Sunday, September 29, 2024
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Sixth Palestinian prisoner joins hunger strike as battle escalates inside the occupation prisons

The battle inside Israeli occupation prisons is escalating as a growing number of imprisoned Palestinians are taking protest steps to challenge repression, isolation and administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial.

On Tuesday, 8 August, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society announced that Sultan Khallouf, 42, from Burqin near Jenin, is also on hunger strike against his arbitrary detention, joining Kayed Fasfous, who has been on hunger strike for six days, and Saif Hamdan, Osama Khalil, Salah Rabaya and Qusay Khader, all of who have been on hunger strike for 10 days.

Khallouf also launched his hunger strike since 3 August, the day he was seized by occupation forces from his home. On 8 August, the occupation military court in Salem held a session for Khallouf which extended his detention an additional 72 hours, while the military prosecution declared their intention to consider issuing an administrative detention order against him.

Khallouf is a former prisoner who in 2019 carried out a 67-day hunger strike against his administrative detention, only suspending it after a specific date was set for his release. He previously spent four years in Israeli prisons.

The growing movement against administrative detention inside the prisons, with over 1,200 detention orders issued this year and over 1,100 prisoners jailed without charge or trial, out of 5000 total Palestinian prisoners, is continuing to escalate. Six Palestinians are now on hunger strike, and the Administrative Detainees’ Committee has announced escalating protest steps. This is the highest number of administrative detainees held in 20 years, representing over one-fifth of all Palestinian prisoners.

Today, 8 August, prisoners in Ofer prison refused to stand for roll call or give their numbers in the count. Tomorrow, Wednesday, 9 August, a group of prisoners will leave their cells to protest administrative detention. On Thursday, 10 August, prisoners will hold sit-ins and information sessions in the prison yards, and on Saturday, 12 August, prisoners will close their sections and wear prison uniforms, signalling their willingness to confront the jailers. On Sunday, 13 August, administrative detainees will focus on various protest actions to pressure the occupation to bring this form of detention to an end.

Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoners are also facing ongoing repression while escalating their protests in defense of imprisoned leaders who have been subjected to transfer, interrogation and isolation, including Wael Jaghoub, Nael Barghouthi, Yaqoub Qadri and the Freedom Tunnel Prisoners.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine prisoners launched their protest steps inside the prison following the isolation of Wael Jaghoub and the transfer to interrogation of a number of leaders of the Front in prisons, including Nader Sadaqa, Hikmat Abdel-Jalil and Ahmad al-Ardah. The PFLP prisoners refused to participate in the count or roll call, disrupted inspections of the cells and wore prison uniforms to demonstrate their protest.

After the beginning of these protest steps, the Zionist prison administration in Megiddo prison imposed a number of collective sanctions on the PFLP prisoners, including banning them from family visits, confiscating electrical appliances from inside the rooms (including electric fans, necessary amid the intense summer heat) and locking down the sections of the PFLP prisoners to prevent them from going to recreation or the halls.

Also on Tuesday, 8 August, the prison administration suddenly transferred all the prisoners held in Section 4 of Ramon prison to Nafha prison, several hours after they also suddenly transferred the prisoners from Ashkelon prison to Nafha prison. The prisoners were, in many cases, prevented from bringing their clothing and personal belongings, and the use of frequent and mass transfers is intended to destabilize the prisoners’ lives and deny them the opportunity to organize and confront the occupation. This is a long-standing strategy of the occupation, currently practiced by the notorious far-right fascist Minister of Public Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the prison administration.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine to take action to support the Palestinian hunger strikers and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom, for their own lives and for the Palestinian people. These sons of the Palestinian popular masses are confronting the system of Israeli oppression on the front lines behind bars, with their bodies and their lives, to bring the system of administrative detention to an end. With over 1100 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial — over 20% of all Palestinian prisoners — the struggle to bring down administrative detention is more urgent than ever. Take these actions below to stand with the hunger strikers and the struggle for liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea!

Download these signs for use in your campaigns:

TAKE ACTION: 

Protest at the Israeli Embassy or Consulate in Your Country!

Join the many protests taking place around the world — confront, isolate and besiege the Israeli embassy or consulate in your city or country of residence. Make it clear that the people are with Palestine! Send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Take to the streets: Organize a protest in solidarity with Palestine!

Take to the streets and join actions for justice! Organize your own if there is none in your area, and send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Boycott Israel!

The international, Arab and Palestinian campaign to boycott Israel can play an important role at this critical time. Local boycott groups can protest and label Israeli produce and groceries, while many complicit corporations – including HP, G4S, Puma, Teva and others, profit from their role in support Zionist colonialism throughout occupied Palestine. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism.

Demand Your Government Sanction Israel!

The racist, settler colonial state of Israel and its war crimes against the Palestinian people are enabled and backed extensively by the over $3.8 billion each year given to Israel by the United States — targeted directly to support the Israeli occupation military killing children, women, men and elders throughout occupied Palestine. From Canada to Australia to the European Union, Western governments and imperialist powers provide ongoing diplomatic, political and economic support to Israel as well as selling billions of dollars of weaponry to the settler-colonial state. Meanwhile, they also purchase billions of dollars in weaponry from the Israeli state. Governments in league with imperialist powers, such as in the Philippines, Brazil, India and elsewhere, also buy weapons and “security” services — all “battle-tested” on the Palestinian population. Call your representatives, MPs, political officials and demand your government sanction Israel now, cut off all aid, expel its ambassadors, and stop buying and selling weapons!

