Jail, exile bars sons from bidding farewell to father

After 38 years of patience and pain, Mohammad Ahmad Fayyad from Jenin refugee camp left this world without seeing his sons, until he uttered his last breath, Fayyad kept asking about his sons, imprisoned in Israeli detentions or living in exile.

Sham’a Fayyad, [um Fathi] his wife and his only companion, sat there soaked with her tears lamenting her husband who lived hoping to see and hug his four sons one last time before he dies.

“The army leveled our home, imprisoned and deported our sons, he died with this great desire to see them one last time, but the occupation yet again took his dream away”, the wife said.

“What kind of justice is out there, my husband became sick and died, his sons were not even able to come and see him, what did we do to live in this continuous suffering”, she added.

Fathi and his sister Rasmiyya, the sons of Mohammad were deported to Jordan in 1968 after the army demolished the family home and accused them of military activities against the occupation.

The biggest and hardest pain um Fathi has ever felt was seeing the coffin her husband carried my men while his own sons are far away, in exile and detention, unable to attend the funeral of their own father.

Mirwih, one of the sons of Mohammad, spent 14 years in detention, and was deported to Jordan in 1985.

The sons of Mohammad were never listed in any prisoners release deal, or any deal which enabled some deportees back home. 

While hugging the corpse of her husband, Um Fathi remembers her detained sons, Ramzi and Asry.

Ramzi, 38, was arrested more than twenty times since 1982, and was shot injured twice; once in February 1994 during the Ibrahimi mosque massacre carried out by an extremist settler, killing 29 Palestinians and injuring 60 others, and the second time in September 1996, then was arrested in April 2002, after the wide scaled operations and invasions carried out by the Israeli army in April 2002.

“since he was arrested, Ramzi was interrogated and tortured several times, and placed in administrative detention without trial for 18 months consecutive months in administrative detention, then he was sentenced to 32 consecutive months, yet after the 32 months he wasn’t released, and was placed again in administrative detention at the Negev, he is still there now in spite of his bad health condition”, the mother said.

Um Fathi now believes that only a ‘miracle’ can make her see her family reunited, especially after the army arrested her son Asry, a journalist, who is currently in administrative detention.

Asry was not sent to court, not charged, but placed in administrative detention not knowing if or when he will be free again.

Asry was arrested nine months ago after the army broke into his home and searched it; also, he was arrested and imprisoned several times since 1982 until he became ‘a frequent visitor’ in Israeli prisons.

The mother contacted several institutions and organizations to help her allow her imprisoned sons bid their fathers’ body farewell and burry him, but the Israeli authorities rejected he appeals.

“I was hoping that my efforts and appeals will succeed in enabling my detained sons to be allowed to burry their father, but the occupation denied my requests, and the appeals of the organizations, what kind of law is this? What constitution allowed this injustice? The mother said.

 

Source: PNN