Tag: Prisoner Swap

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).

Palestinian woman struggles for proper medical treatment

by Wahed Rejol

14 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

In 2004 Amal Jamal was sentenced to 12 years in Israeli prison. A year later the Palestinian woman from Nablus was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Today from a hospital in Nablus she awaits a decision from Israel authorities that will determine whether she will be permitted to travel outside of Israeli controlled territory to receive medical treatment.

Prisoner rights worker Myassar Atyani and Amal Jamal in a Nablus hospital.

In 2005 Jamal began to suffer from severe pain and bleeding as a result of her illness. Yet she received little treatment from the Israelis. She was given only medication for pain and an unidentified sedative that affected her mental stability. Her diabetes went untreated altogether resulting in later complications.

After suffering more than four years Jamal was transported to Hiafa where she underwent surgery for her cancer. But the surgery was unsuccessful.

Last month Jamal was released by the Israelis as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas where 1,027 Palestinian political prisoners were released in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Jamal has refused further treatment within Israel and is instead awaiting permission from the Israelis to travel to France via Jordan to receive medical attention.

Wahed Rejol is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

“Only one half of me is free, but the other half is still there, locked up behind Israeli bars”

by Shahd Abusalama

13 November 2011  | Palestine from My Eyes

A beautiful halo around Gaza’s full moon

In a nice restaurant overlooking Gaza’s beach, beneath a full moon with a beautiful halo surrounding it, I sat with my new friends who recently were released from Israeli prisons. Their freedom was restricted by Israel’s inhumane rules, including indefinitely deportation from the West Bank, away from their families and friends. However, they all shared one thought: “The problem is not here.  Both the West Bank and Gaza are our homeland. The problem is that our freedom will not be complete until our land and people are totally free.”

I listened carefully to their prison stories and memories of their families in other parts of Palestine. One of the most interesting things for me to hear was the warm, strong, and caring friendships they remembered from inside the painful cells. These unbreakable friendships were their only distractions from the wounds that used to hurt them deeply inside.

One of my new friends is Chris Al-Bandak, the only Christian of the released detainees, who was freed in the first stage of the swap deal. After I was introduced to him, I congratulated him on regaining his freedom, and he faked his smile and replied, “Only one half of me is free, but the other half is still there, locked up behind Israeli bars.”

I didn’t know much about Chris, except for his religion, but many things about him made me want to get to know him more closely. I was quite certain that this impressive 32-year-old man had many interesting stories to tell and learn from.

Chris said that he was one of the people besieged by the Israeli Occupation Forces at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002. That alone made me impatient to hear the rest of his story. “The siege lasted for 40 days. It got more unbearable as time passed, with the food and first aid equipments dwindling. The injured people were under the threat of death, and the others’ lives were endangered as well as the IOF’s pressure increased.”

As Chris spoke, his eyes evoked anger and sorrow as they wandered to his right. He sounded like he was replaying a tape of his most difficult memories. Then he suddenly began stuttering as he said, “My best friend, Hafith Sharay’a, was one of the injured people.” I reminded him that he didn’t have to speak about it if it made him feel bad.

He pulled himself together and kept telling his story. “On the 28th day of the siege, we were on the top floor of the Church of the Nativity, responsible for the lives of the people downstairs and guarding the church, when he was shot in the right side of his stomach. With every drop of blood he lost, my soul burned inside. I couldn’t watch him die and do nothing.” Impatiently I interrupted, asking, “Was he killed?” He shook his head and continued. “His injury left me only two choices: let him bleed to death, or send him to the Israeli Army for treatment, while I was certain that he would afterwards receive at least a life sentence.”

Each option was worse than the other. Chris thought that if Hafith died, he would never see him again. If he was treated and then imprisoned, he might meet him, even though the chance was very small. Hafith and Chris were like soul mates. They didn’t share many things in common. Hafith is older and a Muslim, while Chris is a Christian. However, they prioritized their deep passion for Palestine above everything else. This overcame all their differences, and they share a magical strong friendship which will last forever.

So Chris chose to put his emotions aside and rescue Hafith from death by delivering him to the Israeli army. “On the 29th day, I somehow managed to sneak out of the church and escape.  But ten months later, I was kidnapped by the Israeli Entity’s army.”

Palestinians in Bethlehem are protesting in solidarity with Chris who is deported to Gaza

Chris described in detail the horrible story of his capture. He had gone to visit some of his relatives. Within 20 minutes of his arrival, the Israeli army arrived in great numbers and surrounded the house. He faked a name for himself and answered the police’s questions in a very sarcastic way. He told all his relatives to say his name was Fady if asked, which they did. He refused to admit that he was Chris. After several hours of investigation, pressure, and threats of bombing the house and arresting his mother and brother, one of the children was shedding tears out of fear. Seeing this, a policeman used the child’s innocence and tricked him. After the policeman said that the soldiers would leave if he said the real name of Chris, the child admitted it.