 

Palestinian women prisoners struggling for justice, dignity and freedom

Palestinian women prisoners are continuing their battle for justice, dignity and freedom from the occupation prisons. There are currently 32 women prisoners jailed in occupation prisons, with most of them held in Damon prison, while Fatima Shaheen and Etaf Jaradat are held in Neve Tirza prison; three Palestinian women are jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention orders, and one minor girl is behind bars. (There are over 1132 administrative detainees in total, out of nearly 5000 Palestinian political prisoners.)

Shaheen and Jaradat carried out a hunger strike for several days in late July — joined by several male prisoners, including Zakaria Zubaidi, of the Freedom Tunnel prisoners, as well as those in the Ramleh prison clinic — after they were subjected to increasing restrictions and moved to the Neve Tirza prison for Zionist criminal prisoners. The two were transferred suddenly and, after they objected, the guards bound their hands and feet, and their fellow prisoners erupted in outrage. They suspended their strike on 27 July after a commitment to follow up on their situation.

Fatima Shaheen

Shaheen, 33, was shot by occupation soldiers on 15 April 2023 and injured in the spine and abdomen; she was told that she would be unable to walk in the future and is using a wheelchair. Jaradat was transferred to the Ramle prison clinic (and then Neve Tirza) from Damon prison solely to provide assistance with daily life activities to Shaheen, whose severe injuries prevent her from doing those activities.

Etaf Jaradat

Both of them have been held in poor conditions, with Jaradat provided only a chair to sleep on for weeks, despite the fact that she was moved to accompany Shaheen. Meanwhile, Shaheen was denied access to any telephone contact with her family, and the two have been held in a tiny cell with poor ventilation. Jaradat is also cut off from access to her family, including her imprisoned sons, Omar and Ghaith Jaradat.

However, the women prisoners have been continuing to take collective protest steps to demand improvement in their conditions of confinement, and have been subjected to sanctions and collective punishment by the Zionist prison administration, incluing preventing them from using the public telephones, closing the “canteen” (prison store) and denying them family visits.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses our strongest solidarity with the Palestinian women prisoners, and Palestinian women in Palestine and everywhere in exile and diaspora, struggling for justice and liberation for all of Palestine, from the river to the sea. We urge women’s organizations and feminist groups around the world to show their solidarity with Palestinian women and to highlight the struggle of the Palestinian women prisoners, escalate the campaigns to boycott and isolate the occupation, its institutions and complicit corporations, and resist with all Palestinian prisoners as they confront fascism with their bodies and their lives. Palestinian women prisoners are on the front lines of struggle for national and social liberation, and we urge their immediate release, the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners — and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

International actions demand freedom for Palestine Action prisoners

The international campaign to free Palestine Action prisoners is growing, even as the British state continues to ramp up its campaign of repression against direct actionists who have confronted Israeli arms manufacturers and related corporations in the weapons trade. On Wednesday, 9 August, three Actionists who dismantled a factory of the French arms firm, Thales, in Glasgow, to stop its production of weapons for the Israeli occupation army, will begin a four-day trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Supporters are encouraged to come each day at 8 am to the court to show support with banners and flags. Across Britain, four Actionists are detained and over 100 Palestine Actionists face prison for taking direct action to shut down the production of weapons used against the Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian people. Palestine Action is seeking support from people who can provide court support, mentoring to those facing trial, arrestee support and more. Fill out their form to get in contact!

The Palestinian prisoners’ movement has expressed its support for Palestine Action prisoners, noting that “We condemn the British authorities’ arrest of members of the Palestine Action movement and call on all international legal and human rights organizations to take a serious position, and to take official and popular action to pressure the British government to immediately release the remaining activists, as well as to bring an end to the British complicity with the Zionist apartheid regime, from the issuing of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 until the present day.”

Palestine Action marked its third anniversary on 1 August. During that time, two separate Elbit Sytems sites (the Israeli company that provides 85% of the Israeli armed drones used to assassinate Palestinians in Jenin, Gaza and elsewhere) have been shut down, and contracts between the British Ministry of Defence and Elbit Systems were cancelled, cutting off millions of pounds from the Israeli arms dealer.

On Saturday, 22 July, people across Britain and around the world participated in a day of action to free Palestine Action prisoners and drop the charges against Actionists — as well as challenging the Zionist arms industry and its imperialist partners.

In Charleroi, Belgium, the Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine (Charleroi pour la Palestine) gathered to protest the participation of the “Israel Premier Tech” team in a cycling race, calling for Elbit to get out of Belgium and solidarity with the Palestine Action prisoners.

In Paris, France, Samidoun Paris Banlieue posted a large solidarity mural with the slogan: “Solidarity with Palestine Action: #FreeTheActionists” on the walls of Paris.

In Toulouse, France, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra — a member organization of the Samidoun Network — issued a solidarity video highlighting the work of Palestine Action:

The Collectif also posted signs and posters throughout Toulouse’s neighbourhoods, calling for freedom for the Palestine Action prisoners and developing the boycott of Israel:

In Vancouver, Canada, Samidoun Vancouver, the Canada Palestine Association and BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish organized a Palestine stand and a march to Scotiabank, one of the major Canadian banks and the largest single foreign investor in Elbit Systems. The Scotiabank branch had closed without explanation as the group arrived, putting a “Temporarily closed” sign on the door seemingly to prevent customers from learning the truth about the bank’s investments in Israeli war crimes.

Meanwhile, people came out in cities across England to show solidarity with Palestine Action, including Manchester, Liverpool, London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Brighton.

In Manchester, a banner drop and action was organized by Youth Front for Palestine, Manchester Palestine Action and the Manchester PSC, with a massive banner calling for freedom for the Palestine Action political prisoners:

Hastings and Rye PSC held up an Elbit is Guilty sign around Hastings, taking photos with participants to show solidarity:

In Sheffield and London, people came out to rally at the courts to call for the charges to be dropped, and then marched to Barclays bank, which invests millions of pounds in Elbit:

Brighton PSC organized a solidarity stand that shared information about Palestine and showed solidarity with the prisoners;

Birmingham activists came out to rally to free the Palestine Action prisoners and stop the prosecutions.

