RAMALLAH, (PIC)
“I was arrested weighing 120 kilos, now my weight is 60 kilos, the prisoner’s food is not enough for a cat.” With these heavy words, the liberated journalist prisoner Ali al-Samoudi began his story, as one who summarizes a whole year of pain in the occupation prisons in one sentence.
His release from prison was not a moment of victory over the occupation as much as it was a visual and human shock revealing the extent of the occupation’s criminality behind bars; a frail body, exhausted features, and a silence that exposes what words are no longer able to carry, especially since it seemed as if the prison did not leave him, but rather came out with him, engraved in the details of his body and voice.
A whole year of administrative detention in the Israeli prisons left its deep marks on the man who entered with a weight of 120 kilograms, only to come out having lost half of it. That was not just a figure, but a glaring indication of a daily reality of starvation, medical negligence, and slow exhaustion.
Samoudi recounts the details of life inside the Israeli prisons as if it were a never-ending scene: scarce food that does not satisfy hunger, and an environment lacking the most basic requirements of life. “No pen, no notebook, and not even a paper,” he says it as if he is talking about a deprivation that goes beyond the body to reach the thought and the voice.
He describes the place where he spent his days as a “real hell and a graveyard for the living,” where physical suffering overlaps with unceasing psychological pressure, in a reality that tests a person’s ability to remain steadfast every moment.
Even the moment of release from the Israeli prisons, where all kinds of criminality and torture are practiced, did not carry complete reassurance; “I don’t believe that I got out,” he says in amazement, as if freedom itself became strange after a year of isolation and cruelty.
From the heart of this experience, he directed an appeal to the families of the prisoners and institutions, appealing to them not to leave the prisoners alone in the face of such conditions, confirming that inside the prisons there are those who are still “hungry for freedom and dignity,” waiting for someone to care for them … and someone to tell their story.
Systematic starvation crime
In this context, the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) said that Samoudi came out with a completely different appearance, as a result of the sharp decrease in his weight, due to the systematic starvation crime practiced by the Israeli prison system against thousands of Palestinian prisoners, in addition to what he was subjected to of abuse and torture rounds, and deprivation of the most basic fundamental rights, as well as subjecting him to frequent transfer from one prison to another accompanied by repeated assaults.
The society added in a statement issued on Thursday evening that the journalist Samoudi is considered one among more than 3,530 administrative detainees, and among more than 40 journalists the occupation continues to detain, including four female journalists, all of whom face the crime of genocide inside the prisons.
The PPS confirmed that the occupation did not stop for one day from targeting journalists through organized and escalating arrest policies, aiming to stifle the freedom of opinion and expression, and turning it into an arena of systematic suppression to silence their voices, and that is in parallel with the assassination of more than 260 journalists since October 2023, in addition to the unprecedented escalation in arrest campaigns compared to previous stages that witnessed uprisings and popular outbursts.
The PPS renewed its demand for the immediate release of all journalists detained in the Israeli occupation prisons, and revealing the fate of Gaza journalists who are detained and face the crime of enforced disappearance, as it called on the United Nations and all international institutions to bear their legal and humanitarian responsibilities towards the crimes carried out by Israel against the prisoners and detainees, and to stop being satisfied with issuing statements and warning reports, and to work seriously on ending the state of helplessness and systematic complicity that allows the continuation of the crime of genocide and the comprehensive aggression.
Samoudi is not an exception
Samoudi’s story does not seem to be an exception in a wider reality lived by thousands of prisoners inside the Israeli prisons, where the data of the prisoners’ institutions indicates the presence of more than 9,600 Palestinian prisoners, including patients, the wounded, and those with serious health conditions. More than 1,500 prisoners suffer from various diseases, including dozens of those infected with chronic and dangerous diseases, who complain of medical negligence and lack of treatment.
Other similar testimonies document the exposure of prisoners to harsh conditions including starvation, and deprivation of basic needs, and isolation, and assaults, in addition to overcrowding inside the cells. Human rights reports indicate the martyrdom of more than 100 prisoners inside Israeli prisons as a result of these policies, at a time when many come out with deteriorating health conditions, and some of them pass away a short period after release.
In this scene, Samoudi’s story seems to be only one of the faces of extended suffering, summarized by bodies exhausted by the shackle, and voices trying to survive with what remains of the ability to tell the story.
