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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/palestinian-prisoner-khalida-jarrar-in-her-own-words-the-age-of-freedom-will-come/">http://www.ramzybaroud.net/palestinian-prisoner-khalida-jarrar-in-her-own-words-the-age-of-freedom-will-come/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Palestinian Prisoner Khalida Jarrar in
her own Words: The Age of Freedom Will Come - Politics for the
People</h1>
February 20, 2020 </div>
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<p><strong>By Ramzy Baroud</strong></p>
<p>Khalida Jarrar is a Palestinian feminist, a lawyer,
educator and an elected parliamentarian. Over the years,
she came to symbolize Palestinian popular resistance in
the occupied West Bank, enraging the Israeli occupation
authorities that arrested her repeatedly.</p>
<p>Despite her failing health, as she is suffering from
multiple ischemic infarctions and hypercholesterolemia,
the 57-year-old feminist leader was thrown in jail, and
placed in solitary confinement on many occasions.</p>
<p>After her release from prison in February 2019, she was
rearrested in October, and is currently held under a
precarious Israeli law known as ‘administrative
detention’. This law is inconsistent with international
law and the most basic requirements of fair trial in
democratic countries, as prisoners are incarcerated for
prolonged periods, without charge or due process.</p>
<p>Between her release and re-arrest, Jarrar contributed a
Foreword to my latest book, <a
href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">These Chains
Will Be Broken</a>: Palestinian Stories of Struggle
and Defiance in Israeli Prisons. Expectedly, her
articulated message was that of the strength of
character, determination, courage, and hope.</p>
<p>Below are excerpts of Jarrar’s Foreword, where she
urges people around the world to “carry and communicate”
the stories of Palestinian prisoners so that “someday,
the walls of every prison may come tumbling down,
ushering in the age of Palestinian freedom.”</p>
<p><strong>The Age of Palestinian Freedom Will Come</strong></p>
<p><b>By Khalida Jarrar</b></p>
<p>Prison is not just a place made of high walls, barbed
wire and small, suffocating cells with heavy iron doors.
It is not just a place that is defined by the clanking
sound of metal; indeed, the screeching or slamming of
metal is the most common sound you will hear in prisons,
whenever heavy doors are shut, when heavy beds or
cupboards are moved, when handcuffs are locked in
position or loosened. Even the bosta — the notorious
vehicles that transport prisoners from one prison
facility to another — are metal beasts, their interior,
their exterior, even their doors and built-in shackles.</p>
<p>No, prison is more than all of this. It is also stories
of real people, daily suffering and struggles against
the prison guards and administration. Prison is a moral
position that must be made daily, and can never be put
behind you.</p>
<p>Prison is comrades — sisters and brothers who, with
time, grow closer to you than your own family. It is
common agony, pain, sadness and, despite everything,
also joy at times.</p>
<p>In prison, we challenge the abusive prison guard
together, with the same will and determination to break
him so that he does not break us. This struggle is
unending and is manifested in every possible form, from
the simple act of refusing our meals, to confining
ourselves to our rooms, to the most physically and
physiologically strenuous of all efforts -, the open
hunger strike. These are but some of the tools which
Palestinian prisoners use to fight for, and earn, their
very basic rights, and to preserve some of their
dignity.</p>
<p>Prison is the art of exploring possibilities; it is a
school that trains you to solve daily challenges using
the simplest and most creative means, whether it be food
preparation, mending old clothes or finding common
ground so that we may all endure and survive together.</p>
<p>In prison, we must become aware of time, because if we
do not, it will stand still. So, we do everything we can
to fight the routine, to take every opportunity to
celebrate and to commemorate every important occasion in
our lives, personal or collective.</p>
<p>I am honored to be part of<a
href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> this book</a>,
sharing my own story and writing this preface.</p>
<p>In this book, you will delve into the lives of men and
women, read intimate stories that they have chosen to
share with you, stories that may surprise you, anger you
and even shock you. But they are crucial stories that
must be told, read and retold.</p>
<p>The stories in this book are not written to shock you,
but rather to illustrate even a small part of the daily
reality endured by thousands of men and women, who are
still confined within high walls, barbed wire and metal
doors. When you read this book, you will have a frame of
reference that will enable you to imagine, now and
always, what life in an Israeli prison is like.</p>
<p>And every story, whether included in this book or not,
is not a fleeting experience that only concerns the
person who has lived it, but an event that shakes to the
very core the prisoner, her comrades, her family, and
her entire community. Each story represents a creative
interpretation of a life lived, despite all the
hardship, by a person whose heart beats with the love of
her homeland and the longing for her precious freedom.</p>
<p>Each individual narrative is also a defining moment, a
conflict between the will of the prison guard and all
that he represents, and the will of the prisoners and
what they represent as a collective, capable, when
united, of overcoming incredible odds.</p>
<p>In actuality, these are not just prison stories. For
Palestinians, the prison is a microcosm of the much
larger struggle of a people who refuse to be enslaved on
their own land, and who are determined to regain their
freedom, with the same will and vigor carried by all
triumphant, once-colonized nations.</p>
<p>The suffering and the human rights violations
experienced by Palestinian prisoners, which run contrary
to international and humanitarian law, are only one side
of the prison story. The other side can only be truly
understood and conveyed by those who have lived these
harrowing experiences.</p>
<p>This book will allow you to live part of that
experience by briefly touching the inspiring human
trajectory of Palestinian men and women who have
subsisted through defining moments, with all of their
painful details and challenges.</p>
<p>Here, you can imagine what it feels like to lose a
loving mother while being confined to a small cell, how
to deal with a broken leg, to be left without family
visitation for years at a time, to be denied your right
to education and to cope with the death of a comrade.</p>
<p>While you will learn of the numerous acts of physical
torture, psychological torment, and prolonged isolation,
you will also discover the power of the human will, when
men and women decide to fight back, to reclaim their
natural rights and to embrace their humanity.</p>
<p>indeed, these are the stories of men and women who have
collectively decided never to break, no matter how great
the pressure and the pain.</p>
<p>I would like to conclude by saluting every female and
every male prisoner who is eagerly awaiting the moment
of their freedom and the freedom of their people. I
salute those whose stories are written in this book and
I thank them for allowing us a window into an intimate,
painful chapter of their lives.</p>
<p>As for those whose stories were not conveyed here,
simply because there are thousands upon thousands of
personal narratives left untold, you are always in our
hearts and minds.</p>
<p>Dear reader, please play your part, by <a
href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">listening to
and conveying</a> the stories of Palestinians, whether
of those who are captive in Israeli prisons or those
suffocating under Israeli occupation. Carry and
communicate their message to the world so that, someday,
the walls of every prison may come tumbling down,
ushering in the age of Palestinian freedom.</p>
<p><i>– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The
Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books.
His latest is “</i><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><i>These
Chains Will Be Broken</i></a><i>: Palestinian
Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons”
(Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident
Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and
Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU).
His website is </i><a
href="https://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><i>www.ramzybaroud.net</i></a></p>
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