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Thursday, May 1, 2025
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Palestinian Authority security forces attack, arrest lawyers, writers, activists and freed prisoners protesting assassination of Nizar Banat

UPDATE 2: Hind Shraydeh announced after her release that Ubai Aboudi has launched a hunger strike to demand he and his fellow detainees be immediately freed.

UPDATE: Several of the detainees have been released, including Omar Assaf, Shatha Assaf, Hind Shraydeh, Hadi Tarsha, Diala Ayesh, Tayseer al-Zabri, Deema Amin and Nadia Habash, as the protests have continued outside the police station.

The Palestinian Authority is continuing its series of arrests and attacks targeting Palestinian human rights defenders and activists protesting PA security forces’ assassination of Nizar Banat on 24 June and their ongoing security coordination with the Israeli occupation. On Monday, 5 July, dozens of Palestinians have been detained by PA security forces, including Ubai Aboudi, director of the Bisan Center, Omar Assaf, of the Palestinian Democratic Forum, Arjan Karajah, Khaled Odetallah, Ahmed al-Kharouf, Omar al-Awri, Khaled Awad, Hussam Barjas, Tayseer al-Zabri, Omar al-Jallad, Sari Othman Hammad, Adli Izzat Hanaisha, Osama al-Badir, and Bashir al-Khairy, although al-Khairy, a veteran Palestinian leader, was later released.

As the families and comrades of the detainees gathered outside the police station in Ramallah to demand their release, even more were arrested including Mays Abu Ghosh, student activist and former political prisoner; Deema Amin and Nadia Habash of the Bisan Center; Hind Shraydeh, Palestinian writer and Ubai Aboudi’s wife; Diala Ayesh of Lawyers for Justice; and Shatha and Aws Assaf, the son and daughter of Omar Assaf. Additional detainees include Asmaa Odetallah, Jenin Merhi, Basil Merhi, Juman al-Ezza, Yahya Abu al-Rub, Hadi Tarsha, and
two journalists, Mohammed Hamayel and Akil Awawdeh.

PA forces have also attacked demonstrators violently, including Haithem Siyaj, former prisoner and comrade of Basil al-Araj, who was beaten over the head and is now in the hospital. Most of those who have been seized by the PA are former political prisoners in Israeli jails.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of all of these political detainees. Members of Samidoun Network in Occupied Palestine are protesting with many others outside the police station in Ramallah now, following the arrest of family members and the use of pepper gas against demonstrators. They are calling for wide participation, noting that “Only popular solidarity can protect us from this violent oppression and crimes against the Palestinian people.”

These attacks have followed days of violent repression targeting protests in the streets of Ramallah. Palestinian activists have recounted the security services beating them, threatening their lives, stealing their phones and attempting to terrorize them and stop them from taking to the streets against the PA’s coordination with the Israeli occupation regime.

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Like the assassination of Nizar Banat, these arrests and attacks reflect a conscious policy of the Israeli occupation and the Oslo Palestinian Authority affiliated with it. The latter is carrying out its specific function to protect the existence of the occupation and its control over the Palestinian people in the West Bank. Acting as agents of the occupation, the PA is practicing all forms of oppression and terror, including political arrests, violent raids and assassinations, against the Palestinian people in order to serve the Zionist colonial project and to protect the privileges of the small sliver of the beneficiaries of the Palestinian Authority – the Oslo class affiliated with the Zionist regime.

This crime cannot be considered apart from the assassination policy against Palestinian leaders and fighters carried out continuously over the decades by the Israeli occupation regime. The “security coordination” framework, overseen and implemented by the United States, Canada and the European Union (all engaged in training, funding and oversight of Palestinian Authority security forces), is designed to employ Palestinian agencies to carry out the mission of Zionist colonialism – chasing, repressing, imprisoning and targeting the Palestinian resistance as well as many Palestinians — organizers, writers, intellectuals, student activists — who present an alternative vision for the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea, without the collaborationist entity of the Palestinian Authority.

The purpose of these Palestinian Authority security forces and the “security coordination” project under which they carry weapons is to prevent the Palestinian people and their liberation movement from effectively resisting and overthrowing the Israeli occupation regime throughout occupied Palestine through ongoing force, violence and repression, in full service of the interests of Zionism and imperialism, while bearing a Palestinian flag emblem on each agent’s badge.

Read our full statement here.

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Despite these repressive tactics, Palestinians inside Palestine and in exile and diaspora are continuing to protest the assassination of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat by Palestinian Authority security forces, highlighting the role of the Palestinian Authority as an agent force collaborating with the Israeli occupation regime through the “security coordination” framework underlying the Oslo Accords. While thousands have taken to the streets inside occupied Palestine in outrage, highlighting the role of PA security as colonial enforcers of the occupation, they have been met with brutal beatings, mass theft of phones in an attempt to block documentation, and attempts by plain-clothes security forces to single out individual demonstrators for attack.

Multiple members of the Samidoun Network in Occupied Palestine have been beaten with rocks and batons, had hot coffee deliberately thrown on them, and had their phones stolen by uniformed or plainclothes Palestinian Authority security forces, alongside dozens to hundreds of other Palestinians facing identical treatment. The PA security forces responsible for these attacks have primary responsibility for security coordination with the Israeli occupation, and the brutal assassination of Nizar Banat by the over 25 PA security forces who exploded the door off the hinges of his home before beating him to death with iron bars in front of his family.

These repressive assaults have continued outside occupied Palestine as well. In Beirut, Palestinian refugees protesting the assassination of Banat utside the PA embassy were subjected to physical attacks and verbal bullying and assaults by PA security forces.

