The daughter of a Palestinian activist kept in an Israeli prison has died in her home of a suspected heart attack aged 31.
Suha Ghassan Jarrar, 31, was a legal researcher at a Palestinian human rights organisation based in Ramallah in the West Bank.
She was a campaigner for Palestinian “freedom, dignity and self-determination” and was also highly vocal in demanding the release of her mother Khalida Jarrar.
She was found dead at her home in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and had been suffering, according to her family, from ill-health, with people connected to her mother saying that she died of a “severe heart attack”.
Her mother Khalida Jarrar was first arrested in 1989 and held for a month without trial before being released. She was then arrested again in 2014 where she was jailed for 15 months, and then a third time in 2017 where she was held until 2019. Seven months after her release in February, she was arrested again at home.
She was later sentenced to two years in prison by a military court for “inciting violence” and also for being a member of an “illegal organisation”.
She was considered a prominent member of the Marxist-Leninist organisation the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which confirmed that the daughter died of a heart attack.
After her daughter’s death, there were fresh protests demanding that Israel release Khalida for her daughter’s funeral.
The move to release her is supported by the Red Cross where spokesman Qadri Abu Bakr said they hope she could be with her husband and other daughter Yafa to ease the shock of the tragedy.
Khalida is one of 12 elected Palestinian MPs currently in Israeli prisons. They are part of the 5,300 Palestinians held in total in Israeli prisons.
Her other daughter Yafa, a Canadian-Palestinian lawyer who also campaigns for her mother’s release, wrote after her arrest last year: “A year ago today, my mother Khalida Jarrar was kidnapped by Israel’s soldiers from our home in Ramallah. Mom, a feminist, human rights defender and elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, continues to be detained without charge or trial.”
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Story By: James King, Sub-Editor: James King , Agency: Newsflash
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