Our children and their children’s grandchildren have the right to hold us to a high standard of accountability when their future—and maybe their survival—is hanging in the balance. They too deserve something more than a generation of political leaders who look at the greatest challenge humankind has ever faced and then sit on their hands.
– Human Development Report
As the survival crisis of our planet reaches a critical stage, increasingly the most important task just now is to protect the basic life-nurturing conditions of earth for future generations. This task has to be accomplished within a framework of justice, peace and democracy.
We all care deeply for our children. So imagine how high should be the concern of parents who have come to know that their small children, when they grow towards teenage and youth years, are likely to face some very serious life-endangering threats? Surely they should give up everything else to try to do what they can to eliminate these threats, or reduce them as much as possible.
But the reality today is that millions and millions of parents know that their children will be facing such threats in the next two or three decades (as well as beyond this) and yet the potential of the combined strength of these millions and millions of parents is somehow not being realised to check the serious threats which await these children in the next few decades.
This is extremely sad, and will prove very costly. There needs to be much greater realisation of the enormity of the very serious threats and hazards we face and our children are likely to face more than us. These threats are so serious that these can be called a survival crisis.
To understand the very critical times through which all inhabitants of planet earth are passing, the concept of a survival crisis is of crucial importance. Briefly, this concept refers to a range of serious problems which taken together can badly disrupt the special life-nurturing conditions of earth due to which such a wide diversity of life has flourished here. This disruption can take place within the 21st century, in fact as early as within the next few decades. Several very senior scientists have argued along these lines in several statements in recent times.
The serious problems which constitute the survival crisis include nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction including robot or AI weapons, climate change, ocean acidification, freshwater crisis, air pollution , disruption of food safety and around half a dozen other serious environmental and safety problems. Most discussion on these dozen or so survival problems takes place in isolation from each other but in the practical world we are more likely to face the combined threat of several of them taken together, increasing the risks .
From the point of view of the welfare of all living beings on earth this survival crisis constituted by all these problems taken together is clearly the most important issue. This is true for this generation but this is even more true regarding the welfare of future generations, our children and grandchildren as well as the next generations of other life-forms.
The present world leadership and international institutions have miserably failed to find timely and credible solutions for this survival crisis taken as a whole. There are several statements by leading scientists, experts and statesmen testifying to this. In fact some of the problems which constitute the survival crisis have worsened rapidly in the recent past.
Where then can we find hope? In my recent books on these issues titled Survival Crisis–Planet in Peril; People’s Response the Only Way Forward (Vitasta Publishers, Delhi), and One Decade to Protect Life (Published by our own cottage scale publishing effort called Social Change Papers, Delhi) I have argued that the greatest importance must now be accorded at world level to finding solutions for the survival crisis within the framework of justice, democracy and peace. While very significant reforms in governance at world level are needed to find and implement solutions which work, these can come only if there is a great resurgence of people’s movements at the grassroots and a yearning for social values in tune with the big challenges ahead. More specifically I have suggested the coming together of the movements of justice (including gender justice), peace, environment protection, democracy and sincere spirituality to make it possible for people to respond adequately to the challenges ahead. It is tough, it is possible.
A very encouraging recent development has been that a large number of school students started coming out in many countries to protest against lack of adequate action to check climate change. Thousands of scientists and researchers issued statements supporting these children.
This inspired me to write two new books in which I took forward the concerns of my previous books but with more focus on specific solutions which can create a safer future for the generations to come. The first book is appropriately titled ‘Protecting Earth for Children – Crucial Role of New Decade’ while the second, smaller companion book is titled ‘Earth Without Borders – One World for Protecting All.” (both published by Social Change Papers). A Gandhian perspective on such issues was provided in another book ‘Man Over Machine’ (Vitasta). This was followed by a Hindi book which brought together the concerns of all these books written in English (Dharti Ki Raksha Ke Liye Nirnayak Hoga Agla Dashak, Social Change papers).
