30 more Palestinian prisoners strike in solidarity with six fighting administrative detention

13 August 2019

Thirty more Palestinian prisoners of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine joined 19 of their comrades in an ongoing series of solidarity strikes to support six Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike against Israeli administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. On Monday, 12 August, the Prison Branch of the PFLP announced that 30 comrades in Negev, Ofer, Ramon and Gilboa prisons had joined the solidarity strike, including:

From the Negev prison, Asem Kaabi, Shadi Ma’ali, Majd Barbar, Munther Mifleh Khalaf, Jamil Yousef, Nazim Assous, Mahmoud Abu Srour, Muhannad Kawar, Mohammed Abu Khdei, Mohab al-Ajarma, Obada Dandis and Maan Awad
From Ramon prison, Jihad Ma’ali, Ahmad Mousa, Tariq Abu Ayyash, Zaki Atta, Thaer Hanani, Mahmoud Issa and Tamer Abu Zudud
From Ofer prison, Hafez Omar, Nasser Atta, Rami Karajeh, Majdi Nasr, Bassel al-Wawi and Mahmoud al-Lahham.
From Gilboa prison, five comrades whose names were not yet reported due to the difficulties of communication imposed by the Israeli prison environment.

They issued a statement, declaring that “as part of our unwavering commitment to support our hunger strikers, a new group of our cadres is joining the open hunger strike to further pressure the prison administration and the Shin Bet to respond to their demands,” emphasizing that the occupation is fully responsible for the life and health of Huzaifa Halabiya and his fellow hunger strikers.

They joined 19 PFLP prisoners who had already joined the solidarity strikes in support of Halabiya and the other strikers.. Halabiya, from Abu Dis in Jerusalem, has been on hunger strike for 44 days, since 1 July 2019. He is a leukemia survivor who was burned over the majority of his body as a child and requires medical care and follow-up. Still, he is persisting in his hunger strike and relying only on water despite the severe deterioration in his health.

He has been imprisoned without charge or trial since 10 June 2018, when Israeli occupation forces took him from his home and his pregnant wife. He is the father of a six-month-old daughter, Majdal, who he has been denied the opportunity to meet.

A lawyer with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association visited Halabiya on Monday, 12 August in isolation in the Ramle prison clinic. The lawyer reported that he came to the visit in a wheelchair with his hands and feet shackled despite his deteriorating health. He is suffering from severe pain, nausea and cramps in the abdomen, head and elsewhere. He is unable to stand or walk and can sleep only three to four hours a day. At one point, he was shackled and taken to Kaplan hospital, where his blood, pulse and blood pressure were tested and an intravenous salt bag was placed; he was handcuffed and shackled the entire time. Last Thursday, 8 August, a repressive unit broke into his isolation cell, ransacking it.

Administrative detention orders are issued on the basis of “secret evidence” for up to six months at a time. They are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians often spend years at a time imprisoned with no charge and no trial under repeatedly renewed administrative detention orders.

Also on hunger strike are five more Palestinian prisoners:

Ahmed Ghannam, 42, from al-Khalil, also a survivor of leukemia. He has been on hunger strike for 31 days against his administrative detention without charge or trial. He is held in solitary confinement in the Negev desert prison.
Sultan Khallouf, 38, from Jenin, has been on hunger strike for 27 days againt his imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention. He launched his strike after he was ordered to detention after his arrest on 8 July 2019. He is held in Megiddo prison.
Ismail Ali, 30, also from Abu Dis in Jerusalem, has been on hunger strike for 27 days against his administrative detention. He has been jailed without charge or trial since January, and is held in isolation in the Negev prison.
Wajdi al-Awawda, 20, from al-Khalil, is on hunger strike for the 16th day against his imprisonment without charge or trial, held in isolation in the Negev prison.
Tareq Qa’adan, 46, from Arraba, is on hunger strike for 14 days against his administrative detention order. A well-known Palestinian leader, he has spent 15 years in Israeli jails in the past.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters and friends of Palestine everywhere around the world to stand with these courageous prisoners who have put their lives on the line to seek freedom and an end to the unjust system of administrative detention. International solidarity can help them win their struggles, so all of our participation, protests and petitions can play a role in helping them to seize victory for justice and freedom.

Take Action:

1) Organize or join an event or protest for the Palestinian prisoners. You can organize an info table, rally, solidarity hunger strike, protest or action to support the prisoners. If you are already holding an event about Palestine or social justice, include solidarity with the prisoners as part of your action. Send your events and reports to samidoun@samidoun.net.

2) Write letters and make phone calls to protest the violation of Palestinian prisoners’ rights. Demand your government take action to stop supporting Israeli occupation or to pressure the Israeli state to end the policies of repression of Palestinian political prisoners. In particular, demand that your political officials put pressure on Israel to end the policy of administrative detention, the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial.

