Carve this in the stones of history: a wrenching letter from Thaer Halahleh, on day 75 of hunger strike against his detention without charge, to his two-year-old daughter Lamar, who he has never seen. Translated by Jalal Najjar. Published by We Are All Hana Shalabi, with the help of IMEU.
“My Beloved Lamar, forgive me because the occupation took me away from you, and took away from me the pleasure of witnessing my first born child that I have always prayed to God to see, to kiss, to be happy with. It is not your fault, this is our destiny as Palestinian people to have our lives and the lives of our children taken away from us, to be apart from each other and to have a miserable life, nothing is complete in our lives because of this unjust occupation that is lurking on every corner of our lives turning it into eeriness, a continuous pursuit and torture. Despite that I was deprived from holding you and hearing your voice, from watching you grow up and move around in the house and in your be, and that I was deprived of my rule as a human and a father with my daughter your existence has given me all the power and hope, and when I saw your picture with your mother in the sit-in tent, you were so calm staring in wonder at people, as if you were looking for your father, looking at my pictures that are hung inside the tent asking in silence why is my father not coming back, I felt that you are with me, in my sentiment and inside my mind, as if you are a part of my heartbeats, steadfast and the blood that flows in my veins, opening all doors for me spreading clear skies around me, and unleashing your free childish voice after this long silence”.
“Lamar my love: I know that you are not to be blamed and that you don’t yet understand why your father is going through this battle of the hunger strike for the 75th day, but when you grow up you will understand that the battle of freedom is the battle of going back to you, so that I can never be taken away from you again or to be deprived of your smile or seeing you, so that the occupier will never kidnap me again from you”.
“When you grow up you will understand how injustice was brought upon your father and upon thousands of Palestinians whom the occupation has put in prisons and jail cells, shattering their lives and future for no guilt but their pursuit of freedom, dignity and independence, you will know that your father did not tolerate injustice and submission, that he will never accept insult and compromise, and that he is going through a hunger strike to protest against the Jewish state that wants to turn us into humiliated slaves without any rights or patriotic dignity”.
“My beloved Lamar keep your head up always and be proud of your father, and thank everyone who supported me, who supported the prisoners in their struggle, and don’t be afraid god is with us always, and god never lets people who have faith and patience, we are righteous, and right will always prevail against injustice and wrong doers”.
“Lamar my love: that day will come, and I will make it up to you for everything, and tell you the whole story, and your days that will follow will be more beautiful, so let your days pass now and wear your prettiest clothes, run and then run again in the gardens of your long life, go forward and forward nothing is behind you but the past, and this is your voice I hear all the time as a melody of freedom”.
Thanks to Paul Mutter.
Heart rending stuff.
Just read Diab has sent his will to his family
link to alternativenews.org
just tears
Thaer Halahleh, dying, has found great dignity. If it is soon lost to him, may it long be remembered by the living. Maybe Mandy Patinkin could read this letter during his next concert or political appearance.
As to detention without trial, as Fourth Geneva Convention says: “Art. 67. The courts shall apply only those provisions of law which were applicable prior to the offence, and which are in accordance with general principles of law, in particular the principle that the penalty shall be proportionate to the offence. They shall take into consideration the fact the accused is not a national of the Occupying Power..” (emphasis added). (Sadly, I do not know whether long-term detention without charge or trial is “in accordance with general principles of law, in particular the principle that the penalty shall be proportionate to the offence.”
I also do not know whether long-term detention without charge or trial can be called an action of “the courts”. The courts do not seem much involved. One wishes the international community (of people, of nations) would speak up. Of course, many other nations disappear people * * *.
There’s chutzpah in a convicted terrorist being able to write his daughter.
Thousands of Israeli Jewish families will never see their loved ones again, to write them letters, speak to them or comfort them.
This is beyond obscene and what he is demanding is not human dignity but alleviation of his just punishment.
What he has now is more than the choice he offered his victims.
convicted? i thought he had never even been charged. even israel contends his imprisonment is “preventative”. that means he has no ‘victims’.
link to hrw.org
You’re right, Annie. Neither Halahleh nor Diab have been charged with anything, let alone convicted. What is “chutzpah” and “obscene” is Norman’s presumption that if he is a Palestinian in an Israeli jail, he must be a “convicted terrorist”.