In Liverpool, marchers took the streets waving Palestinian flag and a large banner calling for freedom for the Palestine Action prisoners.

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers also passed a resolution “calling for the release of all Palestine Action prisoners in Britain and for all pending charges to be dropped against Palestine Action activists arrested for their actions confronting weapons manufacturers and their agents.” A number of prominent celebrities, scholars, lawyers and activists, including Roger Waters, South African MP Nkozi Zwelivelile Mandela, MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, and many others, have also spoken out to demand that all charges be dropped against the Palestine Actionists.

The struggle continues — to #ShutElbitDown and to free the Palestine Action prisoners. Palestine Action maintains a resource on their website about the upcoming trials for those who can go in person to provide court support. People around the world can continue to support the campaign, including by writing letters to imprisoned Actionists, who benefit greatly from the global support. Here are some actions that you and your organization can take:

(1) In Britain: Organise a solidarity protest/direct action against your local CPS office or any company which facilitates the production of Israeli weapons. Internationally: Protest at British embassies and consulates and/or any company or entity involved in supporting the Israeli arms trade (eg, Scotiabank in Canada; Elbit properties in the US)

(2) Organise a banner drop or poster run and outreach event in solidarity. You can pre-order flyers and posters here: https://bit.ly/PrisonersOutreach

(3) Post the pictures and videos of your actions online and tag @pal_action or/and use the hashtag #FreeTheActionists

(4) Write solidarity messages to the prisoners which you an send to palactprisoners@protonmail.com

(5) Donate to support prisoners and actionists facing trial at https://palestineaction.org/defence-fund

Rising revolt against administrative detention: 5 Palestinians on hunger strike, over 1100 jailed without charge or trial

Palestinian prisoners are rising up behind bars in Zionist prisons to confront administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Out of nearly 5,000 total Palestinan political prisoners, approximately 1,132 are held without charge or trial under indefinitely renewable administrative detention orders, the largest number of administrative detainees in 20 years.

Five prisoners are on hunger strike to end their administrative detention, while dozens more are launching protest steps against the prison administration. Kayed Fasfous — former long-term striker who previously won his freedom through a hunger strike — has been on hunger strike for five days, joining Saif Qassem Hamdan, Osama Maher Khalil, Qusay Jamal Khader and Salah Rafaat Rabaya, who have been on hunger strike for 9 days.

Saif Hamdan, 27, is from Barqa in Nablus and has been jailed without charge or trial since 4 October 2022, after he was seized at a checkpoint near Barqa. Held in Nafha prison, his detention has been renewed three times already. A construction labourer, he is the father of five children.

Osama Khalil, 23, from al-Faraa refugee camp near Tubas, has been detained since 17 May 2022 and is also held in Nafha. His administrative detention has been repeatedly renewed since that time. He worked in tile workshops and a vegetable store prior to his arrest.

Qusay Khader, 24, from Al-Amari camp near Ramallah, has been detained since 14 December 2022. He is a former prisoner who previously spent 14 months in occupation prisons; he is a labourer in an aluminum factory. His detention has already been renewed three times.

Salah Rabaya, 22, from Maythaloon in Jenin, has been detained since 8 February 2023. He is a student at Khadouri University, majoring in sports and athletics, and works in a furniture store with his family.

Kayed Fasfous, 34, has been detained since 2 May 2023. Fasfous, whose four brothers are also imprisoned under administrative detention, has spent 7 years in the occupation prisons in total, 4 of them in administrative detention, after he was first detained in 2007. He is held in the Naqab desert prison. In late May and the beginning of June, he went on hunger strike for 9 days, which he ended with a promise to set a limit for hi detention. In 2021, Kayed Fasfous conducted a 131-day hunger strike; images of his emaciated body were widely circulated, in sharp contrast to his commitment to fitness and bodybuilding while free. Fasfous is married and a father of a daughter, Joanne. He has been denied family visits since his arrest in May.

These hunger strikes come amid an escalation in collective confrontation. On Thursday, 3 August, 16 Palestinian prisoners launched a series of protest actions in Ofer prison against the policy of administrative detention. This was followed by a statement by the Administrative Detainees’ Committees, announcing collective steps to challenge the escalating use of administrative detention.

On Saturday, 5 August, the administrative detainees delayed their entrance to and return from the prison yard and on Sunday, 6 August, returned two meals collectively. On Tuesday, 8 August, the prisoners announced that they would not go out to the prison medical clinics and would closed the laundries.

The statement affirmed:

“At a time when our people are subected to the most severe Zionist repressive and racist measures, including killing, land confiscation and systematic displacement, and as our peopl express their revolutionary will in the highest meanings of confrontation and steadfastness in their principled adherence to their land, identity, freedom and dignity, we, the administrative detainees in the prisons of the oppressive colonial occupation, are exposed to the worst forms of arbitrary detention and suffering through our continuous detention that contradicts the most basic human rights and provisions of international law. This detention is practiced by their security services against the fighters of our people and our social activists, with the aim of subjugation and submission, and as an individual and collective punishment to inflict even greater harm upon us and our families under the pretext of the ‘secret security file’ and the hypothetical ‘danger to the security of the region.'”

“The policy of invasion and retaliation pursued by their security services against us, which we have witnessed in the recent period, is represented by the increase in our numbers, as our number has reached more than 1,200 administrative detainees, a number that has not been reached for 20 years, and the intensive renewal of detention orders for the majority of us in the recent period, as well as the arrest of women, children, the sick and the elderly, and the adoption of a revolving door policy that takes us out of administrative detention only for a short respite that does not exceed the one or two months that many of us spend outside the prison.”

