the diaries of palestine.

Childhood Behind Bars Part 1

2015

My name is Ahmed Manasra.
I had been arrested and tortured since I was 13 years old.

I live in Jerusalem as a Palestinian under occupation.
I grew up to see violence and hate everywhere.
Normal things like going to school and going to work are incredibly dangerous activities.
Wanting to pray in the Al-Aqsa mosque is a suspicious activity that might get you arrested.
If you are a Palestinian in Jerusalem, then you are not allowed to have a job, or get an education or health care, or dream without suffering and risking your life for it.

My story started on 12/October 2015.
when I and my best friend and cousin were attacked by the Israeli soldiers for the charge of trying to stab an Israeli officer in Jerusalem.
They ran us over with their car, they Shot us with their guns and beat us mercilessly.
All that happened in the middle of the street, in the middle of the day, in front of everyone who was there, and before the arresting and the trial proceedings.

My cousin didn't make it, and he died before the ambulance arrives.
I fainted after they had run me over and shot me, the last thing I remember before waking up in the hospital was the voices of the filthy soldiers cursing me and telling me to die.

In November 2016 I was sentenced with 12 years in Israel's jails for the charge of stabbing a settler, I was also charged with two Financial penalties, 100 thousand dollars, and 80 thousand dollars.

The judge couldn't care less about my age, and said that it didn't give me any sort of "immunity against the charges"

And just like that I was treated like a criminal, I was charged to spend my teenage years behind the bars of the Israeli jail.

I remember though I told them that I didn't… I remember how they investigated me after I got out of the hospital,
all the yelling, the torturing and the cursing.
How can I forget!
I told the officers that I don't remember why I was there.
I told them that I didn't remember stabbing anyone.
But I will surely remember all this.
You can't keep me here forever.
I have grown here in ways other children can't even imagine in their darkest nightmares.
I have grown in such a short notice.
I'm sorry mother.
I know in your eyes I'm still the same innocent child who only wishes to play and dream with his head in the clouds.
But they killed that child's mother.
That child died when they shot him in the street and watched him bleed for hours.
I'm the one who woke up in the hospital.
The one who spent his teenage years behind the bars.
The one who learned to hold his tears in front of the soldiers.
The one who wakes up every day to the walls of his cold cell while other children wake up to their parent's arms.

The only thing I can promise your mother is that I won't forget.

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On YouTube, you can find videos of Ahmed Manasra bleeding on the street before the arrest and you will find the video of the cruel investigation.


There are many other stories like Ahmed's out there.
The Israeli occupation arrested 8500 Palestinian children under the age of 18 between the years 2000 and 2015 most of them suffered the same torture and mistreatment as Ahmed.