Walaa Khaled Tanja grew up in Balata refugee camp (Nablus), in a family with a strong history of resistance for Palestinian liberation. At the age of 15, she received her mother, Latifa Abu Dara, on Al-Quds Street near the Huwarra checkpoint, when she was released as part of the Wafaa Al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011.
Her mother was later martyred due to cancer and her brother has also been repeatedly pursued, imprisoned and wounded by occupation soldiers.
Walaa was arrested on August 20th 2022, with Tahrir Abu Sariya and Maryam Arafat, and accused of attempting to carry out an armed operation in retaliation for the murder of Ibrahim Al Nabulsi. The occupation claimed that they opened fire on soldiers at the “Kedumim” illegal colonial settlement near the occupied Palestinian cities of Nablus and Qalqilya.
Walaa was released on November 24th 2023, as part of the first batch of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner exchange deal, in which 13 Israeli women and children were exchanged for 39 Palestinian women and children who were held hostage by the occupation.
This interrupted Walaa’s original 7-year sentence and she was welcomed home by her family. However, due to the heavy repression by the occupation, no big celebration was possible.
After her release, Walaa expressed her feelings about her liberation thanks to the Resistance in Gaza.
On March 12th 2024, while she was arriving to Tulkarem from Nablus together with her 16-year-old cousin, occupation special forces attacked the car with their guns pointed at them, and seized Walaa once again. She was taken to a military camp, then to Hasharon crossing and then to Damon prison.
Her abduction clearly broke the prisoner exchange agreement, which has now been done several times by the occupation.
Walaa was ordered to six months in “administrative detention” — arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial, indefinitely renewable. On 11 September 2024, her detention was extended for another six months. We urge immediate liberation for Walaa Khaled Tanja, together with the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
On 11 September, The Canada Files — an anti-imperialist media project focusing on Canada — published an interview with Charlotte Kates, Samidoun’s international coordinator, about her involvement in the Palestine movement, Samidoun’s work, and the series of attacks on Samidoun being carried out by imperialist governments and Zionist organizations.
Watch the full interview on YouTube and below:
Previous videos in the series have included interviews with Dimitri Lascaris, Laith Marouf, Camila Escalante and other anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist organizers.
The following article, originally published in Arabic at Etar.info in February 2023, is here translated into English and republished. This article was written by Israa Lafi — Palestinian journalist currently detained without charge or trial in Zionist regime prisons — and Batoul al-Ramahi, a former prisoner released in 2019 after two and a half years imprisoned by the colonial regime. Translation by DZ.
Palestinian Women Prisoners: Femininity and Strength in the Face of Oppression
Israa Lafi
Batoul Al-Ramahi
2023-02-21
As the confrontations between Palestinians and the occupation continue to escalate, the arena of prisoners held by the occupation remains constantly aflame. A few days ago, prisoners were violently repressed in several prisons, especially Negev and Ofer, under the pretext of celebrating the Nabi Yacoub operation carried out by the Jerusalemite martyr Khairy Alqam. Women prisoners in Damon-Haifa prison were also repressed.
This is not the first time Palestinian women prisoners have been repressed. The history of repression is long, both before and after the Wafa al-Ahrar deal in 2011, before and after the merging of women’s detention centers, and before and after separating “security prisoners” from “criminal prisoners.”
Often, the prison administration represses women prisoners for reasons related to their resistance activities or acts of defiance against the occupation. These can include disputes between prisoners and the prison administration, incidents where a guard assaults a prisoner, or prisoners refusing to stand for the count as a form of protest. Guards count prisoners twice daily, and prisoners are required to stand throughout the entire count! Sometimes a prisoner threatens to kill a female guard, for example. In this case, only the cell where the prisoner resides with her companions is repressed, without isolating or punishing the entire section. This is done in an attempt to sow discord among the prisoners. Sometimes the women prisoners are repressed after they take escalatory measures against detention policies in conjunction with men prisoners.
The most intense instances of repression against women prisoners in recent years were in 2017, 2021, and 2023. The repression included: cutting off electricity to the entire section, storming the rooms, assaulting prisoners with beatings and dragging, confiscating all electrical appliances such as the cooking plate, radio, water heater, and television, and locking them in their rooms for days. The repression is accompanied by additional trials for the prisoners, and punitive measures such as isolating some of them, depriving them of family visits, preventing them from commissary, and imposing hefty financial fines.
Damon prison
Repression of 2017
The repression in 2017 occurred after a prisoner refused to stand for the count. The prisoner had refused to stand on three separate occasions and on each occasion, she was punished with temporary solitary confinement. During the fourth time she refused to stand, another prisoner pushed a female guard. The guards then stormed the section, dragged and beat all the prisoners while subjecting some of them to solitary confinement. The prison administration confiscated all the prisoners’ food, their commissary goods, and locked down the section during the holiday.
Repression of 2020[1]
In 2020, the Damon prison administration decided to isolate a prisoner suffering from a difficult psychological condition. The prisoners stood against this decision and prevented the administration from isolating her. The suppression forces entered to forcibly take the prisoner to isolation. The prisoners formed a human shield around her to protect her and prevent her from being taken. Some prisoners were injured due to the guards beating them with batons in an attempt to retrieve the prisoner. The suppression forces failed and withdrew without taking the prisoner to solitary. Afterwards, the prison administration imposed harsh punishments on the prisoners, including cutting off electricity, confiscating electrical appliances: cooking plates, water heaters, television, and radio, as well as closing the cells, preventing the prisoners from going out to the yard for 4 days, and preventing bathing (the bathing section is in an external room and not inside the cells.) The prison administration also threatened to isolate the prisoners’ representative at the time, Bayan Faraoun, and her deputy, Shurooq Dwayyat. The prisoners stood together, hand in hand, to face these punishments. They planned a series of protests against the punishments imposed by the administration. The prisoner movement continued to escalate pressure on the prison administration to lift the lockdown and punishments. They also demanded the right for women prisoners to make phone calls with men prisoners in the occupation prisons. Eventually, the prison administration yielded to their demands.
