Prisoner Hassan Salama and the Divine Comedy

Writer: Issa Qaraqe

I am responsible for hell, and you are in hell now. I want to kill you, I want to execute you. Hell is not in heaven. Hell is here in the occupation prisons. With these satanic words, the extremist Israeli minister Ibn Gavier threatened the Palestinian prisoner Hassan Salama when he stormed his cell on 9/27/2026.

Thirty years after the arrest of Hassan Salama, who was sentenced to forty-eight life sentences and thirty years, most of which he spent in solitary confinement, a man of the cursed race and of a cursed country appears and enters the world of the isthmus, in which Hassan Salama has languished for many years, there in the far away, silent, unknown place, where prisoners are buried under the weight of terror, persecution, deprivation, oppression and mystery in time and place, there where the sword, the Torah, the bullets, and the gallows. How did Hassan Salama survive? It must be the courage of suffering.

Ibn Ghafir had been waiting all this time for Hassan Salama to become mad and hysterical, to lose psychological balance, disorder and neurosis, to lose his biological clock and surrender and collapse, to lose his memory and emerge from the battle a dead body. How did Hassan Salama survive? It must be the power of the inner spirit that the wall does not understand.

Ibn Gavier, the architect of the policy of public extermination in Zionist prisons through starvation, torture, isolation, beatings, diseases, and rape, was waiting for Hassan Salama to rot, and to prove that endurance, patience, and resistance are useless. He was waiting for Hassan Salama to freeze, for his feelings, feelings, and vitality to evaporate, and for him to wish for death quickly instead of it coming slowly and slowly. How did Hassan Salama survive? It must be the will, the last space of freedom.

The government of Hell met in Tel Aviv and decided to send the leader of the criminals; To check for reasonsThe steadfastness of Hassan Salama and thousands of prisoners, despite the systematic and predatory system of oppression, found him alive, addressing the sun and stars in the universe, living reassured in his isthmus between the world of death and life. He was not alone. The writer and poet Dante accompanied him on his tour inside the Divine Comedy, and they heard him say to him: Do not let your fear harm you. Be certain that there is no force in his hand that will prevent you from safely descending from this rock. Why? Did Hassan Salama survive? It must be Gaza, which brings him hope, promise and life every night.

The infernal Ibn Ghafir is surrounded by guards in a bare cell. He stands in front of Hassan Salama with his tall, confident and calm stature. Ibn Ghafir trembles, shrieks, foams, and parades in front of a bound prisoner who looks at him mockingly. What is this Spartan state that fears a prisoner who carries nothing but a homeland, ideas, and memory?! It must be the courage of sacrifice.

It seems that Ibn Ghafir read Hassan Salama’s book: Five Thousand Days in the World of the Isthmus, and he found a person dismantling the colonial system from inside a cell, creating history and a future, and transforming the prison arena into an arena for liberation. He found a witness, an indictment, and a torch to produce the meaning of freedom in the heart of darkness. Why did Hassan Salama survive? It must be the doctrine of steadfastness and faith.

What Ben Ghafir and his fascist government do not understand is that Hassan Salama created a parallel world behind the walls and barbed wire. He meets his lover and fiancée, Ghofran Zamel, every moment, and she is the same Beatrice in the Divine Comedy. She holds his hand and leads him from hell to paradise and the world, the power of love that rebuilds life and mankind, the love that transcends desire and turns into knowledge. To become a force that moves a person from the darkness of existence to the possibility of salvation. Why did Hassan survive?safety? She must be my beloved and spiritual guide.

A fragile state that arouses pity, whispered Hassan Salama as he watched Ben Gavier trying to get out of the abyss, after the State of Israel had drowned in the blood of the Palestinians. The jailer asked for freedom from the prisoner. This jailer, who had the keys to the place, came to make sure that he was still master of ugliness and locked the door. The leader of hell was under siege asking for forgiveness from the victim. Why did Hassan Salama survive? It must be the miracle of the free spirit deep within man.