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I Need You My Son
by Mazin Qumsiyeh
Driving from Beit Sahour to Birzeit yesterday, I was listening to a program
on radio Falastin titled “Wala Budda LilQayd An Yankasir”. The term is a
verse from a poem that roughly translates that “the chain is destined to be
broken”. The program is a lifeline for the nearly 13,000 Palestinian
political prisoners in Israeli jails to hear from their families outside the
prison walls. Since visitation rights are routinely denied or highly
restricted, family members call in and have three minutes to say something
on air. For those prisoners who have access to radio, it is a way to hear
and connect with their loved ones. I listened for nearly one hour to
impassioned messages and harrowing stories. All the voices I heard were of
women. One woman started her message by saluting women prisoners on
International women’s day and specifically mentioned one leading prisoner, a
friend of hers whom she shared a prison room with the year before. She went
on to encourage all prisoners to be steadfast. Then she directed her
message to her husband, still in prison. Saying encouraging words “I know
you are strong and you can withstand what they do you” “I believe in your
spirit yearning for freedom and justice” etc. She states that she is sorry
that she is unable to visit this time because the authorities told her that
it was a Jewish Holiday of some sort so visits are stopped for this week.
Another woman started with questions that will get no answers perhaps until
the next personal encounter: “How is your health?” “How is your spirit?”
“How are they treating you?” “Are you eating well?”. She then put her
five-year-old child on the phone who said “I miss you daddy,” and “don’t
worry, my mom puts on her seat belt and drives slowly.” Another women tells
her husband to not worry about the family, they are all doing fine and to
just take care of himself then passes the phone to her mother-in-law who
tells her son something along these lines: “How are
you my son Mahmoud? Inshallah [God Willing] your health is good. Inshallah
your spirit is good. Inshallah you will be returned to us safe and sound.
Your father’s funeral went well. Everyone in town came. He died 15 minutes
before I arrived back home… [here she breaks down crying and the announcer
gently encourages her and says “Allah yirhamu” “Allah Yi3azzeekum” etc and
then she continues].. He died 15 minutes before I arrived home from visiting
you. Everyone was there everyone took care of him. I pray to God every day
to bring you back to me. I had you and your father. I need you my son. I
miss you my son….”
That
call made me cry and I turned the radio off for a few minutes as I gathered
my thoughts. But I turned it back on to hear a few more. They are young
women, old women, and a daughter of 10 who spoke with more poise and
articulation than most adults and recited a poem that she had written.
On
the way back from my university course I am a bit more relaxed and enjoying
the beautiful green countryside between Ramallah and Birzeit. The
Palestinian villages unobtrusively on the sides of hills with green fields
stretching before them (a friend said to me it reminded him of the Irish
countryside at this time of year). I try not to think of the settlements on
top of the hills and the slow cancerous growth of these. But I notice I am
running on close to empty tank of gas and I need to find a gas station. All
the gas stations along the main roads in the West bank are Israeli (Colonial
settlements dot the landscape and Palestinians have been herded into
concentration camps called areas A and B while most of the West Bank is area
C being Judaized). I enter the first Gas station in front of the colony of
Ofra and while the lights are on, no one is there. Iconsider what
conversation might have ensued with an attendant at such a gas station. I
move on and try the gas station near next colony (Shaar Binyamin) but when I
entered the gas station and found it also closed, it dawns on me that it is
Saturday and that is why they are closed. Then two fears ran through my
mind that caused me to sweat: What if I run out of gas near a settlement on
a Jewish religious holiday whn those settlers think we should not be
driving? And even worse, what if the soldiers in the towers or security
people at the gates of these settlements see this Palestinian car making a
turn in an empty gas station? With known hair-trigger fingers they could
simply shoot and ask questions later (as they do before). I immediately
detour through an Israeli checkpoint into an area A and barely get to
(sputtering) a Palestinian gas station. Then I arrive home exhausted and a
bit disturbed. But it was good to get home to my family and two Jewish
friends (Allison and Michael) who were visiting us. After a late dinner, we
meet up with more friends; internationals attending a talk on boycotts,
divestments, and sanctions at the Alternative Information Center.
Today Sunday, we are uplifted by the garden, seeing the new flowers of the
lemon trees while harvesting the remaining batch of lemons of the last
growth, the small new fig leaves emerging, the beginning of the almonds, the
vegetables that are starting to take off (beans, spinach, sunflower
seedlings). If the weather predictions are correct, we have one more large
rain fall this week and this would make this winter an average one (as
opposed to really dry winters the last two years). So farmers (and small
home gardeners like us) are encouraged. I only wish we could travel to
Jerusalem today/sunday (Palestinians like us are barred) to join the
demonstration at 2 PM in front of the UNRWA school in Silwan in appreciation
of women's day and to show solidarity with the people of East Jerusalem
(including Silwan) whose homes are being demolished in the continuing
program of ethnic cleansing and changing the character of the ancient city.
That school is also the school in which some students were injured when the
floor caved in because Israel is digging tunnels underneath the remaining
Palestinian areas in Jerusalem. But there are other events in the Bethlehem
area.
In
good news, the Viva Palastina convoy (120 cars and vans etc from Europe) is
near Al-Arish and we hope it will be allowed into Gaza. In other good news,
Mauritania closed the Israeli (apartheid) Embassy and hundreds of protesters
battled authorities using tear gas in Sweden at the Davis Cup tennis
competition where Israeli athletes were scheduled to participate. Today
marked the end of the 5th Israeli apartheid week held this year in over 40
cities around the world and I am sure next year it will be held in 100+
cities. The scenes everywhere around the world are becoming reminiscent of
1980s era of struggle against South African apartheid.
Muslim friends around the world celebrate Mawlad AnNabi (the birthday of
prophet Muhammad, PBUH). May it come to us next year with us closer to
peace and justice in Palestine and around the world.
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