Free Shahd Owaida: Palestinian student sentenced to 9 months in Zionist prisons

2 December 2024

Palestinian prisoner, Birzeit University student Shahd Owaida, was sentenced by an illegitimate zionist military court to 9 months in prison and a 2,000 NIS fine. She is scheduled to be released on December 26, 2024.

Shahd is a left-wing student activist originally from Beita, Nablus, and a computer science student. She was arrested on March 27 after a rally at which she gave a moving and powerful speech. Fadia Barghouti, one of her fellow prisoners released on May 21, describes her as “as solid and tall as the mountains of Nablus”.

She is one of 89 women prisoners and hundreds of imprisoned Palestinian students, many of whom have been specifically targeted for their student organizing and activism. At a time when students in the United States, Belgium, Canada, France, Britain and across Europe are being targeted for persecution for their involvement with student encampments for Palestine and the struggle to end university complicity and investment in Zionism and imperialism, solidarity with Palestinian students under attack is particularly urgent to fight criminalization, repression and silencing in Palestine and everywhere.

The Free Palestinian Students campaign posted a video of Shahd speaking at the March 27 rally at Birzeit University:

Shahd is a left-wing student activist from Beita, Nablus, and a computer science student. She was arrested on March 27 after a rally at which she gave a moving and powerful speech. pic.twitter.com/hkZJ44Kor4

— Free Palestinian Students (@freepalstudents) December 1, 2024

Free Shahd Owaida and all Palestinian prisoners in zionist, imperialist, PA and reactionary regime prisons!

For more on the independent campaign to free imprisoned Palestinian students, visit the Free Palestinian Students campaign at https://instagram.com/free.palstudents, Twitter/X at https://twitter.com/freepalstudents and Telegram at https://t.me/freepalestinianstudents

Palestinian journalist Rasha Herzallah free from Zionist colonial prisons after 6 months in detention

2 December 2024

Salutes of freedom to Palestinian journalist Rasha Herzallah, liberated from Zionist prisons on Sunday, 1 December, after 6 months behind bars. There remain at least 89 Palestinian women prisoners in occupation jails out of 10,200 Palestinian prisoners held in colonial prisons. This number does not include Palestinians abducted from Gaza by the invading genocidal occupation forces, who number in the thousands and have been subjected to the most extreme forms of torture and abuse on a systematic level.

Multiple recently released Palestinian women prisoners, including Shahd and Angham Asafra, Baraa Karameh, and Sondos Obeid, have spoken about the severe and abusive conditions Palestinian women face in Damon prison. Their belongings are frequently ransacked, and they are denied changes of clothes; many are forced to wear the prison uniform, and must cover themselves with blankets during roll call due to a lack of clothing. There have been multiple attempts to remove the hijabs from the women’s rooms, and they are frequently denied cleaning products as well as feminine hygiene needs. Like other Palestinian prisoners, they receive meager food, are often denied water, and often do not have access to the “canteen,” or prison store; they are frequently subjected to repressive raids, isolation, and denials of family and lawyer visits.

Herzallah, 39, from Nablus, is the sister of the martyr Mohammed Herzallah “Abu Hamdi”, one of the leaders of the Lions’ Den. He was martyred on 23 November 2022 from the injuries he received on 24 July of that year, during the assassination of fellow Lions’ Den founders, the martyrs Mohammed al-Azizi and Aboud Suboh.

He was also a former Palestinian prisoner who spent one and a half years in Zionist prisons.

One of Rasha’s first actions upon her liberation was to visit the grave of her brother Mohammed, embracing his gravesite and expressing her mourning for her beloved brother.

Rasha Herzallah is one of nearly 100 Palestinian journalists detained in occupation prisons and one of at least six women journalists held in Damon prison, including Rula Hassanein, Israa Lafi, Bushra al-Tawil, Nidaa al-Zoughabi, the students Amal Shujaiya and Duaa al-Qadi, and Sumaya Jawabreh, who is held under house arrest. The attack on and imprisonment of Palestinian journalists comes hand in hand with the Zionist assault on Palestinian journalists in Gaza, where over 192 have already been murdered as part of the genocidal aggression funded and sponsored by the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Canada and fellow imperialist powers.

Salutes to Rasha Herzallah, liberation for all the prisoners, and solidarity with all those truthful journalists facing imprisonment in zionist, imperialist and reactionary regime prisons for exposing the genocidal zionist regime!

For more information about Palestinian women prisoners or to get involved with the independent international campaign for their liberation, please visit Dismantle Damon at https://instagram.com/dismantle_damon or https://t.me/dismantle_damon.

Youngest Palestinian prisoner: 14-year-old Palestinian Jerusalemite boy enters Zionist prison after over a year of house arrest

2 December 2024

On Sunday, 1 December 2024, 14-year-old Palestinian Jerusalemite boy Ayham al-Salaymeh entered Zionist prisons for a year-long sentence imposed upon him by occupation courts, becoming the youngest Palestinian prisoner in the occupation prisons. His father, Nawaf al-Salaymeh, documented the process extensively; his son, Ayham, has already spent 14 months in house arrest.

Ayham was only 12 years old when he was seized by occupation soldiers and first detained with his brothers and cousins, Mustafa, Ahmed, Moataz and Mohammed, all from Silwan in occupied Jerusalem, in January 2023. Several months later, US and fellow imperialist-backed Zionist occupation forces invaded Ayham’s family home in the early pre-dawn hours of 24 May 2023, ransacking his belongings as his father filmed. They abducted Ayham, his older brother Ahmed, and his cousins Mohammed and Moataz.

He was ordered to house arrest, a common form of detention and repression used by the Zionist regime, particularly against both women and children from Jerusalem and occupied Palestine ’48. In fact, house arrest against Palestinian children is a form of detention and arrest against the entire family, particularly Palestinian mothers, as the child is not allowed to leave the home and must constantly be accompanied by a specified adult at all times. This often means that Palestinian family members, especially mothers, must leave their jobs in order to accompany their detained child at all times, causing a severe financial blow to the family as well. Children held under house arrest are isolated from their loved ones, friends and community, denied access to school and education and prevented from participating in family events, attending mosque or church, play outdoor sports (such as football, which Ayham loves) and, in many cases, access to the internet or social media. The latter is a particularly common restriction imposed upon adult Palestinians from occupied Palestine ’48 subjected to house arrest, in an effort to prevent their experience from being documented and shared. Ahmed, Ayham’s brother, was imprisoned for four months and released in the prisoner exchange in November 2023 secured by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.

At the time, as a 14-year-old, he could not be imprisoned; however, as part of a wide array of fascist laws targeting Palestinians, in November 2024, the occupation regime adopted a new law allowing for Palestinian children under 14 to be imprisoned in the Zionist military jails.

Nawaf, Ayham’s father, said in an interview with Arab48: “My son Ayham will be the youngest prisoner inside the prison, and my son Ahmed was the youngest prisoner, and 30 years ago I was the youngest prisoner inside the prison.”

There are currently at least 270 Palestinian children held in Zionist prisons, with 100 of them jailed without charge or trial under “administrative detention;” however, this number does not take into account the Palestinian children held under house arrest, rendering their experience uncounted and undocumented. Many more Palestinian children than are ordered to administrative detention or brought before an occupation civil or military court are abducted by occupation forces, subjected to solitary confinement, beaten, abused and tortured by occupation soldiers, subjected to military/harsh interrogation, threatened with their own life and those of their families, and then released or ordered to house arrest.

