There was a group of young men waiting to direct us into the house.  I waited for Jado to get a good b-roll of the street, and asked the taxi driver the name of the village we were in. He wrote it in Arabic on my paper—Asakrat. 

We headed down toward a low house with a proud Palestinian flag cemented into the corner of the roof.  A group of five men, a few in long robes a few in suit pants and button up shirts, greeted us, motioning us inside. We sat on the plastic chairs in an otherwise empty concrete room, and a man poured small plastic cups of dark, sugarless coffee.

Jado, the PNN film guy and an immediate friend to Muki & me, set up the camera and began interviewing a few of the men.  The taxi driver lounged and asked questions about the situation (in Arabic of course). I listened with every millimeter of my ears but felt absolutely useless.

We were there to speak to the bothers and sister of a man who was about to be released from an Israeli prison after 23 years.  He was one of the 26 men freed on Tuesday as part of the newly resumed peace talks- the first batch of 104 Palestinian prisoners who will go free over the 9 month period of negotiations.

Khaled Asqara was 18 when Israeli forces imprisoned him in 1991, and he is now 41. Like many of the prisoners being freed for the talks, Khaled was initially sentenced to life imprisonment.

One of Asakreh’s brothers, Nayef Asakreh told PNN that they felt overwhelmed with happiness because they have been dreaming of Khaled’s release for a long time, but he acknowledged that the situation is bittersweet. Nayef Asakreh said his brother’s happiness has a sour aftertaste because his colleagues and friends remain behind Israeli bars, and he won’t be content until all the prisoners are freed.

(The video is of the actual release of the prisoners- not the day when we visited the family.)

The siblings placed a picture of Khaled on the window bars, in front of a black and white kuffiya scarf as a background for the interviews. 

The release of the prisoners has caused controversy from many sides.  Many Palestinians are skeptical about how much attention is being put on the release of what is in reality a small fraction of the five to six thousand Palestinians still in Israeli prisons.  Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association said that the Israeli regime is using the prisoners’ release as trading material in the negotiations; thereby weakening the Palestinian officials’ ability to stick to the conditions they want (like boarders at the 1967 line, secession of settlement building, etc).  On the other hand, Israelis have been protesting the release of prisoners who they see as first intifada "terrorists."  

The thing about "terrorism" is that it a word has been racialized and reserved for a very specific type of body (Muslim, Arab, brown, young, and usually male), and most people have been taught to overlook the many forms of "terrorism" that occur on a daily basis: US drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, prisoners in the US kept in solitary confinement and enduring other forms of torture, Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers.... the list, obviously, goes on (and please excuse the lack of statistics or references- I figured these things are well known. If you want statistics and references please comment and I will amend.)  It's also important to think critically about how labeling certain humans "terrorists" completely undermines their opinions, as people who are resisting something (oppression, colonization, homogenization, etc).

All of the prisoners have been incarcerated since before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. Some of them were due to be released in six months to two years. Many had life sentences. And I think it's safe to assume that all of them are passionate about their homeland and families, and the future generations of their families in their homeland. 

***

On my walk home that afternoon (Muki was sick & hadn’t gone to work… so it was the first time we’ve been apart for more than the length of a shower in about three weeks) I passed by a restaurant and looked in the window at the exact moment this small girl was taking a bite out of an oversized sandwich. We caught eyes just for that second, and I couldn’t help but smile the rest of the way home.