Sunday, October 21, 2007

Twilight Zone / Administrative orphans

Contributed by Fatima

By Gideon Levy

"Here is one way to maintain a sense of family unity: Once a month, the Hashlamoun children visit their parents in jail. Three kids go to see their mother in Hasharon Prison and the other three see their father in Ketziot Prison. Sometimes even this arrangement doesn't work out. Some of the kids haven't seen their father in three months and others haven't seen their mother for a month and a half.

When the visits do take place, the children get to stand in front of a glass wall and talk with their mother or father for half an hour - visiting time is strictly limited - on a telephone that connects the people on either side of the soundproof barrier. Actually, there has been a lot more crying than talking. The children cry on one side of the window and their mother or father cries on the other. Then the children go back home to their grandmother, who is trying her best to raise them in her small, decrepit house on the edge of Hebron.

Sami Hashlamoun was arrested 16 months ago. His wife Nora was arrested about a year ago. Both are being held without trial, without an indictment, without a chance to defend themselves. They are administrative detainees, and no one can say just why they were torn from their children in the middle of the night, or when they will be released. Israel is currently holding about 850 administrative detainees......"

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