Nevertheless, the Zionist regime continued to pursue additional prison time for Ayham, especially once he turned 14 years old, initially demanding 35 months in prison for the boy, allegedly for throwing stones at settlers. The charge of throwing stones at settlers is one of the most common charges used against Palestinian children by the occupation regime, even as the iconic image of a Palestinian boy, Faris Odeh, throwing stones at tanks during the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 has become a representative symbol of the popular Palestinian resistance. In September, he was ordered to 12 months of imprisonment in Zionist jails — following 14 months of house arrest — an order upheld in November.

The imprisonment of Palestinian children is part and parcel of the war on Palestinian childhood, horrifically illustrated by the mass slaughter of over 17,000 Palestinian children as part of the Zionist genocide in Gaza, often with US-, German-, Canadian-, British- or French-made or funded weaponry.

Ayham’s father, Nawaf, spoke in Arab48 about his concern for his son, particularly amid the extensive reports of mistreatment, abuse, starvation, torture and systematic medical neglect directed at the over 10,200 Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails.

“We were not surprised by the decision because we have been under occupation since 1948. I was a child when I was first arrested and most of my family members were arrested under flimsy pretexts,” Nawaf said. “Therefore, the prison decisions are not surprising to us, but the bigger shock is the conditions of the prisons. You do not know anything about the detainee, neither where he is being held nor any other details, and I will not be able to provide him with clothes or money, or communicate with him…For a whole year, I will miss him completely and only the memories will remain. This is a source of fear and anxiety for me, because my son is a child and even his size is smaller than his age, and I do not know what his situation will be like in prison. We see prisoners entering weighing 80 kilograms and leaving weighing 50 to 60 kilograms, after two or three months in prison. My son Ayham weighs 30 kilograms, so how much will he weigh after a year in prison? Will he be released or not?”

However, he also emphasized his — and the entire family’s — support and love for Ayham and for Palestine. He filmed himself with Ayham strolling through the streets of Jerusalem with pride and steadfastness before Ayham turned himself in.

“I brought him some clothes, even though he might not be allowed to take anything with him, and I took him to the restaurant he wanted to go to because he would be deprived of everything for a whole year. We would lose contact with him and I would not be able to hug him,” Nawaf said. He noted that while he (and Ayham’s brothers) had dressed him with a coat and a hat and provided extra clothing, shoes and blankets, the occupation prison administration refused to allow him to bring these warm items, even as winter approaches. Ayham shaved his head before going to prison after hearing from released prisoners about how there are no shavers or other hair grooming items allowed inside the occupation prisons.

Nawaf and the Salaymeh family’s public expression of their private solidarity, support and love for their imprisoned son Ayham is also a form of confrontation and defiance of the Zionist regime, which aims to make Palestinian families keep their children inside and out of the liberation struggle, in order to protect them from the crimes of the occupation.

In one of the videos Nawaf filmed of his last day with Ayham, he reassures his son and encourages him to understand himself as part of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, saying: “Your brothers, friends and loved ones, every prisoner who is inside with you is your brother. They’re all like you, imprisoned for their love of the homeland. Inside, you have to stand together as one. Don’t fight with one another, take care of one another. If your friend is in need of something, you give it to him. If you’re in need of something, ask your friend for it. Your only enemy inside is the jailer, the one who locks the prison door. Every prisoner like you is your brother. You’d lay down your life for him. If there is a problem between him and the jailer or anything else, don’t fear for yourself, fear for your friend. I’m counting on you.”

“I won’t be able to see my family, but we are steadfast in Al-Quds,” Ayham said as he entered the prison for his unjust sentence. Their words encapsulate the strength and depth of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, from generation to generation, continuing to resist, to stand steadfast in the most horrific conditions, to struggle together, and to turn the dungeons of the occupier into revolutionary schools pointing the compass toward liberation and return for all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Saleh Talahmeh: A life in struggle and a martyrdom of resistance

1 December 2024

The first of December 2024 marks the 21st anniversary of the martyrdom of Saleh Mahmoud Talahmeh, a liberated prisoner and one of the leading engineers of the al-Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian Resistance, alongside his fellow strugglers Sayed Abdel-Karim Sheikh Qassem and Hassanein Rummana, in a fierce armed clash with invading Zionist occupation forces.

Born on 24 April 1966 in Douar, Saleh grew up in the village of al-Burj, around 15 kilometers southwest of Dura, in al-Khalil governorate of occupied Palestine. Al-Burj is an agricultural village, one of many in the Dura area, and Saleh grew up alongside his five older sisters there. From his early years, he excelled in school, attending high school in the city of Dura and obtaining a score of 92% in the science branch of the Tawjihi, the Palestinian national exam, one of the top ten students in occupied Palestine that year. While he was offered a scholarship to study in the Soviet Union, he attended Birzeit University at the request of his parents, who wanted him to remain close to home.

In 1984, Saleh Talahmeh entered Birzeit University, where he studied electrical engineering and became involved with the Islamic Bloc, following in the footsteps of his father, who preached as an imam at the mosque in Al-Burj, and in 1987, he joined the Hamas Islamic Resistance Movement upon its founding and immediately became involved with the great popular Intifada blossoming throughout Palestine.

His sister, Haniya, later said that she helped to support her younger brother during his studies, as she worked as a science teacher at Al-Burj secondary school and did not marry. Recalling Saleh, she said, “He was affectionate, tender, and soft-hearted with those he loved, and fierce against his enemy and the enemy of God. He was a man created by the Qur’an, and everyone in our village and city who knew Saleh loved him with a deep affection.”

On 15 November 1988, he married his wife Majida, and as he pursued his studies and his path of jihad and struggle for the liberation of Palestine, they also developed their family life, and had five children: Musaab, Israa, Kataeb, Sukaina and Mohammed. Majida and Saleh lived together for only four years out of their 15 years together, due to the pursuit of the occupation forces and his years of imprisonment by the PA and the Zionist regime.

Saleh Talahmeh (center); Muhyi al-Din al-Sharif (left); Yahya Ayyash (right)

He graduated from university in 1990 with a degree in electrical engineering and in 1992, joined the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades upon their founding in 1992. From the beginning of his jihadist work, he was a companion of the engineer of the Resistance, the martyr Yahya Ayyash. Both had studied electrical engineering at Birzeit University and they shared common interests in study and struggle, advancing the foundation of the military work of the resistance. Saleh Talameh was also a close companion of Muhyi al-Din al-Sharif, the second engineer of the al-Qassam Brigades, the brothers Adel and Imad Awadallah, and fellow early leaders of Hamas and the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abdel-Samad Ahrizat, Jamil Jadallah, Nashat Jabara and Hani Rawajbeh. All of their work was closely coordinated with the leaders, Hassan Salameh and Ibrahim Hamed, today serving multiple life sentences behind occupation bars, and both of whom are key priorities in a prisoner exchange for the Palestinian Resistance.

Saleh was imprisoned by the Zionist occupation regime in 1993 and imprisoned for 14 months in occupation prisons on charges of resisting the occupation. After his release, he was placed on the occupation’s wanted list in 1996, living underground and as a fugitive while remaining involved in the development of the resistance.

He encountered the treachery of the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority created by them in order to serve the interests of the Zionist regime and its imperialist backers, the United States and the European states. Like so many Palestinian resistance strugglers and leaders, he was imprisoned by the PA under its “security coordination” regime in order to protect the occupation from the resistance of which Saleh was a leader. He was arrested by the Palestinian Authority “security” forces, tortured under interrogation, and imprisoned by the PA for four long years, only released alongside the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000.

