Palestinian inmates serving life sentences get their poetry in print

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Palestinian lawyer Hasan Abbadi was at the entrance of Rimon Prison in Israel’s southern Negev Desert when he received a call from Anadolu Agency after visiting Palestinian inmate and poet Nasser Shaweesh, who is serving four life sentences for his participation in the military resistance during the Second Intifada, or uprising.

Abbadi said Shaweesh and other Palestinian inmates like him aren’t writing just about their suffering in prison but about everything in life with free feelings.

“Nasser told me today in the visit that when he writes any poem, he feels like he's flying in the sky of freedom, in the sky of the homeland, bypassing all the iron bars around him,” said Abbadi ahead of World Poetry Day celebrated on March 21.

During the visit, Nasser read parts of his poetry to Abbadi, who is working with Nasser’s family to publish his latest poetry collection in April.

“It's a feeling that words can't describe when you hear poetry in prison from a prisoner who has been in jail for around 20 years,” Abbadi said.

More than two years ago, he began devoting his time as a lawyer to visiting Palestinian inmates who were writing poetry, stories and novels and organized events in several Palestinian governorates in collaboration with their families to launch their collections.

Since he started visiting these inmates, Abbadi managed with their families to launch eight poetry collections, and he’s working now on three new collections to launch in conjunction with Palestinian Prisoners Day on April 17.

According to Abbadi, there are serious challenges in getting the poems outside prison since the Israeli authorities ban inmates from sending them to their families.

Despite the restrictions, the inmates have devised many methods to smuggle the poems out to be read and published.

“Each poem is written by hand in seven or eight copies since the Israeli authorities confiscate any literature produced inside the prisons, so these copies are alternative copies if the smuggling process fails,” Abbadi said.

“When an inmate knows about an event to launch his poetry collection, he feels that he’s free, seeing his mother and family members celebrating,” he added.

Inside the prisons, Palestinian inmates celebrate every single collection of poems in their own way. They share sweets together and organize frequent poetry sessions where the inmate who produced the collection reads all their poems to them.

Abbadi said they follow up on what the media outside publishes about the poetry via radio or by what their lawyers tell them.

Abbadi visits many poets in the prisons and listens to them when they are telling him about their writing rituals. One of these poets is Nasser Abu Srour, who is from Bethlehem and was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison. He likes to write while smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee in a garden.

“There is no garden at the prison, so many times, Nasser’s fellow inmates carry him on their shoulders to look through the narrow window of the cell to the nature around the prison,” Abbadi told Anadolu Agency.

Abbadi has attended the Amman International Book Fair in Jordan twice and represented Palestinian inmate poets there.