Call during your country’s regular office hours:

• Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne: + 61 2 6277 7500
• Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland: +1-613-992-5234
• European Union Commissioner Federica Mogherini: +32 (0) 2 29 53516
• New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters: +64 4 439 8000
• United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt: +44 20 7008 1500
• United States President Donald Trump: 1-202-456-1111

3) Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Join the BDS campaign to highlight the complicity of corporations like Hewlett-Packard and the continuing involvement of G4S in Israeli policing and prisons. Build a campaign to boycott Israeli goods, impose a military embargo on Israel, or organize around the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Learn more about the BDS campaign at bdsmovement.net.

Samidoun mourns the passing of Nader Abuljebain

13 August 2019

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns the passing of Nader Abuljebain, Palestinian writer and lifelong activist, in California on 11 August 2019. Nader Abuljebain was born in 1950 to Palestinian parents from Yafa, occupied Palestine, and attended school in Kuwait before university in the United States.

He lived between the United States and Kuwait throughout his life, and he was a dedicated activist for Palestine and a strong exponent of the Right of Return movement. He was an early member of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, in the United States, where he organized together with many activists across generations who continue to mobilize for Palestine today, including those involved with Samidoun.

He was a strong leader in the anti-war movement, especially the widespread protests against the U.S. war on Iraq and the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon, and frequently spoke at demonstrations representing the Free Palestine Alliance.

He participated in numerous conventions and international mobilizations in support of Palestine and the Palestinian people, and he always held his eyes fixed on return, signing his messages tirelessly, “Until return, Hatta al-Awda.”

His work lives on in his book, “Palestinian History in Postage Stamps,” documenting the historical legacy of postage stamps in Palestine, including Ottoman stamps, Egyptian stamps, British mandate stamps, stamps produced by the Palestinian resistance and the PLO, stamps produced to support the Palestinian people around the world and other postage documents that represent the history of the Palestinian people, with extensive documentation in Arabic and English.

His legacy also lives on in the continuing work of so many who learned from and worked with him throughout his life, remaining committed to his clear vision: the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

*Nader Abuljebain speaking at the Fifth Al-Awda Conference*

As he wrote, “The very fact of our continued existence in the face of the world’s longest standing and horrific occupation is living testimony to the heroism of our people. This process has given the newer generations a pride of their ancestry and heritage and the momentum and strength to resist inside Palestine and in exile. Under the leadership of Palestinian community-based groups, we must all assume a larger role in cultural activism focusing on the Right of Return, and reminding the world that colonial ‘Israel’ was not established on an empty piece of land but rather its imposition was based on a slow genocide and expulsion of the Palestinian Arabs, and the expropriation of the Arab Palestinian land. Anywhere in the world people know they live on the land, but for the Palestinians their land lives in them. They are inextricably and intimately linked to that space and that land in all of Arab Palestine. There will be no lasting peace in the region UNLESS that link, that organic unity between the exiled Palestinians and their homeland, is restored. It is at the core of the Palestinian struggle.”

Rest in power, Nader Abuljebain!

9 August, NYC: Demo in Solidarity with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon!

8 August 2019

Friday, 9 August
4:30 pm
Lebanese Consulate in NYC
9 E 76th St
New York, NY 10021
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/438087463456281

Join us on Friday, August 9, in front of the Consulate General of Lebanon in NYC in solidarity with Palestinians across camps in Lebanon that are rising up to demand the repeal of the Lebanese Labour Law to ban Syrian and Palestinian refugees from working without visas that has led to mass unemployment and a crackdown on refugee workers.

Endorsing Organizations:
Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
American Muslims for Palestine – NJ Chapter
Existence Is Resistance
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Struggle – La Lucha for Socialism
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
International Action Center
Committee to Stop FBI Repression NYC
Peoples Power Assemblies NYC
NY4Palestine
Arab Workers Resource Center
International League of Peoples’ Struggle – ILPS
BAYAN USA

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are barred from 72 regulated professions, including medicine, public transit, farming and fishery, and the implementation of this Lebanese labor law barred Palestinians (and Syrian refugees) from working at all without costly and difficult-to-obtain work visas. These protests, led mostly by youth in the camps, which are home to nearly a half-million Palestinian refugees, also come in rejection of the harsh conditions that have impacted Palestinian refugees after the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993. In fact, the situation of deprivation, repression and despair has forced many Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to migrate to Europe or elsewhere, seeking human dignity.

Palestinian organizations in Lebanon have expressed specific demands, including:

– the granting of clear legal status to Palestinian refugees with civil, economic and social rights;
– amending Lebanese labor law to cancel the work permit requirement for Palestinian refugees and end their exclusion from regulated professions
– ending ongoing discrimination against Palestinian refugees in a range of areas, including allowing them to own property.

They pledged to continue to protest until the dignity of Palestinian refugees was respected, emphasizing that this campaign is part and parcel of the struggle to return to and liberate the entire land of Palestine and reject all attempts to undermine the Palestinian cause. (The statement was signed by the Al Naqab Center for Youth Activities, Arab Palestinian Cultural Club, Palestinian Cultural Club – Beirut, Palestinian Cultural Club at AUB, Palestinian Cultural Club at LIU, Camps Boycott and the Palestinian National Theater – Lebanon.)