Immediately upon his release, he worked with a number of his fellow leaders to restructure the al-Qassam Brigades in the central West Bank for more effective work, and participated in planning a number of military operations carried out by the Brigades. He returned to life underground, pursued by the occupation, who described him as one of the most important leaders of the al-Qassam Brigades and the bridge between the political and military wings of Hamas. On multiple occasions, troops of occupation soldiers violently invaded his family home, threatened his relatives, and even abducted and imprisoned his wife, but they failed to find him for over three years.

On 1 December 2003, after three years following his liberation from collaborationist PA prisons, Zionist occupation special forces invaded the Al-Shurafa neighbourhood in Al-Bireh, surrounding the building where he was with his comrades, Sayed Abdel-Karim Qassem and Hassanein Rummana. They refused to surrender themselves to the invading forces, fighting the occupiers until their martyrdom, when the occupation forces exploded the building around them. Occupation forces initially claimed that Ibrahim Hamed had been martyred as well in the attack; however, this was an attempt to deceive the resistance. Hamed was later arrested by the occupation and is currently serving one of the longest sentences of all Palestinian prisoners in occupation colonial jails.

The martyrs Saleh Talahmeh (left); Hassanein Rummana (center); Sayed al-Sheikh Qassem (right)

Hassanein Hamdi Rummana was also a former prisoner, born a Palestinian refugee from al-Lyd in the ‘Amari refugee camp, and part of a large family. Like Saleh, he joined Hamas and participated in the Intifada from 1987 onwards. Between 1987 and 1993, he was arrested on 11 occasions by the occupation forces, and they were never able to extract a confession from him on himself or any of his brothers. On the day of the assassination of Muhyi al-Din al-Sharif in 1998, Hassanein was also arrested by the Palestinian Authority, severely tortured and beaten by groups of jailers, and spent three years in PA prisons. He was so badly injured by the torture that he was unable to eat regular food for two months after his interrogation due to his injuries.

Like Hassanein Rummana, Sayed Abdel-Karim Sheikh Qassem was a Palestinian refugee from al-Lyd, who grew up asking his father about their home and dreamed all his life of his return to al-Lyd, and the return of all Palestinians to their homes and lands, from which they were forcibly displaced in the Nakba. He was deeply religious and spent much of his time at the Omari Mosque in Al-Bireh, later taking up the path of jihad in the Al-Qassam Brigades. He was arrested twice by the occupation forces; first spending 40 days under military interrogation, while refusing to confess, and then spending several months under administrative detention. Like Saleh, Sayed was wanted by the occupation forces since 1998, and he was arrested by the Palestinian Authority under “security coordination” and imprisoned in Jericho, where he was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture. He met Saleh inside PA prisons and they developed their firm relationship as brothers in resistance, continuing after their release.

Saleh’s body was carried from Al-Khalil Hospital in a massive funeral procession to his hometown in Al-Burj village. As mourners filled the streets, supporters of the movements pasted posters throughout occupied Palestine bearing his image, all denouncing the occupation, vowing revenge against the Zionist occupation and its agents, and pledging to follow in his path. As thousands arrived with his body at the Al-Burj mosque, its governing council announced that, henceforth, it would be known as the Martyr Saleh al-Talahmeh Mosque, bearing his name as an icon of resistance.

Saleh Talahmeh’s life of resistance and enduring legacy of struggle underlines the alliance of enemies faced by the Palestinian liberation movement — the Zionist regime and its imperialist sponsors, led by the United States, at the forefront, but also the reactionary Arab forces that work in concert with them, particularly the Palestinian Authority and its “security coordination” with the occupation, which continues to this day even as the occupation carries out a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. He and his brothers in arms helped to forge the path of today’s resistance fighters, in Palestine and throughout the region, who continue to lead the struggle for the liberation of Palestine, and of humanity, from Zionism, imperialism and their agents.

Zionist regime imprisons Palestinian lawyers, students, journalists and organizers without charge or trial

1 December 2024

In the past 2 days, occupation forces have issued at least 91 orders for administrative detention against detained Palestinians. There are over 3,443 Palestinians held in administrative detention out of over 10,200 jailed by occupation forces. This number does not include up to thousands of Palestinians forcibly disappeared by the genocidal invading forces of the Zionist regime and held in notorious prison camps, such as Sde Teiman.

Administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial, on the basis of a “secret file” denied to both the detainee and their lawyer — is indefinitely renewable. Individual detention orders are issued for up to six months at a time, but they are indefinitely renewable — meaning that Palestinians routinely spend years in jail at a time, never knowing when they may be released or even why they are being held.

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. Below are just a few of those targeted in this weekend’s orders, followed by the lists of detention orders issued by the occupation military.

After 18 months of administrative detention, an-Najah National University student Hussam Shtayyeh‘s detention was ordered extended for 4 more months by the illegitimate zionist occupation. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable.

After a year of imprisonment in Zionist jails, occupation forces once again renewed the administrative detention order for 6 months against Ahmed Anwar Aliyyat.

192 Palestinian journalists have been martyred in the Gaza Strip as part of the Zionist genocide, targeting those who report the truth, for assassination and imprisonment. Palestinian journalist Asem Mustafa al-Shunnar — one of over 100 Palestinian detained journalists — was ordered jailed for 6 more months without charge or trial.

US and fellow imperialist-backed zionist occupation forces extended the administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial — of Palestinian Hekmat Janajra from Al-Far’a camp for another 6 months.

After a year in zionist prisons, Ismail Ibrahim Khalil Khabas from Jalqamous, Jenin District, occupied Palestine, was ordered to an additional 4 months in administrative detention, zionist imprisonment with no charge or trial for the fourth time in a row.

Occupation military courts ordered the detained Palestinian lawyer, Mu’ayyad Samih Assaf, to administrative detention for 6 months. Multiple Palestinian lawyers, especially those who represent political prisoners and defend human rights, have been targeted for imprisonment and particularly administrative detention.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network notes that the imperialist powers that continue to fund, arm and provide military, diplomatic and political cover to the occupation are fully complicit in the mass imprisonment of the Palestinian people, as they are in the ongoing genocide targeting Palestinians, particularly in Gaza. We urge all supporters of Palestine and mobilized Palestinian communities to take action, mobilize, demonstrate and organize direct actions to confront the imperialist-Zionist war machine and demand an end to administrative detention, the liberation of all administrative detainees, and the liberation of every Palestinian prisoner in Zionist, imperialist, PA and reactionary jails — part and parcel of the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.

The following lists of administrative detainees — of 49 names and of 42 names — are those of orders issued this weekend, 30 November and 1 December:

