Subscribe to Print Edition | Thu., April 03, 2008 Adar2 28, 5768 | | Israel Time: 13:10 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Blaming the victim By Gideon Levy Tags: Border Police Ghassam Burqan's wife was tired of doing all the laundry by hand. With five children at home, the couple decided to buy a washing machine. Now, says Burqan with a bitter smile, had he known what buying a washing machine would get him into, he would have passed on this particular luxury, and his wife could have gone on doing all the laundry by hand forever. Because of that washing machine, Burqan is now holding a plastic bag containing his bloodstained clothes, the result of the night of terror he says he was subjected to after some soldiers, and Border Police officers especially, attacked and abused him for an entire night, while he was bound, blindfolded and bleeding from a blow to the head from a rifle butt. If his description is accurate, this would be a particularly severe story of abuse. Meanwhile, the upshot is not what one might expect: An indictment was issued against Burqan for assaulting Border Police officers. They also tried to accuse him of attempting to steal their weapons, but this charge was immediately rejected by the judges in the military court. Get the picture? Burqan tried to assault the Border Police officers, with a washing machine on his head, and to steal their weapons while he was at it. And so the victim became the accused. Still, even the military judges had their doubts about the prosecution's version of events, and the military court, in two different forums, in an exceedingly rare move, decided to release on bail a person accused of assaulting our forces. The trial will begin next month. Not of the Border Police officers - of Burqan. Burqan, 31, is a marble cutter who lives with his family in Hebron's Old City, which is under the control of the IDF and the settlers. No Palestinian vehicle is permitted to enter, which is why he had to carry the new washing machine home on his head. Advertisement On Friday, March 7, the family was visiting the grandparents. In the afternoon, they drove to nearby Beit Awa to buy a new washing machine; prices are lower there. They looked around, chose one and paid for it, loaded the washing machine onto the car and returned to the grandparents' house. At around 8.30 P.M., after dinner, they prepared to return to their home, not far away, just past the IDF checkpoint that blocks the passage of Palestinian vehicles. Burqan hefted the cardboard box with the washing machine onto his head and the whole family - father, mother and five children (ranging in age from 1 to 12), along with Burqan's brother, headed out. Tomorrow they would put the first load in the machine. Six jeeps were parked by the concrete blocks next to the checkpoint, some from the IDF and some from the Border Police. "What do you have there on your head?" the Border Police officer, a Druze apparently, asked in Arabic. "A washing machine," Burqan replied. "I want to check," said the officer. "What is there to check? It's a new washing machine, still in the package," said Burqan. The officer (according to Burqan): "Then I'll open it and wreck it." Now Burqan was afraid of what might happen to the washing machine, which the family had spent months saving for. He has a sparse beard and fair hair, a gentle expression. Burqan's brother, Sa'ad, was standing nearby. He's 22 and has been in a shaky mental state ever since he traveled to the United States a year and a half ago to study medicine in Florida. He suffered severe culture shock and returned after a few months, clinically depressed. He hasn't worked or functioned well since then. When he heard the exchange of words between Burqan and the Border Police officer, Sa'ad tried to intervene on his brother's behalf. Ghassam tried to protect his emotionally impaired brother. The court would find that at most, he struck the Border Police officer on the hand. But other forces immediately poured out of the parked jeeps and started beating the two brothers with clubs and rifle butts, even after they were sprawled on the ground. According to the court hearings, which we will get to shortly, several army officers were present, including a company commander, but no one bothered to collect their testimony. Soon the two brothers had their hands bound behind their backs, and one had a rifle pushed against his throat and his neck stepped on. Burqan's wife was standing nearby with her children, and a few neighbors who happened to be there tried to explain to the soldiers that the brother was mentally unbalanced. The soldiers chased them off with curses, but released the brother. His condition must have been quite apparent; otherwise they wouldn't have let him go so easily. But they put Ghassam in the Border Police jeep, his eyes blindfolded and his hands bound. As soon as he was in the jeep he felt a sharp blow from a rifle butt landing on his head. He says it made him black out and that he woke up when cold water was sprayed on him from a hose held by the Border Police officers. He thinks this was by the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Burqan pleaded with them not to spray the water onto the open wound in his head, but they kept on spraying. His hands were bound behind his back. "It really hurt," he says. Then he heard that a military ambulance had come to take him away, but then he also gathered that the Border Police officers were refusing to evacuate him in the ambulance, and he also heard that an investigation would be launched into his beating. Wet and bleeding, shaking all over from the cold and the shock, he was finally taken in a Border Police jeep to a hill overlooking the Old City. He heard the officers talking to each other and saying that he would have to be taken to the hospital. One of them smeared something on the wound in his head and then wound a bandage around it. He was put back in the jeep, and again they drove for several minutes and then put him out on the ground somewhere, a place he didn't recognize. He could smell coffee being made. He lay on the ground, bound and blindfolded. It was very cold, and he was wearing just a shirt and undershirt, and was soaking wet. No one offered him a drink. He lay there for hours, sometimes losing consciousness or falling asleep. At no time was he offered anything to drink or eat. He says he didn't need to go to the bathroom because of the state of shock he was in. Finally, at around five-thirty in the morning, as he recalls it, he was taken to the police station in Kiryat Arba, and the Border Police officers were instructing him to say that he had been injured accidentally by the side of the jeep. They told the officers at the station that he had tried to assault them and steal their weapons. Burqan was sent for interrogation, and he told his story about the new washing machine. But the policeman told him that there were witnesses, the Border Police officers, who saw him trying to steal their weapons and attack them. For the next 13 days, Ghassam Burqan was held at the police station in Kiryat Arba. During his detention, he was taken at one point to Hadassah Hospital, Ein Karem, due to a blockage in the urinary tract, apparently due to the hours spent shivering in the cold after he was drenched with water. He believes that they kept him in detention for so long that his head wound would heal and he wouldn't be able to complain. This week, the scar was still visible. By the time this issue went to press, no answer had been received from the Border Police Spokesman. The legal case: On March 13, Ghassam Burqan was brought before the Judea court. Before the military judge, Major Shlomo Katz, he declared that he was representing himself and did not wish to have an attorney. The prosecutor, deputy officer Adi Noy, requested that his remand be extended by five days for the purpose of preparing the indictment. The suspect: "I live in Hebron and I have five children. I want to go home." The decision: "In light of the existence of ostensible evidence and cause for detention as required ... I hereby order that he be remanded in custody until Sunday, March 16." On March 16, Burqan was again brought before the court, this time before Major Sharon Rivlin-Ahai. The prosecutor, deputy officer Sari Tal, requested that Burqan be kept in custody until the conclusion of the proceedings. "It has been determined in the past that an assault on soldiers shows dangerous cause, and so I request that he remain in custody until the end of the proceedings." The judge: "According to the written report, this was an event with multiple participants ... Were other people arrested?" The prosecutor: " ... will return with a clear answer after the lunch break." The accused: "My financial situation prevents me from appointing a defense attorney of my own. I didn't do anything; they testified against me, but my blood testifies on my behalf. They are the ones who beat me up and in order to blur the evidence, they rinsed my shirt. There were a lot of soldiers there, I don't know what kind of violence could have come from me. I was tied up. They threw me out in the cold for eight hours and afterward put me in jail. I want to go home, to support my family. I don't know what happened to the washing machine ..." The decision: " ... The accused claims that he was upset because of the fact that in the box was a new washing machine, which he worked for a long time to raise the money to purchase, and the officers threatened to break the machine ... It will also be noted that the officers confirm that the accused was injured in the head during the incident, and according to prosecution witness number two, 'The man almost passed out from the blows the soldiers gave him.' ... Under the circumstances, there is an evidentiary problem ... In light of the above, I find that this is one of the rare instances in which, although there was an alleged assault of officers, an alternative to custody may be sufficient." The military court of appeals for the Judea and Samaria region, March 19. The military prosecution appeals. The judge, Lieutenant Colonel Netanel Benisar: "The respondent is accused of having struck Border Police officers when they asked him to open a box he was carrying ... I have not found clear evidence of an attempt to steal the weapon of [one of] the officers ... Therefore, I am turning down the appeal. The respondent may be released ... I shall further instruct that a copy of the protocol of this hearing be relayed to the police investigation division, so the conduct of the officers in this incident may be examined." This week, Burqan came to the office of Musa Abu Hashash, a B'tselem researcher in Hebron, and brought the bag full of bloodied and laundered clothes. What can he do, he asked in desperation, so that his attackers, and not he, will be the ones put on trial? Bookmark to del.icio.us   Devil's weed New campaign equates smoking pot with terrorism. Bad company A BBC poll says Israel world's most hated country after Iran.   1.   Why do they do this? 14:49  |  Marilyn 29/03/08   2.   Druse soldiers beat up an Arab for violently refusing ... 16:11  |  Boris 29/03/08   3.   Unanswered Question 18:19  |  John 29/03/08   4.   It`s perfectly obvious 18:52  |  hollingsworth 29/03/08

