Khaled al Azraq

Last night, this man was interviewed on National TV. I recognised him as the person that had come to our house for coffee on Wednesday and so asked Ayed for his story. This is what he told me.

Khaled al Azraq lives with his family just across the street from here. When Khaled was 16, his sister was sent to prison for participating in the resistance. The Israelis demolished the family home as the penalty for harbouring terrorists.

Ayed tells me that Khaled was very angry and rebellious at school - he got involved in demonstrations, was arrested and was sent to prison for 2 years in 1982. He continued the fight when he came out of prison.

In 1991, Khaled married. It was during the first Intifada. He had been married for 3 month's when his wife planned to plant a bomb in the Central Post Office of Jerusalem. She was in the washroom at the Post Office preparing the bomb when it went off, killing her. 

The Israelis demolished the family home again and Khaled went on the run. He was eventually caught in a village near Ramallah and sentenced to 3 life sentences for his involvement in the Intifada. 

And now, after 23 years, he was released in December 2013, as part of the peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine. 

Khaled's sister, Majeda, who also appeared in the programme, is now vice president of the prisoners' ministry in Bethlehem. 

Khaled's other sisters now Head of the Women's Palestinian Union, and is married to Issa Qareq, the Palestinian Authority Minister of Prisons. 

All of these people are from the Aida Camp. 

I have not previously come face to face with someone directly involved in the Palestinian struggle against occupation. What are people to do to resist? How deeply must the pain go for someone to consider planting a bomb? Those of us on the outside of the conflict can only imagine the pain on both sides. The nearer you get to the conflict the greater the pain. Both sides have lost people. How can peace and reconciliation be achieved amidst so much pain and fear?