(1)
When you asked me to tell you my story, I did not know what I could say, and what I could hide, should I reveal everything, and what time would be enough for me to list to you all the details, those victories and defeats, those little things that you go through unnoticed, at a time We are her captives, those long nights that pass and sleep has escaped, only the jailer has been defeated, so I decided not to think much, and to talk.
(2)
What a long time ago, it was 1978 and I was still a teenager with my long hair at the age of nineteen, taking part in attacks on the Israeli occupation army, getting arrested and sentencing.
The hardest thing in prison is its first days, you rethink everything you did, and what happened, then you reach the conviction that a person rises above his goals, and his ability to defeat obstacles, even if it is an impenetrable prison, so I decided not to spend my days in vain waiting for my release, I started working on developing myself, I asked God for help and got addicted to reading.
I read in all political, historical, philosophical and religious fields, I read about all liberation movements in the world, and about contemporary history and people’s experiences, and that helped me a lot in my perseverance.
I invested my love for history and my study of it in helping the prisoners studying at the university, so I would review the lessons with them, and later, after the prison administration allowed us to own a small radio following a strike for us, I spent some time with the radio, following and listening to what was happening on the local and international arenas, according to what I received from stations I can catch.
(3)
I went through many transformations, but in my thirties my life in prison began to take its routine course. I would start my day by praying the night and reading the Qur’an, waiting for the dawn prayer, then I would sleep for a short while until the time that the prison administration had allocated for exercise, then I would return to my cell to spend my time between reading and Talking to my cellmate.
I often used to hold the family album to look at pictures and recall memories, and sometimes I write some thoughts that come to my mind, and when I go out to the prison yard again I meet the other prisoners, and as you know, two Palestinians meet only with politics as the third, and sometimes we enter into conversations about our societal problems, and after they became The oldest of them in captivity, they consulted me with their own problems.
I invested my love for history and my study of it in helping the prisoners studying at the university, so I would review the lessons with them, and later, after the prison administration allowed us to own a small radio following a strike for us, I spent some time with the radio, following and listening to what was happening on the local and international arenas, according to what I received from stations I can catch.
As for the day of the visitation, it is for the captive as a feast day, and I prepare the day before by shaving and showering, and wearing my best clothes, I do not sleep before that, and I keep inventing scenarios for meetings and conversations.
The 45 minutes - which are allotted for the visit - pass quickly, beautiful moments though they are made through soundproof glass, and then I come back to live waiting for the next visit.
My parents pass away, my only sister grows up, and the situation of the country changes, and it hurts that I cannot do more, and I understand that all I have to do is regurgitate the pain and not show signs of fear, defeat, turmoil, or regression on my face.
(4)
33 years pass, yes, no typo, 33 years of captivity, 2011. Surprisingly, I am released as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, known as “Wafa Al-Ahrar”, in which the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was included.
It is impossible to describe how I felt when I returned to freedom and to life again, and how I found my little sister and she grew up to be a grandmother, and how my family and friends became after the absence of these long years.
I had to comprehend the changes of time, and tried to adapt to reality, to rejoice in all that is positive, and not to leave any opportunity for any negativity to affect myself, and I integrated into life strongly. .
The spirit came into me again as I continued to give, and I saw that it was my duty to work on transferring our experiences to the children of the new generation so that they would not repeat our mistakes, and in the meantime I began to arrange my own life, and decided to marry the one I loved and my heart beat for her when I saw her for the first time on TV in 1987, and that's another story.
(5)
She was born in Ramallah in 1970, and her awareness of her brother's participation in the demonstrations against the occupation opens up. She owns the matter completely, and she decides to follow his example and lead the demonstrations at school while she is still the outstanding student in the third year of middle school.
When the Israeli army stormed her school for the first time, she started throwing stones at them, her classmate saved her from a certain bullet when she removed her in time, and at Ramallah High School she continued her struggle until she was arrested as a seventeen-year-old girl.
After her release, she completes her studies, and later is trained to carry out military action on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, but she is arrested before the work can be carried out on November 25, 1987, and she is sentenced to 3 and a half years in prison.
She is transferred to Ramle prison, where other female militants preceded her. Small rooms are hot and crowded with female prisoners, and cockroaches roam at night. Endless altercations between female prisoners and female wardens, one of whom accuses her and a colleague of trying to suffocate a female prison guard, to take a new sentence of 10 years in prison, bringing the total years of her imprisonment to 15 and a half years.
During that period, the Palestinian Intifada took place and the prisoners felt joy that the Palestinian people were resisting, but it was a joy mixed with heartbreak.
Because they cannot participate.
The situation continued until the decision to release female prisoners was part of the Oslo Agreement, after 8 and a half years of imprisonment, but the decision excluded 5 female prisoners, so she and the rest of the female prisoners refused to leave except with the other five, to continue in prison for another year until their demand is met and everyone is released in February February 1997.
While she was in captivity, she appeared on Israeli television to talk about the work she was going to carry out. The occupation forces wanted to showcase their victory by arresting a girl who was going to carry out a military action against them. I knew her name was Iman Nafeh. ".
After her release, I sent my family to ask for her hand, and because she did not know anything about me, she refused the matter, the days passed and she married another person and then separated from him, so I asked for her hand again, this time she asked about me and got to know more, and decided to agree in principle, with the postponement of the official engagement until I got out From captivity and meet face to face, and this is exactly what happened after I was released, but the unexpected happened.
(6)
On the night of June 17, 2014, I was surprised by a decision by the occupation authorities to arrest me again, and the accusation of giving a lecture at a university about my experience in prison, and the Palestinian media’s indication that I was a candidate for the position of Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs in the Palestinian Authority.
Although the military court at Ofer Prison concluded about a year later, while I was in prison, that I had committed no crime since my release, it later reversed its decision and was sent to serve the remainder of my original sentence of life plus 18 years.
(7)
Today I live my forty-first year of imprisonment as a punishment for my desire for freedom and life, do not worry about me, since I was a child, I have made myself firm that I will not raise the white flag, knowing that the secret is not to decide once to fight, but to never stop fighting, is Do you never rest, and all I ask of you is that you tell our stories to your young ones, tell them: Nael Al-Barghouti and his companions ask you upon victory to remember them well.