When the prisoner reaches his weakest state, the tongue slips at the first word; Then the rosary is broken, and the story is complete for them (Shutterstock)

Torturing souls can be more cruel than torturing bodies. Israeli torture masters have devised many means to oppress prisoners, break their hearts, and destroy their morale.

This is what is explained in the novel written by the freed prisoner Walid Al-Hodali after an experience in Israeli prisons that lasted 14 years, where he was arrested in 1979 for a year on charges of forming a guerrilla group to resist the occupation. He was then rearrested in 1988, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The Israeli occupation army also arrested his wife and daughter in 2006, and his wife remained in prison for 3 years. He wrote this novel in 2003 in Ashkelon and Hadrem prisons, and the prisoners were able to smuggle it abroad.

This novel opens new areas for depicting the prisoner’s human feelings, and explains that the prisoner’s steadfastness in the interrogation rooms and his insistence on not revealing the secrets of the resistance; It is no less important than steadfastness on the battlefield, and it also provides realistic testimony that demonstrates the cruelty, sadism, and racist crimes of the interrogators.

Therefore, encouraging Palestinian prisoners to write their stories is an important means of resistance, building the nation’s awareness of the nature of the enemy, and the beginning of a new phase in the struggle against physical and psychological torture. As a crime against humanity and civilization.

The phenomenon of birds prompted prisoners to remain silent for a long time, at a time when people need friendship, friendliness, and conversation with others. This phenomenon became a means of torturing prisoners, especially in the period preceding the trials.

Breaking into the forbidden circle

The novel begins with the arrest of Amer, Ibrahim, and Nabil after a heroic commando operation in which they opened fire on a car of Israeli soldiers. Their car rolled into the valley.

In the interrogation rooms, which lasted 90 days, the Israeli investigators used many methods of psychological violence, the most important of which was exhaustion, until the prisoner reached a lack of concentration and psychological weakness. With the aim of breaking into the forbidden circle that contains his secrets and feelings.

When the prisoner reaches his weakest state, the tongue slips with the first word; Then the rosary is broken, and the story is complete for them.. This is what the prisoner Amer, who has long experience in confronting physical violence, was exposed to. He was subjected to all types of torture during his first detention period, which lasted five years. He trained the guerrillas on how to confront the methods of Israeli investigators. But that experience was not enough to confront new methods of psychological torture.

Circumstances also changed after the Palestinian Authority, after Oslo, coordinated security with the Israeli occupation army, and this authority provided a lot of information about the guerrillas to Israel, which helped the Israeli investigators to deceive the prisoners that they knew everything about them.

The phenomenon of birds

The Israeli occupation has also increased its use of the bird phenomenon. Which began to raise fear among the prisoners, by placing spies inside the prisons who claimed to belong to the resistance, and who conveyed secrets to the investigators. This led to mistrust among the prisoners, and increased their psychological torment.

It is clear that this phenomenon was exported by Israel to the dictatorial authorities in the Arab world. It was not limited only to prisons; Rather, it spread outside it; Which led to revealing the secrets of Islamic movements and fabricating cases, especially after the courts relied on secret memos, not disclosing sources of information, and using this information to issue high sentences on the accused.

The phenomenon of birds prompted prisoners to remain silent for a long time, at a time when people need friendship, friendliness, and conversation with others. This phenomenon became a means of torturing prisoners, especially in the period preceding the trials.

Faith in the face of psychological torture

But the prisoner Amer provides us with the most important means of confronting psychological torture. Where he unleashed his heart in the world of “God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs,” so he raised the pace of the challenge with his faith, and prepared himself for the battle with the investigators. The sincere feelings of faith grew in his chest, opening up to him a vast world of sublime feelings, where the joys of the heart intersect with the preserving presence of God.

The interrogation with Amer continued for a long period, during which the investigators deliberately exhausted his mind with questions, threats, and sleep deprivation, so he became in extreme distress and distress, and in a barrier between sleep and wakefulness.

His head became heavy, the ground was shifting beneath him, and things were spinning, but he would catch a quick period of sleep, after which he would feel amazingly comfortable. However, the investigators would not allow him to do so. They were waging a soft psychological war against him.

