Walid Daqqa

Walid Daqqa (وليد دقة; 18 July 1961 – 7 April 2024) was a Palestinian figure who was imprisoned for 38 years after he was convicted of commanding a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)-affiliated group that kidnapped and murdered an Israeli soldier.

He was not convicted of the murder, but of commanding the group, a charge he rejected.

Daqqa was the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails.

Daqqa, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was born in Baqa al-Gharbiyye in 1961.

Daqqa was born in the predominantly Arab city of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, Israel, in 1961, and was a Palestinian citizen of Israel.

In 1984, a group of Arab Israelis kidnapped and killed an Israeli soldier, and Daqqa was arrested two years later, charged with commanding the responsible group.

His conviction by an Israeli military court was based on old British emergency regulations.

He received a life sentence without parole, but his sentence was later reduced to 37 years.

On 6 August 1984, a group of Arab Israelis kidnapped an Israeli soldier named Moshe Tamam, as he got off a bus near his home in the vicinity of Netanya.

Tamam was found dead four days later, with "massive" head wounds.

Daqqa was arrested in 1986 under the accusation of either being a member or commander, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)-affiliated group that abducted and killed Tamam.

Daqqa was not present at the time of the kidnapping and, in 1987, was not convicted of carrying out the murder himself, but of commanding the group, an accusation he always rejected.

According to Amnesty International, his conviction was based on emergency regulations enacted by British authorities in Mandatory Palestine, which allow for a lower threshold for proof than the criteria used in Israeli criminal law.

He received a life sentence without parole, but his sentence was later reduced to 37 years.

Daqqa was among 23 Palestinians held by Israel since before the Oslo Accords were signed in the 1990s.

During his imprisonment, he got married in 1999, and had a child in 2020 when his sperm was smuggled.

Daqqa also completed a bachelor's and master's degrees in political science, and had been working on his doctorate.

In 1999, he married journalist Sanaa Salameh while in prison, and his wedding was allowed, in a rare permission, to take place and for photos of the small ceremony to be taken.

But he was not allowed to spend time with his wife in conjugal visits.

Daqqa received bachelor's and master's degrees in political science in 2010 and 2016 respectively, and was reported in 2018 to have been working on his doctorate.

Daqqa wrote several books during his imprisonment, several of which have been described as being prison literature, and on politics and philosophy, and also a children's story.

His works include The Tale of the Secrets of Oil, Fusion of Consciousness and A Parallel Time. The latter book was adapted into a play and staged at the Al-Midan Theater in Haifa, and talks about the psychological state of prisoners.

Writing an open letter from prison in 2011, Daqqa expressed his desire for a child, who he would name Milad.

He authored several prison literature works, including a children's novel in 2018 that narrates the story of a boy, who uses magical olive oil from the Israeli-occupied West Bank to visit his imprisoned father.

In 2021, Daqqa was diagnosed with cancer, prompting calls for his release upon completion of his original sentence in 2023, but he had received a further two year sentence in 2018 for smuggling mobile phones to prisoners.

Amnesty International reported that Daqqa's lawyer who had visited him a few weeks before his death said that Daqqa had lost much weight and was subjected to torture.

After Daqqa's death on 9 April 2024, Israeli police forcefully dispersed visitors who attended his funeral.

Upon the launch of his children's novel titled The Tale of the Secrets of Oil in 2018, which talks about children of prisoners, it was reported that Daqqa was planning to write a sequel titled: "The Tale of the Secret of the Sword," addressing refugees and their right of return.

In 2018, Daqqa authored his first novel for children, which was launched at the Mahmoud Darwish museum in Ramallah, the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Tale of the Secrets of Oil narrates the story of a 12-year-old boy named Jude, who was conceived with his imprisoned father's sperm.

It begins as the boy prepares to meet his father for the first time in prison, but Jude receives news that, "due to security reasons," his visit had been cancelled.

Jude, who is heartbroken, goes for a walk in the countryside, engaging in a conversation with different species, including a rabbit, a cat, and eventually an olive tree named Um Rumi, who is 1,500-year-old.

They all listen to the boy's frustration over his canceled prison visit, and tell him of their suffering under the occupation and their struggle for freedom.

Um Rumi, the olive tree, tells the boy of her experience when Israel had threatened to uproot her so that she could be moved from the West Bank to the Israeli city of Afula.

Afterwards, she tells the boy about her sacred oil, which she had been keeping as a secret.

Jude rubbed the oil on his skin, making him invisible, and helping him visit his father in prison.

Upon hearing a child's voice say, "I am your son, Jude," his father thinks that he is losing his mind.

The oil mentioned in the novel is made in reference to Jesus, whose oil was claimed able to heal people's wounds.

At the end of the book, Daqqa symbolizes the prison with a larger one where Palestinians live in the occupied territories.

The couple had a daughter in 2020, conceived after his sperm was smuggled out of prison.