Palestinian scholar, feminist, leftist and former parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar is currently being held in solitary confinement in the Zionist Neve Tirza prison in extremely harsh conditions. She has been held in isolation for the past 16 days. Like her detention itself — she is jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, alongside nearly 4,000 of the 9,500 Palestinians imprisoned by the occupation regime — no reason or excuse has been proffered by the occupation authorities to justify her ongoing isolation.
In a message from Neve Tirza, conveyed by her lawyers, Jarrar said:
“I die every day. The cell is like a small closed box where no air enters. There is only a toilet in the cell with a small window above it, which was later sealed just one day after my transfer. They left me no space to breathe, and even what is called the ‘ashnav’ (peephole) on the cell door was sealed. There is only a small opening where I sit most of the time to breathe. I am suffocating in my cell, waiting for the hours to pass, hoping to find some oxygen particles to breathe and stay alive.”
Jarrar, who suffers from several health problems, continued:
“What worsened the misery of my isolation is the high temperatures. I am, in short, inside an oven at its highest setting. I cannot sleep due to the extreme heat, and not only have they isolated me in these conditions, but they have deliberately cut off the water in the cell. Even when I request to fill a water bottle to drink, they bring it after at least four hours. As for going out to the prison yard, I was allowed only once after eight days of isolation, and they deliberately delay the delivery of the poor-quality meal for hours.”
Khalida Jarrar is detained in a very small isolation cell, measuring only 2 by 1.5 meters, where the only available space is occupied by a mattress. The cell also contains a tiny bathroom with a toilet and a shower. It is completely sealed off, with no window for ventilation or fresh air.
Addameer reported one week ago:
“On August 12, 2024, the IPS stormed Khalida Jarrar’s cell in Damon Prison and forcibly removed her. Jarrar was put in a filthy cell infested with tics, where she remained for an entire day without being interrogated.
On August 13, without prior notice or explanation, she was transferred from her cell without her necessary eyeglasses, which had been kept from her. She was informed that she was being transferred but was not told where. She remained in the Bosta (transport vehicle) for five hours before being taken to the Neve Tirza Prison in Ramleh, which is used for the isolation of detainees. Jarrar was informed that she was prohibited from receiving visits from her lawyer and they refused to disclose the reasons for her isolation at Neve Tirza or the duration of her stay.”
Jarrar was seized from her home in the morning hours of 26 December 2023 as part of mass arrests by Zionist forces in the West Bank of occupied Palestine during the genocide in Gaza. She was almost immediately ordered to administrative detention, which was renewed on 24 June 2024.
She is currently a scholar and researcher at the Muwatin Institute at Birzeit University. In fact, she was scheduled to appear on 27 December at a panel convened by Jadaliyya on imprisonment in the time of genocide; she was seized from her home only one day before.
She is now one of 87 Palestinian women prisoners held in Damon prison, and at least 19 jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. The Palestinian women prisoners include a pregnant woman, the mothers and sisters of martyrs, students, journalists, lawyers and activists. They are among at least 9,500 Palestinians held in Zionist jails — not counting the thousands who have been taken captive from Gaza by the genocidal invading soldiers and whose names and numbers have not been reported.
We urge all to follow the Dismantle Damon: Free the ReSisters! Campaign for the latest news and updates on the Palestinian women prisoners.
Jarrar, a historical leftist political leader with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been imprisoned on multiple occasions by the occupation regime, including in 2015, when her administrative detention without charge or trial drew global protests before she was then transferred to the occupation military courts. She is a lifelong advocate for the liberation of political prisoners and was targeted specifically for her statements and advocacy for the liberation of Palestinian prisoners.
In 2019, she was once again seized by the occupation regime. While she was imprisoned, her daughter Suha tragically passed away. She was denied the right to see Suha’s body and attend her funeral before she was released again in 2021. During both of her times of imprisonment, she established independent educational programs to teach the imprisoned minor girls the high school education they were denied as well as the adult women prisoners their rights under international law.
She discusses her imprisonment in the book, Our Vision for Liberation, by Ramzy Baroud and Ilan Pappe; her piece is published at the Palestine Chronicle.
While the Zionist regime has been waging a full-fledged genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, they have seized thousands of prisoners and subjected them to horrific conditions. Palestinians from Gaza in particular have been brutally and routinely tortured and abused by occupation forces — for example at the Sde Teiman concentration camp, where the extreme stories of torture reported by released Palestinian civilians have included forced amputations, sexual assault and rape, starvation, beatings and other severe abuse. This is both a continuation of the attack on the Palestinian people as well as a mechanism to inflate the number of prisoners in order to manipulate the results of a prisoner exchange with the Palestinian resistance, holding Palestinians like Khalida Jarrar hostage inside Zionist jails.
We urge all organizers and activists for Palestine to raise the demand for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners from Zionist jails as part and parcel of our collective struggle, mass demonstrations and direct actions to bring an end to the ongoing Zionist genocide in Gaza for the past 11 months, as well as the ongoing genocide in Palestine for the past 76 years. Imperialist powers like the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Canada, and others that continue to support, fund and arm the Zionist regime are full partners in the genocide and mass incarceration and torture of the Palestinian people. As the Palestinian resistance struggles on the front lines to liberate the thousands held behind Zionist bars — and to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea — we can and must act, organize, take action and shut down the genocidal imperialist systems targeting the Palestinian people today.
Freedom for Khalida Jarrar and all Palestinians in zionist, imperialist and reactionary jails!
