Ansamed

(ANSAmed) - DOHA, NOVEMBER 24 - In mid-October the Israeli Gilad Shalit was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, 15 of whom have been transferred to Qatar in agreement with Israel. They are young, with only three having a grey hair here and there, and almost all had been studying at university before ending up in Israeli prisons. They arrived in Doha on October 19 and are now guests of Qatar, which is seeing to their every material and spiritual need. As soon as they had been released Qatar (in agreement with Saudi Arabia) took the former detainees on the Hajj, the pilgrimage which serves as a pillar of Islam during the period of the Feast of the Sacrifice (Eid). They are now staying in a hotel in the Al Dafna residential area, West Bay, in the centre of the Qatari capital Doha. Over a month has gone by since their arrival and for the time being they are neither working nor studying, but are ready to create a life in Qatar - since for the time being they are not allowed to return to Palestine. Mosa Dodeen was a chemistry student at the University of Hebron before spending almost 20 years in jail. He continued to study in prison and obtained a Master in Business Administration from the University of Washington. Now he would like to continue his studies. Majde Amro is 33, and has spent almost a third of his life in jail after being sentenced to 190 years' imprisonment.

He had been studying electronic engineering at the Polytechnic Institute and now he would also like to continue his studies.

''I think I will stay in Qatar for about 5 years. After that I might be able to go back to Palestine, and I want to continue to fight for my people,'' Amro said. It seems that all of them would like to pick up their lives where they left off before prison, as if they could wipe away those years in jail - an experience difficult to be erase. When they talk of their lives before jail, it seems as if they are speaking of someone else and not themselves, since by now that past has become so far away as to seem alien to them. However, they hold onto that youth in freedom for all they're worth in the attempt to find a place to begin from. Tarq Ziad is 30 with 9 years in jail behind him. Before he had worked as a shoemaker ,while now he would like to study in Qatar. Almost none of them have a wife or children, but they all have a family in Palestine that they are trying to bring to Qatar. ''They am happy to be free, but they cannot return to their homes in Palestine. Months or years could go by before they can go home, and meanwhile the Qatari government is taking care of them, in part through a future integration into the local labour market,'' said Munir Ghanam, Palestinian ambassador to Qatar. (ANSAmed).