Photo: Mohammed Rimawi upon his release. Photo: Wattan TV
Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Rimawi, 27, and his father, Nimer Rimawi, 54, from the village of Beit Rima, were released on the evening of Tuesday, 7 August after the younger Rimawi went through 20 days on hunger strike under intense interrogation. Rimawi launched his hunger strike as soon as he was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 19 July and was put under interrogation. During the strike, occupation forces then detained his father, Nimer. The detention of his father was used in an attempt to pressure the younger Mohammed to sign a “confession” and to end his hunger strike.
Rimawi, who had previously spent three years in Israeli prison, was released only six months before his re-arrest. He resisted the various attempts to pressure him to confess or end his hunger strike, and successfully won his release. He was taken immediately to a hospital in Ramallah in order to receive medical treatment after a 20-day hunger strike.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network congratulates Mohammed and Nimer Rimawi on their victory of steadfastness inside Israeli occupation prison, and we urge the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Two Palestinian prisoners, former long-term hunger striker Anas Shadid, 22, and Dirar Abu Manshar, 40, are continuing their hunger strikes in Israeli jails in protest of administrative detention. As Shadid entered his 21st day of hunger strike, he was taken to Ramle prison hospital after the further deterioration of his health.
Anas Shadid launched his hunger strike on 19 July after the renewal of his administrative detention; he has been jailed since 14 July 2017 after he was rearrested only a month after winning his release from a previous imprisonment without charge or trial. He previously conducted an 88-day hunger strike in 2016 to win his release. After nearly 20 days on hunger strike, Shadid’s health is deteriorating. He suffers from severe headaches, dizziness, lack of balance and has lost 15 kilograms in weight. He has been held in isolation since he launched his hunger strike.
Dirar Abu Manshar (l) and Anas Shadid (r). Photo: Asra Media
Dirar Abu Manshar launched his own hunger strike on 26 July to protest his administrative detention; he has been jailed without charge or trial since 9 June 2017 and launched his strike after the third renewal of his detention order. He has spent over 8 years in Israeli jails, many of them in administrative detention; in 2012, he was named the longest-held administrative detainee at that time as he had been jailed for three years without charge or trial. Abu Manshar is the father of four.
Hassan Shokeh, 30, suspended his hunger strike after 62 days on Friday, 3 August after reaching an agreement with the Israeli prison administration. In the agreement, Shokeh’s administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – will be extended for two more months and he will be released on 1 December 2018.
Hassan Shokeh. Photo: Wattan TV
He has been jailed since 1 October 2017, when occupation forces invaded his home. This arrest came only one month after he was released after 2 years in administrative detention without charge or trial. He launched his first hunger strike, which ended when his case was transferred to the military courts. However, after serving his sentence which expired on 1 June, he was ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial. He has spent over 8 years in Israeli jails in total, many of them under administrative detention.
Bassam Abidu. Photo: Asra Media
In addition, Bassam Abidu, 47, from al-Khalil, suspended his own open hunger strike after reaching an agreement to end his administrative detention in January 2019. After 19 days of hunger strike, Abidu’s father said, he suspended the strike; his detention will be renewed on 25 September for a final four months. He is the father of six children and has previously spent around 7 1/2 years in Israeli jails. He has been held without charge or trial since 30 May 2018.
The hunger strikes form part of an ongoing collective protest against administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. There are around 450 Palestinians held under administrative detention orders, which are issued on the basis of “secret evidence” for one to six months at a time. The orders are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians can spend years at a time jailed under administrative detention orders. Administrative detention is frequently used to target political leaders like parliamentarian, feminist and leftist Khalida Jarrar and human rights defenders like French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri.
In protest, Palestinians have refused to attend the military court sessions which approve administrative detention orders or their renewals since February 2018. They are continuing the court boycott and escalating their protests through ongoing hunger strikes.
Nevertheless, the Israeli occupation continues to resort to administrative detention in order to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial. Palestinian lawyer Mahmoud Halabi said that the Israeli military courts renewed 49 administrative detention orders between 19 July and 31 July.