One particular idea which I advocate very strongly in some of these books and on which I have been campaigning in recent times is to declare the decade of 2021-31 as the Decade of Saving Earth at the world level. This is the most immediate demand at present of the ‘Save the Earth Campaign with SED Demand ( Demand for declaring next ten years as the decade for saving earth’ which I am co-ordinating. This will help to focus attention on the most urgent tasks of resolving the survival crisis issues within a framework of justice,peace and democracy. (Campaign statement can be seen at bharatdogra.in)
Bharat Dogra is a freelance journalist who has been involved with several social movements.
SIGN UP FOR COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
Ahead of the polls opening on Tuesday, businesses in cities from Denver to Detroit to Washington, D.C., were boarding up their windows with plywood as they readied for the possibility of civil unrest. Some governors were readying the National Guard, said a report by The New York Times.
The report said:
“Everyone is starting to panic,” Fernando Casas, a construction worker, said as he pounded nails into a plywood frame at a storefront in a trendy shopping district near Los Angeles.
Other media reports said:
Judging by the plywood, it’s shaping up to be an Election Day like no other.
Amid the concerns, some retailers have started boarding up their stores in hopes of avoiding property damage from any acts of violence. Such preparations have already been seen in New York, Washington, Seattle and Los Angeles.
“If Trump wins, our risk analysts, who look at this every single day, are expecting widespread mass anti-government demonstrations in every major city,” Matt Hinton, a partner at security consultant Control Risks, told Bloomberg News.
In downtown Washington, the sounds of hammers and power tools echoed through the streets Monday as workers boarded up dozens of businesses.
In New York City, businesses from Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square to high-end shops in Manhattan’s chic SoHo neighborhood had already covered their windows.
Similar scenes played out in some other major cities across the U.S., with business owners fearing that Tuesday’s election could lead to the sort of unrest that broke out earlier this year.
Just a short walk from the White House, construction workers were carrying large sheets of plywood. For block after block, most stores had their windows and doors covered. Some kept just a front door open, hoping to attract a little business.
“We have to be ready,” said Ali Khan 66, who works at a now-barricaded downtown Washington liquor store where thousands of dollars in merchandise was stolen in June protests. “They smashed the windows and just walked out with everything.”
Washington authorities pledged to keep the peace, with police officials saying the entire department would be on the job on Election Day.
“Some people would like to cause mayhem and trouble,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “We are preparing to ensure the city’s safety.”
Activists are preparing for another long-term occupation of Black Lives Matter Plaza, one block from the White House.
In New York City, a police department memo to officers called the vote “one of the most highly contested presidential elections in the modern era” and noted that the winner “may not be decided for several weeks.”
Police there have been holding tabletop exercises to prepare for potential unrest and shifting hundreds of officers to patrol duties.
“We want to be very careful not to either over-police, because that that could send a signal, or under-police,” said John Miller, the department’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking last week on a local radio show, said it was too early to predict what would happen, but that the city would be ready.
“We’re going to be prepared for a lot of protests, prolonged protests, potentially different protest groups confronting each other,” he said. “If anything turns violent, we’re going to move to stop that immediately.”
“White House on lockdown”: “non-scalable” fence
A report by Salon said on November 2, 2020:
Federal authorities are expected to erect a “non-scalable” fence around the White House ahead of Tuesday’s election amid concerns of civil unrest.
Federal law enforcement agents will erect the fence around the perimeter of the White House complex, the Ellipse and Lafayette Square, NBC News’ Geoff Bennett reported as he described a “White House on lockdown.” About 250 National Guard troops have been put on standby, according to the report.
CNN confirmed the development, noting that a similar fence had been erected during Black Lives Matter protests over the summer. The Secret Service reportedly rushed President Donald Trump and his family to the White House’s underground bunker during a protest against police brutality following the death of George Floyd.
“We’re going to go in the night of,” Trump declared on Sunday during a rally in Charlotte. “As soon as that election is over, we’re going in with our lawyers.”
The nation’s capital has been on edge ahead of the election, with some businesses boarding up windows.
“It is widely believed that there will be civil unrest after the November election regardless of who wins,” D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham told the city’s lawmakers last month. “It is also believed that there is a strong chance of unrest when Washington, D.C., hosts the inauguration in January.”
The new fence will go up ahead of Trump’s election night party at the White House after plans were scrapped to host it at his Washington hotel, according to The New York Times and Reuters.
