Palestinian law student Israr Maarouf imprisoned without charge or trial

20 August 2021

Israr Maarouf, 22, a law student at Bir Zeit University, was seized by Israeli occupation forces that invaded his family home in Ein Qinya near Ramallah, occupied Palestine, on 10 August 2021. He was detained only 70 days after his most recent release from Israeli imprisonment; the soldiers that abducted him from his home beat him all over his body with batons and rifle butts, leaving him with severe bruising all over his body. On Friday, 20 August, the Israeli occupation military courts ordered him detained without charge or trial under administrative detention.

Even before his most recent arrest, Maarouf, who is diabetic, suffered from severe knee and back pain. When Maarouf was detained in 2019, he was subjected to torture and severe abuse during 70 days of interrogation. He was deliberately and systematically deprived of sleep, interrogated most of the day and then interrupted with loud music. He was threatened with the arrest of his family and forced into stress positions during his interrogation, forcing him to fall to the ground. He fainted several times while under interrogation due to the extreme pain he was in and was forced to use a wheelchair for several days during his interrogation because he was unable to walk due to his injuries from torture.

Administrative detention was first used in Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist regime; it is now used routinely to target Palestinians, especially community leaders, activists, and influential people in their towns, camps and villages.

There are currently approximately 550 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of 4,750 Palestinian political prisoners. These orders are issued by the military and approved by military courts on the basis of “secret evidence”, denied to both Palestinian detainees and their attorneys. Issued for up to six months at a time, they are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians — including minor children — can spend years jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention.

Dozens of Palestinian prisoners have launched hunger strikes — including nine currently continuing their strikes — against administrative detention in 2021.

Israr Maarouf is also among hundreds of Palestinian students imprisoned by the Israeli occupation. At Bir Zeit University alone, approximately 74 students were detained by occupation soldiers during the 2019-2020 academic year. The work of student organizing, from holding book fairs to organizing events and participating in student elections, is criminalized by the Israeli occupation. Still more students are detained for joining demonstrations or posting on their social media profiles.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Israr Maarouf and all detained Palestinian students and urges all friends of justice in Palestine to join the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign. This campaign brings organizations together in a global call to urge the immediate freedom of imprisoned Palestinian students and the protection of Palestinian students’ right to education, right to political expression and involvement and right to determine their own futures. The Israeli occupation has targeted Palestinian students and, specifically, the Palestinian student movement and Palestinian student organizations for harsh repression and political detention and imprisonment.

We join together to call for action and support for Palestinian students behind bars, including:

Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, including Israeli academic institutions, which are fully complicit in the systematic deprivation of Palestinian rights.
Ending all military and economic aid, military transactions, joint projects and direct funding to the Israeli occupation regime by governments around the world.
Challenging “normalization” programs that aim to legitimize Israeli occupation — this is an attempt to legitimize the criminalization and targeting of Palestinian students.
Organizing to build direct links of solidarity with Palestinian students and the Palestinian student movement, to ensure that they will not be isolated from their global community of support despite all attempts by the Israeli occupation.

For the full campaign statement, resources, posters, photos and more, including translations in eight languages, please visit: https://freepalestinianstudents.org/

Add your organization’s name to this statement: http://bit.ly/palstudentsignon

23 August, NPA summer university (France): Screening of “Fedayin: The Struggle of Georges Abdallah”

20 August 2021

Monday, 23 August
9 pm
Special evening organized for the NPA Summer University, with special guest Jean-Marc Rouillan
In the summer village of Rives-des-Corbières at Port-Leucate, close to Perpignan.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/4012426608879885/

FEDAYIN, THE STRUGGLE OF GEORGES ABDALLAH
A documentary by Vacarme(s) Films

France / Palestine / Lebanon • 2020 • 1h21m

For more than 35 years, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah has been locked behind bars. This documentary retraces the journey of this Lebanese communist resistance fighter who struggled side by side with the Palestinian resistance. For this, the film returns to the origins of Georges Abdallah’s activism and to the complex geopolitical context of the time. It thus takes us to Lebanon, and to the Palestinian refugee camps where Abdallah forged himself politically. We follow his involvement in the Palestinian resistance and then against the Israeli occupation within the LARF (Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Fractions), an engagement which will lead him to France during the 1980s where he was convicted for complicity in assassination. Through a series of interviews with his family, his lawyer, his relatives, his supporters and his comrades, we meet those who know him and retrace a life of resistance to imperialism and colonialism.

