Palestinian prisoners’ leader isolated, struggle grows as Zahran reaches 99 days of hunger strike

30 December 2019

*March in Ramallah in support of Ahmad Zahran, on hunger strike for 99 days. Photo: Wattan News*

As hunger-striking Palestinian administrative detainee Ahmad Zahran entered his 99th day of hunger strike, demanding freedom from Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial, a leader in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement was transferred to collective isolation. Wael Jaghoub, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s prison branch, was transferred from Ramon prison to collective isolation in Hadarim prison shortly following the PFLP prisoners’ statement that the leftist party would be mobilizing inside the prisons to demand freedom for Zahran, 42.

The Handala Center for Prisoners and Former Prisoners reported on Monday, 30 December that the PFLP prison branch said that Jaghoub’s isolation was “an integral part of the ongoing targeting of leaders and cadres of the Front inside and outside prison. It is a desperate attempt to disrupt the activities of the Front’s prison organization, especially as it launches a new, strategic battle in support of Comrade Zahran on hunger strike.” Specifically, they said that the isolation was a form of retaliation for Jaghoub’s refusal to meet with a delegate from the Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency, along with other leaders of Palestinian parties inside prisons.

A group of PFLP prisoners in Israeli jails announced that they will launch a one-day hunger strike on Tuesday, 31 December in support of Zahran. They urged wide support and solidarity for Zahran’s struggle as he nears 100 days of hunger strike. They emphasized that Jaghoub’s isolation will not deter their commitment to escalate the struggle inside prisons in support of Zahran and his strike for freedom.

Wael Jaghoub is serving a life sentence in Israeli prison for his role in the Palestinian resistance. He has writen two books and dozens of articles from his prison cell, especially those related to the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. In a new book, “Letters from the Prison Experience,” Jaghoub wrote about the struggle of the prisoners’ movement inside Israeli jails. He has been repeatedly subjected to isolation, denial of family visits and interrogation during his imprisonment.

*Images of Shatha Hassan and Mays Abu Ghosh at the march in Ramallah in support of Ahmad Zahran, on hunger strike for 99 days. Photo: Wattan News*

Zahran, held in the Ramleh prison clinic, is unable to walk and has suffered from serious deterioration of his health and has lost over 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of weight since launching his strike. The military appeals court at Ofer prison has repeatedly delayed a decision on his appeal against the detention order.

From the village of Deir Abu Mishaal near Ramallah, Zahran previously conducted a 39-day hunger strike to secure his freedom from administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Despite an agreement to end his hunger strike and release him, a new four-month administrative detention order was lodged against him, prompting Zahran to launch his current strike.

He has previously spent 15 years in Israeli prisons. He is the father of four children (Rusaylah, Reem, Omar and Yamen). His brother, Saleh, has served 17 years of a 20-year prison sentence and is held in Hadarim prison.

Also on 29 December, crowds of people marched in Ramallah in support of Zahran and his fellow Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails struggling for freedom. Participants carried banners highlighting Zahran’s strike and photos of many imprisoned Palestinians, including the student prisoners Shatha Hassan, president of the Bir Zeit Student Council Board, and Mays Abu Ghosh, journalism student at Bir Zeit.

Zahran is the latest Palestinian prisoner to wage a long-term hunger strike against administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and can be issued for up to six months at a time. Palestinians have spent years in Israeli prison under these orders. Currently, around 450 of over 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners are detained under administrative detention orders, initially introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist state.

Israel’s practice of administrative detention, which is used systematically to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial, comes in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and is also a form of psychological torture for the detainees and their families: They never know when and how they may be released, if ever.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates our full and unconditional solidarity with Ahmad Zahran and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom. We urge all supporters of justice around the world to take a stand with Ahmad Zahran, whose life is on the line as he struggles to bring an end to administrative detention. International solidarity can be important to show Palestinian prisoners like Ahmad Zahran that they are not forgotten and to put pressure on the Israeli state – and the governments that support it – to support Zahran in achieving victory for justice and freedom.

