RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Hebron, 23 January 2022. Relatives of Palestinian prisoners Yousry Al-Jolani, celebrate of his twins daughters who were born through sperm that were smuggled out of an Israeli jails, inside a hospital in the West Bank city of Hebron.


0.1 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Umm Muhammad al-Natsheh: The mother-in-law of the prisoners Yousry Al-Jolani.
0.2 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Ibrahim Al-Jolani father of the prisoners Yousry Al-Jolani.


STORYLINE:

Palestinians who are jailed for what Israel calls security offences are not allowed conjugal visits.

Israeli prisons deprive Palestinian prisoners who are serving long or life sentences of the right to be alone with their wives. For that reason, many of them try to smuggle sperm out of prison to their wives to be used in in vitro fertilization (IVF).

IVF is a way to treat infertility and difficulty in conceiving. In this process, mature eggs are collected, and they are fertilized with sperm in the laboratory. The fertilized egg is then implanted in the uterus. Sperm can live for up to two days under the right circumstances before it needs to be frozen for use in the fertilization process. Sometimes the sperm does not arrive in good condition and the fertilization process fails. Then, the couple has to repeat the sperm smuggling process.

In 2020, eight detainees succeeded in smuggling sperm and their wives brought nine kids into the world, including twins.

Palestinians call these children “ambassadors of freedom” because they constitute a link between the detainee in Israeli prisons and his family.

Footage by / APAwire