The Alternative Palestinian Path (Masar Badil) issued a call to action:

“The puppet Oslo authority supports the Zionist colonial project; that is its purpose for existing. It acts as the spearhead of the occupation and an effective means of ensuring the success of the Zionist project. It is responsible for the exacerbation of the crimes of the Israeli occupation not only because of its full partnership in killing, torture and arrests, and not only because of its role in preventing resistance operations and snuffing out resistance before it can fully blossom, but also because of its major political and historical crime – in reality, the most severe – which is to strike down the revolutionary consciousness of the Palestinian people and aim to replace the culture of resistance and struggle with a culture of subordination and submission to the will of the Israeli regime, global imperialist powers, and their followers in the Arab reactionary regimes.

The time has come to turn the page from this infamous period in the history of our Palestinian cause and to start building an alternative revolutionary path to the devastation caused by this authority of treachery.”

Demonstrations have been organized in multiple cities demanding an end to the PA’s security coordination and role as a subcontractor to colonialism. In New York City, Montreal, Berlin, Den Haag, Paris, London, Copenhagen, Toulouse, Athens, Vancouver, Amman, as well as in Beirut, Palestinians and supporters of Palestine have taken to the streets to denounce this system of injustice imposed upon the Palestinian people. Upcoming actions are already being organized in Frankfurt, Brussels, Stockholm and elsewhere.

Now is the time to take action to confront the Palestinian Authority and all those responsible for imposing it upon the Palestinian people to the detriment of the Palestinian struggle for return and liberation. The PA and its funders and trainers must be held accountable for its ongoing betrayal of the Palestinian people and its collaboration with the occupation regime and Zionist colonialism. We note that this crime is also an urgent call to boycott, isolate and resist Israeli occupation throughout Palestine and elsewhere. The Oslo project is backed by Zionism, imperialism and reactionary regimes – and it must and will fall on the road to the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. 

Take Action: 

  1. Protest at the Palestinian Authority embassy, mission or consulate in your country – or at the Israeli embassy.. Demand justice and accountability for the assassination of Nizar Banat and make it clear that the PA does not represent the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation! Find the PA mission or embassy in your country here: https://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of/palestine – we note — this is also an Israeli crime, first and foremost in the interests of the occupation. Protest at Israeli embassies and consulates: https://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of/israel
  2. Demand your government stop supporting Palestinian Authority security forces and sanction Israel. Aid and training of PA security forces is not designed to provide security to Palestinians, but instead to bolster the Israeli occupation and repress Palestinian resistance. Legitimate aid must support the rights of the Palestinian people, not directly undermine those rights.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 – and stop financing and training the PA security forces to assist the occupation in its crimes.
  3. Join Palestinian movements and organizations fighting back against Oslo. Many Palestinians, inside Palestine and in exile and diaspora, are working to bring down Oslo and restore the compass of the struggle – for liberation and return, from the river to the sea, and upholding the resistance as the legitimate voice of the Palestinian people. Learn more and get involved with the Masar Badil (Alternative Palestinian Path) conference to convene in Madrid in October 2021.
  4. 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.  By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism. Download our Boycott Flyer to distribute at supermarkets, stores and other venues in your community!

Free “Yogi Bear”: Solidarity with Palestine Action political prisoner on hunger strike!

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins with Palestine Action and people of conscience around the world in demanding the immediate freedom of “Yogi Bear,” Palestine Action activist entering their 20th day of hunger strike. Palestine Action has launched a series of direct actions and occupations aimed at shutting down the “business of bloodshed” – targeting Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest private arms manufacturer and other corporations profiting directly from Israeli military occupation and colonization of Palestine.

Palestine Action’s direct actions have shut down Elbit arms factories across Britain, costing the company and drawn worldwide attention for their effectiveness in disrupting profiteering from colonialism, apartheid and occupation. Just today, 5 July, three Palestine Action activists occupied the offices of Vine Property Management, the property manager of Israel’s drone engine factory, Elbit subsidiary UAV Engines in Shenstone, Staffordshire. They chained the gates of the site shut and sprayed the building with blood-red paint.

On the fourth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, Palestine Action occupied the offices of Arconic, the company that manufactured the cladding and insulation system found to be substantially responsible for the fire. Arconic knew of the dangers of the cladding but continued to sell it to protect their profits; the company also manufactures components and materials for the Boeing helicopters and Lockheed-Martin F-35 fighter jets deployed by the Israeli military against Gaza, Palestine.

After shutting down Arconic for two days, police attacked demonstrators – who had received widespread support from the surrounding Birmingham community. Since that time, Yogi Bear has remained imprisoned and denied bail.

Yogi Bear has issued four demands for their hunger strike, noting that it will continue until at least one is met:

1. Immediate release of Palestine Action prisoners. (This condition must be met)

2. Lasalle Investment Management evict Elbit Systems from 77 Kingsway London

3. The British Government to release all correspondence and/ or documents between the government or any arm of the state (Police Force, MOD, Border Force, or any other government department) and Elbit Systems or any of their subsidaries

4. Elbit Systems, Arconic, and all arms manufacturers supplying Israel to shut down UK operation.

Palestine Action noted: “The production of arms, drones, and military technology relies on an interconnected and massive network of complicit firms – Palestine Action are dismantling this network, demanding that firms cease their partnership with Elbit unless they want to be shut down along with them. The message to all other firms with Palestinian blood on their hands is simple: until you end your facilitation of Israel’s brutal repression of Palestinians and sever ties with Elbit, Palestine Action will shut you down and cease your contribution to genocide for you.”

