Plight of the Unpeople: 13-Year-Old “Leaves Hell” of Israeli Detention

2018-04-03

13-Year-Old “Leaves Hell” of Israeli Detention

by Jaclynn Ashly
The Electronic Intifada

Abdel Raouf al-Balawi’s mother drapes a checkered scarf, or kuffiyeh, around her son’s small, slumped-over shoulders, while the 13-year-old anxiously recounts his experiences in Israeli detention.

Posters displaying the faces of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces are lined up, one after the other, across the white walls of the family’s home in Bethlehem’s Dheisheh refugee camp.

“The food was horrible in prison,” Abdel Raouf said, looking up briefly, before averting his eyes back to the floor. “Everything the Israelis gave us was months expired.”

On Tuesday, 27 March, Abdel Raouf was released from Ofer detention center, an Israeli military facility located near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and was greeted by hundreds of cheering residents in his home camp celebrating his release.

Abdel Raouf was one of the youngest Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

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