26 April, Fort Wayne, IN: Voices of Palestinian Resistance

24 April 2018

Thursday, 26 April
6:30 pm
Plymouth Congregational Church of Fort Wayne
501 W Berry St
Fort Wayne, IN
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/370607080113413/

The ICMEP in cooperation with the International Solidarity Movement-Northern California (ISM) invite you to attend a presentation on the ISM’s work in Palestine.

Since 2001, thousands of volunteers from around the world have joined the ISM to participate in Palestinian-led nonviolent resistance against Israeli human rights violations. They stayed with resistance fighters in the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, brought medical supplies to the ancient Nablus Casbah, and filmed the destruction and death in the Jenin refugee camp. ISM is on the front lines of the conflict and members have sacrificed their lives in service of justice for the Palestinian cause. Notable are Rachel Corrie, killed in Gaza and Tom Hurndall, shot in the head. In 2009, 2012 and 2014, ISM volunteers were in Gaza, reporting the Israeli invasion and helping in the hospitals, clinics and schools.

25 April, Milan: No to Zionists in the Liberation Parade

24 April 2018

Wednesday, 25 April
2:00 pm
Piazza San Babila
Milan, Italy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/427710580931941/

On 25 April 2018, we refuse the presence of a Zionist organization in the liberation parade and we prepare a block to make this clear.

More information:

http://www.frontepalestina.it/?q=it%2Fcontent%2Fcampagne%2F25-aprile-2016-la-memoria-e-le-resistenze

http://www.frontepalestina.it/?q=it%2Fcontent%2Farticoli%2Fcontestare-la-presenza-della-brigata-ebraica-nella-festa-della-liberazione-non-è-un

25 April, Ankara: Film Screening – Radiance of Resistance

24 April 2018

Wednesday, 25 April
6:30 pm
ODTU Fizik P5
Ankara, Turkey
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/163445204472194/

Commune de Cinéma, ODTÜ Political Cinema Society, ODTÜ Kolektif Cinema, Odtü Sitop and METU Faculty of Architecture Community present:

The Palestinian people’s struggle to defend their land from occupation and achieve a free life on their own land is an example of the struggle of every day life. The occupier is not satisfied with land confiscation and annexation, but continue expanding settlements and ongoing military aggression against the indigenous people with racist policies and actions.

The story of Ahed Tamimi, her family and her village is one of those stories of struggle, a fight against occupation and apartheid on a daily basis. We invite you to watch this film, representing the freedom struggle of Ahed Tamimi and her family.

Radiance of Resistance, 2016, 60 minutes
Director: Jesse Roberts

24 April, Edinburgh: Protest Ambassador of Murder at Scottish Parliament

23 April 2018

Tuesday, 24 April
12:00 pm
Holyrood Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh, UK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/143597223153229/

While Israel’s snipers murder Palestinians demonstrating for their freedom we tell the Ambassador of Murder and Apartheid that he is not welcome in Scotland. It is scandalous to welcome to an elected parliament the representative of a militarised apartheid state that denies Palestinians their human rights, including the rights to life, clean water, security, freedom to live a normal life.

24 April, Columbia, MO: From the Occupied Territories – Voices of Palestinian Resistance

23 April 2018

Tuesday, 24 April
6:30 pm
Naka Hall Auditorium Room 102
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/188759158584335/

International Solidarity Movement Touring event:
We are showing a short documentary, “Radiance of Resistance”. Afterwards, two speakers from the International Solidarity Movement who will share their experiences on the ground in Gaza:

Islam Maraqa- is a Palestinian activist and industrial engineer from Hebron. He has been a human rights activist since the second Intifada, in 2003, when Israeli military forces closed his university. Since then he has founded and been an active member of many groups.

Joe Catron- Reporter & blogger who witnessed several Israeli invasions of Gaza.

Sponsored by:
Mizzou Students for Justice in Palestine (MSJP), and Mid-Missourians for Justice in Palestine (MJP).