Samidoun stands in full solidarity with “Yogi Bear” and Palestine Action and demands their immediate release. Yogi Bear is a prisoner of the Palestinian cause who needs international support and solidarity as they put their body and life on the line for justice and liberation for Palestine!

Take Action:

1) Donate to support Yogi Bear’s court costs: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-activist-yogi-bear-pay-there-court-costs

2) Yogi Bear is currently remanded at Foston Hall. Call the prison and demand that Yogi receives proper medical care and treatment.

Yogi’s prison number is A9717EP
Governor: Andrea Black
Telephone: 01283 584 300
Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm

3) Send Yogi messages of support – email FreeYogiNow@protonmail.com

4) Support Palestine Action’s work to shut down the profiteers of genocide and colonialism. Learn more at https://palestineaction.org/

5) Contact, call and protest at British embassies in your country. Find the British embassy near you: https://www.gov.uk/world/embassies Use the slogan “Free Yogi” and relay Yogi Bear’s four demands, above. Demand an end to British complicity and active participation in the colonization of Palestine.

Take action: Ayelet Shaked aims to exile French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri from Jerusalem

Salah Hamouri

The below alert is largely translated from the original at Liberté pour Salah Hamouri, with additional content added for international supporters.

On 30 June 2021, notoriously far-right Israeli Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked, known for her call for genocide against the Palestinian people, announced on social media that she had signed papers to revoke Salah Hamouri’s residence permit in Jerusalem.

Salah Hamouri is a French-Palestinian lawyer and a former Palestinian political prisoner whose case was widely known throughout France as a symbol of injustice and false allegations until his release in 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange, only a few months before his sentence was to end. He has spoken throughout France and internationally at events like the World Social Forum on Palestinian prisoners and the struggle for freedom.

The Israeli occupation uses the forced revocation of residency for Palestinians from East Jerusalem as a means to displace Palestinians and forcibly create a “Jewish majority” in the occupied city as well as a means to silence Palestinian activists and organizers. As noted by Al-Haq, “Revocation of permanent residency status is the most direct tool used to forcibly transfer Palestinians from East Jerusalem. This policy which has been used by Israel more than 14,500 times between 1967 and 2015, and is illegal under international law.”

Residency revocation comes hand in hand as a systematic Israeli policy with settlement construction and home demolitions – such as those in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah – in an attempt to forcibly erase the Palestinian people from the occupied Palestinian capital, Jerusalem.

This order by the current Israeli Interior Minister implements what her predecessor had already declared in September 2020. If instituted, this measure would lead to the final expulsion of Salah Hamouri from his home city, making it impossible for Salah to live not only in Jerusalem, but anywhere in Palestine. That is to say, it would create a complete forced exile and deportation.

The decision must now be reviewed by the Israeli Justice Minister and the Attorney General.

In September 2020, French officials declared their clear opposition to this action. At that time, at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, French Ambassador to Israel, Eric Danon, officially approached the Israeli Foreign Ministry for Salah Hamouri to “remain in Jerusalem” and also “allow his family to join him.”

This is only the latest attack on Salah Hamouri and his family. In 2016, Hamouri’s French wife, Elsa Lefort, was expelled from occupied Palestine. At the time, she was pregnant. Since that date, she has been banned from entering Israel on the ludicrous basis that she poses “a danger to the security of the State of Israel.” As a result, Israel has forced Salah to live apart from his wife and children. He has also been repeatedly arrested (13 months jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention in 2018-2019; detained for one week in 2020.) He is constantly subjected to interrogation and questioning and denied the ability to travel and visit his family and France. All of this is a daily form of painful psychological torture imposed on Salah and his family.

The residence permit is the only official document that allows Palestinians in Jerusalem to live in their homes, and it is issued by the Israeli authorities occupying the city. Like all Palestinians in Jerusalem, Salah Hamouri does not have a Palestinian passport and cannot obtain one.

Such a revocation of his residency would result in the final expulsion of Salah from his native land. He could no longer live in Jerusalem or even in the West Bank. This is an extremely serious attack on his fundamental freedom, formally recognized in international law, to live in his own country, on the land where he was born.

This harassment against Salah Hamouri illustrates the Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem as well as the harassment of human rights defenders that Israel wants to silence.

France must now act with determination to stop this manifest injustice and guarantee the fundamental rights of its citizen Salah Hamouri: to live in Jerusalem with his wife and children, to be able to exercise his profession as defender of Palestinian political prisoners and to be able to move freely.

Take action:

If you are in France or a French citizen, contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and your Members of Parliament to demand action.

* Consulat Général de France à Jérusalem
cg-informations.jerusalem-fslt@diplomatie.gouv.fr

* France Diplomatie
https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/mentions-legales/nous-ecrire/
samer.melki@diplomatie.gouv.fr

* Élysée – Présidence de la République française
http://www.elysee.fr/ecrire-au-president-de-la-republique/
patrick.durel@diplomatie.gouv.fr

If you are outside France and an international supporter, contact the addresses above or the French consulate or embassy in your area. https://www.embassypages.com/france

Send a letter with talking points:

  •  Salah Hamouri, Palestinian-French lawyer, is facing forced expulsion and deportation from his home country and city, Jerusalem. This act is illegal under international law and violates Salah’s fundamental human rights.
  • France has continued to repeatedly support Israel’s aggression against Palestine and the Palestinian people. The ongoing attack on Salah has been enabled by this support.
  • France must take a clear stand for its citizen, Salah Hamouri, and against Israel’s policies of ethnic cleansing and force displacement in Jerusalem.
  • Salah Hamouri must remain in Jerusalem and his family must be free to join him.

