Because of severe torture, her father says that his daughter’s arrest has been even more difficult for him than his son’s death.

Mais abu Ghosh, a Palestinian lady, is now in Israeli prison. She has been tortured during her interrogations. She is being detained over ridiculous claims, Israeli writer Gideon Levy wrote on Haaretz.

Mais, a fourth-year student in the media department at Bir Zeit University, is accused of belonging to the left-wing students’ organisation, Qutub.

Israeli occupation claims that Qutub is affiliated with the “outlawed” Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but the student group denies any such connection.

“Bearing, possessing and manufacturing weapons” is one of her charges. This is related to owning a firebomb.

“Contact with an enemy” is another charge and it refers to her participation in a conference about the Palestinian return in Lebanon, speaking on a radio programme about her dead brother and intending to prepare a report on Hadeel al-Hashlamoun, who is a Palestinian woman killed by Israeli occupation in 2015.

“Conspiring to bring in funding from enemies” is the third charge and it refers to planning to open a bank account to support one of the student organizations she was active in.

Levy continues writing about Mais’ indictment, pointing that it included her communication with some people to discuss holding a summer camp for the Qutub and wondered how to go about it in the light of the detention of a number of people.

“Fortunately for Israel, the malicious and perilous plan to organize a summer camp was thwarted in time, thanks to the Shin Bet security service,” Levy wrote.

According to the Palestinian Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, Abu Ghosh was tortured.

In her home in the Qalandia refugee camp, her father describes the painful positions – nicknamed “banana” and “frog” – in which she was questioned, and says she also suffered sleep deprivation and was denied access to toilet facilities.

Situated outside Ramallah, Qalandia is one of the largest refugee camps in the West Bank, with a population of about 15,000.

Abu Ghosh home is in the upper part of an alley, not far from the camp’s entrance, in a multiple-story building that is also home to other members of the extended family.

The apartment, on the fifth floor, is in ruins – the Israel occupation forces demolished it in the wake of killing Mais’ brother Hussein in 2016. Since then the family has lived on the third floor.

Mohammed abu Ghosh, 49, her father’s son Hussein was killed at the age of 17 in 2016. His nephew, also named Hussein, was killed at the age of 19 on the first anniversary of his son’s death. His son Suleiman, now 17, was twice arrested last year and held in administrative detention – incarceration without trial – for four months each time, and Mohammed’s suffering continues.

 

Source: Haaretz