Jumana aged 10 on hunger strike

Jumana Abu Jazar, aged 10 years, is a Palestinian girl from Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.  She is the only child of a Palestinian prisoner named Alaa Abu Jazar who has been in an Israeli jail since 2001. Her fathe was imprisoned while in his thirties as he was returning to Gaza after a medical appointment in Egypt with his elderly father.   He left his only daughter Jumana, to be cared for by her uncle as her mother died from a terminal illness when she was just  four months old. One year later, her uncle was killed by the Israeli army and she was then left in the care of her grandfather who too has subsequently died. Jumana is now in the care of her grandmother.Abu Jazar has been on hunger strike for twelve days. He announced his fast on April 17, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian Prisoners. His young daughter Jumana insisted to join her father in his strike in solidarity with him despite the fact she has not set eyes on him since she was a baby. With tears  in her eyes, the Palestinian child addressed the world through talking to a number of journalists: "You must know that I will never break my hunger strike until all the demands of Palestinian prisoners are met!" When former US President Jimmy Carter visited Gaza three years ago, Jumana, adopting a stern expression, asked him how he would feel if he was unable to see his daughter for all her life. Carter asked Jumana the  reason behind the  arrest of her father and in a grown-up way she replied: "The Israeli occupation arrested him on the border in 2001 while he was accompanying my grandfather in a treatment journey to Egypt."  Carter remained  silent in front of the Gazan girl. Jumana, speaking to the assembled press as she announced her hunger strike, demanded of  all the liberals in the world:  "Where are the human rights institutions and the so-called democracy?" Jumana then  narrated her personal  story. "I have spent ten years of my life waiting for the sun of freedom to rise and to embrace my father whom I was deprived of by the Israeli occupation which also deprived me of my uncle whom I used to call  "Dad"  who was killed in cold blood. My mother died when I was just in the fourth month of my life". Now Jumana lives with her grandmother who lost her son Ayman years ago after he was targetted by an Israeli missile in Rafah. She is unable to visit her son Alaa in prison who was arrested by Israel ten years ago. The bereaved mother and grandmother described her captive son as being employed after completing his Bachelor's degree in accounting at the  Islamic University of Gaza, adding that he had proved his loyalty towards his homeland and people. She also believed that the reason for imprisoning her son was for defending his country and his homeland's dignity. Abu Jazar's mother said that the reason given by the Israeli authorities for preventing Jumana from seeing her father since she was born, was  "security reasons".   "I don't know what the security reasons could be against allowing Jumana to see her father, considering her young age" the grandmother said. Jumana's story is one of many similar Palestinian stories. There are dozens of children experiencing the loss of mothers and fathers held in Israeli jails and where the children are displaced to the homes of grandfathers and uncles, grandmothers and aunties.