Tag: Prisoner Deal

Photos: Gaza children hold march and candlelight vigil to free Ahmad Sa’adat

19th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Dozens of Palestinian children marched in Gaza Friday evening before holding a candlelight vigil outside the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).

The event was the first in a global week of action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and other Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Sa’adat, an elected PLC member and general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was captured by Israeli forces on 3 March 2006.

During his trial by an Israeli military court, Sa’adat refused to recognize its authority, cooperate with it or answer its questions. On 25 December 2008, it sentenced him to 30 years in prison for leading an organization banned by the Israeli occupation.

The Israeli prison service held Sa’adat in isolation for over three years, from March 2009 – May 2012, releasing him into its general population only to end a a mass hunger strike of more than 2,500 Palestinian detainees from 17 April – 14 May 2012.

An earlier mass hunger strike against isolation, led by Sa’adat from 25 September – 18 October 2011, ended with the prisoner swap that freed 1,047 Palestinian political prisoners in exchange for an Israeli prisoner of war.

Protests and other events demanding his release, coordinated worldwide by the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat, will continue through 26 October.

International Women’s Peace Service meet with prisoner released in Shalit deal

26 December 2011 | International Women’s Peace Service

The 18th of December was a day of reunion and celebration for many in Palestine. Following a tense wait, several delays and tear-gas attacks by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on their waiting families, 550 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli jails to be reunited with their families and friends. SH was one of these lucky few exchanged for the IOF soldier Gilad Shalit – many thousands of Palestinian political prisoners remain imprisoned.

Eight years previously, during the Second Intifada, SH – a 27 year old villager of Kifl Haris – had been imprisoned for his political activities against the occupation. He was a member of the Fateh political party and was involved in organising resistance. We spoke to him on 26thDecember, 8 days after his release, in a room full of his family and friends, who were still gathering to celebrate. The house was festooned in flags, bunting and the celebratory poster published by Fateh on his release.

He told us that in 2002, a warrant was put out for his arrest. Whilst he managed to evade the Israeli authorities for a year and a half by moving around regularly, in November 2003 they caught up with him, arresting him at the house of a friend. He told us how he was taken to an Israeli interrogation centre and held for questioning for two months – here he said that the physical and psychological torture began from the first moment he arrived.

For the first seventeen days, SH said that he was held in solitary confinement – seeing only one policeman and his interrogator. He only found out how long he had been held afterwards, as his cell had no windows, meaning he had no concept of night and day. The disorientation was compounded by enforced sleep deprivation – he would be woken by the guard every time he managed to fall asleep, or he would be tied to a chair, the discomfort making sleep almost impossible. He recalled occasions when he had not been allowed to sleep for 5 days or more and how he came to consider one or two hours hours of sleep a luxury. These tactics are internationally considered as torture, and are a well known method of exhausting and confusing prisoners to extract confessions.

He then told us how he was also beaten during his interrogations – hit, kicked and beaten with sticks. SH was unwilling to go a lot of detail, the memories must be painful, and his elderly mother was present. During this time he was asked many questions about his involvement with the Fateh movement, his friends and co-party members and his actions against the occupation. He was regularly asked to sign a document in Hebrew which he was told was a confirmation of the statements he had made under interrogation. Each time he refused – requesting a translation into Arabic – the mistreatment would continue. On the 18thday, he was removed from solitary confinement and allowed to socialise with some other prisoners. However, he told us that Palestinian collaborators with the Israeli forces are common in these interrogation centres and – unsure who was friend and who foe – this was the time when he felt most at risk. He said that he had known other prisoners to be killed by collaborators.

On the 20th day, the Red Cross were allowed to visit – although as SH was aware of the presence of so many collaborators, this made him suspect that they may not truly have been Red Cross representatives, but he cannot be sure. What he does know is that a letter to his family did not arrive for a further three months, during which time they had no idea whether he was in hiding and unable to contact them, or whether he had been arrested. When the Red Cross letter eventually arrived, they were naturally devastated- “it was catastrophic – nothing is more sad than this” said SH’s brother.

After the two months of interrogation, SH signed a document which had finally been translated into Arabic. Although the information written on the form was true, he alleged that this information was not in fact what he was eventually charged on in court. However, he had a long wait until he was to find this out – the 23rd of January 2004 was his initial court hearing date. This was delayed for three months, and then delayed a further 7 times – It was over two years later that his hearing actually went ahead.

When the trial eventually occurred, SH says it was a farce. When we asked whether he considered his trial to have been fair, the whole room laughed – “everyone knows they are not fair trials” he said, still laughing. His lawyer was assigned by the Israeli government and he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, for attempted murder and organising resistance to the occupation – “they didn’t listen to the evidence, they just decided from what was in their heads” claims SH. Palestinians are sentenced in Israeli military courts rather than civilian, which have been found to rarely comply with international standards of fair trials.

During his sentence he was moved regularly – he remembers maybe four or five different prisons and life was difficult. The fact that he was held in prisons within Israel proper is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states that “Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein” – SH was both detained and served his sentence outside of Occupied Palestine.

