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A painful march to freedom: the triumphant legacy of Palestinian prisoners
By demonstrating that even at your weakest you can still fight back, the resistance behind bars has always been a uniquely powerful part of the overall national liberation movement, explains RAMZY BAROUD
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From hunting rare pamphlets at book sales to online panels and courses on trade unionism and class politics, the MML continues connecting archive treasures with the movements fighting for a better world, writes director MEIRIAN JUMP
‘Honest’ Tom Wharton’s 1682 drunken rampage through St Mary’s church haunted his political career, but his satirical song Lillibullero helped topple Catholic James II during the Glorious Revolution, writes MAT COWARD
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“AS soon as I left prison, I went to Nael’s grave. It is adorned with the colours of the Palestinian flag and verses from the Holy Quran. I told my little brother how much I loved and appreciated him, and that, one day, we would meet again in paradise.”
The above is part of a testimony given to me by a former Palestinian prisoner, Jalal Lutfi Saqr. It was published two years ago in the volume These Chains Will Be Broken.
As a Palestinian, born and raised in a refugee camp in Gaza, I was always familiar with the political discourse of, and concerning, political prisoners. My neighbourhood, like every neighbourhood in Gaza, is populated with a large number of former prisoners, or families whose members have experienced imprisonment in the past or present.
However, starting in 2016, my relationship with the subject took on, for the lack of a better term, a more “academic” approach. Since then, and up to now, I have interviewed scores of former prisoners and members of their families.
Some were imprisoned by Israel, others by the Palestinian Authority. I even spoke to prisoners who experienced the brutality of Middle Eastern prisons, from Iraq, to Syria, to Egypt and Lebanon.
A few particularly unlucky ones have endured multiple prison experiences and were tortured by men speaking different languages.
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With foreign media banned from Gaza, Palestinians themselves have reversed most of zionism’s century-long propaganda gains in just two years — this is why Israel has killed 270 journalists since October 2023, explains RAMZY BAROUD
Gaza’s collective sumud has proven more powerful than one of the world’s best-equipped militaries, but the change in international attitudes isn’t happening fast enough to save a starving population from Western-backed genocide, argues RAMZY BAROUD
RAMZY BAROUD asks why it has taken so long for even left-wing voices in the West to call out what Israel is doing
RAMZY BAROUD explains why the world can no longer ignore Palestine
