Thread by @amnestyusa

Under international law, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty is a crime against humanity. What does this look like? Meet Ahmad Qatamesh. He is a writer and university professor from Ramallah in the West Bank. 🧵 amnestyusa.org/endapartheid

Israeli authorities have repeatedly arrested and detained Ahmad over his peaceful expression of his political views, including in his writing and teaching. In total, Ahmad has spent more than 10 years in administrative detention and four years in prison. He told Amnesty:

“When I was arrested back in 1992 my daughter Haneen was only three years old, but she had to suffer with me all the while to see her father in prison twice every month.

“She began to understand the meaning of imprisonment at a very young age, yet she never really stopped raising big questions, asking again and again, ‘How long will it go on for?’

“As the end of each renewal to the administrative detention order approached, hopes of being reunited with family would be raised.

“But all it took to destroy this hope and postpone happiness, time after time, was for the Israeli Military Commander to issue a new administrative detention order.

“When you are in administrative detention, you know the date of your detention, but not the date of your release, which is in the hands of whoever gave the detention order.

“It’s a form of continuous psychological torture for the detainee and his family, who go through the trauma all over again when the detention order is renewed.”

His wife, Suha Barghouti, told Amnesty International: “Since the very beginning of our relationship, we have suffered and continue to suffer until now because of Ahmad’s continued arrest.

“Our marriage produced one child, who also suffered terribly, and had a troubled childhood because her father wasn’t often around. The experience of being in administrative detention was not only mentally exhausting for Ahmad, but also for us.

“Each time the order end date approached, we would prepare ourselves for his release, only to then get shocked by the news of a renewal. The experience is mentally and psychologically draining.”