MEHMET ALI ZEYBEK: “I experienced such a trauma that I couldn’t even remember my daughter”

Mehmet Ali Zeybek — Turkish citizen, pharmacist
(This face-to-face interview was conducted in Diyarbakır, Turkey, on 24 February 2011)

“I felt something like a shock given to me from behind, and suddenly my hands and feet stiffened. Blood was streaming out of my whole body. I had been shot with 9 bullets, but I didn’t even realise that. My right arm was a total mess – a main artery had burst open. I collapsed down the stairwell.”

“The Israeli soldiers cuffed my hands and feet. At the stairs, they ordered me to climb up without uncuffing me. I bended and tried to hold on to the rails with my both hands, but fell flat on my back. They again told me to get up, and I did. They pulled and pushed, and somehow got me back up to the spot from where I had first fallen.”

“The soldiers were constantly firing their weapons. Our friends were falling down one after the other. I saw soldiers shooting at our friends that had fallen down as if they were animals, and kicking all that were shot, all that were touched by gunfire violently with their boots.”

“For me apology and compensation are utterly nonsense. What we want is freedom for Gaza, and more precisely, freedom for Palestine… All we ask for is a free Palestine, not any compensation. They can take their money; in fact, we can pay them for it – no sweat!”

Click the link below to read the full interview

MEHMET ALI ZEYBEK

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