“All I wanted was to bid my daughter a final farewell.” Hostages and the mainstream media
Watching footage of Palestinian parliamentarian and hostage Khalida Jarrar emerge from Israeli captivity was jarring – a far, muffled cry from the sense of happiness and relief most of us felt seeing the young female Israeli soldiers released by Hamas around the same time. What a study in contrast.
Khalida was clearly emaciated, traumatised and had turned, in the same period of time, from a powerful dynamic woman into a fragile, elderly human being who moved with difficulty. What a difference it makes who holds you captive. It goes without saying I didn’t see this on any mainstream outlet.
In a previous period of imprisonment – for being a member of the PFLP, a proscribed organisation – the Israelis wouldn’t even allow Khalida Jarrar to attend the funeral of her own daughter. Instead she sent a message that was read at Suha’s funeral in 2021:
I am in so much pain, my child, only because I miss you.
I am in so much pain, my child, only because I miss you.
From the depths of my agony, I reached out and
embraced the sky of our homeland through the window
of my prison cell in Damon Prison, Haifa.
Worry not, my child.
I stand tall, and steadfast, despite the shackles and the jailer.
I am a mother in sorrow, from yearning to see you one last time.
Suha, my precious.
They have stripped me from bidding you a final goodbye kiss.
I bid you farewell with a flower.
Your absence is searingly painful, excruciatingly painful.
But I remain steadfast and strong,
Like the mountains of beloved Palestine.
I searched online and found no mainstream outlet had covered Khalida’s release amid the flood of stories about the Israeli hostages. To them, she is no doubt a non-person. Yet, Khalida Jarrar is a leading political activist and one of dozens of legislators imprisoned by the Israelis. She endured. She remained steadfast.
“The entire system of political imprisonment is based on suppressing Palestinian organising,” said Charlotte Kates, coordinator of Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Support Network.
The four female IDF soldiers, according to all........
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