Lights shine in the heart

Amer confronted their psychological war with a wonderful idea: I will flood my heart and soul with the remembrance of God. There is no god but God. There is no god but God in the heart. God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs. And when Amer began to drink the meanings of the remembrance of God, the lights would shine in his heart, dissipating the hordes of their words. Al-Hawfa.. Amer felt that God was close to him with His protection, kindness, and mercy. God does not abandon His saints, He remembers them as they remember Him. It gives them reassurance that touches their hearts.

Amer’s heart was filled with the sweetness of the imminent victory over these criminals who are creative with all their deception and deceit.. Amer’s experience in facing psychological torture was inspiring to all free people, as he offers them a solution and stimulates their imagination. He says to them: Man needs to turn to God... Be with God and you will see God with you. Amer continued to mention God with his tongue and heart.

Amer remembered our master Bilal, and the infidels were torturing him in the Batha of Mecca, and he was repeating: “One of the other.” So he began to see in his internal and external surroundings nothing but Sunday with his kindness, grace, and preservation, and he saw the other side of this distress, the side of the kindness of the Lord, which never ceases to be appreciated... the gift that accompanies adversity... the gift of these outbursts of faith that have begun to touch his heart, and fill the sides of his conscience. .

The investigators were at a loss to explain the word “Ahud, Ahud,” which Amer constantly repeated, which made him more steadfast, so he did not answer their questions. As for him, he began to feel like a soul without a body. Now he knows the meanings of faith. He tastes it with all his feelings, smells its aroma, and is happy with its reassurance.

Amer woke up from his praises that had taken him far away, and the investigators surrounded him like a poisonous snake surrounding its prey. They began to attack them from all sides like a pack of wolves with their fangs at a meek lamb. They took off their fake masks, and their tongues began to scoop from their hateful depths.

Faith and the struggle of wills

Amer says: The prisoner’s weapons or swords in this battle are a strong will that is rooted in the fertile soil of his faith, and a bright experience that burns in his mind, and stands on the lookout for all their cunning tricks... Therefore, Amer saw the faces of the interrogators who were appalled by his steadfastness, and hatred appeared in these faces, as if they were The leaders of Banu Qurayza, An-Nadir, and Qaynuqa, when they were meeting to conspire against the Islamic call.

Investigator Shlomo Amer explained that he is a man of thought and faith... Therefore, our defeat will be crushing, when there are many people like him who struggle with this firm faith, and all the temptations and promises that we present to him will not work with him; He knows the Jews, and realizes that we will quickly break our covenants before the ink dries.

As for Amer, he has prepared for the coming rounds in which men’s wills will persevere through the remembrance of God, which sharpens faith. It is the remembrance that confirms the presence of God with all the help, strength, guidance, guidance, and holding fast to God’s strong rope. So beware of neglecting the constant strengthening of the will. Because the conflict is a conflict of wills and a conflict of brains.

What strengthens the will is the strong interaction with Divine Providence. If God is our goal, then remembrance is what inflames the heart with this goal in closeness, companionship, and love. It is a continuous connection between our limited power and the absolute power of God... between the meanings and feelings that make the will like a great mountain, struggling. Their will with all conscience, perseverance, trust and steadfastness.

Return to violence and physical torture

The investigators discovered that psychological torture did not enable them to break the will of the faithful prisoner, so they transferred him to Ashkelon prison, where all methods of physical torture were used, which made Amer feel like a mass of pain after the continuous beatings. Whenever the pain in his body increased, Amer would resort to God in a way. More severe, and repeating Bilal’s immortal saying: “One is one.”

They threatened to kill him, and Amer said: The fools imagine that we take death as seriously as they do... How I long to meet God, and he has been waiting eagerly to join the martyrs.

After ninety days of psychological and physical torture, the investigators felt despair, and the will of the faithful prisoner prevailed, so he was transferred to prison, so that his experience continues to illuminate for free people the path of steadfastness in the face of brute force. The victory of the prisoner means that the resistance will prevail and Palestine will be liberated, and the prisoners will emerge to lead the struggle of their people... It is the truth that This is illustrated by the novel of the imprisoned Palestinian writer Walid Al-Hodali.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.