Repression of 2023
The latest repression occurred after guards found a blade inscribed with “Victory or martyrdom” during a cell search. The administration accused prisoner Yasmin Shaaban of possessing the blade and immediately isolated her. To further complicate matters, the prisoner was isolated outside the prison. In response, a prisoner tried to burn a cell. The prison administration closed the section and isolated a group of prisoners for a period ranging from five to seven days. It deprived them of family visits for a month and deprived the entire section of access to the public phones for a month as well. It’s worth noting that the search and subsequent repression were immediately after Khairy Alqam’s martyrdom operation in occupied Jerusalem.
Skirmishes Outside of Severe Repression
Severe repression is not a frequent occurrence, but there are daily conflicts between prisoners and the prison administration. For example, when merging Sharon prison with Damon, the prison administration deliberately tried to stir up discord among prisoners by spreading rumors and targeting specific rooms with repeated inspections. It also divided the yard time between cells by closing some and opening others, preventing prisoners from gathering.
During these alternating closures, the prisoners’ only option to make consensus decisions or make decisions was to communicate with each other through room windows overlooking the yard area. On rare occasions, written messages were used to briefly clarify the situation. In discussions, options are presented directly, and voting takes place among the prisoners who are authorized to make decisions, even if they are distributed across several cells. Their opinions are gathered in a short time, despite the presence of prison administration listening devices. In cases where prisoners have time and are allowed to communicate, they will meet to discuss and form consensus, meeting once or several times in one of the cells.
Despite the harsh realities of detention, the prisoners have developed a communal structure of organizing that is based on consultation, elections, and collective decision-making. When they decide to escalate against the prison authorities, they prepare meticulously. This preparation includes wearing protective clothing and sturdy shoes, carrying water, and safeguarding important documents like notebooks and papers. For instance, before a planned sit-in protest, anticipating that they might be locked out of their cells, the prisoners were instructed to complete their lunch preparations early and perform their religious ablutions.
HaSharon Prison
The Waiting
Life for women prisoners in detention is dominated by rigid routine. This routine controls every aspect of their existence, turning them into something akin to programmed machines. They are forced to follow fixed procedures, repeated monotonously each day at specific times imposed by the prison administration.
There’s the count during which prisoners are counted inside rooms. This begins at 5:30 AM and is repeated four times during the day at fixed times. There’s the inspection or what’s called (soragim), which is repeated twice a day, when beds and windows are searched, and the cell is fully inspected using a hammer for fear of tunnels or escape attempts. There’s to the break (opening cells with the possibility of moving between them and going out to the section yard) which does not exceed four and a half hours in total distributed over three periods during the day. As for meals, there are three meals brought at fixed times as well (8 AM, 11 AM, and 4 PM) to allow prisoners to prepare food afterwards. This is in addition to the continuous rounds of women guards at night and during cell closure periods, i.e., outside break times.
The life of women prisoners is defined by waiting and hope. These women endure long periods of waiting with anticipation, clinging to hope as they navigate their confinement. They wait for family visits, which vary in frequency: once a month for West Bank prisoners, twice a month for those from Jerusalem and the ’48 interior, and sometimes no visits at all for Gaza prisoners or those punitively denied family contact. Their days are filled with more waiting: for letters and photos from home, for meetings with lawyers, for news updates. They eagerly anticipate prisoner programs and family messages broadcast daily on Palestine Radio and Prisoners’ Radio, or weekly on Ajyal and Holy Quran radios. They wait for court dates, and ultimately, for freedom itself. Yet for some, this final wait ends not in liberation, but (in death) a shroud that extinguishes all their longing and bitter hopes for freedom.
The life of Palestinian women prisoners oscillates between welcoming new prisoners and bidding farewell to those released, between enduring repression and engaging in negotiation, between fighting for their rights and settling into daily routines. Underlying these dynamics is an administrative framework that governs the relationship between prisoners and the prison administration, known within the prison walls as the “internal law.”
The prison environment necessitates a certain degree of communication between prisoners and the prison administration. This is a result of the prisoner movement’s successful demand that the prison service not sidestep them in managing their detention conditions. This principle applies equally to women prisoners. Communication with the administration occurs solely through the section head and her deputy, who are periodically elected by the prisoners. Direct interaction between individual prisoners and the administration or guards within the section is strictly forbidden. The section head and deputy serve as the exclusive intermediaries. Prisoners are barred from visiting the clinic or the prison director’s office unaccompanied; they must be escorted by either the section head or deputy. Conversation during transport to court or hospital is prohibited. Internal regulations also dictate that prisoners refuse to engage with guards without the section head present. These measures aim to prevent the administration from recruiting informants or creating internal dissent through multiple channels of communication. This system became even more rigorous following the merger of Sharon and Damon prisons in late 2018.
