Jenin
- Near her bed, the mother of Palestinian prisoner Mahmoud Al-Ardah puts a "jar" of honey, and says with a smile, "This is from Mahmoud."
We asked her, "Who brought it to you?"
Her smile turned sad, and she said in a stifled voice, "Sherine Abu Akleh...They killed her. May God take revenge on them."
Fathia al-Talawi, the mother of Mahmoud al-Ardah, who was known a year ago as "the architect of the Gilboa prison escape", welcomed us at her home in the town of Arraba, near Jenin in the northern West Bank.
On her back is more than 30 years of fatigue and the hardship of moving between the occupation prisons.
A year ago, Umm Mahmoud was waiting for any news about her son, who was re-arrested with 5 of his companions after Gilboa's "escaping" (on September 6, 2021), until Shireen Abu Aqla came to her, a visitor carrying a package of "honey" on behalf of her son. The captive, and when she found her in a state of fatigue and sadness, she told the mother, "You who left a hero like Mahmoud, do not have to be sad."
A day before this visit, the occupation forces had stormed the house of the Al-Ardah family and arrested everyone in it. The mother was left at home alone, which made her tired and sad.
Her five sons and her sixth daughter, Basma, were all handcuffed amid threats by the occupation intelligence officer to take revenge on Mahmoud and his family.
Sherine's words prompted the 83-year-old mother to gather her strength again.
She is the one who used to invade and threaten the occupation of her home more than 3 decades ago, when Mahmoud was arrested for the first time at the age of 15, followed by his brothers, two of whom spent 20 years in Israeli prisons.
The honey that Sherine carried to Mahmoud's mother has a story;
Before freeing himself by escaping through a tunnel dug and a group of other prisoners under Gilboa prison, he had bought honey from the prison grocer and carried it with him, hoping to reach his mother and present it to her.
When Shireen Abu Aqleh learned of this, and on her first visit to the family home, she carried honey with her and presented it on his behalf.
His brother, Muhammad al-Ardah, said, "Everyone who visited our house after Sherine carried honey as a gift for my mother."
Grief from "Araba" to "Aylon"
In the house of the model, whose walls are decorated with his pictures and pictures of his comrades who became famous as "the heroes of the Freedom Tunnel", everyone shares the talk about Sherine, from the oldest "Umm Mahmoud" to the youngest, "Asinat", who is ten years old, who was complementing her grandmother's talk, and reminding her of "Sherine's video". Which she picked up on one of her family visits.
Muhammad told Al-Jazeera Net, "Shireen was not just a journalist who reported the news of the prisoners and proceeded, but she followed up and was interested in conveying their voice and the suffering of their families with honesty, credibility and patriotism... We were deeply saddened by the news of her martyrdom."
Muhammad recalls the martyrdom of Shireen on May 11, 2022, and how the news came like a thunderbolt to his mother, who spent days following everything that was published about her on television, amid long sadness at the house.
This grief was experienced by Mahmoud doubly in the isolation of Ramle (Ayalon) prison, and he was the one who used to have Shirin present in his court sessions.
Eleven days after her martyrdom, and in a court session for the six prisoners who escaped from Gilboa, Mahmoud Al-Ardah asked his lawyer, Khaled Mahajna, about the crew of Al-Jazeera.
Today, during the trial of the prisoners of the #Tunnel of Freedom, the prisoner Mahmoud Al-Ardah asked me to mention this message during the interventions: Sherine is the written text in front of their falsehood.# Sherine_Abu_Aqleh
— Najwan Simri Najwan Simri (@SimriNajwan) May 22, 2022
Lawyer Mahajna told Al Jazeera Net, "Mahmoud was clearly affected when I indicated to him the presence of Shireen's friend and colleague in the courtroom, and he almost cried."
The model actually held his tears, fearing that the jailer would think that he was crying because of his sentence of five additional years to his first sentence, "99 years".
He also said in a subsequent message of condolence he sent from his isolation in the Israeli "Ramon" prison at the end of last May, to Al-Jazeera broadcaster Tamer Al-Mishal.
Prisoner Mahmoud al-Ardah during his trial on charges of leading the escape of 6 prisoners from the most fortified Gilboa prison (Reuters)
About his tears for Shireen
Mahmoud Al-Ardah said in his condolences, "They prevented the press from entering during the trial and prevented me from visiting the lawyer so that I wouldn't talk about Sherine. Sherine's friend came to the court and I could not talk to her. And I wanted to tell the media, Sherine, the scandalous one who exposed this occupier and exposed his falsehood.”
The model adds, "We are affected by it, and Palestine after Shirin is not what it was before. This is how the novel turns into a human legend, especially if the last of its texts are streaked with blood. Withering or exploding, it fills the universe with light and passes through time.”
Mahmoud also says, "They aimed at the core of the truth... and if Shireen fell, her pen would remain in effect. Farewell, Shireen, and we regret that we only bid farewell to you from the enemy's screens...".
Shirin's humanitarian treatment during her coverage of prisoners' issues in Israeli prisons was not specific to the family of Al-Ardah and the prisoners of the "Freedom Tunnel".
Rather, it was part of her message that she carried for years, which she expressed in a recent interview with her on the 25th anniversary of the launch of Al-Jazeera, about the most prominent things she covered during her career.
Sherine recounted the story of her entry to Ashkelon prison, where her coverage was the first of its kind for an Arab satellite channel.
She said that she reached prisoners behind bars, some of whom have been detained for more than 20 years, and was able to convey their voice to the world.
Then she added, "They were very happy."