PALESTINIAN PRISONERS AWAIT LIGHT

By Saleh Jadallah

GAZA STRIP, April 13 (Bernama) – The families of about 7,500 Palestinian
prisoners held under intolerable conditions in Israeli jails hold a weekly
sit-in demanding their release.

Holding pictures of the prisoners, they gather in front of the International
Red Cross headquarters in Gaza City every Monday, declaring that they will not
give up until all their sons, husbands, fathers, and relatives are set free.

Among them is the family of Emad Al-Saftawi, 47, captured by Israeli forces
while trying to leave the Gaza Strip and enter Egypt at the Rafah border
crossing in 2000.

As his wife was pregnant when he was arrested, Emad, who was sentenced to 18
years imprisonment, has only seen his daughter, Leen, when she visited his
prison with his bereaved elderly mother.

His wife has never visited him in jail, but his sons, Hamza and Jihad, had
visited their father once when they were under 12 years.

The Israeli authorities prevent people older than 12 years from visiting
prisoners in the jails.

The visiting process was made more complicated after Palestinian militants
captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit during a raid on an Israeli army site in
the southern Gaza Strip in 2006.

Since then, Israel has prevented, without exception, all family members of
Palestinian prisoners from visiting their sons and relatives.

Emad's children cannot bear the pain of not having seen their father for the
last five years.

Leen, who last saw her father when she was four years old, is very eager to
meet him again and see him safely at home.

"I have the right to see my father as any child in the world. I want to kiss
his face and I want to play with him," said the schoolgirl.

The mother of Palestinian prisoner Bilal Al-Adeeni held the picture of her
son and shouted: "Shalit will never see the light until our sons see the light,"
referring to the captured Israeli soldier.

“All the world talks about one Israeli soldier who was captured while
killing our children, and they forget that we have thousands of prisoners in
Israeli jails," said the grief-stricken mother, whose son was sentenced to 25
years of imprisonment in 2001.

Also, a three-and-a-half-year old girl, Heba Hanoon, was among the
participants in the sit-in.

She does not know her father, Nidal, who was captured when she was 3 months
old.

But like the others, she would continue to wait for his release for as long
as it takes.