Democratic Palestine : 9 (ص 19)
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- Democratic Palestine : 9 (ص 19)
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clock. The collaborators take the
targeted youth from the cell into the
bathroom where he is tied and his head
covered with a sheet. Then he is strip-
ped and gang raped. This is done just
before interrogation, so the detainee is
under the impression that those raping
him are his interrogators. Thus the
detainee is already shaken up when
taken to interrogation. There he is
beaten and humiliated in an attempt to
get him to confess to taking part in a
demonstration, naming other activists,
etc. The interrogators tell the detainee
that they know he has been raped by a
man, and remind him of the society's
attitude toward homosexuality. They
threaten to inform his parents and
friends of the «deviation», and promise
relief only if he confesses. The detainee
who refuses to cooperate is returned to
the solitary confinement cell, and the
same cruel method may be repeated
over and over. Several detainees have
tried to commit suicide by swallowing
sharp objects, to escape this cycle of ter-
ror. Others are afflicted by hysteria.
The detainee who confesses is
beaten less, but homosexual rape may
continue, to corrupt him completely. The
interrogator poses as a friend, at times
scolding the collaborators for harrassing
the detainee and ordering increases in
his food rations. At this point, the
detainee is transferred to block 2.
Block 2
Block 2 consists of larger cells with
15-20 prisoners in each. In comparison
with block 1, there is some freedom of
movement, but the atmosphere is
poisoned by the presence of profes-
sional collaborators who supervise the
prisoners. Trust between the detainees
can be difficult after the experience of
block 1, and the fact that some confes-
sed under torture, while others resisted.
The aim of the Zionists is to create dis-
putes among the prisoners. Reading
materials and radios are forbidden.
However, the prisoners are allowed two
hours in the courtyard daily, as well as
biweekly family visits. Lawyers can only
meet their client in the courtyard, while
Red Cross officials meet the prisoners in
a specially prepared room outside the
camp.
Indictment of Israeli torture
Almost since Al Faraa opened,
progressive lawyers have been trying to
help the youthful detainees. Felicia
Langer in particular has filed numerous
protests with the Israeli authorities,
based on carefully documented cases of
torture. Such efforts culminated in a
report released by the International
Commission of Jurists in Geneva, in
January of this year. This report lists
numerous instances of mistreatment
ranging from sleep deprivation to beat-
ing with an electric cable. It states that
the center seems aimed at humiliation
and intimidation, rather than obtaining
specific information. This report branded
Al Faraa as a center for torture where
confessions are manufactured, and as
part of Israeli efforts to control the West
Bank population. It is this that finaily
forced the Zionist authorities to open Al
Faraa to journalists. Yet what they saw
does not correspond to the hell which
youthful Palestinians are living in Al
Faraa. Therefore, the struggle goes on
to defend our youth from this attempt to
deprive them of their humanity and
national consciousness. @
Art From Behind the Bars
In April, there was an exhibition of
paintings made by Palestinian prisoners
in Zionist jails. On display at the Soviet
Cultural Center in Damascus, were
works by Mohammed Rekoi, Zuhdi
Adawi, Mahmoud Affani, Ali Najjar and
Mohammed Abu Kerch. These are a
unique achievement in the Palestinian
arts movement, produced under difficult
- conditions and suffering. In this case,
the studio is the narrow cells of the
Zionist prisons, with severely limited
field of vision and body movement. The
richness and details of the outside world,
so very important in the creative pro-
cess, are missing.
The effects of these conditions are
clearly seen in the paintings. From the
narrowness of their internal world, these
artists have widened their painted world.
The small paintings, made on handker-
chieves smuggled to and from the
prison, are full of symbols, motifs and
details. They convey the impression of a
crowded, busy life, which is missing in
the sterile confines of the prison. The
process of evoking and recording such
lively details aims at striking a balance
between the external and internal world.
What exists becomes enlivened in the
imagination; what is absent is recalled.
In the creative process, the prisoners’
memory and imagination develop to
replace the absent details of the external
world. The motives in the paintings are
thus the result of returning to the past, as
well as envisioning the future based on
the prisoners’ ideological convictions.
Input also comes from the scant reading
material available, the prisoners’ own
comradeship and meetings, and visits
from relatives who bring news of their
people's struggle and suffering inside
and outside occupied Palestine. The
paintings also reflect the hardness and
aggression experienced in the prison, as
well as the happy moments stolen by the
prisoners from the slow-moving time.
The paintings exhibit a marked
merging between subjective and objec-
tive aspects of reality. In the case of long
imprisonment, the prisoner is separated
from his/her prior daily life. Subjective
input is minimal due to the sterility of
prison life, being derived instead from
memory or visions of the future. At this
point, what is personal merges with what
is general and objective, and the aims of
the struggle for which the prisoners have
sacrificed so much occupy a prominent
place in their works of art. Most of the
paintings depict the gun or other motives
showing the continuation of the revolu-
tion. Clear, strong symbols express the
longing for freedom. The child is used to
symbolize the future of the revolution.
The woman is important as a symbol for
the land, fertility and generosity. In these
paintings the woman represents the
missing part; the repetition of this sym-
bol provides a balance. Yet the woman
does not always appear strictly as a
symbol, but also as mother, wife, lover,
and fellow struggler. °
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- Democratic Palestine : 9
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