The Cooperation Between Women Prisoners and Men Prisoners
Women prisoners actively engage with all struggles carried out by the men prisoners in men’s prisons. They coordinate protest actions through family radio messages, lawyers, and human rights organizations. These intermediaries also relay messages and consensus agreements from men prisoners, often following escalatory steps taken by the men.
In 2019, a groundbreaking event occurred in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement. Lama Khater became the first woman prisoner elected to the Supreme Leadership Body of Hamas prisoners. This position granted her increased freedom of movement, expanded her ability to work, and allowed her to shape policies related to prisoner’s issues. Her role included communicating with other body members, exchanging messages, staying informed about general policies within the prisons, and sharing tasks and responsibilities.
Khater’s presence in the leadership had a significant impact on women prisoners’ conditions. She facilitated consensus-building among the women and helped formulate agreed-upon rules with representatives from other factions inside the prison. Under the supervision of the Supreme Leadership Body, new regulations were approved governing various organizational matters. These included procedures for electing women prisoner representatives and establishing an advisory council comprising all factions. [2]
The Catalyst
The women’s prison serves as a catalyst, capable of igniting unrest across all men’s prisons. The prison service administration is acutely aware of this dynamic. Any incident within the women’s prison reverberates through the men’s facilities, stirring feelings of chivalry, protectiveness, and fervor among men prisoners. It’s a powder keg – once lit, the consequences are unpredictable!
This was evident in 2021 when women prisoners in Damon were heavily repressed and assaulted. In response, the men prisoners across various facilities revolted, their anger erupting into widespread protests. In an act of solidarity, prisoner Yousef Al-Mabhouh stabbed a guard in Nafha prison, in retribution for the violence against women prisoners.
Unlike men’s prisons, women’s facilities are not sorted based on factional organization. Prisoners are assigned to cells based solely on available space. When Sharon and Damon prisons merged, prisoners were distributed according to mutual agreements. This doesn’t mean there’s a complete absence of organizational affiliations or security-related detentions. Women held on security charges who belong to specific organizations typically receive support from those groups, adhering to their directives without the need for sorting cells based on those organizations.
This situation requires organizations to carefully consider the circumstances of women prisoners when planning any actions or escalations. The prison service often retaliates against women prisoners based on their political affiliations, mirroring punishments in men’s prisons. For instance, in 2019, when Hamas prisoners were denied visits, the same punishment was applied to Hamas-affiliated women in Damon prison.
It was only through coordinated protest actions by women prisoners across various factions – including sit-ins in the prison yard, demanding compensation for those who missed visits, and insistence that men’s prison policies are not applied to women – that this decision was eventually overturned. Without these efforts, the visitation ban would have persisted throughout the duration it was enforced in men’s prisons.
At times, organizational interventions can complicate life for women prisoners. The reality is that the daily existence of women in these prisons doesn’t necessitate engaging in organizational activities, whether for recruitment or confrontation with the occupation.
Prisoner Yousef al-Mabhouh
The Women and Confrontation
One might assume that a woman entering prison is fragile and weak. But this overlooks the transformative power of the detention experience from its very first moments. The need for resilience, self-preservation, and stoic endurance in the face of fear and pain reshapes her.
This transformation goes beyond mere patience. It cultivates a deep-rooted endurance, composure, and the strength to react forcefully to individual provocations, preparing her for the broader confrontations of prison life. She may face the “Nachshon” forces during transport, endure invasive searches by guards, or navigate the challenges of family and lawyer visits.
The woman prisoner exists in a constant state of alertness, safeguarding her dignity, asserting her rights, and resisting physical assault by any means necessary – be it through screams or refusal. Take the case of Estabraq Al-Tamimi, who rejected a strip search before a court appearance. Though severely beaten, her brave stance not only deterred further abuse but inspired her fellow prisoners to collectively refuse naked searches and the degrading practice of double shackling of both hands and feet. The prisoners agreed on a policy that whoever is subjected to such treatment should return to the section and refuse to go out to court.
During times of repression, a profound unity emerges among the women, courage becoming their shared armor. Stripped of societal protections, the woman prisoner acts with the instinct of sacrifice and redemption – like a mother or sister shielding part of her very soul from harm. She may even retaliate against guards or use whatever means available for self-defense.
Yet in the long, cold nights of confinement, she allows herself moments of vulnerability. Tears fall, and prayers ascend. But even in these private moments, her inner strength continues to shine – through letters home that are lovingly crafted for family, in the quiet support offered to fellow prisoners, and in the dignified way she prepares to receive visitors, her voice brimming with hope and vitality despite harshness that she needed in specific situations and to a limited extent, and with what Allah grants her at the time.
The soft-spoken woman may seem to disappear behind the label of ‘prisoner,’ like the setting sun. But she reemerges, radiant as the dawn of freedom. She becomes a beacon of love, hope, and optimism – for her fellow prisoners, for her waiting family, and for the promise of a life reclaimed.
Conclusion
The prisons are like pressure cookers, housing spirits too free to ever truly accept captivity. These women’s hearts dangle precariously on threads of hope, yearning for freedom. Yet even in confinement, their proud voices still sing the melodies of revolution, and their minds remain fertile grounds for resistance. For those committed to the struggle, they will always find ways to resist!
May Allah release their wings, break their chains, and return them to their families and loved ones.
[1] Bayan Faraoun, former prisoner, prisoners’ representative, witness to the repression.
[2] Lama Khater, former prisoner, leadership body member.
Today’s story of resistance concerns two brothers, a changing landscape, and lessons from the past.
