Palestinian mother and liberated prisoner, Fadwa Nazih Hamadeh, a Jerusalemite from Sur Baher, was ordered on 29 October by a colonial Zionist occupation court in Haifa to two additional years in prison -- nearly one year after she was liberated in the prisoner exchange with the Palestinian resistance. Despite the fact that this order is a clear violation of the exchange agreement, the occupation has continually sought to persecute Fadwa nearly immediately upon her release.
Fadwa, a mother of five (Hamadeh, Sadeen, Mohammed, Maryam and Ahmed), was first abducted by the occupation in August 2017, when she was accused of stabbing a Zionist soldier at Bab al-Amoud in Jerusalem. In order to pressure Fadwa, occupation forces also arrested her husband Munther, holding him for two weeks in an attempt to force Fadwa to confess. Nonetheless, she refused, and occupation courts eventually sentenced her to 20 years in prison and a fine of 30,000 NIS, which was eventually reduced to 10 years in prison.
During her imprisonment, Fadwa consistently stood up to defend her fellow Palestinian women. In June 2020, Fadwa stepped in to defend a fellow prisoner from a female prison guard who was attacking her, and was accused of assaulting her jailer. She was beaten, repeatedly held in solitary confinement for periods of 70, 30, 100 and 105 days, denied family visits with her husband and children, and subjected to medical neglect and abuse.
Fadwa rejected the attempts of the occupation to break her will by holding her in solitary confinement and denying her access to her beloved children. Her family posted stories on social media, chronicling the sadness of her children when once again denied family visits. She used her time in isolation to memorize the entire Holy Qur’an. At the same time, her husband Munther was interrogated by the occupation, banned from Al-Aqsa Mosque, banned from traveling for Umrah and detained on multiple occasions.
"Fadwa suffered from psychological pressure and great physical fatigue in prison, and despite this she did not shed a tear lest one of the prison guards see her and gloat. But the truth is, Fadwa's health has deteriorated recently, especially since her leg was broken several months ago and she underwent surgery, and hours later they returned her to prison in chains," Munther said in 2022. Despite her dire need for painkillers and medications, the prison administration refused to respond to these demands and instead deliberately put Fadwa in a room with Zionist criminal prisoners, who would make noise and deliberately seek to provoke Fadwa and prevent her from resting.
In 2021, the occupation submitted an additional five-count indictment against Fadwa, returned her to solitary confinement and once again imposed denial of family visits, accusing her of “assaulting” the jailer from whom she defended her fellow prisoner a year earlier. This case was still pending when she was liberated by the Palestinian resistance alongside fellow women prisoners, many of whom had pending cases at the time of their liberation.
On 11 December 2023, only weeks after her liberation and joyous reunion with her family, the occupation court in Haifa held a trial for her in absentia and summoned her to a future hearing on the allegations of assaulting a jailer. This is an obvious violation of the exchange agreement, as is the re-arrest of multiple released women prisoners, including Sameh Hijjawi, Hanan Barghouthi, Walaa Tanja, Dania Hanatsheh, Haneen Masaed, and Aseel Samih Khader.
Now, on 29 October 2024, the Haifa occupation court ordered Fadwa to an additional two years in prison, demanding she turn herself in on 17 November. Her lawyer has requested an additional delay in order to file an appeal in the case.
Throughout her imprisonment and now after her liberation, the occupation has repeatedly sought to persecute Fadwa and to break her will and commitment to defend justice, dignity and the land and people of Palestine, as well as to impose collective punishment on her entire family, her husband and children.