When asked about living conditions, SH commented darkly that if we wished to know what conditions were like in Israeli prisons, we need only spend a week there. He and his family stated that if he needed five new items of clothing, one would be permitted, and parcels of clothes from his family regularly did not arrive. The food was apparently neither healthy nor sufficient, and was not allowed to be supplemented by offerings from his family. The living space was shared with 10-12 men, all political prisoners. Because of this, SH says that the reputation that Israeli prisons have for being like a university for Palestinian prisoners is true – having not completed high school previously, SH did so during his time in prison, as well as completing two years of a Political Science degree. Without their freedom, the prisoners turned to books and political debate.

Communication with the outside world was very limited – whilst in theory, family visits were permitted every two weeks, they would regularly be delayed, cancelled or permission would not be granted – when they did go ahead, only one member of the family, SH’s mother, was allowed to visit, and even this was only once every two months at the most.

Tragically, SH’s older brother died whilst he was in prison, in a car accident with an Israeli settler. He told us he was permitted a five minute telephone call – making it impossible to speak to all of his thirteen brothers, four sisters, his parents and many other family members that he desperately wished to have contact with at such a hard time. Letters would take five months to reach his family, if at all, and then a return letter from them would take just as long. Eventually they gave up writing.

Life was also not easy for those who were left behind. Three of his brothers had previously found work within Israel. After SH’s arrest, they were denied the permits that they needed to do so, leaving them without work. This was apparently “for security reasons”, but is a clear form of collective punishment – illegal under international law.

His fiance, to whom he had been engaged before he was arrested, was left in limbo, unsure whether they would ever be able to start their lives together as they had planned. But she waited for his release, and happily their wedding is now planned for this summer.

His mother said that her son’s release was more than the joy of many, many weddings (although naturally she is still looking forward to his!). She and the whole family were relieved and overjoyed when they saw his name on the list of prisoners to be released – published online 4 days before the fact. They had been disappointed in the first half of the Gilad Shalit deal, but had held onto hope. SH himself only discovered that he was to be released 3 days before he was taken to Ramallah and met by his family.

He says that he will continue to be involved in politics and the fight against Palestinian oppression and occupation by Israel.

Names removed for privacy of those involved. For further information please get in touch with International Women’s Peace Service (www.iwps.info) on palhouse@iwps-pal.org or 0597317193

“Like the Wild West:” Ex-prisoner lives with bounty on his head

by Alistair George

13 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement West Bank

“I see my situation as a cowboy film, like the wild west” says Hani Jaber, showing ISM a poster, written in Arabic saying: ‘Wanted: if anyone has any information about the whereabouts of the killer Hani Jaber, please call us on this number and you will receive a reward.’

The number goes through to an answer machine where the message instructs callers to leave a phone number, promising to guarantee confidentiality and to pay good money. Other leaflets have been handed out showing pictures of Jaber and other recently released prisoners, offering rewards for information and leaflets for soldiers so that they can alert settlers if Hani passes through a checkpoint. Reports in the Israeli media suggest that the reward is $100,000 for information on Hani’s whereabouts.

After serving eighteen years of a life sentence, Hani was released from prison on 18 December 2011, as part of the prisoner exchange deal which saw 477 Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006.

In 1993, Hani, 18 years old at the time, took a kitchen knife and stabbed to death the settler Erez Shmuel, who Hani claims had attacked his nine year old sister as she came come from school. Hani’s rage had built as he and his family experienced frequent attacks by settlers over many years. Hani had his jaw broken during an attack by four settlers, on another occasion his leg was fractured. His cousin, Aziza Jaber, was shot and killed by a settler as she was in labour and on her way to hospital – she was 30 at the time.

Hani was sentenced to life imprisonment and was kept in isolation for a total of five years. He spent two years without seeing his family – the only person who could visit relatively regularly was his mother; his father only got permission around once a year to visit and he has a brother which he didn’t see for 18 years.

Despite his prison term, Hani looks strong and healthy, his beard neatly trimmed and hair carefully side-parted. He seems calm and relaxed as we talk in a quiet corner in a nondescript café in Hebron. However, Hani and his father, Rasami, are careful to sit with their backs to the wall where they can see the layout of the shop. Rasami has rarely left his son’s side since his release from prison. “It’s a very difficult time, I’m afraid to leave him in case something happens – I stay with him or his brother stays with him to protect him.”

“I take the situation seriously” says Hani – “I don’t give any opportunities to anybody. I believe that I won’t lose my happiness with my freedom but I should be afraid sometimes…I don’t have any weapons or anything to protect myself, I only feel safe when I am with my family”.

When he was released from prison, Hani was given clearance to travel anywhere in the West Bank. However, a few days after his release, the police gave him a verbal order that he had to remain in Hebron for his own safety and that he had to sign in with the DCO (District Coordinators Office) every two months. But Hani says that his confinement to Hebron makes him feel like he is living under huge pressure in a “big jail” and is more vulnerable from attacks.

He says that his primary fear is from Palestinian collaborators rather than from settlers or soldiers. He is also fearful for his family, who have been attacked by settlers many times since his release.

