hemorrhoids from sitting down so much if I didn't start confessing.

I also couldn't sleep because of the mental distress I was under.  I wake up easily, every time a soldier walks past. I saw soldiers beating other inmates and fear that I could be next. I'm also very disoriented, I hear sounds of dogs barking and people screaming at night. I think these are recordings but they affect me. I also heard a siren the other night and I imagined Israel was going to war with Iran and that they had evacuated the prison leaving me there alone. I have lost my bearings and am generally confused about the times of day or night.

The other day I cried. I cried at the sight of an old man, probably in his 60s, sitting alone and looking very fragile. I also know that he is diabetic. I can't stand to see the injustice he is in, and even less to imagine the injustices he has seen.

Now that I am here in prison I am in less physical pain but I am still stressed at the uncertainty of it all. I have no idea how long I will be in prison. I have no idea what they are doing or claiming. All I know is that I'm not a threat to security but I was still being questioned about all sorts of things, so anything and everything is going through their heads.

I basically just want to know when I can see my family again."