Summary
Husband of Samira in Three Mothers, Three Daughters (the name is altered, as are all names in the book), a Communist from Aida Camp who met Samira at Bethlehem University, was jailed two and a half years for the 1982 Molotov action she was jailed three years for, and was sentenced to five years at the start of the First Intifada while Samira was pregnant with their son Ali (Three Mothers, Three Daughters: Palestinian Women’s Stories, lines 914-916, 1086-1092).
Details
- Asam was a sophomore at the University of Bethlehem, from Camp Aida, very involved in politics, when he introduced himself to Samira in her freshman year; he was with the Communists where she was with Arafat’s group, Fatah, and Fatah boys pressed her to break it off (lines 914-916).
- Samira visited his house in secret; his mother was shocked, but as oldest son he was listened to and made his parents keep the secret (line 916).
- In summer 1982 he, Samira and two others threw Molotov cocktails at a bus of soldiers and settlers at the checkpoint outside the camp; he was jailed two and a half years, she three (lines 916-922).
- He and Samira smuggled letters to each other in prison; released six months before her, he visited her twice and, after discovering the authorities’ mistaken later release date, fetched her on 13 August 1985 (line 940).
- Samira’s father refused his repeated requests to marry her because he was involved in politics, refusing even camp elders sent to plead, until Samira’s brothers convinced him (line 1068).
- It was Asam, Samira says, who was conservative about sex before marriage and wanted to wait for full sex until after the wedding (line 1074).
- He graduated in Arabic literature and language; at the wedding he was carried through the camp on his friends’ shoulders (lines 1076-1084).
- At the beginning of the Intifada he was held nine days in Atlit, released, then held six months in maatsar minhali [administrative detention] without formal charge, then tried and sentenced to five years after a member of a Bethlehem-area military group said he gave its orders; he did not get out until 1993 (line 1086).
- Samira brought their son Ali to visit him in prison from two months old; she says the torture he underwent nearly killed him and that he stayed silent protecting his friends (lines 1090-1092).
Related pages
Three Mothers, Three Daughters: Palestinian Women’s Stories, Samira, Umm Abdullah, Aida Camp, Administrative Detention, First Intifada