UN panel finds that three female Palestinian students from Birzeit University are in arbitrary detention

Over 300 organizations around the world have come together to demand justice and freedom for imprisoned Palestinian students. 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. Find action items and endorse the campaign: https://samidoun.net/freepalestinianstudents/

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The following report is republished from Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights. Download the UN Panel report: https://lphr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/A_HRC_WGAD_2021_8.pdf

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer), strongly welcomes the published opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UN Working Group) which importantly finds that three female Palestinian students from Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, Layan Kayed (23), Elyaa Abu Hijla (21) and Ruba Asi (21), are being arbitrarily detained by Israel’s military authorities.

The UN Working Group’s expert opinion provides full clarity that the criminalisation and wholly punitive treatment subjected to Layan, Elyaa and Ruba is unlawful, arbitrary, based on discriminatory grounds, and replete with human rights violations. Their ongoing maltreatment and punishment by Israel’s authorities must be condemned, and should end immediately.

The UN Working Group “requests the Government of Israel to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi without delay… [T]he appropriate remedy would be to release Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi immediately and accord them an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.” LPHR and Addameer urge governments and parliamentarians to follow-up on the UN Working Group’s urgent and critical recommendations.

We initiated the UN Working Group’s review after making a legal complaint last September, submitting that Layan, Elyaa and Ruba were each being arbitrarily detained by Israel’s military authorities. Their published written opinion provides a forensic analysis of material legal and human rights issues highlighted in our submission. In so doing, the Working Group finds their military detention to be arbitrary under four distinct categories (bolded by LPHR and Addameer for emphasis):

  • ‘[T]he detention of Ms Kayed, Ms Abu Hijla and Ms Asi is arbitrary under category I as it lacks a legal basis.’

  • ‘[T]he detention of Ms Kayed, Ms Abu Hijla and Ms Asi resulted from their legitimate exercise of the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, as protected by articles 19, 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and is therefore arbitrary, falling under category II.’

  • ‘[T]he violations of the fair trial rights of Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi are of such gravity as to render their detention arbitrary under category III.’

  • ‘The Working Group concludes that Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi, all of whom are female students and all of whom are also Palestinian, have been detained on discriminatory grounds, namely because of their gender and their national, ethnic and social origin. The Working Group considers that they were also detained on the basis of their status as university students… [T]he Government has violated articles 2 (1) and 26 of the Covenant, and that the deprivation of liberty of Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi is arbitrary under category V.’

The UN Working Group’s opinion details the gravity and range of the violations against Layan, Elyaa and Ruba, finding (bolded by LPHR and Addameer for emphasis):

  • ‘All three arrests appear to have been carried out with a clear excess of force, as none of the women are reported to have put up any resistance but all were handcuffed and two (Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi) were also blindfolded’.

  • ‘[I]t is disturbed by the manner in which the three female students were arrested and at the excessive force used by the authorities. Their subsequent treatment at the hands of the authorities, including the failure to remove handcuffs when eating, the imposed use of a toilet without a door for privacy and the failure to provide appropriate clothing, reveal a prima facie breach of the Bangkok Rules.’

  • ‘[T]he treatment of the three female students clearly falls short of the obligations of Israel as a party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The treatment also violates the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) and the Bangkok Rules [the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders]’.

  • ‘[T]he presence of legal counsel during interrogations is an essential safeguard in ensuring that any admissions by an individual are given freely… [T]he failure to provide Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi with access to a lawyer from the moment of their detention violated their right to adequate time and facilities for the preparation of their defence and to communicate with a lawyer of their choice.’

  • ‘[T]he Working Group in its practice has consistently argued that the trial of civilians by military courts is in violation of the Covenant and customary international law and that, under international law, military tribunals can only be competent to try military personnel for military offences… [T]he Government could have explained why the three women students appeared before a military court but failed to do so.’

  • ‘[T]he right to challenge the lawfulness of detention before a court is a self-standing human right, which is essential to preserve legality in a democratic society… There is nothing to indicate that any of the three women were presented before a judicial authority, as required by article 9 (3)–(4) of the Covenant. Moreover, the ordinary permissible period of delay for being brought before a judge of 48 hours was clearly violated in each individual case.’

  • ‘[I]t is a well-established norm of international law that pretrial detention should be the exception and not the rule, and that it should be ordered for as short a time as possible….[T]he bail hearings for Ms. Kayed, Ms. Abu Hijla and Ms. Asi did not take place and the Government has not explained why. In the absence of such an explanation, the Working Group cannot accept that the pretrial detention of these three women was properly constituted.’

  • ‘The Working Group recalls that, under certain circumstances, widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty in violation of the rules of international law may constitute crimes against humanity.‘

Underscoring the scale and range of the violations involved in the arbitrary detention of Layan, Elyaa and Ruba, the UN Working Group has notably decided to onward refer their cases to six other UN Special Rapporteurs, and a further UN Working Group:

  • the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression,

  • the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association,

  • the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,

  • the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers,

  • the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences,

  • the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, and

  • the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 for appropriate action.

Just prior to the publication of the UN Working Group’s Opinion, LPHR and Addameer released a statement notifying that Layan, Elyaa and Ruba had each received criminal convictions and varying excessive sentences by an Israeli military court, on the basis of having exercised their basic human rights by participating in and affiliating with a democratic student association at Birzeit University:

  • Ms Layan Kayed (23-years-old) was sentenced to 16 months of imprisonment and fined 6,000 NIS (approximately $1,820) on 21 March 2021. Layan has now been in continuous military detention for over a year, following her arrest on 8 June 2020.

