Our activities at the time took place mostly in Yatta. I looked for ways to inflict the maximum number of casualties on the occupation forces in order to avenge my friend's death. The means we used at the time against the occupation were demonstrations and stone throwing. Later on we managed to develop Molotov cocktails, and occasionally, somebody would open fire on some army units, but this was very rare because of the scarcity of firearms at the time. We tried to produce bombs, but we had an accident and one blew up while we were working on it, injuring the hands of one of my friends.
Raed Hadar
4
Violence
Why were you pursued by the Israeli army during the first intifada?
I was pursued for resisting the Israeli occupation. I took part in activities as part of the resistance to the occupation's presence on the streets of my hometown. As a teenager, when I first became aware of the issues around me, like all Palestinian youth, I didn't accept the occupation's presence on our land. We took part in demonstrations and simple resistance measures, which were mostly popular and consistent with the nature of the first intifada, such as throwing stones and going on strike. At the time there were also armed demonstrations, but they were rare. During the final high school exam period I was on my way home with a friend when we came across an Israeli army patrol. A group of us began throwing stones when we saw the jeeps. The stones we threw didn't even make it halfway to the jeeps, but that didn't stop an Israeli soldier from shooting my best friend dead. There was no danger presented to the Israeli soldiers at all, but they still killed him in cold blood. My friend's death greatly saddened me and caused so much pain inside. It drove me to become involved in more violent resistance against the Israelis. My friend was killed beside me when we were on the way home from school. It is hard to come to terms with such an incident. Coping psychologically was not easy at all. This is why I put all my weight behind resisting the occupation. I felt a very deep bitterness toward the Israelis at the time. This marked the beginning of my involvement with organized groups, which were part of Fatah and carried out organized activities against the occupation forces and their presence anywhere in the Palestinian homeland. Our activities at the time took place mostly in Yatta. I looked for ways to inflict the maximum number of casualties on the occupation forces in order to avenge my friend's death. The means we used at the time against the occupation were demonstrations and stone throwing. Later on we managed to develop Molotov cocktails, and occasionally, somebody would open fire on some army units, but this was very rare because of the scarcity of firearms at the time. We tried to produce bombs, but we had an accident and one blew up while we were working on it, injuring the hands of one of my friends. The information eventually reached the Israelis and one person from our group was arrested. After he was tortured in detention he gave up our names and the details of the operations we were planning. They put him under severe physical pressure and took full advantage of his injured hands, so he eventually broke. Armed with the new information, the Israelis tried to arrest us. We managed to get away and were hunted by the occupation for nearly a year. Eventually we were captured, and after being interrogated at length we were put in prison for three years. I attended Bir Zeit University later. Nevertheless, prison was a very important time in my life. It was a personal experience that caused me to understand the nature of the struggle between me and the Israelis and it strengthened my ties with Fatah. This led to my involvement in the organization and its youth movements, especially at Bir Zeit. All of these experiences hadn't changed my view of the conflict and my attitude towards resisting the occupation. I was convinced we had to end the occupation by force and violence because there simply was no other way we could end it. My work became mostly organizational and political after my release from prison. Still, my opinion was that only force and violence could end the occupation. The nature of the occupation and its ugliest crimes confirmed my attitude. A few years later, with the beginning of the second intifada, things started to change. Almost two years into the second intifada my views began to transform.