The event was supposed to be a “small gathering,” but it is now expected to pack in about 400 attendees in the East Room amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Times.
Biden, meanwhile, plans to spend election night in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., according to his campaign.
Other media reports said:
Federal authorities are expected to re-erect a “non-scalable” fence around the White House on Monday, a day before a presidential election many fear may lead to mass protest, civil unrest and even armed insurrection.
Amid speculation that the election result will not be immediately known and signs Republicans will either declare victory early or mount legal challenges if Donald Trump appears to have lost, multiple news outlets reported the White House plan, citing anonymous sources.
“A federal law enforcement source tells NBC that beginning tomorrow, crews will build a ‘non-scalable’ fence to secure the [White House] complex, Ellipse and Lafayette Square. Two hundred and fifty national guardsmen have been put on standby, reporting to metro police officials.”
Significant deployments
Law enforcement agencies are preparing to deploy. Patrick Burke, executive director of the Washington DC Police Foundation, recently told CNN: “If there’s no winner, you will see significant deployments of officers at all levels across the capital.”
Protests could continue through Inauguration Day in January, Matt Hinton added.
D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham, speaking with lawmakers this month, also warned of possible unrest.
Earlier reports said:
Alex Provenzano, who owns a salon in downtown Washington, D.C., installed his door and window coverings Wednesday, not knowing whether next week’s election would prompt a replay of the protests earlier this year in which some businesses were damaged.
“When the protests broke out in May, the entire street was vandalized,” said Provenzano, who owns AP Salon just off McPherson Square, a block north of the White House. “I decided then that we had to board up.”
He said the plywood remained in place until July, but with the contentious election looming, Provenzano pulled the boards out of storage and re-covered the windows and front door.
“I’m usually a very positive person; I hope for the best,” he said. “But the people are very stressed out, and there is a lot of uncertainty in the country right now. It’s pretty scary.”
Large swaths of downtown Washington, within blocks of the White House, resembled a coastal community girding for a powerful hurricane. Hotels, office buildings, coffee shops and restaurants were sheathed in plywood, with some of the makeshift barriers stretching nearly entire blocks.
Officials say they’re not aware of credible threats of violence on or after Election Day, but businesses, drawing from the lessons of last summer when protests erupted across the country following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, are bracing for possible violence, looting and vandalism.
An anxious country
Across the country, Americans are increasingly worried about the possibility of violence over the high-stakes presidential election, which analysts say could be marred in chaos as an anxious country waits days or weeks for the results. Three of 4 voters say they’re worried about possible violence, while only 1 in 4 say they’re “very confident” the country will see a peaceful transfer of power if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden defeats President Donald Trump, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll finds.
In Chicago, the police department has canceled November days off for police officers in charge of managing protests, Police Superintendent David Brown said.
“Everything is uncertain. We don’t have any specific credible threats at this time, although we are well aware of what happened with the Michigan governor, Virginia governor and the militias planning to do something on Election Day,” Brown said, referring to members of an anti-government group accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.
In New York City, there have been no specific and credible threats targeting the election, according to the police department. But preparations have included crowd control re-training for street officers in the event of protests and having “hundreds” ready to respond to election-related demonstrations.
“It’s no secret that this election is more contentious than in years past,” Terence Monahan, the New York Police Department’s chief of department, said last week while outlining election security plans.
In Portland, Oregon, where demonstrators and federal officers clashed during nightly protests outside the city’s downtown federal courthouse, business owners wondered if they should close or board up their properties, Police Chief Chuck Lovell said in a letter last week.
“While we do not have any current intelligence to suggest violence, we know there is a lot of uncertainty and tension in our community during this time,” Lovell said, adding that the department will beef up staffing on and after Election Day.
Downtown ghost towns?
In Chicago, dozens of businesses along the Magnificent Mile shopping strip and throughout the downtown Loop area did not remove temporary barriers that were installed over the summer, when the city saw two incidents of late-night lootings.
Restaurants and luxury retailers are operating through windows covered in plywood or other barriers, and shoppers pass through entryway cut-outs. City officials have been holding workshops in recent months to prepare for possible civil unrest after Election Day.