“We are confronting this reality that has been going on for decades, where the state of emergency has been turned into a permanent and continuous state, in which the Zionist judicial system is used to legitimize this kind of arbitrary detention in order to subjugate us and attack our freedom and our lives. Many of us have spent more than 10 years and some have exceeded 15 years in detention.”

“Based on all this and our long experience in struggle and previous battles of confrontation, and after we have exhausted all means of dialogue and messages to many parties, as we did not find any listening ears to our demands, nor did we receive any positive reactions that put an end to our ongoing tragedy, we, the administrative detainees, of our various national orientations and paths, and from all factions in the prisons, demand that we proceed with our protest steps within the framewor of the open, escalating and comprehensive program of confrontation in response to this criminal policy. So that our confrontation is not seasonal, intermittent or a mere reaction, it was agreed in Ofer Prison as a preliminary start on a series of collective steps, which include open disobedience, mass exit from the cells, hunger strikes in limited batches, protests and delays in returning from and going to the yard, returning medicines, and refusing to deal with the clinics, which will extend to the rest of the prisons at the appropriate time. Based on developments and how we are dealt with, we will determine the appropriate time for the strategic step represented by the collective open hunger strike. Accordingly, on Thursday 3 August 2023, a group of administrative detainees in Ofer prisons will remain in their cells, which will be followed by many steps in the coming days, including sit-ins in the prison yards and the return of meals, all conducted under the supervision and direction of the Administrative Detainees’ Committee in the prisons of the Zionist occupation, and in coordination with the Higher National Emergency Committee of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement, to approve the program of national confrontation against administrative detention, with a national document of honour to express our united joint work.”

“As we raise our voice in rejection of this racist policy holding us hostage in detention, we look forward to the active, responsible role of our people and their activities from all popular and official sides, to join their efforts in our steps of struggle to support us in this battle. Our victory in this battle will enhance our confidence in our national and collective action and will open the door to other victories. Together, we will be able to expose these criminal measures and bring the perpetrators to the International Criminal Court, and we will remain loyal to the path of steadfastness and sacrifice.”

There are 18 child prisoners held in administrative detention and three women. In the past year, the occupation has issued 1608 detention orders, including 813 new orders and 795 renewal orders. Administrative detention orders are being issued on a near daily basis; on Monday, 7 August, occupation forces renewed the detention of Raghad Shamroukh from Dheisheh camp for four months; Ghassan Karajah from Safa village for four months; Abdel-Rahman Jarrar from Jaba for 4 months; and Nazih Abu Aoun, all of these for the third or fourth time consecutively. On 3 August, they renewed the detention of child prisoner Jamal Brahma, 17, for the second time for a new four-month period, and Bahaa Imad Qaadan, fom Tulkarem, was ordered to 6 months in detention after being seized from his home on 12 July 2023.

What Is Administrative Detention?

Administrative detention was first used in Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist regime; it is now used routinely to target Palestinians, especially community leaders, activists, and influential people in their towns, camps and villages.

There are currently approximately 1132 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners, the highest number in 20 years.

Administrative detention orders are issued by the military and approved by military courts on the basis of “secret evidence”, denied to both Palestinian detainees and their attorneys. Issued for up to six months at a time, they are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians — including minor children — can spend years jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. Hundreds of Palestinians have gone on hunger strike to win their liberation from this form of arbitrary detention, which is not only illegal under international law but a form of psychological torture and collective punishment targeting Palestinian families and communities, as detainees are unable to predict or plan for their release.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine to take action to support these Palestinian hunger strikers and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom, for their own lives and for the Palestinian people. These sons of the Palestinian popular masses are confronting the system of Israeli oppression on the front lines behind bars, with their bodies and their lives, to bring the system of administrative detention to an end. With over 1100 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial — over 20% of all Palestinian prisoners — the struggle to bring down administrative detention is more urgent than ever. Take these actions below to stand with the hunger strikers and the struggle for liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea!

Download these signs for use in your campaigns:

TAKE ACTION: 

Protest at the Israeli Embassy or Consulate in Your Country!

Join the many protests taking place around the world — confront, isolate and besiege the Israeli embassy or consulate in your city or country of residence. Make it clear that the people are with Palestine! Send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Take to the streets: Organize a protest in solidarity with Palestine!

Take to the streets and join actions for justice! Organize your own if there is none in your area, and send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Boycott Israel!

The international, Arab and Palestinian campaign to boycott Israel can play an important role at this critical time. Local boycott groups can protest and label Israeli produce and groceries, while many complicit corporations – including HP, G4S, Puma, Teva and others, profit from their role in support Zionist colonialism throughout occupied Palestine. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism.

Demand Your Government Sanction Israel!

The racist, settler colonial state of Israel and its war crimes against the Palestinian people are enabled and backed extensively by the over $3.8 billion each year given to Israel by the United States — targeted directly to support the Israeli occupation military killing children, women, men and elders throughout occupied Palestine. From Canada to Australia to the European Union, Western governments and imperialist powers provide ongoing diplomatic, political and economic support to Israel as well as selling billions of dollars of weaponry to the settler-colonial state. Meanwhile, they also purchase billions of dollars in weaponry from the Israeli state. Governments in league with imperialist powers, such as in the Philippines, Brazil, India and elsewhere, also buy weapons and “security” services — all “battle-tested” on the Palestinian population. Call your representatives, MPs, political officials and demand your government sanction Israel now, cut off all aid, expel its ambassadors, and stop buying and selling weapons!

