Former Palestinian prisoner visits Bibas family, asks for forgiveness

The surviving Bibas patriarch told Sinjilawi how important it was to him that a Palestinian came to visit

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF FEBRUARY 28, 2025 19:08

Ex-prisoner and current Palestinian peace activist met with Yarden Bibas on Friday morning. (photo credit: SCREENSHOT/X)

Palestinian peace activist Samer Sinjilwai visited Yarden Bibas on Friday, he announced in a post on X.

Sinjilawi, a former member of Fatah and a former security prisoner in Israel, visited the Maccabiah village on Friday, where many members of the Kibbutz Nir Oz community reside.

The Bibas family, as well as the Lifshitz family, have been residing in this community.

According to Sinjilawi, he pleaded for forgiveness from the grief-stricken families.

"On behalf of my people, I asked them for forgiveness. Yarden told me how important it was to him that a Palestinian came to visit. When Yarden and Sharon Lifshitz hugged me, I couldn't hold back the tears."

A WOMAN pays her respects at a memorial set up for the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz in Tel Aviv last week. Hamas has, to no one’s surprise in Israel, made itself completely unpalatable, let alone heroic, says the writer. (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)

Why was he in prison?

Sinjilawi was arrested as a teenager during the First Intifada. In 1987, at 14, he’d joined in Palestinian resistance movements, “throwing stones and standing up to tanks, to feel a part of it,” he wrote. He was eventually arrested and was unable to finish high school, but he experienced a different kind of life-altering educational experience within prison.

Earlier today, I paid a visit with my friend @gershonbaskin to the Bibas and Lifshitz shiva house. As I gave Yarden and Sharon my condolences, I struggled to hold back my tears, but when they hugged me I couldn’t stop the tears. Yarden told me how much it meant to him that a… pic.twitter.com/BZUtdDUkno

— Samer Sinijlawiسامر السنجلاوي (@SSinijlawi) February 28, 2025

In an essay written by the now-peace activist, he was elected as a spokesperson to negotiate with prison authorities for the needs of prisoners. These needs included but were not limited to requests for better food, permits for family visits, etc. He credits this experience as part of his journey to “understanding the enemy,” per a piece published earlier this week in Germany’s Zentrum Liberal Moderne.

“I feel it is our duty as Palestinians to share the pain and grief of these families, to say loud and clear that we condemn these murders, and to apologize and ask for forgiveness. I think both Yarden and Sharon needed to hear these words from me. I can only hope I have done something, however small and fleeting, to ease their pain,” he wrote.