The release took place after staying in Israeli prison for 17 years
Israel releases Palestinian prisoner after incapacitating his mental health. With faces covered in tears, the family of Manour Shahateet welcomed their son who spent 17 years in the Israeli occupation incarceration. They had waited nearly 2 decades since he had been incarcerated with a sound mind and body. But, the man who arrived is now completely mentally incapacitated and has full suffered complete memory loss.
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When Manour Al-Shahateet was arrested on March 11, 2004, he was just 17 years old. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison for stabbing an Israeli settler in the occupied city of Beer Sheva. At the time of his arrest, he was a strong and healthy young man.
Israeli occupation authorities released him on Thursday, April 8, 2021, from the Negev Desert Detention camp, having been incarcerated for seventeen years in various prisons, detention centres, and interrogation facilities.
Al-Shahateet currently suffers from psychological and neurological diseases. According to a prisoner movement, he was subjected to severe torture and solitary confinement for long periods, during his detention, which led to a state of amnesia that has prevented him from remembering his mother, brothers, and a large number of his relatives. They also added that he was beaten on the head, several times, by Israeli police, who invaded the cells.
What does the Family reveal?
His mother who waited, impatiently and restlessly for his return was singing as she awaited his arrival but her voice trailed off, the minute she met him in his miserable condition. His family is still in shock over their sons’ condition.
In an exclusive interview with his family, Al-Shahateet’s mother, painfully recalled, “My son was so clever and the first in his class when he was in school.” she added that he suffered a psychological breakdown during his years of isolation, and with the medical negligence that the Israeli occupation prison administration meted against him, his condition worsened.
Islam Shahateet, Mansour’s sister remembered the first time she met her brother inside the Israeli prison, “I cried hard and freaked out when he narrated to me how awful his life in the solitary confinement was.” “He told me that there was neither electricity nor water and the cell is completely dark and sometimes they place a snake into the cell.”
According to his sister, in 2015 his family began to notice that he had started to lose his memory and the family started to call human rights organisations to intervene and have treatment for their son but everyone turned a deaf ear.
The mother explained to us that since his release he was amazed by every single thing, acting like a child who had seen things for the very first time. He kept looking at the birds, trees, cars and everything that surrounded him.
AlShahateet was supposed to be released a month ago, but the Israeli authority meant to ruin the family’s happiness. The family confirmed that they would send their son to doctors and treat him but they call for the international community to intervene and end the misery of the Palestinian detainees in the Israeli jails before it’s too late.
The pictures and the video of Alshahateet went viral on social media platforms. What affects them the most is when Alshahateet remembered why he got jailed and forget his family members. He was filmed saying that “I was defending my people and my country and I am out now while i keep my dignity”
He also said, “I could not believe I got out of prison, I’m so happy. I experienced a lot of injustice, humiliation, and solitary confinement for 17 years, and despite all that, I am a proud of myself.”
Solitary confinement in the Israeli jails
Solitary confinement and isolation are both extreme measures imposed by Israeli occupation authorities, where detainees and prisoners held in solitary confinement are completely cut off from the world. They are held in an empty cell containing only a mattress and a blanket. Other than their clothes, they are not allowed to take anything with them into solitary confinement. The cell contains only a toilet.
Read the true history of Israeli Palestinian Conflict.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) said in press statements that the occupation is fully responsible for of Al-Shahateets’ health condition, whom they isolated for more than a decade.
The PPC stressed that the occupation neglects the sick prisoners and tortures them with solitary confinement, and many prisoners, still in the occupation captivity, are suffering the same fate as Shahateet.
According to prisoners’ centres, almost 90% of incarcerated Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons experienced solitary confinement, hundreds of them having spent decades in solitary confinement.
There are also another two prisoners in the occupation prisons suffering from psychological conditions similar to the state of Al-Shahateet, As Rabi` Abu Nawas and Muhammad Gibran, both have spent 10 years in isolation and are in a difficult psychological situation.
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