Tareq Abu Khudair on being assaulted by Israeli police

Gulf News

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00:00Tareq, you know, reading the reports and everything about you traveling to Jerusalem, you haven't

00:16been there in a really long time, is that correct?

00:19Yeah.

00:20What age were you when you first went to Jerusalem?

00:21I was four years old.

00:24So what was your expectations going there?

00:27What was going through your mind?

00:28I wanted to go out, I wanted to go to the Dome of the Rock and everything.

00:33How did you feel walking in the streets, seeing old family members?

00:37I was so happy and I couldn't believe it.

00:42I want to talk a little bit about your cousin Mohamed.

00:45Were you guys close or did you form a relationship with him while you were there?

00:50Yeah.

00:51Well, me and Mohamed, we were best friends.

00:53I mean, we were friends from the first day I got there.

00:59So when you found out what happened to him, how did you feel?

01:02What was going through your mind?

01:05I felt so sad because he doesn't deserve to die that way.

01:10Okay, let's talk about the day that the Israeli police grabbed you.

01:17What were you doing and how did they grab you?

01:19I was standing there watching from the alley and then I heard screaming from the other

01:26side of the alley and behind those people that were screaming, I saw soldiers.

01:33So everybody panicked and ran, so I ran too and jumped in and I fell.

01:41You fell down?

01:42Yeah.

01:44Yeah, I fell.

01:46Then I got up and I ran a little farther and then they grabbed me.

01:51What happened when they grabbed you?

01:52Did you think that your life was under threat?

01:54Yeah.

01:55I didn't know what to do because I was blindfolded when I woke up.

02:03What was going through your mind, obviously, you know, being beaten.

02:07Were you aware of what was happening or did you pass out?

02:13Yeah, I was aware of what was going on.

02:16I was screaming at them every time they'd hit me.

02:20So now that you're back in the States and you're, you know, alhamdulillah, you're not

02:24in that situation now where what's happening in Gaza and what's happening in the West Bank.

02:30So what is your message to the Palestinian kids your age, just normal kids who can't

02:36leave their country?

02:38I'm telling them to stay strong, never back down, don't be scared of, don't be scared

02:44of them.

02:45Do you think that what happened to you changed your life?

02:49Definitely, it did change my life.

02:53How so?

02:54It made me wide awake, like, it made me think about Palestine more, it made me want to know

03:02more.

03:04Now that you're back and you're going to try to resume, I guess, your normal life and go

03:09to school, I'd like to know a little bit about what you're interested in, you know, what's

03:13your favorite subject in school?

03:15Math.

03:17And what do you want to be when you grow up?

03:19I want to be an engineer.

03:21Where were you when you thought it was taken and what did you know at the time?

03:34I was mourning the loss of Mohamed at his mom's house, so a relative had come up to

03:47me and told me that Tariq was in jail, and some other cousins of his as well, so I called

04:02my husband to, you know, confirm that, and he said, yes, I'm in, I'm at the jail right

04:10now.

04:12Okay, so what were you thinking?

04:15Were you assuming the worst, given what happened to his cousin and as a mother?

04:23I knew that when they take the Palestinians, that they do beat them, okay, I knew that,

04:31I heard, you know, that before, and so I asked relatives around, do you think he's going

04:37to be okay?

04:38And, you know, they said, yeah, they're going to slap him around a little bit.

04:44So I thought, okay, they might slap him around a little bit, but you know, I'm sitting there

04:51like afraid, I have all these thoughts going through my head, they might kill him, you

04:58know, because they're trained to actually go and kill the Palestinians, you know, they

05:08know that, who's going to know, who's going to find out it's just another Palestinian

05:13on the side, you know, and nobody's going to ask about him.

05:16Did you, obviously, he's American, did you think, oh, maybe he's American, they'll show

05:22some restraint or have some caution when dealing with him?

05:25Yeah, everybody was telling me, you know, don't worry, they're going to find out he's

05:29American and let him go.

05:31So that brought some sort of relief to me.

05:37But at the same time, I didn't know what to expect from these people.

05:43And obviously, you got to see him later, I guess it was in court or when he was released

05:49and you saw his injuries.

05:50I mean, as a mother seeing your son like that, what was, how are you feeling and what was

05:56going through your mind?

05:57No, the first time I saw him was that night in the hospital.

06:05It was kind of like the next morning because they waited, the incident happened at 730.

06:10And they waited all the way until 115 till they actually were convinced from my husband

06:16that he needed medical attention.

06:20My husband, one of the guards secretly told my husband, your son needs medical attention

06:29right away.

06:30Because he was bleeding, he was still unconscious, he was, I think he was going in and out of

06:35consciousness.

06:36And they took him to jail.

06:40And he was blindfolded.

06:41And he was, you know, bleeding everywhere.

06:45So finally they handcuffed, he was handcuffed to the bed.

06:50He was handcuffed to the bed while he was unconscious?

06:54He was handcuffed to the hospital bed.

06:57So when I got to the hospital, I didn't know what to expect.

06:59I went to the hospital because my husband told me he's just getting a checkup.

07:05So when I got there, I saw the Israeli police guard at his door.

07:11And I'm thinking to myself, why would they have a guard at someone's door that had just

07:18been beat unconscious?

07:20Right.

07:21Anyway, we, yeah, and so my husband finally convinced him to let me in.

07:27He didn't want to let me in.

07:30And he told me, you can't touch him, you can't get near him, and you can't talk to him.

07:36So you came into the room and what did you do?

07:39Yeah.

07:41I was outside of the room and I looked over and I saw his distorted face.

07:46It wasn't him.

07:49He did not look like himself and he was sleeping.

07:52You know, I was, I was, I was asking myself, is he alive?

08:01What was he charged with again by the Israeli police?

08:03There were no charges.

08:04No charges.

08:05There were no charges.

08:06No charges at all.

08:08But they put him on house arrest for nine days.

08:12Yes.

08:13They put him on house arrest for nine days and had to pay a bail amount.

08:19I asked Audit the same question.

08:21Do you feel that what happened to your son has, you know, changed your life?

08:25And how so?

08:26Yes, it has tremendously actually.

08:33I'm just closer to my country now.

08:36I'm just closer to Palestine.

08:38Palestine's more close to my heart than ever.

08:42Just because I experienced what these Palestinians experience every single day of their lives.

08:48You know, and my son experienced what they go through.

08:51That was just a little piece of what, you know, these Palestinians get every day.

08:58Well, now that you are back in, you know, the American media's focusing attention on

09:02what happened there, what has been your general outlook on how the media in America has covered

09:10the incident and also how the American government has handled the incident?

09:17Because I've heard, you know, even the Florida representative in Congress had really nothing

09:23to say.

09:24And this is an American citizen at the end of the day.

09:27What was your experience and what were you expecting?

09:31I'm happy with how the media is covering this.

09:35Even though they cut out a lot of the important facts, they did get my son's story out.

09:45And a lot of people are finding out the truth that didn't know before.

09:51They just think this is a war and, you know, and it's been going on for years and that's

09:57not true.

09:59You know, what we're going through is an occupation and it's from one side, it's one sided.

10:08These Palestinians don't have rights.

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