He was forced to eat toothpaste during his hunger strike.. The oldest prisoner child freed and told the stations of his pain and hope to Al Jazeera Net

Occupied Jerusalem

- “My childhood was lost in the cells of the Mill of Ages.” With these words, the liberated Jerusalemite prisoner, Ahmed Al-Shweiki, described his childhood in Israeli prisons, where he spent 20 years behind bars, during which he lived through severe pain episodes that he was keen to archive in his memory.

In his home in Al-Thawri neighborhood in the town of Silwan, Al-Jazeera.net visited the liberated prisoner to tell him what it means for a person to put a child in prison and release a young man after 20 years.

It was not easy to talk about the details of the day of the arrest, especially that his companion was martyred in front of him. On that day, Al-Shweiki said that he and 5 other minors carried out a shooting attack, as a result of which a settler was killed and two others were wounded.

He added, "Helicopters and dozens of members of the Special Forces surrounded the area after 6 minutes of the operation. Rafiq Derby Samer was martyred, and I was hit by four bullets with my right hand, and in the military jeep I believed with childhood innocence that Samara was alive because his eyes were open, and I asked him what We have to say in the investigation? And after years I realized that not all the dead have their eyes closed at death."

Ahmed refers to the locations of the prisons that are moved between them on the map of Palestine (Al-Jazeera)

Ahmed was 14 years old when he was arrested in 2002. He said that he had gone through the harshest experience of his life in the solitary confinement cell at the Al-Maskobiya Interrogation Center, to which he was transferred after he underwent surgeries in his right hand to extract and splint bullets because he had three fractures.

He said, "I spent 18 days without being allowed to shower. I smelled awful because of the blood and medicines since my injury. They cursed me, tortured me, and threatened me, and I calmed myself down by thinking that the prison would not last more than 6 months... I thought this was the longest sentence of prisoners."

Painful memory

The first years were harsh for Ahmed in the “HaSharon” prison for minors, and from the stories that have not been erased from his memory details of the first hunger strike he undertook while he was 14.5 years old.

About that experience, he said, "I used to think that a person would die 3 days after the strike, and I prayed to my Lord on the fourth day that I die while I was sleeping from the intensity of fear, and indeed we were no longer able to move, me and two minors with me in the cell, and on the fourth day I had to eat toothpaste. And the other kid ate half a rotten lemon that was on the window of our cell."

Ahmed went through more severe experiences than a child could bear, but he spoke about them in a spirit full of hope and strength. During the two decades in which his freedom was robbed behind bars, he was able to obtain a high school diploma and study history, by affiliating with Al-Quds Open University, which he will join in the last semester after his liberation now. .

A group of women flocked to the house of the liberated prisoner to congratulate him (Al-Jazeera)

Concerning the prisoners inside the prisons, he said that they all live in the hope of liberation through a prisoner exchange deal, and that the last month he lived among them was the most difficult for him psychologically, because he felt that liberating him and keeping them behind him was tantamount to “betrayal,” as he described it.

"I wish the intelligence had summoned me for interrogation and put me in solitary confinement in the last month, so that I would not have to say goodbye to people I lived with more than I did with my family members," he said.

Going back six months to talk with Ahmed about the echo of the "Freedom Tunnel" operation inside prisons, he said that the joy of the six prisoners' liberation was overwhelming, because no one feels the value of this freedom except for those who were robbed by force.

In addition to the feeling of joy, all the prisoners were terrified of fear, of the possibility of harming the fleeing prisoners when they were re-arrested.

He said, "When we heard the news of the re-arrest, a state of frustration pervaded all sections of the Negev prison, where I was staying... I remember that I did not talk to anyone for 3 consecutive days, did not play sports and did not listen to the news bulletins."

Ahmed was liberated, but the tales of prisons will remain on his tongue. How can he not while he still feels that he is tied up until now, and this is what his mother, Hala Shweiki, noticed.

I left prison and he didn't leave me

His mother says, "Two days ago, Ahmad took a shower, got dressed and sat on the sofa and did not go out. After about half an hour had passed, I asked him about the reason. He said: I am waiting for the door to be opened for me.. After a few moments, he remembered and said, "I am free. Why am I waiting for the jailer to open the door for me?"

Not only that, but Ahmed slept in the first nights after his liberation, waiting for the jailer’s voice to wake him up in the morning for the “count.” He said, “I went to sleep and said when I wake up for the number, I will tell my sister about something important, and at three in the morning I woke up and remembered that the jailer would not come in the morning.” "How am I going to wake up? Unfortunately the jailers have been my only alarm for 20 years."

Ahmed Al-Shweiki with his parents inside his house in the Al-Thawri neighborhood in the town of Silwan (Al-Jazeera)

Head of the Jerusalem Prisoners’ Families Committee, Amjad Abu Asab, wrote that Ahmed is considered the oldest child in the world to spend this number of years behind bars, and about that, Ahmed wondered, “How can a judge claiming to rule with justice issue an actual prison sentence of 20 years for a child who has not yet reached the age of four?” Ten years old?"

We left the Shweiki family’s house in the wake of a conversation that took place between Ahmed and his mother, who wishes to marry him to settle down and see his children, while Ahmed smiles and says to her, “It is still early, I want to ride a bicycle and learn to play with children with their electronic games.. I did not live my childhood, I want to live it.” Now, mom."