Bethlehem /PNN/ Translated by: Maram Daraghmeh
Samir Al-Amir 39 years old who spend 19 years in said Israeli prison nineteen years which mean six thousand nine hundred thirty five days full of details and human stories.
Samir Al-Amir was hosted in Palestine news network morning show and talked with PNN editor in chief Monjed Jadou about the situation of Palestinian prisoner's.
Palestine News Network publishes the interview in text of questions and answers…..
The last paragraph in our morning show is talking with Samir Al-Amir a Palestinian prisoner who were released from Israeli jails and I would like to start the talk with him of what my friend Akram Atallah Al-Aissa (Abu Nidal) wrote, about the release of Samir Al-Amir after nineteen years of occupation prisons: Do you know that nineteen years are six thousand nine hundred thirty five days full of details, it is six thousand nine hundred thirty five nights, it is thirty-eight Islamic holidays and officially alive, It's over seventy-six Palestinian Christian holidays ,It is five hundred and seventy days Ramadan, it is the thousand hairs that fell until it became bald, it is hundreds of hairs full of gray, it is the tear of its mother and the night of its nights, it cannot be counted, and the strange thing is that the arrest and release have been made in the stage of reconciliation with this heinous occupation.
Monjed Jadou question:
Hello and welcome to the PNN Palestine News Network studios, really means Abu Nidal open many questions with this information and details about your arrest, nineteen years are six thousand nine hundred thirty five days, would you tell us how these days have passed on you.
Samir Al-Amir answer
First of all, thank you for this beautiful hosting, and I tell all our Palestinian people in all their places in the homeland and the Diaspora good morning, and I pay a morning tribute to our family in the occupied territory and to our families in the forty-eight lands, and also a good morning to my brothers in prisons, and I wish them speedy release as I was released, as it is important that all prisoners be among their families in their homes and around their friends and loved ones, But I am referring to the symbols of the captive national movement, namely, the brother, the leader and the activist, member of the Central Committee of the Fatah movement brother Karim Yunis, who will be released soon in fifty days, after the forty-year journey of struggles, challenge, steadfastness and morale, brother Marwan Barghouthi, comrade Ahmed Saadat, and all the brothers in all the colours of the Palestinian flag of captives movement, and to all our Palestinian families and society.
Returning to your question, the journey is sometimes difficult, but with all its suffering and all its details, this journey is for a noble goal, and if it is for a noble goal, so I deliberately named it (a trip) and did not deliberately call it (an arrest), although it is certainly an arrest, painstaking, hard and tired in all its details, but at the same time it is a journey because we bear, We took it upon ourselves to be at the forefront in defending our homeland, our cause and our identity, and the distance from the parents and the homeland is difficult, far from our love, our families, our mothers and our fathers is difficult, but Palestine deserves.
Nineteen years of detention are not the sacrifice in front of peoples sacrificing for it independence.
Yes, the sacrifice of peoples is not valuable, and our sacrifice is small in front of the mothers of the martyrs and in front of the martyrs who sacrificed themselves, they sacrificed their lives, and the soul is the most precious thing that a person has, when a person loses his soul, this is the greatest sacrifice, perhaps some years of age that have passed is to express our great faces, but Palestine deserves.
Monjed Jadou question
Certainly Palestine deserves, all these sacrifices and the continuation of the struggle, especially since this enemy and this occupation continue to repress and oppression, and all forms of injustice, both against the captive movement and against our people wherever they may be, since this morning there were demolitions, killings of a Palestinian citizen, and targeting continues, tell us how is the reality of the captive movement within prisons. Recently, we will talk about the right-wing government, extremist and fascist parties that seek to impinge on prisoners and the captive movement, but in general how is the reality within prisons
Samir Al-Amir answer
Since then, the captive movement is a cohesive movement, sometimes affected by external society, but what brings us together and unites us with the captive movement is the militant situation that exists within the occupation prisons. Yes, we are in prisons. We may not have been able to come to the militant arena abroad, but prisons are also considered an internal battlefield, we have always tried, But there are few possibilities within prisons, but we believe in the most powerful weapon, the strategic weapon, the hunger strike, the last weapon to which we have recourse, but we have several struggles, and Al hamdullilah, perhaps the Israeli right or the attacks, it is the prison administration and its assaults that unites us in prison.
