Prisoner Letter: Hasan Salama

"If I were able to buy your support for me or other detainees, I would not hesitate!"

Hasan Salama is a Palestinian detainee from Khanyounis. He was arrested by the Israeli occupation in Hebron in 1996, sentenced to life imprisonment, and he has been in solitary confinement for 9 years.

Peace be upon you my dear beloved ones and dear friends. You live in that large world which we can hear about but we can never see!

My place is a small world in which I taste the bitterness of isolation and imprisonment. In this confined place which is getting narrower and narrower, it becomes sweet when I recall that past time which was the most beautiful image carved in our hearts and minds.

How much I wish that beautiful past time could return! The time when we were innocent children knowing nothing about hatred, and when we respected the old people as if they holy. I remember that our school bags and books were inspected when coming back from school, and I always had the neatest. How much I hope to return to my own house, my neighborhood and my town. I miss everything. Not only am I isolated, but also I am deprived from living with any friend from my town, to talk with him about Gaza and Khanyounis or about childhood memories.

Although I have a wrinkled face and gray beard, I live as if I am a child missing everything.

My beloved ones and dear friends,

They are determined to strip me of my memory, to segregate me from the humane world and to push into the world of the dead; to plant an inanimate new memory in my brain. This letter is the only means to save myself. My happiest moments in this solitary confinement are when I write a letter or I receive one; I sit on my bed like a child and I withdraw into a corner to read a letter delivered from the human world. How is it delivered? By which means? These questions are ridiculous! The most important thing is that I receive one, Yes!

When I receive a letter, I feel that I still belong to you. I feel that I am still alive reading every word, every letter as if I am having the elixir to resurrect me from certain death into life. This is exactly what your letters do for me!

I am looking for effective means to keep me alive and breathing. I swear and swear by Allah that you are the oxygen which I breathe. If I get this oxygen, I will be able to breathe; but if not, I will be like a corpse in a horror movie, having neither soul nor breath but only a body walking to and fro.

For nine continuous years, I have been moved from one grave to another, staying for 23 hours in the grave and leaving it into a wider one for one hour. Despite all that, I am still, by virtue of Allah, strong-willed to the extent that they want to destroy my will by using newly-developed psychological techniques.

In this dungeon, I had beautiful friends who unfortunately went insane and ended up in a miserable state. My strength and steadfastness remain by virtue of Allah, since He is the Only One who stands by me in this dark cell. Even you my beloved people: the concerns of life have taken you away from contacting me for just few moments though they are worthless minutes in your daily lives; however, those minutes are all my life, my challenge, and my oxygen!

When you feel bored, you can go anywhere you want, or you can visit a childhood friend to talk with. But what about me – I have no choice but to talk to myself and live with yearning for the old memories.

I grasp my pen to write to you and I find myself desperate to say anything that comes to mind.

I do not weep; rather I stop my tears from falling, to keep them bleeding in my heart. I get pleasure from a bleeding heart, for my heart's tears heal my wounds; nonetheless, my tears overflow my pains as I can not forget my pains. I can not forget my suffering. I need to feel the pain every minute. My torments are like a volcano that must boil everyday lest I forget who I am and what they are! I want to feel that I am still a human being and alive!

How much does it cost you if talking with me for a few minutes once a week or a fortnight, or when you send a letter with a lawyer or by mail? This letter means a new life to an isolated prisoner, and it will help and strengthen him.

If I were able to purchase your support for me or for other prisoners, I would not hesitate!

My pain from this cruel age has uttered these words!

To the people of the other world that we can hear about but we can never live in, I wish you good luck from the bottom of my heart. I still love you even if you forget about me. My only condolence is the Generous Allah who never forgets me. Allah is very beautiful, and in spite of all the distresses and hardships of life, I live this beauty in everything in my life even in my solitary confinement.

You can send messages for Hasan Salama through his lawyer, at this address: Ishraq-Ayyoub@hotmail.com

Translation: Ishraq Ayyoub Othman

ENDS

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