Thaer Jamal Abdulaziz Assali – Al-Za’im
Yasser Mohammed Omar Shehadeh – Awrif – 4 months
Mousa Abdelkader Mousa Mahariq – Al-Samou’ – 5 months
Omar Zunaiah Mufleh Brahmah – Al-Fawwar – 6 months
Asim Mustafa Ali Ali Ahmed – Nablus – 6 months
Fadi Bashar Mohammed Abdulrazzaq – Tubas – 4 months
Basheer Mahmoud Basheer Jawadreh – Tulkarm – 6 months
Mohammed Hussein Ahmed Kamil – Qabatia – 6 months
Mohammed Maseeb Fareeq Alawneh – Sebastia – 3 months
Ahmed Maher Kharouf – Ain Umm Al-Sharayet – 4 months
Ahmed Mohammed Jalal Ahmed – Dheisheh – 6 months
Milad Taher Mohammed Al-Saadi – Jenin – 6 months
Adam Omar Hassan Zaid – Aboush – 6 months
Hussam Al-Din Adnan Al-Latif Shtayyeh – Tal – 4 months
Mustafa Ghassan Mustafa Abu Salem – Askar – 6 months
Ibrahim Mahmoud Ibrahim Al-Bawatmeh – Bethlehem – 6 months
Hikmat Mahmoud Ahmed Janajreh – 6 months
Ismail Mohammed Nasr – Dura – 6 months
Basel Nimer Rateb Nimer – Qalandiya – 6 months
Ma’an Ahmed Abdel Rabbo Sharif – Iktaba – 6 months
Salah Rashid Salah Marouf – Ain Qeina – 3 months
Mohammed Ahmed Hosni Hassasneh – Sa’eer – 6 months
Adham Aziz Hosni Hassasneh – 6 months
Ezz Al-Din Khaled Rouhi Soussa – Nablus – 4 months
Mohammed Raji Hassan Al-Natour – Aqabat Jaber – 6 months
Hassan Rami Tawfiq Ibrahim – Ain Sultan – 4 months
Nour Al-Din Mohammed Yaqoub Al-Hamidi – Bethlehem – 6 months
Fares Farouq Farah Dar Ataya – Ni’ma – 4 months
Mohammed Faisal Nafis – Birzeit – 6 months
Taha Wael Ali Titi – Nablus – 4 months
Qatada Naim Ahmed Omran – Ramallah – 6 months
Anas Mohammed Ahmed Shteiwi – Al-Shuweikeh – 6 months
Mu’ayyad Samih Abdullah Assaf – Laqef – 6 months
Imad Al-Din Mahmoud Mohammed Masimi – Ain Beit Al-Ma’ – 6 months
Khalil Walid Izzat Suleiman – Balata – 4 months
Hatem Ahmed Shaaban Ali Hussein – Beit Duqqu – 6 months
Majdi Mahmoud Abu Al-Hija – Wadi Burqin – 3 months
Taha Saeed Abdeljawad Badran – Al-Amari – 4 months
Fazaa Sidqi Mohammed Sawafta – Tubas – 6 months
Mohammed Khader Shakib Ayyan Oweiwi – 4 months
Imad Youssef Mohammed Abu Rayhan – 4 months
Mu’ayyad Amin Abdulnabi Mohammed – Aqabat Jaber – 6 months
Rabie Mohammed Youssef Hamad – Qalandiya
Ahmed Abdelrahim Mustafa Hamdan – Qalqilya – 6 months
Mohammed Qader Mohammed Darawi – 4 months
Qatada Ammar Tawfiq Ayyoub – Tulkarm – 4 months
Mahmoud Taleb Khidr Dhiab – Al-Shuweikeh – 4 months
Shehab Hassan Ata Mizher – Dheisheh – 4 months
Mujahid Mustafa Rajeh Qureini – Jenin – 3 months

The second list of administrative detention orders issued this weekend follows:

Naji Montaser Naji Salama – Turmus Ayya – 6 months
Louay Ahmed Abdullah – 6 months
Jawad Hassan Daoud Al-Nawafleh – Abu Dis – 6 months
Abdul Majeed Abdullah Abu Ta’ima – Al-Fawwar Camp – 4 months
Ahmed Ayman Ahmed Qanza’a – Nablus – 4 months
Bashar Khader Mohammed Al-Masalmeh – Bethlehem – 6 months
Abdullah Nour Al-Din Khaled Mansour – Jenin – 6 months
Mohammed Faisal Hassan Masalma – Beit Awwa – 6 months
Mahmoud Omar Youssef Bani Odeh – Tammun – 4 months
Barakat Salah Youssef – Jenin Camp – 4 months
Omran Ismail Mohammed Al-Mallah – Dura – 6 months
Ahmed Abdel Hamid Ali – Silwad – 4 months
Abdullah Salah Al-Din Hashlamoun – Hebron – 6 months
Najm Al-Din Nazih Mohammed Sulaim – Qalqilya – 4 months
Moataz Omar Abdulkarim Daoud – Qalqilya – 6 months
Habib Hussam Mohammed Ararawi – 5 and a half months
Omar Mohammed Saud Daraghmeh – Tubas – 6 months
Islam Bassam Yasser Hawshiyeh – Jenin – 6 months
Mohammed Issam Mohammed Odeh – Tulkarm – 6 months
Ismail Abdulaziz Bani Matar – Tammun – 5 and a half months
Iyad Wadih Tawfiq Abu Zahra – Nablus – 4 months
Fadi Kamal Issa Sabah – Jenin – 4 months
Mahmoud Ali Ahmed – Nablus – 3 and a half months
Salam Mohammed Salam Dar Abu Yaqoub – Qalqilya – 4 months
Ayham Louay Yahya Nairat – Maythaloun – 6 months
Omran Da’ed Adnan Atatrah – Ya’bad – 6 months
Mohammed Thabet Labad Atawneh – Jiftlik – 4 months
Majd Raed Masoud Freihat – Yamoun – 6 months
Allam Sami Amin Massad – Jenin – 6 months
Wissam Abdulkarim Hassan Hassan Fayez – 4 months
Ahmed Ziad Abu Al-Rub – Jalboun – 6 months
Yazan Raed Ahmed Mahmoud – Maythaloun – 6 months
Badr Abdul Hafiz Abdelkader Oweidat – 6 months
Hafiz Sab’a Fayez Abirat – Nablus – 5 months
Uday Aqel Shehadeh Qafisheh – Hebron – 4 months
Jihad Ali Mohammed Suman – 3 months
Mahmoud Abdel Fattah Ibrahim Burnat – Bil’in – 4 months
Mahmoud Mohammed Saleem Dasht – Ramallah – 2 months
Anas Khaled Ali Daoud – Dheisheh – Bethlehem – 4 months
Mohammed Mustafa Mohammed Sajdiya – Bethlehem – 4 months
Omar Talal Ahmed Srour – Ni’lin – 6 months
Mohammed Omran Hassan Al-Natsheh – Hebron – 6 months

Torture and genocide: The martyrdom of four more Palestinian detainees from Gaza in Zionist jails

1 December 2024

Palestinian prisoners’ institutions announced the martyrdom of two Palestinian detainees from Gaza, Mohammed Abdul-Rahman Huwaishel Idriss, 35, and Muath Khaled Mohammed Rayyan, 31, on 1 December 2024. Both Idriss and Rayyan were Palestinians abducted from Gaza by the genocidal invading Zionist occupation forces, backed and funded by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, and fellow imperialist powers.

The prisoners’ institutions — the Commission on Prisoners’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association — said that they were informed of their martyrdom on 29 November 2024, saying that Idriss was martyred in Ofer prison, while the occupation refused to disclose the location of Rayyan’s martyrdom on 2 November 2024. Mohammed Idriss suffered from no health problems before his abduction by occupation forces on 25 August 2024 by the genocidal invading forces, while Muath Rayyan was completely paralyzed yet still abducted by the invading forces on 21 October 2024, and murdered only 10 days later.

The news of the martyrdom of Mohammed Idriss and Muath Rayyan follows a response by the Supreme Court of the occupation, documenting the martyrdom of two more Palestinians abducted from Gaza, the father and son: Munir Abdullah Mahmoud al-Fiqaawi, 42, and Yassin Munir al-Fiqaawi, 18 years old. The martyrdom of the four men brings the known total of martyred prisoners since 7 October 2023 to 47 martyrs; however, this number is known to be incomplete, as at least dozens of Palestinians from Gaza were martyred under severe torture in the occupation prisons and detention camps, and the occupation has refused to release information about their names and the date of their martyrdom.