Among them was a three-month administrative detention order against 17-year-old child prisoner Laith Abu Kharma, who has been immprisoned without charge or trial since 20 September 2017. Laith, from Kafr Ein near Ramallah, is one of three minor children held in administrative detention; there are over 300 Palestinian children overall currently in Israeli jails. Ahmad Salah from Jalazone camp and Hussam Abu Khalifa from Bethlehem are both also minors jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention.
Saleh al-Jaidi (l) and Tareq Mattar (r)
The administrative detention orders against Palestinian youth activists Saleh al-Jaidi of Dheisheh Camp and Tareq Mattar of Ramallah were also renewed by occupation forces. Both Jaidi and Mattar are well-known Palestinian youth who seem to be held under administrative detention in an attempt to undermine or prevent youth organizing in Palestine.
Khaled Al-Tabeesh. Photo: Asra Media
Also among this group of administrative detention orders was a renewal order against Khaled al-Tabeesh, 28, from the village of Dura in al-Khalil. Khaled is the brother of Ayman al-Tabeesh, 36, who has been jailed without charge or trial since August 2016 and has engaged in multiple long-term hunger strikes through several arrest periods. During his current stint in administrative detention, he has spent an extensive amount of time in isolation. Khaled, on the other hand, was arrested on 25 July 2017 and has now joined his brother for over a year of imprisonment without charge or trial.
The 49 administrative detention orders issued in the second half of July 2018 targeted the following Palestinian prisoners:
1. Hamdi Marouf al-Atrash, Bethlehem, 6 months, new order
2. Hassan Hisham Hamdan, Nablus, 6 months, new order
3. Karim Ahmed Ayyad, Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
4. Ahmed Kayed Hamed, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
5. Ahmed Musa al-Khatib, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
6. Ribhi Talib Shahwan, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
7. Mohammed Imad al-Shahatit, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
8. Muayad Rifat Kanaan, Jerusalem, 4 months, extension
9. Hani Mohammed Mafarjeh, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
10. Mohammed Nazmi Jamal, 4 months extension
11. Islam Omar al-Tamimi, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
12. Mahmoud Jamil Shafar, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
13. Hammad Ahmed Abu Maria, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
14. Marcel Adel Assi, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
15. Khader Mohammed al-Dalu, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
16. Bassam Abdel-Rahman Abu Aker, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
17. Khaled Jamal Farraj, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
18. Uday Jihad Amour, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
19. Mumen Ahmad Zeid, Ramallah, 5 months, new order
20. Adel Mohammed Khadour, Ramallah, 3 months, new order
21. Khaled Mohammed al-Haj, Jenin, 4 months, extension
22. Salem Mohammed Abu Eid, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
23. Thaer Yousef Hamdan, Ramallah, 6 months, new order
24. Hamza Abdel-Fattah Manasra, Ramallah, 4 months, new order
25. Mehdi Hassan Salah, Jenin, 6 months, new order
26. Abdel-Rahman Ayoub Adgheish, Ramallah, 3 months, new order
27. Sayel Saleh Rayyan, Ramallah, 6 months, new order
28. Khaled Jamil Daddou’, Bethlehem, 6 months, new order
29. Mohammed Jibril Omar, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
30. Ahmed Ishaq Abu Hashhash, al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
31. Khaled Ali Suleiman al-Tabeesh, al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
32. Bassam Nabil Diab, Jenin, 4 months, extension
33. Yousef Mustafa Kaabneh, Jericho, 4 months, new order
34. Ahmed Jibril Makhamra, al-Khalil, 4 months, new order
35. Fahmi Hassan Zuhour, Ramallah, 3 months, extension
36. Mustafa Essam Mustafa, Ramallah, 4 months, new order
37. Emad Hamdi Abu Khalaf, al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
38. Montasser Issa Shedid, al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
39. Ahmed Qassem al-Sheikh, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
40. Asid Mohammed Abu Aadi, Ramallah, 4 months, new order
41. Mehdi Mahmoud Hajjar, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
42. Laith Imad Abu Kharma, Ramallah, 3 months, extension
43. Tarek Yousef Matar, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
44. Saleh Mohammed Jaidi, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
45. Musa Mustafa Najjar, al-Khalil, 4 months, new order
46. Tareq Fadel al-Sheikh, Ramallah, 4 months, new order
47. Timur Hisham Barghouthi, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
48. Ziad Mohammed Nawaja, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
49. Yazan Eyad Hanisha, Jenin, 4 months, new order
In the second half of July, Palestinian youth activists Tareq Mattar and Saleh al-Jaidi both had their administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – extended for another four and six months, respectively, in separate cases. Matar, 28 and jailed since 10 August 2017, is a Palestinian youth leader known for his involvement in youth organizing and study initiaties. Jaidi, a well-known youth organizer in Dheisheh refugee camp, has been jailed since 22 September 2017 without charge or trial.
