One of the things we did was catching illegal aliens near the seam between Umm al Fahm and another place there. Seeing these illegal aliens and whatever, I remember one of the veteran soldiers . . . like every time there was this thing of chasing after people running away, and I never understood what the big deal was. They’d catch them, make them sit next to us, and they’d just humiliate them with all this degrading talk. Like saying shut up to adults, to young people, just to people . . . and these are the nicest people in the world, and the soldiers said to them, “Shut your mouth” and whatever, and there were really unbelievable situations. It shifted from trying to humiliate someone and then suddenly being nice to him. Suddenly he brings him popsicles and cigarettes when he comes back, things like that . . .

Who, the soldier brings these things to the Palestinian? No, the Palestinian brings him the stuff. And then all of a sudden it seems okay, but . . .

The soldiers would take bribes, gifts? They’d just detain them, for no reason. You check their papers, say “have a good day,” whatever. Let’s just say they weren’t as humane and professional as possible. I bought an Arabic conversation book and learned how to say “You can’t walk here,” and I asked my parents for help, they speak Arabic.

Wait, so the soldiers detain people even if they have papers and everything? They just hold them? Yes, for no reason. “Sit here, stay here.” And there’s no need. If someone can’t cross, then just tell him to go back. And if he can, then let him cross. But there was one argument where that veteran soldier just decided to humiliate this guy. It was just when we were about to leave the post, and he told the guy to lie down on the floor, and this was the most like . . . he was a twenty-five-year-old guy, a student, nice, and this soldier just decided to humiliate him. He made him lie down on his stomach . . .

This was a soldier or a commander? A veteran soldier, he had more say than the commanders. The guy was dressed nicely, button-down shirt, jeans. He just told him to lie on the floor on his stomach. And he put his foot on his neck, here, and cocked his weapon and yelled at him, “Why are you crossing here, don’t cross here anymore . . .” And this and that . . . and the soldier started telling him to do all kinds of things, telling him to stand, then telling him to lie on his stomach, he told him things like that. I yelled at him, “Enough, let him go, stop,” I was in shock. The situation really threw me. I thought the soldier was an animal, not a human being. I think he’s a shitty human being. I couldn’t stand him before all this, and afterward I couldn’t stand him even more. But no, I didn’t pass it on or anything. There was no one who’d listen.

Why didn’t you tell anyone? Because this guy was pals with everyone. I think even the officers knew about it. The commander was also there. The commander didn’t see it as anything unprofessional, apparently.

An officer? A commander, a squad commander. I decided right then and there that I want nothing to do with this crazy place, if this is how they humiliate people who’ve done nothing wrong. And even if they did commit a crime, you’re not allowed to lift your hand against them, it’s forbidden. I was shocked. I don’t know if the guy was Palestinian or an Israeli citizen. There’s a good chance he was an Israeli citizen, because Umm al Fahm is Israeli. There was another situation in the same place, where they stopped someone’s car and started yelling at him. It was always the group of veteran soldiers who’d do this kind of thing. And we’d do what we had to do—check his documents. They did it for some action, or just to pass the time, so they’d have something to talk about at home. To kill time, I guess. They started dismantling this guy’s car. Yelling at him. The guy said he was a member of B’Tselem and a citizen of Umm al Fahm. They kept abusing him anyway. They don’t even know what B’Tselem is. They were idiots. And then it ended. Aside from that, from those two situations, that’s how it was.