Do not hesitate to contact Vacarme (s) Films if you wish to organize a screening or for more information by email to vacarmesfilms@gmail.com. The film is available in English, French, German, Arabic, Italian and Spanish (with subtitles).

28 August, Online Event: Academic Freedom in Palestine: A Conversation with Imad Barghouthi

19 August 2021

Saturday, August 28
9 am Pacific, 12 pm Eastern, 7 pm Palestine time
Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcsdeGgqT8iGtTXTYZuJtkzslCT6uCYnQL3/success?user_id=yY-fvGcSR2yih1ENdAPYIg&timezone_id=Asia%2FJerusalem
Facebook Event: https://fb.me/e/NZxjjkl0

Event organized by Scientists for Palestine

Join Scientists for Palestine, as we speak directly to Imad Barghouthi, renowned Palestinian astrophysicist, father of five and Professor of Plasma Physics at Al Quds university (West Bank) !

Prof. Imad Barghouthi was recently released after nearly a year of administrative detention. After his arrest on July 22nd 2020, he was held in jail for several weeks without charges.

After already spending many weeks in administrative detention, he was eventually charged on the basis of his Facebook posts. Prof. Barghouthi then spent the next several months in administrative detention, away from his students and family, awaiting trial.

Prof. Barghouthi’s arrest came at great cost to him personally, and academically. Happening mere weeks before the semester started, many students were left without a teacher and/or mentor.

Scientists for Palestine’s international campaign demanding Prof. Barghouthi’s release was joined by thousands of scholars worldwide, including Nobel laureates and Fields medalists.

Scientists for Palestine now has the privilege of hosting Prof. Barghouthi’s first interview after his finally being freed. Join us to hear first hand about what it is like to be a professor in Palestine, the infringements of the Israeli occupation on academic freedom and the enduring determination of Palestinian academics to overcome them.

19 August, Online Event: From Black August to Black Liberation: Commemorating the Struggle of Political Prisoners

18 August 2021

Thursday, 19 August
4 pm Pacific/7 pm Eastern
Register online: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vX6H4wmpSLGjDhzzP6MfiQ

“From Black August to Black Liberation: Commemorating the Struggle of Political Prisoners” is a Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) webinar illuminating the indispensable role of political prisoners in our struggle for Black Liberation. The discussion will focus on the experiences and realities of current and former political prisoners, the efforts of these freedom fighters to convene the Spirit of Mandela International Tribunal, the organizing and grassroots work being done to free political prisoners, the ongoing significance of Black August, and Assata Shakur’s exile as a form of political imprisonment. The panelists also will consider what all of this means in the struggle against imperialism, colonialism, racism and war.

Join us for a Zoom webinar at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, August 19, 2021.

PANELISTS
Makungu Akinyela
Saudia Durrant
Krystal Strong
Jaribu Hill
Jalil Muntaqim

MODERATOR
Nnamdi Lumumba

This webinar will be livestreamed on BAP’s Facebook page, too: http://facebook.com/blackallianceforpeace

12 September, NYC: Running Down the Walls – Registration now open

17 August 2021

WHAT: Running Down the Walls – 5k Run/Walk/Jog/Bike/Hang
WHEN: 2:00-7:00pm, Sunday, September 12th, 2021
WHERE: Prospect Park– Lincoln Road/East Lake Drive, east of the Terrace Bridge
COST: $10 registration (if COVID permits, will include food/drink afterwards. TBD)

NYC Anarchist Black Cross (NYCABC) is excited to announce Running Down the Walls 2021, COVID permitting. After making the difficult decision to not hold last year’s event in person, we are very much looking forward to gathering as a community for the first time in a long time. Please stay tuned to our website, sign up for our newsletter, and follow us on twitter (@nycabc) for updates.