Hani Jaber lives in secret location in Hebron for his own safety, it is too dangerous for him to return to his family’s home in Wadi Al-Hussain, a valley situated on the edge of Hebron’s old city. Their house faces Kiryat Arba, an illegal Israeli settlement of around 7,000 people, a few hundred metres away on the opposite side of the valley.

The Jaber family’s house has always been a focus of attacks by settlers, due to its proximity to the settlement. However, the attacks have escalated since it was announced that Hani would be released from prison. The house was attacked on the day of his release and Ibtisam Jaber, 33, Hani’s sister-in-law, was beaten and suffered a miscarriage three days later.

“The settlers came and attacked the house. Ibtisam lost her baby, nobody else was here because we were celebrating [Hani’s release]” said Moutasem Jaber, 21 – Hani’s brother.

On 19 November 2011 thousands of Israeli settlers and Zionists crowded into Hebron for Shabbat Chaye Sarah – celebrating Abraham’s biblical purchase of land on the site of the Ibrahimi Mosque. The family experienced a surge in attacks; they were attacked around 10 times – at one point there was over 100 settlers outside the house. They threw stones, urinated in the family’s well, and chanted “We will kill you” outside the house. The soldiers responded by entering the house and forcing the family to stay in one room for seven hours.

According to Hani, the family’s shop has been attacked and the house has been attacked at least seven times since his release. The Jaber family have reported the attacks and the threats to kill Hani to the police but they don’t expect any action to be taken.

“The government does not do anything against the settlers,” said Hani. They also say that the Palestinian Authority is unable to offer any kind of protection to Hani and his family.

“My case is not the only one” says Hani – “Many people have the same pressure. There are much harassment to all Palestinians – even if you’re not resisting and no settlers have been arrested after they harassed my family. They have evidence against them but the Israeli government will not do anything.”

Now that he has been released, does Hani think he can ever have a normal life with the death threats hanging over him and a bounty on his head?

“I’m not a terrorist, I didn’t do anything wrong and I think that I deserve to live a normal life, to get an education, to get married and to live like normal people” he replied “but now after all this harassment from the settlers I’m afraid to get married because I will destroy someone else’s life.” Hani says that if he was to study or work it would be a huge risk to take at the present time.

Even considering the brutal attacks that his family has faced from settlers, does he not think in hindsight that his actions were wrong? Does he have any regrets?

“I believe that I haven’t done anything wrong, and I have the right to live a normal life, and I have the right to be a fighter if there is an occupation in Palestine. With all the attacks from settlers it makes people react and to fight and resist – this is the normal thing, it’s not normal to sit and do nothing.”

But does he still believe that this is the most effective way to resist?

“At that time I was 18 years old, it was impossible to take all this darkness from the Israelis except in this way. Even after 18 years in the prison I see that the settlements are larger, the occupation is stronger and everything is getting worse. I believe that I did the right thing at the time but now I want to live as a normal person. I believe that I have to stay in one place, and that is the only resistance I can do because I think the fighting time is over.”

Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

In Exile: Families relate stories of prisoner exiles

by Alistair George

10 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Although Palestinian prisoners endure harsh conditions in Israeli prisons, including and physical and psychological torture, their families are also severely punished through the policies of the Israeli authorities.

The prisoner release deal brokered between Hamas and the Israeli authorities saw the release of 477 Palestinian ‘security’ prisoners on 18 October 2011 (with a further 550 to be released in a second phase thought to be in December) in exchange for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas in 2006.

The joy experienced by many of the prisoners and their families was tempered by the fact that many prisoners from the West Bank were released but sent into exile. Of the 477 Palestinian prisoners released, at least 40 were sent abroad toTurkey, Syria or Qatar; 18 were sent toGaza or abroad for a period of three years, whilst 146 were forcibly relocated toGaza on a permanent basis away from their homes.

According to a joint statement by prisoner rights group Addameer and legal rights group Al-Haq, “These terms violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits forcible transfers and deportations of protected persons, a proscription that is part of customary international humanitarian law. Unlawful deportation or transfer also constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention (GC IV) and qualifies as one of the most serious war crimes. Given the stark asymmetry in power, resulting from the belligerent occupation, between the Palestinian and Israeli parties involved, neither the potential “consent” of the prisoners nor the fact that the deal was negotiated by a Palestinian authority can serve as justification for the deportations as this contravenes the spirit of articles 7, 8 and 47 of the GC IV concerning the inviolability of the protections afforded by the Convention.”

Addameer’s director, Saher Francis, notes that, as Gaza has been hermetically sealed off by Israel, the release of the prisoners “effectively serves as an extension of their previous isolation from their homeland and families and in many cases can be seen as a second prison sentence.”

Families of the prisoners spoke of their mixed feelings about the release and exile of their loved ones and revealed their fears and hopes for their family members.

The Assab family, Hebron

Ahmad Abu Assab, 18, spoke of his father Ataiah Assab, 47, who has been released after serving 18 years in prison and sent to Gaza City.

He was a member of the Hamas movement and he participated in three operations to kill Israelis, though he did not directly kill anyone. I was five months old at the time of his arrest. For the last two years I couldn’t visit him in prison, before that I visited him maybe around once every 2 months. When I heard he was being released I was very happy but when we heard he was going to be sent to Gaza our happiness was not complete. I was upset. They didn’t mention for how many years he has been sent to Gaza, I think they are making an example of him or testing him.

