Jumana

I travelled to Rafah to interview this beautiful eleven-year-old girl for a narrative for our website.

Jumana was just 4 months old when her mother died and, shortly afterwards, her father was imprisoned in an Israeli jail. Alaa' was arrested while accompanying his father to Israel for medical treatment. Jumana has not been allowed to visit her father in prison since she was two years old, denied access to Israel "for security reasons".

It was hard not to break down in tears while speaking to Jumana and her grandmother, her sole caregiver. Jumana showed me the notebooks that her father sent from prison, carried back to Rafah by released prisoners. He has drawn pictures on every page and asked her to fill the notebooks with her stories, thoughts, and memories so that he can read them when he is released, currently scheduled for 2021.

Jumana should be allowed to visit her father in prison. Preventing her from visiting him is both illegal and inhumane.