Palestinian hero lasts 37 year in Israeli jail

CAIRO – 11 January 2018: The Palestinian prisoner Karim Younis has been in jail for 37 years. He is the oldest prisoner in all the occupied jails across world.

Younis was arrestedon January, 6, 1983, and sentenced to life imprisonment for an open period; his sentence was later amended to be 40 years.

Although he was supposed to be set free, as per a signed agreement between Mahmoud Abbass the Israeli government in 2013, he is still in prison.The agreement guarantees the release of all the old captive Palestinians that are arrested before Oslo agreement.

However, the occupied government refuses to implement the Articles of the agreement. Therefore, what is known as the fourth generation, which includes 30 prisoners—14 of them are Palestinians—are still in captive.

Karim Younis is born in December 24, 1956 in Palestine specifically in the village of Aara where he received his elementary education stage. Then, he studied at Salesian School during his high school stage before he joined Faculty of Engineering at Ben-Gurion University.

In January 6, 1983, when Younis was attending one of his lectures at the university; he was suddenly arrested for no obvious reasons.

Later on, he was charged with possessing illegal weapons and smuggling them to the Palestinian army, belonging to a banned organization (Fatah), and killing an Israeli soldier.

Since that day, Younis is still in detention where he is currently considered the oldest Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails and detention centers and the oldest prisoner worldwide.

Yet his cultural and awareness role never cut off, he continued his studies inside jail until he becomes the supervisor on the educational process to prisoners.

In jail, Younis wrote two books: “the Political Reality in Israel” 1990 where he recounts all the merits and demerits of the Israeli political parties and the other book entitled “the Ideological Struggle and Settlement” 1993.

Karim Younis is a Palestinian prisoner of Arab 48 who is widely distinguished in the Arab world in general and the Palestinian people in particular for his honored role in combating occupation and patriotic role in the Arab-Israeli struggle.