Update: September 15, 2023.
Ahmad’s court date has been extended to September 20th. He has been held for over a year in solitary confinement — this is more than 25 times the duration that the UN defines as psychological torture. Ahmad’s is in acute, immediate need of intensive care which can best be provided by his own community. Send this updated letter to the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Joly calling for his immediate release.
Take one minute to write to Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Joly. Tell her clearly and unequivocally that Israel’s unrelenting practice of traumatizing and physically abusing thousands of Palestinian youths is a crime against humanity and must be stopped now. Call for the release of Ahmad Manasra.
Eight years have elapsed since he was first incarcerated. There is no end to his suffering. You look at an album of photos when he was much younger. The pictures show happiness, joviality, and love of family. You gaze at his innocent face, tarnished and destroyed by willful vilification, baseless accusations that have sentenced him to years of jail time. Memories flood your thoughts. You recall how your beloved child at age 13 was plunged into the abyss of a prison, after having been run over by a gang of violent men, spat upon, and humiliated. He was just a young teen when he was turned into the scapegoat of a savage mob and then mercilessly interrogated, tortured, locked up for 8+ years – and this for a crime he did not commit.
You are bound to feel his misery as your own. Your heart and mind are consumed with fear and anguish. Your son’s childhood has been stolen, his health, both mental and physical, has been destroyed. You are powerless; despite 500,000 appeals and signatures demanding his release, you cannot extricate him from the claws of an obdurate penal system and a prejudiced state judiciary.
You, who were his protector and loving parent, are deprived of tactile contact. You cannot reach out even with a small gesture of your hand to touch his skin, your flesh and blood. The state forbids this intimacy that you so crave. Agonized, you wait as he is condemned to countless months of solitary confinement – contrary to international law. He is mentally vulnerable. The child to whom you gave life has been ravaged by physical and psychological torture. How many more years must you suffer watching him in this dire state? Your son had not committed a crime; like so many others, he was the victim of false accusation.
Imagine: your son is Ahmad Manasra
Learn more:
Help me get out”: Ahmad Manasra appeals to the world from solitary confinement, Mondoweiss, Mariam Barghouti, August 5, 2022
‘I am dreaming of the moment I hug him,’ says Ahmed Al-Manasra´s mother, Middle East Monitor, April 27, 2022
The Palestinian-Global Mental Health Network interventions and campaign #FreeAhmadManasra
Defence for Children Palestine: No Way to Treat a Child-Canada
Letter from Independent Jewish Voices Canada, September 14, 2023
West Bank: Spike in Israeli Killings of Palestinian Children, Human Rights Watch, August 28, 2023.
Photo credit: FreeAhmadMansra Facebook page
