Palestinian political prisoners

A mother of two former prisoners who were deported from Hebron to the Gaza Strip arrived Gaza a week ago to celebrate her sons’ freedom. After ten years of long waiting attached with every emotion of worry, sadness, suffering, humiliation moving between check point trying to visit her imprisoned sons, she lived 6 days with them and then passed away leaving us real legend, a symbol of patience, challenge, motherhood.

Loai Odeh is a former prisoner who is forced to accept their fate to be deported far away from their land and families. It’s true that those former prisoners, including Loai, are now out of Israeli prisons, but still their freedom is conditional and incomplete.

A story of the amazing friendship of Chris Al-Bandak, the only Christian released in the prisoner swap, who was deported to Gaza. According to Chris, “Only one half of me is free, but the other half is still there, locked up behind Israeli bars.”

Many people in Palestine couldn’t feel the happiness of Eid at its fullest, especially the detainees’ families. Gomana is a ten-year-old girl whose mother died after she delivered her, and whose father has been imprisoned since she was less than two years old, leaving her uncle to look after her. She started calling him Dad till she once came back from her school to discover that he was killed by the IOF leaving her to her 70-year-old grandmother to take care of her.

Jerzy Buzek, the European Parliament’s president, waits several days before asking Israel to release a fellow MEP.

Not one day did the two liberated Palestinian prisoners Khuweiled and Nizar Ramadan enjoy being out of Prison. A Jewish Settler family from the illegal settlement Yitzahar has declared that it will reward $100,000 to whoever murders Khuweiled or Nizar. The ad for this ugly bounty has appeared on the Hebrew daily Maariv.

UPDATED: A leading Palestinian activist from Bil’in has become the village’s latest political prisoner. Ashraf Abu Rahmeh was kidnapped by Israeli occupation soldiers last week, and has now been indefinitely detained on the orders of an Israeli captain at Ofer prison.

“Solitary confinements are implemented because they want us to lose our mental balance. They want us lose our minds so that in case we’re released, we wouldn’t be capable of engaging ourselves in normal life.”

As soon as released Israeli captive arrived in his parents’ bosom, Israel seems to have embarked on yet another propaganda campaign aiming at shifting international criticism from the illegal Israeli practices enforced upon Palestinians to the Palestinian prisoners released earlier today.