16 August, NYC/Online Event: Fadia Barghouti live from Ramallah in conversation with CUNY 4 Palestine

The Israeli attacks on Jenin and Nablus this summer have been heartbreaking and infuriating to watch. Now more than ever, we must stand in and build solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Join us for a virtual event featuring Palestinian political organizer, Fadia Barghouti, joining us live from Ramallah. Fadia will discuss the most recent escalation of settler colonial oppression and violence in Palestine as well as update us on Palestinian resistance. Activists from Within Our Lifetime, Palestinian Youth Movement, and CUNY4Palestine will follow with brief remarks on how you can contribute to the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Bring your outrage, questions, and ideas.

When: August 16, 12-1:30pm
Where: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88001909458?pwd=WXBaQjdyYzFWbHRUOTgwMHZYMzdydz09

Organized by CUNY 4 Palestine

Keep up to date with our campaigns, events and more by following us on social media:
Twitter: @Cuny4P; Instagram:@cuny4palestine & Linktree: https://linktr.ee/cuny4palestine

Palestinian prisoners’ movement leaders under attack: Interrogation and isolation of Wael Jaghoub, Yaqoub Qadri, Nael Barghouthi

Palestinian prisoners are continuing to confront new repressive attacks inside the occupation prisons, amid a growing uprising against administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. On Monday, 31 July, occupation forces stormed the rooms of Palestinian prisoners in Gilboa prison, and attacked leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, including Wael Jaghoub, Nader Sadaqa, Hikmat Abdel-Jalil and Ahmad al-Ardah, all of whom were taken to interrogation.

Wael Jaghoub was then transferred to isolation in Salmoun prison. On Thursday, 3 August, these repressive actions continued with Yasar Shtayyeh, Thaer Hanani, Mohammed Tabanja, Mahmoud Nairat and Mohammed Obeidat all being suddenly transferred to interrogation.

Next, on Tuesday, 1 August, occupation forces invaded the room of Nael Barghouthi, the longest-held Palestinian prisoner in total number of years served, and transferred him to the Jalameh interrogation center. He was previously denied visits from his wife and sister. Barghouthi has been imprisoned since 1978 and was repeatedly denied release until 2011, when he was liberated in the Wafaa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange. After his release, he married fellow former prisoner Iman Nafeh. On 18 June 2014, he was seized by occupation forces, who then reimposed his former sentence, along with dozens of Palestinians freed in the exchange.

On Monday, 7 August, Yaqoub Qadri, one of the six Freedom Tunnel prisoners, who liberated themselves from Gilboa prison in September 2021, was transferred from isolation in Megiddo prison to isolation in Ohli Kedar prison. All six prisoners — Qadri, Mahmoud al-Ardah, Mohammed al-Ardah, Ayham Kamamji, Munadel Nafa’at and Zakaria Zubaidi — have been subjected to constant isolation and frequent transfers since they were rearrested, and their fellow prisoners have conducted several protest actions and steps of struggle to defend them. Their isolation cells lack necessities of life and their ongoing isolation and transfer is targeting them physically and psychologically.

The PFLP prisoners announced on Sunday, 6 August that they would begin protest actions to demand Jaghoub’s release from isolation. Jaghoub, who has been a prominent leader in several collective hunger strikes and protest movements inside the Zionist prisons, has been repeatedly held in isolation during his years in prisons. They announced that beginning on Tuesday, 8 August, they would refuse to participate in roll call and wear prison uniforms to make it clear that they are ready to escalate their steps of confrontation.

Born in 1976 in Beita, south of Nablus, Wael Jaghoub was first arrested in 1992. He has been jailed since 1 May 2001 and is sentenced to life imprisonment. Formerly the head of the PFLP prison branch, he is considered one of the leaders of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its strongest condemnation of the ongoing policy of isolation, raids and attacks directed against the Palestinian prisoners. As in these three cases — those of Wael Jaghoub, Nael Barghouthi and Yaqoub Qadri — these attacks are intended to target the leaders of the Palestinian resistance and revolutionary movement behind bars, the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. We urge Palestinian communities and supporters of Palestine around the world to highlight these leaders targeted for isolation and repression and make clear that we will never allow these leaders — leaders of our international liberation movements — to be isolated, despite the walls and iron bars of Zionist prisons. Instead, we pledge to organize and struggle for their freedom, the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners, and the freedom of Palestine, from the river to the sea.  

Masar Badil summer youth camp concludes in Germany with continued dedication to struggle

Dozens of active members of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network throughout Europe participated in the summer camp of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, in Germany between 23 and 28 July 2023. Participants in the camp, including members and supporters of the Masar, came from France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Sweden, the United States and Canada.

The summer camp included several internal organizational workshops, cultural activities and sports events, and participants discussed their plans for the movement’s upcoming conference in late October, titled “The Right to Return and Freedom for Prisoners,” marking the second anniversary of the founding of the Masar Badil, and the upcoming annual mass march in Lannemezan, France, for the liberation of imprisoned Lebanese revolutionary and struggler for Palestine Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed in French prisons for nearly 39 years.

Participants in the camp also discussed the common struggle against repression in Europe, noting the escalating waves of defamation and repression targeting the Samidoun Network, including the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, in Germany, France, Spain and other countries. “Holding the camp successfully at this time and coming together to plan our next steps is an important and necessary step for our movement,” a Masar spokesperson said.

In conclusion, the participants in the camp affirmed their commitment to confront repression, racism and the campaign launched by the occupation regime with Zionist organizations in Europe and North America, targeting Palestinian community organiing, Palestine solidarity action and supporters of the resistance in exile and diaspora. The camp also presented several recommendations and proposals to develop the role of the Masar Badil movement and increase its presence in all levels of struggle, including political and media work.

