Ramallah, occupied West Bank – Two days before her arrest by the Israeli army, Diala Ayesh, a 28-year-old Palestinian human rights lawyer, visited Palestinian detainees in the Israeli Ofer prison.
Little did she know that the next day, she would become one of the people she defended all her life – a prisoner.
On January 17, Israeli forces arrested Ayesh at a checkpoint near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank around 2 p.m. A week later, Israeli authorities issued an “administrative detention” order against her, meaning she will be held without trial or charge for four months.
News of Ayesh’s arrest quickly spread throughout the occupied West Bank. She has worked for years – often on a pro bono basis – to defend Palestinian political detainees in Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) prisons.
His family is still in shock over his arrest.
“We feel it is getting more and more difficult every day. The feeling of loss and missing someone only increases – it doesn’t get easier,” her 26-year-old sister, Aseel, told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“Every time I cry in bed at night or feel like I miss her, I try to remember how extremely strong she is,” Aseel continued, sobbing. “We feel that we are the weak ones, and she is the strongest. It is from it that we draw our strength.
Targeted by Israel and the PA
Even behind bars, Ayesh’s main concern remains the other prisoners.
After October 7, when Israel launched its continued attack on the besieged Gaza Strip, Ayesh formed a volunteer collective of women lawyers to track the unprecedented number of Palestinians arrested by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. .
“She would train these lawyers to carry out visits to Ofer prison, under occupation, especially in the context of lack of information about the prisoners,” Muhannad Karajeh, her former colleague and head of Lawyers for Justice, where she worked.
Ayesh and his team’s visits to these detainees in the only Israeli prison in the occupied West Bank were a small flash of hope as visits to prisoners in Israeli prisons were halted after October 7.
“This group would act as a link between prisoners and their families,” he continued.
A few weeks after her arrest, she asked Aseel, through her lawyer, to communicate with the families of the prisoners she was following and give them the latest news on their sons, which she had written on a pad -notes.
“She is in prison and we know nothing about her – whether she eats or not, sleeps or not, or in what conditions she is held,” Aseel said. “Yet all his worries are delivering a message from a prisoner to his fiancée on the outside.
“It’s Diala for you.”
During his arrest, Ayesh was the victim of attacks, threats and insults from Israeli soldiers, according to the human rights organization Addameer. She was transferred to Israel’s Hasharon Prison before being taken to Damon Prison, where she is currently being held.
Ayesh’s work as a human rights defender became known when she worked for Lawyers for Justice, based in Ramallah, where she represented Palestinian political detainees in Palestinian Authority prisons. In July, she attended a session on behalf of the group at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
“She was like a driving force for her whole team and all the lawyers,” Karajeh said. “She has a great spirit for volunteering and people love her on a personal and professional level. »
Her efforts to monitor and document abuses against Palestinian detainees have made her a target for both the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian Authority.
During popular protests in the occupied West Bank against the killing of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat by PA forces in June 2021, Ayesh was “exposed to physical attacks” by security agents, Karajeh said. She was one of dozens of other women who were raped at the time.
Her family said that despite the difficulties surrounding Ayesh’s arrest, they were showered with love by the people who came to support her.
“We were very shocked by the number of people who contacted us after Diala’s arrest,” Aseel said. “She’s a social person, but it was so surprising to realize how many people followed her work.”
“It gave my parents a moral boost – it helped them move forward and be patient,” she added.
Prisoners
Tala Nasser of the prisoners’ rights group Addameer said Ayesh’s arrest comes as part of a “violent campaign of mass arrests” carried out by Israel since October 7.
The fact that the vast majority of the more than 6,900 Palestinians arrested in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7 have been transferred to administrative detention highlights the arbitrary nature of Israeli arrests, she said.
“This campaign includes activists, human rights defenders and political leaders,” Nassar told Tel Aviv Tribune, stressing that it is “an attempt to silence them and prevent the revelation crimes of the occupation throughout the country.
In December, Israeli forces also arrested political and civil society leader Khalida Jarrar, who was also transferred to administrative detention.
Despite freeing all but three Palestinian detainees in the last prisoner swap with Hamas in late 2023, the Israeli military has re-arrested dozens. Some 80 prisoners are currently detained, all at Damon Prison.
Among the 80 are dozens of women from the besieged Gaza Strip, but lawyers are barred from visiting them or knowing anything about them.
There have been several reports of female detainees from Gaza being physically beaten and abused, including an unknown number of them being held on Israeli military bases and not in prison.
Lawyers say conditions of detention for all Palestinians, including women, are unprecedentedly difficult. Eight Palestinian prisoners have also died or been killed while in Israeli custody since October 7, most in the days and weeks following their arrest.
In recent months, numerous videos have emerged showing Israeli soldiers stripping, torturing and otherwise mistreating male prisoners in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“It is important to note that every woman arrested is raped in one way or another,” Nasser said. “They all face threats, intensive strip searches, verbal assaults and physical violence. »