See the call to action here: https://samidoun.net/2019/12/ahmad-zahran-heads-toward-100-days-of-hunger-strike-demand-his-freedom/

Khalida Jarrar continues to resist Israeli attacks, rigged military courts

29 December 2019

*Palestinian women in Gaza protest for Palestinian prisoners, 26 December 2019. Photo: Hadf News*

Palestinian leftist feminist parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar, 56, will once again be brought before an Israeli military court at Ofer prison and military base near occupied Ramallah on Monday, 30 December. Imprisoned since 31 October, when over 70 armed Israeli occupation soldiers invaded her home, the internationally known political leader and advocate for Palestinian rights is being charged with “holding a position in a prohibited organization,” the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Like all major Palestinian political parties, the leftist PFLP is labeled a “prohibited organization” by the Israeli occupation.

Jarrar and several other Palestinian prisoners were the target of an official smear campaign conducted by the Shin Bet in Israeli media in recent days, as the agency touted and sensationalized its claimed arrest of 50 activists associated with the PFLP

As noted by Gideon Levy in Ha’aretz, “This charge sheet, which has one clause and takes up just one page, is mandatory reading. It exposes the naked – and disturbing – truth about Israel’s occupation authorities and security apparatuses, but also about the country’s media, their bonded lackey. This is not only a story about tyranny in the territories, not only about the fact that Jarrar, like thousands of other Palestinians, is a political prisoner in every respect – as the military prosecution itself admits this time. Nor is it only about the fact that Israel allows itself to arrest Palestinian elected officials without any inhibition. Equally disturbing is the blind, knee-jerk mobilization of the Israeli media in the service of the security establishment’s propaganda.”

The attacks on Jarrar in the Israeli media escalated just as the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, announced that she recommended the ICC launch a formal investigation of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine. Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian committee that acceded to the Rome Statute and the ICC and presented evidence to the international body about ongoing Israeli crimes. It also came as she prepared to teach at Bir Zeit University on international law and the Palestinian movement, alongside the targeting of students for their own political and student activity on campus.

While the Palestinian lawyers at Addameer representing Jarrar and fellow prisoners were forcibly silenced by a gag order prohibiting them from speaking about the cases of multiple Palestinians under Israeli imprisonment – including those subjected to severe torture, like Samer Arbeed – the Shin Bet issued sensationalist press releases about Jarrar and her fellow prisoners.

As noted by Levy, the charge sheet against Jarrar makes clear that her detention, like that of thousands of fellow Palestinians (including those held as freedom fighters in the resistance) is entirely political. Specifically, she is accused of being “director or assistant to the administration of an illegal association, or held a position or standing of some kind in an illegal association or under its auspices.”

The attacks on Jarrar also came as her case was highlighted in a report issued by Human Rights Watch, Born Without Civil Rights: Israel’s Use of Draconian Military Orders to Repress Palestinians in the West Bank. The report, which also covers the case of artist Hafez Omar and human rights worker Najwan Odeh, reviews the long and ongoing history of Jarrar’s persecution by the Israeli occupation state.

Jarrar’s most recent arrest comes only eight months after her release from 20 months in Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention after being seized by occupation forces in 2017. While imprisoned, she played a leading role in supporting the education of fellow Palestinians jailed with her, especially minor girls preparing for their high school examinations and frequently denied a teacher. She organized classes for her fellow women prisoners on the principles of international human rights law. Over 275 organizations signed onto an international call for her release.

In 2014, she resisted – and defeated – an Israeli attempt to forcibly displace her from her family home in el-Bireh to Jericho. Only nine months later, in April 2015, she was seized by Israeli occupation forces and ordered to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. After a global outcry, she was brought before Israeli military courts and faced 12 charges based on her political activity, from giving speeches to attending events in support of Palestinian prisoners. She served 15 months in Israeli prison – and was then free for only 13 months before her 2017 arrest.

Jarrar is a longtime advocate for the freedom of Palestinian prisoners and has served as the former Vice-Chair and Executive Director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. A member of the Palestinian Legislative Council elected as part of the leftist Abu Ali Mustafa Bloc, associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, she chaired the PLC’s Prisoners Committee.

Jarrar’s case, along with those of imprisoned students like Mays Abu Ghosh, Shatha Hassan (the chair of the Bir Zeit Student Council Board) and Samah Jaradat, has once again highlighted the struggles of Palestinian women prisoners. There are currently approximately 41 Palestinian women prisoners, of whom four are held in administrative detention without charge or trial: Hassan, Bushra Tawil, Shurouq al-Badan and Alaa al-Bashir.

In Gaza, the women’s organizations of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hamas organized a protest on Thursday, 26 December in support of Palestinian women prisoners struggling for freedom. Iktimal Hamad, speaking on behalf of the PFLP, urged “the widest possible support for the struggling women prisoners, especially in light of the intensified oppressive policies and practices of the occupation targeting the rights that women prisoners have obtained through struggle.”

