The Tunnel for Freedom, when six Palestinians escaped from Israel’s notorious Gilboa prison, has become an iconic moment in modern Palestinian history. One year later, the six prisoners have been re-arrested but the unity their daring action inspired lives on.
“Those days of freedom,” Aymen Kamamji’s father tells Mondoweiss, “they were some of the happiest days of our lives.”
On September 1, almost ten days after launching a collective civil disobedience movement in Israeli Prisons, Palestinian political prisoners unite against inhumane prison conditions and snatch a victory from the Israeli Prison Service.
“I am deeply thankful for people who supported me, stood with me, reinforced me, and prayed for me, thank you,” Awawdeh said, after ending his 182-day hunger strike. Awawdeh, who lost more than half his weight during his strike will remain in an Israeli hospital for treatment until his release on October 2.
Israel’s continued detention of Bassam al-Saadi and Khalil Awawdeh is part of its larger campaign to quell Palestinian resistance in recent months.
On Tuesday, an Israeli District court extended the solitary confinement of 20-year-old Palestinian detainee, Ahmad Manasra, for an additional six months. Israeli Prison Services and authorities attempt to justify Manasra’s isolation by claiming that he poses a threat to his own life, but Manasra’s lead defense lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, told Amnesty that “the repeated extensions of his solitary confinement are destroying him.”
Sa’diya Matar died in the Israeli prison of Damon, where she was being detained. Medical negligence in Israeli prisons is killing Palestinians prisoners.
Lawyer and researcher Salah Hammouri appeals to French president Emmanuel Macron from inside Israel’s prisons: “Mr. President, what is the reason behind your double standard in the treatment of people living under oppression?”
Manasra’s lawyers and family have stepped up their campaign to demand his freedom, after years of harsh interrogations and abuse coupled with prolonged stints in solitary confinement which led to a severe deterioration of his mental health.
This is Palestine, the land of martyrs
That embraces the fearless woman, Shireen Abu Akleh
“You were washing the floors just like any other prisoner,” NPR reporter Daniel Estrin says to former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert in a long and respectful interview. But more than 4,000 Palestinian political prisoners are held on different terms by Israel, conditions cited by human rights reports charging apartheid– a charge that was unmentioned by the radio reporter.