I just came back from the Gaza solidarity tent for our Palestinian political prisoners who are steadfastly continuing their hunger strike for the 14th day. While I was sitting with the prisoners’ families, a woman said, “May Allah have mercy on you, Om Ghazi Al-Nims. I swear we miss you here.”

I was curious to know what she was talking about, so I asked the woman, whose husband has been in an Israeli prison since 1986, who Om Ghazi is. Then she pointed at a huge picture, that had all Gazan prisoners who have been in Israeli prisons for more than 20 years, and said,

“Look at Ghazi Al-Nims, who is in the very right of the picture. He has been jailed since 1985. His mother, Om Ghazi, used to come to the Red Cross every Monday and chant for her son. She never lost hope and never stopped calling for freedom for her son and all prisoners. She had had some health problems, but she never gave up. She stopped coming here only when she died. She died one day on my shoulder after we attended a ceremony for prisoners’ mothers and wives on Mother’s Day two years ago, we were in the taxi heading home. She spent the last 24 years of her life chasing human rights organizations, as she never gave up hope that one of them might free her son, and stayed strong until the last day of her life, only to die before she celebrated her son’s freedom and before she wrapped her arms around him once again.”

Hearing Om Ghazi’s story was so moving and touching that I couldn’t help but cry. It’s very sad but I thought it was important to share it with you.  Share this story to send a message that neither Ghazi nor his mother is forgotten.

by Shahd Abusalama