Khalida Jarrar, a feminist and political icon, is released in a prisoner exchange deal after decades of resistance and imprisonment.
One of Palestine’s iconic figures of the Left, Khalida Jarrar has been in and out of Israeli military detention since 1989, yet here feminist and human rights advocacy has never relented. Committed to the arena of political resistance, she made a name for herself as the most prominent female political prisoner.
Khalida Jarrar was born on February 9, 1963, in the West Bank city of Nablus. In 1985 she earned a Master’s degree in Political Science from Birzeit University in occupied Ramallah, building up decades of experience in human rights advocacy. Yet, it wasn’t until the beginning of the first Intifada that she would embark on her path to become a society and political icon.
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After finishing her Master’s degree she would go on to marry Ghassan Jarrar, a fellow student at Birzeit University and successful business owner who was also a political activist. Her husband has been arrested by the Israeli occupation forces 14 times, having spent almost 11 years in total in and out of administrative detention (held without a charge).
On March 8, 1989, Jarrar experienced her first arrest, after participating in a demonstration to mark International Women’s Day, which would mark the first of several times she would spend under Israeli detention.
In 1993, following Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)’s signing of Oslo I (Declaration of Principles) which effectively ended the first Intifada, Jarrar served as the vice-chairman of Addameer; a Palestinian political prisoners rights group based in the West Bank. She had also previously worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
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By 1998, Jarrar was then barred by Israel from traveling outside of occupied Palestine, after Tel Aviv took issue with her participation in a Human Rights Defenders conference that was held in Paris, France. Having been a longtime member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in 2006 she was made a deputy leader of the group and is a member of its political bureau.
Khalida Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), and held an official position in charge of the political prisoners file in the PLC. She has additionally served as a member of the Supreme National Committee to follow up on the file of Palestine’s accession to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In August of 2014, her home was suddenly surrounded by at least 50 Israeli soldiers who broke down her doors and invaded her living space, informing her at gunpoint that she was being served a deportation order, forcing her to flee her home in the governorate of Al-Bireh to Jericho. She refused to leave her home and the next year would be subjected to an endless series of detentions without charges, or using loose reasons like “incitement” or that she was a “security threat”, despite there being no evidence for such claims.
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An administrative detention order was issued against her in April of 2015, following a raid on her home that resulted in her arrest. In December of that same year she was issued a 15 month sentence after being convicted at an Israeli military court with a 99.7% conviction rate.
Over a dozen charges were cooked up against her. Amnesty International appealed against the ruling, while it was largely accepted that her role in helping bring Israel to justice at the ICC had been the real reason for her politicised arrest and detention.
Jarrar had two daughters, 28-year-old Yaffa Jarrar and Suha Jarrar. They were both living in Canada and received their University educations in the country, however, in July of 2021 her daughter Suha passed away from a heart attack.
Khalida Jarrar was imprisoned at the time and was prevented from attending her daughter’s funeral by the Israeli occupation forces. Upon her release she would then be filmed grieving at Suha’s grave, which gripped the hearts of the Palestinian people at the time.
Our heroines are free and coming home, paving the way for our heroes to follow. This is just the beginning—the first steps towards the freedom of every Palestinian and the liberation of all of Palestine. #Palestine #Freedom #Liberation https://t.co/KTJukCZjcj via @PalestineChron
— Ramzy Baroud (@RamzyBaroud) January 20, 2025
In December of 2023, amidst a major wave of arbitrary arrests across the occupied West Bank, Jarrar was again arrested from her home by Israeli soldiers and placed under administrative detention. According to her lawyers, she had been subjected to torture at the hands of Israeli forces.
On January 19, 2025, she was released in a prisoner exchange deal after Hamas had requested her to be part of their prisoner-swap deal with Israel. She was filmed exiting a bus, alongside some of the 90 other freed Palestinian female and child hostages held by Israel.
Jarrar was held in solitary confinement for 6-months, appearing physically frail upon her release.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
