When Khaled Quzmar was 14 years old, his brother was arrested by Israeli occupation forces and Khaled was only able to see him through an “iron net” when he visited. His desire to break through this iron net and give his brother a hug – a simple request denied by the Israeli prison authorities – is what inspired Khaled to become a lawyer: “I found that the only way was to become a lawyer and visit him in prison and hug him inside.”
He studied for his law degree at Oran University in Algeria, and returned to Palestine 5 years later to find his brother still in prison. Two days later, he was inside his brother’s cell and was finally able to hug him.
For the next 20 years, Khaled continued to work as a defence lawyer representing mainly child prisoners inside the Israeli military courts.
However, after 20 years, Khaled became so frustrated that he felt that he could no longer continue to battle in the Israeli military courts system.
“I got aggressive with my children. I couldn’t accept it when I came home after working 10 hours in the military courts, leaving children alone behind bars without anybody to take care of them, subjected sometimes to torture and ill-treatment, while my children asked me to go to a restaurant or to the cinema. So I became aggressive. But then I thought to myself, ‘Why am I doing that? Why am I blaming my children? Why am I punishing them?’ So I decided to stop working, to have a rest, and to study something.”