Activist says Hamas forced him to divorce after torture

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — After months of torture and interrogations in a Hamas prison, Palestinian activist Rami Aman says he was offered an unconventional proposition: Divorce your wife and you are free to go.

Aman had recently signed a marriage contract with the daughter of a Hamas official, and the ruling Islamic militant group apparently wanted to dispel any insinuation that it supported Aman’s outreach to Israeli peace activists. He says he eventually caved into the pressure. Now he says the love of his life has been whisked out of Gaza against her will, and he may never see her again.

“I realized I was sent there to do time until I break up my relationship,” Aman said.

It was the final humiliation in a saga that began with what he believed to be an innocent online meeting with Israeli peace activists. Instead, the episode landed him in a notorious prison, and ultimately destroyed his marriage. His experience shows the tough constraints on free expression in the Hamasruled territory, and the militant group’s hostility to any talk of coexistence with Israel.

“The deplorable treatment of Rami Aman by Hamas authorities reflects their systematic practice of punishing those whose speech threatens their orthodoxy,” said Omar Shakir, IsraelPalestine director at Human Rights Watch.

Aman did not think he was doing anything subversive when he joined that fateful Zoom call last April. Amid the widespread closures at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Aman wanted to discuss the “double lockdown” in Gaza, which has endured 14 years of a tight IsraeliEgyptian blockade against Hamas.

“I wanted to let people know more how it is when you live under Israeli occupation and siege, deprived of the rights the rest of the world enjoys,” said Aman, a 39yearold freelance writer.

For over two hours, Aman and his group of peace activists, the Gaza Youth Committee, talked about coexistence with dozens of Israelis.

As word of the meeting leaked out, social media filled with angry comments branding him a traitor. Some urged Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, to act.

For now, Aman has put aside his political activism. “Now I have my personal battle: return to my wife.”