  • Ms Elyaa Abu Hijla (21-years-old) was sentenced to 11 months of imprisonment on 23 December 2020 and fined 1,500 NIS (approximately $465). Elyaa was released on 10 May 2021, after over ten months in military detention since her arrest on 1 July 2020.

  • Ms Ruba Asi (21-years-old) was sentenced to 21 months of imprisonment and fined 3,000 NIS (approximately $925) on 3 May 2021. Ms Ruba Asi has now been in continuous military detention for close to a year, following her arrest on 9 July 2020.

LPHR and Addameer are in the process of relaying the UN Working Group’s opinion to Layan, Elyaa and Ruba: informing them that they have been recognised as being arbitrarily detained on four separate grounds, and that they are entitled to remedy under international law. We will continue to work on their cases and those of other Palestinian university students facing illegitimate targeting and punishment for exercising their basic human rights.

About Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR)

LPHR is a UK legal charity that works on key projects to protect and promote Palestinian human rights.

About Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer)

Addameer is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution that works to support Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons.

Background Notes:

Guilty plea bargains were accepted by Layan, Elyaa and Ruba due to Israel’s military courts lacking basic fair trial rights, as clearly indicated by its conviction rate of over 99 per cent. LPHR and Addameer notes their trial dates were frequently postponed without the opportunity of a bail hearing; thereby increasing a further factor of arbitrariness into their military detention.

By way of background, each of the three female Birzeit University students were arrested within a month of each other, and subsequently charged with participating in and affiliating with a student association. From the beginning of the military occupation in June 1967 through to July 2019, Israel’s Defence Ministry has classified 411 organisations as “hostile,” “unlawful” or “terrorist” associations under the Defence (Emergency) Regulations (1945). Members of designated organisations can be criminally charged for their membership in or affiliation with the group. Among the organisations so classified are all major Palestinian political parties, including the ruling Fatah party. University student groups have also been so designated, despite their lawful nature.

In September 2020, LPHR and Addameer submitted a legal complaint to the United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention on the Israeli military authorities ongoing unlawful arbitrary detention of Layan, Elyaa and Ruba.

The criminal convictions against Layan, Elyaa and Ruba are part of an intensifying pattern of the Israeli military authorities arbitrary detention of Palestinian university students for peaceful exercise of their basic human rights of freedom of assembly, association and expression. The use of arbitrary military detention and punishment appears purposeful to intimidate and deter other students from exercising their fundamental civil and political rights. It has the hallmarks of being intentional and strategic; indeed the methods used, and the volume of students they target, are accelerating.

LPHR and Addameer emphasise that Layan, Elyaa and Ruba have been criminalised and received varying excessive sentences for exercising fundamental freedoms guaranteed by international human rights law. They have not had prior engagement with Israel’s military authorities. The effect of these sentences, lengthy and in harsh prison settings, will have a major impact on these young female students. We are deeply concerned about their well-being.

LPHR and Addameer will continue to work on aiming to protect Palestinians university students from ongoing illegitimate targeting and punishment, which appears to be widespread, systematic and in clear violation of basic international human rights law protections. LPHR has established a Student Protection Project to consolidate our work and focus on this specific human rights issue, with more details to follow soon.

Vancouver marchers call to #SaveSilwan and defend Palestine against Israeli colonialism

Demonstrators for justice in Palestine marched in Vancouver on Saturday, 3 July, demanding an end to the forced expulsion, home demolitions and displacement in Silwan and throughout occupied Palestine. Protesters gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery in the center of downtown Vancouver in response to a call from Silwan families resisting Israeli colonialism. Over 130 families, including 1,500 Palestinians, are threatened with the demolition of their homes and expulsion from their land in order to facilitate the construction of a “biblical theme park,” the so-called “City of David,” atop their destroyed homes and stores.

Organizations in both Canada and the United States, such as the “Canadian Friends of Ir David,” fund the forced displacement of Palestinians and the construction of illegal Jewish-only settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

These include the Jewish National Fund Canada, which enjoys charitable status. Recently, the JNF Canada was forced by public pressure to rebrand and distance itself from the Israeli organization, because of its overt support for settlement projects in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

The protest in Vancouver was organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement and supported by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Canada Palestine Association, BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish Territories and Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Vancouver. Demonstrators also denounced the assassination of Nizar Banat, Palestinian activist and struggler for freedom, by Palestinian Authority security forces on 24 June, noting that these attacks are part and parcel of PA ‘security coordination’ with Israel. Canada is among multiple Western countries providing support and training of PA security forces in order to repress Palestinian resistance and provide “security” as a subcontractor of the colonial occupation.

Dalya Masri of the PYM opened the event, emphasizing the importance of joint, collective struggle and support for Indigenous and Black movements for justice. She highlighted the necessity of organizing for change, calling on participants to join organizations and build the movement for collective liberation.

Chandu Claver, chair of BAYAN Canada, highlighted internationalist solidarity for Palestine, emphasizing the connection between the ongoing liberation struggle in the Philippines and the Palestinian people’s struggle. Claver, an Indigenous organizer from the Cordillera region, was targeted and his wife assassinated by still-unidentified paramilitary forces in the Philippines for his resistance to mining projects, including those carried out by Canadian corporations.

Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of the Samidoun Network, denounced the role of the Canadian and U.S. governments in enabling and supporting the colonization of Palestine, calling for this settler colonial, imperialist alliance to be confronted with popular solidarity. She highlighted the case of Ghadanfar Abu Atwan, on hunger strike for 60 days against administrative detention without charge or trial, calling for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners.

