Muitos palestinos estão comemorando a libertação de 199 prisioneiros [En] que estavam sendo mantidos em prisões israelenses. A libertação dos prisioneiros foi anunciada [En] na última segunda-feira, e foi provavelmente orquestrada para coincidir com a chegada [En] de Condoleezza Rice a Israel.
O processo de libertação foi atrasado diversas vezes pelo governo de Israel, que possuía três votos separados na questão. Entre os prisioneiros está Said al-Attaba, o palestino que estava preso a mais tempo em Israel, aprisionado em 1977, e Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Ali, aprisionado em 1979.
Marcy do body on the line estava em Nablus para as festividades de boas-vindas aos prisioneiros libertados, e as comparou às boas-vindas dadas a Samir Kuntar [En] em julho passado. A blogueira escreveu [En]:
We waited in the sweltering heat for a few hours (Huwara, by the way, is at most a 10 minute drive from downtown Nablus). It reminded me of going to Samir Quntar’s welcome home festivities this summer, although Hezbollah had chairs for us and fabulous live band (though here we were not getting hit on the head by people waving their flags). But here I could get much closer to the stage, it was not sex segregated, and the crowd was much smaller (I don’t even think the entire crowd in Dahiyaa that day would be able to fit in downtown Nablus). A friend of mine later joined us and I kept hearing people complain about the heat. True, it was unbelievably hot; but I kept thinking about all the torture and living hell these men had endured–one for 32 years–and I thought the least we can do is stand here and give them a hero’s welcome.
A blogueira também lembrou dos prisioneiros que não foram libertados:
Of course the most famous political prisoners were not released today from their torture chambers: Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Sa’adat. There was a huge poster in downtown Nablus (see below) about Sa’adat. And of course of the rest of the 10,000+ prisoners in Israeli jails must be remembered. But it also must be remembered that EVERY NIGHT Israeli Terrorist Forces (ITF) kidnap and imprison Palestinian political prisoners. My friend Mustafa, who lives in the old city of Nablus, tells me every day about stories of the ITF coming in with bombs and guns and terrorizing families. In a way, the old city of Nablus is kind of like a refugee camp in that way. It is one of the many sites that gets invaded nightly. Yesterday 9 Palestinians were kidnapped from various West Bank Cities, for instance.
A história foi acompanhada pelas fotos tiradas pela própria blogueira, incluindo esta:
Para mais informações sobre a blogosfera palestina, visite o Palestine Blogs [En].