Israeli practices of well-documented repression, physical and psychological torture are no longer confined to Palestinian political prisoners. Their families are not safe either. Israeli prison authorities often deprive visits for years, or if there is a visit, many are not allowed to hold their children.
But what happened to the child of a prisoner in Hebron may be the most egregious yet.
The thick plastic wall is placed between families, making conversation even more difficult than the emotional toll taken by Israeli prison. Families coming for visits also describe “games” on the part of the Israeli prison administration and guards, apart from multiple searches, making them wait long hours in buses under the hot sun.
And often, although all permits are in place, the visits will often be cancelled the day before or even as a wife and children reach the prison gates. It is not surprising that mothers and fathers emotionally and physically exhausted even if their visit is allowed after beginning at 4 am on the bus and not returning home until at least 11 pm, for a 10 minute visit through a plate glass wall or fence.
But the story for Tuesday lies in what happened in the southern West Bank of Hebron City. Israeli soldiers kidnapped a baby for more than an hour in the northeast of the city in Hebron’s heavily occupied Old City.
It was just after midnight. One year old Mahmoud Mohammad Amin Layaideh was sleeping the sleep of the baby he is. However, Israeli forces do not distinguish between elderly men, children, girls or women. What happened that night is forever seared into the memory of the infant’s mother.
Israeli military s raided the Old City in northeastern Hebron and surrounded the family home of Mohammad Amin Layaideh. He is a Palestinian political prisoner in Israeli jail, held for approximately one year. Military forces broke into the house after midnight where everyone was asleep.
Israeli soldiers inspected every inch of the home, the family reported. “When we say everything, we mean everything!” The Palestine News Network could not gather what the Israeli were looking for, other than to terrify the family. They already have the father. The only ones left are his wife and baby.
A soldier took the baby from his mother’s arms and put him on the asphalt in the center of the street outside. Little Mahmoud lie there crying for an hour and a half. What his mother must have been through, watching her baby cry in the middle of the street, unable to reach him, hold or comfort him, or take him to safety. Palestinian parents cannot protect their children under occupation.
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