Ramallah: "Please take me to my father. I want to see him," is the only cry of five-year-old Mohammad Wael Eshtaiwi whose father is languishing in an Israeli prison.
An inmate of the Negev Prison, Mohammad's father has been denied the right to meet his only son.
"It is my right. I must see father and get to know him, wherever he is. As long as he is alive, I should see him," Mohammad told Gulf News.
The little boy added: "I need my mother to accompany me to the prison and see my father," he said. "I do not want to see my father in a photo frame. I want to see him in person."
Israeli authorities have refused a visit permit to Mohammad's mother, uncles and aunts but not the boy. However, under Israeli regulations, children cannot travel from the Balata Refugee Camp to Negev Prison alone.
"Mohammad should visit his dad in the company of a first-class relative," said Rasha Fouad Al Ashqar, Mohammad's mother and Wael's wife.
‘Inhuman methods'
"The Israeli authorities have not refused Mohammad a visit permit. But they have not granted any of his blood relatives the necessary permit to accompany him to see his father," she told Gulf News. "This is an indirect rejection of Mohammad's demand to see his father," she said. "This is a model of Israel's harsh and inhuman methods to press and punish the Palestinian prisoners," she said.
Wael, 33, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The Israeli public prosecution recently appealed to the court to have the prison term increased to nine-and-a-half years. He has served five so far.
Rasha said this was the second time her husband had been jailed. Wael earlier served four-and-a-half years, and after his release, he joined the Sports College at Al Najah National University in Nablus. She said a few months prior to his rearrest, the pair married. He was in his last semester when he was re-arrested.
Wael was on the Israeli wanted list.
Mohammad has three uncles (a fourth, Mohammad Eshtaiwi, was assassinated by Israeli Special Forces in 2006) and five aunts. The Israeli authorities refused to grant any of them a permit to accompany Mohammad to visit his father.
The only chance for Mohammad is to accompany his grandmother, Umm Basel, who suffers from health problems which make motion extremely difficult.
"If I could, I would," said Umm Basel, Wael's mother, with tears falling off her eyes. "I cannot move. I'm dying to see Wael see his only son who has entered school without seeing his father," she told Gulf News.
She urged international humanitarian organisations to mediate on this issue and secure a visit for Mohammad to see his father. "We urge the world to act on this on humanitarian grounds," she stressed.
