[Pnews] Sa’adat: “I will not accept the price of my freedom to be several meters of the land of Palestine”

[Prisoner News]

  Sa’adat: “I will not accept the price of my freedom to be several
  meters of the land of Palestine”

*http://samidoun.ca/2014/03/saadat-i-will-not-accept-the-price-of-my-freedom-to-be-several-meters-of-the-land-of-palestine/*

*“I refuse to be released on the basis of a ‘condition for negotiations’ 
and I will not accept the price for my freedom to be several meters of 
the land of Palestine, the land that we have fought for and been 
imprisoned for. I refuse to be free on the condition of the expansion of 
settlements. I refuse this offer, not even a single house for Zionist 
settlers will be built as the price of my freedom.” – Ahmad Sa’adat, 
from Gilboa Prison*

In an interview with the Palestinian Information Center, Abla Sa’adat 
(Um Ghassan), Palestinian women’s activist and the wife of imprisoned 
Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa’adat, recounted Sa’adat’s rejection of any 
release on the basis of concessions of Palestinian land and rights, 
expressed to her in their last visit at Gilboa Prison, where Ahmad 
Sa’adat is being held by the occupation.

This came following reports that the release of Sa’adat and Marwan 
Barghouti, other imprisoned Palestinian parliamentarians and sick 
prisoners could be offered in exchange for extended negotiations or 
political cncessions.

In relation to her husband’s position, Abla said, “I have known Ahmad 
before we married and I know his life, and therefore I know and live 
with the knowledge that it is possible to lose him, and that he will not 
change his position on this, and I support this position because it is 
the correct position.” She continued: “Many of her people were martyred 
for the sake of this land, and many have paid dearly over the years for 
the sake of the land of Palestine,, so this land cannot be sacrificed 
for years lived outside of prison.”

Abla Sa’adat condemned the ongoing campaigns of political arrests 
against various factions of the Palestinian resistance, demanding the 
Palestinian Authority to unite with the Palestinian people and to end 
the political arrests which only serve the interests of the Zionist 
occupation, especially as the detainees are often held in a “revolving 
door” between the Authority and the occupation, and their files are 
shared, and this is serving as the employment and assigment of the 
occupier. The occupier finds information readily at its hands. “The 
Sa’adat family suffered from political detention. My husband was 
arrested politically four times before his last arrest by the Authority, 
between the Oslo agreement and the year 2000.

Ahmad Sa’adat denounced the negotiations between the occupation state 
and the PA leadership, Um Ghassan said, noting that he has been against 
these negotiations altogether since before the Oslo agreement and ever 
since. “This is not just an individual position, it is a collective 
position of the Popular Front,” she said.

“This approach is absurd and destructive to the Palestinian cause and 
Palestinian land,” Ahmad said to her, saying that Palestinian officials 
should instead be confronting the Zionist occupation in international 
arenas rather than relying on negotiations “controlled by the Zionist 
occupation and the US administration, the enemies of the Palestinian 
people.”

“Sa’adat’s position on the negotiations is, in fact, the position of the 
Palestinian people and the Palestinian factions, the negotiations only 
benefit ‘Israel’ which perpetuates its assault upon the Palestinian 
people and its just cause,” she said.

Regarding the impact of the years of detention upon their family, she 
noted that their children had been impacted by many years of 
imprisonment and living underground from the pursuit of occupation 
forces. During the years Sa’adat was held in the PA prison in Jericho, 
Abla said, “we had continuous contacts, he saw the children on an 
ongoing basis, but the last eight years were very difficult, including 
three years of solitary confinement where he saw none of us and received 
none of our communication except through his lawyer.” She said that this 
was one of the most difficult periods of his arrest, but that after he 
left isolation following the achievements of the Karameh hunger strike 
of 2012, he was only able to receive visits from Abla and their one son, 
Ghassan, due to them holding Jerusalemite identity and his other 
children have been denied visits repeatedly.

“It was very difficult to not have Abu Ghassan in our lives; there were 
many events where we really longed for his presence. For example, our 
children graduated from university without their father being with 
them…Ghassan and his sister Iba have both been married and their father 
could not attend their weddings,” she said.

“I believe that we and all of the families of the Palestinian prisoners 
are living in the same circumstances…we are not the only ones who are 
suffering and living from this experience.”

Ahmad Sa’adat had further messages from prison, Abla said: “The issue 
that grips him most in prison is the general situation of the 
Palestinian cause, especially the internal Palestinian division. He has 
always maintained in every message from inside prison that Palestinian 
unity is necessary to confront the Zionist occupier and the basis for 
the victory of the Palestinian people.”

He also urged the activation of campaigns to call for the victory of the 
prisoners, explaining the suffering of the prisoners, their cases, and 
making this cause an international issue, particularly highlighting the 
issues of sick prisoners and child prisoners, Um Ghassan said.

“Abu Ghassan always has hope in his heart,” she said. “Ahmad says, 
‘People always rise to freedom and to revolution, and I am in prison to 
carry on the march of struggle outside the prison walls.’”

“Ahmad Sa’adat has engaged in constant struggle within the prison, 
organizing with other detainees and making them aware of struggle 
outside, strengthening the positions of prisoners inside. The occupation 
is aware of this issue and he has been transferred repeatedly to 
different prisons,” she said.

The released prisoners from all Palestinian factions consistently 
discuss the role of prisoners in the national struggle, in addition to 
the forms of struggle inside the prison, she said. She noted that on a 
personal level that “Even at the level of health, the prisoners struggle 
to maintain their health so as to not go to the clinic of the Zionist 
enemy.”

At the end of the interview, Sa’adat called for the Palestinian people 
and their allies everywhere to not be silent about what is happening; 
the reality is that the occupation is still on the ground and increasing 
its attacks. “We must return to resistance, as it is the only option to 
restore our dignity, our freedom, our prisoners and our land,” she said.

-- 
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