The protesters marched to the U.S. consulate, chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” and “Hey hey, ho ho, Zionism has got to go! Hey hey, ho ho, the occupation has got to go!” They demanded an end to the $3.8 billion the U.S. provides Israel every year as well as ongoing Canadian official support for Israeli colonialism, pointing out that this Canadian policy is linked to its ongoing genocide against Indigenous people on Turtle Island.

Organizers emphasized that the movement for justice in Palestine must grow and continue. The next action for Palestine will take place on Sunday, 18 July at 2 p.m. – a Boycott Tour, where protesters will gather outside the offices of ZIM Shipping, the Israeli apartheid shipping company targeted by #BlockTheBoat demonstrations in Oakland, New York, Prince Rupert, Philadelphia, Houston, South Africa and Italy in the last two months, as well as Vancouver. From the ZIM offices, protesters will march to the BC Liquor Stores to demand they stop selling “Israeli” wines made on stolen and occupied Palestinian and Syrian land in the West Bank and the Golan Heights, and highlight other complicit corporations profiteering from colonialism, including Puma, SodaStream and Teva. Join the Facebook event for updates and reminders about the upcoming action.

Photos by Andrew P., Canada Palestine Association

New York protest to #SaveSilwan demands end to U.S. aid to Israel

New Yorkers gathered on Friday, 2 July in a protest to defend Silwan and defend Palestine. The protest was organized outside the offices of the “Friends of Ir David,” one of multiple U.S.-based and -registered tax-exempt organizations that fundraise for the colonial settler organizations currently engaged in displacing Palestinians in order to build illegal, exclusively Jewish colonies on occupied Palestinian land. In Silwan, these organizations are working hand in hand with the Israeli regime to forcibly displace over 1,500 Palestinians from their homes and lands in order to construct a religious theme park, the so-called “City of David,” atop their destroyed homes.

Despite the blatant illegality of their actions under international law, organizations like the Friends of Ir David continue to enjoy tax-exempt status in the United States, raising funds to further enable these colonial projects, on top of the $3.8 billion in direct aid given to the Israeli regime by the U.S. government every year.

The New York City protesters gathered outside the building where the Friends of Ir David are headquartered, standing in support of the 130 Palestinian families in Silwan struggling to defend their homes and their presence in occupied Jerusalem. The protest was organized by the NY4Palestine Coalition, including member organizations Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; American Muslims for Palestine – New Jersey; Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine. A contingent of the Neturei Karta, Orthodox Jews strongly opposed to Zionism, joined the demonstration.

Participants chanted outside the offices, demanding New York State Attorney General Letitia James stop enabling the tax-exempt status of these organizations funding occupation, colonization and apartheid. “It is right to rebel! Israel, go to hell!” and “There is only one solution – Intifada, Revolution!” rang out through the Manhattan streets.

Joe Catron, U.S. coordinator of the Samidoun Network, spoke outside the Friends of Ir David building. “Every crime being committed against the people of Palestine, in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Gaza and across the entire country, is not only being enabled by the $3.8 billion dollars being sent by every U.S. administration to the Zionist military, but also the millions of dollars being funneled through this building to displace the people of Jerusalem, where they have lived for centuries,” he stated. “Today is the beginning of a long struggle, not only against the Joe Biden administration…but against every other level of government that enables this criminal enterprise.”

Following the rally outside the settler organization’s office, demonstrators marched to the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, demanding an end to U.S. aid to Israel and ongoing support for Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. They denounced Schumer’s lengthy record of anti-Palestinian rhetoric and action.

“Senator Schumer must stop supporting and cheering on the Israeli government’s ongoing human rights violations against the Palestinian people. He needs to immediately and publicly demand the Israeli government stop committing these crimes…Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Zionist crimes!” demonstrators affirmed, vowing to return and continue to organize until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea.

Photos: Al-Awda NY

7 July, NYC: Hands-On-Strong: Know & Assert Your Rights Training

Wednesday, July 7 MCC 5218 3rd Ave (R train to 53rd St) Brooklyn, NY 11220-1707 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/808886053099458/ Stay Strong, Stay Safe: Protect Your Rights, Protect Palestine! Knowledge is Power Speak Confidently Without Compromise Join Al-Awda NY legal team and counselors, for hands on – with role play and simulation- training to stay strong in all areas of life and organizing Learn how to use your rights at rallies, at school, at home, on the streets. This event is organized by Al-Awda NY, longtime comrades and fellow members of the NY4Palestine Coalition.

Ghadanfar Abu Atwan on 60th day of hunger strike – take action to demand his freedom

On 4 July 2021, Ghadanfar Abu Atwan – Palestinian jailed without charge or trial – entered his third month of hunger strike. He has gone without food for 60 days in order to demand his freedom from administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial.

Take action to free Ghadanfar –  we urge all supporters of Palestine to sign the petition launched by independent grassroots international activists to demand his immediate release and seek worldwide support: https://www.change.org/freeGhadanfar

Ghadanfar Abu Atwan, from Dura, near al-Khalil, launched his hunger strike on 5 May 2021 in Ramon prison in protest of his detention without charge or trial. He was seized by occupation forces in October 2020 and ordered to six months in administrative detention; his detention was then renewed for another six months, sparking him to launch his open hunger strike for freedom.

