In the narrow streets that knit the Qalandia refugee camp
together near Ramallah. The family of 17 year old
Mustafa Shehadeh is still basking in his recent release from
an Israeli jail. The Palestinian teen was one of
those exchanged for Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza
. He had been in jail for eight months,
charged but not convicted of throwing stones, weapons offenses
and laying an explosive device. When I was arrested
. I wasn't afraid because I had done nothing.
He says when the charge sheet was presented, I
felt differently. I felt I was not going come
home. Mustafa's mother. Nabal says 40 Israeli soldiers
broke through the door when they came looking for her
son. There is no safety for our Children.
She says they can come any time raid the house
and take your Children. Palestinian prisoners groups say that
Israel actually arrested more Palestinians during that week long exchange
between Israel and Hamas than it released. Israel says
it's preventing attacks by Palestinian terrorism networks including Hamas.
Critics say the arrests are indiscriminate and just as likely
to encourage young Palestinians to embrace armed resistance to Israel's
occupation. It's not just what's happening in the West
Bank. It's everything, it's what's happening in Gaza
. It's the fact that that whole part of our
heart of our soul as a nation is being decimated
and we are helpless. That feeling lives, not
just in the young and not just since October 7th
. This is Silwan, East Jerusalem where residents say
they have long endured. Israeli pressure to leave.
They come and they besiege you Suleiman Ozan. They
give you fines, demolish your homes and arrest your
young people. It is still a rarity believing in
a two state solution. An idea, the international
community is once more picking up and dusting off.
But he also represents a generation that remembers at least
the promise of the Oslo peace Accords of the 1990
S. The next generation is defined by disappointment.
Margaret Evans CBC News in the occupied territories.