By Revda Selver
GOMBAK, 17 February 2022: The Prisoners Exhibition held last week was part of the International Conference on Palestine Kuala Lumpur 2023 (ICPKL) to showcase participants with a lifetime experience as Palestinian prisoners.
The exhibition was organised from 10 to 12 February at the Royal Chulan Seremban and aimed to highlight the inhuman conditions faced by prisoners in Israeli prisons by the Israeli occupying forces.
The exhibition featured the Israeli apartheid wall, the administrative prison cell “the dark room”, and solitary confinement which were remarkably executed with great details of the cells, drawings on the wall, and graphic paintings.
The replica of the Israeli apartheid wall was used to present facts and statistics about Palestinian prisoners and the unjust conditions they face in Israeli prisons.
The administrative prison allowed the participants to experience imprisonment under Israeli occupation. The three by 3.6 metres dark cell with no sunlight or the slightest fresh breeze containing the Palestinian inmates’ dreams, hopes, longings, tears, and smiles truly reflected the brutality of the Israeli forces.
Solitary confinement is one of the cruellest torture tools used by Israeli forces against Palestinian prisoners where excessive solitude can make someone suffer from mental illnesses, anxiety, and depression and some may even forget the faces of their loved ones.
The Israel Prison Service holds thousands of inmates in isolation, including minors, for months and even years.
The exhibitors sought to show the true face of Israeli occupations and the human rights violations against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
In the exhibition, one of the cell walls was dedicated to the visitors to write words of solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners. Many words, slogans, and wishes were written in many languages and with tons of love.
Most visitors were moved and touched, and many were caught up in tears while standing in solitary confinement unable to comprehend that Palestinian prisoners spend years of their lives in a such cell.
The prisoners’ exhibition was executed by Friends of Palestine (FoP) in collaboration with Palm Strategic Initiatives Centre, Malaysian Women’s Coalition for Al-Quds and Palestine (MWCQP), and Cinta Gaza Malaysia and was attended by more than 300 people. ***