On Saturday, 2 September, the Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine in Charleroi, Belgium, a member of the Samidoun network, organized a Palestine awareness stand on the Place Verte in Charleroi, where activists had the opportunity to discuss the situation of Palestinian prisoners with a diverse group of city residents.
Participants in the stand highlighted that over 5,000 men, women and children are currently held in Israeli occupation prisons. More than 1,200 of them are imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are issued by the army and approved by military courts on the basis of “secret evidence” denied to both Palestinian prisoners and their lawyers. Issued for a maximum of six months, they are indefinitely renewable and Palestinians – including women and minor children – can spend years imprisoned without charge or trial.
Four Palestinian prisoners are currently on hunger strike against their administrative detention: Kayed Fasfous, Sultan Khallouf, Abdel-Rahman Baraqa and Maher Al Akhras, a Palestinian leader who began a hunger strike upon his arrest on August 23. A father of four, a former prisoner and long-term hunger striker, his previous 103-day hunger strike in 2020 saw him regain his freedom with widespread Palestinian, Arab and international support.
Several people posed for photos to express their solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners and especially with the hunger strikers and Maher Al Akhras, in order to show their opposition to the administrative detention of Palestinians.
The stand also highlighted the case of Georges Abdallah, who will begin his 40th year of detention in France on 24 October. A Lebanese communist and struggler for the Palestinian cause, he has been imprisoned in France since 1984 due to his commitment against the Israeli occupation of his country, Lebanon, and for the liberation of Palestine. Despite being eligible for release since 1999, he has become a political target of the French authorities and their American allies. Georges Abdallah has never stopped his engagement in the struggle. From inside the prison in Lannemezan, he supports Palestinian prisoners and the struggles against racism, colonialism and imperialism. A major demonstration for the freedom of Georges Abdallah will take place on Saturday 21 October in front of the Lannemezan prison in the Hautes-Pyrénées, France.
The stand also highlighted the case in the Netherlands of Amin Abu Rashed, a prominent and respected Palestinian community leader and organizer. The Samidoun Palestinian Political Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Amin Abu Rashed and the dropping of all charges against him.
To support Palestinian prisoners, organize the boycott of Israel!
>We can act for the release of Palestinian prisoners by publicizing their struggle, but also and above all by organizing actions for the boycott of Israel.
The Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine stand offered flyers with specific Israeli products to be boycotted. It is important to boycott the Israeli colonial state at all levels, including cultural and sports boycott. Our banner displayed near the stand recalled our actions against the presence of Israel Premier Tech in cycling races.
The Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine is also leading a campaign against Belgian trade in Israeli arms, in particular against the presence of Elbit companies located in Oudenaarde and Tournai and the support of different levels of government for these companies. Would you like to learn more or get involved with the Plate-Forme? Receive flyers to distribute? Write to us at charleroi.palestine@gmail.com.
Source: Charleroi-Palestine Platform