Ahmad was able to visit his father on his release, travelling through Jordan and Egypt to reach Gaza.

I hadn’t seen him for two years and when I met him I burst into tears. We hugged and kissed, and my father also cried. My father was in jail for 18 years and it was the first time I had touched him since I was five months old. I spent 13 days in Gaza with my father, but in Egypt I was detained for 2 days and they interrogated me – I didn’t tell them why I was going to Gaza.

Ahmad has two sisters and a brother and described the impact of Ataiah’s imprisonment.

Our family missed the pillar in our lives, someone who used to solve our problems, with whom we could share our problems, or give us advice – no one can replace your father, not even your uncle. Your father should be sharing your life and supporting the family, so it was hard. In spite of that we were steady and looked forward to the future. My mother divorced him whilst he was in jail 10 years ago. We haven’t seen her for 6 years – we don’t know if she is married or where she is. Our grandparents and uncles looked after me. But now my father will marry a girl in Gaza– his friends in Gaza have found a girl for him.

Despite being absent for nearly his entire life, Ahmad insists he bears no anger or resentment towards his father. “I am proud of my father for what he did but for some people, the resistance is not good. Some Palestinians think the resistance is useless and they don’t care.”

He says that his father will adapt well to life in Gaza. “My father knows some people who used to have a business with him before he was arrested – traders and businessmen. He is waiting for a job – we will open a branch of this shop [a toyshop in Herbon’s old city] in Gaza! He has to rest for 4-5 months, and after that he can start work.”

Despite the pain of exile, Ahmad says that his father is bearing up well.

“My father is happy to be released -Gaza is better than jail! Anything is better than jail.”

Al-Natsheh family, Hebron

Arafat Al-Natsheh, 39, was imprisoned in 1994 for participating in the Palestinian resistance in Hamas. His brother, Chaban, 37, says “he participated in three operations in Hebron in which three settlers were killed, but he didn’t directly kill anyone.”

When asked why he thought his brother was exiled to Gaza, Chaban replied, “Hamas wants to send as many prisoners as possible back to their homes but Israel wants to send as many as possible outside. The Israeli government wants to look better in front of the Israeli people.” Chaban suggested that as Gaza is a closed area, Israeli may think it is safer to send released prisoners there.

There is no time limit [on his exile] he will stay there until something changes” said Chaban, “When they were in prison it was like they were already deported, inside the jail there was really hard punishment. ButGazais part ofPalestine, they [the released prisoners] will start their lives there again; they will get married and choose to start another life. I wish they could come home [toHebron] but what can we do? Nothing. It’s better than being inside the jail!

Nevertheless, Chaban worries that life in Gaza will be hard for his brother. “For a prisoner who’s spent 18 years in jail it will be very difficult to start his life there, he will be completely confused. But he will start his life, he will forget politics, he will start looking for work but he will need time first to adjust. The first thing he will do is look for a wife. I will visit him if I get the chance.” Chaban’s mother and some of his siblings (there are five sons and seven daughters in the family) have visited him, travelling through Jordan and Egypt to reach Gaza.

Chaban said, “When I heard the news [that he would be released] I couldn’t believe it. I was so happy, but I couldn’t relax until he was actually released. I was always worried that something would change.”

Chaban was not allowed to visit his brother in prison – he had spent a year in jail himself and was denied visits for “security reasons.” He spoke to his brother once on the phone after their father had died. “[When he was released] I spoke to him on the phone and I had such strong feelings, but it is nothing like when you can touch someone and hug him,” said Chaban. “My mother is very old and she is ill – she has very high blood pressure. Whenever she got any news of my brother, like if there was a hunger strike, her health deteriorated. But when he was released, my mother said she felt like she could climb 1001 stairs!”

Chaban has a high opinion of the exchange deal.

It was great because my brother was also released. I wished for Shalit to be released and to go to his family because Shalit also had a mother and father waiting for him for 5 years. We know what it’s like to wait for the release of your son, so we understand Shalit’s family and how they feel. I wish all the Palestinian prisoners could be released in normal circumstances – without killing, or kidnapping soldiers. If there is no prisoners I don’t think the resistance would kidnap soldiers. I hope thatIsraellets the prisoners have a normal life now. Arafat has been punished – now let him have a normal life.

The Qafishih family, Hebron

Ala’a Qafishih was released after serving 8 years of a 30 year sentence. Ala’a’s family attempted to visit him in Gaza but the Israeli government prevented them from reaching Jordan. His father Mohammed says, “We have talked to him by phone– he says he is happy but at the same time he wishes the be in Hebron. He wants his wife and kids to be with him.”

Mohammad said, “Gaza’ s government welcomed him, they arranged some place to stay and the Hamas government is going to give each prisoner an apartment. Ala’a is very sociable and likes to meet people, and he’ll make friends easily there.”

