Diaries: Live from Palestine

Rami Almeghari recounts his struggle to both cover the growing protests at Cairo’s Tahrir Square and fight his own personal battle.

Eid Misleh spent 19 years in Israel’s prisons until he was released as part of a prisoner exchange agreed between Hamas and Israel. Back home among family in Gaza, Misleh told The Electronic Intifada about life in prisoner and the hardship of being denied family visits for eleven years.

An elderly mother has been waiting 22 years for her son to come home. He was not included in the recent prisoner exchange deal.

The sense of joy was palpable in the streets of Gaza on Tuesday as released prisoners were greeted by celebratory crowds. The Electronic Intifada’s Rami Almeghari was there when the first prisoners arrived.

Salama Mesleh was sentenced to 99 years in prison by Israel; he is not being released as part of the “swap” deal.

A daughter of a former prisoner who spent 33 days on hunger strike writes from the Gaza Strip, urging international solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli jails.

Palestinian political prisoner Ameer Makhoul writes about a recent “watermelon party” amongst fellow prisoners, and the struggle for liberation that continues.

The outside world, the checkpoint-less expanse, doesn’t know why wrinkles map our faces so early. Our tears are different, and so is their cause. So, too, are the causes of our moments of happiness.

I asked a few Nabi Saleh children why they throw rocks. Their responses were simple: We don’t want the army here.

Fidaa Elaydi’s uncle has been imprisoned in Israel for more than twenty years, and his family in Gaza have not been able to visit him for the past six.