“The disclosure of even more martyrs among the detainees from Gaza, who have been murdered in the last days and months, means that the occupation is continuing its systematic crimes of torture, in addition to medical abuse, deliberate starvation, rape and sexual assaults and unlimited forms of abuse, including continuous attacks and using every detail in the structure of the detention camps into a tool for torture, theft and deprivation….Thousands of sick and wounded prisoners and detainees, who endured the prison system’s procedures and crimes at the beginning of the war, no longer have the ability to do so today. Their health conditions are also clearly deteriorating, and many healthy prisoners have turned into patients due to the continued spread of epidemics and diseases and the crime of starvation. This is what we see daily, whether through visits or through the courts,” said the Palestinian prisoners’ institutions announcing the men’s martyrdom. They further noted the attempts to avoid accountability, as the occupation forces were asked on multiple occasions about the martyred father and son, Munir and Yassin al-Fiqaawi, and claimed to have no knowledge until the case reached the occupation’s Supreme Court.

The assault on Palestinian prisoners is part and parcel of the ongoing Zionist genocide being carried out in occupied Palestine, particularly in the Gaza Strip, with the full support, participation, and, indeed, direction of the imperialist powers. There are currently over 10,200 Palestinian prisoners held in Zionist prisons, although this number does not include all of the prisoners from Gaza, hundreds or thousands of whom have been subjected to enforced disappearance and whose names, locations, medical status and very life or death continue to be concealed by the occupation. There are at least 3443 Palestinians held under administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial (first brought to Palestine by the British colonial mandate and since enthusiastically adopted by the Zionist regime), 90 women prisoners and 270 imprisoned children, among this number.

All Palestinian prisoners are being subjected to medical abuse, extreme violence and deliberate starvation. The occupation regime recognizes that the Palestinian prisoners’ movement is a keystone of the Palestinian liberation struggle and is seeking to destroy it by all means, including the assassination of the prisoners. Palestinian prisoners from Gaza in particular have been subjected to systematic severe torture, gang rape, and extreme abuse, particularly in the notorious prison camps run specifically to torture Palestinians from Gaza without any kind of external observation.

Indeed, after there was a gesture toward a Zionist investigation after a Palestinian prisoner was martyred after he was raped by a gang of occupation soldiers, the resulting “right to rape” riots across occupied Palestine underlined the genocidal nature of the Zionist regime. Zionist soldiers have been essentially given free rein to engage in a widespread, systemic campaign of torture, rape and abuse against the Palestinian people, part of the same genocidal campaign that has taken well over 50,000 Palestinian lives in Gaza. The Zionist regime is not only subjecting Palestinian prisoners — in Sde Teiman and in the “regular” Israel Prison Service prisons, directed by Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the “right to rape” leaders — to severe torture and abuse, it is imprisoning the bodies of the martyrs after they are killed.

The case of Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, the chair of orthopedic surgery at al-Shifa Hospital, is an emblematic example of the type of murderous abuse to which Palestinian prisoners are subjected.

Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, 50, was kidnapped from Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia in December 2023 and he was not seen again until 19 April 2024, when, after being held under severe and extreme torture for four months, he was dumped in the yard of Ofer prison, naked below the waist. Fellow prisoners picked him up and carried him into their rooms as he was unable to stand up. Moments later, the prisoners screamed, announcing his death. He was one of the most prominent surgeons in Gaza, saving the lives of multiple Palestinians throughout the genocide and throughout his life. The beloved husband of Yasmine al-Bursh and the father of six children, he was dedicated to his work. After the destruction and targeting of Al-Shifa hospital, he moved first to the Indonesian Hospital and then to Al-Awda Hospital. His martyrdom was not announced until 2 May 2024. Like his fellow martyred prisoners and detainees, the occupation continues to imprison his body after death.

Professor @maynard_nick holding a photo of his colleague Dr Adnan Al Bursh who was murdered in Ofer Prison after enduring brutal, daily torture. @TadhgHickey holding the picture of also murdered OBGYN Dr Iyad Al Rantisi, today at Corks demonstration for Palestine. pic.twitter.com/5NbDE0dZP6

— irish_hcworkers_for_palestine (@IrishhcwforPal) November 30, 2024

Of course, the murder of Adnan al-Bursh is part and parcel of the ongoing attack on Palestinian health care institutions, hospitals and health workers, in which doctors, nurses and other medical professionals have been deliberately targeted for assassination and imprisonment — and medical facilities targeted for destruction — as part of the genocide, in order to deny the Palestinian people medical support.

The news of the martyrdom of Mohammed Idriss, Muath Rayyan, Munir al-Fiqaawi and Yassin al-Fiqaawi comes alongside the martyrdom of over 100 Palestinians today in ongoing massacres in Beit Lahiya and throughout northern Gaza, as the occupation continues its genocidal assault with US- and German-made bombs and weapons against the Palestinian people as a whole.

The Resistance, throughout the region, is fighting to defend humanity and to bring these crimes to an end, once and for all. There can be no accomodation with the Zionist regime, a criminal regime built upon genocide, dispossession and destruction, but only its defeat and dismantlement. We further emphasize that these crimes are not those of the Zionist regime alone, but that the blood of every martyr is on the hands of the United States, Germany, Canada, Britain, France and their fellow imperialist partners in the colonization and genocide of Palestine.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes and mourns the martyrs and pledges to redouble our efforts to organize to end the genocide, to stand with the resistance, to liberate the prisoners and for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.

The persecution of pro-Palestinian activists in Spain: an attack on freedom of expression and international solidarity

30 November 2024

On 29 October, 2024, pro-Palestinian activists and Samidoun organizers, Jaldía Abubakra and Miriam Ojeda, were summoned to testify before the National Court in Spain after being denounced in a complaint filed by the right-wing political party VOX on charges of “glorifying terrorism.” After their intial statements, the legal teams of both activists requested the dismissal of the case, arguing the need to protect freedom of expression and appealing to international frameworks that recognize the legitimate right to resistance of the Palestinian people in the face of the serious human rights violations of the occupation and the colonizing practices of the Zionist entity.

As has been reported on numerous occasions, the aim of these legal repressive actions in various imperialist states — “lawfare” — is to demobilise activism and solidarity with the Palestinian people through tools such as media persecution, social targeting, economic strangulation and the opening of criminal proceedings that seek to establish a culture of fear and censorship. These strategies are evident in the cases of Jaldía and Miriam.

Although one of the cases has been dismissed by the National Court, the investigating judge refused to dismiss the case against the prominent Palestinian activist Jaldía Abubakra. The dismissal of the case against Miriam Ojeda demonstrates the lack of legal basis and the weakness of the accusations, which shows that the real purpose of these complaints is to politically discipline and censor Palestinian voices and international solidarity voices that defend the liberation of the Palestinian people. It is unacceptable that the Zionist-fascist alliance, represented in Spain by VOX and the Zionist lobby, enjoys institutional protection while spreading messages of hate and supporting the ongoing genocide, while those who oppose these atrocities are persecuted and criminalized.

The same agents and governments that have for decades armed the genocidal entity of Israel are now seeking to establish a judicial precedent to criminally prosecute support for the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves, an internationally recognized right. The historical shame of prosecuting an activist like Jaldía, who, exercising her political rights, raises her voice to defend her people’s right to exist, is part and parcel of their support for the Israeli colonial genocidal regime and their complicity with the occupation.

We must not be silent in rejecting the attempts to impose political disciplining and silencing, reflected in the case against Jaldía Abubakra. The colonial and racist power of the Spanish State is manifested through repressive frameworks, such as gag laws or prosecutions of “glorification of terrorism.” This is a clear-cut attempt to stigmatize Palestinian, Arab and internationalist organizers as “international terrorists,” a racist narrative that aims to censor and delegitimize their struggles for political freedoms.