Mohammed continues,

I was upset because I heard he was being released but sent toGaza. But I feel glad that they released him and I was surprised that he was released at all. I feel like it is now us who is in jail now he has been released but we can’t see him. They didn’t give any reason or explanation for why he was sent toGaza. Maybe because he was arrested many times before, so maybe it was a kind of punishment.

Ala’a is married and has a 12 year old son and a 7 year old daughter. His wife, Manal, said that her plan is “to take the children and move to Gaza to be with my husband. But the Israelis won’t let me go.”

Ala’a was imprisoned for participating in a group which was foiled in its attempt to carry out a bombing inIsrael. Despite this, the family insists they are proud of Ala’a.

“I only feel proud about what my son did,” said Mohammed. “I feel proud of anyone that resists the Israeli occupation, no matter what their political party. As Palestinians, we live in an unjust situation and we are supposed to fight the occupation in any way. We never thought he would be released, but thanks be to God he was. I wish the same for the other prisoners.”

The Wazwaz family, Hebron

Moussa Wazwaz, 29, was in prison for 8 years. He has three brothers and three sisters and is not married.

His mother Khowla describes her feelings at the circumstances of her son’s release. “Something hurt in my heart when I heard he would be sent to Gaza.”

Moussa had been serving a 792 year sentence (8 life sentences) as he was charged for his role in killing Israelis, a charge that he and his family has always denied. “I expected that all the family would die and he would stay in the jail” said Khowla.

The family says they have not attempted to visit him yet but they will try soon. Moussa’s brother Mohammed said, “There are two ways to get to Gaza– the first is to get permission and go through Israel to get to Gaza. The second is to go through Jordan,Egypt and Rafah to Gaza. We worry that they will stop us – there are a lot of families who have been prevented from going.” Kowla added, “When I met him [in prison] my son was like a lost person. So imagine how I will feel when I see him in front of me and feel him in my arms.”

Khowla worries what life will be like for him in Gaza. “He doesn’t know anyone there, there is no family, no friends. Our family doesn’t know anything about Gaza. It’s in God’s hands. We want him to have a normal life, a good life. We don’t know why he was sent there, Israel will fight to send all prisoners toGaza, it’s a kind of punishment.”

When Moussa’s father died he was 10 years old, so he had to start work, to sell products in the city centre. Mohammed went to Ramallah to study and “Moussa just kept working and studying” said Khowla. “He brought money to the whole family. He was everything in this house.”

Moussa’s younger brother Iyad, 22, is keen to talk about Moussa’s character.

“There are 8 years between me and Moussa. When I was a little boy he treated me in a very gentle way and as a friend, even when I was going to work with him. My brother had a very special character, he is a really unique guy.”

Iyad does consider the change in his brother after a prison sentence. “Sure he’s changed but I think he has changed for the better. He was jailed when he was 19 for 14 months – he could study in jail,and he came out better educated.”

His brother Mohammed is angry about the way the exchange deal was covered in the media. “When Gilad Shalit was arrested all the world knew about him. My brother has been released but there are still a lot of prisoners inside and a lot of people will be arrested in the future. Nothing will change. Always there is hope, but Shalit is one person and there are thousands of Palestinian prisoners. This family was suffering a lot and we don’t want another family just to keep suffering. Where is the world? The world started to talk about Gilad Shalit – when will they start to talk about our prisoners?”

Circumstances of arrest

The manner in which Palestinian suspects are arrested by the Israeli security forces is often a terrifying ordeal for the prisoner and their family.

Khowla Wazwaz recounts the night when her son Moussa was arrested.

It was around 6pm, it was raining. The soldiers surrounded the house and started to throw sounds bombs. When Moussa went outside – every gun has a laser – it was like there were hundreds of laser dots on his body. They asked him to remove all his clothes. They threw him this [a jumpsuit]. He took it and after that they arrested him. After that they told me to go inside and turn all the lights on and open all the windows. They entered the house and they started to check it.

They took my other sons and put them in another shop and Moussa in a different shop. After that they started to interrogate me – he asked me ‘Where does Moussa go, when does he come back.’ All these questions. I told him everything I knew but he told me ‘Look, the soldiers are beating him, so tell me where the gun is.’ I said ‘He doesn’t have any gun.’ I was interrogated for 3 or 4 hours. I heard someone screaming ‘Mother, mother!’ from the next room. I don’t know if they were beating Moussa or not, I think that perhaps it was someone acting.”

After that he told me, ‘You have been a widow since 1993, and you built this house. But now we are going to demolish it.’ They destroyed the inside of the house. We have a library in the house – they started to open fire [with live ammunition] at the books, they destroyed the computer and took the hard drive.”

Khowla has kept the spent bullet casings and a white jumpsuit thrown on the ground as mementoes; “We keep these just to remember that time.”

Amer Ahmad Al-Qwasmah, 45, was released as part of the exchange deal on 18 October 2011, after serving 23 years in prison for his part in a PFLP operation to kill an Israeli man in Jerusalem in 1987. He says, “I used to live in Jerusalem and came back to Hebron once a week to visit my parents. One day I was visiting my parents and the Israelis came to the home and they arrested me. They demolished the house, and they prevented my parents from building a new house until the PA [Palestinian Authority] was established here in 1997. This was common at the time.”