We have some autonomy in controlling our internal affairs within the captive movement, which, of course, is the result of sacrifices, for which we have paid tons of meat, tons of blood, tons of soreness and years of pain. This has created an internal militant situation for us, and we are trying, to the extent possible and with all our strength, to continue despite daily attacks of searches, repression, ostracism, humiliation and the prevention of visits by people
Monjed Jadou question
They try to pull these achievements too?
Samir Al-Amir answer
This is the secret! They are not considered achievements on the basis that it is a respectable country .. This entity belongs to the principle of procrastination and lies, they lied to the United Nations, the thousands of decisions in which they lied, so what about with Palestinian prisoners in prisons while they are under their hands and under oppression and intimidation,
Every time we try to make victory from our hunger, it is possible that this victory is more moral than it represents on the ground, but any achievement that is achieved, a achievement, even if you take a glass of water plus, is an achievement, even if you can extend the immediate half an hour more is an achievement, and the immediate is: to go out for a walk in the prison yard. This half is an hour of achievement, and when he takes me out half an hour in excess of the furah, not because he loves me, not because he is interested in human rights, not because he is a follower or because there is control, but because it took a force despite his nose, with the steadfastness and hard of moving.
Monjed Jadou question
The captive movement was distinguished by the issues of our people, but the captive movement in all its dimensions reflected a model, but unfortunately the various political leaders certainly did not follow this model when we talk about the document of Palestinian unity, which produced by all Palestinian prisoners of all factions. In particular Fatah and Hamas, but unfortunately they have not been adopted out said, but prisoners continue to be a model of unity and remain the first and advanced model in defending the rights, issues, unity and everything related to our people, How are prison conditions in this regards?
Samir Al-Amir answer
When you asked me this question, I sighed, but this sigh is not because we rejoiced in this situation, but a pain from this situation, so painful, so let us speak more clearly, I mean that it is a disadvantage for the Palestinian people to be divided, a defect for the Palestinian people after these lean years of sacrifice, blood and common pain to be divided, As I said, the captive movement has always taken the initiative to find solutions through the conferences that we work in prisons, through discussions, to reach the point of our gathering, and what brings us together is greater than what divides us, our only contradiction only with the Israeli occupation, and our only link must be Jerusalem, Palestine and the State, not so, and not so.
So we are inside the captive movement, always the administration of the prison service, trying as much as possible to separate us and cultivate the sedition between us by spreading rumors and by spreading the sayings through spies and their media, so we try as much as possible to avoid these sedition with wisdom! Sometimes it is possible for us to have some plots but we soon reveal them, because we were raised to brothers, sacrifice and give, And you are the most people who teach this malicious occupation and teach his plans?.
