“My child does not know me,” released Palestinian Political Prisoner

“My child does not know me,” says just released Palestinian political prisoner, Mohammad. “I felt great pain, but I must accept this fate as she came into this life while I was behind bars.”

The Qalqilia resident spoke to PNN Tuesday as he was released from the Israeli Al Naqab ( Negev ) Prison yesterday.

Israeli forces arrested him 22 months ago, just days after his wedding. Since that time the political prisoner was in Administrative Detention, an Israeli invention which allows them to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial for unlimited periods of time.

And for this father, his pain is in concert of that of many of the more than 10,000 Palestinians currently in Israeli prisons.

Mohammad told PNN, “I could only behave as one of the well-wishers, buying games worth a thousand shekels in order to get this little girl, my daughter, not to cry when I approached her.”

The Palestinian Psychological Support Society in Gaza City issued a study indicating that 30 percent of Palestinian children suffer a similar fate as the Israeli administration will not allow them to visit their imprisoned parents. During the rare occasion when parents do get to see their children while in Israeli prison, they are not allowed to hold them. This study, and several others, show that Palestinian children suffer the most dire consequences of the occupation, including nightmares, bedwetting and anaemia. They are subjected to witnessing assassinations, arrests, and missile attacks, either in person or on the daily news as it plays in the background of nearly every home.

Samar Sobeih, a political prisoner exiled to the Gaza Strip, wrote a letter to the captured Israeli soldier’s father. “I know you have not forgotten even for a moment, and I know that you are suffering. But what I want to say is that our children are not born into a free world, but rather in chains as we are. Is it the right of any nation to arrest and deny the right to a human being to see their children? Why are we robbed of this simple freedom? Is it really for ‘security reasons,’ and for our political party affiliation?”

Sobeih continued in his letter, “Pressure your government to solve the issue. Stop imprisoning the innocent.”

The Israeli administration arrested Samar Sobeih under Administrative Detention, meaning without charge or trial, and instead of releasing him to his home in the northwestern West Bank city of Tulkarem , exiled him to the Gaza Strip. His wife was also arrested on charges of belonging to the armed resistance wing of Hamas. Israeli forces later took her husband. Left behind is their child.