Dozens of businesses in downtown Chicago are boarded up on Oct. 14, 2020. Many have been boarded up since incidents of looting earlier in the summer.
“The city is taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to planning for this event,” Rich Guidice, executive director of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said in a press conference this month. “We have been performing drills and holding workshops to be ready to respond to any situation or possible event that should occur in this city before, on or after Election Day.”
In Washington, D.C., officials are not recommending that businesses board up their buildings, but they have set up a website for people to report suspicious voting activities to police. Businesses are also encouraged to install security cameras and to keep important documents, such as insurance paperwork and lease agreements, secure.
The DowntownDC Business Improvement District said businesses, especially those that were hit the hardest over the summer, are taking precautionary measures ahead of the election. The group said it is aware of at least 12 properties around the White House and in the Chinatown area that are being boarded up.
“The DowntownDC BID encourages each business take precautions such as securing outdoor furniture and signage that can be used as projectile,” the group said in a statement, adding that staffers will remove bike racks, newsstands, unbolted trash cans, loose piles of bricks or rocks, construction materials and other items that can be used to harm people.
On K Street, the owners of A-1 Wines & Liquor were fitting their front windows and door for plywood covers Thursday.
Nitish Thiruchuri, the store manager, said they were acting early after learning a hard lesson earlier this year when some of the protests turned ugly.
“The windows were broken, a lot of the stuff was taken,” Thiruchuri said, motioning to the shelves of liquor, wine and beer.
He estimated the damage at between $200,000 and $300,000, forcing the business to close for three months.
“There was nothing we could do,” he said. “Now, we are being a little more cautious.”
Leona Agouridis, executive director of the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District in Washington, D.C., said while some businesses are boarding up their properties, others are choosing not to. Some businesses, she said, have been boarded up since summer and have not been able to repair or replace their glass windows.
Provenzano, the salon owner, said his plywood would remain in place through the inauguration, regardless of who is elected. He has not decided if he will be open.
“I don’t want to put my people or customers at risk,” he said. “I’m going to play it by ear.”
Shain Jenkins, manager of Compton Lumber and Hardware near downtown Seattle, said demand for plywood has surged by nearly 40% in just the past two weeks as “rumblings” about a new round of protests are being discussed.
“Business is definitely up, but it’s not the kind of business you really look forward to,” Jenkins said.
Mae Pease, manager of the Oregon’s Finest dispensary in Portland, said they’re installing metal gates so that looters or burglars can’t get in even if glass windows are broken. The business has been broken into three times since May, Pease said.
Half of their windows are still boarded up after the most recent break-in, and they are debating whether to cover the rest.
For now, Pease said, “It is really quiet outside. It is dead. For me, I think it is the calm before the storm. We’ll see what next week brings.”
Terrorism has struck France again in the wake of the ongoing cartoons’ controversy. In a terrorist attack some years ago on the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo magazine following the publication of the controversial cartoons, several people were killed. And now, in a recent terrorist attack, yet more people have lost their lives.
There can be no justification for committing acts of terrorism in the name of supposedly defending religion or God from insult. Those who try to counter blasphemy with blood have a primitive attitude that does not embody the etiquette of the modern world. Human beings will not be able to live in peace if they support extremists who do not embody the values of the civilized democratic world and who play on religious sentiments in order to whip up hate and violence. In fact, such extremists are working against the very religion they claim to believe in and are giving it a very bad image.
What do those who pretend to be ‘God’s goons’ think? Do they think that the glory of the prophets can be tarnished by opposition or criticism? How weak it would be if God, His words and prophets were to be shattered by human reproach! Can anyone with a modicum of commonsense think that a merciful God and a glorified prophet can be intolerant towards their critics and accusers just as ordinary people often are?
When the Prophet Muhammad approached the Arabs of his time with the verses of the Qur’an, he was met with sharp criticism. The Qur’an itself makes it clear that the Arabs of Makkah objected to and criticized it. They claimed that the verses were myths of the ancients. The Qur’an replied, “Or do they say, “He made it up”? Rather, they do not believe.So let them produce a discourse like it, if they are truthful..”(52:33,34). Here we find an appropriate example of how to deal with criticism. Once, while the Prophet was praying, an old lady came and she placed a camel’s intestines around his neck. Still, he did not retaliate with violence. *
Recent events show that the majority of those who are involved in religious extremism are young people. They are superficial believers who have a very superficial, grossly inadequate and deeply faulty understanding of the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet. The speeches of highly conservative preachers are often the only source of their religious knowledge. They do not know how to read religious texts in the right manner or the importance of interpretation in understanding the texts. To them, religion is just extreme emotions.