Check out the following statements for more information on the situation in Lebanon:

www.pymusa.com/strikesinlebanon

https://samidoun.net/2019/07/call-to-action-solidarity-with-palestinian-refugees-in-lebanon/

8 August, Michigan: Stand with Striking Refugees & Migrants in Lebanon!

8 August 2019

Thursday, 8 August
11:30 am
Consulate General of Lebanon – Detroit, MI
1000 Southfield Town Center, Suite 2450
Southfield, Michigan 48075
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/438451133416310

We stand with striking Palestinians as well as Syrians and migrant workers in Lebanon against the restrictive and discriminatory new labor law. This law restricts legal work to those who hold a work visa and was accompanied by a scapegoating campaign against Palestinians and Syrians in the country and raids on their places of work and several shutdowns. This has led to an ongoing uprising and strike in the Palestinian camps demanding a repeal of the law and the resolving of their legal status. Syrian refugees have largely avoided rising due to the continuous threat of deportation to Syria. The Lebanese political class continues to scapegoat and threaten both groups.

Our protest in Michigan comes in response to and affirmation of calls by rising Palestinians in Lebanon to hold protests and shows of solidarity across Europe and North America in support of their demands.

Hundreds march in Ramallah and Gaza to free Palestinian prisoners, support Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

7 August 2019

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in Gaza and Ramallah in protests in support of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails on Wednesday, 7 August. The protests also supported the ongoing struggles of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon for civil, social and economic rights as well as the right to return to their homeland, Palestine. The protest in Ramallah was organized by Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine.

*Gaza protest, 7 August 2019. Photo: Hadf News*

In the Ramallah protest, which launched from Manara Square, former prisoners – including former long-term hunger strikers – and family members of current Palestinian prisoners joined the march, including prominent leaders such as Khalida Jarrar and Khader Adnan.

The protests were inspired by the ongoing hunger strikes inside Israeli prisons against administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Over 200 people, including many youth and students, joined the march through Ramallah.

The Gaza protest was organized by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, supported by an alliance of Palestinian political parties and organizations. Hundreds marched through Gaza City, with the participation of women’s organizations, prisoners’ committees and the National and Islamic Forces.

Several leaders gave strong speeches saluting Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike and emphasizing the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people, not only to break the siege on Gaza and end administrative detention, but to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea. Protesters also carried signs in English and French from Samidoun and Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of Samidoun in Toulouse, France.

Huzaifa Halabiya from Abu Dis, Jerusalem, has been on hunger strike for 38 days against his administrative detention; he has been jailed with no charges since 10 June 2018, and his six-month-old daughter was born while he was imprisoned.

Ahmad Ghannam, Sultan Khallouf, Ismail Ali, Wajdi al-Awawda and Tareq Qa’adan are also on hunger strike against their own administrative detention, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners are joining solidarity strikes for their freedom, including 16 prisoners of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who joined the strike on 6 August.

Members of Halabiya’s family participated in the Ramallah protest and delivered an audio message to the Gaza march as Huzaifa continued his hunger strike despite severe deterioration of his health. He is a leukemia survivor who was burned as a child over the majority of his body, requiring ongoing medical care and treatment, yet he has put his life on the line in a hunger strike for freedom.

Administrative detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time with no charge or trial. They are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians can spend years at a time jailed under administrative detention without knowing when, or if, they will be released. Administrative detention was introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate and adopted by the Israeli state following the Nakba.

Both protests also focused on expressing the unity of the Palestinian people, including supporting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, who have launched weeks of ongoing protests following a crackdown on Palestinian workers by the Minister of Labor, a representative of the far-right Lebanese Forces party, which emerged from a militia with a history of massacres against Palestinians and collaboration with Zionist forces invading Lebanon during the Civil War.

Palestinian workers are already forbidden from 70 registered professions in Lebanon. Refugees in Lebanon have also noted cuts to UNRWA services and attempts to liquidate their most fundamental right – the right to return to their homes and lands in occupied Palestine. They are demanding political, civil and social rights, a struggle that is also supported by many Lebanese parties and forces, viewing it as critical to confronting Zionism and imperialism in the region.

Samidoun Network in Occupied Palestine delivered the main speech at the Ramallah protest, translated below:

To the sons and daughters of the Palestinian people everywhere…

Here in the heart of occupied Ramallah and under the sun of our homeland, we join with you today in our struggle, under our united Palestinian flag, the flag of Palestine, to continue our journey of liberation with all of the free people of the world until we achieve our freedom, full, undiminished and undivided.

Today, we stand with the Palestinian people, the supreme reference of the cause, in occupied Jerusalem, our united capital, in the West Bank, Gaza, Haifa, the Naqab and the Triangle, all of our occupied land. We stand with our prisoners steadfast behind bars, with the brave wounded, with the workers and peasants, with Palestinian strugglers holding fast to the embers of the idea and the weapon of resistance.

Let the spark of the intifada of return and liberation begin from the camps of our people in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. United, let the world hear our cry and our clear position: Down with the occupation! Down with the U.S. liquidation projects, Zionism and the reactionary Arab regimes, the so-called “Deal of the century.” It will inevitably fall beneath the feet of the Palestinian people who have brought forth so many strugglers, who will rise from the ashes and mark the path of revolution and the uprising of return and liberation everywhere, to trample the attempts of Trump, Netanyahu and Bin Salman.

