JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- He was arrested from his home at 2 a.m.; insulted and mocked by the interrogators for being Palestinian; severely tortured during interrogation; chained to a hospital bed by his hands and feet and denied medical care despite his illness – a pattern drearily familiar to Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
There is a small twist in the tale, though. The Palestinian protagonist of this story -- Marxist intellectual and dissident Salameh Kaileh -- was arrested, tortured and eventually deported by the Syrian regime which has long portrayed itself as a champion of the Palestinian cause and the bulwark of resistance to Zionism and imperialism.
In the early hours of April 24, undercover Syrian intelligence officers stormed Kaileh's house in Barzeh, a neighborhood in Damascus, and arrested him. His lawyer Anwar Bunni, human rights attorney at the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, said Kaileh was arrested from his home “without explanation” and that his arrest is yet another attempt at “muzzling” freedom of expression in Syria.
After spending almost three weeks in incommunicado detention, Kaileh was released and forcibly transferred to Jordan on the eve of Nakba Day. In an interview he gave in Jordan after his deportation, Salameh Kaileh spoke out about the appalling conditions he was subjected to during his time in the Air Force Intelligence Branch in Al Umawiyin district and the military hospital.
Signs and bruises of the severe beating he faced during interrogation were apparent, but Kaileh maintained that what he experienced was “a tiny fraction” of what other detainees, with whom he shared a cell, went through.
During interrogation in the Air Force Intelligence, he was questioned about a pamphlet entitled “The Leftist” that was found at his home, but he denied that he had anything to do with printing the pamphlets.
Kaileh said that he received the worst beatings for a slogan in the pamphlets which reads: “In order to liberate Palestine, the Syrian regime must fall.” The interrogators were particularly angry at this line, Kaileh said, and severely beat him with a wire cable and whipped the soles of his feet with a thin bamboo stick.
There is a small twist in the tale, though. The Palestinian protagonist of this story -- Marxist intellectual and dissident Salameh Kaileh -- was arrested, tortured and eventually deported by the Syrian regime which has long portrayed itself as a champion of the Palestinian cause and the bulwark of resistance to Zionism and imperialism.
In the early hours of April 24, undercover Syrian intelligence officers stormed Kaileh's house in Barzeh, a neighborhood in Damascus, and arrested him. His lawyer Anwar Bunni, human rights attorney at the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, said Kaileh was arrested from his home “without explanation” and that his arrest is yet another attempt at “muzzling” freedom of expression in Syria.
After spending almost three weeks in incommunicado detention, Kaileh was released and forcibly transferred to Jordan on the eve of Nakba Day. In an interview he gave in Jordan after his deportation, Salameh Kaileh spoke out about the appalling conditions he was subjected to during his time in the Air Force Intelligence Branch in Al Umawiyin district and the military hospital.
Signs and bruises of the severe beating he faced during interrogation were apparent, but Kaileh maintained that what he experienced was “a tiny fraction” of what other detainees, with whom he shared a cell, went through.
During interrogation in the Air Force Intelligence, he was questioned about a pamphlet entitled “The Leftist” that was found at his home, but he denied that he had anything to do with printing the pamphlets.
Kaileh said that he received the worst beatings for a slogan in the pamphlets which reads: “In order to liberate Palestine, the Syrian regime must fall.” The interrogators were particularly angry at this line, Kaileh said, and severely beat him with a wire cable and whipped the soles of his feet with a thin bamboo stick.
It came as no surprise, then, that the Syrian security forces tried to silence Salameh Kaileh even though such an attempt would -- yet again -- make a mockery of the regime’s worn-out, ludicrous propaganda that the Syrian uprising is an imperialist-Zionist conspiracy led by Salafist “armed groups” that targets the regime for its role in safeguarding resistance.
There are thousands of political prisoners languishing in Syrian jails and torture camps. They are less privileged and fortunate than Salemeh Kaileh; their names and faces are not known to us; they don’t have books to their names; and their cases don’t attract the attention of media outlets and human rights organizations.
What Salameh Kaileh’s case highlights is that the Syrian regime does not distinguish between a Palestinian and a Syrian or between an intellectual and a peasant. Anyone who opposes the regime can be a victim of its systematic torture, arbitrary imprisonment and even pay with their lives.
Kaileh, however, is certain that the regime will fall: “If you see the resilience of the young detainees, even after suffering horrific torture, you know that this regime is unsustainable.”
There are thousands of political prisoners languishing in Syrian jails and torture camps. They are less privileged and fortunate than Salemeh Kaileh; their names and faces are not known to us; they don’t have books to their names; and their cases don’t attract the attention of media outlets and human rights organizations.
What Salameh Kaileh’s case highlights is that the Syrian regime does not distinguish between a Palestinian and a Syrian or between an intellectual and a peasant. Anyone who opposes the regime can be a victim of its systematic torture, arbitrary imprisonment and even pay with their lives.
Kaileh, however, is certain that the regime will fall: “If you see the resilience of the young detainees, even after suffering horrific torture, you know that this regime is unsustainable.”
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