Samidoun salutes freed youth Majd Atwan, Bashar Da’na, urges freedom for all Palestinian prisoners

majd-atwan-freeMajd Atwan, 22, was released on Thursday, 19 May after spending over a month in Israeli prison for alleged “Facebook incitement.” Atwan, a makeup artist and recent beauty school graduate, was welcomed to her home in Al-Khader near Bethlehem by friends and family. She was arrested in April in a 2:00 am armed Israeli occupation raid on her home.

Atwan is one of over 150 Palestinians, including 28 women, imprisoned by the Israeli military courts or administrative detention regime for postings on Facebook expressing support for Palestinian resistance, mourning Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, or expressing support for the intifada.

Also released on Thursday, 19 May was Bashar Da’na, Palestinian youth activist and organizer, released from administrative detention after 26 months imprisonment without charge or trial.

Da’na is the son of Palestinian professor and leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Abdul-Alim Da’na, who was imprisoned with his son in administrative detention without charge or trial in 2014-15.

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Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes these freed Palestinian youth and notes the hundreds of Palestinian youth and students who remain behind Israeli bars, targeted for persecution. We salute the struggles of Palestinian youth for freedom and liberation, from Israeli prisons and from occupation, apartheid, Zionism and settler colonialism. Welcome home, Majd and Bashar; we soon hope to see a true homecoming for all 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.