Every year, prisoners and supporters of political prisoners organize solidarity events with Running Down the Walls. In previous years, we’ve had runs in Albuquerque (NM), Arcata (CA), Ashland (OR), Bellefonte (PA), Boston (MA), Buffalo (NY), Chico (CA), Denver (CO), Elmore (AL), Inez (KY), Los Angeles (CA), Marion (IL), Minneapolis (MN) New York (NY), USP Navosta (TX), Pelican Bay (CA), Phoenix (AZ), Tucson (AZ), Seattle (WA), and Toronto, Ontario. This year we hope to expand the amount of runs in prisons and other cities, as well as increase the amount of funds raised for community projects. NYC ABC‘s goal with this year’s run is $4,000. You can donate online by going to paypal.me/nycabc

To raise our goal of $4,000, we need your support.

* Promote – print and distribute flyers to friends and local businesses, your doctor’s office, laundromat, food co-op, wealthy benefactor, et cetera.
* Run/walk/bike/roll in the 5k – We need participants who can run/walk/bike/roll the 5k and are able to collect financial pledges to offer as donations to the run.
* Volunteer for the run – We need folks who are willing to hand out water, bike the route as street medics, and help chalk the route beforehand.
* Donate online at paypal.me
* Donate to the run/sponsor a participant – If you are not able to attend, but want to support this fundraising effort, please mail donations to:
NYC ABC
PO Box 110034
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Your donation of $10 or more entitles you to the celebratory picnic after the event.

Each year, NYC ABC splits proceeds between the Anarchist Black Cross Federation’s Warchest Program and a local organization. This year, local funds are going to New York state political prisoners released within the last year.

The Warchest Program:
The Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCF) has initiated a program designed to send monthly checks to those Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War who have been receiving insufficient, little, or no financial support during their imprisonment. The Warchest program was initiated in November 1994. Its purpose is to collect monthly funds from groups and individual supporters, and send that money to Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War (PP/POW) via monthly checks. Over the last twenty five years, the ABCF warchest has dispensed over $100,000 to political prisoners in the United States. Currently, there are 18 imprisoned comrades who receive a monthly stipend as part of the program; they are Abdul Azeez, David Gilbert, Doug Wright, Ed Poindexter, Eric King, Hanif Bey, Jamil Al-Amin, Joseph Bowen, Kamau Sadiki, Leonard Peltier, Malik Smith, Mutulu Shakur, Oso Blanco, Ronald Reed, Ruchell Magee, Sundiata Acoli, Tom Manning, Veronza Bowers, and Xinachtli (FKA Alvaro Luna Hernandez). For more information, visit: abcf.net/warchest-program

We will be starting here.
From the Q train, get off at the Prospect Park stop. Walk to Lincoln Road and turn right into the park. We’ll be about 700 feet away. The event will be one lap around what is known as the Main Loop, and will total five kilometers. (See attached). If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail us at nycabc@riseup.net

Nine Palestinian detainees continue hunger strikes for freedom

16 August 2021

Nine Palestinian political prisoners are continuing their hunger strikes for freedom inside Israeli occupation prisons. Three detainees striking to end their administrative detention – Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial — suspended their hunger strikes after extracting a concession to end their administrative detention and set a final date for their release. Mohammed A’mar, from Tulkarem; Amjad Nammoura, from Dura, near al-Khalil; and Fadi al-Amour, from al-Khalil.

At the same time, Ahmad Hamamra, who has gone without food for 17 days, was ordered once again to another six months in administrative detention by Israeli military officials as his strike continues. He has been detained without charge or trial for over one year, since 17 August 2020. He was previously jailed without charge or trial and participated in the 2017 collective hunger strike of thousands of Palestinian detainees.

