Episode 024: The Great Escape

This week Lara and Michael discuss all things related to the Great Escape, the real-life prison break of Mahmoud Abdullah al-Ardah, 46, Yaqoub Mahmoud Qadri, 49, Zakaria Zubeidi, 46, Mohammad al-Ardah, 39, Ayham Nayef Kamanji, 35, and Munadel Infaat, 26 from the high-security Israeli dungeon known as Gilboa prison. On September 6, 2021, the 6 Palestinian political prisoners dug their escape tunnel with a rusty spoon while the colonial guard in the watchtower directly above them had fallen asleep. The photo that shocked and humiliated the Apartheid State seen around the world shows a colonial officer standing above the tunnel on the other side of the prison bewildered. Lara and Michael provide the context for the arrest and imprisonment of these political prisoners by the Apartheid State, insisting that their participation in resistance against the occupation is their recognized right under international law making the Apartheid State’s deprivation of their freedom a grave human rights violation. Lara goes through the history of Palestinian prison breaks and Michael addresses the broader story of Israel’s imprisonment of Palestinians as part of its settler-colonial regime. Lara summarizes reactions to the Great Escape and Michael describes Apartheid Israel’s ballistic retaliation and revenge against family members of the escaped political prisoners as well as against other illegally detained Palestinian political prisoners across its different prisons. Michael shares a recent video posted by Subhi Taha on Instagram recalling the history of Palestinian ingenuity and the development of a coded language often used by female family members of political prisoners to describe escape routes. Though four of the six escaped prisoners have since been recaptured and tortured by the Apartheid Regime, Lara emphasizes that this courageous move is a testament to the human will to be free and in line with over 100 years of Palestinian resistance to colonialism, reaffirming that freedom is non-negotiable and on the horizon. Lara provides an update on the Ben & Jerry’s saga and Michael talks zionist spyware.

To consult the sources used in the preparation of this episode, please see:

Books

1. "Jenin, Jenin" (2002): Mohammad Bakri documentary

2. "The Prison Cell": poem by Mahmoud Darwish

3. "The Secret Palestinian Language": Instagram video by Subhi Taha (@sbeih.jpg)

Articles

1. 4,650 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel's occupying army. (Addameer: Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association)

2. Prison politics in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Brookings). Since 1967, Israel has imprisoned over 700,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem

3. Israel must end ‘unlawful and cruel’ policies towards Palestinian prisoners (Amnesty International)

4. 50 years of Israeli Occupation: Four Outrageous Facts about Military Order 101 (Amnesty International)

5. "A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution" (Human Rights Watch)

6. "Policy of deliberate medical negligence" (Addameer)

7. Palestinian prisoner battling cancer dies in Israeli custody (Al Jazeera)

8. Palestinian held in Israel to be released amid hunger strike (AP News)

9. Mass Palestinian hunger strike in Israeli jails ends after visitation deal (The Guardian)

10. Israel Should Reduce Use of Administrative Detentions for Palestinians, Top Official Says (Haaretz). Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch supported the measure against suspected security targets but added that it should be cut to a minimum.

11. Fact Sheet: Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel (Institute for Middle East Understanding)

12. Father of escaped detainee among six abducted by the army near Jenin (International Middle East Media Center)

13. Massive manhunt after six Palestinians break out of high-security Israeli prison (The Independent)

14. Israel Captures Last 2 Palestinian Inmates Still Free After Prison Break (The New York Times)

15. After six escape, Israel’s collective punishment of prisoners and families must cease (Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK)

16. No to the Collective Punishment of Palestinian Prisoners (Haaretz)

17. Israel attacks solidarity protests for escaped Palestinians (Al Jazeera)

18. Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Palestinian Center for Human Rights)

19. 1974 Definition of Aggression, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) (United Nations)

20. 1982 General Assembly affirmation of the right to armed struggle in Resolution 37/43 (United Nations)

21. Jenin: struggle and resistance. (Instagram post by Metras Global)

22. Map: hundreds of Palestinian towns destroyed by Israel in Palestinian Nakba (De-Colonizer)

23. Jenin refugee camp (UNWRA)

24. Resolution 194: right of return (UNWRA)

25. Zakaria Zubeidi Was an Intifada Symbol. This Week, He Became Israel's Most Wanted Fugitive (Haaretz)

26. Israeli Court Bans 2002 Documentary 'Jenin, Jenin' Following Soldier's Libel Suit (Haaretz)

27. The entire town of Silat Al Daher Jenin is on strike in solidarity with the recaptured political prisoners.

28. Six Palestinians escape from a high-security prison in Israel (Al Jazeera). Responses to escapes.

29. PA cooperated with IDF to locate prisoners

30. Lawyers say Palestinian prisoners were beaten after capture (AP News)

31. Professor Noura Erakat on Israel's crimes against humanity (Twitter)

32. Mahmoud Darwish biography

33. George Jackson in the Sun of Palestine (Ottoman History Podcast)

34. Clashes in the prisons of Ketziot and Ramon in Israel (Asume Tech). "Additionally, Israeli forces launched a massive campaign of raids and raids in Jenin governorate, including relatives of the six Gilboa prisoners, and demolished a set of vehicles, shaved fields and uprooted olive trees. In the meantime, he also arrested, during searches and searches in the cities of Araba and Yabad, 6 citizens, including freed prisoners and relatives of the fugitives."

35. A history of successful Palestinian prison escapes in Israel (Middle East Eye)

36. Why Cuba will never send Assata Shakur to the U.S. (Chicago Tribune)

37. The murder of a Soledad brother (Socialist Worker)

38. Arizona ‘refurbishes’ its gas chamber to prepare for executions, documents reveal (The Guardian)

39. Arizona sells off $93m in Unilever bonds over Ben & Jerry stopping ice cream sales in Israeli-occupied territories (The Independent)

40. What To Know About The Spying Scandal Linked To Israeli Tech Firm NSO (NPR)