The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

Mansa Musa:

For the past two years, the four major US Sunday news shows have almost entirely excluded Palestinian voices from their coverage of Gaza. Airing just one brief interview in that time, according to journalist Adam Johnson. Corporate media’s propaganda war isn’t only about the stories it chooses to show, but even more about the voices and perspective it leaves out. In contrast, the real news is committed to amplifying those voices. In this spirit, we connected with Mahmoud al-Arda , a 50-year-old Palestinian who spent 32 years in Israel’s prisons and made international headlines as one of six men who tunneled out of Gilboura prison using spoons and makeshift tools. Now extiled in Egypt, after his daring escape and returned to solitary confinement, El Ada offers a firsthand account of his life behind bars.

Mahmoud al-Arda:

My name is Mahmoud al-Arda . I am 50 years old. I was first imprisoned at the age of 16. I was first sentenced to four and a half years, and I spent three and a half years from 1992 until early 1996. I was imprisoned again in September, 1996 and sentenced to life for resisting Israeli occupation of our lands. I’ve spent nearly 32 and a half years imprisoned. We were freed in the latest deal on the 13th of October. The Palestinian resistance, my belief is that we are under occupation and that this enemy came by force and will only leave by force. Force is the main factor in getting rid of this enemy and fighting it. But we believe that resistance is not only armed resistance, but also mass resistance.

Popular resistance through words and resistance through images and resistance through the media. Our concept of resistance is a general concept, but we believe that armed resistance is the fundamental and most important factor in resolving our cause and our historical crisis in Palestine because this enemy only understands the language of force. It did not leave Gaza in 2005 except by force, and it only left Lebanon through force, and it only left parts of the Northern West Bank through force. But we believe that resistance has many different forms that are complimentary. And armed resistance will not succeed, except when complimented by all the other forms of resistance, including words, images, sound, demonstrations, popular and mass action, social, cultural, political, and literary action in order to delegitimize this enemy. Armed resistance compliments all of these, and it won’t succeed unless combined with all these other aspects. After October seven, war was declared on the prisoner’s movement and all achievements of the prisoner’s movement were withdrawn.

The situation is very harsh. The war is comprehensive. It was a condition of the extremist interior minister, Ben Guir, in order to enter the government and to remain in it and support it. They gave him free reign in the prisons and gave the prison guards free reign. He told the prison guards, “Do whatever you want, ” provided that it is not being monitored, meaning off camera, beatings, killings. Time will expose something huge in the coming years, meaning that mass actions happened inside prisons. And I believe they killed thousands, not hundreds of Gazans in prisons. They admitted to dozens. We know that they only confess to a number when there is no other option. They have no choice because the case will be exposed. They have no choice but to admit it. But what goes on behind the scenes and what goes on underground? What goes on in the absence of oversight is the biggest, most dangerous and worst.

I believe that it has killed thousands of Gazans in Zionist prisons. Of course, they practice all forms of oppression with unprecedented brutality. Over 30 years, we witnessed oppression and beatings, but it was nothing like what we’ve seen in the past two years.

The levels of repression have no historical precedent, and we had never seen anything like it, even while detained in their prisons. We have not heard of the like in the whole world.

There’s something very strange in the prisons. Criminal prisoners are different from security prisoners. We may meet them during transfers and in waiting rooms at crossings. We meet criminal prisoners in solitary confinement. We mix with criminal prisoners, of course. Even among criminal prisoners, there is racial discrimination. There is a big difference between criminal prisoners and Arab prisoners. There are more privileges for criminal prisoners in general. Criminals are allowed to use phones. They get to go out. Sometimes they get three days a year to visit their families, different visits, different living conditions. Their circumstances are much easier than for security prisoners. But even inside prisons and courts, Arab prisoners are tried differently and clearly, and it’s reflected in the statistics. It’s even mentioned in many Israeli studies that say that the judiciary and courts treat Arab criminal prisoners differently and in a racist manner compared to Jewish prisoners in terms of sentencing, releasing, and treatment.

In this war, Arab criminal prisoners are punished and beaten when they make mistakes, just as security prisoners are. Many Arab criminal prisoners had their cases turned into security cases just because they are Arabs while Jews who have Israeli citizenship are treated differently.

There are two groups, Jews and Arab Israelis who hold Israeli citizenship. Arabs are not treated the same way Jews are. And when they make mistakes, they are severely punished. This is evident in the courts and there are statistics on the subject. We have seen with our own eyes the solitary confinement and the sells. Many Arab criminal prisoners have been brutally assaulted, just like the security prisoners. Jewish prisoners break the rules and every prisoner has transgressions. But the prison administration’s response to Jews is not the same as to Arabs. Feelings around the moment of release were mixed, honestly. I only felt freedom after I was transferred from the Israeli Post, which belongs to the Middle Ages, to the Egyptian coach that belongs to the 21st century with all its modern technology.

At first, I had the feeling that it was possible I would get taken back to prison. Because in the first deal, they told me that I was being released, and they usually use this as a means to break the prisoner’s spirit. They told me that I was being released, but then I was transferred to solitary confinement. So I had the feeling I might be brought back to prison. I didn’t truly feel feelings of freedom and joy until I was transferred from the Israeli post to the Egyptian coach. They used this method even after the deal was done. The news came to us from the prisons that the prison administration had released many of the life prisoners and told them that they were being released and told them to prepare themselves. But after a few days, they told them that they weren’t being released. They used this strategy to break the spirit of the prisoners.

