We entered Al Far'a refugee camp today to be greeted once again by numerous amounts of children mesmerized by our presence. Following Mohammed down the narrow alleyways and the crowded streets was once more a reminder of the conditions these people were forced to live in after seeking refuge in their own country. We were there to meet Sami who had served over five years in prison for being too active in his fight against the occupation. He had been arrested at 18 from the very house we were sat in as he now talked of his wife and new born child.

He spent his first two years without having had a trial being moved between prisons, his family banned from visiting him whichever one he was in. The Prisoners Union then paid for his lawyer and he was sentenced to a further three years to live in these conditions. With 40% of the male population in Palestine having been arrested, it is unsurprising that all five of the brothers in this family had been arrested during the first intifada. And yet with each person comes yet more shocking stories as to how they were treated. Sami himself was beaten in the back and was denied a doctor, ‘treated’ only with mild painkillers. This resulted in him having problems with his sciatic nerve which further cost him $3,000 in medical fees upon his release.

Having only thirty minutes of sunlight a day and being fed food spiked with mosquito’s he explained to us how every prisoner, however long their sentence, never returned well; ‘Either ill in their health, or ill in their head’ he explained.

And four months after Sami’s arrest was his brother, Ahmed’s, who served a similar sentence, again accused for being too active in the fight for the freedom of the Palestinian people. After being arrested at a checkpoint, he was held for just over five years in conditions that ranged from tents shared with numerous other prisoners, to cells shared with forty other men. This somewhat more subdued elder man spoke of what he learnt from his experience in the Israeli prison. He explained that cell mates would become like their only family, as they shared the same demoralizing experience- denied access to the outside world. He taught himself Hebrew and read the Qu’ran only for it to be taken and stamped on by the Israeli soldiers. He explained that behind prison walls, it seems like a different world, sometimes not knowing how long you will be there for. The restriction of freedom for the Palestinian people seemed yet more emphasized for those held within the prison walls. Living so closely with the Israeli soldiers knowing that anyone could restrict even his breathing he said that he gradually became more aware about the mindset of the Israeli guards.

Throughout our conversation with these men I became increasingly aware how normalized the situation here had become. They explained their experiences of torture and isolation as though we spoke of the weather, emphasizing ever more the consistent reality of the occupation they were living under. But as they said to us ‘there is no point talking of the occupation, as it will not solve it’ yet fighting against the constant oppression they face is what lead to these men to being imprisoned away from the only normality they have ever seen.