Daqqah, a Palestinian who has spent almost four decades in an Israeli prison, served his full sentence but it has been extended. He is also terminally ill and being denied adequate care. These are some of his writings.
"For a long time whenever Milad asked me on the phone, 'Daddy, where are you?' I avoided using the word 'prison.' I feared that it might be too much for her at her tender age to begin to live with this word and its weighty implications,” writes Walid Daqqah in his essay, “A Pace without a Door.” The 61-year-old Palestinian political prisoner and writer was arrested in 1986 and sentenced to a 37 years in Israeli prison. His sentence should have come to an end in 2023 but was extended by Israeli authorities for two years over the smuggling of mobile phones.
Walid Daqqah broke free during his nearly four-decade imprisonment through his writings, his resistance, and the birth of his daughter, Milad. His lifetime of refusing the prison’s walls has brought us all closer to freedom.