Hebron- Freed Palestinian writer and prisoner Lama Khater said that the Israeli occupation has lost its mind and, in addition to physical abuse, deliberately inflicts psychological abuse on Palestinian detainees, especially children and women, in a way different from any previous time.
The released prisoner in the sixth batch, at dawn on Thursday, November 30, expressed her astonishment at the occupation’s harnessing the enormous capabilities of senior officers, and even ministers, to track and prosecute posts on social media networks, and to arrest hundreds on the basis of their posts. She interpreted this as an expression of Bankruptcy and failure.
She touched on the threats, intimidation and insult her second detention experience entailed, considering this an attempt to deter male society by harming the weakest group, which is women and children.
However, she said that what the prisoners are exposed to is expected from an occupying country, but it does not compare to what the Gaza Strip is exposed to, expressing her admiration for its resistance.
Below is the full text of the interview with the Palestinian writer.
The Israeli occupation forces arrest the freed prisoner Hazem Al-Fakhouri, the husband of the prisoner writer Lama Khater, after storming his home in #Hebron And breaking its contents, noting that he reported a few days ago on his Facebook account that his family had been subjected to continuous threats since his wife’s arrest.#Tel Aviv Tribune #Gaza_War pic.twitter.com/4QriVC9Tu2
– Tel Aviv Tribune Palestine (@AJA_Palestine) November 12, 2023
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First, tell us about the moments of your arrest on October 26, and what was different from your arrest in 2018?
The method of arrest this time was completely different from the previous time. I felt like it was my first arrest experience in terms of cruelty and barbarism, the way of dealing, the level of hatred and hatred, and the attempt to physically and psychologically harm me and my family. Even the house was destroyed and most of its contents destroyed.
Around 2:00 in the morning, about 20 soldiers, all of them masked, hurriedly raided my house, and I was barely able to wear my jilbab and hijab. They sat me, my children, and my husband in a corner of the house without allowing us to move or even use the toilet, which I desperately needed.
The Israeli intelligence district officer arrived and began saying, “I heard that there is garbage in this house. I am going to clean it up,” referring to me and my husband. He began speaking very obscene words to us, and when my husband asked him not to repeat his words in front of the children, he said, “I don’t care. There are no longer rules in dealing with you, and everything is permissible.”
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What kind of threats were made against you and your husband?
Major threats were directed at me and my husband, claiming that he had warned my husband about my behavior, that I was inciting people in Hebron to participate in the marches, and that I was “happy” last October 7, writing on social media.
He threatened to kill us. He spoke criminal language and obscene words. They stole my phone and laptops that my children use to study. They tore my clothes, even threw the trash on the ground, and spoiled food supplies such as rice, sugar, and flour under the pretext of inspection. They cut the wires of the refrigerator and washing machine. This happened twice during my arrest, one of which was After my husband was arrested during my detention.
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What about your treatment during your transfer to prison?
Immediately after my arrest, they tied me up, closed my eyes, and threw me on the floor of the military vehicle between the soldiers’ feet. I could feel their belongings falling on me and hear their insults. I arrived at an army camp in the vicinity of Hebron, and the greeting was with the words “Hamas ISIS” and “Welcome to Hell.”
In the camp, they sat me with my eyes closed on a chair in what might have been an interrogation room, and a person, whom I thought was an intelligence officer, threatened me by saying that he had 20 soldiers with him and were thinking of raping me, as Hamas did to Jewish girls. I responded to him by saying that his words were not true and that no rape had occurred, but rather media allegations for their soldiers to carry out massacres in Gaza. He responded with disgusting words that cannot be mentioned, and said, “I will not change my mind until the same thing is done to me and my daughter.”
He also threatened me with going to my house, imprisoning my children, and burning them, and that a reception was being prepared for me in Ofer Prison for investigation, and that I would not leave prison.
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What did you find in Ofer prison, where the investigation took place?
There they put me in a cell on the floor and did not allow me even a drink of water or food. The same investigation was repeated, and I was accused of being active in Hamas, participating in events and writing on social media sites without any evidence.
After the investigation in Ofer Prison ended, they transferred me to Hasharon Prison, which is a temporary detention center prior to transfer to Damon Prison for female prisoners. There they locked me with 5 female prisoners in a solitary cell designated for one person, in which there was a Jewish criminal prisoner who had a contagious skin disease. They brought us 3 mattresses and 3 blankets. . We slept in turns, and could not sit freely.
24 hours passed without food, then they gave us 3 meals of bread and containers of shment (yogurt) weighing approximately 20 grams each, along with 3 small tomatoes and 3 cucumbers for each of the female prisoners.
As for relieving themselves, the toilet was without a door and facing the cell door, and whoever used it needed the help of other female prisoners to put on a blanket to cover her.
We remained in this condition for 4 days, after which they transferred us to Damoun prison, where we were subjected to oppression, as the female soldiers took out all the prisoners’ possessions, including food, bedding, and blankets. We returned individually after a strip search and many obscene words. This was one of the most difficult situations.
After her arrest at dawn on October 26, the lawyer of Palestinian writer Lama Khater reveals that she was threatened with “rape, humiliation, and burning her children.”#Gaza_War pic.twitter.com/UiIVG9NFL7
– Tel Aviv Tribune Channel (@AJArabic) November 7, 2023
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What is the difference in the conditions of Damoun prison today compared to your previous period of detention?
The restrictions are severe. There is no electrical device, television, radio, or communication with family, in addition to overcrowding. There is little bad food in quantity and quality. Some female prisoners ate nothing but bread and salt. Rooms are only open half an hour daily for showers and laundry.
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What is your explanation for this way of dealing, in contrast to previous arrests?
What is meant is psychological abuse, especially for girls detained for the first time, which reflects the extent of the hatred and brutality of the jailers.