Many voices have been raised against the political use of these laws, which limit freedom of expression and persecute emancipatory discourse, especially when the aim of their usage is to silence demands for justice after decades of genocide, violence, occupation and complicity by the “international community.”

The persecution of Jaldía — a Palestinian woman from Gaza — and other activists is not only an attack upon freedom of expression, but also upon the political agency and mobilization of those who fight for the liberation of the Palestinian people, both in their homeland and in the diaspora. It also seeks to silence those who denounce the oppressions of the capitalist, patriarchal and colonial system around the world. It is an ethical and political obligation to stand up against this persecution, demand the acquittal of those who have been repressed, and fight for the repeal of the legal frameworks that facilitate this repression, as well as for the dismantling of the imperialist and colonial system that sustains Zionism.

Because the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea, is also the path to the liberation of all peoples.

Drop the charges against Jaldía Abubakra! Drop all charges against those facing prosecution for their solidarity with Palestine in the Spanish State! Freedom for Palestinian political prisoners held in imperialist and colonial Zionist prisons!

Prisoner Rula Hassanein: Between Motherhood and the Walls of Damon Prison

30 November 2024

The following article, by author Alaa Abed, was originally published in Arabic at Banafsaj, a Palestinian website dedicated to women’s issues, on 20 November. Read the original Arabic here: https://bnfsj.net/p/2310 For more information about Palestinian women prisoners or to get involved with the independent international campaign for their liberation, please visit Dismantle Damon at https://instagram.com/dismantle_damon or https://t.me/dismantle_damon. Rula Hassanein, abducted by the Zionist occupation forces on 19 March 2024 from her home in al-Ma’asara, southeast of Bethlehem, is one of multiple women journalists imprisoned by the occupation, including Rasha Herzallah, Israa Lafi, Bushra al-Tawil, Amal Shujaiya, Nidaa al-Zoughaibi, and Sumaya Jawabreh (in house arrest). Freedom for Rula and all Palestinian prisoners! The translated article follows:

Accused of incitement and compromising state security, journalist Rula Hassanein faces trial alongside many others in Damon Prison under conditions that can only be described as inhumane. The cells are cold in winter, hot in summer, and are reported to have been a stable for horses or a tobacco warehouse in the past. At Damon, the occupiers intensify their oppression of women by confiscating clothes and blankets so that each prisoner has only one outfit, limiting showers and outdoor time, and cramming prisoners into overcrowded cells without enough beds. The list of violations is long.

In this interview, we speak with Hadeel Hassanein, the elder sister of journalist Rula Hassanein, to discuss Rula’s life as a mother and journalist, her over ten years of experience in journalism, and about her life, torn apart by the occupation. The walls of Damon Prison have separated a mother from her infant daughter, only months old at the time of her arrest, details that we really must record and preserve as they are an integral part of the ongoing Palestinian story and their ongoing Nakba, for over 76 years.

Rula Hassanein: The Mother and Journalist

The imprisoned journalist Rula Ibrahim Hassanein, who turned 30 in Damon Prison, hails from Al-Jalazone Refugee Camp, north of Ramallah, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Media as well as a master’s in Contemporary Arab Studies, both from Birzeit University. She has worked in journalism for over a decade and is an active member of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. She is married and a mother to a baby girl who was nine months old at the time of her arrest.

On a personal level, I have a close friendship, work and student relationship with the journalist Rula. Having lost her father at a young age, she is known for her sound judgment and strong stances. There was no room for grey areas in her life, as the truth is always more deserving of being followed, as she always said. I can describe her as a genuine friend, the kind of friend who is always present, loyal to her friends, pure in her affection, generous in her giving. She never tires in her conversations of going beyond personal concerns to the duties of citizenship, efforts at social reform, and the needs of a Palestinian society that seeks liberation from its occupier, longing for freedom.

Rula was thrilled to be pregnant with her first two children, Youssef and Elia. Despite suffering from chronic kidney disease, and doctors warned that her health condition would worsen with pregnancy and childbirth, which made her pregnancies particularly challenging,as she endured the pain and the risks to bring her children into the world. When her condition posed a threat to her life and the lives of her children, doctors opted for early delivery in her eighth month of pregnancy.

Baby Youssef died three hours after his birth, while Elia spent over 40 days in the neonatal intensive care unit. Elia left the hospital with health issues that required ongoing treatment, including respiratory problems due to her premature birth. Meanwhile, Rola experienced postpartum depression due to her grief over her baby Youssef, and additional health complications.

The Night of the Arrest

Two days before Mother’s Day, Israeli forces arrested journalist Rula Hassanein, depriving her of celebrating her first Mother’s Day with her daughter Ilya. Her sister Hadeel recounts:

“On March 19, 2024, the arrest order was brutally executed. The house was raided at night, she was handcuffed and blindfolded. The weather on the night of the arrest was very rainy and very cold, which only worsened the situation. Despite Rula informing the soldiers that she was a mother to an infant and needed medication for chronic illnesses, they refused her requests to bring her medicine. She asked them to take her little girl with her, who was entirely dependent on breastfeeding and refused to accept formula, but they refused as well.”

Hadeel added, “My sister suffers from chronic kidney disease, diagnosed in 2017, and her condition worsened during pregnancy. At the time of her arrest, she also suffered from postpartum depression, kidney complications from pregnancy, gastrointestinal infections, irritable bowel syndrome, severe migraines, and leg pain, none of which was taken into account as they arrested her brutally.”

False Charges of Incitement

Four days after her arrest, Rula appeared in court where she was charged with incitement on social media. Hadeel explains:

“We learned that the charge against her was ‘incitement’ on social media, due to her journalistic work. In fact, before her arrest, she was threatened more than once and her photos were circulated in Telegram groups run by settlers, such as the ‘Nazi Hunters’ group. They directed their incitement against her personally, calling her a top instigator against the occupying state, and that she is one of the journalists who incite against Jews and Zionists.”

The indictment included posts that the occupation claimed Rula had published on her social media accounts, translated into Hebrew, and they showed the number of likes on each post, and the number of followers, which was greater than 3,400.

Despite two Israeli military court rulings for her release (April 17, 2024, and July 2, 2024), the prosecution appealed each time, keeping her in custody under the pretext of “state security”. Israeli military law supposedly prohibits the detention of mothers with children under two years old, yet this was ignored in Rola’s case. This is what happened when the occupation tried to arrest the writer Lama Khater from al-Khalil, and the implementation of her arrest was postponed due to the presence of her son Yahya.

Hadeel said: “After the release decisions were issued, the prosecution resorted to an appeal, so she was not released, because the charges against her are ‘incitement that harms state security’, and therefore she must be detained to preserve the security of the occupying state, and the state of emergency created on 7 October prevents the implementation of any rules regarding the arrest of mothers.”

The Struggle of Mother and Daughter

Both the imprisoned mother and her daughter suffer deeply, living in a complex state of loss and a constant feeling of anxiety. Rola has had no contact with her child for over seven months, relying only on updates from her lawyer, while her family lives with worry for their daughter, especially in light of the dangerous conditions that both male and female detainees are currently experiencing.

Meanwhile, her daughter Elia, cared for by her father, Dr. Shadi Breijieh, and paternal grandmother, has suffered greatly due to the absence of her mother. At the beginning of Rula’s detention, Elia would not take any type of baby formula, so she faced malnutrition and hospitalization on multiple occasions during the initial period of her mother’s absence. She eventually required intravenous feeding and suffered other health problems, such as breathing issues and insufficient oxygen.