Imprisoned, cancer-stricken Palestinian intellectual Walid Daqqah once again denied release by occupation courts

March for the freedom of Walid Daqqah in Baqa’ al-Gharbiyeh, 5 August 2023

 

Occupation courts once again denied justice to imprisoned Palestinian intellectual and freedom fighter Walid Daqqah on Monday, 7 August 2023. Imprisoned since 1986, Daqqah is currently suffering from a rare form of bone marrow cancer, myelofibrosis. Since his diagnosis in December 2022, he has not only received inadequate and inappropriate treatment for his cancer, he has also experienced a stroke, developed pneumonia, had part of his lung removed in surgery and had multiple infections after he was repeatedly removed from a civilian hospital to the infamous Ramleh prison clinic.

Demonstrations in occupied Palestine — especially in his hometown of Baqa’ al-Gharbiyeh in occupied Palestine ’48 — have continued on an almost daily basis to demand his freedom, while his family — including his wife Sana’ Salameh and their daugher Milad, conceived through “liberated sperm” smuggled outside the prison after he and his wife were denied conjugal visits.

Daqqah’s family issued a statement on the latest denial of his early release petition, as follows:

Statement by the family and the campaign to release the prisoner Walid Daqqah on the refusal of the Lod (al-Lydd) Central Court of early release for the prisoner Walid Daqqah, Monday, 7 August 2023 at 1:55 pm

Today, Monday, 7 August 2023, the Central Court of Lod (al-Lydd) issued a decision rejecting the early release of the prisoner Walid Daqqah, despite the extreme danger to his life as a result of the deterioration of his health conditions during the past five months, and he is still undergoing inappropriate treatment due to the seriousness of his condition, in the Ramleh prison clinic (Marash). It is noteworthy that the prisoner Walid Daqqah’s unjust life sentence of 37 years ended on 24 March 2023, but he is still arbitrarily detained after two years were added to his sentence in 2018 on the pretext of his attempt to help the prisoners contact their families.

We, the family and the campaign for the release of the prisoner Walid Daqqah, consider any decision or judgment that does not lead to the immediate release of the prisoner Daqqah to be an authorization for his execution, by procrastinating in deciding on his release despite the very high degree of danger posed by his health condition, which was recognized even by the report of the occupation prisons “Minshalah.” Despite this report, the removal of the “Sagaf” (high-security prisoner) classification of Walid Daqqah and the expiration of his actual sentence five months ago, the court again refused his immediate release. We take this opportunity to call on all political and popular levels of support for our campaign at all levels, nationally on the Palestinian scene, in the Arab world, and internationally, until the release of the prisoner Walid Daqqah. We will continue to work on the legal path by petitioning the Israeli Supreme Court.

Campaign to release the prisoner Walid Daqqah

In July 2023, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers adopted a resolution urging Daqqah’s release, noting, “Daqqah has been repeatedly denied release in prisoner exchanges with other Palestinian political prisoners four times, in 1994, 2008, 2011 and 2014, because he is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, yet he has also been denied the rights and privileges granted to Jewish Israeli prisoners, such as conjugal visits and early release, reflecting the apartheid and settler colonial nature of the Israeli prison system…Walid Daqqah is one of the preeminent intellectuals of the Palestinian resistance movement and has been subjected to solitary confinement in retaliation for his writing and publication, and is the author of multiple books, including: Testimonies of Resistance: The Battle of Jenin Camp 2002 (2004); Consciousness Molded or the Re-identification of Torture (2010); The Story of the Forgotten in Parallel Time (2011); The Oil’s Secret Tale (2018); The Sword’s Secret Tale (2021); The Spirit’s Secret Tale/ The Martyrs Return to Ramallah (2022), as well as unpublished manuscripts, paintings, poetry, lyrics and autobiography.”

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins the family of Walid Daqqah, the campaign for his freedom and the entire Palestinian people in demanding his immediate release, the only way in which he can receive proper treatment without restrictions. The Israeli prison administration and the Zionist regime hold full responsibility for his life as they continue to deny him an appropriate environment to treat his rare cancer.

Take action to save the life of Walid Daqqah and defeat the Zionist policy of assassination through medical neglect.

We urge Palestinian communities around the world and supporters of Palestine to include the campaign to free Walid Daqqah in your events and activities for Palestine and to organize actions and events demanding his immediate liberation and that of all Palestinian prisoners.

  • The Palestinian Youth Movement has launched a petition campaign as part of their advocacy for Daqqah’s release. Samidoun has signed on to this call alongside many other organizations and individuals! Add your name and sign on here: https://palestinianyouthmovement.com/free-walid-daqqah

Use these signs below in your actions and campaigns, and send us your photos on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or via email at samidoun@samidoun.net.

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Preliminary Statement and Findings of the Venezuela Fact-Finding Mission

The following statement was issued by the Venezuela Fact-Finding Mission of the International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism, carried out between July 24-28 with the National Lawyers Guild and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Charlotte Kates, Samidoun’s international coordinator, participated in the Mission.

As the Fact Finding Mission of the International People’s Tribunal, we unequivocally denounce the U.S. imperialist hybrid war on the Venezuelan people, economy and state. Throughout our mission we have witnessed the brutal effects of the unilateral economic coercive measures regime. Our meetings, interviews, and discussions clearly exposed the lies of the US government and the propaganda of the corporate media that aim to depict Venezuela as a “failed state”. We concluded  our Mission July 28, the birthday of Comandante Hugo Chávez with our Venezuela Hearing and public release of our statement. 

