PRISONER FEATURE
Administrative Detainee
Yaser Abd Elrahman Khalayleh (41) lives in Ramallah with his wife and their 8 children. For over a year and a half Yaser has been in detention without charge or trial in an Israeli military prison. Israeli soldiers arrested him on August 18, 2003 while on his way to visit his family in Hebron in the southern West Bank from his home in Ramallah.
Immediately after he was taken to Qadomeem detention center and then to Ofer military camp where, on September 14, 2003, his first 6 month administrative detention order was issued. From there he was again transferred this time to Ketziot (Naqab) military detention center, in the Negev desert where he has remained ever since.
On March 13, 2004, he was served with another administrative detention order that was due to expire on June 17, 2004.
Upon his second order's expiration, he was given another order from June 17 to October 16, 2004. And again, after October 16 he was given his fourth order that expired February 27, 2005.
Currently Yaser is in the midst of serving his fifth administrative order, due to expire on June 14, 2005. After this time if the military court so chooses, the detention order can again be renewed still without bringing Yaser to face any charges or trial.
The Khaleyleh Family
Since his arrest, life has been very difficult on Yaser's wife, Ibtisam. After the arrest she has been left to take care of the family's 8 children by herself. Because of the depressed situation during this Intifada in the city of Hebron, the family moved to Ramallah months before Yaser's arrest where he was able to find work selling coffee outside of the Ramallah Hospital.
At the time of his arrest Ibtisam was 8 months pregnant. Weeks later she was forced to deliver their baby girl, Asil, on her own. She described the process as very difficult without Yaser who was by her side help her through the birth of their previous 7 children.
Now Yaser's brother has taken over working the coffee stand in Yaser's place. Much of his paycheck is going towards helping Ibtisam and the children. Still it is not enough, and the family is facing many financial difficulties. For the past year and a half the family has been unable to pay rent on their home in Ramallah. Thankfully, until now, the landlord has sympathized with their situation and is allowing them to stay without paying rent.
For 2 months following the arrest Ibtisam could not tell her children the truth about what happened to their father. Everyday they would ask where Yaser was, and everyday she replied, "He is traveling with work." She was worried how the children, who are all under 16 years old, would react to the news of their father being in prison.
After 2 months she could not hide the truth any longer, and in December of 2003 the family made their first visit to the prison. The prison authorities allows each family only 4 children per visit, so Ibtisam always brings the 2 youngest, Asil and Adalah, and is forced to alternate between the other 6 children selecting 2 different ones every visit.
Ibtisam described the first visit as especially hard on everyone. It's the first time Yaser was arrested and the first time they saw him behind bars. The moment they saw Yaser everyone began crying. During visits all families are separated from the prisoner by a layer of metal mesh, in the middle a plastic shield, followed by another layer of mesh. Asil, who was only a couple months old, seeing her father for the first time kept trying to stick her fingers between the metal mesh to reach for him.
During every visit it is nearly impossible to hear each other. All visitors are seated on one long bench and the prisoners on the opposite side on another bench. Because of the separating materials between the 2 sides, sound does not travel very well.
One month before visits, the children get very excited and argue about who will go this time to visit their father. The night before Ibtisam tells the children not to drink anything, because there are no bathrooms available before reaching the prison, and the ones at the prison are often too filthy to use.
Each time the family goes to visit Yaser the children ask their mother, "Why is dad in the prison? Why isn't he coming home?" Every time Ibtisam never knows how to respond.