Skip to main content

Ramallah governor glorifies Palestinian prisoners as the “living examples of human dignity” and “the PA’s top priority”

“District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh Laila Ghannam emphasized that the prisoner issue is the PA’s top priority, since it is always at the heart of the Palestinian cause, especially in light of the occupation authorities’ recurring daily violations against the prisoners. During her participation in an appreciation [ceremony] for prisoners’ families in the Qalandiya refugee camp, which was organized by Fatah, Ghannam noted…that through their resolve and self-sacrifice, the Palestinian prisoners have become living examples of human dignity, considering the policy of silence adopted by the world’s nations in face of the tragic situation and the policy of torture, abuse and humiliation adopted against the living and the dead in the darkness of the prisons… Ghannam praised the prisoners’ mothers for their resolve, for refusing to be anything other than the ‘Al-Khansas’ of Palestine, for having suffered oppression and hardship while visiting their sons [in prison] and for having tasted the bitter taste of separation from their loved ones.”

Note: There are 6,500 Palestinians serving time in Israeli prisons (as of December 2014), all of whom were imprisoned for security offenses and terror related crimes. According to the PA Prisoner's Law, the word "prisoner" is defined as "anyone imprisoned in the occupation's [Israel's] prisons as a result of his participation in the struggle against the occupation." (Ch. 1 of Law of Prisoners, 2004/19, www.alasra.ps, accessed May 9, 2011)

Al-Khansa - an Arab woman and poet from the earliest period of Islam (7th century) famous and honored in Islamic tradition for sending her four sons to battle and rejoiced when they all died as Martyrs. She has been lauded by the PA and often presented as a role model for mothers.

RelatedView all ❯