Mohammed Qafishih recalls that after his son Ala’a was arrested,

The Israeli army tried to demolish the home but it was almost like a miracle prevented it from happening. They arranged the dynamite but something happened and the Israeli army had to leave – [in that time] we got a lawyer to represent us and they managed to stop the demolition.” Mohammed says that the arrest was a traumatic experience for the family; “The Israeli army and intelligence arrived around 3am in the morning, they tried to destroy the main door – they gathered all of us and they started searching the house. They turned everything upside down, it took a long time to clean it up.

In a speech given in Jerusalem last month, newly released prisoner Ibrahim Mish’al recounted his arrest.

I was captured on the 28 March 1990. The Israelis entered my house with explosives and dogs; they didn’t care about the fact that there were children in the house. My son was two years old then and my daughter was one years old. My wife was three months pregnant. It was really horrifying for them and my daughter couldn’t speak for one year afterwards. I will never forget those moments or the look on my family’s faces when the whole house, the walls, everything, was demolished.

At the same event, Nasser Abed Rabbo said,

I was arrested from my house and they destroyed everything in the house. I was handcuffed and blindfolded. My arrest was not usual, I was not taken straight from my house to the police car; they took me through several neighbourhoods in my village, a very long distance, almost 2km, in order for the people in the village to see. I was hit repeatedly on the head and everyone saw me bleeding. I think the purpose of this was to make me an example for any other person who tries to resist occupation.

Denial of family visiting rights

The restrictions in place on Palestinians attempting to visit family members in Israeli jails often constitutes a form of psychological abuse and punishment for the families.

Chaban Al-Natsheh spoke of his frustration at being denied visits to see his brother, Arafat, in prison

Normally, the family should be able to visit every 15 days but there are problems with getting permission. My mother would get permission sometimes every 2 months, sometimes every 5 or 6 months. My other brothers would often get permission to visit only once a year. I couldn’t visit my brother at all in jail – I spent one year in jail – I was denied permission for ‘security reasons’. It was a really hard but this was destiny and I had to face it.

Chaban claimed that it was also extremely difficult to communicate with his brother by phone;

When people are given long sentences the military is very worried about them and they are not allowed phones. For people sentenced to 2, 3, or 5 years it is different; they have phones and they call their families all the time. But my brother could hardly ever call, I spoke to him just once – he was allowed one call when our father died. My brother started to talk but I couldn’t answer, I was so shocked, it was such a long time since I’d spoken to him.

Manal Qafishih was often denied visits to see her husband Ala’a,

There weren’t regular times to visit Sometimes it used to be every four months, sometimes every six months. They often refused to allow me and the family to visit my husband for ‘security reasons’ – this is all they would say. Family visits with the Red Crescent should be every 18 days. When we could visit, we were supposed to have 45 minutes but sometimes it was only for 30 minutes. It’s difficult to find the words to express how hard it is. During the visiting itself, you lose your dignity – they search you naked, they make you wait a long time – all this is routine.”

The Israeli authorities only allowed Ala’a’s brothers to visit him once during his eight-year incarceration, although his sisters were granted permission more freely. Manal says that “When they refuse someone to visit, they start with someone very close – if the prisoner is married they refuse the wife permission to visit, like they did with me. If they are not married, they refuse his mother permission. So it was easier for his sisters to visit than it was for me.”

In the first year of his sentence, no one was able to visit him – only the lawyer. We couldn’t even talk to him on the phone. There are many radio stations here inHebronand there are special programs, like ‘A Message for the Prisoners by the Families’ so we can say hello and pass messages, this was one of the ways to keep in touch, if prisoners are able to listen to the radio station. Another way to keep in touch is by the Red Crescent post but it is limited. You have to only write a few words, without an envelope. Ala’a used to send some letters from the jail but it used to take a long time.They put Ala’a in isolation two or three times – the last time he was in isolation for more than 100 days. Our only connection with him was through the lawyer, who only visited him once in 100 days. The problem is to visit him now he is in Gaza.

Khowla Wazwaz was often denied permission to see her son Moussa in prison and the family was frequently subjected to ill treatment during attempts to visit him.

I couldn’t get permission to see him [in prison] for the first year; I wasn’t even allowed to call him. After he was sentenced I could visit him and talk to him. To visit him we were leaving Hebron at 5AM to the Red Crescent, from there we take a bus and go to the prison checkpoint. In that time we were checked in a very bad way – if the soldiers feel like you have something strange then they check you in a closed room and often do strip searches. If you have food with you and it is not Israeli they will throw it away. If you take water and it’s frozen, they will throw it away. Once I brought stuffed olive leaves and they just smashed them. During the winter they don’t care about old men or women, many times women had jackets on during the winter and they told them to remove it outside.

We had 45 minute visits. Sometimes every 2 weeks, sometimes once a month, sometimes longer. Once I went to visit my son and I reached the prison they said that he was in a special truck in the prison waiting to be transferred, so I asked to see him. They refused and told me to leave. The Red Crescent sends the names to the Israelis and after that they give permission, so the Israelis knew that I was coming to visit.

