The Tale of Saber: Mahmoud Issa’s Open-Ended Story
Misunderstanding the narratives of prisoners if considered solely as literary works. They are more than that and undoubtedly so; they are a message from the absent one behind the walls, conveying his testimony, dreams, political analyses, and his prediction for the future.
The author of today’s novel has been imprisoned for 35 years, spending 12 of them in solitary confinement underground. Thus, he did not witness the Palestinian reality post-Oslo with his own eyes, but its echoes reached him. In the novel we are pausing at today, he recorded his opinion on the turn the Palestinian issue took after years of Oslo agreements, deeming it “a lean seven” and leaving the end of his work open to say; we are not ultimately at the end, so are we closer to the end today after the 7th of October/ October 1st?
Today, we are talking about the Jerusalemite prisoner Mahmoud Issa, who has been in his dark cell since 1993, and about his novel “The Tale of Saber,” which he wrote after years of his detention.
In 1998, the occupation authorities discovered that he was able to form a military group in Jerusalem, to which he was sending orders from inside the prison, and that this group had killed a settler. He was once again returned to isolation.
But before we focus on “Saber,” whom the story talks about, we should focus on the first “Saber” that the story was written about, and carried by his muted voice, his vision of life, and his hopes for the future. Prisoner Mahmoud Issa was once the focus of events and news bulletins, not heard by the youth, recording his activity which played a significant role in the establishment of the movement of Hamas that leads the struggle today. The operations he supervised led to an unprecedented move by Israel, deporting around 415 Palestinian Islamic leaders to Marj Al-Zohour in southern Lebanon to live for several years without a home or shelter.
Mahmoud Issa was a painful figure from his first day. He was one of the founders of the military wing of the Hamas movement, and his position as a resident of Jerusalem made him influential and essential. In the early 1990s, he established what he called “Unit 101” in the Qassam Brigades, which took on a specific goal of releasing prisoners through the capture of Israeli soldiers.
In December 1992, Issa and his unit captured an Israeli soldier named Nissim Toledano, and they stipulated his release in exchange for the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin from Israeli prisons. However, the occupation authorities refused, and the result was the killing of the captured soldier in what Israel considered the most dangerous capture operation in the history of the Zionist entity.
Following this operation, Israel, driven mad, launched a fierce campaign against Hamas and the Jihad movement, arresting thousands of Palestinians, and deported, as we previously mentioned, around 415 Islamic Palestinian leaders to Marj Al-Zohour in southern Lebanon.
After six months of that date, Mahmoud Issa was arrested in mid-1993, subjected to severe torture, and a trial that concluded with three life sentences and 49 years in prison. Because the occupation authority classified him as one of its most dangerous prisoners, he was placed in solitary confinement underground, for intermittent periods totaling about 12 years. It took about 5 years before allowing his first family visit, and at other times in his prison, he shared a room with another “dangerous” prisoner, Sheikh Jamal Abu Al-Hija, who led a heroic battle in 2002 to defend the “Jenin” camp against the Israeli occupation. Neither of the men was allowed to see any other person.
Indeed, Mahmoud Issa was dangerous and influential even from inside his prison. When released from isolation, he dug a tunnel with his colleagues to escape from prison, but the occupation discovered it before the operation was executed, and he was returned to solitary confinement with an additional six-year sentence.
In 1998, the occupation authorities discovered that he had been able to form a military group in Jerusalem, to which he was sending orders from inside the prison, and that this group had killed a settler. He was once again returned to isolation. When the means of jihad by hand were cut off for this prisoner, he turned to the pen, writing several books, ranging from novels to theoretical works on the Islamic resistance movement, with the most important being his book: “Resistance Between Theory and Application.”
For all this, it was natural for the occupation authorities to refuse to include him in the Shalit deal, but today, with its persistence, Hamas insists that the “all for all” deal revives hope for his release, along with others of the forgotten heroes.
The Tale of Saber!
So what about the tale of Saber? This novel does not fail to help its reader in interpreting its symbols. Saber, the poor orphan born on the 1967 setback, is a symbol of the Palestinian people, showing his loyalty to his mother despite his poverty, symbolizing loyalty to the land, the nation, and the cause. As for “Palestine,” despite her love for him, she dedicates him to the Jihad, teaching him that “martyrdom” will be a victory he achieves if he does not achieve victory on earth, as the martyr inherits the land of paradise.
The details narrated in the story resemble the daily life of the Palestinian reality. Saber is expelled by the occupation from his home and land, becoming a refugee in a camp, where the doors of life and livelihood are closed to him unless he does something to rid himself of the occupying aggressor. Unexpectedly, during the depths of despair and surrender to defeat, young Islamic groups emerged inside Palestinian territories, leading an uprising in 1987 in which Saber and many of his generation participated. When they were arrested, the soldier challenged Saber, but he refused to obey the order to keep silent and instead resisted the soldier, even when attacked.
While enduring the pain of the assault, Saber recalls the principles his mother instilled in him, the courage and resistance she planted in him, feeling happiness. He was taught early that he is the son of a martyr and must follow in his father’s footsteps. He learns that the camp is not his home; his home is there “under the occupation,” surrounded by fig, olive, almond, pomegranate, and lemon trees.
As the uprising unfolds, the activities of these young Islamic groups solidify. Hamas is established, and Saber finds himself and his dreams within its activities. When the “Knights of the Temple Mount” group becomes active in attempts to control and occupy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, he finds himself resisting there, his blood mingling with the blood of a sheikh on the mosque’s stairs, a clear symbol of the ongoing struggle.
Saber is arrested and tortured several times by the Israeli occupation but does not yield. When the Palestinian Authority is formed following the Oslo agreement signed in December 1993 (after Mahmoud Issa’s imprisonment for six months), Saber discovers that the night resembles last night, and he is still waiting for the dawn visitors and tortured in prisons. He calls the seven years he lived (until writing the novel) “the lean seven” and decides to turn his back on this experience, continuing on the path of resistance, which he sees as the only track leading to victory.
The novel ends with an open ending, as if the author is saying “The days are among us.” The final scene reveals that the young man and his companions are not swayed by false glamour away from the authentic path.
In that scene, the author says:
“Saber and his companions returned to their den, continuing the path of Jihad. Days passed, events turned on them, and ‘the hoopoe’ came and went. One day, he arrived in ‘Sireh’, bringing good news: Hamas won, victory is near, the good news spread. Then, after a moment, he returned with a furrowed brow, hesitated for a while, then shook his head, saying: Do you think the ‘Westerners’ will leave this caravan alone? No, my brother, before long, you’ll find a thousand Abi Lahabs, setting thorns and cutting the ties. It is indeed a victory, but before it is completed, a thousand victories, and a thousand truths, and a thousand redemptions must follow. Then, and only then, will the good news shine with its light, its adornment, and its splendor. At that time, Jerusalem returns to us pure and sacred, and all of Palestine returns to us. At that time, we defeat the covetous, the enemies of God and humans.”