The brothers, commanders Adel and Imad Awadallah, were each other’s right arm. They led the Al-Qassam Brigades, inflicting fear upon the enemy for years, especially in 1996 when 49 zionists were killed in one week in the “Sacred Revenge” series of operations avenging Yahya Ayyash.
On this day in 1998, they were martyred on a farm, besieged by special forces in Al-Khalil. After hours of armed clashes, they ascended gloriously.
No one knew their fate for 16 years.
This is their story.
From Al-Bireh, Adel and Imad joined the Al-Qassam Brigades in their youth, quickly advancing in the ranks and becoming leaders in Ramallah. When the mastermind engineer Yahya Ayyash was martyred at the hands of zionists in January 1996, they sought to avenge his death in a series of painful anti-colonial operations.
Adel and Imad were the #1 most wanted in the West Bank, not only by the occupation but also by its lapdog, the Palestinian Authority. For three years, Adel and Imad hid from them both. All who visited their home were arrested, and the PA launched a massive arrest campaign of Hamas cadre.
In August 1998, Imad was kidnapped by the PA and tortured in Areeha prison. In a heroic escape, he liberated himself from prison despite solitary confinement, but was tracked by the PA, who planted an electronic device on him.
Adel, on the other hand, was still a fugitive. Clinging to his aspirations of his people’s imminent liberation, he continued to orchestrate resistance operations. During one of them, forces of the Palestinian Authority opened fire on a Renault 9 car, believing him to be inside with his family, unconcerned with the casualties. The PA Forces ended up killing an unrelated Palestinian woman instead, in a move reminiscent of the PA’s thuggish behavior today, like their assassination of martyrs Nizar Banat, Mohammed Al-Banna, and Abdel Qader Zaqdah.
Three years, and all the forces of the PA and occupation could not catch them. In a video, Adel stated that he does not want revenge against those who kill him, but only revenge against the zionist entity. This sentiment is repeated by the resistance today, who understands that bloodshed with brothers serves the enemy, even in light of the atrocities committed by the PA. “Our guns do not see except the minarets of Al-Quds;” Dr. Ramadan Shallah‘s eminent quote is repeated in various forms by the factions today.
On this day in 1998, the IOF claimed to have assassinated both Adel and Imad, right after the PA tracked Imad after his prison escape. Their fate was unknown, whether they were arrested or martyred. Despite torture being used on them both, they refused to confess and refused to provide information about their fellow resistance fighters.
In 2014, the IOF released their bodies, received by a crowd of thousands who never forgot the legacy of the heroic brothers. Adel was wearing the same shirt, 16 years after his martyrdom.
When they were martyred, the Oslo Accords were just five years old. Today, one year beyond the 30th anniversary of the ill-fated Accords, the PA’s position on liberation has not changed; rather, it has more deeply entrenched itself in normalization and betrayal.
In the year of Adel and Imad’s martyrdom, the so-called separation wall did not exist. The geography of the land was markedly different; Palestinians were connected to their land, and colonial checkpoints were a ghost of what they are now. Watchtowers were smaller. Pegasus and Blue Wolf were non-existent. The surveillance state was not as present.
In 2023, mobility is not so easy. Thus, the strategies of the resistance had to change to reflect this. A new strategy has been adopted, in Jenin, in Nablus, in Tulkarem, Al-Khalil, and Areeha, quickly spreading to all parts of Palestine: there is no free entry, and if you enter, we will burn you. While some resistance fighters venture into the interior to send their message, this cohesive strategy has proven to be effective in the last two years.
Today, we not only approach the 31st anniversary of Oslo, but also the anniversary of the kidnapping by the PA of Musab Shtayyeh, who, like Adel and Imad, was also the most wanted man in the West Bank. Shtayyeh, the link between the West Bank and Gaza, is a member of the Lions’ Den and Al-Qassam Brigades. He has been subjected to torture, under the guise of kidnapping him “for protection,” a bold-faced and recurring PA lie.
Despite the setback of his continued abduction orchestrated by the US and zionists, resistance persists. Today’s youth face both the PA and the occupation, avenging martyr after martyr in their operations. They understand that we face two enemies: the zionist entity and the Authority that “participates in our annihilation,” in the words of Basil.
This story provides one lesson: The PA is a collaborating arm of the occupation, and it too must be refused. Basil taught us, “Every Palestinian must understand that any confrontation with the Authority is not a confrontation with a Palestinian, but a confrontation with a tool of the occupation,” a quote that rings clear considering the context of Musab’s arrest: PA repression led to clashes, and he raised his gun to defend himself without knowing if the aggressor was the IOF or PA. This simple ambiguity paradoxically creates clarity to understand the reality of the Palestinian situation.
Down with Oslo and the PA! Down with the zionist entity!
Resistance persists, united and advancing, until the dismantling of all oppressors.
At present, 24 Palestinian women — out of approximately 95 Palestinian women prisoners, of 9,900 Palestinians in Zionist jails, in addition to thousands more from Gaza held in colonial torture camps like that at Sde Teiman — are being imprisoned under “administrative detention” by the occupation forces in the colonial Damon prison. They include students from various Palestinian universities, journalists, activists, a lawyer, employees of Birzeit University and re-arrested former prisoners. “Administrative detention” is a detention regime inherited from the British colonial mandate over Palestine which allows the Zionist occupation to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial for a period of 3 to 6 months, renewable indefinitely.