Specifically, she noted that “All attempts to break the will of Khalida Jarrar will not succeed, and she will remain strong and steadfast in all circumstances. The attempts to incite against the parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar are evidence of the failure and bankruptcy of the occupation. We urge international human rights institutions, particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene urgently to protect the lives of the prisoners and to presssure the occupation to end the ongoing violations of prisoners’ rights, especially women prisoners subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture.”

“We reaffirm our full support of the prisoners’ movement in confronting these Zionist attacks and we confirm that we are standing beside them, fully involved in this battle,” Hamad concluded.

As Yafa Jarrar, Khalida’s daughter, noted, “International pressure has made the difference in how quickly mom gets released in the past.” All 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners need your support in their struggle for justice and freedom.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all friends of Palestine, women’s organizations and supporters of social justice to join the campaign to free Khalida Jarrar and her fellow Palestinian prisoners. Together, we can defeat Israeli attempts to silence, smear and isolate Khalida by supporting her work, publicizing her case and demanding her freedom.

You can use the following flyers and social media images to join the campaign to free Khalida Jarrar and her fellow political prisoners. Download here and share widely!

Images:

Posters:

Download Freedom for All (Download PDF)

Download Freedom for Khalida Jarrar (Download PDF)

Ahmad Zahran heads toward 100 days of hunger strike: Demand his freedom!

29 December 2019

Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Zahran is on his 98th day of hunger strike against his administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial. Zahran, 42, from the Palestinian village of Deir Abu Mishaal, launched his hunger strike after a new four-month administrative detention order was issued against him despite winning an agreement for his release in an earlier 39-day hunger strike.

A father of four children, Zahran has spent 15 years in Israeli prisons in multiple past periods of detention. Over his lengthy hunger strike, he is facing a worsening health crisis. He has lost over 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of weight and was transferred to the Ramleh prison clinic as his health further deteriorated.

On 22 December, interrogators from the notorious Al-Moskobiyeh interrogation center in occupied Jerusalem came to the Ramleh prison clinic to interrogate Zahran, apparently in an attempt to intimidate or coerce him into breaking his strike or providing a false confession against himself or others. His legal appeals to end his detention have been repeatedly postponed.

“I anxiously await each and every morning to hear that my son is still breathing to bring me back to life, said Raseela Zahran, 70, Ahmad’s mother, in a call for support for her son from Palestinian, Arab and international supporters of justice.”Ahmad’s health has deteriorated and I appeal for everyone to ensure the release of my son from the grip of the [Israeli] occupation. How much more can this body handle after two hunger strikes that together lasted for 120 days; My son’s body is weakening but his will remains strong.”

*Gaza march demands freedom for Ahmad Zahran. Photo: Hadf News*

On Saturday, 28 December, fellow Palestinian prisoner Jamil Saleh Ankoush announced that he was launching a hunger strike in solidarity with Zahran until he achieves victory and brings an end to his administrative detention without charge or trial.

Zahran’s lawyers with the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reported that Zahran has been repeatedly denied family visits and that even his lawyers have had their meetings with him repeatedly delayed, denied or rescheduled. In an attempt to break his strike, he was transferred repeatedly from one prison to another (using the harsh “bosta” system) and held in solitary confinement.

On his 68th day of hunger strike, Addameer lawyer Mona Naddaf reported that Zahran was already vomiting blood and was unable to stand. Despite his obviously severe health condition, he was forced to leave his bed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. During 15 days in the Negev desert prison, he was allowed to shower only once.

On 23 December, large crowds of Palestinians joined a march in Gaza City to support Ahmad Zahran and his fellow Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Organized by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the march noted the escalating attacks on Palestinian prisoners, including the targeting of the Palestinian left as Israeli intelligence agencies announced “the arrest of 50 members of the PFLP” in a media campaign against imprisoned Palestinian strugglers, including torture victim Samer Arbeed and feminist parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar.

A statement by the Prison Branch of the PFLP was presented at the Gaza march, saluting Zahran and saying that “The prisoner Ahmad Zahran is a paradigmatic example of the struggling, resisting intellectual confronting the occupier. We stand with the prisoner Zahran, who was yesterday subjected to harsh interrogation and faced down the occupier, refusing to break his strike. He continues to resist and uphold his demands to end his arbitrary administrative detention.”

Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and can be issued for up to six months at a time. Palestinians have spent years in Israeli prison under these orders. Currently, around 450 of over 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners are detained under administrative detention orders, initially introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist state. Israel’s practice of administrative detention, which is used systematically to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial, comes in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and is also a form of psychological torture for the detainees and their families: They never know when and how they may be released, if ever.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network emphasizes our full and unconditional solidarity with Ahmad Zahran and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom. We urge all supporters of justice around the world to take a stand with Ahmad Zahran, whose life is on the line as he struggles to bring an end to administrative detention. International solidarity can be important to show Palestinian prisoners like Ahmad Zahran that they are not forgotten and to put pressure on the Israeli state – and the governments that support it – to support Zahran in achieving 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. Join the actions to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and support the Great Return March. 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 Josep Borrell Fontelles: +32(0) 470 18 24 05
• New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters: +64 4 439 8000
• United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab: +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.

Downloadable materials:

Download: Poster/Sign – Free All Palestinian Prisoners

https://samidoun.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/SAMIDOUNsign-FreeAllPalestinianPoliticalPrisoners-FreePalestineFromTheRiverToTheSea-4-6-16.pdf

Download: Poster/Sign: Free Hunger Strikers and All Prisoners

https://samidoun.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/SAMIDOUNsign-FreeHungerStrikersAndAllPoliticalPrisoners-4-6-16.pdf

Download: Poster Sign: End Administrative Detention

https://samidoun.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/SAMIDOUNsign-EndAdministativeDetentionDismantleTheIsraeliPrisonRegime-4-6-16.pdf

Palestinian student Mays Abu Ghosh subjected to torture in Israeli interrogation

29 December 2019

*Palestinian imprisoned student Mays Abu Ghosh supports freedom for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah*

Palestinian journalism student Mays Abu Ghosh, 21, a student activist who has consistently supported Palestinian prisoners herself, has been jailed since 28 August along with five other young Palestinians. In comments published at Al-Resalah, her mother said that after a month in Israeli interrogation in the al-Moskobiyeh interrogation center in occupied Jerusalem, she was bruised, pale and nearly unrecognizable. Abu Ghosh is a senior student at Bir Zeit University.

“Her face was full of bruises and her body is very pale. I could not hug her due to the pain hurting all of her body.” Abu Ghosh’s mother said that she and her husband, Mays’ father, were told they would be permitted to see their daughter after she had been held in interrogation for 30 days. However, she said that, when she arrived, she learned this was no normal family visit. “I recognized that we were taken to the investigation centre for blackmailing. When we were there, the Israeli soldiers told Mays that we were detained, trying to put pressure on her in order to accept that claims made against her.”

In 2018, Mays published an article in Al Jazeera English denouncing U.S. President Donald Trump’s cuts to UNRWA, speaking as a Palestinian refugee born and raised in the Qalandiya refugee camp near occupied Jerusalem. “The faith we inherited from our ancestors is strong and deep – we believe that it is possible for us to return to our lands. In fact, we believe that our return will come soon. After all, it is a basic human right,” she wrote. Mays’ brother, Hussein, was killed by Israeli occupation forces in 2016 and their family home in Qalandiya camp was demolished. Mays’ other brother, Suleiman, 17, has been imprisoned under administrative detention, held without charge or trial as a minor.

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association convened a press conference on 23 December highlighting the torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners, including Abu Ghosh. According to the Addameer conference, she was subjected to a number of stress positions, including the so-called “banana position.” The eventual military court indictment against her charges her with involvement in student activities. Addameer noted that 95% of detainees are subjected to some form of torture and the majority are indicted for political, social and student activities or participation in public actions like demonstrations.

Mays’ father spoke at the press conference, saying that he was summoned to Ofer prison and military base for interrogation. He said that the soldiers threatened to jail Mays for life and asked him, “How do you raise your children? Why is your daughter so stubborn?” He also said that “the torture that Mays encountered in the prisons of the occupation is part of the suffering experienced by the women prisoners, especially the wounded prisoner, Israa Jaabis.”

He also said that he last saw his daughter on 18 December in Damon prison, where she is being held with the other Palestinian women prisoners. He reported that despite everything she experienced, she is in high spirits and committed to her principles. Jamil Saadi, a lawyer representing Abu Ghosh, said that she has had repeated military court hearings but that she has not yet been continued. Her next military court hearing will take place on 7 January. Israeli occupation military courts convict over 99% of the Palestinians before them.