We were in complete isolation, feeling as if we were in conflict with time, monotonous times and time moving very slowly, there was nothing to do, even books were confiscated.
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We heard testimonies of female prisoners who were beaten. How does this happen?
Yes, there are female prisoners who were beaten in Hasharon Prison during repression and searches, and in Damoun Prison they were subjected to severe beatings and oppression twice on the 7th and 19th of last October, and they were attacked with gas from a zero distance and inside their rooms, and this is a type of revenge.
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What about trial procedures for female prisoners? Do they have actual hearings?
I was tried two weeks after my arrest, to 6 months in administrative prison. Administrative imprisonment occurs when the charges are not proven and is not limited to a time limit. As for the trial, it was formal and through the Zoom application, so that we were transferred to a room in the prison while the court was in Ofer Prison.
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Is there anyone who conveyed the suffering of female prisoners to the judges?
We were explaining the prison conditions to the judge to no avail, and when the lawyer visited me, and I conveyed to him the picture of my suffering and conveyed it to the media, they subjected me to investigation and punished me by preventing the lawyers from visiting. This happened with other female prisoners who spoke about their suffering with lawyers.
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Since the start of the aggression on Gaza, the arrest of women has increased. Why, in your opinion?
This is a policy of trying to break taboos within Palestinian society, and trying to inflict psychological abuse on the men’s community in Palestine as a form of revenge and an attempt to deter. It is also the result of intense anger after a major shock to Israel, which was subjected to a strategic strike in the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood. The operation broke the prestige and arrogance of the occupation and buried its nose in the dirt.
They try to vent their grudges on the weak groups in society, whom they believe may affect men. It is clear that Israel has lost its mind at all levels.
In addition, there is an attempt to use the largest number of women as pawns for a potential deal, and this is what happened, and it applies to female prisoners of Gaza who were randomly detained among the displaced.
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In the past two months, it has been observed that there has been an increase in arrests for writing on social networks. Why?
It is truly surprising. We did not understand the extent of the absurdity of the detention standards until we entered the prison, and we discovered that some female prisoners were arrested for sharing a prayer or a Qur’anic verse that implied solidarity with Gaza, especially female prisoners inside (48), and they were accused of incitement.
One of the female prisoners was arrested because she wrote the phrase “O Lord, success and payment” for a personal matter on the morning of last October 7, and she was arrested.
By dealing with and moving the army and storming homes, the male or female prisoner thinks that he or she is facing a serious accusation, then it turns out that it is writing or sharing a post on Facebook, for which he is subject to investigation, and the prosecution, the judge, and even the jailers deal with him as if he had committed a major crime.
In my opinion, this is an indication of absurdity, for senior Shin Bet officers and high ranks to be busy with statements, publications, interviews, or journalistic analyses.
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While his country is fighting a war in Gaza, extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is busy harassing prisoners and publishing pictures of detainees due to posts on Facebook. What is your explanation for that?
Indeed, a question arises: Can we consider the arrest of a woman or child from home based on a small publication to be a major achievement that deserves to be photographed and published? The occupation cannot force a person to look at things from his own eyes or from an Israeli perspective. It is natural for the Palestinian to sympathize with Gaza and its resistance, while lives are killed every day and homes are destroyed.
What Ben Gvir is doing, and even the Shin Bet officers in the regions who publish on their pages pictures of detainees with their hands tied, are all an expression of the great bankruptcy of the military institution, from its most senior commander to its youngest soldier.
“Of course, our joy is incomplete because there are many martyrs in Gaza. They ate all the female prisoners. They beat all the female prisoners and suppressed them.”
Freed prisoner Ahed Tamimi (23 years old) spoke about the conditions of her detention, the occupation’s threat to kill her father, who is detained in Israeli prisons, and the situation of 10 female prisoners from Gaza who were arrested by the occupation forces during the aggression… pic.twitter.com/V0bmqsCccr— AJ+ Arabic (@ajplusarabi) November 30, 2023
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What about the hours before release and how did the liberated female prisoners go?
It was very difficult hours. They transferred us from Damon Prison at nine-thirty in the morning, after a shameful and humiliating search, an interview with prison intelligence, and a torrent of threats and intimidation, to Ofer Prison, which we arrived at two in the afternoon. They put us in a cold solitary cell on the tiles and without food until we were released at two in the morning the next day.
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I said: The female prisoners were threatened. What is its nature? Are there conditions for release?
In Damoun Prison, we were threatened with storming homes and re-arresting if we held celebratory events, received well-wishers, or conducted press interviews. They threatened us with accountability and double the punishment later.
In Ofer Prison, shortly before release, they took us for interrogation again, with six officers present. We were subjected to vile and cheap threats, with the same words and obscene language being used as before.
They said that the deal did not interest them, and they warned me against writing anything on social media sites, and that with any interview I would be the first prisoner to return to prison and be held accountable.
During the hours before the release, they tried to make the release devoid of any substance. We arrived on the Cross buses in a state of fatigue and exhaustion as a result of exhaustion, cold, and hunger.
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Aren’t you afraid that threats will be carried out and that you will be re-arrested after talking about your experience to the media?
The least a person can do is express his opinion about the occupation, and the prisoner does not have to submit to the will of the prison guard or implement his “agenda,” even if there is a cost. For us, as Palestinians, the Gaza battle liberated a lot of awareness and freed people from fears over simple matters, especially if we compare ourselves and all the harm we were exposed to, with what is happening to our people in Gaza in terms of massacres and destruction.
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Any final addition?
Everything that we went through, including imprisonment, arrests, vandalism of homes, and threats, comes in the context of a war that is believed to be existential for him, and for us, Gaza held our heads high in the dazzling performance of a resistance that cannot be intimidated by all of the occupation’s policies, threats, and measures.
