From PLO to non-violent activism

“The only way I survived the torture at the hands of the Israeli military was because I heard inside my head the words: ‘Don’t talk – stay alive,’” says Hani Abu Heikel. The words continued repeating in his head through day after day of torture. That was how he kept going.

I spent an evening with Hani Abu Heikel and his family. A former member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hani is now a non-violent peace activist. His home, in the Tul Rumeida area of Hebron, is surrounded by Israeli settlements.

Hani's first wave of activism began when the first settlers arrived here in 1984.

 “The settlers had not started to attack us (physically), but we would wake in the morning to find our garden chairs stolen and our plants cut at the roots. We complained to the Israeli police and they just told us that settlers don’t do anything wrong. I became more and more angry.”

Tensions were rising in the West Bank at this time, almost 20 years after Israel's military occupation began. Hani was a student, and in 1987 he decided to join the PLO, led by the late Yasser Arafat. At around this time, the First Intifada (Palestinian uprising) started to flare up. It was an expression of frustration by a whole generation of Palestinian youth, born under occupation. Hani said he found soul mates in the PLO, people who felt like he did. They all talked about revenge.

Hani’s first arrest was in 1988. “From this time I was detained many times, I was beaten by the Israeli military. They attacked our home. I was becoming angrier,” he says.

By this time, he was a coordinator of the Intifada in Hebron. He and his comrades would warn traders to stop selling Israeli goods and burn the produce if they refused. He says he felt like a hero at that time. But Hani was arrested.

“The Israeli military locked me in a cell on my own for 3 days. I was kept in silence and darkness, except for the few times a day when a soldier opened the 7-centimetre peephole in the door. I shouted and cursed at him to get him to talk to me, but there was only silence.”

Then the interrogation started. Hani said soldiers put a bag over his head and handcuffed his hands behind his back as they beat him towards the interrogation room. The interrogation continued relentlessly. Soldiers would open his cell door every 10 minutes and throw a bucket of water over him. This treatment continued for a month. Israel later admitted its use of torture during the First Intifada.

Hani’s hands were tied to a ceiling for 2 days. Then he was tied to a chair with no back for 3 days, without being allowed to use the bathroom. He was left out in the cold all night in the rain with no clothes. But still he heard in his head: “Don’t talk – stay alive,” over and over again.

The military continued to move him around to other jails and to torture him. But he was let out of solitary confinement and began his studies again - in business, politics, history, Hebrew and English.

“At this time, I was now proud and happy. I did not think I had done any wrong. Most of the prisoners were academics and intellectuals. I was proud; I met my heroes in jail,” he says.

After twenty months, he was finally released. But he subsequently spent several more periods in jail.

One day while he was at home, he and members of his family were watching the TV when they saw a peace activist wearing a sign that said – ‘No occupation.’

"My cousins laughed and said how stupid he was. But I did not laugh. He was surrounded by cameras, and the photos would probably go to at least 15 other countries. Yet every time I was arrested and jailed I was achieving nothing!” says Hani.

This new kind of activism started to occupy his thinking. His first opportunity to practice it came after settlers damaged the water supply to Tel Rumeida. The Israeli military would not allow the Palestinian Municipality to mend the pipes or bring in water by truck.

So Hani decided to hold a community picnic. He contacted the media and nine TV stations arrived to cover the story. The following day, the Israeli army made a wall between the trucks and the settlers to stop the settlers blocking the trucks.

With this success, Hani realized the power of non-violent activism. Later, the peace activist he had seen on TV, Mobarak Awad, invited him to speak at a conference on the subject.

The settlements continue to loom above Hani’s home; his children have very different memories of their childhood. The violence and the attacks by settlers continue, but Hani is no longer an angry and violent man. He is a courageous one.