4th December
Bethlehem.
I was glad to see that Israel has released some more prisoners – only 10,000 more to go! The bit that isn’t reported is that they are still arresting people in large numbers. For instance, some people who live in one of the refugee camps told me that one of the other families from the camp were having a son released. So, the other son went to the checkpoint to meet his brother as he was let free, and as they released his brother, they arrested him.
It is the mothers who feel this the most. As I sat in the house of one such ‘incomplete’ family, while others spoke of what they expect will happen to the missing member, the mother sat silently, removed from everyone and everything, wearily shedding tears when the conversation inevitably turned to the conditions of the prison in question. Unfortunately, the prison in question has a bad reputation. And this family would know – they’ve heard it first hand from their eldest son.
Prisoner releases are usually celebrated loudly here. All day, cars adorned with flags of varying allegiances were being driven in convey around Bethlehem, people hanging out of every imaginable space, sitting on the roofs wielding olive branches, firing shots towards the sky and playing music on their car stereos.
It must be great to be released, because being detained is surely awful. It is great to be free, because many are not.
