These Chains Will Be Broken by Ramzy Baroud

Author:Ramzy Baroud
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781949762099
Publisher: Clarity Press

46 See Appendix.

47 The Palestinian Prisoners Club is a non-governmental organization that was established in 1993 to support political prisoners in Israeli occupation jails. “Palestinian Prisoners Club,” Facebook, accessed July 29, 2019, <https://www.facebook.com/ppc1993/>.

13

HUMANITARIAN HERO

Mohammed Khalil al-Halabi

—narrated by his father, Khalil al-Halabi

MOHAMMED Khalil al-Halabi was born on April 2, 1978. He is the second of seven brothers. The al-Halabi family was ethnically cleansed from the town of Al-Majdal in historic Palestine in 1948, to live in permanent exile ever since. Mohammed was born and raised in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

In 2003, Mohammed earned a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Islamic University of Gaza. He is married with five children: Khalil, 15, ’Asem, 13, ’Amro, 9, Rital, 6, and Faris, 4.

In 2006, Mohammed became the Director of World Vision in Gaza, a US charity organization that, for 40 years, provided essential support to Palestinian communities in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, “serving the most poor and marginalized.” A large portion of World Vision’s budget is provided by the Australian government.48

The charity’s work, like that of other international NGOs operating in the Gaza Strip, became critical after 2006, when Israel imposed a siege on the already impoverished region. Worsening an already difficult situation, several Israeli wars—starting in 2008—killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and destroyed much of the economic infrastructure of the Strip, leaving nearly half the population living under extreme poverty.49

It was then that Mohammed’s work became essential for the survival of many, especially terminally ill cancer patients and families of fishermen and farmers who had lost their only source of income.

On June 15, 2016, Mohammed was arrested by Israeli occupation forces at the Beit Hanoun (Eretz) Crossing which separates besieged Gaza from Israel, in a joint operation carried out by the Shin Bet security service, the Israeli army and Israeli police. Since then, many have speculated that the real motives behind Mohammed’s detention were to sever the last line of international support that has allowed Gaza to survive, despite the siege and war.

Coupled with the numerous Israeli-imposed restrictions on the UN refugee agency in Palestine, UNRWA, and other similar groups, Mohammed’s case fits neatly into a larger trajectory of Israeli efforts to undermine international support for the Palestinian people.

To obtain a confession, Israel has subjected Mohammed to what the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs refers to as “one of the longest trials in the history of the Palestinian captive movement.”50

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