Hadeel shares:
“Since Rula’s arrest, her father Shadi has been taking care of her with her grandmother. He is trying to compensate for the loss of her mother, and he is making sure that the little girl does not forget her mother. Rula’s pictures are spread everywhere in the house, so that the little girl gets used to her mother’s image and appearance, so she does not feel strange when Rula leaves prison. The truth is that Elia often carries a picture of her mother and walks around the house calling out, ‘Mama, Mama.'”

Amsterdam free from Zionism! For a total boycott — globalize the intifada!

8 November 2024

The following statement was issued by Samidoun Nederland following the genocidal chants (including “Kill the Arabs” and cheering for the mass slaughter of Palestinian children in Gaza), thefts of Palestinian flags, destruction of property, breaking of windows, and attacks on Arab and Muslim community members by Zionist football hooligans, fans of “Maccabi Tel Aviv” in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. See also the statement of the Masar Badil: “There is no place for Zionism, racism and fascism in the squares and stadiums of Europe.”

This was followed by the popular response holding the rioting hooligans accountable for their fascist attacks in the streets through community self-defense. In response, the imperialist powers once again underlined their full responsibility and involvement in the ongoing genocide in Palestine, as officials from the notorious Geert Wilders of the Netherlands to Ursula von der Leyen to Justin Trudeau rushed to condemn the people of Amsterdam for confronting rioting fascist Zionist hooligans in the streets. The incident demonstrated once again that the masses of the world, including in the heart of the imperial core, find genocidal fascism, racism and Zionism repugnant and are willing to act to defend themselves, their communities and Palestine from their attacks, despite harsh police repression, criminalization and threats of deportation. No amount of repression will force the people to accommodate Zionist racism and support genocide in Palestine:

Throughout the past week, Zionist hooligans have been attacking the people of Amsterdam and causing destruction in the city and its neighbourhoods. People walking on the streets wearing kuffiyehs, taxi drivers, and random Muslims and Arabs have been beaten up by these hooligans. The windows of homes with Palestinian flags were smashed and the flags stolen. The police did not intervene, the media was silent and the mayor stood by and watched as these Zionist hooligans caused chaos in the city.

Yet how different is the situation after a night in which the people of Amsterdam — Muslims, Christians and Jews, Dutch, Arabs and Palestinians — defended themselves and their city against this violence?! The police arrested dozens of people, the media speaks outrageously with sensationalistic lies, and the mayor speaks of very serious “anti-Semitic” incidents. It is as if the world turned upside down.

Where in occupied Palestine the imperialist powers declare their support for the Israeli genocide and fulfill it with military, diplomatic and economic assistance, here in Amsterdam, the ruling powers express their support for fascist Zionist hooligans who attack our city and our people. Where in Palestine, the Palestinian resistance is repressed with life sentences, here, the defenders of Amsterdam are beaten up and arrested by the police. These are, we note, the same police force that was responsible for arresting tens of thousands of Amsterdam Jews during World War II.

The reaction of the people of Amsterdam to the fascist hooligans is normal and natural. Firs, because we do not accept any attack on our city and people, and second, because these attacks are racially motivated. It is very clear that the attacks of the Maccabi hooligans are anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab. This also makes them anti-Amsterdam, because these groups are a crucial part of Amsterdam, of our city, our people and our community. This whole week, Amsterdammers have been attacked and harassed, and last night they decided to defend themselves and not turn the other cheek anymore.

The self-defense of the people of Amsterdam against fascist attacks is indeed exactly what we mean by “Globalize the Intifada” . This is part of the boycott movement to isolate and weaken “Israel.” Just as we fight for the exclusion of the Zionist regime from education, culture and sports, we also want fascist Zionists to have nowhere that they find free rein to celebrate genocide and attack Palestinians, Arabs and entire communities.

The self-defense of the people of Amsterdam also follows months of political and media attacks against Palestinians and their supporters, especially the student activists who have unleashed a student intifada since May. This includes the Dutch entry ban against our European coordinator Mohammed Khatib, which we demand be lifted immediately.

The people of Amsterdam declared last night that Zionism will not be tolerated here. Amsterdam is a Zionism-free city. And if it is not yet, we will make it so. And no, anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. This movement is made up of people of all backgrounds, religions and ethnicities. This movement is a popular movement that is against genocide and wants to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea. This movement is not led by one or even several organizations. It is the masses of Amsterdam and the Netherlands, the so-called “ordinary, hard-working Dutch people,” who defended the city against fascist hooligans last night.

We call for the immediate release of all those arrested and the dropping of all charges against them. This is the moment to escalate the fight against genocide and for the liberation of Palestine. Together against Dutch support for “Israel” and for the total isolation of the Zionist regime, in sports and all other arenas.

Now is the time to defeat Zionism in Palestine — and its birthplace, Europe!

For a total boycott of the Zionist entity!

Freedom for all prisoners of the Intifada, from Amsterdam to Palestine!

Mohammed Abu Warda — serving 48 life sentences — enters 23rd year in Zionist prisons

4 November 2024

Mohammed Attiya Abu Warda, Abu Hamza, 48 years old, enters his 22nd year in occupation prisons today, 4 November 2024. A resistance struggler with the Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, he was seized by Zionist occupation forces on 4 November 2002 — amid the Al-Aqsa Intifada — and sentenced to 48 life sentences. This means that he is serving the third-highest sentence in Zionist jails, after Abdullah Barghouti and Ibrahim Hamed, and equal to that of Hassan Salameh, and is one of the prisoners with high sentences whose release is a key demand of the Palestinian resistance in a prisoner exchange.

Abu Warda, born on 17 January 1976, is a Palestinian refugee born in Al-Fawwar refugee camp in Dura, al-Khalil, occupied Palestine. His family is originally from ‘Iraq al-Manshiyya, forced from their homes and lands during al-Nakba. After attending the Sharia school in al-Khalil, he attended Bethlehem University and Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, studying physics, before switching to study education at the Dar Al-Mu’allimin College Faculty of Educational Sciences in Ramallah. While studying, he worked as a construction laborer and often dedicated his earnings to the expenses of organizing student activities.

His earliest political engagement was with the Fateh movement during the great popular Intifada and was first arrested by the occupation in 1992 and served three months in Zionist prisons at the age of 15 for throwing stones and empty bottles at the occupation soldiers stationed by the camp. When he was released, he later joined the Hamas movement, and his commitment to participating in the armed resistance escalated and he became part of the Qassam Brigades. He participated in planning and organizing several martyrdom operations carried out by the armed wing of Hamas following the Zionist assassination of Yahya Ayyash, the engineer of the resistance, in 1996.

As part of the Palestinian Authority’s “security coordination” with the Zionist regime, he was first kidnapped by the PA’s “Preventive Security Force,” which was designed to pursue and repress the Palestinian resistance in the interests of protecting the Zionist project in occupied Palestine. He was convicted by a sham PA court — much like that created for use against Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades — and sentenced to life imprisonment and hard labour. During the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2002, he was transferred to the PA prison in al-Khalil, from which he was able to escape, only to be re-arrested several months later; as the Zionists invaded the city of al-Khalil with massive military assaults, he was released and began his life as a fugitive from the occupation.

During his time in PA prisons, he married Noura Burhan al-Ja’bari — who he had met during his time outside the prison — and they had their only child, Hamza, while he was wanted by the occupation forces. They lived together for only two months of marriage, moving in disguise and never being seen in public — before multiple months of separation, where Mohammed stayed away from Noura in order to protect her as he was being pursued for imprisonment or assassination. Noura al-Ja’bari, a teacher at a school in al-Khalil, was herself arrested and imprisoned by the occupation in 2012, including being held for a full month under harsh interrogation, which she describes as the most difficult time in her life, as she was kept from her son Hamza. As a student, she was very active in activities on campus, and she is continually present at events to support the prisoners held in Zionist jails and demand their freedom, as well as to demand an end to the PA’s political imprisonment and “security coordination” with the occupation.

