The Great Escape

This week Lara and Michael discuss all things related to the Great Escape, the real-life prison break of Mahmoud Abdullah al-Ardah, 46, Yaqoub Mahmoud Qadri, 49, Zakaria Zubeidi, 46, Mohammad al-Ardah, 39, Ayham Nayef Kamanji, 35, and Munadel Infaat, 26 from the high-security Israeli dungeon known as Gilboa prison. On September 6, 2021, the 6 Palestinian political prisoners dug their escape tunnel with a rusty spoon while the colonial guard in the watchtower directly above them had fallen asleep. The photo that shocked and humiliated the Apartheid State seen around the world shows a colonial officer standing above the tunnel on the other side of the prison bewildered. Lara and Michael provide the context for the arrest and imprisonment of these political prisoners by the Apartheid State, insisting that their participation in resistance against the occupation is their recognized right under international law making the Apartheid State’s deprivation of their freedom a grave human rights violation. Lara goes through the history of Palestinian prison breaks and Michael addresses the broader story of Israel’s imprisonment of Palestinians as part of its settler-colonial regime. Lara summarizes reactions to the Great Escape and Michael describes Apartheid Israel’s ballistic retaliation and revenge against family members of the escaped political prisoners as well as against other illegally detained Palestinian political prisoners across its different prisons.