Salem Zeidat and Mujahed Hamed have been on hunger strike for 36 and 34 days, respectively; they are held in the notorious Ramle prison clinic after the deterioration of their health. Kayed al-Fasfous has been on hunger strike for 33 days, while his brother, Akram al-Fasfous, has been on hunger strike for 12 days. Akram joined the strike after their third brother, Mahmoud, was forced to end his hunger strike after a serious deterioration in his health.

Rafat Darawish has been on hunger strike for 33 days, and is held in Ohli Kedar prison, while Miqdad Qawasmeh has been on hunger strike for 26 days. Qawasmeh is a university student who has been jailed without charge or trial since January 2021. Yousef al-Amer has been on hunger strike for 19 days, while Alaa al-Araj has gone without food for 9 days.

What Is Administrative Detention?

Administrative detention was first used in Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist regime; it is now used routinely to target Palestinians, especially community leaders, activists, and influential people in their towns, camps and villages.

There are currently approximately 540 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of 4,850 Palestinian political prisoners. These orders are issued by the military and approved by military courts on the basis of “secret evidence”, denied to both Palestinian detainees and their attorneys. Issued for up to six months at a time, they are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians — including minor children — can spend years jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention.

On Wednesday, 11 August, Palestinians in Gaza protested outside the UN High Commission for Human Rights’ office in Gaza in support of the hunger strikers, demanding that international institutions carry out their responsibilities to protect Palestinian detainees and hold Israeli officials accountable in international courts.

Who Are the Hunger Strikers?

1. Salem Zeidat: from Bani Neim – Hebron, started the strike 36 days ago. Salem Zeidat is 40 years old and has been jailed without charge or trial since 22 February 2020; he is married andd the father of 5 children, held in the Negev Prison.

2. Mujahed Hamed: from Silwad – Ramallah, started the strike 34 days ago. He has been detained since 22 September 2020 and married with a son, who was only one month old when he was seized from his home; he is held in the Negev prison.

3. Kayed Fasfous: from Dura – Hebron, started the strike 33 days ago. He is 32 years old, detained without charge or trial since October 2020, and held in Ramon prison.

4. Rafat Darawish: from Dura – Hebron, started the strike 33 days ago. He is 28 years old, detained since October 2020 without charge or trial. He is married with one child and suffers from health problems; he is jailed in Ramon prison.

5. Miqdad Qawasmeh: from Hebron, started 26 days ago. Miqdad Qawasmeh is a Palestinian university student, 24 years old. He has been jailed without charge or trial since January 2021 and is held in Ofer prison.

6. Yousef al-Amer: Jenin, started 19 days ago. Yousef al-Amer is 28 years old, and previously launched a hunger strke against his administrative detention. He has been jailed since June 2020 and was sentenced to one year in Israeli prison; after his sentence ended, he was transferred to administrative detention in May 2021 rather than being released.

7. Ahmad Hamamra: from Beit Sahour, started the strike 17 days ago. He has been imprisoned without charge or trial since 17 August 2020 and previously participated in the 2017 collective hunger strike while detained.

8. Akram Fasfous: from Dura, al-Khalil (Hebron), launched his strike 12 days ago. He is the brother of Kayed Fasfous, on hunger strike for 28 days, and of Mahmoud Fasfous, who was previously on strike before suspending due to severe heatlh deterioration. He has been jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention since October 2020. He is 38 years old, married and the father of four children.

9. Alaa al-Araj: from Tulkarem, launched his strike 9 days ago. He has been jailed since 30 June without charge or trial under administrative detention and is held in Megiddo prison. He is 34 years old.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine to take action to support these Palestinian hunger strikers and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom, for their own lives and for the Palestinian people. They are confronting the system of Israeli oppression on the front lines, with their bodies and their lives, to bring the system of administrative detention to an end. Take these actions below to stand with the hunger strikers and the struggle for liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea!

Download these signs for use in your campaigns:

TAKE ACTION:

Sign the petition!

Independent grassroots international activists have launched a petition in support of the hunger strikers and to end administrative detention. Show your support by signing on – in addition to taking action in person! Sign here: change.org/NoChargeNoTrialNoJail

Protest at the Israeli Embassy or Consulate in Your Country!