Diala Nader Ibrahim Eideh (Diala Ayesh) is a lawyer from Al-Bireh, arrested on 17 January 2024 at a checkpoint on her way back to Ramallah. On 24 January, the Zionist occupation military commander in the West Bank issued an administrative detention order against her for four months. On 23 May 2024, the Ofer military court renewed her administrative detention for a further four months. Diala is a lawyer and human rights defender. She actively monitors and documents the living conditions of Palestinian political prisoners in the colonial military prison system and in the Palestinian Authority prisons.
Three well-known Palestinian women journalists are also held in administrative detention: Asma Hraish, from Beitunia, Ramallah, held since April 3. She was ordered to administrative detention for 3 months — renewed once again on June 27.
Israa Lafi was abducted by occupation forces on 17 July 2024, then ordered to administrative detention for 6 months. This is her second incarceration; in 2018 she spent 10 months in colonial prisons.
Bushra Al-Taweel, imprisoned for the 7th time by the colonial occupation. She was seized by occupation forces on 7 March 2024, during an invasion of Ramallah and ordered to administrative detention for 6 months, which was again renewed on August 19.
Shaima Rawajba, a student at An Najah University, was arrested during a raid by the colonial army on her home in Nablus on April 18, then ordered to administrative detention for 3 months. Her arbitrary detention without charge or trial was renewed for a further 4 months on July 24. This is her second detention; in 2022, the occupying forces had first arrested her alongside 3 of her friends at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Seven students or recent graduates from Al Khalil are in administrative detention. These include Baraa Jamal Karama, Angham Asafra, Shahad Asafra and Jenin Amr. All four were arrested on December 3, then ordered to arbitrary administrative detention without charge or trial for a period of 4 months, renewed on April 1 and July 17 for a period of 4 months each time.
On September 1, 2024, the occupation forces arrested Jenin’s cousin, Raghad Amr, alongside Raghad Mubarak and Al Yamama Harinat. Raghad Amr & Al-Yamama are students, and Raghad Mubarak a recent engineering graduate, of Palestine Polytechnic University in Al Khalil. All three were ordered to administrative detention for a period of 4 months.
Hadeel Shatara, an employee of Birzeit University and a dedicated advocate for Palestinian prisoners’ liberation, was seized by the occupation on June 30 upon her return to Palestine and ordered to administrative detention for 5 months.
Khalida Jarrar, an academic at Birzeit University and feminist activist, was arrested on December 26 and ordered to administrative detention for 6 months, renewed on June 24.
Three students from Birzeit University are also in administrative detention: Layan Kayed, detained since April 7, and whose detention was renewed on July 5 for an additional 4 months.
Mona Abu Hussein, arrested on 12 March 2024 and whose administrative detention was renewed twice, on June 4 and September 3 for three months each time.
Dania Hanatsheh, arrested on August 19 and transferred to administrative detention for 4 months. Dania is one of the prisoners re-abducted after her release in November during the prisoner exchange achieved by the Palestinian Resistance.
In addition to Dania Hanatsheh, two other prisoners released in the November exchange were re-arrested and ordered to administrative detention by the occupation forces:
Hanan Barghouti, 60 years old, from Kobar, Ramallah, arrested on 5 March 2023 and ordered to administrative detention for a period of 3 months. Hanan’s husband and three of her children are also imprisoned. Her detention order was renewed twice, on June 4 and September 3, for three months each time.
Walaa Tanja, from Balata refugee camp in Nablus, was arrested at the Deir Sharaf checkpoint alongside Youssef Abu Dhraa, then transferred to administrative detention for a period of 6 months.
Two graduates of Birzeit University are also detained under this regime. Layan Nasir, detained since April 7, whose detention was renewed on July 30 for an additional 4 months. Layan Nasir was previously arrested in 2021 and spent 50 days in detention. And Saja Muadi, originally from Ramallah, arrested on April 18 and ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial for 6 months.
Yasmine Abu Sorour, from the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, was abducted by the Zionist occupation forces on 26 December 2023 and ordered to six months in colonial administrative detention. She has been imprisoned at least three times before, in 2015, when she was a minor girl, and twice in 2018.
Fatima Youssef al-Farakhna, from Deir Jarir in the Ramallah area, was abducted by occupation forces on 10 May 2024 and then ordered jailed without charge or trial for 6 months under administrative detention.
Sumoud Welad Muhammad, from Ramallah, has been held in detention without charge or trial since 12 March 2024, when she was abducted by occupation forces.
Freedom for all Palestinians held in Zionist, imperialist and reactionary prisons; freedom for Palestine!
Follow Dismantle Damon for more campaign updates and news on the struggle of Palestinian women prisoners.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network raises its salutes to the martyr, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a US citizen who went to Palestine to join ISM and the Faz3a campaign defending Palestinian land, villages and agriculture from the rapacious settlers seeking to steal them. She was shot by a Zionist sniper in Beita on Friday, September 6th as she confronted the land-thieving settler mobs as part of the weekly demonstrations to defend the land of Palestine.
Aysenur committed her life to the Palestinian cause and for the liberation of Palestine from US imperialism and world Zionism. She was martyred using weaponry provided to the Zionists by the American imperialists, the same weaponry whose sale and transfer she and others vehemently opposed. The US government that has provided endless military, economic, and propaganda aid to the Zionist regime, has the blood of Aysenur on its hands, as well as the tens of thousands of martyrs in Gaza and the West Bank.