We declare the following:

First, we warn of the serious deterioration in the health of the striking prisoners, especially the ill prisoner Huzaifa Halabiya and for all of the sick prisoners, especially the prisoner Bassam Sayeh. We call on all international institutions to play their responsible role toward the striking and sick prisoners immediately and to pressure the Zionist occupation for their immediate release. We emphasize that there will be a strong reaction of the Palestinian people if our prisoners suffer any harm.

Second, we call on all of the forces, political currents and national figures, inside and outside occupied Palestine, to unite under the banner of return and liberation, to asset before our people and everywhere: the final and complete end of the catastrophic era of Oslo, leaving the arena of division, fragmentation and disintegration, and progressing with confidence and determination to popular unity and unity of action in confronting the occupation and its plans and putting an end to the U.S. liquidation project.

Third, we urge the struggling Palestinian people everywhere to initiate this unified struggle in the squares, streets and universities, to march together, hand in hand, on the path of an Intifada of return and liberation, and to unite immediately with the struggle of our people in the camps in Lebanon, with the valiant resistance in the occupied homeland and with all of the organizing and efforts of the Palestinian people in exile and diaspora, near and far.

Fourth, we affirm that our popular march is continuing, and we will announce upcoming demonstrations in the coming days, for all of the organizations of our people inside Palestine and in the diaspora to unite in marches of return and liberation, for the freedom of the prisoners, the achievement of the return to the homeland and the sweeping of settler-colonialism from our occupied land.

Fifth, we salute the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network internationally, for its continuous daily confrontation of the Zionist movement and its racist organizations in North America and Europe, and we congratulate you on the victories that you are achieving against these repressive forces, particularly in the German capital Berlin, with the ongoing and successful struggle against all attempts to muzzle the mouths of Palestinian activists and strugglers and silence the international boycott movement and supporters of the resistance.

Sixth, based on the principles of common struggle with all progressive forces in the world, freedom fighters and anti-colonial strugglers everywhere. We declare our support for all political prisoners and detainees in reactionary Arab prisons and in the prisoners of dictatorial regimes around the world. We call on the international solidarity movements supporting Palestinian rights to make the issue of the prisoners a top priority and work hard to demand their release in all international forums and platforms.

Seventh and finally, we pledge to the martyrs, the wounded and the prisoners to follow in their footsteps and on their path of struggle.

Accordingly, the activities of the coming weeks will be held in honor of the martyr Naji al-Ali, through joint activities with our people in Lebanon, so that the memory of Naji al-Ali will remain in the conscience of our people as a revolutionary torch in their hand until return.

Freedom for the prisoners….return for the refugees, dispossessed and displaced people. Return and victory is certain – our struggling people remain steadfast and victorious!

10 August, S. Florida: An Evening with Janna Jihad

7 August 2019

Saturday, August 10
7:00 pm
Baladna Restaurant
4620 N. University Drive
Lauderhill, FL
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2412903228776983/

JANNA JIHAD IS ON USA TOUR in JULY/AUGUST 2019 || 13 year old Palestinian activist, journalist and Shamsaan Ambassador is on a speaking tour for the first time. She will Visit Major US Cities – New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Detroit, Portland, Bend, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale and Gainesville.

She will be in Orlando on August 11th for info please email Rasha Mubarak Mubarak.rasha@gmail.com.
On August 12 she will be hosted by SJP UF at the Civic Center in downtown Gainesville. 433 S. Main St. For more details contact Laila Fakhoury at lailafakhoury@ufl.edu

Janna who is one of the youngest accredited journalists in the world and Ambassador of South African children’s rights organization Shamsaan – meaning 2 Suns is on a month-long speaking tour. She hails from the village of Nabi Saleh, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where she has participated in and recorded weekly protests against Israel’s occupation and confiscation of Palestinian land and resources.

Last summer Janna undertook a successful speaking tour to South Africa, where, among other things, she participated in Nelson Mandela’s centenary celebration events. Janna hopes to engage with broad sections of the American public, and especially with activists fighting for justice in their own communities, and with youth.

As a Palestinian child living through the brutal injustices of military occupation that impacts all aspects of her life on a daily basis, Janna began recording, reporting on and sharing her lived reality, from the age of 7, shortly after two of her relatives were killed by Israeli forces. Janna now enjoys a global following, serves as ambassador of the South African Palestinian children’s initiative, Shamsaan and has been awarded internationally for her media role. In a political climate where adults are inert with despair, Janna continues her passionate fight for the freedom of her people, stands up for human rights and speaks out against the various mechanisms used by Israel to violate the rights of Palestinians, particularly, children.

Eid sweets and refreshments will be served. Optional donation at the door $20 per adult $10 per child.

