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Assir

Two years after October 7, 2023, Omar Al-Khatib, the Jerusalemite researcher and freed Palestinian detainee, returns to recount his sixteen-month experience in Israeli prisons.Through a five-episode documentary series, Omar documents the details of life behind bars, in conditions marked by hunger, illness, and isolation, with a profound sense of being cut off from the outside world.Between individual memory and collective experience, he traces the transformations experienced by Palestinian prisoners since the outbreak of the war on Gaza, in a time when the body and resistance have become two sides of the same struggle.
07 October 2025
series Podcast : Assir | بودكاست: أسير
بعد عامين على السابع من أكتوبر 2023، يعود عمر الخطيب، الباحث المقدسي والأسير الفلسطيني المحرّر، ليروي تجربته خلال ستة عشر شهرًا في السجون الإسرائيلية.
من خلال سلسلة وثائقية من خمس حلقات، يوثّق عمر تفاصيل الحياة خلف القضبان، في ظروف يطبعها الجوع والمرض والعزلة، وإحساس عميق بـالانقطاع عن العالم الخارجي.
بين الذاكرة الفردية والتجربة الجماعية، يرصد التحوّلات التي عاشها الأسرى الفلسطينيون منذ اندلاع الحرب على غزّة، في زمنٍ صار فيه الجسد والمقاومة وجهيْن لمعركة واحدة.

Two years after October 7, 2023, Omar Al-Khatib, a Jerusalem-born researcher and former Palestinian political detainee, reflects on his sixteen months in Israeli prisons.
Through a five-episode documentary series, he recounts life behind bars, the conditions of confinement marked by hunger, illness, isolation, and the sense of being cut off from the outside world.
Between personal memory and collective narrative, Omar documents the profound transformations experienced by Palestinian prisoners since the start of the war on Gaza, in a context where the body and resistance become arenas of struggle.

Deux ans après le 7 octobre 2023, Omar Al-Khatib, chercheur originaire de Jérusalem et ancien détenu politique palestinien, revient sur son expérience de seize mois passés dans les prisons israéliennes.
À travers une série documentaire en cinq épisodes, il témoigne de la vie derrière les barreaux, des conditions d’enfermement marquées par la faim, la maladie, l’isolement et du sentiment d’être coupé du monde extérieur.
Entre mémoire personnelle et récit collectif, Omar documente les transformations profondes vécues par les prisonniers palestiniens depuis le début de la guerre contre Gaza, dans un contexte où le corps et la résistance deviennent des terrains de lutte
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Latest episode

Eating in my dreams, starving in prison

This episode presents a direct testimony about the experience of hunger inside prisons after October 7, and about how food became the central element of daily life in the cells. Omar recounts the impact of the starvation policy imposed on the prisoners, and how it shaped their dreams, their behavior, and their internal organization. From dreaming about food, to storing bread, to a rudimentary barter system, and finally to the tensions and solidarity among prisoners, a documentation of a life governed by severe scarcity, and of hunger turned into a tool of control and punishment.

ALL EPISODES
EPISODE 2

Humiliation hurts most

Omar recounts how shock and helplessness intertwined in his early days of detention, and how systematic insults became a tool to subdue inmates and silence them through the threat of collective punishment. This is not merely an account of violations, but an attempt to understand how language itself becomes a precise weapon used to erode dignity and restrict any space for resistance within a system designed to strip away humanity.
EPISODE 1

Interrupted Call

Omar tells us, that during his first days in detention, he repeatedly told prisoners he had been traveling for ten days and hadn’t followed the news, a statement that became a recurring disappointment in every cell he entered. He explains how the circulation of news inside prison resembled an “interrupted call” shaped by fear, survival, and the hunger for hope.

October the 7th changed the world

Two years after October 7, 2023, Omar Al-Khatib, a Jerusalem-born researcher and released Palestinian detainee, reflects on his sixteen months in Israeli prisons. Through a five-episode series produced by Inkyfada, he documents life behind bars and the changes experienced by Palestinian prisoners since the start of the war on Gaza.

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ABOUT

Inkyfada Podcast is the first platform entirely dedicated to original Tunisian podcasts, and was conceived by Inkyfada media in collaboration with the in-house research and development laboratory, InkyLab.
Inkyfada joined the global podcast boom in 2017, when the team produced the first Tunisian audio documentary, diving deep into the belly of the El Kamour struggle taking place in the desert.
Since then, Inkyfada Podcast has produced a wide variety of documentaries, investigations, and podcast series, as well as articles accompanied by music; covering a multitude of contemporary issues in order to offer an immersive and alternative podcast experience.
Whilst exclusively offering audio content, the Inkyfada Podcast team upholds the same core values and principles of inkyfada.com, and is committed to producing high quality content though a dynamic and meticulous production process.
In addition to the permanent team, Inkyfada podcast works closely with various journalists, artists, illustrators, musicians and other content creators in order to diversify the platform and support artistic creativity.
These podcasts differ from traditional radiophonic content in that the applied production and editing process is more akin to cinematographic techniques, in addition to being web-based, downloadable and accessible on demand.
Additionally, Inkyfada Podcast uniquely offers subtitles in French, Arabic and English for all audio content, the majority of which is recorded in Tunisian or in the preferred language of the speaker in question.

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