Palestine: Hard Life
NOVANEWS
“Waleed,” said the judge.
Waleed got up. He was wearing a brown prison uniform. A 50-cm long iron chain dangled between his feet, connecting his iron-shackled, bare ankles.
The judge gestured and he sat down, heavily. A man in his late thirties, thin, sun-burnt, his hands rough and calloused.
In the courtroom sat an elderly man wearing a white head-kerchief (Kaffiyeh); his father, whose gaze sought his son's in vain.
A short silence. The judge leafed through her papers.
Time passed.
Waleed slowly raised his face, looked around and saw his father. The father, immediately, got up and took a single step towards his son.
The muscular warden sitting on the prisoners’ bench next to Waleed leapt up.
“Sit down now!” the warden barked at the old man in Hebrew, his hand pointing down.
Cle...