This is the point that makes us discover that there is a conspiracy, because we deal with them almost daily, it is true that we live our lives alone within the departments, but we deal with them on a daily basis, and we are aware of their methods, despite our limited possibilities, and the impossible of the prison director to love and prefer a certain organization, even if there is a preference for a certain party as alleged to spread
The attack every day is not on a different section like Fatah and Hamas, because they divided the sections, the Israeli motto is always that the good Palestinian for them is the dead Palestinian, completely, and this is the important point after the coup and division in 2007, the prison terms deliberately separated the sections on the pretext that they do not want internal differences to be made
But through this chapter, sections of Hamas and sections worked to open, and there are mixed sections, but they are keen to prevent the confluence of Fatah and Hamas, because if they meet they will make a knot, and it will be difficult to break this knot, and this series is made up of all the colors of the Palestinian spectrum, that is why this episode of autism remained outside as united inside, despite the separation of sections but there is always a common coordination, and this is an indication of how Israelis are trying to separate us
Monjed Jadou question
After nineteen years, may we talk about personal stories, what most affected you when you left prison after nineteen years, what was the most thing that was close to you by prison, and you held it, and close to your heart and mind, although you did not love prison, and the prisons are all darkness, oppression, denial, injustice and medical neglect, but I think there is something that makes you continue with your optimism and positivity, tell us
Samir Al-Amir answer
Wisdom says: Whoever lived on hope does not know the impossible, and we always have hope, but to strengthen your steadfastness within the prison your hope must remain present and build from yourself and strengthen your self and create your being, first in your daily life in interacting with your brothers with captivity, your roommates and yard, and your daily practices, you have to create a state of interdependence between you and your community within the captive movement, a miniature society, and despite a lot of restrictions in prison.
But there is a kind of life inside the prison that we are the one who created it, a certain cooking, a certain meeting, with a laugh, a joke and a meeting between us, we make hope for ourselves, which strengthens our steadfastness and hope, is the academic education within the prisons, which we made, and did not give anyone to us, to know, the prison administration fights education, prevents the entry of educational and academic books, to try to equip us, and this is all to try to practice the politics of persuasion for Palestinian militants.
More specifically, most of our militants enter young people in prisons, many of whom have not finished their education, have not finished twelve years of education and have not finished high school. In turn, we are here to educate the small generation of prisoners, as much as possible we seek to educate and build an organizational cadre within prisons, and they believe that they can equip us with detention, Prisons were and remain centers for the education, education and struggle of Palestinian society
Except for our high school examination through the Palestinian Ministry of Education, and we offer postgraduate academic degrees of Bachelor and Master through the Open University of Jerusalem and the University of Abu Dis, and there is the possibility of including other universities, and this academic situation creates some kind of joy, and by returning to your question, there are 19 years of arrest, I met during it in at least 10,000 prisoners, and over the years, there is something that comes and there is someone who comes out to come in his place, so we miss and grieve, and on the same day I went out and broke free in the morning, I did not change my clothes, I stayed in my sleep clothes, and I waited until my appointment.
Concern always remains, instability in prison, and because we do not trust them, do not rule out their retreat from our liberation, and we eat thinking and analysis, will they take me out or not, and I was sitting in the morning in the square with a cup of coffee and smoking my cigarette, and I had ninety captive in front of me in the square sitting around me, and there are those who walk in my direction happy with my liberation, This scene to this moment is the only sight that is rooted in my memory, although it has been six days and this is my seventh day of release, the only sight that remains in my memory is the last sight I have seen from my brothers.
Monjed Jadou question
and you told us that we must not forget our secrets and we must not forget that there is an upcoming targeting, as Netanyahu stated, and therefore our people must not forget our secrets because the scale of the interaction increases the morale of our prisoners
Samir Al-Amir answer
The important point is that three months ago we were subjected to a campaign, and we were in the direction of the hunger strike step, and Alhamdullilah despite the pain of the strike and although it is a difficult battle, but we endured it in full detail, if you remember the former Government of Netanyahu, the Minister of Internal Security, Gilad Ardan, formed a committee to withdraw the achievements of the prisoners
to see what is not normal according to their classification of matters, and to withdraw it, this committee with the previous period of Netanyahu failed, and with a period of Gilad failed, because we were shocked and sacrificed, and tried three months ago on the pretext of what happened in Jalboa prison, the tunnel of freedom, the nose of the prison administration broke, and the Israeli entity broke that their organization is invincible, but it conquered! We took escalations that almost reached the day of the strike to midnight because we were going to break, but we were not broken, and with our steadfastness and our will and the captive movement, we won.
