From time to time, the Palestine Center distributes articles it believes will enhance understanding of the Palestinian political reality. The following article was published by Assem al Ka’abi in the Palestine Chronicle on May 3, 2018
Years have passed and the prison bars still won’t let us live our lives. You stand here alone: fighting death with hope, watching everything grow older while you are still fighting for your own existence. You live your life facing one battle after another, trying to defend your name and save your dreams. You try to fit in the crowd, treating oblivion with love and memory – a vivid memory that arms you with your best moments to help you through your worst. The longer the distance, the closer you think the end is. Then, you realize it is only another beginning of another long way towards hope. You do not know what awaits you. You need to hold on to your smile. In prison, things have different meanings. Small pleasures, like getting a needle and a thread, make you feel like you have seized the world in your hand – like your cell is as big as the universe! Joy is now a reunion with your family, whom you have not seen for years – a reunion that demands you to condense all your feelings, your joys and your questions in a 45-minute visit. Happiness is now the taste of a food you have not seen in years. If that is not deprivation, what is?
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The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund.
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