Palestinian prisoner Khalida Jarrar was freed by Israel on Sunday as part of the first wave of prisoner exchanges agreed with Hamas in the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The 61-year-old, an MP, feminist and prisoners’ rights advocate, had been held in administrative detention - a policy that allows Israeli authorities to hold individuals without charge or trial - since 26 December 2023.

Jarrar’s detention was renewed multiple times.

In August she was moved to solitary confinement as a “form of punishment”, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, and held for six months in a 1m-by-1.5m cell at Ayalon (Ramla) prison.

Rights group Addameer reported that the cell had “barely enough space for a mattress”, and that her clothes, hygiene products, food and water were all severely restricted.

Jarrar's long career as an activist has meant she has spent the last three decades in and out of detention, losing her father, daughter and nephew while she was behind bars.

Her sister Salam Altratot told Middle East Eye that the latest detention was the hardest Jarrar had endured.

A life-long activist

Originally from Nablus, Jarrar is a prominent political leader and human rights and feminist advocate.

Her activism began early. As a teenager, she reportedly volunteered with a group that cleaned the local community and public schools against the wishes of many in her family, who believed the work was more suited for boys.

She went on to become one of the most prominent leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a nationalist and Marxist-Leninist group that is the second-largest faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and has been designated as a terrorist group by Israel the US. 

In 2006, she was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the Palestinian Authority's parliament, and was appointed to lead the prisoners' committee.

She is credited with playing a leading role in cementing Palestine's accession to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2015.

Jarrar has also been a relentless campaigner for the rights of Palestinian prisoners, serving as the director of Addameer, a prisoners’ rights organization based in Ramallah, between 1993 and 2005.

Repeated detention

Jarrar’s work has made her a repeated target for Israeli authorities, who have arrested her several times over the past three decades, often placing her under administrative detention.

Her first arrest was in March 1989, when she participated in a demonstration on International Women’s Day.

In April 2015, Israeli authorities arrested Jarrar and initially held her under administrative detention without charge.

Following mounting international pressure, an Israeli military court charged her with 12 security-related offenses connected to her membership in the PFLP. 

Jarrar was found guilty and sentenced to 15 months in prison, five years’ probation and fined $2,600.

The Palestinian leader continued her work in prison, establishing a school and teaching English to young women inmates.

She was released in June 2016, only to be arrested a year later during a dawn raid on her home in Ramallah. She was freed in September 2021.

Jarrar has also faced long-term travel bans imposed by the Israeli authorities, while her husband has been detained over 10 times.

(MEE)

Caption

Khalida Jarrar, pictured in the West Bank, left after her release from jail in September 2021, and right, after her release in January 2025 (AFP)