He is not “demanding … alleviation of his just punishment”, but respect for his human rights, as guaranteed by international law.
Amnesty:
B’tselem:
According to B’tselem, Israel is currently (April 2012) holding 308 Palestinians in administrative detention. Israel must try them or release them immediately!
Why should Israel try them or release them? They are members of enemy terrorist groups. They are no more entitled to a trial than any soldier who has been captured and is a POW is. Did Gilad Shalit get a trial before he was held for years? Did the German POWs held by the Allies in WWII get trials?
Why should they get more rights by being war criminals that fight out of uniform than a soldier who honestly wears a uniform gets?
Norman
Can you tell us which settlement you’re from and how you paid for the land on which your house is built?
Much as it pains me to back up my nemesis, Annie, I agree completely that Norm’s basis for complaint is waaay off.
However, I would add this one objective observation: a person that is in his 75th day of starvation is not going to be capable of writing any letters, much less a letter that is as long or as complexly phrased as that one. Three explanations come to mind, I’m sure there are many more.
1. The letter was written by someone else in behalf of Halahleh.
2. The letter was written by Halahleh weeks ago in anticipation of this end and someone just filled in the “75 days.”
3. Halahleh is in a lot better condition than one would expect after 75 days because the Israeli doctors are pumping glucose and necessary vitamins into him.
From some of the dumb stunts from Palestinian propaganda machine in the past, my guess is #1 and this will back-fire in their faces. Their gambit is: write an emotional letter that will incite an intifada before the msm figure out it’s a fake.
It is an agonizing moment for everyone but the brain-ded Zionists like Norm, and anyone can understand the Palestinian propaganda machine wanting to squeeze as much play out of it as possible. I just hope they haven’t miscalculated.
my guess is #1
yeah, because the chances Thaer Halahleh wouldn’t have had enough time and forethought to have conceived of communicating to his daughter as he was facing death for the last 75 days..until now is exactly zilch..NOT.
this will back-fire in their faces
wanna make a bet? they’ll be some back-fire alright but not from the direction you think.
As much as it pains me to support denis he does raise an important point.
Survival after a 75 day fast is unusual. The subject becomes delusional towards the end. Bobby Sands died after 66 days and the other 10 IRA prisoners that died did not live much longer (someone correct me here if you know more about this, I couldn’t find the numbers). It is difficult to know how long one person can survive a true fast (i.e. zero carbohydrates, fats or protein but hydration with physiological salts). The big variable is the amount of body fat and total muscle mass at the beginning. Long term survival is not guaranteed even for a very fat person, there is what is called starvation ketosis that can kill by itself (this results when a starved person begins to catabolize stored fat).
I suspect that if he wrote that letter after 75 days then someone along the line is slipping some protein and carbohydrate into his hydration solutions.
sorry tov, just not grasping the relevance of impact wrt denis’s #1 vs #2. what’s the scandal, the headline?
HALAHLEH WROTE LETTER TO DAUGHTER AT 63 DAYS NOT 75!!!!!
like dude, what’s the hook in that?
Agree, Annie. Or even on Day 1, knowing the potential (likely?) outcome of what he was entering into.
It doesn’t matter one whit when he wrote it, if he dies without prospect of a better life, in unspecified, indeterminate, and hopeless (literally) Israeli detention.
And in the company of so many others in the same situation…
@ritzl: It doesn’t matter one whit when he wrote it
I agree with all of your sentiments after this clause and I absolutely detest the Israelis and their US taxpayer supporters for putting this Palestinians in this mess. But it does matter when he wrote it because he didn’t write it at all. IOW, it’s a fraud.
You say he could have written it on day one. Think about that — how could he know on day one how long this thing was going to go on? As ToivoS observed, Bobby Sands only made it 66 days. Nobody could start into a hunger strike and expect to be alive in 75 days, so there is no way he could write this letter and refer to the “75th day.” This is where the Palestinians have goofed up their propaganda.