During her life, Aysenur was involved in fighting against the same institutions that bought the bullets that killed her. She participated in the student intifada, organizing at the encampment at the University of Washington, demanding the University divest from “Israel” and to cut ties with Boeing. Boeing, the 3rd largest weapons corporation in the world, is responsible for sending billions of dollars of munitions to the occupation forces. These include Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), which were used in multiple horrific massacres in Gaza, killing hundreds of Palestinians. Another US weapons company, General Dynamics, produces the MK-8 bombs, used by the Zionist forces on Monday, September 9, in the horrific massacre in the al-Mawasi camp in which the IOF bombed displaced Palestinians residing in tents, creating 27-foot-deep craters in the sand. As we honour Aysenur, we must also commit ourselves to building and developing the student Intifada and confronting the war machine at all US and Western universities.
Aysenur is one of the many martyrs who have given their lives for the Palestinian liberation struggle, and she is one of the many internationals who have made major sacrifices in solidarity with Palestine, including fellow internationalist martyrs for Palestine Rachel Corrie, Tom Hurndall, and the martyrs of the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Furkan Doğan, Cengiz Akyüz, Ali Haydar Bengi, İbrahim Bilgen, Cevdet Kılıçlar, Cengiz Songür, Çetin Topçuoğlu, Fahri Yaldız, Necdet Yıldırım and, Ugur Süleyman Söylemez. As a Palestinian, Arab and international struggle, the cause has always been taken up by internationalists willing to dedicate themselves to ending the ongoing colonial genocide in Palestine; Aysenur and her forerunners engaged in popular organizing and struggle build upon a long line of courage and dedication. For example, in the 1970s, the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon — the heart of the Palestinian revolution — attracted people from around the world to join the struggle, through arts, health work, educational work, organizing, and through the armed resistance.
Many internationalists have also been imprisoned by Zionist, imperialist, or reactionary regimes globally for participating in the Palestinian liberation struggle through various forms, throughout the years.
Fusako Shigenobu, an internationalist prisoner of the Palestinian liberation struggle, was jailed in Japan for over 21 years as a political prisoner for her, and her comrades, collaboration and involvement in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s armed struggle. Inside Palestine, the prisoners of Palestine held by the Zionist regime over the years have included Terre Fleener, Brigit Schultz, Ludvina Jansen, Thomas Reuter, and Kozo Okamoto, who have spent years inside “Israeli” jails and participated as part of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.
This is not to mention the numerous Arab liberation strugglers who have given their lives and freedom for the liberation of Palestine, as we see daily in the Arab support fronts for Gaza stretching from Yemen to Lebanon to Iraq, Syria and beyond. Arab strugglers for Palestine, from Georges Abdallah, a Lebanese internationalist struggler, who fought against French imperialism and has been imprisoned in French prisons for over 40 years, to Mohammed Boudia, Mohamed Zouari and Mohammed Salah, are among countless Arab martyrs for Palestine who have viewed Palestine as the central cause of Arab liberation. Most recently, Arab popular commitment and sacrifice for Palestine, despite official normalization and complicity, has been represented by the martyr Maher Dyab Hussein al-Jazi al-Howeitat, the Jordanian truck driver who on Sunday, September 8 carried out the Karameh operation on the Jordanian border with occupied Palestine, widely honoured as a “hero of Al-Aqsa Flood.”
Through different eras of the Palestinian revolution and various forms of struggle, the ongoing legacy of internationalist commitment to Palestinian liberation comes in confrontation with the full imperialist partnership in Zionist genocide. Aysenur lives on as part of this legacy of struggle, a call to action and an appeal to people of conscience everywhere. We uplift and honor the sacrifices made by international strugglers, alongside Palestinian and Arab strugglers, who have given their lives and faced imprisonment to further the struggle for Palestinian liberation.
Glory to Aysenur! Victory to Palestine, glory to the martyrs, defeat to Zionism and imperialism, liberation for Palestine from the river to the sea!
The Zionist-imperialist massacre that took place at 1 am on September 10, 2024, in Mawasi Khan Younis, on the tents of displaced people, using multiple US-made MK-84 bombs, 2,000-pound bombs with 900 pounds of explosives made by General Dynamics, airlifted to the Zionist regime by the Biden-Harris administration, must arouse all to action. The US has provided at least 14,000 such bombs to the Zionist regime in 2023-2024 alone.
There can be no “everyday” massacres. The ongoing slaughter of the Palestinian people, the genocidal illegitimate settler regime that implements it, is part of a global camp of plunder, massacre, and destruction aimed at the people of the world.
Fabric tents being bombed into sand in a “safe area,” with families (including Fujo, Madi, Tai’ma, and Al-Shaer families) and displaced ppl — many of them born refugees since 1948, forced from their homes to create illegitimate zionist entity on the land of Palestine and denied their right to return ever since, shot in the legs and shot dead and assassinated by occupation soldiers when even marching toward their homes — with a “fire belt.”
The zionist regime attempts to “legitimize” this horrific massacre…. by labeling it an assassination. Let us be very clear: assassinating Palestinians is not a legitimate purpose for one zionist rifle nor for a slew of bunker-buster bombs designed to destroy everything around. Palestinians have the absolute right to resist their colonization, occupation and genocide by all means necessary, including and especially armed struggle, and to form organizations and movements to lead and conduct that struggle. And the zionist regime has no right to exist on the land of Palestine, let alone to “defend itself” from the people it kills, occupies and tortures.
Tents swept off the earth, burned to pieces, craters all around. This is what Zionism is. This is what imperialism is. It is death, plunder and destruction. There is no solution for this crime except for the total defeat of the zionist regime & the total rout of imperialism.
