.png)
The news was shared by its author and social activist Puan Sri Norma Hashim. She said, "A story from the Arabic version of my book The Prisoners Diaries has been included in the Palestinian curriculum for grade seven in both West Bank and Gaza."
According to author Yousef M. Aljamal who translated the stories in the book from Arabic to English, the language used by the prisoners was very poetic. Norma said that was one reason the story was included in the curriculum for Arabic Studies.
Besides that, the decision was also made to instill pride in Palestinians at an early stage when they are still young. The social activist said, "The other reason is for nationalistic purposes to instill pride in Palestinians for their brethren who are in prison for resisting the occupiers of their land."
The story in particular followed a male prisoner Ibrahim Shalash who left behind a wife and a pair of twins underway when he was first arrested by the Israeli occupation forces in September 1995. In an interview with Palestine newspaper, his wife Umm Zaid said, "In September 1995, the occupation forces arrsted my husband, and at the time, I was at the hospital to give birth to twins Malik and Musab.
Ibrahim was one of the 70 prisoners who released the Wafaa Al-Ahrar deal which is also known as the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange following a 2011 agreement between Israel and Hamas to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 prisoners.
According to Umm, for eight years, the occupation authorities have continued to arbitrarily detain a number of the deal editors which is a serious violation of the terms of the deal as well as the Geneva Conventions which requires international guarantees of the exchange deal to intervene to stop the Israeli violation.
During his first arrest which he spent 17 years behind the bars, Ibrahim was sentenced to life imprisonment and 35 years on charges of membership in the Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas military wing). The mother to his children said, "We used to ocunt them by month, week and day."
For Umm, her husband's second detention was one of the most difficult periods of her life and far way harsher the first. This was the case as over the first detention, both their children were still young and had never seen or lived with him, but after his liberation thanks to the Wafaa Al-Ahrar deal, it was a different story as the father-of-two had spent a short yet significant amount of time with the family before being nabbed again causing a great cost of grief.
The housewife said, "His second detention period was difficult for us and for his children who missed their father at importat stages of their lives, the most difficult and painful of which was when my eldest son Zaid was married off."
However, she pointed that Ibrahim, whom she has not visited for nearly two years in the occupation prison, lives in high spirits and bears a hope to live with his children and grandchildren.
Notably, in 1998, the rearrested prisoner tried to escape from Shatta prison with some other inmates by digging an underground tunnel from inside the cell. Not long after they succeeded, they were dragged back in by the occupation forces.