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Palestinian\u00a0prisoner Khalida Jarrar was freed by Israel on Sunday as part of the first wave of prisoner exchanges agreed with\u00a0Hamas\u00a0in the Gaza ceasefire deal.<\/p>\n
The 61-year-old, an MP, feminist and prisoners\u2019 rights advocate, had been held in administrative detention – a policy that allows\u00a0Israeli\u00a0authorities to hold individuals without charge or trial – since 26 December 2023.<\/p>\n
Jarrar\u2019s detention was renewed multiple times.<\/p>\n
In August she was moved to solitary confinement as a \u201cform of punishment\u201d, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, and\u00a0held for six months\u00a0in a 1m-by-1.5m cell at Ayalon (Ramla) prison.<\/p>\n
Rights group\u00a0Addameer\u00a0reported that the cell had \u201cbarely enough space for a mattress\u201d, and that her clothes, hygiene products, food and water were all severely restricted.<\/p>\n
Jarrar’s long career as an activist has meant she has spent the last three decades in and out of detention, losing her father, daughter and nephew while she was behind bars.<\/p>\n
Her sister\u00a0Salam Altratot\u00a0told Middle East Eye that the latest detention was the hardest Jarrar had endured.<\/p>\n
A life-long activist<\/strong><\/p>\n Originally from Nablus, Jarrar is a prominent political leader and human rights and feminist advocate.<\/p>\n Her activism began early. As a teenager, she\u00a0reportedly\u00a0volunteered with a group that cleaned the local community and public schools against the wishes of many in her family, who believed the work was more suited for boys.<\/p>\n She went on to become one of the most prominent leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a nationalist and Marxist-Leninist group\u00a0that is the second-largest faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and has been\u00a0designated as a terrorist group by Israel the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2006, she was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the Palestinian Authority’s parliament, and was appointed to lead the prisoners’ committee.<\/p>\n She is credited with playing a leading role in cementing Palestine’s accession to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2015.<\/p>\n Jarrar has also been a relentless\u00a0campaigner for the rights of Palestinian prisoners, serving as the director of Addameer, a prisoners\u2019 rights organization based in Ramallah, between 1993 and 2005.<\/p>\n Repeated detention<\/strong><\/p>\n Jarrar\u2019s work has made her a repeated target for Israeli authorities, who have arrested her several times over the past three decades, often placing her under administrative detention.<\/p>\n Her first arrest was in March 1989, when she participated in a demonstration on International Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n In April 2015, Israeli authorities arrested Jarrar and initially held her under administrative detention without charge.<\/p>\n Following mounting international pressure, an Israeli military court charged her with 12 security-related offenses connected to her membership in the PFLP.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jarrar was found guilty and sentenced to 15 months in prison, five years\u2019 probation and fined $2,600.<\/p>\n The Palestinian leader continued her work in prison, establishing a school and teaching English to young women inmates.<\/p>\n She was released in June 2016,\u00a0only to be arrested a year later\u00a0during a dawn raid on her home in Ramallah. She was freed in September 2021.<\/p>\n Jarrar has also faced long-term travel bans imposed by the Israeli authorities, while her husband has been detained over 10 times.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n (MEE)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Caption<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Khalida Jarrar, pictured in the West Bank, left after her release from jail in September 2021, and right, after her release in January 2025 (AFP)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n