‍RAMALLAH: When I meet Lama Ghosheh (30) in Ramallah at the end of  March, it is the first time in over a month that she is seeing her family. Despite living just a ninety minute drive away in Al Quds (Jerusalem), the Israeli occupation's increasing restrictions on Palestinians is making it almost impossible to travel between the cities. 

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Her family is gathered around her, sitting on the sofa, drinking tea and eating sweets after breaking the fast (the visit was during the Holy month of Ramadan). Despite the precious time with her family, Ghosheh goes out briefly to take a meeting for work: even with the repression and punishment by the occupation due to her profession, she continues her work. 

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Once she returns, we begin talking about the Western media coverage of the ongoing genocide. She says: 

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“The Western media industry has fallen, they have failed Palestine. What we need now is ethnographic journalism, the journalists need to be on the ground and explain what is actually happening. Not a ‘top to bottom’ perspective.”

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Ghosheh is a prominent Palestinian journalist, but she prefers to introduce herself as a human being first and foremost, and as a mother of two children, and then finally as a journalist from occupied Al-Quds. 

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She highlights the importance of journalists being present, of actually experiencing and seeing the reality Palestinians are living. 

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Since October 7th 2023, the Israeli occupation forces have killed over 203 Palestinian journalists in Gaza. In the West Bank, journalists are also continuously in danger due to the attacks by the occupation forces. 

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According to Reporters Without Borders, the occupation's attacks against journalists in the West Bank and in East Al Quds have multiplied over the past months (link).
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‍Not to mention, the frequent closing of checkpoints and restrictions of movement prevents journalists from covering the crimes of the occupation forces in the area. 17 journalists in the West Bank have been unlawfully detained for their journalism since October 7th 2023, and they remain in detention. Despite the continued effort of the occupation to silence Ghosheh, she remains determined to report on Palestine. 

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Collective punishment of Palestinians 

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Ghosheh describes  the drastic changes that have happened since October 7th 2023, when Israel's genocidal onslaught on Gaza began. Before, her sister who lives in Ramallah could apply for permission from the occupation to visit her  a couple of times a year in Al Quds. Her sister’s children could not come because they have the West Bank ID. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have green ID cards, while in East Jerusalem and the areas that were occupied by Israel in 1948, they have blue IDs. The cards impact  every aspect of movement and disunity in Palestine (link). 

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Ghosheh says that it is part of the collective punishment of Palestinians: the occupation is trying to make all details of their lives harder: 

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“Now, we are at the end of Ramadan, and it is the first time our family is gathered. We are not always able to gather. Do you understand how deep the repression goes? It digs into all social settings, also inside the Palestinian families. The question is how Palestinian families can live, and how deep the occupation manages to break in sociologically,” she said. 

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She says that the occupation has transformed Palestinians into being individuals rather than in groups. That is one of the goals: to separate every part of Palestinian society. Like other Arab societies,  the family unit is the foundation of society, and thus such separation is key to fracturing the entire Palestinian society.

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“When you become an individual instead of part of a group, it is way easier to punish you. Life has never been flourishing, but it has gotten worse since then. Everything has been uncovered: the nature of the colonialist zionist occupation is not a question of “left or right”, diplomatic or democratic, it is none of those things. The occupation is, in reality, what it has shown itself to be after October 7th”, 

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Ghosheh  highlights the repercussions of this goal to separate the family:

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“You feel like you are no longer a part of the family. And you don’t always remember that it is because of the occupation, you internalise it. The occupation cracks down on families because they are the most important part of the Palestinian society: they are the foundation, it is where you get your thoughts from, who you are. Everything starts with the family,” she said.

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Imprisoned for being a Palestinian journalist 

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We continue our correspondence via email, as our meeting in Ramallah happened in a hurry. I ask her about the day when the occupation arrested her - September 4, 2022. 

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That day the Israeli intelligence forces stormed her family’s house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Occupied Jerusalem. She was interrogated, strip searched, and then arrested in front of her small children. 

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She was then imprisoned in the Israeli Hasharon prison, which is - like all Israeli prisons - known for its inhumane conditions. According to Addameer, there are over 9900 Palestinian political detainees in the occupation’s prisons, among them 400 children (link). 

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Ghosheh was then placed in solitary confinement, and was prevented from contacting and communicating with her family or her lawyer, both of which are basic legal rights. 

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She was detained under the pretext of being accused by the Israeli judiciary of incitement and identification with 'terrorist organizations' on social media platforms. 

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Ten days later Ghosheh was sent to the Israeli Damon prison in northern Palestine, where female Palestinian political detainees are located. She was then informed that she would be released in return for being in house detention for ten consecutive months as well as paying a guarantee of 50.000 shekels (over 13.5000 USD) in cash. 

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She was prohibited from leaving her family’s house, communicating with anyone outside the home and from using smart devices. Her mother and father were instructed  to monitor her. 

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“I believe that house arrest is one of the harshest colonial disciplinary punishments, because it penetrates the intimate space within the family and creates internal social conflicts between family members. It also turns all feelings of love and concern into tools of control and power,” she wrote.

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She adds that she tried to liberate herself from the psychological impact of this oppression by searching for meanings of freedom in other ways:

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“I read a lot, drew, played sports, strengthened my relationship with my children, and did not allow my oppressors to turn me into an empty shell of myself. I fought them with awareness.”  

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“I reject these kinds of sanctions in principle”

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Later, in July 2023, the Israeli court issued a decision ending her  house arrest and imposing a penalty of compulsory labor for nine months. She will start this compulsory work in a couple of months, and she will not be paid for it. It is of course another form of colonial violence, enforced labour. She will work for an Israeli institution determined by Israeli intelligence.

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“The decision is unfair and unjust, and I will file an appeal against this decision. It may seem outwardly simple, but it is dangerous and harsh. And of course, the place of work and the quality of work will be humiliating and degrading,” she added. 

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She writes that she believes the aim of this type of punishment is to control Jerusalemite women and men, to occupy their consciousness, and to make them feel humiliated and permanently dehumanised. 

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“I reject these kinds of sanctions in principle, because it beautifies the image of Israel internationally, but I am forced to deal with it, because I am a mother, and I am responsible for raising two children.”

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_{Cover photo by: Emil Salman}