Read the “letter:”
“Lamar my love: I know that you are not to be blamed and that you don’t yet understand why your father is going through this battle of the hunger strike for the 75th day,”
This letter is a fraud because it is being presented as if Halahleh himself was writing it on the 75th day. No way. That is where Annie’s “hook” is, at least that’s the hook the hasbara will get hold of.
Also, I discount the idea that he wrote the letter because . . . hey, do you honestly think the IDF is going to let an inflammatory letter like this get out and hit the viral express? No way. I mean can you see the IDF guards see him writing this, read it, and say — “Sure, dude, that’s cool. I’ll run it down to the post box for you.” What did he do, write it under the sheets with a flashlight in the middle of the night of the 74th day and hand if off to a cockroach for delivery? Did he text it? Did he tape it to a bed pan and throw it out the window? C’mon. Common sense will tell you this is a fraud.
Of course if this “letter” incites another bloody intifada before the fraud can be discovered, then whoever wrote it accomplished their goal. It’s not the means; it’s the ends.
@Denis It doesn’t matter because he knew going in that he was choosing a path that had a high probability of resulting in his death. It’s probably more likely that he wrote it before he started and got it smuggled out, before all the notice. Call it a will of sorts. Someone almost certainly did fill in the number of days.
Again, I can’t see that it matters when he wrote it or the mechanics of its release. The sentiments expressed are genuine and representative of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention purgatory.
All of which is moot, because his strike is over.
I heard that Rev. King borrowed a cocktail napkin and a ball-point pen from one of his jailers and knocked out that Letter From a Birmingham Jail in one lazy afternoon when he had some time on his hands. Might want to look into that.
Sheesh, a Palestinian releases a letter to his child and it’s a disastrous propaganda stunt that’s destined to back-fire, and must be a fake. Because obviously Palestinians can’t write a letter. Let’s add “writing letters” to the long list of things Palestinians shouldn’t do to secure their political rights.
Well said.
Everyone knows that letter writing is anti-semitic!
Chocopie,
I heard that 50 cent borrowed a cocktail napkin and a ball point from on of his jailers and knocked out a rap song while he was in jail.
Might want to look into that.
Crack open a book,
don’t get booked for being on crack
Peace out. Yo.
SOURCE: something “I heard.”
Denis,
I can not agree with you Denis, for your sake, it would not be desirable. That being said: Raising the mental status of someone who willingly denied themselves food (and in some linked sources: water) reportedly over 75 days is valid. Personally, if my blood sugar drops too low, my ability to articulate a clear sentence is severely compromised.
So to address your explanation
#1. someone else wrote the letter.
So what if they did? The point here is to gain “something” for the cause.
The cause is Political. Does the President of the United States write his own speeches? Not always, there are speech writers who do that. Right?
#2 The suggestion that Halahleh wrote this letter weeks prior to his reported current mental and physical deterioration is to imply that he wrote his daughter a suicide note. The letter clearly specifies the end of his life and providing an explanation, or making it up to his daughter, somehow in the afterlife. Anticipating a negative outcome ahead of time does not give Halahleh the status of Martyr because his death would be the pre-meditated result of his own actions. Starving himself.
3. Israeli Doctors using Medical Intervention to keep Halahleh alive or improve his health status? Isn’t that an abuse of his Human Rights?
What about his daughter being two years of age? Can she read? A personal letter such as this may have value for his daughter, in the future.
As a Father, I am troubled severely by the letter. I would wonder if my child would think that I wasn’t important enough or valuable enough in relation to a political cause. Being faced with the question: “Dad why did you kill yourself?” Why weren’t you here for me? Didn’t you love me, Daddy? Why did you leave me, was I bad? The letter attempts to address some of these questions, however, that does not alleviate the tragedy of a daughter growing up without her Dad.
As a Father that shakes me to the core. If I was in Prison, my priority would be to do whatever was necessary to get back to my children.
Bottom line: This is self-inflicted. How do you attach responsibility to Israel? Even a child can reason, you chose to die, you quit eating under your own terms and died by your own choice. It’s much harder to fight the fight when you are alive. You quit, Daddy don’t you dare tell me to be proud of you.
