Visiting Palestinian Prisoners144 Fatima is a Palestinian refugee from Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem, and is the mother of Mohammed. Mohammed was arrested by Israel in 2000, and sentenced to 19 years in prison. However, his family was deprived from visiting him for nine years in a row, with the exception of his six-year-old sister, who was allowed to visit him until she became 12 years old. Fatima explains, “In the beginning, they allowed his six-year-old sister to visit him. Then, after six years, they allowed his grandmother to visit. Afterwards, they allowed me and his father to visit him after he had spentnine years in prison. Therefore, I could not see my son for nine whole years. Israeli authorities were denying me a permit for security reasons. I never got any explanation about why. Why was I regarded as a security threat? But after nine years I was allowed to visit him once a year and after two more years, I got to visit him twice every year. Finally, after 15 years, they issued me a one-year permit to visit him every month or every 40 days depending on the visit appointments allowed by Israel.” 144 BADIL’s interview with Fatima Aziz, mother of a Palestinian political Pisoner, “Visiting Palestinian prisoners”, Bethlehem, October 2015 41