The IDF is in the coffee shop! Again.

The IDF must love coffee. It seems like it's a favourite activity of theirs to go into coffee shops undercover so they can arrest everyone inside.

The new Tulkarem team, who are here for the handover, got a rather dramatic introduction to the city. On their first day, the Israeli military entered the city centre with several jeeps and tanks in the middle of the day looking for a member of Islamic Jihad. They had obviously been tipped off by one of the numerous Palestinian collaborators of his whereabouts.

Life, interrupted
Earlier, four men dressed in normal Palestinian garbs had entered a coffee shop in one of Tulkarem's most busy junctions and ordered four coffees in perfect Arabic. But as soon as the owner walked towards the counter to prepare the coffee, the Israeli undercover agents drew their guns and ordered everyone down on the floor. In an instant, several military vehicles came swarming into the city and out jumped Israeli soldiers with their guns pointing all over the place.

IDF taking over the streets

The jeeps and tanks took strategic positions around the junction, knocking into civilian cars along the way. In order to disperse the watching crowds, the soldiers threw a few sound bombs around, whilst all the time shouting 'wacha, wacha' which is the Hebrew-accented version of 'warra, warra' in Arabic, meaning 'go back'.

Soundbombs

Inside the coffee shop, all the people who were unfortunate enough to have chosen to enjoy their coffee in this particular place, were blindfolded, handcuffed and taken away. Including the owner, Mohammad.

The coffee shop visitors are taken away

Abusing the future
Mohammad is fourteen. Because his father is dead and his elder brother is handicapped, he's responsible for providing for the family. He has quit school and is now running the family's coffee shop. However, age is not an obstacle to the Israelis, as they treat those who are thirteen years and above as adults under military law.

Mohammad was taken to the military compound and separated from the others. He was the last person to be interrogated. The soldiers asked whether he knew the wanted person and what kind of relationship they had. They told him that the wanted person had said that they were friends. Mohammad insisted that their relationship only extended as far as coffee shop owner and regular customer could go. After a while, the interrogation stopped. Then a female soldier came in and beat him in the leg with the shaft of her machine gun. Then they released him and dropped him off far away from the city.

Muhammad

As I listened to Mohammad's story, I wondered what kind of impact this experience would have on him. Comparing Mohammed to what I was like at fourteen - a girl without any significant worries - made it all the clearer to me how conditions and circumstances dictates the lives we lead.