Samuel T: As a Father, I am troubled severely by the letter. I would wonder if my child would think that I wasn’t important enough or valuable enough in relation to a political cause.
I guess if everybody felt that way, there would be no more wars and a lot more kids with dads. But given the present state of the stalled evolution of our species, and given this situation in particular, I think your position is ludicrous.
Given your rationale, those young men who died at Normandy should have declined the invitation to participate with the excuse that they wanted to be able to raise their kids, in which case their kids would have been raised as Nazis. Counter-examples to your position are endless.
Throughout recorded history young men have been willing to die in order to protect or to improve the lives their children will live. The whole point here, Samuel, is that these prisoners are willing to give up life so that their children’s lives will be worth something.
If you were in these Palestinians’ position and were not willing to do the same for your children, then I question your right to call yourself a “father.”
My point is that the Palestinian propagandists do not honor these people — and may damage their cause — by concocting fraudulent, hyper-emotive, “letters” that they claim were written by the striking prisoners when they clearly could not have been.
Denis,
You wrote:
“My point is that the Palestinian propagandists do not honor these people — and may damage their cause — by concocting fraudulent, hyper-emotive, “letters” that they claim were written by the striking prisoners when they clearly could not have been.”
On that point, I agree.
As far as questioning my right to call myself a Father.
I gave my view as a Father and the affect on my children.
Denis, when I was single and without children there were many things I would have given my life for. I’ll call that mix foolishness, youth and zeal.
Denis, I don’t know if you’ll get this or not. It’s easy to DIE. That would end my pain, my suffering wouldn’t it? It’s much harder to stay alive and fight and be a Father and BE THERE and DO then to leave a note that says: “I’ll make it up to you some day, this was for a greater cause, hope you understand my beautiful daughter. Be proud of your Father. It’s easy to make babies Denis, It’s much harder to raise them and to protect them and I certainly would not include them as “participants” to a political cause they never consented to. My children’s lives are worth something, Denis. They enjoy freedom because they were born in a free Country, They also enjoy freedom because their Grandfather survived concentration Camp, he ate grass to stay alive, he suffered and was brutalized but he stayed alive. It would have been easier to die. Their Grandmother and her family survived. There hand pulled ox-cart was struck my a military vehicle and my children’s great Grandfather suffered a massive head injury but he cried out to his GOD and he SURVIVED, he stayed alive and he brought his family to a Country that was not at War. He gave opportunities for his children to have children of their own, to build something better for the next generation.
“It’s easier to hate than to forgive, it’s easier to die than live”
He isn’t a casualty of war. He is choosing to starve himself. Do you know why people commit suicide? It stops the pain. It’s a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Are you a Father, Denis? He isn’t protecting anyone by dying from self inflicted means. You have to be alive to fight. Suicide does not make a martyr.
That letter isn’t worth it. The political cause is not worth it. He is more valuable alive to his children then a non-existent Parent, a noble memory.
Palestinian and Arab people(s) have been known to indoctrinate their children to Hate the enemy, they have been known to use and leverage their children to promote their cause. AND you know what? The majority of people aren’t buying it. So, what is that worth?
Do you think the Jews should have just laid down and given up in Nazi Germany? Just disobey the authorities and take a bullet. Should they have written letters and committed suicide as a legacy to their people? They were being tortured and starved and they survived. You don’t get it, do you?
“When the [Arabs] love their children more than they hate [Israel] there will be peace in the Middle East.”
Take away the reference to Arabs and Israelis and the statement is still true.
Where would South Africa be if Mandela died in prison?
Of course if you have children and went and did some time in Iraq or Afghanistan for service to your Country, I’d be most eager to hear that.
Even if you did. The goal is always to “stay alive.” That’s how you win.
@Samuel: “When the [Arabs] love their children more than they hate [Israel] there will be peace in the Middle East.”
My guess is that the Arabs hate Israel BECAUSE they love their children.
What the Palestinians hate about Israel is the way Israel is destroying their children and their children’s future, and for that we should all hate Israel the same way we all hated the Afrikaners and what they did to the South African indigenous people.