Abu Atwan, 28, is currently held in Kaplan hospital after the Israeli Supreme Court “suspended” his administrative detention due to his severely weakened health. However, this does not mean the cancellation of his detention, but only that it will be reimposed as soon as Abu Atwan’s health improves, should he end his strike. He is guarded by hospital security and has been denied transfer to a Palestinian hospital. Abu Atwan’s mother reported that he is repeatedly questioned by hospital staff about eating in an attempt to break his strike.

Instead of conceding to Israeli demands that he end his strike, he has maintained his hunger strike, rejecting supplements and medical examinations. He has declared that he will stop drinking water, emphasizing his commitment to strike until freedom, despite the severe risk to his health. He has lost over 15 kilograms (33 pounds), is unable to speak or walk, and is experiencing a severe shortage of fluids in his body.

Ghadanfar Abu Atwan and his father, in Kaplan Hospital

Abu Atwan’s uncle, Munif Abu Atwan, who is also imprisoned by Israel as a Palestinian political prisoner, has now been on hunger strike for 10 days demanding his nephew’s freedom. Munif Abu Atwan is sentenced to life imprisonment and has already spent 18 years in Israeli prison.

Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by British colonialism. These orders may be issued for one to six months at a time, and they are indefinitely renewable. As a result, Palestinians routinely are jailed for years at a time with no charge and no trial. Neither they nor their loved ones know when they will be released, and administrative detention serves as a form of psychological torture. The detained Palestinians and their lawyers are barred from seeing the “secret file” used to justify their imprisonment. The use of administrative detention, already routinely used to arbitrarily detain Palestinians, has been escalating rapidly, with over 200 detention orders issued since the beginning of May 2021. There are currently over 500 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention.

Since Abu Atwan was 19 years old, he has been jailed four times for a total of seven years, with three of those detention periods held entirely under administrative detention. In total, Abu Atwan has spent almost five years of his life under Israeli detention without charge or trial.

In an interview with Abu Atwan’s family by Middle East Eye, his mother, Majdoleen Abu Atwan stated:

“Ghadanfar has spent most of his youth, what is supposed to be the best years of his life, in and out of Israeli prison,” she said. “Over the past 10 years, I barely get to spend time with my son, and then the Israelis arrest him again.”

Abu Atwan previously launched hunger strikes for his release, as well as joining in collective hunger strikes organized by the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. He joined the 2017 Dignity Strike, the mass hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners; one year later, he went on hunger strike for 28 days to win his release from administrative detention.

After announcing his strike, Abu Atwan was thrown into isolation for two weeks in Ramon prison, before being transferred to isolation in Ohli Kedar prison, where his cell was infected with insects and unsanitary. Frequent transfers and isolation are used as a means of physical pressure on hunger strikers in an attempt to force them to break their strike. When he was then transferred to the infamous Ramle prison clinic, reviled among Palestinian prisoners for medical neglect and improper treatment, Israeli occupation forces assaulted and beat Abu Atwan, physically weakened after 33 days of hunger strike. He was beaten, bruised and sprayed with a noxious substance that inhibited his breathing.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine to take action to support Ghadanfar Abu Atwan and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom. He is confronting the system of Israeli oppression on the front lines, with his body, life and breath. Take these actions below to stand with Abu Atwan’s struggle and sacrifice for dignity, justice and freedom, part and parcel of the struggle for liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea!

Download these signs for use in your campaigns:

TAKE ACTION: 

Sign and Share the Petition!

We urge all supporters of Palestine sign the petition launched by grassroots international activists to demand Ghadanfar Abu Atwan’s immediate release and seek worldwide support: https://www.change.org/freeGhadanfar

This petition addresses the United Nations and calls on human rights organizations like Amnesty International to take a stand for Ghadanfar’s freedom.

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!

Hundreds of thousands – millions of people – around the world have marched and protested with Palestine, its people and its liberation over the past week. Your protest and organizing is also key to supporting this strike!  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. During Ramadan, Israeli dates from stolen Palestinian land are marketed around the world while Israel attempts to force Palestinians from Jerusalem, demolish homes, and imprisons thousands more. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism. Download our Boycott Flyer to distribute at supermarkets, stores and other venues in your community! Block the Boat – join the campaigns to stop Israeli apartheid shipping internationally, which just won a major victory in Oakland, turning back an Israeli ZIM ship from unloading at the port.

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!

Palestinian resistance celebrated at Palestine Stand in Toulouse, France

On Saturday, 3 July, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Network, organized a Palestine Stand at the Capitole metro station in Toulouse, France. The initiative focused on celebrating the legitimacy and necessity of Palestinian resistance in confonting colonization, racism, and apartheid violence, especially following the deadly Israeli military aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in May 2021.

https://twitter.com/CollectifPV/status/1411558978031656961

Under the summer sun, the Collectif organized an information stand in the heart of downtown Toulouse, with large banners stationed in the area reading “From the river to the sea, Palestine will win,” and “From Gaza to Jerusalem: Resistance!” The stand also included an exhibition on the campaign to boycott Israel and complicit corporations and the struggle of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons. Participants distributed almost 1,000 leaflets on the history and nature of Zionist colonialism in Palestine and the importance of supporting Palestinian resistance.

During the event, organizers spoke in French and Arabic about the current situation in Palestine and the importance of developing solidarity campaigns in France. A Palestinian activist with the Collectif Palestine Vaincra emphasized (full speech below, in English translation): “Confronting racism, colonialism and all those supporting the Zionist occupation, we are together today to say: No to the ongoing Zionist crimes! No to ethnic cleansing! No to the siege on Gaza!…We also come to say: Yes, to Palestinian resistance throughout occupied Palestine! Yes to the Intifada and the ongoing popular uprising in Palestine! Yes to the ongoing resistance in Gaza!”

