Israel jail term leaves TIKA employee’s family in grief

A nine-year jail term handed down by an Israeli court against Turkish aid agency employee Mohamed Murtaja has come as a shock to his Palestinian family.

“It’s totally unbearable for us to find Mohamed not among us,” his wife, Fatemah, 33, told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview.

“We are trying to adapt to the situation -- at least for the sake of our children,” she added, holding back her tears.

Married with four children, Mohamed has worked for the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) in the Gaza Strip since 2012.

He was arrested by the Israeli authorities -- for allegedly aiding Palestinian group Hamas -- on Feb. 12, 2017 while en route to Ankara to attend a TIKA training course.

Last week, an Israeli court sentenced Mohamed to nine years in prison on six different charges, including membership in the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, and siphoning funds to the resistance group.

In his home, the sorrow can be seen on the faces of his four children.

Occasionally, his eldest son, Ahmed, 13, comes into his parents’ bedroom and sits on the chair of his missing father.

“I can still feel my father here,” he says dolefully.

Mohamed’s eight-year-old son, Faruk, says he fears for how his father is being treated by his jailers.

“Maybe he’s hungry, thirsty or sad -- or being assaulted by Israeli soldiers,” the young boy lamented.

Mohamed’s father says all the charges against his son are fabricated.

“Mohamed is working with a Turkish aid agency to help poor and needy Palestinians, regardless of their political affiliations,” Medhat Murtaja said.

The Israeli charges, he went on to assert, “are just an attempt to tarnish the image of humanitarian aid being given to Gaza’s poor”.

Mohamed’s mother voiced similar sentiments.

“We were shocked when we heard Israel’s unjust jail sentence,” Taghreed Murtaja said.

“Mohamed was only helping people in need, regardless of their politics,” she said. “My son hasn’t committed any wrongdoing.”

Mohamed’s lawyer, Khaled Zabarka, has decried the court ruling against his client as “politically-motivated”.

“Israel is openly targeting Turkish activities in Palestine -- and in Gaza in particular -- and using Murtaja to send a message to Ankara,” Zabarka told Anadolu Agency earlier.

In recent years, aid workers in Gaza have faced mounting Israeli pressure, often being accused of aiding Hamas and the group’s armed wing.

Wahid Burash, a UN-employed Palestinian, was sentenced to seven months in jail last year by an Israeli court for allegedly aiding the Gaza-based resistance group.

And in 2016, B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization that documents military violations in the occupied West Bank, was accused of “treason” by the Israeli authorities.

Israeli lawmakers recently approved legislation banning activists calling for the boycott of Israeli goods from entering the country.