Released prisoner Issa Abd Rabbo has enthusiastically resumed his hobby, which the occupation had prevented him from [pursuing] during the 30 years he spent in the occupation's prisons.In the interview he also complains about not having chewing gum in prison.
Abd Rabbo told our correspondent: 'I have resumed my hobby of stamp collecting with enthusiasm, to make up for what I lost during my time in prison'...
Before his arrest, Abd Rabbo collected stamps, and among them was a collection of Jordanian stamps he had cut out of postal envelopes. After his arrest, he tried to pursue his hobby in prison, because he was certain he would be spending a long time in the new place. Indeed, after the period of interrogation, he started collecting stamps from letters sent to prisoners...
Abd Rabbo said: 'I asked each prisoner to save the envelope for me so I could cut out the stamp or stamps attached to it. During my long time in prison, I collected 100 stamps, which accompanied me whenever I moved between nearly all of the occupation's prisons'...
He said: 'I'm proud of the stamps I collected in prison, but it was difficult for me to pursue [my] hobby in prison, because there were many restrictions, few letters arrived, and the quality of the stamps [was poor]. Prison also affects our hobbies, and I had no special albums to put the stamps in properly, so I put them in an envelope - the same one that left prison with me.'
Abd Rabbo had another interview shortly after his release where the stamp collector describes how he murdered two Jewish hikers:An Israeli car approached, with two in it. I said, here's a chance and I don't want to return empty-handed. They left the car... and walked towards the valley, and sat down under a pine tree. I went down to them. Of course I was masked and was carrying a rifle. He asked me: Are you a guard here? I told him: 'No, I'm in my home.' I told him: 'You are not allowed here. This is our land and our country. You stole it and occupied our land and I'm going to act against you.'
They were surprised by what I told them. I tied them up of course and then sentenced them to death by shooting, in the name of the revolution. I shot them, one bullet each, and went [hiding] in the mountains... I went to my aunt and told her: 'We have avenged Muhammad's blood.'"
I think that Oxfam and Amnesty and HRW need to put out some 100-page reports about these shocking revelations from Israeli prison.
Can you imagine a place where confessed murderers don't have the simple human right to put stamps into proper albums and to chew gum whenever they want to?
It is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and numerous UN resolutions. At least, the lawyers for "human rights" NGOs will find a way to say that it is, since they are not bound by what international law actually says.