As administrative detention orders are based on a so-called “secret file” and involve no charges and no trial, Israeli occupation forces are able to remove leaders and people of conscience from their communities through imprisonment. Mattar and Jaidi are two of around 450 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial and a total of 6,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and Palestinians have spent years at a time jailed with no charges and no trial.
Both Mattar and Jaidi were previously jailed by the Israeli occupation forces on political charges. Administrative detention orders are used regularly to target community leaders and people influential in their areas in an attempt to undermine Palestinian organizing and society.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the renewed administrative detention of Tareq Mattar and Salah Jaidi. Palestinian youth are under a systematic attack that includes administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial. Youth around the world have an important role to play in organizing in solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian youth and fighting administrative detention. We urge friends and supporters of Palestine around the world to join in the call to end administrative detention and to free Tareq Mattar, Saleh Jaidi and all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
In a victory for the Palestinian resistance, teenage prisoner Ahed Tamimi was freed, defiantly telling the world she refuses to be a victim and demanding recognition as a freedom fighter. Ahed caught the world’s attention but as her mother Nariman pointed out, “perhaps the world showed more solidarity because she looks like their children, but all Palestinian children are Ahed Tamimi.”
Demand freedom for all Palestinian prisoners! Break the silence! Britain – break the link with Zionist Israel!
Join us on the streets for a rolling picket protest.
In support of the strike of the prisoners’ movement in protest of the suspension of the benefits to the prisoners of Gaza, and in support of our people and their steadfastness in Gaza, we invite you to participate in the vigil on Friday, 3 August at 1:00 pm in front of the Palestinian Embassy in Vienna, against the punitive measures imposed on our people in Gaza.
At the same time that Gaza is resisting, and our people are facing the attacks of the Israeli occupation forces in the Great Return March, as the occupation tightens its siege and aggression on the Strip, President Mahmoud Abbas and his government continue to impose a set of punitive measures on the Strip, completely ignoring the popular demands and appeals. They continue to deny the popular will that firmly rejects these shameful sanctions affecting the health sector, finance, energy, benefits to prisoners and their families, staff, supplies and operational expenses as well as stopping medical transfers and depriving the sick and wounded from leaving Gaza to receive treatment.
إسناداً لإضراب الحركة الأسيرة احتجاجاً على وقف رواتب أسرى غزة، ودعماً لشعبنا وصموده في القطاع، ندعوكم للمشاركة في الوقفة الاحتجاجية غداً الجمعة، الموافق 3/8/2018، الساعة 1:00 ظهراً أمام السفارة الفلسطينية في العاصمة النمساوية، فيينا، لمطالبة السلطة الفلسطينية بإلغاء الإجراءات العقابية المفروضة على أبناء شعبنا في قطاع غزة
ففي الوقت الذي تقاوم فيه غزة لوحدها، ويتصدى أبناء شعبنا بصدورهم لقوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي في مسيرات العودة الكبرى، كما يشدد الاحتلال حصاره وعدوانه على القطاع، يواصل الرئيس محمود عباس وحكومته فرض رزمة من الإجراءات العقابية على القطاع، متجاهلين تماماً المطالب والنداءات الشعبية، وسط تعتيم رسمي وإنكار مستمر للإرادة الشعبية الرافضة لهذه العقوبات المخجلة التي تطال قطاع الصحة والمالية والطاقة، ورواتب الأسرى وعائلاتهم، والموظفين والمستلزمات والمصاريف التشغيلية، كما أدت لوقف جزء من التحويلات الطبية وحرمان المرضى والجرحى من الخروج من غزة وتلقي العلاج اللازم.