The task of interpreting and understanding the scriptures in terms of the occasions of their revelation and their historical context has not been sufficiently developed among Muslim scholars. Understanding religious texts as a source of codes, rules and laws, instead of treating them as a source of values, leads to dangerous thinking. Medieval literalist interpretations of religious beliefs and practices are often thoroughly insufficient to enable believers to negotiate with life in the modern world. What is required are understandings that go beyond dogmatic externalism and dry literalism and that truly uphold the essence and spirit of religious teachings.
Interpretations that seek to take modern-day man back to antiquity are still a dominant current in Islamic theology. This is a blind and irrational interpretational method. Religious fundamentalists and those who view religion as a mere political ideology follow such interpretations. These interpretations become the inspiration for religious extremists and terrorists. There is now an urgent need for Muslim scholars to interpret religious teachings with an emphasis on modern political values such as democracy, respect for religious and ideological pluralism, civil liberties, individual liberty and freedom of expression.
It is a positive thing that many Muslim countries have come forward to denounce religious terrorism. Referring to the recent events in France, the Saudi Foreign Ministry stated that it rejects extremist activities that are not in line with all religions, creeds and commonsense. Likewise, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has strongly condemned such actions. Countries such as Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain have strongly condemned the incident in France.
Muslim countries and Muslim communities must come forward to plan and implement programmes to prevent the recurrence of such attacks, not just through statements but also through practical actions. It is important to lift the religious community out of conservative attitudes. It is also necessary to reclaim their many youngsters who have lost their sense of reality through emotionalism.
Mujeeb Rahman Kinalur is a writer and journalist based in Calicut, Kerala.
He may be reached at kinalur@gmail.com
Co-Written by Mohammad al-Deirawi and Ramzy Baroud
Mohammad Ibrahim Ali al-Deirawi was born on January 30, 1978 in Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. His family is originally from Bir Al-Saba’, an ethnically cleansed Palestinian town located in the southern Naqab desert. Mohammad was arrested by the Israeli army at a military checkpoint in central Gaza on March 1, 2001. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the armed Palestinian resistance, and was freed on October 18, 2011 in a prisoner exchange between the Palestinian resistance and Israel.
Mohammad’s interrogation commenced as soon as he arrived at the Central Asqalan (Ashkelon) Prison in southern Israel, where he experienced physical and psychological torture for nearly two and a half months. He was handed his sentence by an Israeli military court on March 20, 2003.
As soon as he was released from the Nafha Prison, 100 kilometers north of Bir Al-Saba’, he married Ghadeer, the beautiful and only daughter of his prison-mate, Majdi Hammad. Ghadeer and Mohammad have two children.
Majdi Hammad was born on March 20, 1965 in the Jabaliya refugee camp, the most crowded and dilapidated of all of Gaza’s refugee camps, and the birthplace of the First Palestinian Intifada, the popular uprising of 1987. Hammad’s family originated from the ethnically cleansed village of Barbara, in southern Palestine.
Majdi was the youngest of two brothers and one sister, Fathi, Akram and Fayza. Majdi was raised mostly by his mother, Farida, known for her strong religious principles, strong character and leadership in the community.
Majdi was arrested several times, the last and longest of his prison terms being in 1991. Then, he was sentenced to 624 years in prison for his leadership role in the armed resistance and, particularly, in the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas organization. When he was arrested and imprisoned, his wife, Nahla, was still pregnant with his daughter, Ghadeer.
Majdi was released alongside Mohammad and hundreds of other prisoners in October 2011, but died soon after, on March 18, 2014, from heart disease that was left untreated for years while in Israeli prisons.
Ghadeer means small stream.