Co-sponsored by:
Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), PeaceWorks, Mid-Missouri Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Veterans for Peace, Mid-MO Green Party, MU Socialists, Muslim Student Organization (MSO), Mizzou Energy Action Coalition (MEAC), and Occupy CoMo.

Nearly 500 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial continue boycott of Israeli courts for 68 days

23 April 2018

Nearly 500 Palestinian prisoners held without charge or trial under administrative detention orders are continuing their boycott of Israeli courts for the 68th day as of 23 April. They launched their boycott on 15 February, refusing to participate in the hearings that serve as a rubber stamp of the orders for their imprisonment without charge or trial that come from the Israeli military and security forces.

Maher Harb of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Committee in Nablus said that they are considering escalating steps in their struggle, up to and potentially including an open hunger strike.

Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and are issued in one to six month periods at a time. The detainees are demanding an end to the practice of administrative detention, which dates from the period of the British colonial mandate in Palestine before being adopted as a tool of Zionist colonization. Palestinians can be jailed for years at a time without charge or trial; Ibrahim al-Arouj, 34, just had his administrative detention renewed for the eighth time, ordering him arbitrarily imprisoneed for another three months.

Several Palestinian prisoners, including one held in administrative detention, are also engaged in hunger strikes; Sami Janazra, held without charge or trial, has been on hunger strike for 28 days. He previously won his release from a previous period of administrative detention with a 69-day strike. Among the ohter hunger strikers are Amir al-Sarkaji, protesting his interrogation in Petah Tikva for 26 days and Diaa al-Shani, protesting his re-arrest in Etzion detention center for 9 days.

The Israeli occupation authorities have issued 41 administrative detention orders against Palestinian prisoners since the beginning of April through the 18th of the month, said Palestinian lawyer Mahmoud al-Halabi of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.

The orders were issued against the following Palestinians:

1. Issam Imad Nazzal, Jenin, 4 months, new order
2. Ribhi Talal Shahwan, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
3. Tayseer Taleb Othman Abu Sneineh, al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
4. Musaab Salah Samhan, Ramallah, 3 months, extension
5. Lutfi Taher Malaisheh, Jenin, 6 months, extension
6. Murad Mohammed Fashafsha, Jenin, 6 months, extension
7. Aws Mohammed Khader, Tulkarem, 6 months, extension
8. Ahmed Fawzi Sawaftah, Tubas, 6 months, new order
9. Yazan Walid Ayyash, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
10. Abdel-Rahman Shawqi Shuaibat, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
11. Mohammed Nafez Kashtam, Jenin, 3 months, new order
12. Moataz Mohammed Sharaya, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
13. Allam Ziad Jaradat, Jenin, 6 months, new order
14. Nawaf Suleiman Sawarka, Bethlehem, 3 months, extension
15. Sufyan Bassam Mikdadi, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
16. Muatassim Mohammed Abidu, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
17. Ismail Khalil Alayan, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
18. Mahmoud Farhan al-Dariyah, Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
19. Basel Osama al-Aissa, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
20. Ghassan Abdel-Wahab al-Zughaybi, Jenin, 3 months, extension
21. Sultan Ibrahim Bawadi, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
22. Alaa Ali Hamed, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
23. Fahd Abdel-Aziz Zaarour, Jenin, 4 months, extension
24. Ashraf Riad Dar Radi, Ramallah, 5 months, extension
25. Khalil Khader Shawka, Bethlehem, 6 months, extensin
26. Mahmoud Suleiman Abu Shehab, Qalqilya, 4 months, extension
27. Mohammed Abdallah Harb, Jenin, 3 months, extension
28. Mohammed Yassin Shalaldeh, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
29. Rami Hesham Abu Safiyeh, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
30. Yousef Mustafa Kaabneh, Jericho, 6 months, new order
31. Musaab Hussein Rabie, Jerusalem, 4 months, extension
32. Ibrahim Issa Mansour, Jerusalem, 4 months, extension
33. Thaer Aziz Halahleh, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
34. Basil Khaled Dweikat, Nablus, 4 months, extension
35. Hussein Mohammed Mardawi, Nablus, 4 months, extension
36. Mohammed Suleiman Washaheh, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
37. Hussein Amin Hammadi, Jenin, 4 months, extension
38. Mohammed Mahmoud Sahwil, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
39. Mohammed Yousef Ghazawneh, al-Ram, 6 months, new order
40. Anas Saad Awad, Nablus, 6 months, new order
41. Ibrahim Abdullah Arouj, Bethlehem, 3 months, extension

