Sana Salama: Sperm Smuggling Is a Reflection of the Real Struggle Inside Israeli Prisons

Beyond the Israeli walls, Palestinian’s prisoners could have children despite their long-year detainee.

According to Sana Salama, the wife of the Palestinian author and freedom fighter Walid Daqqa, the Palestinian Resistance Movement proved again the detainees’ strength and struggle behind Israeli bars by smuggling the first sperm from prison 19 years ago.

These years represent Mohannad’s age, the first child brought by smuggled sperm.

Behind bars, since the age of 25 and still, Walid was finally able to be a father for a beautiful little girl, Milad, in 2020.

According to his wife, Milad was his dream which becomes true despite the distortion of the Palestinian Resistance’s struggle inside Israeli jails, through the recent film "Amira."

Al-Estiklal conducted an interview with the Walid's wife, Sana Salama, in which she spoke out about the life she is leading with her child growing up away from her father.

 

Behind Israeli Walls

 

• When and how was your husband Walid Daqqa arrested?

Sana Salama: Walid was arrested in 1986, the Israeli occupation forces took him from his office on charges of belonging to a cell affiliated with the Popular Front in Palestine; in fact, the cell was responsible for the kidnapping and killing of Israeli soldiers, since then, my husband has been languishing in Israeli prisons.

 

• What are the conditions of Walid inside the prisons of the Occupation?

Sana Salama: First of all, Walid and all the Palestinian detainees are suffering from the deprivation of freedom in all meanings.

Since 1986, Walid has been suffering from repression, abuse and torture because he is not an ordinary prisoner, but rather a thinker, author, and one of the most important thinkers of the captive movement and the Palestinian people in general.

 

 

He has books and articles in which he introduces himself and his people.

This is why the occupation forces were afraid of him. The conditions of his arrest and imprisonment were very harsh and inhumane, so his life was in serious danger, and he is still punished because of the day of birth of our daughter, who represents the candle of hope in our lives.

A play was shown in al-Meydan Theater in Haifa, which was later closed because the play was portraying Walid's life, who is a very exceptional person.

 

A Baby in Israeli Prisons

 

• How did the idea of ​​having a baby come to your minds?

Sana Salama: First, Milad was our dream and the idea of having a baby is possible for any couple who does not live in our circumstances. In other words, it is obvious for a married couple to have children after marriage.

However, behind Israeli bars, it was kind of impossible to be a father or a mother. The dream of having Milad one day has been with us for 20 years. We even named her before her birth.

In fact, the lack of possible liberation pushed us to the challenge and we succeeded in bringing a child that was one day a dream; 2020 was the birth of our beautiful daughter Milad. It was necessary to confront injustice and deprivation and not submit to despair. Milad’s birth was the candle that lit the world and the realization of the dream, so it became real.

 

• When was the first visit of Milad to see her father?

Sana Salama: The first time Walid met his daughter was when she was about a year and a half old, and the visit was in July, until the Israeli soldiers made sure that she is the daughter of Walid Daqqa.

I have already spoken in the media and said that genetic testing, the DNA, was the only way for these children to meet their fathers in Israeli jails, however, we, the Palestinian prisoners’ wives, are not ready to wave these tests to relatives and society to prove paternity, as the film “Amira” hinted at.

 

• Did Milad's visit to her father continue?

Sana Salama: Yes, from July, until now, Milad is visiting her father regularly.

 

Smuggled Sperm

 

• How exactly was the sperm smuggled?

Sana Salama: I am not going to answer, of course, the answer to this question is one of the privacies of the prisoners’ families and one of the secret internal affairs of their struggles; the way in which the sperms were smuggled outside the Israeli prisons is extremely secretive, so revealing the details represents a danger to the prisoners and threatens the resistance inside and outside the prisons of the occupation. No one is interested to ask how books and poetry are leaked outside the prison, but the whole world wanted to know how the sperm was smuggled.

It is not reasonable to ask such a question, because the method is specific to the prisoners and ‘how’ is one of the secrets of the plans of the Palestinian struggle.

 

• How does the movie Amira represent a clear abuse of the prisoners and their struggle?

Sana Salama: Regarding the movie, the Dramatic plot is not logical, it was like Indian and fantasy films, while 7000 prisoners are not fiction, they are real and their struggle stories are also real and not fictional.

The film clearly tried to put the prisoners' wives and children in the circle of suspicion. On the other hand, it could have been presented in a better, more elegant and more civilized way to reflect the prisoners’ struggle of liberated sperm from Israeli prisons; in fact, the movie could have been more accurate and more professional, even if the work was dramatic, because cinema and acting in general are in the end a noble message for a specific cause, so if this message did not expose Israeli crimes and did not reveal Palestinian people’s struggle, then the whole work did not help in rising the Arab nation voice in general.

 

 

• How did the prisoners' wives call for the banning of the film?

Sana Salama: Almost all the wives of the prisoners were participants in a big and blessed campaign against showing the film, but it is important to point out that we are not against cinema and art.

Contrary, we were ready to answer and give information, but no one asked us for any. The script was written and the film was produced without any consultation or proof of the true story.

The film showed the world a very offensive image of wives and prisoners and children as well.

Mohannad was the baby of the first smuggled sperm, and he is the son of the prisoner Ammar al-Zaben; Mohannad is now 19 years old and because of the film, it is possible for one of his friends at school to come to him and tell him that he is the son of an Israeli jailer. The role of the campaign was to thwart the achievement of artistic gains at the expense of our Palestinian cause.