It cannot be any clearer than it is right now that it is the Resistance that stands for life, hope, faith, humanity, justice, and dignity with all of its commitment and sacrifice, and that it is zionism and imperialism that are everything inhumane, repugnant, and, indeed, evil.
The zionist regime is nothing but a temporary entity, even as it attempts to prolong its existence through bloody massacres and US-made-and-funded weaponry. The illusion of its technological superiority is no more. All it has is destruction and death in its arsenal.
The vicious zionist regime must be brought to justice by all means. The Resistance forces are sacrificing everything to do so. We must, at the very least, bare minimum, do everything we can to escalate our movement. Justice must be done, for Palestine & for the world.
May the martyrs dwell in the highest heavens. Victory to the resistance, defeat to zionism and imperialism, and a liberated Palestine, from the river to the sea.
US-BASED ORGANIZATIONS STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH BOOKER OMOLE & DEMAND AN END TO HIS REPRESSION
We write as US-based organizations that have worked closely with Booker Omole, National Vice Chairperson and National Organizing Secretary of the Communist Party of Kenya. We stand in firm solidarity with Mr. Omole, who was unjustly detained as he prepared to travel to the People’s Republic of China. Omole was dragged off the plane and had his travel documents confiscated. He faces further repression with a hearing scheduled at 9:30 AM on Monday, September 9th, before the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
This act of repression is a blatant attempt to silence a leader of the revolutionary movement fighting for the rights and dignity of the Kenyan people. We recognize that Mr. Omole is being targeted because of his fearless leadership in the struggle against capitalist exploitation, imperialist political and economic domination, and political repression in Kenya.
We condemn the Kenyan government’s ongoing efforts to suppress dissent, particularly through the arrest and harassment of political leaders like Mr. Omole, who have been at the forefront of protests sparked by oppressive tax hikes, rampant government corruption and repression, reflected in the Kenyan people’s outrage at the rising cost of living, debt crisis, and the murder of protesters.
Last May, President Ruto introduced the neoliberal Finance Bill, which was resisted by a popular movement that asserted that Kenyans were already struggling with the high cost of living, and the bill proposed unacceptable tax hikes on basic necessities like cooking oil and bread. After a public outcry, the government revised the bill, dropping some of the proposed taxes on essential goods and shifting the burden to imported items and internet usage. However, these changes failed to address the underlying issues of a neoliberal-capitalist development model designed to benefit largely western monopoly capital as well as a domestic comprador bourgeoisie. The masses continue to demand Ruto’s resignation and that meaningful reforms are implemented.
The people’s resistance is crystallised in 13 demands, which include calling for an end to extra-judicial killings, addressing the unemployment crisis, tackling rampant corruption, and rejecting Kenya’s subservience to foreign powers like the US and IMF, which have plunged the nation into economic subservience. We stand with the protest movement, which has decried the Ruto government’s auctioning of Kenya’s natural resources and assets to foreign interests, eroding the country’s sovereignty, and ignoring the people’s voices in critical national decisions.
Kenya’s role as a lackey to US imperialism has become increasingly evident. Shortly after introducing the Finance Bill, Kenya was designated a Major Non-NATO Ally of the United States. This status underscores Kenya’s deepening alignment with US imperialist interests, at the expense of its own people.
The Communist Party of Kenya under Mr. Omole’s leadership, alongside other revolutionary organizations, has taken a leading role in opposing this neocolonial trajectory. In particular, they have denounced Kenya’s decision to send police forces to Haiti as part of a US-led imperialist intervention. Kenya’s involvement in this occupation is nothing more than an extension of the same oppressive systems that the Kenyan people are resisting at home. As anti-imperialists, we recognize that the struggle in Kenya is part of a broader global movement for sovereignty, justice, and liberation from imperialist control and wealth drain.
We call for the immediate end to the judicial harassment and curbing of Booker Omole’s rights and demand the release of all political prisoners detained in Kenya. We reaffirm our support for the protesters’ 13 demands and our internationalist solidarity with the Kenyan people’s popular struggle.
National Lawyers Guild, International Committee
Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran (CASI)
International Action Center
International People’s Tribunal on US Imperialism: Sanctions, Blockades, and Economic Coercive Measures
As we enter a new month, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network would like to commemorate Black August. Samidoun’s Toronto chapter honoured the decades-long tradition of calling for the release of all political prisoners and uplifting the Black Liberation struggle through our August 10th Prisoners’ Justice Day event and in attending a Black August art build with our comrades at A Dutty Boukman Book Club.
The first Black August was held in 1979 by the Black Guerrilla Family to commemorate the martyrdoms of revolutionary bothers Jonathan and George Jackson. Both of their lives were taken by the criminal injustice system in the United States. 45 years later, Samidoun honours their legacies by demanding: Free Them All, From Palestine to “Canada”.
Prisons in “Canada” and “Israel” function as an arm of imperialist white supremacy. They quell the people’s dissent against their oppressor and maintain status quo settler-colonial rule. Just like Canadian prisons are designed to capture Black and Indigenous peoples, in “Israel” the Zionist prison system is designed to detain, torture, and martyr Palestinians. In December 2023 in Milton, ON’s Maplehurst Correctional Complex, prisoners were, too, tortured by guards and Canada also has a decades-long history of deaths in custody that is on the rise.
The Palestinian Resistance’s commencement of Al-Aqsa Flood Battle on October 7th was not only a prison break out of besieged Gaza, but also an act to liberate Palestinian prisoners from the clutches of Zionism through a prisoner exchange. We must continue to learn from the Resistance’s steadfastness both within and outside of prison walls and how we can apply these learnings here to join hands with the Black Liberation struggle and beyond.