Today Online Al Qaida's no. 2 vows to attack Jews worldwide Responses: 29 Top Palestinian official calls for halting peace talks with Israel Responses: 20 U.S. Reform leader: Alliance with Evangelicals is bad for Israel Responses: 36 Haifa doctors get 2-month suspension for wrongful hysterectomy Responses: 10 More Headlines 12:30 Al-Qaida No. 2 vows to strike Jews worldwide 10:40 Israel fears Syrian army moves may signal Hezbollah attack 10:42 Senior Palestinian: We need to halt talks with Israel 10:57 'Allying with Christian Zionists is bad for Israel' 12:45 Neo-Nazi clothes shop sparks clashes between Berlin radicals 10:49 Haifa doctors get 2-month suspension for wrongful hysterectomy 12:47 Prison Break star teams up with Dana International for spoof Israeli ad 10:01 U.S. diplomats: Saudi Arabia likely to join nuclear arms race 10:46 Wiesel, Dershowitz want U.S. to boycott Durban conference 00:46 Israel says has removed 50 'dirt mound' roadblocks in W. Bank 10:49 Rivals Beinisch, Friedmann join forces to shoot down 'court of economics' 06:39 First J'lem forum for Diaspora, local philanthropists Previous Editions Select Day 02 apr 01 apr 31 mar 30 mar 28 mar 27 mar 26 mar 25 mar 24 mar 23 mar 21 mar 20 mar

Special Offers Advertisement Learn Hebrew online with Israel's best teachers Sign up for a trial lesson today Behind the Z Word Scholarly essays, commentary, podcasts, blogs and much more. NEW! Dan Boutique Jerusalem Hotel Hip Dan Hotel in Jerusalem. Attractive Introductory Rates Pardes Institute Summer Sessions Study Jewish texts and issues in Jerusalem, Co-ed, All Levels FAREWELL ISRAEL New Film The Coming War for Islamic Revival - View Movie Trailer Free the Palestinians from: Corrupt Kleptocracy, Tyrannical Theocracy, Abysmal Anarchy Fattal Hotel Chain Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel. ISRAEL BONDS Build Israel Israel bonds - a multi-purpose way to celebrate Israel's 60th Eldan Rent a Car Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations Junkyard Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt

Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.

© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved