Abdul-Razeq Farraj is the administrative and financial director of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Palestinian land defense organization that supports Palestinian farmers and fishers to resist and remain steadfast on their land and sea, operating in the West Bank and Gaza. He is now on hunger strike, hospitalized, and imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention.
The UAWC has been, for over 28 years, in the forefront of supporting Palestinian agricultural workers and connecting with other land defenders around the world; it is a member of Via Campesina and has worked with the Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil. Its work recently won an Equator Prize for sustainable development.
For his commitment to supporting Palestinian farmers, land, and nature, Abdul-Razeq Farraj has spent over 92 months in administrative detention without charge or trial over multiple detention periods, and has currently been in administrative detention since February 25. He has spent over 15 years in Israeli prisons and is now on hunger strike with his fellow administrative detainees and other Palestinian prisoners, demanding an end to the use of administrative detention. He was taken from isolation in Ramleh prison on June 7 to Meir hospital as his health declines.
The attacks on Abdul-Razeq Farraj are part and parcel of a war on Palestinian land defenders and the Palestinian farmers, fishers, and land and people themselves, including massive settlement building, land confiscation, home demolitions, and the construction of the apartheid wall, as well as the siege and firing on farmers and agricultural workers in Gaza.
TAKE ACTION: Sign on to this petition from Jewish Voice for Peace to support Abdul-Razeq and all Palestinians in their demand to be free of administrative detention! http://org.salsalabs.com/o/301/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15834
Read this important article by Abdul-Razeq’s son, Basil Farraj: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/05/palestinian-resists-occupation.html
Video interview of Abdul-Razeq Farraj:
Attacks on Palestinian land defenders: http://samidoun.ca/2012/08/take-action-palestinian-farmers-agricultural-workers-targeted-for-imprisonment-and-persecution/
Addameer’s profile of Abdul-Razeq Farraj: http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=687
