After enduring 57 days of bloody torture in Maskobiyeh slaughterhouse, I’tiraf Al-Rimawi is still suffering from acute pain in his right thigh

I’tiraf Al-Rimawi is 44-years-old from Beit Rima, a loving husband to his lifelong partner Rinad and a father of five children. His youngest was born four days after I’tiraf’s abduction. I’tiraf has been arrested a total of eight times, half of which were administrative detentions. I’tiraf has spent over 2,400 days in the occupation prisons.

I’tiraf is the director of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Ramallah. His passion for music was reflected onto his children, as his eldest son Majd, 18, plays the clarinet, and his daughter Wajd, 16, and son Basel, nine, play the oud.

Black September 2019

“At the early stages of his arrest, I’tiraf was kept under administrative detention for six months,” his wife Rinad explained. The brutality of the occupation escalated gradually after the first month, when he was taken to Maskobiyeh, known as “The Slaughterhouse”, where Rinad says: “He underwent military interrogation for 57 days, including 25 days of consecutive interrogation, psychological and physical torture and continuous insults. I’tiraf rose from the dead.”

Rinad does not know all the forms of torture to which I’tiraf was subjected. She only knows what Addameer told her. “While blindfolded and restrained, I’tiraf was beaten on his head and slapped in the face several times. He was restrained in uncomfortable positions for long periods and was forced to stand against a rough surface where the interrogator pushed down on his shoulders to increase the pain. His face and jaw were pulled upwards and sideways, his feet were broken.”

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“Forty-two days later, I saw I’tiraf for the first time in court for two minutes before the trial started, because it was allegedly confidential. The soldiers did not even allow me to ask him how he was doing, because an answer to such a question would contradict the confidentiality rules they have issued. Such rules are used as a legal cover by the occupation to keep the torture against I’tiraf, and others, in the last Black September of 2019 under wraps.” Rinad continues: “Honestly, I did not recognise I’tiraf. His face was yellow, he had a beard that made him look like he aged many years. His features changed drastically. His hands and feet were swollen and bruised, which seemed that he had internal bleeding. He would have sudden convulsions that I could never get myself to forget. He was silent and powerless. The worst thing was that I later found out that I’tiraf was attending the court in a wheelchair.”

Despite his paleness and frail condition, I’tiraf was able to tell the judge in a barely audible voice that he was subjected to brutal torture by the interrogators. But the judge was not concerned and played his role in extending the arrest.

Severe anaemia and shortage of vitamins and salts

It seems that the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors to practice their noble profession does not apply to tortured Palestinians. Sometimes I’tiraf would lose consciousness between rounds of interrogation, to then be taken to the slaughterhouse infirmary. All that the doctors would do was to check his pulse and blood pressure, administer painkillers that did nothing to ease his pain, and then give the green light for interrogators to continue their rounds of interrogation.

To this moment, the occupation is stalling in providing the pictures that prove the torture against I’tiraf. It is also delaying the medical reports on his health, while his lawyer is constantly working on legally obtaining them. Rinad adds: “All I know from I’tiraf, himself, is that he told me in one of the visits that the swelling I saw in his hands and feet the day of the trial was nothing compared to the bloody swelling in his right thigh. He also said that he was informed that his paleness was the result of severe anaemia due to blood loss and that he needs supplements, salts and vitamins. However, the occupation does not provide them at the required dosages. The provision of medicine is decided by the jailor and the prison infirmary, and the prisoner cannot verify the dosages and name of the medicine he is given.”

Prisoners and the Red Cross

The families of prisoners suffer from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) bias towards the occupation and the lack of their so-called “neutrality”. Their silence and lack of exposure of the occupation’s crimes serve only to whitewash the occupation.

Rinad explained: “My fears increased when the ICRC employee called me and told me that she visited I’tiraf and that he was doing well. She refused to give me any additional information. She called back a week later to inform me that they are following up on special cases and that I’tiraf was one of them. Therefore, she had visited him again and said that he was doing ‘better’ than last time. I have no idea what the standards are for ‘good’ and ‘better’ according to the ‘neutral’ ICRC. And how in the world was my husband ‘doing well’ the last time when he couldn’t stand or talk?”

“I’tiraf was arrested seven times before this one, and was interrogated in some of those arrests. He was never visited by the ICRC, so what has changed to force the ICRC to visit my husband after 29 days of continuous interrogation, where he was subjected to severe torture. The ICRC visited I’tiraf when he was on the verge of dying, only to make sure he was alive. Not once was he visited during the brutal torture he faced. What their reports say about ‘assuring the family of the prisoner’ only increased my fears in reality.”

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I’tiraf is currently being detained at Rimon Desert Prison. He has pain in his back, hands and right leg. He is awaiting his trial that was adjourned several times and an indictment full of false accusations.

“I’tiraf spent one-third of our marital life in imprisonment. Maybe this should be added to Palestinian wedding vows. Apart from ‘I promise to be true in good times and bad, in sickness and health,’ special vows should be added, ‘in arrest and imprisonment, in interrogation and embitterment.’”

Rinad recounts: “I’tiraf was arrested in his first year at the university, when we got engaged, days after our marriage, on my children’s first day at school after he had promised to take them there, at the early stages of his professional career, days after the birth of my fifth child, Watan, and at every new beginning we clawed our way to seek happiness.”

“However, we make our beginnings and joys in spite of the occupation. We are all waiting for the day when I’tiraf is with us and embracing his children, Majd, Wajd, Basel, Wadee and Watan.”

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.