We could send clothes and books but under really strict conditions. It was not permitted to send trousers with pockets, so I removed the pockets but they still refused!” Khowla has a suitcase full of clothes and books that she wanted to give to Moussa – “I tried many times to send these things. The authorities always lied and tried to confuse us – if you take black clothes they say ‘no – clothes have to be grey’. They wanted to make us suffer as much as we could. Now, if prisoners want clothes they have to buy them from the prison and they are very expensive. If you want to send a book they will check it and if you’ve directly written anything yourself in the book they will not accept it. I tried for three years to send some books but I couldn’t, they kept returning them. They’re religious books not political – how you should pray. I managed to send him just two or three books when he was in prison.

Mohammed added that, “It’s forbidden to send cologne to prisoners, so we sprayed it on books or clothes and tried to send it that way!”

Moussa’s brother Mohammed says that, “All the brothers and sisters were refused permission at first by the Israelis to visit our brother because of ‘security reasons.’ There is no real reason but they say ‘security reasons’ and that’s it. If we knew some prisoners visiting the same jail then we asked them to ask about him –if he needed clothes or anything like that.”

Eventually the restrictions were slightly relaxed; in six years Mohammed visited twice, his brother Iyad visited once and Fahed, another brother couldn’t visit at all. Moussa’s sisters were able to visit three or four times.

Mohammed is angry at the family’s treatment by the Israeli authorities. “If Moussa did something wrong, he got punished in the jail. But why punish all the family? Why did we not get permission to visit him? They don’t just punish the prisoner they punish all the family with him.”

Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

An interview with Amer Ahmad Al-Qwasmah, former prisoner

by Alistair George

23 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Amer Ahmad Al-Qwasmah, 45, was released on 18 October 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange deal that saw 477 Palestinian prisoners (with 550 to be released at a further time, thought to be in December) in exchange for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006. Al-Qwasmah served 23 years in prison after being convicted of resistance within the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).

ISM: What were you convicted of?

Qwasmah: I belonged to a military group and I participated in an operation in 1987, several months before the intifada started, to kill an Israeli man in Jerusalem. It was because we were under occupation. We thought it was a civilian but after he had been killed the Israeli’s announced he was an air-force pilot. It was in the street in the Old City. He was shot….it was just chance [random]…there were five people in my group; two are still in prison – one still has eight months and the other has four more years.

ISM: Can you describe your arrest and what happened afterwards?

For more on Hebron's solidarity with prisoners during their strike, click here

Qwasmah: I used to live in Jerusalem and came back toHebrononce a week to visit my parents. One day I was visiting my parents and they [Israeli security] came to the home and they arrested me. They demolished the house and they prevented my family from building a new building until the PA [Palestinian Authority] started operating here in 1997. This was common at the time.

They took me to Muscovia interrogation centre in Jerusalem. It is used as a detention place, for interrogation and as a prison. After 13 days my lawyer came to see me and I was naked…there were wounds and cuts all over the back [from being beaten]….they [the Israeli security forces] put me on a small chair, 3cm above the ground, and your hands and feet are handcuffed to the chair [in a very uncomfortable position] so that you can’t move. They also handcuff your hand to the ground for several hours [forcing you to crouch] and then they let you change position and sometimes an investigator comes and makes you stand on tip-toes.

Another kind of interrogation [technique] is that they send you to the freezer – this is unique toHebron. They put you in a very cold room and put you in a small chair and handcuff your hands to the chair and the chair to the ground to make sure you can’t move. They put a very bad-smelling cloth, worn by other prisoners, over your head and face. There are no holes to see or breathe through and they put me in this situation for 20 hours.

ISM: What happened after the period of interrogation?

Qwasmah: They sent me to Ramle jail, inIsrael. We decided to not go to court, we refused to sit in the court, so we were judged [in absentia] even though we weren’t there. My sentence was forever – 999, 999, 999 years! They intend to keep you for that long in the freezer. For civilians, a life sentence is for 25 years and they usually serve 15 or 15 years and then they’re released. I accepted this life because I carried a message – I was a fighter and in the resistance and I knew the consequences of resisting the occupation. I knew [when I joined the resistance] that I might be killed or spend my life in jail. But I always thought if I would be jailed, then one day I would be released.

ISM: What were the conditions like after you were sentenced?

Qwasmah: Prison is a lot of suffering, the suffering has got worse after 2003; when Ariel Sharon was prime minister he wanted to punish prisoners more and more. Each year was more complicated and there was more suffering – they prevented relatives visiting, they made us pay fines (like 500 shekels). They count prisoners three times a day, in the morning, around noon and the evening – if you are 2 minutes late for counting, then maybe they wouldn’t let your parents visit you, or you have to pay a fine, or they sent you to a tiny isolation cell. It is common for them to ignore you when you need medical treatment. They also strip search parents and family coming to visit you – imagine what that is like for a woman. It is not humanitarian behaviour [it is humiliating] when they ask a woman to remove all her clothes for security reasons and they make them wait for several hours until they bring you to see them.