Palestinian teen Abdul-Khalik Burnat sentenced to 19 months in Israeli prisons

23 April 2018

*Photo of AbdulKhalik Burnat with his younger brother, via Burnat family.*

Palestinian teen Abdul-Khalik Burnat, 18, the son of well-known activist Iyad Burnat, was sentenced to 19 months in Israeli military court on Sunday, 22 April. He and several friends had been charged with throwing stones and causing damage to the Israeli apartheid wall cutting through Palestinian land in the West Bank. 13 months of the sentence will be served and six months suspended over three years.

Abdul-Khalik was arrested at the age of 17; like most child prisoners of the Israeli occupation, he was accused of throwing stones. There are currently 350 Palestinian children held in Israeli occupation prisons. To some extent, this number understates the problem; many arrested Palestinian children go through lengthy court hearings and their sentencing hearings take place after they reach the age of 18. Palestinian children face the same types of military court hearings as adults with the same conviction rate of 99.74 percent; every year, 500 to 700 Palestinian children are brought before military courts.

As a senior in high school, Abdul-Khalik had been focused on completing his secondary education before he was seized by occupation forces; he was planning to apply to universities abroad for next year’s studies. Instead, his educational plans have been delayed by occupation forces and imprisonment.

He has already been held for 133 days, since 10 December, when he as his friends were seized by occupation forces. The boys were beaten and kicked by occupation forces after being seized at gunpoint as they returned home from a pizzeria. In addition, he was also ordered to pay 18,000 NIS ($5,100 USD) as “restitution” for the “damage” the teens allegedly caused by throwing stones at the Wall. In addition, he was ordered to a six-month suspended sentence that will persist for a three year period.

The Burnat family and Abdul-Khalik in particular have been repeatedly attacked by occupation forces. He was shot in the back of the head in January 2017 and then arrested two months later as his recovery continued. Their village of Bil’in has been targeted by colonial forces on an ongoing basis, including for violent attacks, arrests and repression. The village engages in weekly demonstrations that often include international activists in protest of the encroachment of the Apartheid Wall on the village’s land.

Ghassan Zawahreh ordered to 7 months in prison after administrative detention

23 April 2018

Palestinian activist Ghassan Zawahreh, former long-term hunger striker and organizer from Dheisheh refugee camp, was ordered to a 7-month prison sentence in Israeli occupation prisons and a fine of NIS 1,000 (USD $300) by the Ofer military court on Sunday, 22 April. Zawahreh, 36, had been held in administrative detention without charge or trial since 19 July 2016; his detention was renewed repeatedly until his case was suddenly transferred to the military courts.

He is the brother of Moataz Zawahreh, who was killed by occupation forces in 2015 as he protested in Bethlehem as part of the Jerusalem uprising of that time. When his brother was killed, he was imprisoned; Moataz had returned to Palestine from studying abroad in France in order to support Ghassan and his comrades in a hunger strike that took place in the summer of 2015 against administrative detention. He won his release in December 2015, only to be seized again by occupation forces seven months later.