Israeli censorship attempts defeated at European Parliament

6 August 2019

*Khaled Barakat, Mohammed Khatib and Charlotte Kates with Manu Pineda, MEP Photo: Izquierda Unida Europa*

The European Parliament has delivered a blow to Israeli efforts to censor political discussion of Palestine within its parliamentary chambers. Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat has been fighting back extensively against a political ban imposed by the German state and the denial of his residence permit because of his speeches and activities for Palestine. As part of the campaign to protect Palestinian rights and freedom of expression in Europe as well as in occupied Palestine, Barakat spoke at the European Parliament on 10 July 2019 along with Charlotte Kates, Samidoun’s international coordinator, and Mohammed Khatib, Samidoun’s European coordinator.

They spoke at the invitation of MEP Manu Pineda, an elected representative from the Izquierda Unida (United Left) in the Spanish state. Since their talks, Barakat and Pineda have been attacked repeatedly by Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan as well as an array of Zionist groups, who not only demanded that Barakat be barred from speaking at the European Parliament but that Pineda be removed from his positions on parliamentary commissions. Zionist organizations have bombarded staff members and spokespeople at the parliament with these demands, echoing those issued officially by Erdan in a letter to parliamentary president David Sassoli.

In a response to these attempts to silence speech on Palestine within the parliament, a press officer for the parliament’s Directorate-General for Communication issued a clear response to the smears and incitement:

“All MEPs and political groups can invite individuals and organisations for meetings in the European Parliament. Access to Parliament is provided in this context in accordance with the relevant rules, which are based on Parliament’s Bureau decision of 2 October 2017 to systematically deny access to all persons, groups, or entities involved in terrorist acts, as covered by Articles 2, 3, and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP.

“In view of that decision, and in the context of combatting terrorism, MEPs and political groups are requested not to invite persons listed in the Council Decision or individuals representing entities or groups on that list, nor to facilitate their access to Parliament.

“In addition, these persons, entities, and groups may not be promoted through audio-visual presentations or other events on Parliament’s premises.

“Accordingly,” he continued, “Mr Barakat and Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, are not amongst the persons or groups and entities covered by these provisions. Further, Mr Barakat did not enter Parliament’s premises as a representative of the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), nor did he speak on behalf of this group. The PFLP was not mentioned nor promoted during the event.

“The primary purpose of the visit was to offer Mr Barakat the opportunity to address a meeting in Parliament on Palestine-related matters, and oppose the speaking ban imposed upon Mr Barakat by German authorities in June 2019,” he concluded.

This response presents a clear rebuff to attempts to silence Khaled Barakat and others from speaking out on Palestine, particularly critical in a moment when European states such as Germany are imposing repressive political bans and residency orders on the basis of political advocacy for Palestine. German officials are even citing the May 2019 Bundestag resolution opposing the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign as justification for denying Barakat’s residency renewal, highlighting the very real dangers posed by these types of legal attacks on Palestinian rights.

International solidarity is continuing to mount in support of Barakat, whose political and legal fight – he is challenging these orders in German courts – has received solidarity from activists, parliamentarians and lawyers around the world. Jews for Palestinian Right of Return issued a statement in support, as follows:

Jews for Palestine Right of Return stands in solidarity with Khaled Barakat, a Palestinian writer and political activist who has been barred by the German state from participating in political activity. This is a racist form of repression and political targeting that aims to silence the Palestinian community in Germany, based on a false conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

Some claim that these attacks on Palestinian rights are a manifestation of German guilt over the Nazi holocaust against Jewish people. In reality, however, these repressive actions are encouraged, supported, and pushed forward by the far right in Germany, which embraces an alliance with Israel at the same time that it pushes anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim propaganda. These far-right parties, such as the Alternative for Germany Political (AfD), are infamous for their own legacies of genuine anti-Semitism and racism.

Germany’s anti-Palestinian campaign is being promoted by Gilad Erdan’s Israeli “anti-BDS ministry,” funded with millions of dollars from the Netanyahu government to silence advocacy of Palestinian human rights, particularly in the U.S., Germany, UK, and other Western imperialist countries which arm apartheid Israel, just as they once armed apartheid South Africa.

In Germany, this repression includes the Bundestag’s recent anti-BDS resolution, the disinvitation of Talib Kweli and other performers who support justice in Palestine, the deportation of Rasmea Odeh, the closure of the bank account of Jewish Voices for a Just Peace, and the forced resignation of the director of the Jewish Museum. While Palestinians have been the primary target, the German state and right-wing similarly smear dissenting Jewish speech as anti-Semitic. Everyone who cares about justice and liberation suffers as a result.

All people, including those in Germany, have the right — and need — to hear directly from Palestinians. We call on Germany to immediately drop the political ban on Khaled Barakat, and end its policy of repression against those working for Palestinian freedom and human rights.

This struggle is, of course, not simply about an individual – it represents a threat to all advocates of Palestinian rights, and especially Palestinians themselves living in exile and diaspora. This is especially true at a time when Palestinians are facing attempts to liquidate their cause as manifested in escalating Israeli ethnic cleansing with the full support of the U.S. and the complicity of Arab reactionary regimes under the slogan of the “deal of the century.” In fact, Barakat was slapped with a political ban when he went to deliver a talk addressing how Palestinians and Arabs can confront U.S. president Donald Trump’s agenda for the region.

