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September 4th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
After weeks of mounting pressure from rights groups and social media campaigns, Palestinian prisoner Anhar al-Deek was released from Israeli prison on Thursday so that she could give birth to her son in hospital.
The 26-year-old Palestinian mother was released on Thursday on a 40,000 NIS ($12,500) bail and ordered to house arrest, after several appeals from Palestinian officials, human rights groups, and growing attention surrounding her case on social media.
Al-Deek is nine months pregnant, and her due date is fast approaching. Israeli authorities previously rejected calls from Palestinian rights groups to release her, and appeals from al-Deek and her family.
But on Thursday, an Israeli military judge ruled to conditionally release al-Deek, saying that prison was “not an optimal situation for a newborn and could endanger the child’s health.”
Videos on social media showed a smiling al-Deek greeting friends and family after she was released from Damon prison, notorious for its poor living conditions.
According to Haaretz, in addition to the hefty bail and house arrest — where she will be under surveillance — al-Deek will be required to undergo medical observation and a weekly “check-in at Israel’s Modiin Illit police station.”
Al-Deek, who already has a daughter, was arrested in March, when she was four months pregnant with her son. She was accused of attempting to carry out a stabbing attack in an illegal Israeli settler outpost near her hometown of Kafr Ni’ma outside of Ramallah.
Her family said that she suffers from severe depression, as well as bipolar personality disorder, and asked that she be released into a psychiatric facility for treatment in Ramallah, but those requests were denied.
No Israelis were injured in the alleged attack, but al-Deek was reportedly badly beaten by Israeli soldiers, despite the fact that she told them she was pregnant.
No special treatment for pregnant prisoners
While giving birth among female Palestinian prisoners is rare, it has happened before, with the last such case occurring in 2008.
According to prisoners rights group Addameer, since 1972, there have been eight cases of detained pregnant Palestinian women who have given birth in Israeli prisons.
Under Israeli law, newborn babies are allowed to stay with their mother in prison up until the age of two, though the prisoner and her child are not given additional living space or improved conditions.
Addameer says pregnant prisoners receive little to no prenatal and postnatal care, and typically have their hands and feet shackled when transferred to hospitals, and remain that way up until delivery, and immediately after giving birth.
“In each of these cases, pregnant female detainees, despite their condition, were still also subjected to the harsh, systematic practices of interrogation, torture, and ill-treatment by the occupying Power endured by their Palestinian female, male, and child detainee counterparts,” Addameer said.
In a letter written by al-Deek while she was in prison, conveyed to her family by her lawyers, the young woman expressed concern over the fact that she was going to give birth via cesarean section and would be forced to recover in prison.
Additionally, she wrote that her and her baby would be put into solitary confinement by prison officials due to coronavirus restrictions.
Below is the appeal written by al-Deek:
“You are familiar with the C-section. How will it be performed inside the prison, with me handcuffed and alone? I am really worn out. My pelvis is very painful, and my legs hurt from sleeping on a prison bed. I have no idea where I will be after the operation and how I will take my first steps after the birth with the help of an Israeli guard who will hold my hands in disgust.
They will place me in isolation with my baby after the birth, because of the coronavirus. My heart aches over that. I have no idea how I will look at him or how I will protect him from frightening noises. It doesn’t matter how strong I am, I will feel helpless in the face of the harm they are doing to me and to the other prisoners.
I ask every free person of honor to do something, even with words, for the sake of this infant. Responsibility for him depends on everyone who can help. I miss you, Julia, my daughter: I wish I could hug you and press you to my heart. It is impossible to express in words the pain in my heart. What will I do if I have to give birth far away from you – with my hands bound?”
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