Chris was persistent, and didn’t admit his identity until they were about to bomb the house in front of his eyes. After his confession, he was asked where he had been sleeping at night. He replied, “You bombed my house, so where did you expect me to go? I spent my nights in the cemetery.” The interrogator was very shocked at his reply and asked him, “Weren’t you afraid among all dead bodies in their graves?” He answered, with an angry, challenging look in the Israeli soldiers’ eyes, “One shouldn’t fear the dead. They are dead. But we should be afraid of the living people whose conscience is dead!”

Then they blindfolded him, pushed him inside one of their Gibbs vehicles, and headed to an interrogation center, where he was psychologically and physically tortured for 43 days. Chris constantly thought of his friend Hafith, and hoped that his imprisonment would allow him to meet his best friend again.

This happened in a very narrow cell in Ramla Prison, as he waited to learn in which prison he would be jailed. The detainees were having “foura”, an hour-long break that detainees take daily outside their jails in a hall, and a very small window, closed with a revealing cover, separated him from the hall. Suddenly he glimpsed his friend Hafith and found himself screaming his name loudly to get his attention. “Our re-union was so emotional, especially behind a fenced barrier,” he said with a broken smile.

Their happiness didn’t last long, as they had to separate once the foura was done. Chris was transferred to Asqalan Prison, then to Nafha. “I stayed away from Haifith for over a year, but during that time, I never stopped hoping that God would be kind enough to bring us together again.”

Chris was in Nafha when his friend was transferred there, finally uniting them. Then they went through a series of separations keeping them apart for a total of four years. “A prison offers no sense of stability.” Chris said. “When we were imprisoned, we didn’t stop our struggle, but we started another stage of resistance of a different kind, determination and persistence mixed with hope.”

During the period before Chris was released, he shared a prison cell with Hafith. “Other detainees received the news of their freedom with screams of joy and happiness, but I received it with tears. I didn’t even feel 1% happy, as I realized that only I was included in the swap deal. Even now, I feel like my body is outside but my heart is still inside the prison with Hafith and all the other detainees,” Chris said with sadness on his face.

“I am very grateful for having Hafith as a big brother. But I am broken inside because he didn’t get his freedom back. I am sure that he’s such a steadfast man that nothing can depress his spirit,” he said, attempting to console himself.

Their friendship amazed me. It can’t be described in words. I pray that Haifith, along with all the Palestinian political prisoners, will be freed soon. I hope Hafith maintains his strength which used to inspire and strengthen Chris. Chris said that Hafith made him believe in his principle that “the prison’s door must unlock someday. It’s only an obstacle, and is bound to fade away at some point.” I hope it will be unlocked soon to let all prisoners breathe the sweet fragrance of freedom again.

Palestinian Scouts welcome exiled prisoner to Gaza

by Joe Catron

12 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Christian al-Bandak – Click here for more images

Palestinian Scouts and their families rallied in the Gaza YMCA Friday afternoon to honor former political prisoner Christian Al-Bandak and welcome him to Gaza.

Al-Bandak, who donned a Scout neckerchief to receive a commemorative plaque, is one of 477 prisoners already released by Israel in its ongoing exchange of prisoners with the Palestinian government in Gaza.

After sentencing Al-Bandak to four lifetimes in its occupation prisons in 2003, Israel illegally exiled him to the Gaza Strip from his home in Bethlehem following his release, along with over 160 other West Bank residents.

The only Christian among the released prisoners, he had remained behind in Gaza while most others traveled from it, the West Bank, Israel, or foreign exile to Mecca, Saudi Arabia for the Muslim Hajj.

“People were here of different ages, religions, and parties,” Al-Bandak said after the event. “This illustrates the unity and patriotism of the Palestinian people. My welcome in Gaza has been excellent.”

Prisoner release: Palestinian narratives

Fadi Kawasmi

9 November 2011 | PASSIA

Below is an abridged transcript of a talk given at PASSIA (Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs ) Round table on ‘Prisoner Release – Palestinian Narratives’ on 31 October 2011 by Fadi Kawasmi, a lawyer who specializes in working with Palestinian prisoners.

“In order to understand the prisoners issue we have to talk about the problem from the beginning.  Why are prisoners very important to Palestinian people?  They are seen as freedom fighters, people that have sacrificed themselves for the sake of liberty.  But I think there is also another reason – it is the suffering that they go through from the moment that they are arrested and even after they are released.

