« Thematic Highlights

Prison

Professor Sami Adwan
PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East) Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ [I was] kept inside a prison cell with two soldiers positioned outside the door. The door had a single hole, no more than five centimeters in diameter. The soldiers called out to me and told me that there was a paper that I had to sign. The paper was written in Hebrew and, as I don't know Hebrew, I said, "No, I am not signing a document that I cannot read." He said, "I'll translate it for you." I replied, "Why would I trust you enough to translate it for me? If it states my charge and I sign it, then I will be admitting to that charge." So I refused to sign it […] When I was having this conversation with the officer, however, there was another soldier with him. That soldier asked the officer, "How can we make him sign a paper when he doesn't know what it says?" I'm not sure that I understood exactly what he said, but this is what I assume they were talking about. At that point it was as if the conflict was not between the soldiers and me, but rather between the soldiers themselves. I began to realize that even soldiers wearing the same uniform could have different opinions and ways of thinking. This is what being in prison gave me the opportunity to learn; that I should not look at others and assume that they are all the same. This was an extremely important experience.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Riyad Faraj
Parents Circle-Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I am a refugee of 1948. That year my family came to Deheishe Refugee Camp. That's where I grew up. My family was one of the most harmed by the conflict. It was our fate to resist the occupation in the period starting in 1978. I grew up to find my older brother in jail, and my other brother as well. I was arrested when I was 14. The first intifada started in 1984, and we spent that period in and out of jail. I don't recall a day between 1984 and 1990 in which we, the six brothers, were gathered in the same place. We are six brothers and a sister. We didn't all see each other between '84 and '90 outside of jail.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Walid Salem
Panorama Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ This is part of my past and I have forgotten about it, but in 1975 I was detained for being a member of the political wing of the Arab Communist Ba'th party. The detentions in the eighties were for being charged with being a member of the DFLP [Democratic Front For the Liberation of Palestine], although I never admitted to it. In '91 I was charged with being a member of the higher central committee of the DFLP. According to the DFLP, it was considered a betrayal to admit you were a member, since it considered itself a secret movement. Admitting you were a member was considered a betrayal of your country and of the DFLP. Of course there were members that would confess, but the higher ranked leadership of the Front would never confess. I was considered one of those leaders, that's why I was committed not to confess.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Walid Salem
Panorama Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ […]I was always involved in the political wing, I was never part of the militant wing; I never shot a bullet or learned how to use a weapon, which explains why my detention periods were not very long, relatively. The sum of the time I was in detention was five years, whereas the militant activists were detained for longer periods.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Ariel Huler
Seeds of Peace Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Even though you know, or you think you know, you can always know more. In my group [when I was a facilitator at the Seeds of Peace summer camp] there was one Palestinian kid who was once taken for an investigation at the police. According to his story he was treated very badly. I became more familiar on the emotional level with the issues of Palestinian prisoners. I got a sense then that way too many people are put in jail. This is the sense I got from people who were in my group. This was very strong to hear from the kids, they are 14-15 years old.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Ali Abu Awwad
Bereaved Families Forum, Al Tareek (The Way) Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ At that age I was highly motivated, so I began to read more and become more attached to politics. Despite my arrest, I continued my studies, and when I began my studies at university eight months later, I was arrested for the second time and sentenced for ten years, out of which I spent four years in jail. At that time, my mother was also in prison. She was arrested a few months prior to my arrest, and when I used to visit her, I couldn’t embrace her, because we were both prisoners separated by bars. Even the police officer that was present at the time couldn’t hold back her tears. ”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Sarah Karajeh
Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ During my studies at the university I was a member of the student youth movement and was arrested by the Israeli occupation forces in 1989 with the charge of resisting the occupation. I married a colleague of mine from university, and in 1991, during the first month of our marriage we were arrested. I was arrested, interrogated and released after a few days, but my husband was placed under administrative detention because he had a history of struggling and had previously been arrested thirteen times. During the Al Aqsa intifada he was assassinated by the Israeli intelligence forces. He became a martyr on the 14th of May 2002.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Riyad Faraj