Internationally, your statements and voices of solidarity are critical in helping to fight back against this intensified repression. International solidarity can also help to make sure that more Israeli bids for censorship, suppression and silencing are defeated.

Send your statements, protests, photos and actions in solidarity with Khaled Barakat and Palestine to samidoun@samidoun.net or contact us on Facebook.

List of organizations and statements in support of Khaled Barakat (under construction)

Here are some of the solidarity statements we have received, as well as articles covering the situation:

Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strikes continue to grow; Abu Aker and Hassanat announce victory

6 August 2019

*Palestinian women support hunger strikers. Photo: Prisoners through unity and liberation/Facebook*

Palestinian prisoners Mohammed Abu Aker and Mustafa Hassanat suspended their hunger strikes after 36 days without food on Monday, 5 August, even as more prisoners joined the strike in solidarity with Palestinians demanding an end to administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial. Huzaifa Halabiya, who launched his strike with Abu Aker and Hassanat on 1 July, continues his strike for the 37th day despite increasingly critical health circumstances.

According to the agreement under which the strike was suspended, Abu Aker will be released in three months and his detention will not be extended again. Hassanat will be released in six months. The prison branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a statement saluting the prisoners on their struggle and announcing that more prisoners are joining the strike. “We, your comrades in the prisons branch, consider every victory achieved by the prisoners’ striggle to be another nail in the coffin of the administrative detention policy,” the statement affirmed. Earlier, 20 PFLP prisoners announced that they were joining the strike, and now 40 more announced that they will be joining the hunger strikes in waves of struggle.

The first prisoners to announce their participation in the waves of solidarity strikes included Raed Alayan Shafei, Nader Sadaqa, Moyad Issa, Saed Salameh and Bahaa Qa’adan, all held in Gilboa prison, along with Hikmat Abdel-Jalil, Daoud Hermas, Hakim Awad, Majdi al-Jarashi and Amjad al-Shobaki in Ramon prison. In Nafha prison, Ibrahim Abu Massad, Nadim Kanaan, Mohammed al-Hawarin and Mohammed Salah joined the strike. In Ofer prison, Thaer Taha, Khaled Taha, Mohammed Maarouf, Mohammed Bargheeth, Mahmoud Saifi, Mohammed al-Affandi and Hassan Fatafta joined the collective hunger strike.

After the announcement of the escalation of the strike, Israeli repressive forces invaded Ofer prison, attacking sections 19 and 20, where child prisoners are held with adult prisoners, on 4 August. During the violent raids, Zionist forces used tear gas and beatings against prisoners, ransacked their rooms and transferred some to other sections within Ofer and still more to other detention centers throughout occupied Palestine.

In response to the attacks, six more prisoners joined the hunger strike protesting the repression and transfers: Mohammed Tabnaja, Osama Odeh, Moataz Hamed, Thaer Hamayel, Rami Haifa and Shadi Shalaldeh. Prisoners in Ofer are returning meals and closing their sections, and the prison administration is retaliating by shutting the laundry and “canteen” (prison store.)

Five more Palestinian prisoners are also on hunger strike; all are jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. Administrative detention orders, introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate and adopted by the Israeli state, are issued for up to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable. Palestinians can spend years at a time jailed without ever seeing any evidence against them under repeatedly renewed administrative detention orders. There are approximately 500 Palestinian prisoners jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention out of a total of approximately 5700 Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Halabiya, 33, from Abu Dis in Jerusalem, is suffering from severe health deterioration during his strike. He is a leukemia survivor who requires ongoing medical treatment and follow-up, and as a child he was burned over the majority of his body, also requiring ongoing care by a physician. Since his strike began, he has lost at least 16 kilograms (34 pounds) and is suffering intense pain, headaches, vomiting water and severe weakness. Halabiya was seized from his home on 10 June 2018 by occupation forces and taken from his pregnant wife; he has been denied the ability to meet his six-month-old daughter, Majdal, while under administrative detention.

Ahmad Ghannam, 45, who is also a leukemia survivor who requires ongoing medical care after receiving a bone marrow transplant two years ago, has been on hunger strike for 24 days against his imprisonment without charge or trial. He launched his strike immediately after being ordered to administrative detention, two weeks after he was seized from his home by Israeli occupation forces on 28 June 2019. Sultan Khallouf, 38, has been on strike for 19 days, Ismail Ali for 16 days, Wajdi al-Awawda for 9 days and Tareq Qa’adan for one week.

Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine is organizing a protest on Wednesday, 7 August to win freedom for the prisoners and support their hunger strikes, as well as standing with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon struggling for civil, social and political rights – and their right to return home to occupied Palestine. The protest will take place at 4:30 pm in Manara Square in Ramallah. A number of organizations, including the National and Islamic Forces, have urged broad participation in the demonstration.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Mohammed Abu Aker and Mustafa Hassanat on their victory over administrative detention. It is more urgent than ever that supporters and friends of Palestine everywhere around the world join people taking to the streets in Palestine to stand with these courageous prisoners who have put their lives on the line to seek freedom and an end to the unjust system of administrative detention. International solidarity can help them win their struggles, so all of our participation, protests and petitions can play a role in helping them to seize victory for justice and freedom.

