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This is an account of meeting the Prisoners and their families. But for the location, dress, names and language, this could have been Ireland only a few years ago. The women holding up posters of their husbands, children or brothers, so much is the same between Ireland and Palestine. Many, tortured and interned without trial, just like in Ireland. Small children who were mere babies when their fathers were taken, may never see, or know their own fathers.
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Wednesday 26th and we were taken to a very emotional meeting with the relatives of prisoners held in Israeli gaols where we met two men who had been just released from Israeli gaols.
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The stories we heard were very hard to listen to – families who were not allowed to see their sons because the blockade bans them from travelling out Gaza to visit their loved ones. Some of the families had not seen their sons, fathers or brothers for many years. In some cases, sons had died at the hands of the Israelis without ever seeing their fathers. Inside the gaols the accounts of appalling abuse of prisoners reminded me of the worst days of the English gaol experiences or the Blanket protest in Ireland.
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One prisoner had just been released after some 14 years in gaol – he had been “released” into Gaza even though he had no family there and was from the West Bank. Here he was dumped into Gaza and unable to leave a place he did not even know. He had merely been transferred to a bigger prison.
Many of their personal stories were hard to hear. Convoy Delegation leader Italian Senator Fernando Rossi and Monia Benini pictured below, overcome with emotion.
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Prisoners found a common bond with Convoy Delegation Deputy Leader, Sinn Fein's Gerry Maclochlainn, a former Irish Republican prisoner.
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Why can I not see my Father again?????????????
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