Tears were shed and families rejoiced after seeing Hajar Kagiso Al–Tha’irah Ahjum–Mathee and her fellow Gaza activists enter Cape Town International Airport on Saturday May 23 after enduring four days in detention at Ktzi’ot prison, Israel’s largest detention centre in the Negev Desert, last week.

Proud mother, Gadija Ahjum, said her daughter, 22-year-old Ottery resident Hajar, received a hero’s welcome at the airport, where family members and crowds gathered with their Palestinian flags showing their support for her and the other Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) activists.

Ahjum–Mathee was among a group South African delegates delivering humanitarian aid aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) in the Mediterranean Sea when it was intercepted by the Israeli navy on Monday 18 May.

Emotional return

Hajar and her crew of activists were recently released from prison last week.

The Flotilla is a civilian-led humanitarian mission aimed at delivering aid, including baby formula and medical supplies, to Gaza in defiance of a blockade in force by the navy.

She was the only woman aboard the ship among the other flotilla activists.

Ahjum told People’s Post she and her family were overjoyed and shed tears upon seeing Hajar and her smile as she entered the boarding gates and rushed to embrace them.

“I’m absolutely elated to have her back! At the airport there were crowds of people that we never anticipated and we get so many messages on our phones and that is the success of this mission whether it’s in Cape Town or anywhere in the world, they’ve mobilised people and made us sit upright,” she said.

Ahjum said her daughter feels overwhelmed by the entire ordeal and is looking forward to relaxing at home.

“They are humanitarians they didn’t even have sharp cutlery or forks on the boat. There were no weapons! It was literally diapers, water and medical supplies and you know what they did, they dumped it. When I look at Hajar I can see she’s bruised,” said Ahjum.

Gaza mission

In a video released by Hilaal TV on Saturday 23 May on its Facebook page Hajar shared her thoughts about the entire ordeal and said: “This mission was proof that the Zionist regime’s brutality knows no limit. I think almost every one of the 450 participants who were kept inside any one of prisons, were held were violated and brutalised. The testimonies were yet to come out.

It was a very difficult experience but we are held together by the principles of Samud, Sulha and Sabr. Palestinians that teach us. We leave hundreds of thousands of Palestinians hostages who are being brutalised in so many more ways and worse than us. Even though we failed in our mission to deliver the humanitarian aid we will back.”

People’s Post reached out to Hajar for an interview but the mother indicated that she was not in a right state of mind.

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