Take Action:

1) Organize or join an event or protest for the Palestinian prisoners. You can organize an info table, rally, solidarity hunger strike, protest or action to support the prisoners. If you are already holding an event about Palestine or social justice, include solidarity with the prisoners as part of your action. Send your events and reports to samidoun@samidoun.net.

2) Write letters and make phone calls to protest the violation of Palestinian prisoners’ rights. Demand your government take action to stop supporting Israeli occupation or to pressure the Israeli state to end the policies of repression of Palestinian political prisoners. In particular, demand that your political officials put pressure on Israel to end the policy of administrative detention, the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial.

Call during your country’s regular office hours:

• Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne: + 61 2 6277 7500
• Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland: +1-613-992-5234
• European Union Commissioner Federica Mogherini: +32 (0) 2 29 53516
• New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters: +64 4 439 8000
• United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt: +44 20 7008 1500
• United States President Donald Trump: 1-202-456-1111

3) Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Join the BDS campaign to highlight the complicity of corporations like Hewlett-Packard and the continuing involvement of G4S in Israeli policing and prisons. Build a campaign to boycott Israeli goods, impose a military embargo on Israel, or organize around the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Learn more about the BDS campaign at bdsmovement.net.

July 2019 report: 615 Palestinians seized by Israeli occupation forces

6 August 2019

Illustrative photo. Ibtisam El Amir holds portraits of her sons Mohammad (left, age 24), who was arrested in the early morning hours of June 2, 2014, and Samir (right, age 30) who has served 11 years of a 19-year sentence in Israeli prison, Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, West Bank. Photo: Ryan Roderick Beiler/Activestills

Palestinian human rights organizations, including the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and Al-Mezan, issued a report documenting Palestinians’ experiences with Israeli arrest and imprisonment in July 2019. The following translation is provided by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

Israeli occupation forces arrested 615 Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) in July 2019, including 93 children and nine women. They seized 266 people from Jerusalem, 76 from Ramallah and el-Bireh, 75 from al-Khalil (Hebron), 54 from Jenin, 33 from Bethlehem, 39 from Nablus, 17 from Tulkarem, 21 from Qalqilya, seven from Tubas, six from Salfit, eight from Jericho and 13 from the Gaza Strip.

The number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails reached approximately 5,700 including 37 women and approximately 230 children. Approximately 500 were jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, including those under new administrative detention orders and renewals of previous orders.

The following is a summary of the situation faced by detainees in Israeli jails and detention centers, and the most prominent policies of the occupation authorities during the month of July:

Martyr Nasser Taqatqa faced torture and medical neglect before becoming martyr No. 220

On 16 July 2019, the Israeli Prison Administration announced the death of Nasser Majed Omar Taqatqa, 31, from the village of Beit Fajar in Bethlehem governorate, inside the cells of Nitzan Ramleh prison, where he spent his final hours.

From the day of his arrest on 19 June 2019 until his death, he was subjected to harsh and coercive conditions of interrogation and detention by interrogators and jailers, as well as repeated transfers between interrogation centers. During this time, he faced a serious aggravation of his health condition, according to the testimony of his fellow prisoners.

According to data received by prisoners’ institutions after his martyrdom, Taqatqa was tortured and neglected during the interrogation period. He was held first for interrogation at the Moskobiya interrogation center, then transferred to the Jalameh interrogation center and the Megiddo detention center, where he was beaten by jailers.

According to the autopsy carried out on Taqatqa’s body, the direct cause of death was severe pneumonia, confirming that he experienced medical neglect and denial of appropriate treatment while under interrogation, in addition to harsh conditions of interrogation itself, until he died alone and struggling inside his cell.

As of the date of this report, Israeli occupation authorities continue to detain the body of the martyr Taqatqa in order to further complete its repressive and arbitrary policies against the prisoners during their detention and even after their death.

The prisoners’ institutions consider that the prisoner was subjected to a crime, one of a long list of crimes committed by the occupation authorities and their various agencies against Palestinian prisoners, including torture, which is prohibited by international laws and norms.

It is worth mentioning that the number of the prisoners’ movement since 1967 has reached 220, with the martyrdom of Nasser Taqatqa.

Child prisoners: minors are no exception to harsh policies

Palestinian children in Israeli jails suffer from harsh, inhumane conditions of detention that fail to meet international standards for the rights of children and the rights of prisoners. They are detained in rooms with inadequate ventilation and lighting, subjected to medical neglect and a lack of health care, poor food, lack of play, education and entertainment, in addition to the lack of access to the outside world, denial of family visits, lack of counselors or psychologists, detention together with adults or Israeli criminal children, verbal abuse, beatings, isolation, collective punishment, heavy fines, and others.

