Issa Amro, my peace activist friend facing military incarceration & how you can help him…
By: Natalie Strecker
Tags: Israel, Palestine, Human Rights, International Law, Politics

I have introduced you to Issa the Human Rights Defender, but now I want to introduce you to Issa, my friend

I had the privilege of being ‘introduced’ to Issa in 2015 by the inspiring firebrand and ‘Code Pink’ activist that is Ariel Gold, an American Jew. Ariel had connected us in order for me, as co-founder and chair of Jersey Palestine Solidarity Campaign, to support Youth Against Settlement’s annual ‘Open Shuhada’ campaign.

Chatting with Issa in Hebron

Issa and I spoke many times, but we first met in 2016 when I visited the region due to wishing to understand more the issues on the ground. In 2018, I was posted to Hebron for 3 months to serve as a Human Rights Monitor. This was a life defining experience for me, but was also the period when Issa became to me, a dear and respected friend.

‘Liberation 75’ and my personal reflections from witnessing an occupation | by Natalie Strecker | Nine by Five Media | Medium

Issa, like all of us has many layers: he is strong, courageous, outspoken and direct, but he is also incredibly insightful, supportive, humble and so very thoughtful. On this theme I would like to share just 3 of the many precious experiences I got to share with Issa:

One day after 4 weeks of working long and arduous hours giving protective presence and recording human rights violations and trying to somehow make sense of everything I was witnessing and the inhumanity of the situation, I hit rock bottom after having seen the humiliation of a young teenage boy and then, when visiting his family, becoming aware of the abject poverty they were experiencing as a consequence of the occupation. I, after having been given a key by Issa, went to sit in the gardens of the YAS Centre in Tel Rumeida, one of the quieter places you can go in the old city and I sobbed. Issa found me and he said to me, “you need to take a break”, which I had already planned to take the next day. Issa instructed me to go and pack my stuff and he would organise my transport to where I had planned to take my days off. As always, he wouldn’t take no for an answer and I went back to my apartment where I was staying and met him a short while later at a junction of what is known locally as ‘Happy Bunny’. Issa walked me to a taxi of a friend of his and said to me: “my friend will take you to the door, now go rest and I will see you in a couple of days”. I felt 2 things at that moment, overwhelming gratitude, but also the burden of European privilege. You see, I knew I got to take a rest that he doesn’t ever get to take. A couple of days later I came back and Issa, as he always did, ‘checked in’ on me to make sure I was okay.

Issa, as I quickly discovered was the norm with Palestinians, was very protective of those who came to try to support them, the irony of course is not unacknowledged. He even insisted on things such as having someone walk me home at night.

My tattoo!

Issa was also who I went to when I wanted to check that the Arabic tattoo I was about to have stating ‘Free Palestine’ in Ramallah (my first ever tattoo and for me a rebellious act of resistance in response to all I had seen), was correct and that I didn’t end up living to regret the moment by having some dubious words forever imprinted on my skin.

Then there was my final night in Hebron, a night when my heart broke. Along with the many tears that were shed, however, there were also many, many laughs! I went to the YAS centre, where I went almost every evening to spend my free time with the local activists and of course, frequent visitors and volunteers with the centre. Unbeknown to me, Issa had organised a special pizza and kanafe party for me. There was music, the nightly campfire, conversation and then there was the long and drawn-out goodbyes.

Final night in Hebron at my pizza party

As I left my posting, I knew that I would never be the same again, the Palestinians taught me so very much about life, about courage, about steadfastness, which they refer to as ‘sumud’; but Issa gave me valuable lessons in true friendship and for this reason he will forever remain one of the greatest and impactful friends of my life.