Inside Israeli Prison Walls: A Palestinian Prisoner’s Testimony
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This episode of 'This Is Palestine' features a powerful testimony from Hossam Shaheen, a 53-year-old Palestinian activist and former political prisoner, who spent 21 years in Israeli prisons after being sentenced to 27 years in 2004. His story unfolds across decades of resistance, torture, and survival under brutal conditions, including solitary confinement, physical abuse, denial of medical care, and psychological warfare such as the use of food smells to break hunger strikes. Shaheen recounts the 2017 Dignity Hunger Strike, the spread of scabies due to inhumane detention conditions, and the systematic denial of basic rights, including family visits and access to water. Despite this, he reclaimed agency through education, writing two novels smuggled between cells, and declaring 'sovereignty over time' by using his imprisonment to grow intellectually and spiritually. His release in February 2025 was bittersweet—free in body but still barred from seeing his family, who face threats of losing residency and property. His first act of freedom was eating Kaq al-Quds, a symbolic return to Jerusalem and identity. The episode underscores the ongoing war within Israeli prisons, where resistance is not just political but existential, and where hope persists through memory, storytelling, and the unyielding desire for a normal life.
Palestinian prisoners endure systematic torture, denial of medical care, and psychological warfare, including the use of food smells and forced nudity to break hunger strikes.
Hunger strikes like the 2017 Dignity Strike were collective acts of resistance that secured rights but came at great human cost, including deaths and severe abuse.
Prisoners like Hossam Shaheen used time as a battlefield, reclaiming autonomy through education, writing, and storytelling, turning incarceration into a space of intellectual and spiritual resistance.
Even after release, freedom is conditional—families face threats of residency revocation and property seizure, showing that liberation is not complete under occupation.
Simple acts like eating Kaq al-Quds symbolize a return to identity, memory, and belonging, illustrating how food becomes a form of resistance and reconnection.
The Hidden War Behind Prison Walls
“This silent, unseen attack is defined by routine torture and abuse, both mental and physical, by starvation, and the denial of basic human rights.”
Hossam Shaheen’s Journey: From Activism to Imprisonment
Hossam Shaheen’s early political activism during the First Intifada at age 15, his repeated arrests, and his 27-year sentence after a kangaroo court trial, marking the beginning of his long struggle inside Israeli prisons.
Torture, Hunger Strikes, and the Fight for Dignity
“Everything we got, we got it by struggle. Even inside the jail, you need to struggle for your rights.”
The Psychological and Physical Assault During Gaza’s Genocide
“When you are in a nightmare, you need to wake up because you want to stop the nightmare. But during, after the war, you want to sleep.”
Resistance Through Time: Writing, Education, and Sovereignty
“If you want to win your war, you need to find the way how to win it. Inside the jail, the only way it's just to win the war, it's just to use your time in the right way.”
“When you are in a nightmare, you need to wake up because you want to stop the nightmare. But during, after the war, you want to sleep.”
“If you want to win your war, you need to find the way how to win it. Inside the jail, the only way it's just to win the war, it's just to use your time in the right way.”
“As Palestinians, what we're asking for is simple, a normal life, ordinary routines and a life free from occupation.”
Host
Guest
Hossam Shaheen
person
Israeli Occupation Forces
organization
Scabies
other
Deanna Buttu
person
Jerusalem
place
2017 Dignity Hunger Strike
other
Kaq al-Quds
other
First Intifada
other
Institute for Middle East Understanding
organization
Zagrut El Finjan
book
There are No Innocents: Beita 1988 and the Logic of Collective Punishment
This Is Palestine • 37m • 4/2/2026
The Law of the Noose: Israel’s Discriminatory Execution Bill Targeting Palestinians
This Is Palestine • 19m • 4/20/2026
"And I too, Love Jerusalem “: Voices from Al Nakba
This Is Palestine • 17m • 5/14/2026
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