Ghadeer
I have never imagined that Ghadeer could ever be my wife. She was a teenage girl when I first saw her, as she accompanied her mother to the Nafha Prison to visit her father, Majdi Hamad. That was in 2002. Her dad is one the toughest men you will ever meet, solid as a rock against his enemies, but so gentle and kind to his comrades.
I was in solitary confinement when I first met him. I saw him through the small flap door of my cell. He was being dragged into his cell in the underground dungeon of Nafha by a number of armed guards. They were hitting and kicking him everywhere and, despite his shackles, he fought back like the lion he was. His face was covered in blood. I did not know what to think of him at the time.
Majdi looked familiar, although I did not recognize him immediately. In fact, at the time, I thought he could have been in prison for one criminal offense or another, and sentenced to isolation for violent behavior against other criminals. But, later that evening, I heard him make the call for prayer. His voice was shaken and tired, but still confident and warm. “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar”—“God is Great, God is Great” —he announced the evening prayer. I stood up, washed and prayed in my cell. For days after that, I kept hearing his voice reading Quranic verses from memory. It was uplifting to hear a familiar voice, to be reminded that everything happens for a reason, and that, in the end, it will all make sense, since every trial and challenge in this life is the will of God.
Luckily for me, Majdi’s cell was adjacent to mine. A few days after his arrival, I gathered my courage, drew as close as I could to the shared wall and asked him: “What is your name and why are you here?” He replied: “What is yours and why are you here?”
I told him. “I am Mohammed al-Deirawi and I am from Gaza, and I am imprisoned for joining the armed resistance.” He said that he, too, was from Gaza and that he was imprisoned for being a member of the resistance. But it was only when he said his name that I knew that he was no ordinary fighter. Majdi was a legend in Gaza for years, since he had formed the first martyrs’ underground cell in the late 1980s, then become one of the leaders of the Qassam Brigades in the early ‘90s. He was sentenced to hundreds of years in prison, but he never gave up hope that he would, one day, be free. Despite the horrific physical torture he endured, he admitted to nothing. He did not concede a single name or any useful information, thus giving other fighters the chance to take necessary measures to avoid arrest or assassination.
As for myself, I spent nearly 11 years in prison, nine of them in the same section in Nafha with Majdi. Over the years, he grew from being a friend to an older brother, even a father figure to me. I loved him dearly. If it were not for Majdi, I do not know how I would have coped with my life in my underground dungeon.
Before I was brought to Nafha, I endured several long bouts of torture, each extending for 55 hours at a time. They had me stand blindfolded in the same position for 12 hours at a time. They placed me in a refrigerator-like room and kept lowering the temperature until I thought I was going to die from cold. They took shifts beating me. They tied me to an intentionally unstable chair for many hours. They placed a filthy bag on my head for long hours, leaving me gasping for breath, thinking that I would suffocate at any moment.
I was 23 at the time of my arrest. True, I was young, but I was mentally prepared for any eventuality. I had seen enough pain and suffering in my life that would have prepared me for a lot worse. I lost nearly 20 kilograms (approximately 45 pounds) during the initial torture stage, which lasted for 71 days, straight. Not only did they fail to break me; I reached a point where I simply decided not to acknowledge the existence of my interrogators. I told the officers who questioned me under constant duress: “I don’t see you”. They were baffled and kept yelling in my face to answer their questions, but I kept repeating: “I don’t see you”. All of their beating could not make me stop.
My interrogation commenced the day I was detained, on March 1, 2001. After that, I spent two years waiting for the verdict, which was handed down by an Israeli military court on March 20, 2003. I was sentenced to 30 years in prison. After announcing his decision, the judge asked me: “Do you wish to apologize for what you have done?”
“I have nothing to apologize for,” I replied, with my head held high. “I will never apologize for resisting the occupation, defending my people, fighting for my stolen rights. But you need to apologize, and those who demolish homes while their owners are still inside are the ones who must apologize. Those who kill children, occupy land and commit crimes against unarmed, innocent people, are the ones who need to apologize.” He did not like my answer and shouted at me to stop, but I would not.
I spent most of my time in prison in Nafha and much of it in isolation. Most of those who were with me in the same section were from Gaza. There were about 30 of us. As soon as Majdi joined us, he became our leader and protector. He helped organize our efforts, allowing us to speak with one voice. He was funny when he needed to be, and tough when the situation called for it. He was a true leader.