 “It is estimated that almost 750,000 Palestinians were arrested by Israel from 1967 to today.  Now, after the prisoner release, there are 9 women in jail, almost 300 children in jail and the whole number of prisoners is estimated be around 5000 – 500 of whom are sentenced to life.  More than 100 prisoners have already spent 20 years or more in prison.  202 prisoners have died in detention.

“When we talk about suffering we have to talk about it from the beginning.  How do the arrests take place?  Usually – for ‘security reasons’ – they take place at night.  Large forces burst into homes and arrest someone.  And someone might think – how dangerous might this be?  But actually it’s very dangerous.  The police, the army – when they enter houses they are so alert because they think that the people they are going to arrest are dangerous and they might harm them.

“For example, a 16 year old kid who – influenced by the media – thought that he could kidnap a settler and exchange him for his relatives who are imprisoned by Israel.  Apparently he didn’t have the means, so his attempt didn’t succeed.  The Israelis knew about him and they went to his house at 3am in order to arrest him.  He was not there but his parents were and after entering into his house the Israelis killed his mother by mistake, his father was left paralysed and they demolished part of the house.  On the second day he turned himself in.  He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

‘Three or four months ago, the army was about to arrest someone, who they said was not that dangerous, but they entered the wrong house and there was a 65 year old man sleeping in his bed and he was killed in his bed.  The Israeli version of the story is that he made a ‘suspicious move’ and he was killed.

 “After the arrest, detainees are usually taken to interrogation facilities.  There are four of them in Israel– the most famous is nearby [in Jerusalem]. It is called the Russian Compound, or as we say in Arabic – ‘Al-Moscovia’.  Detainees are interrogated there by the Israeli intelligence.  Israeli military law allows them to keep detainees for 180 days for the purpose of interrogation.  During this period, several kinds of techniques are used to oblige the detainee to confess – sometimes to confess to something that they didn’t do – torture is one of the means.  Although in 1999, the Israeli high court of justice banned physical torture, several methods of torture are still used by the Israeli intelligence.

“For example, detainees are prevented from sleeping; interrogation sessions sometimes take 20 hours; people are exposed to extreme temperatures.  Sometimes they just play loud music.  They keep detainees seated and handcuffed for hours and hours. They isolate them and they prevent lawyers from seeing them.  Israeli military law allows the Israeli intelligence to prevent the detainee from seeing his lawyer for 30 days and this can be extended by court order.  Another method of abuse is arresting a member of the family; Israeli military law allows the army to arrest someone for 8 days without a court order.  So sometimes they just arrest them and take them to the interrogation facility in order to exert pressure on their beloved ones in order to make them confess.

“After interrogation, most detainees are usually then put on trial.  There is a difference between people from Jerusalem and people from the West Bank and Gaza.  People from theWest Bankare put on trial in military court.  Jerusalemites on the other hand are put on trial in Israeli civil courts, while people from Gaza are put on trial in Israeli civil courts in Be’er Sheva.  One might think that Jerusalemites are in a better situation as they put on  trial in civil courts and they have more rights – but the situation is actually different because Israeli civil courts, when it comes to security offences, are known to be strict.  So usually when someone is arrested and two people that committed the same crime, and one is put on trial in an Israeli military court and the other in civil court, the one who is put on trial in civil court will definitely get a higher sentence.

“What happens in trials – especially in military courts – is really very bad.  There is no right to a fair trial.  Court sessions take place in Hebrew and usually prisoners don’t speak Hebrew.  The court provides translation but this is not usually professional translation.  Most lawyers are Palestinians and they don’t speak Hebrew and the knowledge they have in Israeli military is often really poor.  This is a very big problem for many years and I don’t think it is going to change.

“The most important thing for a prisoner when he is put on trial is not the trial itself, whether he will be found guilty or not, or what sentence will be put on him, it is a completely different thing.  It is when the prisoner is transferred from his place of detention to the court and back again.  I had so many case where prisoners told me – “please, I am ready to spend two more years in prison but please spare me this.  I don’t want this [transfer].  Do everything you can to end this, I can’t take this anymore.”  Why?  It’s because a simple journey – for example from Ktzi’ot prison, Negev to Ofer Prison [near Ramallah] which should take 3 hours, takes 5 or 6 days because of the way the Israeli prison authorities work.  Detainees sometimes stay in buses for 18 hours, travelling in roads without food, water or even access to bathrooms.  Anyone who needs to go to the bathroom will be given a bottle. So there is no right to a fair trial, especially in Israeli military court.”