Over previous arrests, he has spent nearly 12 years in Israeli occupation prisons, mostly in administrative detention without charge or trial. He has been a leader in the prisoners’ movement, participating in collective and small group hunger strikes against administrative detention, including the 2015 strike, the strike in solidarity with Bilal Kayed and the 2017 Freedom and Dignity strike.

The transfer of Zawahreh to the military courts comes in tandem with several cases in which Palestinian prisoners were transferred to administrative detention after completing their sentences. Addameer reported that two Palestinians, Tariq Jamal, 26, from al-Arroub camp in al-Khali, and Mohammed Namrouti, 26, from Balata camp in Nablus, were ordered to six months in administrative detention on 3 April. Jamal had completed his seven month sentence for posting on Facebook and Namrouti had completed his two month sentence for student political activity when they were both ordered imprisoned without charge or trial.

Abeer Abu Khdeir released after two-month sentence in Israeli prison

23 April 2018

*Photo: Abeer Abu Khdeir upon her release. By Asala Abu Khdeir.*

Palestinian activist Abeer Abu Khdeir was released after serving nearly two months in Israeli occupation prison on 20 April. Abu Khdeir, 43, was sentenced on 2 March to two months in Israeli prison on charges that dated back seven years to when she and her daughters resisted invading Israeli forces’ attempt to detain her son Anan in 2011. Anan was 14 years old at the time. Abu Khdeir is a leading organizer in Jerusalem and an activist with the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.

Throughout her detention, she was held in isolation and Israeli occupation forces refused to transfer her to be with the other Palestinian women political prisoners. She was also reportedly denied books and was subject to ongoing verbal abuse from guards.

She is the wife of Nasser Abu Khdeir, a fellow leading Jerusalemite Palestinian organizer, currently serving a 16-month sentence in Israeli prison. He has spent over 15 years in Israeli prison through repeated jailings. Her case went on for years until she was sentenced to two months; several days were deducted from her sentence due to the time she and her daughters spent imprisoned upon their original arrest in 2011.

She has been detained on multiple occasions by occupation forces and beaten by occupation forces while participating in protests in Jerusalem; she has been active on the international and Arab levels as well in defending Jerusalem and organizing Palestinian women to confront occupation.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Abeer Abu Khdeir upon her release and demands the immediate freedom for all 6,500 of her fellow Palestinian political prisoners behind Israeli occupation bars.

Ali al-Jamal, historic prisoners’ movement leader, passes away in Jenin

23 April 2018

On Monday, 16 April, Ali Awad Saleh al-Jamal, the Palestinian prisoner held longest at one time in administrative detention, passed away in Jenin after a long life in struggle. Born in Jenin on 30 January 1947, his father’s life was taken as he resisted the Zionist armed forces’ invasion of Jenin in 1948.

From an early age, he joined the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM) of George Habash and Wadie Haddad as a high school student. From its founding, he became a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a leading Palestinian organizer in Jenin.

After an Israeli occupation military officer was killed in the city market in Jenin in 1974, al-Jamal was targeted for arrest by the Israeli occupation forces. He was held under interrogation for 100 days and subject to severe torture throughout that time. Despite the intense torture and lengthy interrogation, he remained silent; at the end of this period, he was transferred to administrative detention and held without charge or trial.

Within the prisons, he became a leader of the prisoners’ movement. His administrative detention order was renewed over and over again and he spent 7 years in Israeli prison consecutively, without charge and without trial. He worked to build unity among the Palestinian political forces inside Israeli prisons in order to strengthen the prisoners’ movement and took part in a year-long struggle for the rights of the prisoners.

After his release on 3 March 1982, he was then subject to house arrest for over two years in an attempt to prevent him from resuming his role as a leader of the movement in Jenin. After the outbreak of the Intifada in December 1987, he was re-arrested on multiple occasions; he spent over 10 years in total in detention in Israeli prisons.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins with the Palestinian national liberation movement and the prisoners’ movement in remembering Ali al-Jamal, a significant contributor to the development and leadership of that movement inside Israeli jails.

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