Elaine Bradley, who travelled from Ireland to the Middle East two months ago and works with a human rights organisation in Gaza, writes:
There has been little to celebrate in Gaza in recent times, but yesterday dramatically changed all that. Mahmoud Al-Sarsak (above), the Palestinian national footballer, arrested and held without charge in an Israeli prison for 3 years, was finally released and returned to his home.
The atmosphere here has been electric with scenes of jubilation. His family and well-wishers gathered at the Erez crossing to embrace the safe return of this young hero who almost gave his life to highlight the injustice of his illegal detention. Crowds thronged the entrance of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City where he was transferred in an ambulance for a medical check up, and when he finally arrived at his hometown of Rafah, he was hoisted onto the shoulders of friends, relatives, and supporters and carried through the streets.
The human rights community and NGOs here in Gaza collectively breathed a sigh of relief. For a while, it looked like Al-Sarsak was going to die. After more than 90 days on hunger strike, he was emaciated, having lost a third of his body weight, and was slipping in and out of consciousness. Israel finally agreed to release him following intervention from the international community that included prominent figures such as FIFA President Sepp Blatter and former footballer Eric Cantona. The fact that petitions for his release took place against the backdrop of EURO 2012 added to Israel’s embarrassment at the negative attention.
A university student and member of the Palestinian National Football team, Al-Sarsak was arrested in 2009 at the age of 22, when he crossed into the West Bank with all the necessary permits, to join the national team for one of the rare occasions when they could practice together. On his arrest, he was accused of association with Islamic Jihad – an accusation that he firmly denies. Despite the lack of evidence to back up their claim, he was given a detention order by Israel under their ‘Unlawful Combatants Law’. This allows for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to be held for an unlimited amount of time without ever being charged or brought to trial, and affords even fewer protections than the controversial administrative detention.
Al-Sarsak is one of the lucky ones, if you can call it lucky to have lost 3 years of your life, a promising football career and, in a probability, your good health. There are currently over 300 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails without charge, some on hunger strike, some close to death.
The story of Al-Sarsak has become known around the world because of his status as a footballer, but even that was barely enough to save him. In Palestine, the struggle goes on to end Israel’s illegal actions and the injustices inflicted on the Palestinian people.
But yesterday, for one day at least, we celebrated this small but wonderful victory.
