They shoot blind people, don't they

Ahmed Sabarneh feels his way in the dark. He can see shadows and figures only and can identify individuals only from up close. He can barely read, even when his face is on top of the text. A rare hereditary disease is gradually making him blind. Now Ahmed also needs to use crutches. He climbs the stairs to his home with difficulty, one step at a time, coping with his poor vision and his injured leg. Israel Defense Forces soldiers shot Ahmed in the foot and since then he has had difficulty walking. They claimed he threw rocks at them but Ahmed says he can't see well enough to do so. But the travails of the family from Beit Omar don't end there: Acting on Shin Bet security service orders, the Civil Administration confiscated his father's permit to work in Israel. For over 20 years Samir Sabarneh has done yardwork for homeowners in Jerusalem's Bayit Vegan neighborhood. Some of his employers drafted a petition describing his dedication and loyalty and requesting that the permit be restored, but a Shin Bet officer tore the permit to shreds in front of Samir when he refused to confess to his son's alleged rock-throwing. Israel is blaming the father for the sins of his blind son, sins that apparently never took place. The son takes a bullet to the leg, while the father is deprived of his livelihood. Ahmed, incidentally, was not arrested, interrogated nor charged. and not indicted. "It's from God," Samir says about his son's injury, but why, he asks repeatedly, deprive me of my source of income as well? Now they sit together at home, the blind, disabled son and his forcibly unemployed father. A funeral cortege descends down the road connecting Beit Omar to the main Bethlehem-Hebron route. The army jeep parked in the street speeds away. Three villagers died last week: Brothers Mohammed and Mahmoud Sabarneh, who were shot and killed after infiltrating the settlement of Kfar Etzion, armed with knives and what was apparently a toy pistol; and Mahmoud Awad, a teen who was shot dead by soldiers last Friday, apparently after throwing rocks at them. Ahmed Sabarneh returns from physiotherapy for his leg at the Hebron clinic. His father hurries to pick him up at the town. He has the expensive treatments three times a week. Ahmed's younger brother has the same rare eye disease that he has and is nearly blind himself. Ahmed, 18, and Khalil, 15, gaze vaguely into the room. Their disability is not immediately apparent. Khalil can already read Braille, Ahmed hasn't learned yet. Both boys were diagnosed and treated at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem. Ahmed's vision loss is 90 percent. On December 4 Ahmed went out at around noon to buy medicine for the family's flock of sheep. After he stopped attending school due to his worsening sight Samir bought his son 30 sheep. He walked toward the farm supply store, a few hundred meters away. He can still manage alone, going slowly and carefully. At some point several children approached and warned him that soldiers were searching a nearby home. Ahmed says he tried to detour down a side road but soon heard soldiers calling him: "Come here." Ahmed says he heard them but couldn't see them. A moment later a bullet hit his thigh and he fell to the ground, bleeding. He looks at us with that veiled look. His eyes are gray and he has a peach-fuzz moustache. Ahmed says the soldiers came and dragged him toward a wall, and that one even kicked him in the leg. They cursed at him and then pulled down his pants to examine his injury. He says they would not permit his aunt and uncle, who came running to the scene, to take him for medical treatment. He says he asked the soldiers to get help, to call an ambulance, to no avail. His father was at work, in Jerusalem. After about an hour, according to Ahmed, a Palestinian ambulance took him to Hebron's Al-Ahli Hospital. He had lost a lot of blood, and his leg was in danger. Surgery saved the leg. Ahmed was hospitalized for two weeks. Ahmed's mental state deteriorated after he came home, and he needed therapy and tranquilizers. His uncle says Ahmed would mumble incoherently and suffered from insomnia. In the past few days his emotional state has improved. He is supposed to have another operation a year from now, after which he may be able to walk properly. The day after his son's injury, a "Captain Dirar" from the Shin Bet phoned Samir and told him to report to the Etzion detention facility at 8:30 the following morning. He had to wait outside, in the parking lot, until 5 P.M., before being brought inside. So it goes. Even then he was shut in a room for another half hour or so, "like a dog," as he put it. Samir describes the exchange between himself and the Shin Bet interrogator: "Your son threw rocks." "My son can barely see, he didn't throw any rocks." "You're lying, he threw rocks. If you don't admit that he threw rocks, I'm tearing up your permit. If you tell me that he threw rocks, I won't tear up the permit." "I have letters from Hadassah [Hospital] confirming that he's blind." "I don't care about confirmations and I don't care about his eyes. Just admit that he threw rocks." "Do whatever you want. My son can't see and doesn't throw rocks. I have two sons who can't see. God will help me, tear up the permit." "I'm tearing up the permit," and the Shin Bet investigator ripped up Samir's work permit and scattered the pieces on the table. Samir has been at home, unemployed, for nearly two months. "Thank God I have my good name," he says. "All the people I worked for say I'm like a son to them, like family. I love my employers' children like my own. I go into their homes, I eat with them, like family. I've never hurt anyone and nobody ever hurt me, my father or my sons. We are always honest and polite. All I want is to support my children. I'm the only provider in the family, five children, two of them blind, and my father, who is sick and lives with us. Not Hamas and not Fatah, only food for the children." Four of the cooperative apartment buildings in Bayit Vegan that employ Samir organized a petition requesting that his work permit be restored. "We the undersigned hereby confirm that Samir Sabarneh is known to us and has worked in Bayit Vegan as a cleaning and maintenance contractor, washing stairwells, doing yardwork, painting and small repairs for over 20 years, to our satisfaction. [He] always came to work with a permit allowing him to enter and to work in Israel and he now seeks an entry permit. We the undersigned testify that he is deserving of such a permit. Samir is a responsible, pleasant person who has always demonstrated a polite attitude, devotion, diligence and loyalty. Therefore we recommend that he receive an entry and work permit so he can continue to work in our buildings." Signed: the tenants' committees at 12 and 14 Rav Uziel St. and at 18 and 47 Bayit Vegan St. The IDF Spokesman's Office issued the following statement in reference to the circumstances of Ahmed's injury: "In the abovementioned disturbances in Beit Omar, which included among other things the throwing of rocks, concrete blocks and Molotov cocktails at IDF forces and Israeli vehicles, an IDF officer was injured slightly and several Israeli vehicles were damaged. "In light of the danger to their lives, IDF forces employed crowd dispersal techniques, and when these proved ineffective live fire was used. The actions of our forces during the incident are currently under investigation. "When the IDF forces observed an injured Palestinian he was given first aid until the arrival of a Red Crescent ambulance, under massive missile (rocks and concrete blocks) fire. "It should be noted that Beit Omar is a major site of daily hostile terrorist activity characterized by the throwing of explosive devices, incendiary bottles, concrete blocks and rocks at Israeli civilians and at IDF forces along and adjacent to a major traffic route." Samir was afraid to tell his employers that his son had been shot by soldiers, and told them instead that Ahmed hurt his leg falling off his bicycle. "They're Jews," he says, "and I don't know how they'll react." He has so many fears. He even asked the Field Research Director of the Hebron District for the B'Tselem human rights organization, Musa Abu Hashhash, during a home visit a few weeks ago, not to publish anything in order to prevent any problems with his work as a result. After his request for the restoration of his work permit, which was due to expire on February 26, Samir agreed to relate his story, not without serious reservations. "What did I do?" he keeps asking.Haaretz