Ramallah march demands freedom for Palestinian prisoners

29 December 2019

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets on Saturday, 21 December in Ramallah to march for Palestinian political prisoners. Samidoun Network in Palestine joined with many other organizations and activists to call for the rally at Manara Square. Organized with a call for a human chain to support 5000 prisoners, the organizers emphasized that “Prisoners are not a number,” carrying the names and photos of Palestinians jailed by the Israeli occupation.

The march wound through the streets of central Ramallah, as marchers carried banners highlighting women prisoners, student prisoners and hunger strikers fighting back against imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention.

Participants in the demonstration emphasized the ongoing and escalating Israeli attacks on Palestinian youth and students, including the targeting for arrest of student leaders at various university campuses, such as Mays Abu Ghosh and Shatha Hassan, Bir Zeit student council leader recently arrested and jailed without charge. They also focused on the severe torture faced by Palestinian detainees, including Abu Ghosh and Samer Arbeed, the Palestinian father who was tortured so badly that he spent weeks in a coma and suffered 11 broken ribs.

One lead banner featured Abu Ghosh, fellow imprisoned student Samah Jaradat, Amal Taqatqa and injured prisoner Israa Jaabis, along with a list of the names of the Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli jails. Participants also carried posters and banners hailing imprisoned political leaders like Ahmad Sa’adat and Khalida Jarrar.

The large march, led by Palestinian youth and, especially, young women, focused on the prisoners as an essential component of the Palestinian liberation movement who will not be forgotten or abandoned inside Israeli prisons. There are currently approximately 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including around 450 jailed without charge or trial under indefinitely renewable “administrative detention” orders. Ahmad Zahran, one of these administrative detainees, has been on hunger strike for nearly 100 days to demand his release.

Speaking about the Ramallah march and ongoing actions inside Palestine for the Palestinian prisoners, Joe Catron, U.S. coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network said, “Samidoun activists under the Zionist occupation set a challenging example for the rest of us. Their steadfastness in the face of the enemy’s direct repression is a constant reminder of our obligation to support the Palestinian struggle for national liberation under the much easier circumstances we face. And their courage and innovation dare us to resist limitations on our own struggles against capitalism and imperialism.”

29 December, Toronto: Premiere – Revolution Selfie (with director in attendance)

28 December 2019

Sunday, 29 December
3:00 pm
The 519
519 Church St
Toronto, ON
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/456369041595487/

Film Showing: Revolution Selfie
with Guest Speaker award-winning director Steven de Castro

Sunday, December 29th – 3 pm to 6 pm
519 Church St, Toronto, ON M4Y 2C9
Presented by TV Migrante, Multimonde Production
$20 dollars ticket (food and drinks will be served)
Trailer: https://multi-monde.ca/en/revolution-selfie-the-red-battalion/

In this mock video game / documentary film, we accompany the filmmaker as he brings us face to face with the armed warriors of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the Philippines.

Filmmaker Steven de Castro sets out to discover what is going on in the Philippines that has led the CIA to declare war on to a revolutionary army growing in the countryside for almost 50 years – and why the CIA dubs the NPA a “foreign terrorist organization”.

REVOLUTION SELFIE expands the horizons of documentary storytelling while broadening our understanding about the lesser-known fronts in the global “War on Terror.”

Filmmaker Steven De Castro takes us up close and deep into the lives of the young soldiers of the 48-year-old Maoist guerilla army in the Philippine hinterlands.

But rather than simply presenting interviews and images in a traditional journalistic manner, this film weaves fantasy elements and web-based camera techniques into the documentary form to disrupt our matrix of widely held beliefs that underpin the discussion of terrorism, poverty, and the motivations of the warriors who fight in a revolutionary liberation war.

NOT IN TORONTO? Here are screenings in other cities across Canada:
• Vancouver, December 21, 2019 at 12:30 PM – 4 PM https://www.facebook.com/events/423279105011353/
• Ottawa, January 30, 2020 at 6:30 PM – 8:45 PM https://www.facebook.com/events/2637715599652061/

Video: Samidoun’s Charlotte Kates discusses Palestinian prisoners with Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign

27 December 2019

Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, joined Mick Napier of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign on Sunday, 22 December for the SPSC’s video interview series, which involves activists, writers and campaigners for Palestine discussing events and analysis. The interviews are livestreamed on Facebook.

