Artwork of Palestinian prisoner Al-Haq
5,200 Palestinians were being held in Israeli jails prior to the Oct. 7 surprise attack. Since then, the number of Palestinians in Israeli custody have doubled to over 10,000.
Those held in Israeli jails include minors, women, university students, and elderly. Prisoners are not only arrested from the ‘48 Occupied Territories, but the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Some are arrested for resisting or publicly criticizing the Israeli Occupation, and others are arrested simply for the fun of it.
According to Al Jazeera, the reason for so many Palestinians being held in Israeli jails has to do with a law made after the 1967 Six-Day War, in which Israel illegally occupied the Palestine territories. Al Jazeera states, “…its government issued Military Order 101 which essentially criminalized civic activities under the basis of “hostile propaganda and prohibition of incitement.’”
The Qatari news outlet goes on to state, “The order, which is still in use in the occupied West Bank, outlaws the participation and organization of protests, printing and distributing political material, waving flags and other political symbols, and any activity that demonstrates sympathy for an organization deemed illegal under military orders.”
A Palestinian may be subject to arrests for quite literally anything that Israel does not agree with, or that threatens their existence.
Children in Palestine are not exempt or protected from the merciless Israeli government. A notable figure, Ahmad Manasra, has been in Israeli custody since he was 13 years old.
In 2015, Ahmad Manasra was arrested for ‘carrying out a stabbing attack’ on two Israelis in East Jerusalem and has since been serving an almost 10 year sentence.
According to Amnesty International, Manasra did not carry out the attack.
“Ahmad’s 15-year-old cousin, Hassan, was shot dead at the scene of the stabbings in 2015, and Ahmad sustained serious head injuries when he was hit by a car. As he lay bleeding on the ground, large crowds gathered to jeer and shout abuse at him. Footage of Ahmad Manasra’s interrogation showed three Israeli officers shouting threats and insults at him, as he sat sobbing with a bandage around his head.”
Manasra has been subject to psychological abuse while in Israeli jails. A video surfaced of 13-year-old Ahmad being interrogated and forced to confess to a crime he did not commit. Israeli officers kept yelling at Ahmad to ‘remember’ what happened while he would cry out that he did not remember.
After eight years in prison, Ahmad Manasra has been denied the right to see his family during visits and has often been sent to solitary confinement. As a result of being thrown many times in solitary confinement, Ahmad suffers from schizophrenia.
Psychiatrists worry for the wellbeing of Ahmad and are demanding for his immediate release, which has been denied for years by Israeli authorities.
Palestinian prisoners held by Israel are often held in custody without charge or trial, denied the right to meet with a lawyer, and subject to extreme torture. Palestinians are also held in cells with harsh living conditions without basic human necessities for survival such as food, water, or even a bathroom.
In August of 2019, a journalism student at Birzeit University, Mays Abughosh, was arrested from her home in the Qalandiya Refugee Camp, north Jerusalem. Abughosh was arrested for partaking in the Democratic Progressive Student Pole in Birzeit University, which Israel has banned for its criticism of the apartheid state.
While serving her 15 month sentence in Israeli jails, Abughosh was subject to hours of psychological and physical torture.
Al Jazeera states, “she was forced into several stress positions for extended hours and was threatened that she would go home either paralyzed or mentally broken. She was also forced to listen to the cries and screams of other prisoners undergoing interrogation, and faced repeated slaps to her face as Israeli soldiers shouted obscenities at her.”
Abughosh was released from custody in late 2020.
It is not uncommon for university students to be arrested at the hands of the merciless Israeli military. Following the start of the fall semester, in September 2023, Israeli Occupation Forces stormed Birzeit University and raided the student council office before abducting eight of its students, including student council president, Abdel Majeed Hassan.
According to the Right To Education campaign, those abducted were involved in the student council and the Islamic Bloc, which is also banned by Israel.
Along with the student council president, members abducted from the council and Islamic Bloc were: Mahmoud Nakhleh, Abdallah Nejim, Amr Khalil, Ahmad Oweidat, Hassan Alwan, Abdallah Abu Qais, and Yahya Farah.
The Right To Education campaign is a “grassroots Palestinian movement that seeks to document, research and raise awareness about the issues facing Palestinian students, teachers and academic institutions under Israeli military occupation.”
The campaign stated, “This reprehensible incident is not an isolated event. Israeli forces have raided the Birzeit University campus over twenty times in the past twenty-eight years.”
According to Right2Edu, over 80 students are held in Israeli detention centers. “This alarming number serves as clear evidence that the violent arrests of our students is systematic and part of an ongoing campaign to criminalize the student movement in Palestinian universities.”
Palestinians deserve to live and seek education without constantly looking over their shoulder in fear they might be arrested next. Palestinian children deserve to live and act like children instead of psychologically abused for years in prison.
Palestinians are not criminals to be thrown in jail. Palestinians deserve to be free and live.
Free our prisoners. Free them all.
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