Free Mohamed Abu Muailek....

Terry Glavin reports on the campaign to free Mohamed Abu Muailek - now in prison for corroborating with the Israelis...but the reality is that Abu Muailek has befriended an Israeli and has decided that firing rockets into Israel is not the way to a better life.

Here's a link to the BBC transcript of their show on Abu Muailek.

MOHAMED ABU MUAILEK:

I used to believe that shooting rockets is OK but shooting rockets is never good anymore because look at what it brought for our people.

His main concern was that the rocket firings were putting Gaza’s own civilians in direct danger.

MOHAMED ABU MUAILEK:

The brigades used to fire from populated areas, and I think that this is not right – shooting from populated areas. Because this will give the Israelis the chance and the reason to shoot these populated areas – whether they get any fighters or not.

As a schoolboy and at college, Mohamed was a high-flyer – in his technology class he came top...

YASMIN, MOHAMED’S SISTER: This is a golden shield that he got. He was the first in his college of science and technology in Gaza. He used to be the first in school. I know that he was a very good boy.

Mohamed grew up in a family strongly supporting Fatah – led by Yasser Arafat. After college, he joined a militant group. He would have taken part in a swearing-in ceremony like this one. After that, leaving such a group - and that’s what Mohamed had done -- is tantamount to becoming a traitor

According to Human Rights Watch, during and just after the recent war at least 32 men were accused of being traitors, or collaborators, and executed. Their families tend their graves.

The next time I saw Mohamed, he told me he was becoming increasingly afraid, and had decided he must leave Gaza. One of his good-byes was to a surprising friend.

MOHAMED ABU MUAILEK:

I’m waiting for him to get online.

Mohamed is talking to an Israeli.

MOHAMED ABU MUAILEK:

Actually our friendship goes back more than three years. He helped me going through a lot of things. Especially he supported me during the war. He calmed me when I was scared. He was all the way up to listen to me, whenever I had to talk to him.

PAUL MARTIN: How did you get to meet an Israeli? Gazans these days don’t get to meet Israelis.

MOHAMED ABU MUAILEK:

Actually I met him on line through an online job. So we got to know each other and finally became good friends.

PAUL MARTIN: At the same time as you were communicating with him, you were also firing rockets. What a contradiction.

MOHAMED ABU MUAILEK:

Yes, I was talking to him but I couldn’t ever mention these things to him but at some point he suggested that whatever I’m doing, at some point I must be forgiven and I must forgive myself and to feel peace inside.

DAN; Hello…

MOHAMED ABU MUAILEK:

Yes, how are you? You look like an alien…

Dan, the Israeli friend and fellow computer enthusiast, was willing to be recorded having this Internet chat – but, worried about getting into trouble with the Israeli authorities, he decided to use computer wizardry to avoid being recognised.

DAN; How are you?

MOHAMED ABU MUAILEK:

I’m fine, and how are you?

It was this growing friendship from afar that helped Mohamed change his mind about his armed attacks on Israel – having an Israeli friend and at the same time firing rockets into Israeli civilian areas, just did not add up.

MOHAMED ABU MUAILEK:

He helped me change a lot of ideas I used to have... like the Israeli people are just born to kill. Yes, he changed that a lot. I felt the human side of them.

PAUL MARTIN: What had made you think that the Israeli people were born to kill?

MOHAMED ABU MUAILEK:

Actually it’s a mix of everything that made me think they were blood lust people. It’s our education first and the media. The media has a big impression on people – they get them thinking Israeli people just want to kill Palestinian people. And that’s very wrong.

This sort of chat is putting Mohamed at considerable risk.