With a frame that some of his glass was smashed and a plastic rope attached to a nail on the wall, the “orphan” picture of the Palestinian prisoner, Juma Adam, was hung in the reception room of his home in the city of Jericho in the West Bank, and similar pictures of his companion in captivity Mahmoud Abu Kharbish.
These pictures are the live ammunition of the prisoners’ families and their bells blaring in the hope of their freedom, with every news looming of an exchange deal concluded by the resistance “nothing but it”, and with it it will return to the “City of the Moon” (Jericho) its two captive moons in the prisons of the Israeli occupation more than a third of a century ago.
In the room devoid of any decorative appearance or aesthetic images, like any Palestinian "guest room", Younis Adam (Juma's brother) sat telling us about the only image of his brother from inside his detention, and about his long forcible absence, and about the memories of Jericho and its landmarks that are firmly rooted in Juma's mind and are changing reality.
And back to 1992, the story of Juma’s picture goes back, when the occupation authorities allowed Al-Junaid prison in the city of Nablus (northern West Bank) for Palestinian prisoners to take pictures that erase their sadness and loneliness, and relieve their families of the pain of separation.
The only picture of the prisoner Juma Adam in his prison (Al-Jazeera)
Occupation and factors of oppression
Since that time, the joints of Juma'a and his family's life froze, with its sweetness and its bitterness, so the picture - added Younes (50 years) - came to console them and give them patience until the time comes when he gathers their diaspora, and rejoices the heart of his mother, who passed away in 2008 before that, so Juma wrote from his cell saying, "The most difficult situations are And the pain that I experienced in prison was the death of my mother.”
The scene of oppression continued after his death, so his family was denied visitation, and only Younes was allowed through a "security permit" and once a year.
The man shed a tear, and his eyes whitened with sadness and longing for his brother, "whom I ransom with my money, my self and my children, and for him I fight the world," he added.
In 1988, during the first stone uprising, Juma’a, 54, and Abu Kharbish, 56, and the third of them, the liberated captive in the “Shalit deal,” Ahmed al-Takruri, were arrested, after the occupation surrounded the city of Jericho and imposed a curfew in it for 5 days, and began collecting those over 16 years of age in its schools.
After 70 days of investigation, the occupation accused them of "hurling Molotov cocktails at an Israeli bus that was passing through the city center, and causing the killing of Jews", and they were sentenced to life imprisonment and their homes were demolished.
The homes of other citizens of the city were demolished, including the house of “Maryam Al-Takruri” (Jeddah Juma’a), where he was born and raised, as if the occupation wanted to erase every beautiful memory related to Juma’a.
On the Palestinian level, Jumaa and his companions from the old prisoners are living amputations of a different kind and dropping from the official Palestinian political leadership’s agenda, for nothing but because they wanted freedom for their homeland. A few months ago, Ahmed was in his prime.
indifferent
Here, Younis asks about the goals of the revolution if it does not liberate its prisoners, in reference to the Palestinian Authority and leadership, and says, "Has the official framework forgotten the prisoners? If the occupation punishes them, why do we punish them too?"
Although he lost hope in any official effort to bring his brother back, he soon blames the officials for that. Instead, he goes on to accuse the Palestinian leadership of allowing Israel to "dare" the prisoners, by giving it signs to abandon them.
Including: salaries, their indifference to the sick and the old, and the threat to go to the International Criminal Court without direct action, "and no case has been filed in the name of the Liberation Organization or the Authority against the occupation for the sake of the prisoners."
Israel is detaining 4,650 Palestinians, including 25 old prisoners (before the Oslo Accords), 30 female prisoners, 160 children, and more than 500 sick prisoners.
Hajja Faddah Al-Salem (left) with her family inside her home in Jericho (Al-Jazeera)
Regarding Juma'a's condition in detention, Yunus' information is scarce, as he has not visited him for more than 5 years, and Juma' is rarely allowed to contact his family.
Yunus is investigating the news of his brother from the prisoners released from the Romanim prison, where Juma' is staying, "and my heart terrifies every time I hear the news of the death of a prisoner."
Gomaa challenged the prison guard, and completed his secondary education in prison, and continued, obtaining his bachelor's and master's degrees in political science.
Between freedom and accountability for Israel
Not far from Juma'a's house, Fadda Al-Salem, the mother of the captive Mahmoud Abu Khrbish, was waiting to meet us at her home in the Ain Al-Sultan camp.
With her body burdened with diseases, the eighty-year-old woman drags her iron crutch to sit on her chair and in the middle of the house yard, where she embraces the image of her captive son and prays to God “to protect him and bring him back safe” and to hold him to her chest before her death.
And if there is something that feels the agonizing need for the Palestinian officials’ indifference and lack of pressure to release Mahmoud and his peers, it relies more on an “exchange deal brought about by the resistance,” and until then it is patient with any news about it.
Eid Brahma: The two prisoners, Jumaa and Abu Kharbish, are the prisoners of all the Palestinians and the common factor among all the prisoners (Al-Jazeera)
Eid Brahma, the general manager of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club in Jericho (an official institution), as he takes us in his vehicle to the “koutchuk” tree (a forest tree) in the Al-Duk area, describes the two prisoners Juma’a and Abu Khrabeesh as “the prisoners of all Palestinians and the common factor among all prisoners.”
Brahma - who spent 5 years with the two prisoners in Israeli prisons - holds all Palestinians responsible for their liberation, and does not hide at the same time that the world, Arabs and non-Arabs, stands idly by towards the prisoners and their cause.
At the local level, the prisoners - according to Brahma confirms to Al Jazeera Net - lack popular anger and escalation that reaches the point of clashing with the occupation, and a national strategy is absent to advance the issue of prisoners as war crimes before international courts to hold Israel accountable, and worse is that they, as parties concerned with the issue of prisoners, "lack a strategy Unified nationalism” that yields real achievements.
As the oldest city in the world, and with its name "City of the Moon", Jericho is waiting for its oldest moons, the two captives, Jumaa and Abu Kharbish, to return to it as liberators and live the last remnants of the dream of the freedmen.