On Friday 3rd August 2018 Inminds human rights group will hold a vigil outside the British Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, to highlight the plight of Palestinian journalists targeted by the illegal Israeli occupation.
Inminds will demand freedom for imprisoned Palestinian journalists including Lama Khater who was abducted from her home in a pre-dawn raid last week on 24th July. Her abduction was followed this week by the abduction of 4 more journalists on 30th July, bringing the number of Palestinian journalists imprisoned by Israel to 32, including five women. Many of them are held indefinitely, without charge or trial under Israel’s illegal use of administrative detention. This number does not include Palestinian writers and poets like Dareen Tatour who was sentenced this week on 31st July to five months imprisonment simply for writing a poem. The vigil will demand the BBC end its censorship on Palestinian suffering and report on the plight of fellow journalists in Palestine.
Inminds chair Abbas Ali said “It is shameful how the media, especially the BBC, is silent whilst Israel bombs, kills, abducts, cages, tortures and censors Palestinian journalists, writers and poets. Through their silence the BBC shields Israel’s war crimes against Palestinian journalists and thereby contributes towards their suffering. The British public through its TV licence pay the salaries of the BBC, not the Israel government. We are here to tell the BBC that its unacceptable that they serve Tel Aviv’s agenda rather than report the news.”
Lama Khater
42 years old, mother of five, Lama Khater is a Palestinian journalist. Her articles for Al Jazeera, Quds News Network and Meem Magazine have been critical of both the occupation and the PA, in particular the security agreement the PA has made to police Palestinians on behalf of the occupation. This has resulted in both the Israeli occupation and the PA threatening her, demanding she stop her journalism.
A week before her arrest, her husband Hazem al-Fakhouri, a fellow journalist, was summoned by the Israeli forces. They warned him that his wife would be arrested if she didnt stop her critical writing. He was asked what was the age of their youngest son Yahya and if his wife was still breastfeeding him. Israeli law allows a child under 2 years old who is still being breast fed to accompany his mother to prison when she is arrested. Yahya was a couple of month older that 2 years.
Three days later, on 20th July, Lama’s latest article was published on the subject of Israel trying to starve the people of Gaza in retaliation for the Great Return protests by partially closing the Karam Abu Shalem border crossing – the only entry point for food into Gaza.
Four days later, at 2am in the morning of 24th July 2018, Israeli soldiers raided Lama’s home in occupied Al-Kahalil – Hebron. Before they dragged her away in their military transport, Lama insisted on hugging her son Yahya goodbye. Lama’s daughter Beesan recalls “My mother kissed each one of us goodbye, and advised us to take care of each other”.
The Israeli soldiers took her to the illegal settlement of Kiryat Araba and brutally interrogated her for 5 hours till 7am when she was moved to Ashkelon interrogation centre where her interrogation continued. She was shackled to a chair the whole time, denied sleep and constantly cursed and shouted at by Israeli interrogators non stop for 10 hours at a time, day after day. When she wouldn’t break, the interrogators asked for her detention to be extended, which the military judge agreed to at her hearing on 26th July. Her lawyer, finally being able to see her briefly, filed an appeal against the extension – she was still being held without any charge. That appeal was rejected by Ofer military court on 30th July. Lama was still denied family visits. Her 2 years old son Yahya, missing his mother, came to the appeal hoping to catch a glimpse of her, but the soldiers spitefully refused him entry. He went home without being allowed to see his mother. Today Lama is still being caged without charge, shackled at the mercy of Israeli interrogators.