During the past month, Israeli occupation forces continued to target minors for arrest, interrogation and detention. There were over 90 cases of the detention of Palestinian minors during July, bringing the total number of child prisoners in Israeli jails to 230, distributed between Ofer, Megiddo and Damon prisons. Many are held in detention centers, while fines amounting to tens of thousands of shekels were imposed.

In a troubling, serious precedent violating humanitarian and legal standards, occupation authorities called the father of the child Mohammed Rabia Alayan (4 years old) for interrogation as well as the father of the child Qais Firas Obeid (6 years old).

The battle against administrative detention continues; 22 prisoners on hunger strike during the month of July

In July 2019, 22 administrative detainees engaged in hunger strikes against the policy of administrative detention without charge or trial.

According to the prisoners’ institutiosn, the majority of these hunger strikers are also former prisoners who have spent years in administrative detention, an experience which has led them to wage a confrontation for freedom from the renewal of their imprisonment. As of the date of this report, six prisoners continue their open hunger strike. Huzaifa Halabiya has been on hunger strike for 37 days and continues his strike after his comrades Mohammed Abu Aker and Mustafa Hassanat suspended their strikes in an agreement to limit their administrative detention after a 36-day strike.

Ahmad Ghannam has been on hunger strike for 24 days, Sultan Khallouf for 20 days, Ismail Ali for 14 days, Wajdi al-Awawda for 9 days and Tareq Qa’adan for 7 days.

The prisoner Huzaifa Halabiya, 37 days of confrontation on hunger strike

The detainee Huzaifa Halabiya from Abu Dis has been on hunger strike for 37 days at the Ramle-Nitzan prison clinic. He is facing the serious deterioration of his health and refuses medical care or supplements, depending on water only in his strike. According to the lawyers who visited him, he has lost a great deal of weight and experiences severe fatigue. He must use a wheelchair when his lawyers visit him.

Halabiya has been detained since 10 June 2018. He is the father of an infant daughter born while he has been imprisoned. He has already suffered from leukemia, and as a child was subjected to severe burns that continue to affect his body. He was arrested on several occasions in the past.

A number of prisoners suspended their hunger strikes in July after reaching agreements to cap or end their administrative detention, including Jafar Ezzedine, who struck for 39 days against his transfer to administrative detention after the end of a 5-month prison sentence and Ahmad Zahran, who ended his strike after 34 days with an agreement to end his detention.

The prison administration carried out a series of systematic retaliatory measures against hunger-striking prisoners: isolating them in cells unfit for human survival, denying them family visits, obstructing legal visits and frequently transferring them from one detention center to another or to civilian hospitals in the “bosta” vehicle. The prisoners describe transport on the “bosta” as another journey of punishment for the striking prisoners.

In addition, jailers continue provocations against the prisoners around the clock, including bringing food to the strikers, deliberately eating in front of them, conducting repeated searches, especially during the night hours, and pressuring them psychologically in an attempt to deprive them of their ability to continue their struggle against administrative detention.

Support for the prisoners on hunger strike

In support of the hunger strikers, prisoners of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have begun to enter a support strike in batches, and a new batch of support strikers have recently begun the strike.

Palestinian prisoner Bassam Sayeh struggling for his life in intensive care

6 August 2019

Palestinian prisoner Bassam Sayeh, 44, is suffering a serious deterioration in his health, and he was taken to intensive care on Tuesday, 6 August. Sayeh, imprisoned in Israeli jails since 8 October 2015, suffers from bone cancer and leukemia and chronic heart problems. After being repeatedly transferred to the Ramleh prison clinic, he was finally transferred to the civilian Afula hospital after his health deteriorated further.

Sayeh, from Nablus, is unable to eat and has reportedly lost consciousness. He is considered to be one of the most severely ill Palestinian prisoners, and his heart, liver and lungs have been weakening since his imprisonment. He suffers from heart failure, pulmonary congestion and an enlarged liver, and his lungs function at only 25% of normal capacity. He is sentenced to life imprisonment and an additional 30 years. He was accused of participating in supporting a resistance operation against Israeli settlers. Sayeh was seized by occupation forces as he went to the Salem military court near Jenin for the hearing of his then-imprisoned wife Mona.

Sayeh was denied visits from his wife Mona for almost three years, and only saw her for the first time since his arrest in January 2018. He has suffered from bone cancer since 2011 and leukemia since 2013. Mona Sayeh said that despite his illness, he had been repeatedly subjected to crackdowns and mistreatment by Israeli jailers accusing him of having a cell phone.

During his time in Israeli prison, Sayeh has struggled for access to necessary surgery and has dealt with interference with chemotherapy as well as denial of access to independent specialist doctors. Sayeh’s health situation is one of the most severe inside Israeli prisons, but medical neglect is a significant issue for many Palestinians. 220 Palestinians have lost their lives inside Israeli jails, many in cases connected to medical neglect, like that of Nasser Taqatqa in July 2019.

There are at least 23 Palestinian prisoners with cancer and around 100 seriously ill prisoners. In the past, Palestinian prisoners have died shortly after their release, reporting long-delayed testing and treatment during their time in Israeli prisons.

List of organizations and statements in support of Khaled Barakat (under construction)

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