For around 10-12 years they didn’t let my brothers or sisters visit me due to ‘security concerns’. They didn’t let my mother visit me for 1 1/2 years – they tried to say we weren’t related but she is my mother! That happened with lots of prisoners. The Shabak [Israeli security] use it as part of their psychological torture and the interrogation; if they say ‘no’, the Red Cross can’t do anything.

They [the prison authorities] physically tortured me. They used to put us in a room with around 7cm of water on the floor, so we couldn’t stay comfortable in the room. Sometimes they made us stay a day and sometimes a few hours. They killed prisoners [by torture] – Mustafa Al-Qaawi was a doctor who went to study in Romania, when he got back to Palestine he was arrested, interrogated and killed – they put him on the roof of the military building in Hebron and the weather was cold, it was snowing at that time. He died from the cold.

One prisoner was arrested in 1996 and he has been in isolation since that time. Another prisoner was in isolation since 1995 and was even in isolation during hunger strike. One prisoner from Gaza was kept in isolation for 20 years and now he can’t communicate with anyone, not even his family. Isolation is a slow-death. They isolated me for eight months – with one other person in a small room. They said that I tried to smuggle mobile phones into prison – I didn’t do it. There was no heating. I didn’t see my parents for 8 months.

Access to news did not used to exist in jail, like many things – like books. When I was in jail I participated in different hunger strikes for different demands. One of these demands was for the media – for newspapers and for books. Only recently can you get TV in prison but now the channels are limited, there are mainly Israeli or Russian channels allowed because Israel controls the satellite… the newspapers are Israeli and in Hebrew and you have to subscribe.

The Oslo agreement [signed in 1993] affected the daily life in prison. The Prisoners Committee was very strong [before the agreement] – there were schools and universities inside the jail. But after the Oslo agreement, some of the prisoners started acting as if they were released from prison already. Israel brought us papers and told us to sign these papers and they would release us – to say that we support the Oslo agreement but we [the PFLP] were against this agreement so we refused to sign. Four or five times they demanded we sign this paper and we kept refusing. Some Fatah prisoners signed and thought they would be released and starting cancelling the political meetings and they even burned some political booklets because they said ‘we are released!’ but the shock came to them when Israel refused. This affected the situation of the prisoners. The people who were released were mainly short-term prisoners or they were criminals – in prison for drugs. Not many political prisoners – only the short-termers.

In prison we used to play sport, especially in the morning – it used to be one hour a day but after some hunger strikes it was changed to four hours a day. We also used to have political meetings and discussions. We had official political meetings around twice a week and we often discussed some books or some poets. The Israelis could listen but they don’t care. In the beginning [of my jail term] it was forbidden for the prisoners to read books, or newspapers, or watch TV and have meetings – but the history of resistance, the hunger strikes were a strategic weapon that we used to resist and to survive in Israeli jail. Even pens and paper used to be forbidden– prisoners would write on toilet paper.

ISM: How did you deal with this treatment?

Qwasmah: I am a representative of the resistance and even though there was a lot of torture I coped. I was strong and showed them the power of the resistance – maybe that’s why them kept torturing me more and more to break me and my psychological health. I still suffer from health problems in my stomach and my back – just today I was in the hospital for my colon problem and problems with my digestion. This happened because of the interrogation.

In prison they use Acamol for everything; headaches, stomach problems – anything. The prisoners used to joke about it and call it the ‘magic medicine’. My interrogation and torture was for around 15 days but because it was very intense it felt like two years.

ISM: What was it like to hear that you would be released?

Qwasmah: I didn’t care that my name was on the list, I could have checked but I didn’t. I found out just six days before I was released. These six days were difficult – for the last 24 years I had always been welcoming and then saying goodbye to other people. Many people cry when they have to leave jail. Before, it was others leaving us – now I had to leave the others. There are prisoners who have been in jail a very long time but they have not been released – so I was sad and unhappy [for them]. I was upset and it made those six days so hard – harder even than a hunger strike or interrogation – because I left people who I had lived with for a long time. The Israelis allowed the prisoners to go and say goodbye to all the prisoners but I couldn’t say goodbye to anyone, it was too hard.

ISM: What is your opinion of the prisoner exchange deal?

Qwasmah: Your country, the USA, and western countries don’t care about Palestinian prisoners. All they care about is the Shalit case – which for them was a political and humanitarian case but they don’t care about the Palestinians…even people who care about humanitarian issues. The Shalit deal is very good but I feel sad for the remaining prisoners. I want to askEurope; what about the Palestinian prisoners?

ISM: What are your plans now that you’ve been released?

Qwasmah: First of all I have to get used to being free, to look around myself and spend time with my family and then I will think about work. Then I will look for a wife and get married. I feel like there are a lot of obstacles when I got out as I moved from one life to another life and I have to take some time to adapt.

ISM: Do you regret what you did or feel a sense of guilt?

Qwasmah: Before, after and during prison I was proud of what I did, I spent my youth in prison…we are offering our lives for the resistance and we can offer more and more forPalestine. As Palestinians, our lives are political but I am not going to focus on politics until I take some time and adapt to social life and to my family – I have brothers, sisters, aunts that I don’t know. I can think about politics later. All forms of available resistance are needed to resistIsrael.

Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).