Targeting Journalists
In March 2018 around 60 film-makers including Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Peter Kosminsky, in an open letter, condemned Israel’s targeting of Palestinian journalists. The letter read:
“On April 6, Palestinian cameraman Yaser Murtaja was killed by an Israeli sniper as he filmed the “Great March of Return” in Gaza. On the same day six other photojournalists wearing press jackets were injured by the Israeli military. Since then photographer Ahmed Abu Hussein has been shot dead. This is not an anomaly. Last year Israeli forces assaulted 139 journalists and detained a further 33. In 27 cases they destroyed or sabotaged equipment. They closed down 17 media outlets. Palestinian journalists and film-makers are thus victims of systematic persecution based on their ethnicity.”
Both Yaser Murtaja and Ahmed Abu Hussein were wearing blue protective vests marked “PRESS” in large capital letters, clearly identifying them as journalists when they were shot by Israeli snipers. Ahmad was even wearing a helmet clearly marked ‘TV’. It seems these identifiers were used by the Israeli snipers to pick them out to kill. Both Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch have declared that Israel’s deliberate attacks on Palestinian journalists amounts to “war crimes”.
Criminalising Journalism
In June 2018 the Israeli Knesset passed the first reading of a new law which forbids journalists and ordinary residents from filming and documenting human rights abuses committed by Israeli soldiers. The new law allows the army to abduct and imprison those who film these crimes to up to five years. If they are Palestinian then they can be imprisoned for 10 years. The law was drafted after film emerged of Israeli soldiers cheering and celebrating after shooting an unarmed Palestinian youth with a sniper rifle on the Gaza border. Ironically the film from the snipers telescopic sight was taken a by a soldier as a trophy of the kill. Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman defended the sniper saying “The sniper deserves a medal” for doing his job, but “the photographer [deserves] a court martial.” He added “the truth must be clear. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, but when you’re at the front and facing tense situations, sometimes you let out those tensions”.
Censoring and Arresting Citizen Journalists and Writers
Two weeks ago on 17th July 2018 the Israeli Knesset passed the first reading of its so-called Facebook Bill which will will allow the authorities to order Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google search and other internet platforms to remove content which could harm the state of Israel, including economic harm like espousing a boycott of Israel.
Since Sept 2015 over 500 Palestinians, including women and children, have been arrested simply because Israel didn’t approve of their social media posts. This week, on Tuesday 31st July 2018 Israel sentenced 36 years old Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour to five months imprisonment and a further six months suspended sentence for her poem titled “Resist, my people resist them” which she posted on social media. She has already served nearly three years under house arrest after police raider her home in October 2015 and dragged her away. She was banned from publishing her works and banned from accessing the internet altogether. The writer’s association PEN condemned the verdict as “an unacceptable attack on freedom of expression.. a poem is not a crime”. The group’s international president, Jennifer Clement said “Dareen Tatour has been convicted for doing what writers do every day – we use our words to peacefully challenge injustice”.
If you support this activity please share this alert widely, thank you.
Join us for an intimate discussion between two groups on the frontlines of fighting incarceration and supporting prisoners — one in Palestine, the other in the US — on how we can understand these shared systems of domination and resist them.
Addameer (Arabic for conscience) Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association is a Palestinian working for political prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons.
Lana Ramadan, Addameer’s International Advocacy Officer, was born in Dheisheh refugee camp, near Bethlehem in the West Bank. She’s worked with Badil Refugee Resource Centre and been active in community activities, such as Dabke. She studied Human Rights and International Law in the joint Al Quds University and Bard College program and has a Master in Human Rights from London School of Economics.
David Joseph Deutch, or DJ, Addameer’s Advocacy Coordinator, is a native of Australia who has worked with indigenous Australian youth, asylum seeker children, Amnesty International Australia and the UN in New York and Palestine. He is now Addameer’s Advocacy Coordinator. He studied Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Sydney and has a Master in Public Administration at Columbia University in New York.
Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP works to end mass incarceration and promote racial justice by getting elderly and infirm people out of prison.
Laura Whitehorn served 14+ years in US federal prison as an anti-imperialist political prisoner. She was convicted for the “Resistance Conspiracy” case, which involved attacks on US and israeli military installations and companies. In 2016, she was part of a delegation with other former political prisoners, labor organizers, and academics to Palestine.
Temple Students for Justice in Palestine and the Saturday Free School are collaborating to forge a new path for world peace and freedom.
There will be readings of the work of Huey P. Newton, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party, and Ahmad Sa’adat, the general secretary of the Popupar Front for the Liberation of Palestine followed by a discussion on Black and Palestinian revolutionary thought. In addition to presentations by members of both organizations, we will be focusing on how to best continue the struggle for the liberation of humanity.
Join us for an afternoon of producing knowledge for liberation and the celebration of intercivilizational unity anchored in the Palestinian and Black Radical Traditions!
Dareen Tatour at her sentencing. Photo: Yoav Haifawi, Facebook
Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour was sentenced to five months in Israeli prison on 31 July 2018, the culmination of a nearly three-year saga of imprisonment and house arrest following the publication of a video featuring her poem, “Resist, my people, resist them,” in October 2015. Tatour, 36, already spent three months in prison before spending the next two and a half years under house arrest. Tatour’s treatment as a Palestinian citizen of Israel has clearly underlined the racist, discriminatory and apartheid conditions for Palestinians in ’48 Palestine as well as exposing the reality behind Israel’s claims to democracy and academic freedom.
Tatour will report to Israeli prison on 8 August, where she will serve two months in prison, the remaining period of her sentence. She was convicted of incitement several months ago in a Nazareth court for her poetry and writing on social media. A number of political leaders of the Palestinian movement in occupied Palestine ’48 attended the hearing, and writers around the world have expressed their support for Tatour. PEN International identified the case as one targeting freedom of expression.
“After reviewing the charge sheet and the evidence against her, PEN has concluded that Dareen Tatour has been targeted for her poetry and activism and is calling for her immediate and unconditional release.” Jennifer Clement, president of PEN International, said that “Dareen Tatour is on trial because she wrote a poem. Dareen Tatour is critical of Israeli policies, but governments that declare themselves as democracies do not curb dissent. Words like those of Dareen Tatour have been used by other revolutionary poets, during the Vietnam war, during other liberation wars, and they can be found in the works of Sufiya Kamal of Bangladesh, of Ernesto Cardenal of Nicaragua, and so on.” Hundreds of internationally renowned writers and artists, including Edwidge Danticat, Ahdaf Soueif, Alice Walker, Eve Ensler, Ariel Dorfman, Russell Banks and Barbara Hammer, have called for Tatour’s release.
As Yoav Haifawi, one of the organizers of the campaign to free Dareen Tatour wrote in his detailed explanation of the case, “Tatour was mistakenly suspected and the entire investigation into her case began from this mistake. But her conviction is not a mistake. She was clearly identified as a proud Palestinian Arab who resists her oppression and the oppression of her people. For this she was convicted.”
Dareen Tatour is far from the first Palestinian poet – including a number of poets from ’48 Palestine – targeted by the Israeli occupation for arrest and imprisonment. The jailing and trial of Dareen Tatour is an echo of the arrests and imprisonment of Mahmoud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim, Tawfiq Zayyad and many others, not to mention the assassination of Ghassan Kanafani, Wael Zuaiter, Kamal Nasser and other Palestinian poets and writers. Today, there are dozens of Palestinian journalists in prison, including the writer Lama Khater of al-Khalil, just arrested last week and held under interrogation by Israeli occupation forces. Khater’s family said that she was told by Israeli soldiers that if she would stop writing, she would not be arrested.