Many people joined to participate in the stand, listen to the speeches, chant in French and Arabic or collect stickers and flyers for Palestine. Dozens of Toulouse residents took solidarity photos in order to reaffirm their commitment to support Palestinian resistance.

https://twitter.com/CollectifPV/status/1411377300373970949

During the two-hour stand, speeches alternated with Palestinian music and Dabkeh dance; many people participated in these celebrations of Palestinian culture in the heart of Toulouse.

Throughout the year, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra continues to organize solidarity activities in Toulouse for Palestine. Contact the Collectif to get involved with these actions, or contact Samidoun to get involved in your area.

Read the original French report at Collectif Palestine Vaincra. Photos by Corinne Janeau.

Speech of the Collectif (originally in Arabic, translated below): 

On behalf of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, we salute you all for your presence, and we welcome you with us to this event. Today, we stand together to participate effectively alongside our people in occupied Palestine, so that we can say in a clear and loud voice that we will continue our stands and activities in support of the Palestinian people everywhere. Today, we stand against the continuing crimes of the Israeli occupation against our people in occupied Jerusalem and all of Palestine. Confronting racism, colonialism and all those supporting the Zionist occupation, we are together today to say: No to the ongoing Zionist crimes! No to ethnic cleansing! No to the siege on Gaza!

At the same time, we also come to say: Yes, to Palestinian resistance throughout occupied Palestine! Yes to the Intifada and the ongoing popular uprising in Palestine! Yes to the ongoing resistance in Gaza! Confronting aggression and resisting the Zionist and American crimes that have continued against the Palestinian people for 73 years..

We all read and know the crimes committed by “Israel” and its Zionist army every day, every hour, against the Palestinian people, crimes taking place in full view of the world. We all know, and we all suffer, but what is required today is that we continue our movement to affirm our position in support of the Palestinian liberation struggle and to be an integral part of that struggle..so that we build together a revolutionary, new and alternative popular movement..

We in the Collectif Palestine Vaincra consider ourselves part of the popular call and initiative to build an alternative, new revolutionary path for the liberation of Palestine.

What is happening in occupied Jerusalem calls us to do so, and what is happening to suppress the issue of refugees and their rights calls us to do so. The cries of the prisoner Israa Jaabis and the 4,500 female and male prisoners call us to do so. All the houses of occupied Jerusalem standing against destruction are calling us to forge a new revolutionary Palestinian path, towards a united and international, Palestinian, and Arab popular movement, with the defeat of the Zionist entity as our goal.


Friends,
You have been following what is happening in the occupied West Bank lately.

After the recent victories that the Palestinian people achieved through struggle, work and blood, some are trying to divert the national and popular compass from the struggle in Jerusalem and Palestine…Therefore, we see the horrific and heinous operation rejected by the entire Palestinian people, the assassination of the revolutionary fighter and intellectual Nizar Banat.. Today we say: the blood of the martyr Nizar Banat lives on…and loyalty to him is loyalty to Palestine and all the martyrs.

We say with heartache, sadness and pain that it is not possible for us to stand up to the occupation and achieve victory over it and its allies, here in France or in Palestine or anywhere, except through the unity and cohesion of our popular position against every party that oppresses and acts against our Palestinian people and works to silence our voices and distort the image of our national vanguard and distort our people’s struggle for liberation and return.

Therefore, we invite you to join in the voice of the Palestinian people and express your condemnation and rejection of this repressive policy, refusing normalization and refusing security coordination…These decisions do not represent us and do not express the aspirations and goals of the Palestinian people. Whoever betrays Palestinian blood cannot be qualified to represent our people and speak on their behalf.

Finally we say:

The Palestinian people, who have been fighting colonialism for a century, will not surrender and will not be intimidated by the forces of occupation and oppression. They will continue their struggle until liberation and return.

We say to the officialdom of France: The French state is part of the crimes committed against the Palestinian people. Whoever supports the occupation shares in the shame and the crime. Whoever provides weapons to the occupation kills our people. Whoever justifies colonialism, whoever is silent about the crimes will be a partner to the occupation, Zionism and its racist settlement project in Jerusalem and in all of Palestine.

Global Calendar of Resistance: Join these events to defend Palestine!


Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all Palestinian, Arab and international supporters of Palestine to escalate their organizing and struggle to confront massacres and ethnic cleansing and support Palestinian resistance throughout the entire land of Palestine.

(The list below will be constantly updated – please share the link with your friends and comrades!)

These events are organized by many groups around the world — wherever possible, we link to the original organizers so that you can be in direct contact! Please note: this list is for action-oriented/outdoor/protest actions specifically. 

Check out our events listings for the webinars, discussions and meetings we’re involved in! 

TO ADD YOUR EVENT TO THE CALENDAR: Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net, message us on WhatsApp at +32466904397 or tag us on social media! We know that these events are mainly international and that the Arab people are marching everywhere for Palestine — we will be honored to add Arab events.

PLEASE NOTE: Times and details may change. Wherever we have it, we have linked to the original organizers’ accounts, posters and pages. Please follow these for the latest info – and don’t hesitate to send us updates! 

Click here for past events archive.

Saturday, February 19

France

  • Paris – Saturday, 19 February, at 2:30 p.m. at the Fontaine des Innocents in the center of Paris (Corner of Rue Berger and Rue Pierre Lescot. Metro-RER Châtelet Les Halles, exit Forum – Porte Lescot). For more info: https://europalestine.com/

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