Your view of live-and-let-live is great if you are on the side who is screwing everyone else. Sure, from the Israeli viewpoint it is better if the Palestinians just shut their mouths, stop their troublesome resistance, and move out of the way so Israel can take their lands, destroy their means of livelihood, arrest their children, and imprison indefinitely anyone who looks like a troublemaker.
As far as your reference back to the Shoah, sorry, I don’t buy that crap anymore. It was a tragedy; I accept that. It is a bottomless well of emotional material Jewish film makers can draw on to get rich; I accept that, too. But I don’t accept that it is an excuse for the rape of the Palestinians. It is completely irrelevant to what is going on in the ME today. You people who raise the Shoah every time you want to justify Israeli apartheid are just exploiting the memory of all of those who lost their lives. Shame.
>> Do you think the Jews should have just laid down and given up in Nazi Germany? Just disobey the authorities and take a bullet. Should they have written letters and committed suicide as a legacy to their people? They were being tortured and starved and they survived. You don’t get it, do you?
I get it. You’re saying that Israel is like Nazi Germany, and the Palestinians – despite being tortured and starved – must do their best to survive.
A wonderfully apt analogy. Thank you.
“When the [Arabs] love their children more than they hate [Israel] there will be peace in the Middle East.”
Take away the reference to Arabs and Israelis and the statement is still true.
No, it’s not, you fucking bigot. Mods, when are these bigots going to be banned? Or would it be okay to say, “When the Jews love their children more than they love money, there will be peace in the Middle East”???
RE: “Carve this in the stones of history: a wrenching letter from Thaer Halahleh, on day 75 of hunger strike against his detention without charge, to his two-year-old daughter Lamar, who he has never seen.” ~ Weiss
FROM: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
SENT: Thursday, May 10, 2012 6:27 PM
SUBJECT: Take Action Now to Help Save the Lives of 2,000 Hunger Strikers in Israeli Prisons!
As we approach the 64th anniversary of the Nakba — the catastrophe in which more than more than 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes and lands, and thousands of others their lives during the ethnic cleansing that accompanied Israel’s creation — between 1,600 and 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have joined one of the largest hunger strikes in history.
Two strikers — Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab — have refused food for 73 days. Ten have refused food for more than 50 days and are now hospitalized. The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that Halahleh, Diab, and four others are in “imminent danger of dying.” As the prisoners’ health deteriorates, the State Department has been silent.
Please ask the State Department to help save the lives of these nonviolent protestors! Help us get 10,000 signatures before Monday when, with the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, we’ll deliver our concerns to the State Department!
• TO SIGN PETITION - link to salsa.democracyinaction.org
Maybe when the nightmare is over the letter could be added to the Torah.
Peter Beinart will come to the rescue.
As much as it pains me to support denis he does raise an important point.
Survival after a 75 day fast is unusual. The subject becomes delusional towards the end. Bobby Sands died after 66 days and the other 10 IRA prisoners that died did not live much longer (someone correct me here if you know more about this, I couldn’t find the numbers). It is difficult to know how long one person can survive a true fast (i.e. zero carbohydrates, fats or protein but hydration with physiological salts). The big variable is the amount of body fat and total muscle mass at the beginning. Long term survival is not guaranteed even for a very fat person, there is what is called starvation ketosis that can kill by itself (this results when a starved person begins to catabolize stored fat).
I suspect that if he wrote that letter after 75 days then someone along the line is slipping some protein and carbohydrate into his hydration solutions.
Tears too. But also, so much for that “when they love their children…” racist BS.
I hope this goes viral. Brick by brick. [Deliberately propagated] misrepresentation by [deliberately propagated] misrepresentation.
This letter is what Everyman would say to his unseen daughter in similar circumstances. EVERY man.
this letter will be archive in history books.
Will this be in those history books alsoIn return,
“Palestinian prisoners’ leaders have “signed a commitment to completely halt terrorist activity inside Israeli prisons”, including recruitment, practical support, funding and co-ordination of operations, according to a statement released by the Israeli security agency, Shin Bet.”
From the linked article below
The hunger strike is OVER:
link to guardian.co.uk
Israeli govt official has confirmed deal has been signed.