Join the many protests taking place around the world — confront, isolate and besiege the Israeli embassy or consulate in your city or country of residence. Make it clear that the people are with Palestine! Send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Take to the streets: Organize a protest in solidarity with Palestine!

Take to the streets and join the actions on our full list of events, which is constantly being updated as new actions are announced! Organize your own if there is none in your area, and send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Boycott Israel!

The international, Arab and Palestinian campaign to boycott Israel can play an important role at this critical time. Local boycott groups can protest and label Israeli produce and groceries, while many complicit corporations – including HP, G4S, Puma, Teva and others, profit from their role in support Zionist colonialism throughout occupied Palestine. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism.

Demand Your Government Sanction Israel!

The racist, settler colonial state of Israel and its war crimes against the Palestinian people are enabled and backed extensively by the over $3.8 billion each year given to Israel by the United States — targeted directly to support the Israeli occupation military killing children, women, men and elders throughout occupied Palestine. From Canada to Australia to the European Union, Western governments and imperialist powers provide ongoing diplomatic, political and economic support to Israel as well as selling billions of dollars of weaponry to the settler-colonial state. Meanwhile, they also purchase billions of dollars in weaponry from the Israeli state. Governments in league with imperialist powers, such as in the Philippines, Brazil, India and elsewhere, also buy weapons and “security” services — all “battle-tested” on the Palestinian population. Call your representatives, MPs, political officials and demand your government sanction Israel now, cut off all aid, expel its ambassadors, and stop buying and selling weapons!

15 August, Den Haag: March for Palestine

14 August 2021

Sunday, 15 August
3 pm
Het Plein, Den Haag (The Hague), Netherlands

Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSURK7CNqHI/

Make noise for Palestine!

A call to groups and individuals across The Netherlands: the Palestinians of Sheikh Jarrah have called for August to be an international month of action in the streets, and we shall respond. Following protests across the world, from London to Toulouse to Ontario, next Sunday we’ll be marching through the streets of The Hague to speak up against ongoing Dutch support for Israeli apartheid.

The Hague (Den Haag) is the political capital of The Netherlands. Among its key locations is the The International Criminal Court (ICC), which has made statements on the apartheid wall but never acted on them. Dutch parliamentary buildings, from which decisions have been made to purchase hundreds of millions’ worth of Israeli weapons tested on Palestinians, are situated side-by-side with the illegitimate Israeli embassy.

Practicalities: if you’re joining from Maastricht (or another city) and have a car, please message us for possibilities of taking other protestors along with you! Likewise, if you cannot join with public transport, message us and we’ll do our best to get you a ride.
____________________________________
Maak lawaai voor Palestina!
Een oproep aan groepen en individuen in heel Nederland: de Palestijnen van Sheikh Jarrah hebben opgeroepen om augustus een internationale maand van actie op straat te maken, en wij zullen hierop reageren. Na protesten over de hele wereld, van Londen tot Toulouse tot Ontario, marcheren we aanstaande zondag door de straten van Den Haag om ons uit te spreken tegen de aanhoudende Nederlandse steun voor de Israëlische apartheid.

Den Haag (Den Haag) is de politieke hoofdstad van Nederland. Een van de belangrijkste locaties is het Internationaal Strafhof (ICC), dat verklaringen heeft afgelegd over de apartheidsmuur, maar er nooit naar heeft gehandeld. De Nederlandse parlementaire gebouwen, waarin besloten is om voor honderden miljoenen aan Israëlische wapens te kopen die op Palestijnen zijn getest, bevinden zich naast de onwettige Israëlische ambassade.

18 August, Online Event: Palestinian grassroots organising against colonial incarceration

13 August 2021

Wednesday, 18 August
7 pm British time (8 pm Europe, 9 pm Palestine, 11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern)
Online Event, register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMoc-qqrTosEtWPn-rVu5D-X30IIiLBBToi

The following event is organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK):

Over the course of April, May and June 2021, Palestinians participated in one of the largest and most inspiring mobilisations of recent years, including a general strike for dignity. Throughout historic Palestine and exiled Palestinian communities, thousands unified in struggle, calling for rights, dignity, justice and freedom. These extraordinary events brought new energy to the Palestinian decolonisation and anti-apartheid movement and brought about a sea change in people speaking out and standing in solidarity with Palestine internationally.