Monjed Jadou question
Your answer indicates that prisoners are not concerned with threats
Samir Al-Amir answer
Yes, exactly, the unhurt, before him was the despicable Lieberman, before him was the despicable Sharon, and Kano threatened the captive movement, but thank God with our will, strength and unity, and despite the fact that they did not understand our achievements will remain with us and against their will we will be released, we have intractable sick cases inside prisons, our brothers in the story of the widow and we do not call it a hospital but a guillotine because it is a death room and a slow death, our brothers all these pains are what increases our strength I am aware of this situation, that if I do not defend my rights, my right will not be taken by anyone but me, the threats of Binger and Samotrig and all the gang, and the period of the electoral campaign were admired in our people, did not keep a place in occupied Palestine, the Palestinian interior, Jerusalem, the West Bank and Jerusalem, they only kept a place and destroyed Palestinian blood and homes, and there were also attacks on prisons, but we addressed them, We have remained steadfast, disciplined and in keeping with the will of the martyrs, and we remain faithful to the commandments of the martyrs, despite oppression and segregation, but thank God we have been steadfast and will remain steadfast, and no Israeli Government will be able to break us, and we are certain that the Israeli occupation will cease to exist, God willing. Six thousand nine hundred thirty-five days, every day there was a story and a novel that needed long hours to cover the journey of arrest. I called you the journey of arrest in this revolution and in this constant struggle until salvation from the Israeli occupation
Monjed Jadou question
But after you were liberated by 19 years, how did you see the camp, how did you see people, and generations, did you feel that there are new faces a lot Because most of those who attended the festival were young people aged twenty and below, how did you see Aida camp, the province unit in general, the beautiful presence, and the reception was more than wonderful befitting a prisoner like you.
Samir Al-Amir answer
The moment of first release is the important moment. The first of my descent from the car of the police, when I head to the electronic gate, and when I see my mother and embrace her and embrace me for my family, I felt that 19 years of weight fell from my back, and I felt the taste of freedom, the extent of the hospitality of our people and the fulfillment of these sacrifices, our Palestinian people are a people and in me, and very much is removed from our worries And here's the articular point you asked me about, young! Young people 90% of them are from the small generation, I did not know them, some of my brothers and sisters, they married and I am inside the prison, and the communication was not by pictures, the pictures are fixed do not speak, and I did not know there children as well, and I only know them through pictures, as well as the children of my camp and the children of the governorate, they were beside me and supported me and did their duty, but a lot of faces shook their hands and I ask them to introduce themselves, and I return to shake them again because I thought I didnt meet them.
Monjed Jadou question
What about the wall you left the camp. There was no wall, even the icon of the return key did not exist, the view of Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, was not locked like this
Today I had some kind of shock, I did not imagine like this, although the parents were telling me about it, but I did not realize that it is this ugly, and on the truth it hurts more, and there is an age development inside the camp marked and different, but the hearts of people are the hearts of the hearts, and the warmth still exist, and I felt that I felt that I returned to my natural. But the existing wall is indeed suffocating and its image is painful, and when I look left, I feel that I am also imprisoned, because the same wall is the one in prison, in the same detail, and the construction of the wall, and this is the reality of the wall. The wall is not security. The wall is a racist separation wall for ethnic cleansing and the Apartheid wall.
Monjed Jadou question
One last word you want to say to people through this encounter
Samir Al-Amir answer
I would like to thank you very much, and I thank all our brothers in the city who supported us and stood by us, and all the children of the Palestinian people and I call them for steadfastness and unity, because unity is the real weapon to address this usurper entity, and this entity is to the demise of my brothers in the prisons of the occupation
Monjed Jadou
With this meeting, our distinguished viewers with the liberated prisoner Samir Al-Amir after 19 years, six thousand nine hundred thirty-five days, we mentioned deep and great human stories that the captive Samir Al-Amir lived in occupation prisons, with this and with these words we come to the conclusion of our program for today.
