When I was in the IDF, I was assigned one day to visit a Palestinian girl who was in prison for conspiracy to commit terrorism. Shinbet had uncovered a Palestinian suicide-bombing plot and captured the 'active-team' members as they were on the road to their staging area. This girl was one of four persons inside the vehicle when it was stopped. At her trial, she admitted her part in the plot and was sentenced to a seven year term.
When I visited her in prison, she was 21 and had already served three years of her sentence. She was very pretty and quite intelligent. We spoke in Arabic and engaged in a bit of small talk. I inquired as to her health and the prison conditions. She replied that she was in good health and had no complaints about either the prison or its staff. She stated that she was never threatened or abused at any point after her arrest.
She then did something extraordinary. She read the prison plastic ID card that was clipped to my blouse which included my name and military rank among other things. The ID card was printed entirely in Hebrew. I was fairly amazed and asked her how she had acquired this language ability.
She told me that after about the first month of incarceration, the prison staff had informed her that she could attend class in any of a number of academic courses offered. The first course she selected was Hebrew. At the time of the interview, she was also taking three other academic courses. I complimented her on her Hebrew, and she complimented me on my Arabic. We talked for approximately four hours, alternating between the two Semitic languages.
She had volunteered for the terror mission after her favorite cousin had been killed in a shootout with IDF forces. In retrospect, she now felt that vengence was morally wrong and she deeply regretted her earlier decision to wreak havoc on Israeli civilians. Upon release, she planned to attend university and obtain a degree. At the end, we hugged and parted as friends. I resolved to keep tabs on her case.
After serving four years of her seven year sentence, she was released. She returned to the West Bank and enrolled in a university. She subsequently obtained a college degree, became duly employed, and married her childhood sweetheart.
Her professional duties require her to travel extensively, but her prison record severely curtailed her ability to traverse checkpoints in a timely manner. To help alleviate this bottleneck, I provided her with an official letter of introduction and a signed and sealed military directive. All travel headaches have ceased.
To this day we remain very close friends and frequently chat for hours in outdoor cafe's over our cups of delicious sweet tea :mrgreen:
