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Da Shada Barghouti died in the child welfare service’s (barnevernet) residential care facility in Stavanger in 2019, her parents were left with an uneasy feeling. They received no clear answer. Only that the death occurred under strange circumstances. Her grandfather believes she was killed. Even in the West Bank, the reputation of the Norwegian child welfare service has spread.
Watch the press conference live at 16.00:
On 31 August 2019, the Palestinian news agency WAFA published a story written by Ehab Rimawi. It opens with a quotation from Shada:
– When I return home and can be with my family, I will be 17 years old. Then I will complete school and specialise in law, so that I can become a lawyer and bring home my two brothers who are still being held by the child welfare service (barnevernet).
Those were the words Shada used at her last meeting with her parents, nine months earlier. She was permitted to see her parents only twice a year. On those occasions it was forbidden to speak Arabic. The child welfare service wanted control over what the children said.
These details appear in the article, and the reader must wonder: What is the Norwegian child welfare service attempting to conceal?
Shada’s mother Fadia happened to be in the village of Kufr Ein, north-west of Ramallah, on the occasion of Eid, when her husband Yahya appeared unexpectedly. He had remained in Norway, but now came to tell her that their daughter had died under unclear circumstances.
Yahya is from the village of Beit Rama, north-west of Ramallah. In 2002 the village was under curfew. He encountered a roadblock, did not have an identity card that could prove affiliation, and after a month in captivity was expelled to Jordan. His wife Fadia followed.
After a year in Jordan they decided to seek their fortune in another country, and came to Norway, where they became citizens.
The children – Shada, Ahmad and Mohammad – began school and made friends. They lived the life they had come to experience.
The idyll was abruptly torn apart when the child welfare service appeared at the school and took all the children. That was in 2013.
The parents were in shock. They hastened to the police, who informed them that they were unfit to care for the children.
The grandfather Riziq Barghouti disputes this:
– The police took them at school following information that the parents did not treat them properly. But that is not true. The children lived under normal circumstances, like any other family. The parents sacrificed much so that they could have a decent life. That was why they came to Norway.
The parents were permitted to visit their own children only twice a year. This took place under police supervision, at a secret location. The children were also not allowed to speak with their own parents in their mother tongue, Arabic.
The children came under psychological pressure. During one visit, one of the boys attempted to jump from the second floor. He did not thrive with the family with whom he had been placed. This led to his not being allowed to see his parents.
Nine months before she died, Shada and her brothers were optimistic: When she turned 17, she could herself decide with whom she wished to live. It was then that she spoke of the dream of becoming a lawyer and helping her brothers.
Instead came the message of her death.
The grandfather Riziq does not accept it.
– Did someone attack and kill her? How was it possible that she died at a centre whose task was to take care of her?
– We will do everything to get Mohammad and Ahmad back, and when that happens, the family will return to their homeland, after all the tragedies and suffering they have undergone.
The Palestinian ambassador Marie-Antoinette Seidin tells WAFA that the Norwegian police have informed her that Shada was subjected to homicide, but that it was not clear what occurred. They may perhaps receive the answer when the forensic report is available.
Seidin says it is difficult for the Palestinian authorities to do anything, since the family are Norwegian citizens.
The child welfare service (barnevernet) has been criticised both nationally and internationally for the manner in which it performs its duties. The child welfare service has lost several cases before the court in Strasbourg.
This is a reproduction of the article that WAFA published on 31 August 2019.
The group working for clarification of the Shada case is holding a press conference at Litteraturhuset in Oslo today, Thursday, at 16.00. It will be streamed.