Describing Israel as "an illusion of dust"... The prisoner Mahmoud Al-Ardah defies the occupation in the military court in Nazareth

Nablus

- “We wanted to tell the world that this monster is an illusion of dust.” A phrase that Palestinian prisoner Mahmoud al-Ardah said before his trial session yesterday, Monday, along with his comrades, the five prisoners of the “Freedom Tunnel.” It met with great resonance and occupied its place on the Palestinian and international levels, especially as it coincided with what The city of Al-Assir Al-Adra (Jenin) is subjected to an Israeli siege and continuous incursions and attacks.

The prisoner Al-Adra said those words and was beaten by the Israeli police who brought him and the other prisoners to take them to court and protect them from any external aggression, but they suppressed him so that he did not complete his speech.

But he did not comply with their orders, and from inside the courtroom and before the verdict was pronounced, he continued his speech, saying, "I am proud of what I have done because I am a human being and a person without freedom is not a human being. I am under occupation and I have the right to be liberated by all means, and you are occupying our land and our holy sites, and it is our right as a people to be free."

A banner with pictures of the model and the five prisoners who escaped from the Israeli Gilboa prison (Al Jazeera Net)

The shocking escape to Israel

The statements of prisoner Mahmoud Al-Ardah came during a trial session for the six prisoners in the Israeli military court of Nazareth, north of the occupied Palestinian interior in 1948.

The name "Freedom Tunnel" was associated with a successful escape of 6 Palestinian prisoners who managed to dig a tunnel under the Israeli Gilboa prison in the north and escape outside it, before the occupation re-arrested them days after the escape operation last September.

The six prisoners are from the Jenin governorate in the northern West Bank. They are Mahmoud al-Ardah, his cousin Muhammad al-Ardah, Yaqoub Qadri, Ayham Kammji, and Munadel Nafi`at, who are from the Islamic Jihad Movement, and the prisoner Zakaria al-Zubaidi, commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah movement in Jenin camp.

Hanan Al-Khatib, the defense lawyer for the prisoners, quoted in a special statement to Al-Jazeera Net what the prisoners had told the Israeli judge before the verdict was pronounced.

Yaqub Qadri told the judge, "I am proud of what I have done, which is the best historical work in 20 years. I am a student of freedom and nothing more. You brought us back to the history that you suffered from. The Jews fled from Hitler's Nazi ghettos. Don't the Palestinians have the right to what you are entitled to?"

As for Ayham Kammaji, he said, "My goal was to visit the grave of my mother, who had a heart attack, in the Israeli Salem Military Court, during my brother's court session, because of her great sadness. Thank God, I was able to do that and I do not regret it."

While Muhammad Al-Ardah only commented, "You have no justice, I was and I will remain free."

Freedom and victory for Jenin

Lawyer Hanan Al-Khatib told Al-Jazeera Net that the Israeli judge listened to each lawyer assigned to a prisoner in private, and then the prisoner had the last word, and the sentencing session was set for next May 22.

The Palestinian lawyer added that the prisoners’ defense committee confirmed that they were prisoners who demanded freedom and that their goal was freedom and return to their families, and they had no intention of compromising Israel’s security, although they could have done so if they wanted, as they passed through many compounds and Jewish cities and the Israeli security forces were close to them .

And she added that the Israeli Prison Authority administration punished the prisoners by isolating them, depriving them of their basic rights, and subjecting them to intense surveillance and guarding, noting that they live in poor detention conditions.

She also said that every prisoner has the right to think about freedom, noting that there are European countries that do not consider escape a criminal offense punishable by law.

Regarding the statement of the prisoner Mahmoud Al-Ardah, Hanan Al-Khatib said that he wanted to confirm their steadfastness, and that Israel is an occupying country that occupied the land and the holy sites, and that they, as prisoners, have the right to think about freedom in various ways.

word tag

As soon as the prisoner Mahmoud Al-Ardah uttered his words, the various media picked them up and spread like wildfire on social media, where activists circulated them extensively and used the hashtag (marking) #The Beast, especially as it coincided with what is being experienced in the city of Jenin, from which the six prisoners are from.

Young Ahmed Ateeq turned the prisoner’s words to the model, then commented, “The hero Mahmoud Al-Ardah.” As for Samed Sanubar, he commented, “Mahmoud is a patriotic leader and a unique mentality. We would not have known him without the legendary act that he did. It is unfortunate that he remains a captive.”

As for the plastic artist, Muhammad Saba'neh, he wrote on his blue wall on Facebook, "We wanted to tell the nation that this monster (the occupation) is made of dust, the free Mahmoud Al-Ardah."