As September begins, we will continue to uphold and honour the legacies of Black revolutionaries– both past and living. From our solidarity with Stop Cop City in Atlanta to demanding justice for Tylor Coore in Tkaronto to paying tribute to the 1971 Attica Prison Uprising. All prison walls have got to fall! In the words of Black revolutionary Assata Shakur: “And, If I know anything at all/Its that a wall is just a wall/And nothing more at all/It can be broken down”
On Tuesday August 30th, protesters on stolen Musqueam land in “Delta, British Columbia, Canada” blocked the road at the Maersk and ASCO Aerospace Canada shipping warehouse headquarters. Maersk is the world’s largest integrated logistics and shipping company. Since October, the Danish shipping and logistics giant has contributed over $300 million worth of weapons components, sourced from from various parts of the world, including Canada, to be engineered into deadly weapons by U.S arms manufacturers. As a leader in the logistics industry, Maersk plays crucial role in the weapons supply chain.
With 68% of Israeli weapons sourced from the U.S, Maersk is a key player in the global arms supply chain that supports the Israeli occupation forces’ ongoing genocidal bombardment of Gaza, its occupation of the West Bank, and its imperial crimes across the region. Maersk ranks amount the world’s most profitable companies, with wealth tainted by the blood of over 186,000 Palestinian martyrs. ASCO Aerospace Canada facilities produces components for F-35 stealth fighters, and bulkheads, employing about 100 workers in Delta.
Protesters held the road for 2 hours, delivering speeches regarding these companies role in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, chanting, and playing Palestinian music as trucks to and from the warehouses backed up on the road. The protestors communicated to the drivers in English, Punjabi and Hindi, handing out flyers to the drivers to explain the purpose of the protest. Many trucks turned back as a result. The resulting back up caused to Maersk’s shipping schedule in the port resulted in up to $500,000 in lost revenue to Maersk alone, with even the most conservative estimates far above $100,000 in direct losses from this action.
Delta police showed up in numbers, at least one wearing a “thin blue line” patch (infamously used to denote “police solidarity” against the people and often linked to racism and organized far-right movements), many of them covering their ID badges, and all immediately trying to intimidate protesters. As the cops brought in ever increasing numbers and vehicles, they began threatening arrest and displaying signs of aggression. At this juncture, protesters made the decision to leave the first action site. As they tried to walk down the road the police blocked their way and issued further threats to the crowd. They escalated their aggression by physically grabbing one BIPOC protester, ripping the tent they were carrying off their shoulder to confiscate it, and making further threats of arrest while again blocking the ability of the protesters to leave the site.
After demanding the cops to make way, the action then moved on to the Maersk office, where protesters picketed outside the entrance again giving speeches, chanting, holding banners and signs, and engaging workers in conversation about the Canadian arms trade that is facilitating the genocide in Palestine and Maersk’s role in it. Messages were chalked outside the offices. Shamefully, security on site warned workers leaving the facility not to speak to the protesters. Other protesters stood at the side of the highway with Palestinian flags and signs which provoked unending support from the truckers driving by all day, who honked, flashed peace signs, and cheered with the protestors. While this was happening, Delta police used taxpayer dollars to fly a drone overhead and monitor the action closely with several officers. Protesters left on a high after the afternoon shift change, having spent a beautiful day in community fighting to end the genocide of the Palestinian people.
This action demonstrates that workers and activists alike have the appetite to strike right to the heart of the military industrial complex here in “Vancouver.” We know there are many such facilities in the greater “Vancouver” area. We will not stop, we will not rest, until these war criminals know that we will fight them — every day until the genocide ends and beyond, until all of Palestine and Turtle Island are free.
Three well-known Palestinian women journalists are also held in administrative detention: Asma Hraish, from Beitunia, Ramallah, held since April 3. She was ordered to administrative detention for 3 months — renewed once again on June 27.
Bushra Al-Taweel, imprisoned for the 7th time by the colonial occupation. She was seized by occupation forces on 7 March 2024, during an invasion of Ramallah and ordered to administrative detention for 6 months, which was again renewed on August 19.
Shaima Rawajba, a student at An Najah University, was arrested during a raid by the colonial army on her home in Nablus on April 18, then ordered to administrative detention for 3 months. Her arbitrary detention without charge or trial was renewed for a further 4 months on July 24. This is her second detention; in 2022, the occupying forces had first arrested her alongside 3 of her friends at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
On September 1, 2024, the occupation forces arrested Jenin’s cousin, Raghad Amr, alongside Raghad Mubarak and Al Yamama Harinat. Raghad Amr & Al-Yamama are students, and Raghad Mubarak a recent engineering graduate, of Palestine Polytechnic University in Al Khalil. All three were ordered to administrative detention for a period of 4 months.
Khalida Jarrar, an academic at Birzeit University and feminist activist, was arrested on December 26 and ordered to administrative detention for 6 months, renewed on June 24.
In addition to Dania Hanatsheh, two other prisoners released in the November exchange were re-arrested and ordered to administrative detention by the occupation forces:
Two graduates of Birzeit University are also detained under this regime. Layan Nasir, detained since April 7, whose detention was renewed on July 30 for an additional 4 months. Layan Nasir was previously arrested in 2021 and spent 50 days in detention. And Saja Muadi, originally from Ramallah, arrested on April 18 and ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial for 6 months.