To quell the uprising, Israel relied on classic colonial tactics: direct lethal violence and arbitrary arrests resulting in repressive, lengthy, and costly legal procedures to intimidate Palestinians and attempt to silence their collective power. The wide and unprecedented participation of Palestinians citizens of Israel meant that they were targeted en masse: More than 2,000 were arrested and around 200 indicted, the mass majority of them working-class youth. Similar to Palestinian detainees from other parts of Palestine’s fragmented geography, they suffer from physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Israeli police compounded with discriminatory procedures and rulings by Israeli courts.

Palestinians are self-organising and pushing forward their liberation goals of freedom and justice, building upon the unity built through the past few months. In this conversation we will hear about these efforts, including the Dignity and Hope Detainees Fund Project to provide legal support and solidarity to the families and communities most impacted.

This event is hosted by Baladna: Association for Arab Youth and Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and will feature a panel of activists and lawyers:

Soheir Assad, a Haifa-based human rights lawyer and a member of the Advisory Board of the Dignity and Hope Detainees Fund Project at Baladna: Association for Arab Youth. Soheir will speak about the political and social context for the May uprising, the legal and political precarity experienced by Palestinian citizens of Israel, and new community organizing efforts to provide meaningful direct support to those detained.

Sahar Francis, lawyer and director of Addameer: Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association in the occupied West Bank. Sahar will speak about the historical and ongoing ways that Israel uses incarceration as a tool of political repression against Palestinians under occupation and apartheid rule across their historic homeland.

The event will be chaired by Riya Al’Sanah, who is a Palestine-based political organiser and is also on the advisory board of the Dignity and Hope Detainees Fund Project at Baladna: Association for Arab Youth.

16 August, NYC: Globalize the Intifada – Rise Against Normalization, Defend Palestine

12 August 2021

Monday, 16 August
4:00 pm
Zionist Consulate
42nd St and 2nd Ave, NYC
Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSct4nhJ6pd/

This MONDAY august 16th 4 PM in front of the Zionist consulate on 42nd St & 2nd Ave Manhattan NYC. Join Within Our Lifetime for another Globalize the intifada action, where we will gather at the zionist consulate to stand against the normalization of Zionism, and to make it known that despite some Arab nations ceding to normalization efforts, the people of these nations have always been and will always be with the Palestinian people.

12 Palestinian detainees continue hunger strikes for freedom

11 August 2021

Twelve Palestinian political prisoners are continuing their hunger strikes to bring an end to administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial. Salem Zeidat, the longest-striking Palestinian prisoner, has now gone without food for one month to demand an end to his arbitrary imprisonment, and despite his severe weakness after a month of hunger strike, he was attacked by Israeli occupation prison guards on Tuesday, 10 August inside the Negev desert prison.

Repressive units invaded section 2 of the Negev prison after the detainees held there protested Israeli jailers’ assault on Zeidat, especially in his weakened physical state. These Israeli forces ransacked and destroyed Palestinian prisoners’ belongings during the attack, after which the detainees closed their sections and returned their meals.

Alaa al-Araj, 34, joined the hunger strike against his administrative detention on Sunday, 8 August. He is held in Megiddo prison and has been jailed without charge or trial since June. He has now been thrown into the isolation cells in Megiddo in an attempt to pressure him into ending his strike. In addition to the assault on Salem Zeidat, striking detainees have been blocked from meeting their lawyers and repeatedly transferred from prison to prison, putting further pressure on their bodies.

Four of the hunger strikers, including Ahmad Nazzal, Mohammed Abu Sal and Ahmed Abu Sal, suspended their strikes after reaching agreements to end the administrative detention orders against them or not to renew the orders. Mohammed Nuwwara also suspended his hunger strike against his solitary confinement.