It is the early morning of the 17th of April 2003 when you are torn from the tranquility of sleep. You can hear your door crack and break as it slams to the floor, glass shatters as Israeli soldiers storm your home and rouse your entire family out of bed. In a panic you and your pregnant wife struggle to comfort your three children as you are forced outside your own home. Your wife is struggling for a jacket to cover your youngest son who is still uncovered, and a soldier stops her. Forcing her to evacuate with your uncovered son into the darkness of the early morning but she tries again to retrieve the jacket for her son but this time when the soldier stops her, she strikes him. Anyone knows that this is a forbid act for any Palestinian and while you try to gather your children around you and calm them, you are witnessed to her arrest. Your pleas and the screams of your children fall on deaf ears.

Struggling to settle your kids back into the overturned beds you have just righted, you kiss them and get them to sleep before you go about picking up the pieces of broken glass that litter the house. Shattered glass, dishes and cupboards broken, with even your sofa having been destroyed you go about trying to salvage some remnants of normalcy before your children wake. You know that it was not only your house that was broken, but your home and family struggling for survival in the Tulkarem refugee camp.

While you worry for your pregnant wife (who also suffered from thalassemia, an autosomal recessive blood disease.) you are now forced to work long hours as a janitor at the UN Refugee Works Agency while struggling to care for your children, the youngest of which you watched stay in the hospital for 2 months after his mothers arrest as he struggled with sickle cell anemia.

As your family struggles to help, your community mourns the loss of a vibrant family member who’s smile and laugh were missed by all whom she touched, making them feel comfortable and welcomed around her. You know your wife will receive no medical attention during her arrest or interrogation, eventually being charged with the official crime of “conspiracy in an attempted planning to kill” for previous actions.

As you learn the details of your wife’s case, it shows that she had attempted to carry weapons from one site to another. The attempt failed and she did not try to do it again and has never been part of any planning to any action which led the Israeli Military Judge, who ruled in her case, to say in the ruling remarks: “Her role was very minor and insignificant in the planning and she did not know any previous information about the attempt… she joined at a very late stage of planning… we have to mercy her son who was born in a very tough situation and who will spend his first years at prison…

Manal did not participate in planning… she is not a member of or a supporter of any organization… she is not affiliated to any political faction, she had never been part of or accused of any violation in the past” Yet despite these comments and despite the facts of her case, the Military Tribunal of Shemron decided to sentence her to maximum possible imprisonment term relative to such an accusation, 50 months imprisonment.

After the birth of your son, both he and his mother are transported to their future home, making them both the newest and also the youngest prisoner of the Israeli Prison Service. The prison administration at Telmond Prison does not provide the special medical care that your wife and newborn child require (both suffer from thalassemia, which also decreases her ability to produce milk for your newborn). You worry because under Israeli Prison law, a mother is allowed to keep her child for 2 years, while neither will receive any special exceptions. Your new son will not be allowed any longer breaks outside then any other prisoner; the toys, sunlight and fresh air most children take for granted will be withheld from him.

Born in the shadows of prison he will know no other life for his early formative years. Your wife has become another piece of data in for the IPS - She is one of 115 Palestinian female political prisoners, one of 17 Palestinian female political prisoners who are mothers and one of three Palestinian women who gave birth to a child while in prison. She is also the only mother who continues to live with her child (because of age) in prison.

As you struggle through the days and months, your eldest son has found a simple way of understanding what happened that night telling anyone “My mom is in prison because my brother suffers from Thalasimia and she beat the soldier.” But dealing with it has still been a complex emotional challenge for the children.

The devastating emotional trauma inflicted upon them has made them suffer from frequent bed-wetting, depression, extreme mood swings, anger which sometimes transforms into violence. Your struggles continue as you seek answers to reassure them that everything will be alright, but how do you reassure the children of the Tulkarm refugee camp when they are subject to the visualizations of the frequent Israeli raids, beatings and arrests?

The months change into years while you await one of the two most important dates of your life. It is now the 12th of May 2006 and your son is to be finally released into your custody. You are allowed 2 hours inside the prison with your wife, where you will be given your son. Your eyes well with tears that you struggle to keep back. You have not seen your wife for nearly three years, and are meeting your son for the first time. You arrive at the prison in the morning to find your wife, the caring and compassion in her eyes, dulled but not gone, holding your son.

It is the first time for him to see you, he does not even know who you are; it is the first time for you to hear his voice and touch his face. It is not often you can smile in prison, but for 2 brief hours you family is whole. In typical fashion the happiness was destroyed as you and you family are ushered out of the prison leaving behind the wife and mother whom is so dearly missed. As you are physically forced to leave, your wife begins to cry, the further you get the more hysterical she becomes as her whole life walks away. You are forced to control your emotions as she breaks down.

You are ordered to leave the area, your wife inside suffering from a nervous breakdown and your son looking into your eyes asking “Where is mama? Why isn’t she with us? I want her to come.” Not really sure how you can answer that question you tell him “Mama is tired and went to the doctor she will reunite with us after a while. We are going to you auntie and uncle’s house”

Reaching the Israeli checkpoint in Taibeh, you see your family and loved ones are waiting to greet you and the newest member of your family. He remains silent but you see him trying to adjust and acclimate to his surroundings as they all gather to say hello to him. As you arrive back at the Tulkarm refugee camp, there are hundreds of people waiting to welcome you home.

It would be nearly a year before your wife is reunited with you, and your family whole again. The traumatic events of the last 4 years will never be forgotten, you can only hope that you can put them aside and move on as a family once more. It is February 17, 2007 and your dreams come true. It may not be Palestine as a whole, but at least one more piece of it is free. Beloved wife and mother, she is welcomed not only by you, but by your whole community, a stolen daughter finally returned.

This is my interpretive account of the facts surrounding the tragedy that befell the Ghanem family. All facts presented in this account are based on numerous news articles which allowed for a collage of imagery. My sorrow, hope, and prayers go out to them may Allah protect you all: Naji and Manal, and your beautiful children Ihab, Niveen, Majed and Nour.