The father of the martyr Ishtasem and his mother scream: Is not it right to be buried?

Fadi Al-Asa-Hebron

For nearly 100 days, the father of Wa'el al-Jabari, from the southern West Bank city of Hebron, continues his solitary confinement in a tent he has set up in the center of the city to retrieve the body of his son who has been detained by the Israeli occupation since September 2018.

"My son and son are in a refrigerator like this, and in this cold and painful atmosphere, is not it right for him to be buried like the rest of the martyrs?" The father's story began when his wife was standing in front of the refrigerator in their house, two weeks after the occupation killed her son.

He entrusted himself
Abd al-Fattah al-Ja'bari, known as Abu al-Raed, the father of the martyr Wael, told Al-Jazeera Net that since his wife's talk, he has vowed to sit in the heart of Hebron until the body of his martyred son is released and there are 38 people living the same feeling and dreaming about their unborn children.

Abu al-Raed, 63, could not spend all his time in the tent. His open-hearted heart surgery requires him to go see the doctor from time to time to bring his medicine so his health will not get worse.

Jaabari often sleeps alone in his tent to convey his message that his son's body must be delivered. The protestors come from the families of the martyrs and the institutions that organize the events demanding the handover of the bodies, but he believes that the marches and stops do not reach the required level.

Al-Ja'bari will not end his sit-in if the occupation recognizes the body of his son. He will remain silent, raising the voice of the families of the martyrs who are being held. There is no way to convey his message except through the official channels, addressing officials in the Palestinian Authority.

Al-Jabari called on the world to support the martyrs and support them, because the martyrs are leaving life for the homeland, and the homeland must stand with them.

37 stems in refrigerators
The Jabari sit-in opens the file of martyrs held by the Israeli occupation, which numbered 37 martyrs, despite the suspicion that four of the bodies were transferred to the graves of numbers.

Salwa Hammad of the national campaign to recover the bodies of martyrs held - Aljazeera.net - The oldest martyr detained body was recorded in 1964, and there are 253 martyrs are still held in the graves of numbers, and also called because the bodies buried without name but a number placed by the occupation.

Since its establishment in 2008, the campaign has been working on multiple levels of recovery. There are legal directives to instruct the families of the martyrs to follow up the files before the occupation courts, as well as organizing public and official events and stops to keep the file open.

Why detention?
The occupation justifies its continuation in the detention of the bodies. This paper may be used to pressure the resistance in Gaza in any future exchange deal, especially the martyrs who caused the killing of soldiers or settlers or painful blows to the occupation in the West Bank and Jerusalem or simply belonging to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The legal proceedings for the handover of the bodies have been completely suspended since July 17, 2018, in the High Court of Justice hearing, which did not respond to the request of the lawyers to hand over the bodies.

Salwa Hammad describes the psychological condition of the martyrs' families as very bad during the period of detention of the bodies, because the occupation allowed only the families of three martyrs to see them, so her hope remains - and only slightly - that her son did not cite.

Detention hides the causes of murder
Salwa believes that long-term detention also hides the way in which these martyrs were killed or abused before their death, so that these facts become more difficult to understand after a long period of time.

This has already been the case for the Martyr martyr 'Abd al-Rahman Abu al-Jamal from the town of Jabal al-Mukaber, who was martyred and detained by the Israeli occupation before he was extradited on 4 January 2019. The reason for his death was found to be beating, not shooting.

This was confirmed by family lawyer Namir Adelfi - Al Jazeera Net - that he applied to the Israeli occupation court in Jerusalem to investigate the circumstances of his death, and found that he was shot, not shot.

The lawyer asked the court to autopsy the body to resolve the cause of death. The autopsy was done. To date, the report has not been delivered despite legal correspondence.

This makes the door always open to question what the occupation is hiding about how to kill the martyrs.