Friday, 11 December
4:00 PM
G4S Office – NYC – 19 W 44th Street
New York City
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/964922716911672/
Organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Demand an immediate end to support for Israeli prisons, security and military forces by British-Danish security company G4S and the unconditional release of Khalida Jarrar and all Palestinian political prisoners.
Jarrar, a Palestinian leftist and feminist parliamentarian and advocate for political prisoners, was sentenced by an Israeli occupation military court in Ofer to 15 months imprisonment on Sunday, 6 December 2015. Arrested by occupation military forces who invaded her Ramallah home on 2 April, the imprisonment of Jarrar, former executive director and current vice-chair of the board of directors of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, has sparked widespread Palestinian, Arab and international outrage.
Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for the Abu Ali Mustafa bloc, the parliamentary bloc affiliated with the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In 2014, she had been targeted for forced displacement to Jericho from Ramallah by an occupation military order, which she succeeded in defeating after a month-long sit-in at the PLC office and an international support campaign.
In April, she was immediately placed in administrative detention without charge or trial following her arrest. An international outcry – including a vote by the Portuguese parliament demanding her release – followed, and she was then charged in Israeli military courts. While the military courts present an appearance of a “trial,” these trials are in reality no more just or fair than arbitrary administrative detention. 99.74% of Palestinians who come before them are convicted.
Jarrar was charged with twelve entirely political charges relating to her public political activity, including giving speeches, attending public forums, and calling for the freedom of Palestinian political prisoners. She was accused of “incitement” for allegedly calling for the capture of Israeli occupation soldiers by the Palestinian resistance in order to free Palestinian prisoners. Despite this statement by the occupation military, they could produce no witness to confirm that Jarrar had ever said this – and the witnesses they brought forward all indicated that they were threatened and tortured into giving statements against Jarrar.
Despite the obviously political nature of the charges against Jarrar, an internationally-recognized
G4S, the world’s largest security company and second-biggest private employer, equips and maintains the Israeli detention centers and jails where Palestinian political prisoners, like Jarrar, are held and tortured, the occupation forces and infrastructure that routinely massacre Palestinians while holding millions under military rule, and the military checkpoints that prevent ethnically-cleansed Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes.
The Palestinian prisoners’ movement recently issued an unprecedented appeal for escalated boycotts of G4S over its participation in Israel’s colonial policies of occupation and repression.
Join a growing international campaign against G4S and support Jarrar and all Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Resistance, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
