How does the food work [in the Sde Teiman detention camp]?

I saw them eat once during a shift. They gave each of them a few slices of white bread, a cucumber and a small tub of cheese. That was like their dinner.

And what happens with the zip ties and blindfolds [during meals]?

They eat with the zip ties and blindfold. They also ensure they’re not, like, taking too much. If they say: “We don’t have enough food” – they’re told: “That’s all there is.” They’re given a box and the Shawish (a detainee who acts as the detainees’ representative) hands it out, giving it out one by one. There’s this kind of roll call. Once in a while they make everyone stand up and read out their names and then the person says: “Yes captain.” They eat with the zip ties. Sometimes their zip ties are tight, sometimes they intentionally tighten their zip ties as punishment. Sometimes they ask to have looser zip ties and maybe they’ll be granted. There’s this small opening in the fence [surrounding the pens]. So then they can stick their hands out and you can [loosen their zip ties].

How do they ask to go to the toilet?

I can’t remember. I think they just got up and the Shawish told them to sit. Or the soldier told them. Sometimes like that, or they raised their hand and called the Shawish. Actually the Shawish doesn’t usually mind. Like, he says, “Okay.” Usually it’s the soldier who says to the Shawish: “Tell them to go one at a time.” They can [also] go wash their hands or face “one at a time.” I didn’t see anyone who wasn’t allowed to go to the toilet. There are two stalls there but they’re allowed to get up one at a time. To wash their hands too, I didn’t really see people being refused unless they were being punished or something. They’re, like, independent in quotation marks. They don’t really get help. Maybe those who are limping or something, then the Shawish sometimes helps them walk from one place to another. Some of the military police officers wear masks and gloves. It stinks inside. There are all kinds of things that stink [there], wounds and chemical toilets that are not cleaned enough. It just smells awful. They don’t change their clothes.

And do you know how showers work?

There’s this kind of section behind that I saw, which is closed with corrugated metal sheets.

Is it quiet there?

There’s often this kind of mumbling in the air, there’s just this small murmur of the Palestinians mumbling, some of them look a bit like they’re talking to themselves, but maybe that’s just because they’re not turning their heads so that they won’t be seen talking to someone. They’re there 24/7 and they’re not allowed to talk. There’s no time when they’re allowed to talk. So it’s relatively [quiet], usually it’s quiet after everyone has been woken up or something [as a form of punishment]. But after there has been collective punishment there is usually this kind of murmur. And then shouting, “uskut, uskut.” Shouting, all the time.

Do they shout at them a lot?

It depends who’s on shift but most of the soldiers were shouting quite a lot. “Lift your head, sit.” If there’s someone who knows a little more [Arabic] then also “uq‘ud” (sit) or “irfa'a rasak” (lift your head). Like, people (the soldiers) don’t speak Arabic, they know how to say [only] these things. There’s no way of communicating. They (the detainees) don’t manage to say, for example, “my head hurts” or, like, when someone has their hands [up] for a long time he can’t [say], “I’ve been standing with my hands up for 10 minutes already and it’s hurting me to hold them up.” Except for the Shawish who also doesn’t always know Hebrew that well.