As we mark the 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, we recall that the economic blockade is part of a long history of enslaving, colonizing and subjugating the peoples of the Global South. Our meetings have helped us to understand how sanctions are designed not only to exacerbate internal contradictions within the organic social base of a revolutionary project but to undermine the material conditions necessary for socialism. The sanctions regime attempts to manufacture political confusion among the population, to direct legitimate frustration over a lack of social services and access to public goods against their government rather than the true culprit: US imperialism. What appears as neoliberal austerity is in fact CRIMINAL THEFT by sanctions. As one of our speakers, Laura Franco, Coordinator of Exchange and Cooperation at the Simon Bolivar Institute told us “this is not a neoliberal economy, it is a war economy.” 

Sanctions as a Policy of “Regime Change”

Political confusion is neither accidental nor a secondary result of the sanctions and blockade regime. It is designed to create an environment of chaos towards regime change and to provide narratives for opposition forces, particularly proxies of the United States working to extend and intensify the sanctions regime. For example, the recognition of Juan Guaido as the fake “president of Venezuela” by the US, Canada and other imperialist powers was used to create propaganda and also to implement the sanctions, by confiscating the property of the Venezuelan state (the sole legitimate political organ of the Venezuelan people) and transferring them to the custody of an array of U.S.-backed “opposition” forces, another form of blockade imposed upon the assets of the Venezuelan people. 

We see the most recent incitement towards “regime change” with the announcement of a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. This bounty recalls those issued for the heads of state of Iraq and Libya shortly before their violent removal and assassination and the destruction, destabilization and looting of these states by imperialist forces. Additionally, the three bills in the U.S. Congress that seek through legislative means to achieve the same ends: the Prohibition of Transactions and Leases with Venezuela’s Illegitimate Authoritarian Regime Act, the Venezuelan Human Rights “AFFECT” Act and the Venezuelan Democracy Act. The bills have a common denominator: to further increase the pressure of the blockade and impose on it a framework of “humanitarian assistance”. This represents an escalation of imperialist intervention in the lead up to the presidential elections next year. 

Bolivarian Resistance to U.S. Imperialism 

In our mission, we learned about the suffering of the Venezuelan people because of the imperialist sanctions regime. But we also learned about and have been inspired by their resistance. We witnessed the resilience and creativity of the communes, building independent economic capacity and development based on collective, non-capitalist forms of knowledge production.  We saw the ingenuity and passion of doctors in the Children’s Cardiology Hospital of Latin America treating the most difficult cases while navigating shortages of medical supplies and equipment, demonstrating the cruelty and genocidal intent of the sanctions regime. We were also profoundly inspired and uplifted by the hospital’s commitment to not only treating patients from outside of Venezuela but also to providing free education to new generations of doctors internationally. This serves as a testament to the nation’s culture of compassion, socialist values, and solidarity. 

We have been particularly struck by the centrality of women to this resistance. From the struggle to achieve food sovereignty, to political education initiatives, frontline legal defense,  Afro-Venezuelan revolutionary projects fighting colonial capitalist gentrification and displacement, and their overall political leadership, women are the backbone of the Bolivarian Revolution. 

International Fact-Finding Mission

Our delegation includes lawyers, legal scholars, academics and organizers from the United States, Canada, Philippines, Kenya, Lebanon, Algeria, and Iran. This delegation is part of the International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism, an international effort investigating the sanctions regimes as key tools of imperialism, used to undermine the sovereignty – particularly the economic sovereignty – of nations in the Global South, maintaining the global capitalist order. Venezuela and all countries targeted by U.S. sanctions have challenged U.S. imperialism, and seek to uphold their independence and sovereignty from U.S. hegemony. We are holding hearings on the impact of sanctions, economic coercive measures, in 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

Our mission has examined the intent, history, and legal framework of the sanctions regime. It has entailed observation, analysis, and earnest dialogue with impacted individuals, workers in various sectors of the economy, communes, analysts, political organizers, and government officials. 

 Throughout our mission, we met with many people and organizations, all deeply committed to defending the Bolivarian Revolution and advancing toward socialism, despite the United States’ tremendous crimes against the Venezuelan people historically, and especially in the past eight years. “We refuse to negotiate our revolution under the sanctions’ gunpoint,” declared Robert Longa from Comuna Socialista El Panal. 

Our meetings included a meeting with Venezuela’s Vice-Minister of Anti-Blockade Policies, William Castillo, the Venezuelan Anti-Blockade Observatory, El Panal Commune, Venezuela Analysis, SURES, Plan Pueblo a Pueblo, Free Alex Saab Movement, Fundación Rompiendo la Norma ‍(Breaking the Norm),  La Fundación Género con Clase (Gender with Class), Children’s Cardiology Hospital of Latin America, CONADECAFRO (National Council for the Development of Afro-descendant Communities of Venezuela)– and Cumbe Nacional AFROvenezolano.

Our objective has been to illuminate the consequences of sanctions, as experienced and understood from the ground, and to deliver a comprehensive account of their socioeconomic, political, cultural, and individual effects. The investigation has informed our collective understanding and equipped us with the evidence that was presented in the July 28th Venezuela Hearing. 

Holding U.S. Imperialism Accountable 

As we conclude our mission in Venezuela, our Tribunal moves forward on research, legal and political work to challenge U.S. imperialism and its blockade on the people and nation of Venezuela. We will complete our deliberations and release our verdict and findings at the closing on 29-30 September at the People’s Forum  in New York City, on the sidelines of the opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Today, we state unequivocally that the sanctions, blockades and economic coercive measures imposed on Venezuela constitute crimes against humanity, including the crime of genocide. That the US has not succeeded in its efforts to subjugate the Venezuelan people is a testament to their resistance, creativity and steadfastness in developing new forms of action and production in order to confront the blockade. 

We conclude the work of our mission  in Caracas with inspiration, motivation and commitment to do everything in our power to confront these crimes against humanity alongside the people of Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Syria, Palestine, Zimbabwe, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Eritrea, and all the peoples and nations of the world targeted for confronting imperialism, yet moving on a daily basis from resistance towards dignity, collective liberation, self-determination and emancipation. 

