Transient Liberty

Jerusalem24 – The occupation forces pursue an arbitrary policy after releasing the prisoners and continue to distract the prisoners even after their release, the occupation authorities re-arrest them for hours or days until they are finally released or until the celebrations are stopped or completely banned.

Everything seemed normal, a few hours separating the prisoner from meeting his family and after years behind bars, only few hours separates him from the joy he longed to feel, and as soon as the prisoner sees his family from a distance and on the way to them from the prison gates, the occupation forces took him again to the investigation rooms under the pretext ” preventing the manifestations of violence in the festivities.”

It is worth noting that this policy is adopted by the occupation forces, with the liberated from Jerusalem in particular, as they arrest them in front of the prison gates. All these occupation measures are nothing but a distraction to the joy of the prisoner and his family on the day of his release.

After spending 14 months of detention in the Negev desert prison, the occupation forces released the prisoner ‘Hammad Abu Maria’, but the occupation intelligence re-arrested the freed prisoner upon his arrival at the ‘Dhahriya’ military checkpoint, although he had received his belongings outside the crossing. Intelligence officers from the occupation army  arrested him and returned him to the crossing.

The house and the neighborhood of the prisoner ‘Malik Bakirat’ was decorated to welcome him after 19 years of imprisonment, but the occupation had another plan, at the gates of the Negev prison the happiness of Malik and his family was stolen as the occupation forces suddenly re-arrested him, a police car came and took him to the Al-Maskobiyya police station without any reasons, and the accusation  is ‘Expression of joy’. After Malik was released, the occupation raided his house, arrested his father, and released him on condition of five days home confinement, and he was forbidden to speak with the media.

The occupation authorities re-arrested Majd Barbar after spending one day among his family, as the occupation forces raided his house and stormed it in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem. It is worth noting that the occupation forces released the Jerusalemite Barbar from the Negev prison after 20 years, to return at the same moment and re-arrest him from the prison gate and force him to sign a pledge not to participate in any activities on the occasion of his release.

In an interview with Jerusalem24, the media spokesman for the Prisoners Authority, Hassan Abd Rabbo said that the policy of temporary re-arrest for hours or days after the end of the sentence for many years, is nothing but a policy of pressure through which the occupation forces seek to deliver warning and threatening messages against any event that violates the laws and regulations of Israel. As for the released prisoners in Jerusalem, they re- arrest them immediately after their release to prevent any popular celebrations and receptions, which kills the state of joy, and hospitality.

The head of the Jerusalem Prisoners Committee, Amjad Abu Asab, said in statements to media outlets that these measures are part of the targeting of prisoners and their families. Considering that the occupation forces have a “sovereignty complex” and that these measures are because the occupation always wants to make the prisoner feel that he has committed a crime and that he is under surveillance all the time; and he will pay the price for his resistance throughout his life, even if he ends his prison term.

He added, “The occupation deliberately frustrates the Jerusalemites and prevents them from welcoming the prisoners which is a respectable symbolism in the Palestinian street, in addition to that it aims to kill these concepts, steal the joy and kill it in the hearts of people, but despite that, the occupation will not be able, no matter what unjust measures it takes, to kill the joy in our hearts and deprive us of the smile or from receiving our freed prisoners. “