Chairman of the Joint List, MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash), recently paid a visit to former PLO official and Palestinian leader, Marwan Barghouti in prison. MK Odeh placed a post about their meeting on his Facebook page following the visit: “The visit was very exciting, enabling us to exchange notes and experiences, and allowed me to speak with a leader who shares my political views.” Odeh continued: “I was reminded of the words of Nelson Mandela – ‘One side’s terrorist is the other side’s freedom fighter.’”
“Free Barghouti” slogan on the Separation Wall, near Ramallah (Photo: Al Ittihad)
In a different case related to imprisonment of Palestinian political leaders, Israeli authorities extended the administrative detention of Nader Mahmoud Jaffal, from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) on Friday, May 1, for another four months, family members have reported. Jaffal, 43, a member of the DFLP’s Central Committee, was detained on December 26, 2014 after being apprehended at a “flying checkpoint” near the illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, on the main road between Jerusalem and Jericho, close to his home in Abu Dis in the eastern Jerusalem district. At the checkpoint, Israeli forces stopped his car, ordered him out of the vehicle, and told him they had an order for his arrest. His wife, Abeer, told reporters that the soldiers subjected both her and their car to a search before taking her husband to Maale Adumim. Jaffal has previously spent a cumulative total of more than 15 years in Israeli jails during discontinuous periods. He is the father of three children, Yara, 17, Adham, 15, and Guevara, 4.
The extension of Jafffal’s detention came as members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine rallied in Gaza to protest the 6,000 Palestinian prisoners currently being held by Israel, including senior PFLP leader and Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar. Israel routinely detains Palestinian political leaders, and Jarrar is one of 13 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council currently in Israeli prisons, according to the prisoners’ rights group Addameer. Palestinians held in administrative detention are often incarcerated without charge or trial for months and without being able to access to the evidence that led to their detention.
