"I will carry my soul in my palm, And cast it into the abyss of death,

Either a life that pleases a friend, or a death that angers an enemy."

When I asked my uncle Khader Shaat, 47, about the poetry verse that he inscribed on the embroidered, handmade notebook about 30 years ago in Asqalan Israeli prison, he told me that it was the fuel that made him survive.

"Clinging to a life of freedom kept me alive," he said, remembering the notebook he made out of black fabric and framed using many beads.

Khader Shaat was detained when he was 17, sent to prison as a child, and released as a very strong young man.

From 1948 until today, Israel has detained and attacked many iconic, educated thinkers and revolutionaries as a way to suppress their voices, lessen awareness, and hide the truth. But the Occupation doesn't discriminate. According to the 2023 report of the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, there are currently 4,850 detainees in Israeli prisons, among them 31 women, including eight mothers and 160 children.

Israel detains these children for nothing more than being Palestinian. You may be walking in the street, performing your prayer at a mosque or a church, doing your job at a company, studying for your exam to a school, or whatever and whenever. The accusation is homelove. They want the young Palestinians to grow up with fear, to stop raising their voices, to never defend their land.

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