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Twilight Zone / Homeward, bound By Gidoen Levy Tags: Palestinians At the end of the day, after two grueling weeks of work, the tile-layer Sami Huatra went home. Sami renovates villas belonging to Jews in the upscale Be'er Sheva suburb of Meitar. While working there, he lives in hiding in the nearby Bedouin settlement of Hura, sleeping in a container, and every two or three weeks sneaks back to his home in the village of Wadi al-Shajana in the southern Hebron hills. A bachelor of 29, he lives with his elderly parents; the other family members are citizens of Israel. In 1948, the hand of fate tore apart this Bedouin family, leaving it divided between Israel and the West Bank. Sami provides for his parents by working illegally in Israel, like many others. His salary of NIS 6,000 a month is considered a fortune. On the morning of Thursday, March 6, Sami woke up in his container and went to work in Meitar. At the end of the day he set out for home. He doesn't go home often, because the journey there and back is costly and dangerous. He has been going back and forth for years without being caught. Sami says he knows how to elude the police and Border Police units that hunt the shabahim - the Hebrew acronym for those who are "illegally present" in Israel. He shares the container with a worker from the town of Dahariya, adjacent to Hebron, each paying NIS 500 a month for this dubious shelter in the Bedouin village. Sami started the journey home, part of which entails crossing hills, at 4 P.M. An Israeli car dropped him at Ramadin, a Bedouin village seven kilometers southwest of Dahariya; from there he proceeded on foot until he got a taxi from Dahariya to his village. There are two possible routes: one longer and safer, the other shorter and more dangerous, where soldiers sometimes lie in ambush. Sami, exhausted, chose the shorter way. He reached the outskirts of the remote village at 6:30 P.M., walked between the trees and passed the pottery plant. Suddenly a soldier leaped out from behind the trees. Soldiers sometimes lie in wait there for children who throw stones at passing vehicles on nearby Highway 60. This was the case on March 6. The soldier ordered Sami to halt, pull up his shirt and jacket and turn around without moving. Sami says he did as the soldier ordered, and that the soldier looked tense and nervous. Maybe he was afraid. Sami told him immediately that he was on his way home from work. Advertisement "Where do you work?" the soldier asked, and Sami replied, "In Meitar." "Do you have a permit?" "No, I don't have a permit. There are many who work without a permit." The soldier began to curse him, Sami says - "Abu sharmuta" ("Father of a whore") and other abusive words. In the midst of cursing, the soldier suddenly - and without any warning, according to Sami - shot him twice. Two shots, in rapid succession, into the groin. Soldier and tile-layer were no more than five meters apart. Sami collapsed onto the ground. The soldier walked over to him, put his rifle up against his head and shouted, "Why are you walking here?" as Sami's blood stained the soil. Writhing with pain, Sami tried to explain to the soldier that he had not thrown stones and that all he wanted was to get home safely: "I was coming home from work and I didn't know you were here." The incident occurred a few dozen meters from Sami's home, next to his neighbors' place. Within a short time, five more soldiers materialized from behind the trees. Sami heard the officer ask the soldier, "Why did you shoot him?" Looking at Sami's ID card, the soldiers discovered that he was 29, hardly the age of stone-throwers. Throughout, Sami lay on the ground, fully conscious and bleeding. About 15 minutes later, a military paramedic or physician arrived. He asked the soldiers why they had not given Sami first aid. They replied that they did not have first-aid equipment. The paramedic/doctor staunched the bleeding and dressed the wounds. Sami was taken in a military ambulance to the Meitar checkpoint, from where a Magen David Adom ambulance took him to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva. The hospital asked him to sign a surgery waiver. At first Sami was afraid to sign, but eventually he did, and was taken to the operating theater. He awoke the next morning at 9, after the surgery, only to discover that he was handcuffed and one of his legs was tied to the bed. Two soldiers guarded his room in six-hour shifts. For a week, Sami Huatra lay in Soroka's Orthopedic Department handcuffed and bound, watched over by two soldiers and denied visits from relatives. Neither his aged parents, with whom he lives, nor his siblings or other family members from the Negev were allowed in. During his hospitalization, he was interrogated by an IDF officer, who told him at the conclusion of the questioning: "We are convinced that you are not a terrorist, and therefore we will release you." After a week the handcuffs were removed and the guards disappeared, and three days later he was released. The release letter, signed by Dr. Oren Zvieli, states: "Aged 29, brought to ER by the security forces after being shot in left thigh. Transferred to our department after surgery on open break in left femur and after binding of bleeding blood vessels ... Is not volunteering information on the details of the incident ... Started mobile physiotherapy, without stepping on the operated leg, in the department with the aid of a walker ... Being released back to the security forces and follow-up." A spokesperson for Soroka Medical Center stated in response: "According to a directive of the Ministry of Health, the power to bind a patient who is in custody rests with the law enforcement authority, which has possession of the patient and is responsible for guarding him, namely the security forces. "The detainee was handcuffed at the directive of the security authorities and by them, and they did not accede to the request of the medical staff that he be unbound. The security authorities are in charge of determining the level of danger posed by the detainee. "In any event, we wish to emphasize that he received the finest medical treatment, and the fact that he was bound did not affect the treatment in the least. The patient was released from the hospital in good condition." Sami now lies on his side in his meager, shabby home, on an unmade steel bed. He finds it very difficult to get up. It has been a month and a half since he was shot, and he is still unable to stand on his feet. His old father lies beside him on the mattress, in the only room of the house. An x-ray shows the pin that was inserted in his thigh. His brothers arrive daily to carry him to the physiotherapy clinic in Dahariya. He wears a sport shirt with the inscription, "Ramadan Futsal Tournament for adults, 2005. Hura Local Council." His face is ashen, his body lean and fragile. It's hard, he says. "It means lifelong troubles," murmurs the tile-layer from Wadi al-Shajana, who only wanted to get home safely. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Clear, present danger Survey : 52% of youth believe Israel faces existential threat. Feeling guilty Europe's criticism of Israel is more than just anti-Semitism.   1.   And what do they do to the children? 19:59  |  Marilyn 26/04/08   2.   Wonderful fiction, its time to be serious 22:05  |  Ronaldo 26/04/08

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