Khalida Jarrar, the imprisoned Palestinian political leader, feminist and parliamentarian, jailed by the Israeli occupation for her political activity, issued a new letter following her daughter Suha's death on Sunday, 11 July as a result of heart attack at the age of 30.
Despite worldwide outrage and condemnation and considering that Jarrar has only two months remaining in her sentence imposed by an Israeli military court for her public political work to advance Palestinian rights and liberation, her lawyers’ appeals for early release were denied by the Israeli occupation. She was not even allowed a furlough or to see her daughter’s body by transferring it to the prison before Suha was buried in a mass funeral on Tuesday, 13 July. Suha Jarrar was herself a Palestinian human rights defender who worked with Al-Haq and spoke around the world about Palestinian rights and the Palestinia freedom struggle.
Jarrar’s first letter to Suha, read aloud at the funeral, was widely distributed in its original Arabic and translated into multiple languages. Her new letter, to her husband Ghassan, and her daughter Yafa, extends support to her loved ones from behind the bars of Damon prison where she is jailed with 40 fellow Palestinian women prisoners.
The text of the letter follows:
“Suha was born into this world while her father was imprisoned, and now she is departing this world while her mother is imprisoned. This is an intense and encapsulated human summary of the life of the Palestinian who loves life, hope and freedom and hates subordination and colonialism. This occupation robs us of everything, even the oxygen we breathe. I must bid my dear Suha farewell with a rose grown in the soil of the homeland: Rest in peace, soaring bird of my heart.
As for you, Yafa, my second bird, I love you with every beat of my heart as I loved the sister of your soul, Suha, so be strong so that I may draw my strength from you.
And I say to Ghassan, be strong, take care of yourself and of Yafa, and do not worry for me. I say to all of you, give Suha everything she deserves, talk about her, her character and her beauty, and plant an olive tree beside her grave so that its branches may always give her shade. I love you.”
Source : Safa