Watch the video below:

Many of the past interviews are archived at the SPSC website: https://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/resources/spsc-broadcasts Previous participants include David Cronin, Ramzy Baroud, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Jeff Halper, Richard Falk, Nahla Abdo and many others.

During the interview, Kates discussed the repression of Palestine activism in Germany, a topic previously covered by SPSC interviews. Specifically, she spoke about the case of her husband, Palestinian leftist writer Khaled Barakat, who was subject to a ban on political activities in Germany shortly before their visa renewal was denied in a highly political case.

The interview also covers the case of Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian feminist leftist legislator once again arrested by the Israeli occupation, Samer Arbeed, Palestinian father subjected to brutal torture and the ongoing targeting of Palestinian children. Jarrar herself was previously interviewed on an SPSC broadcast after her release from her last imprisonment by the Israeli occupation.

28 December, Istanbul: BDS Turkey 10th Anniversary Event

27 December 2019

Saturday, 28 December
3:30 pm
Cezayir Toplanti Salonu
Firuzaga
Hayriye Caddesi No. 12
34425 Beyoglu/Istanbul, Turkey
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/908455266215330/

On 27 December 2009, the Boycott Israel Initiative for Palestine was launched on the first anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s attack on Gaza. Since 2014, BDS Turkey, in coordination with the international BDS campaign, has continued the campaign. The end of 2019 marks our 10th year of organizing. Join BDS Turkey to celebrate this 10th anniversary.

3:30 – 4:00 pm – live music concert
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm – food/exhibition
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm – documentary film screening, “Gaza Fights for Freedom” dir: Abby Martin

27 Aralik 2009 tarihinde, Israil’in Gazze’ye düzenledigi Dökme Kursun saldirisinin birinci yildönümünde “Filistin için Israil’e Boykot Girisimi” adiyla kurulan ve faaliyetlerine uluslararasi BDS hareketiyle koordinasyon içinde 2014 yilindan beri BDS Türkiye adiyla devam eden hareketimiz, bu yilin sonu itibariyle 10. faaliyet yilini tamamlayacak.

Gelin, 10. yildönümümüz için düzenledigimiz, 28 Aralik 2019 tarihinde, Cezayir Toplanti Salonu’nda gerçeklesecek olan etkinligimizde bize katilin.

Etkinlik programimiz:

15:30-16:00 canli müzik dinletisi
16:00-17:00 ikram / sergi
17:30-19:00 belgesel film gösterimi
“Gazze Özgürlük Ugruna Savasiyor” (yönetmen: Abby Martin)

Adres: Firuzaga, Hayriye Cd. No:12, 34425
Beyoglu/Istanbul

25-26 January, Ann Arbor: Youth for Palestine Conference

27 December 2019

Saturday and Sunday, 25-26 January 2020
University of Michigan -Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, Michigan
More info: https://www.youth4palestine.com/

Palestinian Youth Movement and Midwest SJP are proud to present the second annual Youth for Palestine conference January 25-26th hosted by SAFE of University of Michigan-Ann Arbor!

The Youth for Palestine Conference will include important panel discussions, workshops, and skill-sharing that will equip you with the right tools to strengthen your organizing work on campus and in the community and expand your knowledge of the movement for Palestinian liberation. This is an incredible opportunity to learn and connect with experienced Palestinian organizers across the Midwest!

You also don’t want to miss culture night where there will be a dabkeh dance off between states/universities!

To register for the event, click here.

The conference will be held at the University of Michigan -Ann Arbor

Participants will be notified on the location

We are currently experiencing a time where Palestinian student groups are being attacked at every corner. Whereas it was once expected to be focus of school administrations or Zionist groups, we are at a point where even the President of the U.S’s executive orders are meant to silence student groups for Palestinian liberation and give the opposition grounds to defame us.

This convening sets out to accomplish the following:

– Contextualizing the current political climate in the U.S and acknowledging our position as students and youth. Where we see Palestine in the media more and more, and even see light support for political officials, we intend to seek out the best way to act on it. We also recognize we are not the first students or youth to do so and intend to offer historical analysis and rise and fall of student activism

– Offer the tools to carry your organization through times of hardship. Through workshops held by community leaders as well as your peers, you will learn not only the basics of Palestine but the basics of organizing. This includes community outreach, historical considerations, and security. With the tools to move our communities forward, we hope we can be one step closer to liberation.