Parents Circle-Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I fought and was in jail for 6 years and 10 months. I got nothing. Just the opposite -- I lost my dream. I lost my brother and my father and didn't get anything. Another person will lose his brother and parents and will get nothing. Some have lost their children. So I started thinking of a way other than resistance. I started thinking of a way to convince my enemy to believe in my rights. If I keep thinking with the logic of resistance, there will be no one left to resist.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Professor Sami Adwan
PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East) Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I was imprisoned in 1993 in "Ansar Three" prison in the Negev [...] My imprisonment affected me in many ways. During my studies in the United States, both for a Masters degree and a Ph.D., I never took a class in which I knew there were Jewish students. If I knew that some of the students attending were Jewish, I would avoid the class or drop it. I simply did not want to study with Jews. I had no interest in that. In the seventies and eighties, our concept of Jews in general, and our experience with Israelis in particular, was as follows: they are the reason for my suffering, my misery, and the situation in which I find myself; they are the reason why the world has neglected me, the reason for the misery I experience every day when I go to school, etc. For this reason, I felt better about withdrawing from any course in which Jews were present.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Professor Sami Adwan
PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East) Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Later, when we were being transferred from Thahiriyyeh [detention center to the prison in the] Negev, one soldier insisted that we remain handcuffed and blindfolded while another soldier gestured as if to say that it was OK to take the blindfolds off and look outside. It was summer - July - and it was very hot and the way from Thahiriyyeh to the Negev is long. The officer had said that we could not go near the water faucet, so one of the soldiers forbade us from drinking. After the officer left, however, another soldier told us that we could go over to the faucets and drink. This was another personal experience that taught me not to assume that all people are alike. At the same time, it gave me the idea that dialogue and encounters could offer a better solution to the conflict than avoidance, neglect, or denial.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Walid Salem
Panorama Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I was imprisoned for a year and a half while in university; 76 days of which I was in interrogation chambers--but I didn't confess. With all that, it took me eight years to finish my studies instead of four. After that I worked as a journalist in eleven newspapers and magazines for almost eleven years. All of them got closed down by occupation forces. At the time I was still politically active with Palestinian organizations that opposed occupation and all those newspapers and magazines had strong political agendas against occupation. The last time I was administratively detained was for a total of one and a half years in six months intervals.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Sarah Karajeh
Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ During my arrest in 1989, very active lawyers from the Peace Now movement used to visit me while I was in detention at the Russian Compound and in prison in Tel Mond. Good relations with them were formed which lasted even after my release. Even before my arrest I had relations with an Israeli lawyer who defended human rights and Palestinian youth. I used to say to my friends, relatives and those who were arrested in the Hebron area that this lawyer was the best choice for defending the arrested, because he was a person who believed in human rights and treated us as humans. I had great respect for this person, and my relations with the Israeli lawyers continued.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Professor Sami Adwan
PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East) Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Being in prison, however, made me think in a different way. I realized that denial could not help me, or anyone else for that matter. What had the potential to aid understanding was not avoiding or ignoring the other, but rather discovering, speaking with, and coming to know him. For Palestinians, and for me as one of them, it can be difficult to differentiate between an Israeli as an occupier and soldier and an Israeli as a civilian. It is difficult to differentiate between the settler and the soldier, and so forth. This causes a problem for Palestinians and for me, personally. If I talk with an Israeli, is he the same person who was once a soldier arresting me or demolishing my home with a bulldozer? Or perhaps he is a settler or a former soldier or a soldier-to-be? It is this diversity, this range of the different faces of Israelis, that makes it difficult for Palestinians to understand precisely what you mean when you say 'Israeli.'”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Riyad Faraj
Parents Circle-Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I spent 36 months in the [prison in the] Negev and all I saw was sand. When a female soldier passed we thought she was an alien or something! Scorpions would mingle in our food. It was horrible what we saw there. They didn't confine us, they only made us think about the future of our children. I mean, I paid the price. So did my brother and father. So that was the motive -- there's no need for my child to have to pay the price as well. It's not about giving up but about forgiveness. It's about what's good for the future.”  [Source in Complete Interview]