Wasfi Kabaha was talking to his friends and followers on social media when the Israeli occupation forces knocked at his house by the dawn of Monday 12 June 2017 to inform him of his arrest while his followers on Facebook were still busy discussing the issues raised by him. After a while some commented that Kabaha was arrested a while ago as part of an ongoing Israeli attempt to silence the voice of resistance in the West Bank.
As the dawn of the 17th day of Ramadan approached the sudden arrest of Kabaha from his house in the Basateen neighborhood in the city of Jenin to the north of the West Bank took place while he was released from the Israeli occupation prisons only a month and a half ago.
Kabaha was barely able to breathe a sigh of relief following his last arrest as he headed directly to the solidarity tent with Palestinian hunger strikers the day he was released which was their fourth day of hunger strike.
At that time he transferred the first letter from the prisoners on hunger strike to the outside world. Following that other freed prisoners supporters and their families joined the tents of solidarity with the prisoners. His mission there ended on the first day of Ramadan on the eve of the prisoners’ end of their hunger strike to begin a new life in Ramadan marked by social activities especially with the families of the prisoners.
As his family were satisfied that he shared the joy of the holy month of Ramadan with them and was hoping that he would spend Eid with them especially that he spent dozens of holidays behind Israeli bars they lost hope again as he was re-arrested two weeks before marking Eid and shortly after his release from prison.
Long history of imprisonment
In an interview with the PIC reporter his wife Um Osama recounts her husband’s long history of detention whose name has become associated throughout Palestine with it due to the big number of times he was jailed and prosecuted by the Israeli occupation authorities.
Um Osama shares her fears of the health consequences on her husband due to the large number of detentions he was subjected to; especially that he suffers from chronic diseases including diabetes and blood pressure. He has recently started to suffer from fatigue and started feeling the various implications of these diseases as he got older and due to medical negligence in the prisons of the occupation.
His arrest became normal to his friends and family and became part of his life. His friends in prison once told him that they hope this would be the last arrest for him. He told them jokingly: “You want me to die. I can’t be silent and this means I will be arrested again.”
Man of his words
Kabaha who took over the Ministry of Detainees and Ex-detainees following Hamas victory in the 2006 legislative elections is the man of solid positions in the West Bank which made him subject to severe harassment by the PA’s security forces.
He is one of the most prominent defenders of freedoms and his social media accounts are a source of follow-up to observers media and activists and one of the important up-to-date sources for events in the West Bank.
He is originally from the town of Bartaa in the West Bank but he was forcibly removed from his town to the south of Jenin following a decision by the occupation authorities which prohibits him from entering his town as a form of internal exile in his homeland. This decision bars him from reaching and connecting with his father and siblings in their hometown located behind the apartheid wall.