– Encourage mobilization on a mass level, tearing down university borders. While we may see ourselves as tied to our universities, so long as we are organizing for Palestine, all of our issues are intertwined and our support and movement cannot begin and end within the confines of respective campuses. We intend to build a network that will pave the way for broader movement and stronger connections past state lines.

Register now and let us build together!

To register for the event, click here.

Endorse the call for an international week of action to support the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege

27 December 2019

Endorse the call: https://forms.gle/f4QYRUqsUoZjaR2Q9

Eleven years after “Operation Cast Lead,” Israel’s onslaught against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network asks organizations to endorse the call by the Higher National Commission of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege for a global mobilization on 24-30 March.

Like Israel’s 2008-2009 offensive, which massacred over 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 300 children, wounded over 5,000, and destroyed 3,540 homes, leaving more than 20,000 Palestinians homeless, its free-fire policy against the Great Return March showed the genocidal nature of its project for the liquidation of the Palestinian people.

And no less than the heroic resistance of Palestinians under 22 bloody days of Israeli bombardment, the Great Return March, which continues even after Israeli fire killed over 200 marchers and injured nearly 20,000, poses a crucial challenge for all supporters of Palestine.

Ask your organizations, networks, coalitions, and movements to endorse the Higher National Commission’s call and start organizing actions now. Samidoun will post an initial list of endorsers soon, then continue to update it as the international week of action nears.

Just fill out our Google form at https://forms.gle/f4QYRUqsUoZjaR2Q9; e-mail the name, Web address, and location of your endorsing organization to samidoun@samidoun.net; or message them to Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network on Facebook.

24-30 March 2020, worldwide: International week of action to support the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege

Join Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip in a global mobilization on the second anniversary of the Great Return March to demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees and an end to Israel’s siege of Gaza.

On March 30, 2018, tens of thousands of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip launched the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege.

Israel’s violent repression of it exacted a gruesome toll, with its occupation forces’ live ammunition, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets massacring 214 Palestinians participating in unarmed demonstrations and wounding 18,764 more.

But the demands of the Great Return March – an end to Israel’s brutal closure of the Gaza Strip and the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees ethnically cleansed from their homes – remain no less critical nearly two years later.

Seven years after the United Nations first warned that the conditions imposed by Israel’s siege would render Gaza unlivable by 2020, its crises of electricity, water, employment, and food security have already reached the breaking point.

This isolation of the Gaza Strip is part of Israel’s strategy to displace the Palestinian people, fragment our society, and liquidate our national movement.

Its plan, which started with the ethnic cleansing of 720,000 Palestinians in 1948, continues today with the use of walls, checkpoints, and roads to divide Palestinian neighborhoods and communities; the demolitions of Palestinian homes and institutions in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and 1948-occupied Palestine; the seizure of Palestinian land for Israeli settlements; the targeting of Palestinian leaders for political detention; and the exclusion of Palestinian refugees from their occupied homeland with lethal force.

Yet Palestinians have never paused our legitimate struggles for return, self-determination, and national liberation, from the armed Resistance, to general strikes, to Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns, to the Great Return March.

Since 2018, Palestinian refugees have persevered against unbelievable odds, braving Israeli occupation fire and risking injury and death to demand our right to return to the homes from which Israeli occupation forces drove us at gunpoint.

As the second anniversary of the Great Return March on 30 March – Palestinian Land Day – nears, we call on its supporters worldwide to join an international week of action to support its demands between 24-30 March 2020.

Have an activity to support the next Freedom Flotilla, which will sail in 2020 to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Build a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign against a target complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights and international law.
Hold a screening of a documentary on Israel’s crimes against Palestinian refugees and the Gaza Strip and their struggle for liberation.
Rally in solidarity with the Great Return March in a public area.
Host a speaker on the Great Return March and its demands.
Target political officials in your country to demand they publicly oppose Israel’s crimes against Palestinians and impose meaningful sanctions for them.

In all your efforts, we ask that you visibly support the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege and our just demands.

Please send announcements of your events, as well as pictures, videos, and reports from them, to samidoun@samidoun.net, or message them to Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network on Facebook.

On this, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we call on the world, its people and movements to escalate their support for Palestine and our century-long struggle for national liberation.

Higher National Commission
Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege
Gaza, Palestine
29 November 2019

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