Personally I was hoping to be released to my country and the joy was limited, but it didn’t happen. But I’m not far. Egypt is our country and I don’t believe in borders. I’m very happy and comfortable. I know that there are some things that have not been finalized. The war is not over and arrangements around our fate in Egypt or in other countries remain. But I am comfortable and happy. Our Egyptian brothers are welcoming us and treating us well. We are staying in a hotel. They are giving us a grand welcome and we will feel like we are in our country among family.

The truth is that when a person is subjected to injustice, it is human nature to reject and confront it and to stand with the oppressed until the oppression ends. I have read European history. I have read the history of World War I and World War II. And this great human tragedy that occurred in Europe during World War II, specifically against the Jews is a crime against humanity that has never happened in human history. It is a major crime and must be condemned. I personally disagree with the numbers. I say that six million, it could be more than six million. There are people who have been oppressed and wronged in history. This was a great injustice and crime against the Jews, against a religion, against an ethnicity, and this is an unprecedented act of racism. I denounce it and every free person in the world rejects this crime and condemns it.

If I had been there and aware of what was happening, I would have been among the first to defend the Jews and the first to fight that if I was there at the time, we saw the free people. We saw Czechovara and the free people of the world, how they stood with the oppressed, how fighters came from all over the world to stand with the oppressed wherever they were. This happened in the Algerian Revolution and the Vietnamese Revolution. And in all the revolutions of the world, the free people of the world came to fight alongside the people because free people defend the oppressed, regardless of their nationality or religion or identity or color. And if I had been around in the 1940s at the beginning of World War II and was aware of the reality of what was happening, that there were no means of communication.

People were late in realizing the massacre and slaughter and the images appeared. If I had been there at the time, I would have been among the first to defend the Jews and the first to fight. And I would have been ready to sacrifice myself for them, not only for the Jews, but for all the oppressed.

It saddens me greatly that they associate themselves with these people,

That they considered themselves the children and grandchildren of those who were slaughtered in the Nazi camps and that they are committing the same injustices and worse. I saw all the pictures of the humiliation of the Jews in the Nazi camps. I saw people on their knees and they were raising their hands and people who were beaten in the camps. We saw many pictures, but I didn’t see any Jews crawling on all fours. We are on all fours. I didn’t see any Jews forced to kneel before the Nazis. I haven’t seen photos of a Jew prostrated in front of a Nazi. I’m talking about sexual harassment, beatings, and murder. These are practices, and I told the prison director once in Rimonim prison, “You came out of this massacre having experienced crimes you should reject. You shouldn’t be practicing them.” He said, “I am worse than the Nazis with you.

I’m treating you worse than the Nazis treated the Jews.” It was strange. They shocked us. I expected to be killed, expected to be beaten, but I did not expect their brutality to exceed that of the Nazis. This was a sad fact. Even the enemy has a human side, so it was a big surprise how they have behaved towards us, especially in terms of humiliation, not killing. Killing is understandable. When the war broke out on October seven, I told my fellow prisoners that they would be killing. They would 100% be killing in the prisons, but I did not imagine that they would treat Palestinians in this way with humiliation and insult. They didn’t treat us as animals. They told us we are not animals, that animals have rights. In reality, their treatment of us was worse than that of animals. This aspect surprised us greatly, that you force a human being to get down on all fours and tie them by the knees and a rope, and they become like animals in front of you.

The harshest scene I’ve experienced in my life, and this is the first time I am talking about it, was the day of Trump’s election. It was a Wednesday, and the court decreed that I was to see a social worker in Echel prison. So on that Wednesday, the day of Trump’s victory, they took me out of solitary confinement and forced me to crawl alone on all fours. This was in front of the cameras. I could feel that he tied rope around my neck and forced me to crawl in front of him. I was marched, and it was one of the hardest marches I’ve ever taken in my life, being forced to crawl on all force. We went three to 400 meters like that until I reached the social worker.

The situation was very harsh. I didn’t imagine the extent of it. It was all filmed and every officer and policeman had to follow these rules. They had to learn how to make people crawl like this. It was a big surprise. I said they are enemies. They slaughter and commit massacres, but I couldn’t imagine they would reach this level of inhumanity, and they considered themselves connected to the Jews who were slaughtered in the concentration camps.

I said these people have no connection to those who were killed and slaughtered. I believe that after this war, after all the blood and sacrifice, it will bear fruit, God willing, and the occupation will end very soon. I have great hope that our land will be liberated and our state will be established. It’s a monumental crime. The Israeli Zionists themselves say what we did in Gaza has never happened in the history of humanity on this planet. This is, in the first four months, the unprecedented killing, the scale of killing children, women, men, infrastructure, nothing remained. I love the American people and they are a free people. They built a great and advanced civilization. No one can deny the American role in the world in founding modern civilization, but we are against the American government that is blatantly and unjustifiably aligned with this enemy, supporting it with military power, logistics, and aircraft.

In Gaza and the whole world know that we are not really at war with Israel. We are at war with America. When we say death to America, we do not mean death to the American people. We love the American people. We love all people. We have not forgotten that huge portions of the American people have stood with us. We do not oppose or hate America. We oppose those governments who stand with criminals, tyrants, and corrupt people, not only with Israel, but around the world. We hate governments and their policies, but we do not hate the American people. We thank them. Thank you very much. The role played by the masses was part of the reasons that led to the end of this war.