In a lengthy, moving interview at Mondoweiss, Tatour spoke about her experiences with her fellow women prisoners. “Every prisoner that I met and knew has a story worth telling. Each carries an important human message. There are 45 Palestinian prisoners whom I have personally known and who have left me with unforgettable feelings and memories. I want to help make their voices heard…
After detention, I plan to dedicate myself to the women’s movement. I plan to establish a Palestinian women’s association that can connect with women’s rights groups around the world. In short, these last three years have made me love women more than ever and I hope to change with them.”
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the sentencing of Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour, the latest example of the violent, military repression of Palestinian arts, culture and literary expression. Tatour’s case exposes the reality of the Israeli regime for the Palestinian citizens in occupied Palestine ’48 – that is, an attack upon and a denial of their existence, identity and even creativity.
Whether facing the military courts that convict 99.74 percent of the Palestinians that come before them, the administrative detention hearings that send Palestinians to prison without charge or trial or the “civil” courts that criminalize poetry and impose extreme sentences on the children of Jerusalem, the entire Israeli system is based on the dispossession and denial of Palestinians and is fundamentally unjust and racist at its core.
Her case also highlights the role of Palestinian women in leading the liberation movement as well as creating art and culture. Throughout the history of the Palestinian liberation movement and resistance culture, women’s art and organizing has always been central – indeed critical – to the development of the anti-colonial struggle and the creative output that has accompanied it.
Freedom and justice for Dareen Tatour and all imprisoned and persecuted Palestinians!
TAKE ACTION!
1. Several organizers of the campaign to free Dareen Tatour have launched “Poem on Trial,” a campaign to highlight the case and support her ongoing legal challenges. The organizers are calling upon musicians, poets and other artists to create sound works that incorporate Tatour’s criminalized poem. “With your agreement we intend to curate a digital-only album of submissions, to be made available for sale on several platforms.All sale proceeds will be utilised to assist Dareen’s legal challenge to her conviction. Please submit your piece by 28/9/2018 via Wetransfer to:poemontrial@gmail.com” Read more: https://www.poemontrial.org/
2. Escalate the cultural boycott of Israel. Palestinians have long called for the boycott of academic and cultural institutions in the Israeli state and for performers and artists to refrain from performing in Israel so long as it continues to violate Palestinian rights. This includes rejecting the sponsorship of cultural events and film festivals by Israeli embassies around the world. In response to the growing boycott movement, supporters of Israeli apartheid and representatives of the Israeli regime often make claims to “academic freedom” and “cultural exchange.” The imprisonment of poets like Dareen Tatour proves the falsehood of such claims and undermines the importance of cultural boycott. Find out more at https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi and http://usacbi.org.
On Sunday (29 July), the Norwegian fishing boat Al Awda was hijacked in international waters, 49 nautical miles from Gaza by the Israeli military. Within the next few days, the Swedish boat Freedom is expected to arrive at Gaza and we can expect the same action of Israel.
In view of the above and the situation in Gaza, we call for a manifestation against Israel’s illegal naval blockade of Gaza.
The siege must end now!
Hej alla Palestinavänner i Malmö med omnejd
I söndags (29 juli) kapades den Norska fiskebåten Al Awda på internationellt vatten,49 sjömil från Gaza av Israelisk militär. Inom de närmsta dagarna beräknas den svenska båten Freedom ankomma Gaza och vi kan förvänta oss samma agerande av Israel.
Med anledning av ovanstående samt situationen i Gaza
kallar vi till en manifestation mot Israels illegala sjöblockad av Gaza.
Blockaden måste hävas nu!
Plats: Möllevångstorget i Malmö
Tid: Tisdag 31 juli kl 18.00
Organisationer som vill tala anmäler detta till Joel j_opperdoes@hotmail.com
Two Palestinian prisoners, former long-term hunger striker 
Join us for an intimate discussion between two groups on the frontlines of fighting incarceration and supporting prisoners — one in Palestine, the other in the US — on how we can understand these shared systems of domination and resist them.
Temple Students for Justice in Palestine and the Saturday Free School are collaborating to forge a new path for world peace and freedom.