During his time in prison, Abu Warda has been an active part of the prisoners’ movement, participating in and leading several hunger strikes and other collective actions, including the 2012 collective Karameh strike.

The occupation forces refused to release him, along with multiple other prisoners with lengthy sentences, as part of the Wafa’ al-Ahrar prisoner exchange achieved by the Palestinian resistance in 2011.

From his prison cell, in 2016, Mohammed Abu Warda wrote a series of notes on his life, published at Dunia al-Watan. An English translation follows:

Birth: With the elders who were forced from ‘Iraq Al-Manshiyya, and with the scent of blood that overflowed from the bodies of our ancestors, leaving behind memories burdened and scattered by the hand of the occupier among the diaspora camps, and with the shouts of the deprived children who grew up in the camps, joy dawned on my grandmother’s face as she saw my mother on the day of my birth, announcing my arrival on the 17th of January 1976, to hand me the UNRWA ration card, which remained with us for a long time in Al-Fawwar camp, which boils over with the anger of its people over the anguish of displacement that scattered them in 1948, as the announcement of my birth was marked on the path of continuous refugeehood for the children of our people.

Upbringing: I grew up in the narrow alleys of the camp crowded with its people, and in my mother’s embrace, whom God honored me with, keen to breastfeed me with the milk of freedom and rebellion against the occupation’s oppression and tyranny. She had a prominent and important role in raising me and encouraging me to pray in the mosque since my childhood, and teaching me to memorize some verses from the Holy Qur’an. I clung to the life of the camp despite its harshness, playing on its soil and among its closely packed homes. I breathed in the fragrance of its air, I ran on the mats of its mosque until my feet gradually led me year by year towards its schools, which seemed more like illusions than reality. During the Intifada of Stones, we grew up carrying stones in our bags to confront the brutality of the army stationed by our camp at their points of concentration. We grew up with the stones, the bullets of the army, and the slogans that my little hands wrote on the walls, wrapped in the scarf of the Palestinian Liberation Movement – Fateh – earning me the title of “the little Fateh sheikh.” This persisted until my first arrest in In 1992, which lasted for 3 months. I resumed the same path after liberation, but with a new vision, whose transformations began at the hands of Sheikh Kamal al-Titi (Abu Sayyaf) and the blessed Sharia school in al-Khalil, and its honorable teachers who introduce me to the ranks of the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas – in addition to the role of its students, headed by Abbas al-Oweiwi and the martyr Raed Misk. The journey continued to the College of Educational Sciences in the city of Ramallah and the former Teachers’ Institute, where I embraced the Islamic Bloc in the years between 1993 and 1996, moving between most of its committees and becoming its leader. This was the most important turning point in my life, in which I practiced my role as an activist in the ranks of the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas – and all its activities inside and outside the institute, until the news of the martyrdom of Engineer Yahya Ayyash, the engineer of the Qassam Brigades in the West Bank, came. His martyrdom would be a new station marking a significant step for my involvement with the blessed Qassam Brigades.

Jihadist Work: After I had the honor of belonging to the Qassam Brigades in the Faculty of Educational Sciences, introduced by one of the brothers from Gaza, who in turn introduced me to the brother, the prisoner Hassan Salameh, who was one of the Qassam leaders in Gaza, and who came to the West Bank to organize the operations of revenge for the blood of the engineer Yahya Ayyash. My introduction to the prisoner Hassan Salameh was the real beginning of my activity in the Qassam Brigades, and among our most important operations were:

1- The first response operation in revenge for the assassination of Yahya Ayyash, on February 25, 1996, carried out by the martyr Majdi Mohammed Mahmoud Abu Warda from Al-Fawwar camp, in the city of Jerusalem on Street 18, and resulted in the killing of 26 Zionists and wounding of dozens more, as he detonated himself on a passenger bus. My role in it was to organize the martyr and bring him to the leader Hassan Salameh.

2- The second response operation, on the same day, was carried out by the martyr Ibrahim Hassan Sarahneh from Al-Fawwar camp, in the occupied city of Asqelan, and resulted in the death of a Zionist and the wounding of dozens.

3- The third operation was a week after the previous ones, also in Jerusalem, also on Street 18, carried out by the martyr Raed Abdel-Karim Al-Sharnoubi from Burqa, Nablus, and resulted in the death of 18 Zionists and the wounding of dozens.

4- An attempt to send a fourth martyr during the Al-Aqsa Intifada after my release from the Palestinian security services’ prison in 2001, but God’s will did not allow it to succeed.

Arrest: The Palestinian Authority’s security forces seized me in March of the same year, and I was taken to its prisons and interrogation centers in the city of Jericho. I was convicted of these operations in a mock trial and sentenced to life imprisonment and hard labour, thus beginning a journey of suffering and pain in the heat of Jericho that continued for five and a half years, awaiting the day of freedom and salvation. At the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, in which the Palestinian Authority lost its control over the cities of the West Bank due to the invasions, fate took me back to the city of al-Khalil, hoping to breathe the air of our camp (Al-Fawwar camp) after years of separation. However, the Preventive Security Service re-arrested me again, keeping me imprisoned for another four months, until the al-Khalil invasion began in April 2002, and I was released to a life of pursuit and persecution by the Israeli army.

Marital status: Displacement, the bitterness of the Intifada of Stones, and imprisonment left me no room for love and marriage. However, after I left Jericho prison and came to the city of al-Khalil in search of the air of the camp, which the security forces had prevented me from accessing, fate brought me a different breeze from the heart of Hebron University, the breeze of the woman I loved and who became my inevitable fate, and a life project that compensated for the bitterness and cruelty of the years of prison. The sight of her scattered aside the harsheness of prison, awakening love in my desolate life and inspiring a song as joyous of that of a nightingale.

Yet, once again, this song was cut short by the prison bars of the Authority, for her to begin with me a life of love wrapped in the thorns of the prison and its barbed wires. I spent the period of rosy dreams of engagement in the Preventive Security prison, and I married her among the soldiers of the security services and the prison guards. I left their prison to the wedding hall that contained nothing but the bride and the soldiers, I finished the wedding ceremony by returning to my room in the PA prison, I stole a few hours to visit her like a deprived eye glimpsing the moon, until the city was invaded and she lived with me amid the harsh period of pursuit by the occupation. During that time, God blessed me with a child, whom I named Hamza, as an extension of me and her and the bringing of together two hearts that were united in that marriage for only a few short days.

Life Under Pursuit: My life on the run began with the invasion of the city of al-Khalil and continued for 3 months, filled with more suffering and harsh scenes until my final arrest in November 2002.

Prison life: Life folds into chapters of separation known only to those who have lived it, longing for a wife who lived with me for days and separated from me for years, a son who was born, lived, and grown without ever feeling my touch or embrace, and for a family deprived of their home and their reunion on even one occasion. But God’s decree of trial is for his beloved ones, and I pray to be among them and to help me to remain steadfast in His destiny, and to adhere to His religion and learn His book, and to patiently grow in the circles of knowledge that accompany me on my journey of suffering. As for the people who affected me the most through their words and books, they are Sheikh Ahmed Al-Qattan, one of the prominent figures in the Hamas movement and one of the teachers of the Sharia school, along with the martyrs Kamal Al-Titi, Abdullah Al-Qawasmi, and Abdel-Majid Dudin.

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