From Palestine to Venezuela, imperialist crimes can never be stopped through concessions to its demands: It is RESISTANCE that wins. It is clear, more than ever, that the U.S. empire is not able to achieve its ends by committing these crimes, and that we are witnessing a brutal attempt to maintain U.S. hegemony amid an emerging pluripolar world.

There is an added responsibility of people in the belly of  the beast to challenge imperialist sanctions and to hold U.S. imperialism accountable for their crimes against humanity and plunder of the wealth and peoples of the world. We strongly denounce the deliberate promotion of migration of young Venezuelan populations to the U.S. and the imposition of a fake “American dream”. This trend in reality aims to push Venezuelans to join the impoverished working classes, in particular the dispossessed, criminalized and struggling Black and Brown communities in the United States, at the same time that U.S. policies seek to impoverish Venezuela. 

The devastation wrought by U.S. imperialism is substantial and apparent across a range of indicators and fields, from coerced migration to the confiscation of state assets, from the unlawful detention, kidnapping and imprisonment of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab to the attack on petroleum production and revenues. At the same time, as we conclude our mission, we are struck not only by the enormity of the crimes against humanity committed by the U.S. in Venezuela but also by the strength of the resistance of the Venezuelan people and their legitimate organs of governance and representation as well as their internationalist perspective and political clarity.

The crimes taking place in Venezuela are inseparable from U.S.-led imperialism and capitalism. Confronting these crimes cannot be confined to the legal sphere but requires a clear political commitment to confront, defeat, and dismantle imperialism and capitalism.  The global world order must change, from unipolarity to pluripolarity, from anti-people to a pro-people order with dignity, emancipation and self-determination for all.

Together, we declare: These crimes against humanity will not pass! We pledge to stand with the people of Venezuela and of the world, to do our work in our spheres of legal action, political education and popular organizing  to defeat sanctions, blockades and coercive economic measures, to support the Venezuelan people and all those confronting sanctions in order to advance the potential for revolutionary victory for all of our peoples in struggle. 

In struggle until victory, 

Members of the Fact-Finding Mission 

The International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism: Sanctions, Blockades, and Economic Coercive Measures

 

Samidoun joins international fact-finding mission to expose U.S. sanctions against Venezuela

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is participating in the international fact-finding mission in Venezuela launched by the International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism: Sanctions, Blockades, Coercive Economic Measures, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the National Lawyers Guild (U.S.) on the impact of U.S. sanctions and coercive economic measures targeting the people and nation of Venezuela. The fact-finding mission is composed of delegates representing a range of international organizations, including distinguished lawyers, jurists, academics and activists. The mission will conclude on Friday, July 28 with a day-long public hearing on the impact of sanctions across a broad range of social, economic, political and cultural factors.

Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates, also a steering committee member of the Tribunal, is participating in the fact-finding mission. Samidoun is a co-sponsor of the Tribunal’s ongoing work to challenge U.S. imperialism and its economic assault on the peoples and nations of the world, including the Palestinian people and the ongoing siege on Gaza.

The fact-finding mission will conduct a series of meetings, site visits and forums with Venezuelan government officials, anti-sanctions activists, women’s, health and agricultural organizations, communes, and a variety of people who have been impacted by the U.S. imperialist policy of sanctions and coercive economic measures. It comes as part of the ongoing International People’s Tribunal, which has already conducted hearings about U.S. imperialist sanctions in Zimbabwe, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, Palestine; Eritrea, Nicaragua, Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Libya, with upcoming hearings on Hawai’i and Puerto Rico.

Participants in the fact-finding mission include:

  • Helyeh Doutaghi, co-chair, International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism
  • Suzanne Adely, president, National Lawyers Guild; Steering Committee, International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism
  • Max Ajl, Senior Fellow at in the Department of Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University; Steering Committee, International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism
  • Corinna Mullin, anti-imperialist and anti-colonial academic based in New York; Steering Committee, International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism
  • Charlotte Kates, international coordinator, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network; Steering Committee, International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism
  • Edre Olalia, transitional president, International Association of Democratic Lawyers; Jurist, International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism
  • Mohammed Tay, Professor emeritus of constitutional law, labor law and private administrative law at the Lebanese University; Jurist, International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism
  • Jaribu Hill, civil and human rights attorney, ED of the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights; Jurist, International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism
  • Booker Omole, national vice-chair and Central Committee member, Communist Party of Kenya
  • Brahim Rouabah, Teaching Fellow in Political Science at Brooklyn College
  • Margaret Kimberly, Black Alliance for Peace; Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report
  • Mohammed Zidan, long-time activist in the Canadian student movement
  • David Paul, member of Sanctions Kill Campaign and Venezuela Embassy Protection Collective
  • Adrienne Pine, anthropologst active with the US Peace Council and Sanctions Kill campaign

The fact-finding mission began its meetings on Tuesday, July 25, when its members met with Vice Minister of Anti-Blockade Policies, William Castillo, and Vice Minister for North America, Carlos Ron, at the Venezuelan Anti-Blockade Observatory, which provides detailed statistics and resources on the impact of coercive economic measures not only in Venezuela but globally. This was followed by a visit to Comuna Socialista El Panal 2021, where fact-finding mission members learned about the effects of sanctions policies on popular initiatives as well as the resistance actions and development organizing being done to confront the “economic war” targeting Venezuela.

The fact-finding mission will be holding meetings between July 24 and 28, 2023, including with an array of non-governmental organizations, popular movements, officials and health workers.

Follow @sanctionstrib on Twitter and Instagram for more updates from the Mission!

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