Prisoners from Gaza received their visitations on the same day. It was then that I met Majdi’s family. When Majdi was first detained, his wife was still pregnant with Ghadeer, their firstborn and only child at the time. He watched her grow up slowly from behind thick glass, while handcuffed to a wall, unable to hold or kiss her. He spoke so much about Ghadeer, of the life he wished for her. He said that he would hold on just to be united with her some day. Majdi always wished to have a big family. It reminded him of life in Palestine before the entire Hammad clan was ethnically cleansed from their village, Barbara. Life was good back then, for all of our people, and Majdi was determined to, someday, return to his original village.
In the last few years of his stay at Nafha, Majdi was continually falling ill. He collapsed more than once while gripping his chest, but the prison administration kept telling him that he suffered from acid reflux. They kept feeding him pills to treat his stomach acid, but his situation worsened with time. It hardly helped that he was severely beaten whenever he stood up for himself or for one of us.
When we learned that we were about to be released as part of a prisoner exchange between the resistance in Gaza and Israel, we were elated. We hugged each other but tried to contain our joy, as we were also deeply saddened for our comrades that we were leaving behind. Majdi had spent more time in prison than I had, nearly 20 years.
When we left prison, we went to Mecca together to perform the Hajj pilgrimage. I wanted to get married and start a family, and he wanted to expand his. But, months later, Majdi realized that his ailment was more serious than previously thought. He was diagnosed with heart disease, a condition that he had endured unknowingly for years in prison. Medical negligence of Palestinian prisoners is all too common in Israeli prisons. By the time doctors in Jordan informed Majdi that he would not survive surgery, and that he should spend the remaining days with his family, he had another child, Mu’tasim, and his wife was pregnant with a third. He had resolved to call him Mohammad.
During that time, a mutual friend suggested that I ask Majdi for his daughter’s hand in marriage. I chuckled. I told him Ghadeer was still a teenager. “A teenager in 2002,” he said. “Ten years have passed since then, Mohammad.”
For us prisoners, time stands still.
It took me a while to imagine that the young teenage girl was all grown up and could possibly be the mother of my children. Later, I sent my mother and sister to ask Majdi and his wife for Ghadeer’s hand. Majdi called me the same day. “I could not ask for someone better than you to marry my daughter,” he said. When I went to their home in the northern town of Beit Lahia, Ghadeer had broken her leg just two days earlier. She was limping, with a large cast on her leg. I told myself: “I better avoid looking at the cast so as not to make her nervous and just keep looking at her face”. She was beautiful and had a kind face. She told me, months after we were married, that, when she first saw my face, she was afraid of me. Maybe it was because of my bushy beard or rough demeanor. But, then, she said, when she saw me conversing with her dad softly, as if I were his younger brother, she immediately decided to accept my proposal.
On the day we agreed to the marriage terms, Majdi hugged me and cried. Then, I cried. I asked him: “What is it about us, Majdi? We cry when we are sad and we cry when we are happy; we cry when we are in prison and when we are free.” Then, we all laughed. Soon after my marriage to Ghadeer, Majdi died. I watched him in his last moments hugging his son and Ghadeer. I kissed his forehead and told him not to worry, that his family was now mine and that I would do my best to carry on with his proud legacy for as long as I live.
Now that Majdi is gone, I love Ghadeer ten times more. I feel a great sense of responsibility towards his family, which is now my family. His son, Mohammad, is now like my own son. I called one of my two boys Majdi, after my best friend. I draw strength from Majdi’s memory. He helped me cope with the harshness of prison life and his legacy helps me cope with life outside.
(The above are excerpts from the story ‘Ghadeer’ in Ramzy Baroud’s latest book: These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons – Clarity Press: 2020.
– Mohammed al-Deirawi is a former Palestinian prisoner in Israel. He was born in Gaza’s Nuseirat Refugee Camp. He was released in the 2011 prisoner exchange. Deirawi is currently based in Istanbul, Turkey. Contact him at: ibrahemhamada25@gmail.com
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and also at the Afro-Middle East Center (AMEC). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
SIGN UP FOR COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.