Palestinian Youth Seek to Get Locked Up to Get Away
by Mark Mackinnon
Nablus teenager Mohammed Kharaz, 17, heard from a kid in his
class that if you get yourself arrested by the Israeli army, they send you to a
prison with digital television, interesting books, and even a decent
soccer field. To Mohammed, it sounded like a dream vacation, so on Feb.
25, he tucked a kitchen knife under his shirt and headed toward an
Israeli checkpoint [seeking arrest]. It played out just as his friend
described."It's a real phenomenon," said Jacob Dallal, a
spokesman for the Israeli army. He said soldiers had seen dozens of simiilar cases.
Prison life was a welcome break from the numbing routine of days
sitting in school, evenings helping his father at the family's tailoring
business and nights broken by gunfire. It was also a respite from his
cramped family home where six people live in two small rooms, and from
his father's insistence that the Western-dressed teenager abide by a
strict interpretation of Islam.
"Ofer [Prison] was like paradise....We had a good time playing
football and table tennis in the big courtyard. I started reading good
books in there," Mohammed said. He was crestfallen when his father paid a
$250 bond to get him released early.
Mahmoud Tabbouq wanted to go back to jail was to concentrate on
his studies. His 17-year-old sister, Yusra, said that her brother,
who was good in school, had spoken longingly of prison ever since he was
released the first time. "He couldn't stand the guys from the refugee
camps who were always carrying weapons. He felt like he was suffocating. He
told me, 'I can't achieve in school with this chaotic environment around
me.'" Her brother is now applying to take his high-school exams from behind
bars, Yusra added.
(Globe and Mail - Canada)
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