New York protesters call for freedom for Georges Abdallah, Salah Hamouri

29 October 2017

New Yorkers gathered on Monday, 23 October outside the French Consulate in New York City to urge freedom for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, imprisoned in French jails for 33 years, and urge the French government to take action for Salah Hamouri, French-Palestinian lawyer jailed without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation.

Organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in New York City, the protest was the second New York event in the international week of action to free Abdallah as he entered his 34th year in French prison. It also highlighted the case of Hamouri, field researcher at Addameer and newly graduated lawyer, imprisoned since August without charge or trial. A former prisoner released in 2011, Hamouri is also separated from his wife and young son; his wife, Elsa, has been banned by the Israeli occupation from entering Palestine for 10 years despite holding a valid visa and a job at the French consulate.

The protesters distributed a number of leaflets and flyers about the cases of Abdallah and Hamouri to passers-by. They were met by a number of police from the NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau as well as a State Department representative, who attempted to direct the protesters that they could not stand in front of the consulate, contrary to New York law.

Abdallah was arrested by French police on 24 October 1984, accused of carrying forged documents; however, his detention was extended as French intelligence sought to charge him with involvement in armed actions in Paris by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction that killed a U.S. military attache and an Israeli occupation diplomat during the Israeli war on and occupation of Lebanon. He has been eligible for release since 1999, and despite several favorable parole decisions, his release has been denied on multiple occasions after intervention by political forces, including former French prime minister Manuel Valls and U.S. former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

His case has received wide support from left-wing and social justice organizations throughout France and around the world, and events were organized in a number of cities as part of the global week of action this year.

Despite Hamouri’s imprisonment without charge or trial, the French government has been slow to push for his release despite an active and growing campaign. Protests and actions have been held in cities across the country for his release and dozens of cities, towns and municipalities have endorsed the call to free Hamouri, alongside prominent political, social and academic figures.

Samidoun in New York will protest next on Monday, 30 October in solidarity with Bilal Diab and Hassan Shokeh, two Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike against their administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. The protest, at 5:30 pm outside the Best Buy in Union Square, will also urge the boycott of HP products for the corporation’s profiteering from contracts with the Israeli occupation military and prison service.

Samidoun is also working with the other organizations in the NY4Palestine coalition to organize a rally against Zionist and British colonialism on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour declaration on 2 November at 5:30 pm, which will march from the Israeli consulate to the British UN mission. All supporters of justice in Palestine are encouraged to join us for these actions.

2 November, NYC: Protest 100 years since the Balfour declaration

29 October 2017

Thursday, 2 November
5:30 pm
Israeli Consulate
800 2nd Ave
followed by March to British Mission to the UN
47th St and 2nd Avenue
New York City
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/482626635442520/

Protest against 100 years of colonization!

#Balfour100

This November 2nd marks the 100 year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.

In 1917, Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary said this in a public letter to a then prominent British Zionist, Lord Walter Rothschild:

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

In this period, WW1 was raging, and the British and Australians were in Palestine fighting the Ottomans, close to taking Jerusalem.

The Balfour Declaration, to this day, is considered the first step toward the objective of political Zionism.

Join NY4Palestine as we remember this day and the fight that has ensued ever since. We will be gathering at the Embassay at 42nd St and 2nd Ave to rally and protest the continued occupation of Palestine by Israeli Zionist forces.

Samidoun events at Bir Zeit university urge freedom for Georges Abdallah and Samir Abu Naameh

28 October 2017

The Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine organized a series of events at Bir Zeit University on Wednesday, 25 October, working together with a number of student blocs and organizations. The events, in solidarity with the imprisoned Lebanese Arab struggler Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and longtime Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails Samir Abu Naameh, were part of an international week of solidarity with Georges Abdallah as he enters his 34th year in French prisons.

The events began with a seminar with Dr. Abdel-Rahim Sheikh and lawyer Wael Abu Naameh, the brother of Samir, where they spoke about the situation of Palestinian prisoners. The event was convened in the Martyr Kamal Nasser hall, and participants discussed the political, social and cultural terror practiced by the Israeli occupation and imperialist forces. They emphasized the colonialist nature of imprisonment and the importance of the role of young people in working to free Palestinian political prisoners, as the backbone of the Palestinian national liberation movement.

With the upcoming anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the speakers noted that 100 years of colonization and imprisonment have failed to defeat the resistance of the Palestinian people.

The program also included discussions of the lives of both Abdallah and Abu Naameh, followed by a solidarity vigil held in the courtyard of the university, in which students spoke about the importance of mobilizing to free the prisoners throughout Palestinian universities, where many of the prisoners and martyrs were students and are part of the prisoners’ movement, the front line of resistance to colonization.

The event also included the creation of a number of murals with the participation of students by the “Mitras Youth Group,” presented on the university campus and highlighting Georges Abdallah, Samir Abu Naameh and the struggle of Palestinian prisoners. The mural honoring Abu Naameh was presented to his family.

The events at Bir Zeit came alongside a series of international events, including actions and programs in Lannemezan – where Abdallah is imprisoned – Bordeaux, Athens, Toulouse, New York, Brussels, Villeneuve, Manchester, Marseille, The Hague, Tunis, Dublin, Barcelona, Berlin, Baalbek, Beirut, Ramallah, Lyon, Geneva and Shatila camp. They were part of an international week of action organized between 14 and 24 October as Abdallah, the Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine, entered his 34th year in French prison.

The event also commemorated the case of Samir Abu Naameh, one of the longest-held Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prison, who entered his 32nd year in Israeli prisons on 20 October 1986. A Jerusalemite prisoner, he was involved in the Palestinian resistance with Fateh in the 1980s. His brother Wael noted that he has been excluded from all of the prisoner exchanges as well as other long-term prisoners held for over 30 years in Israeli prisons.

Bilal Diab and Hassan Shokeh continue hunger strikes for freedom

28 October 2017

Two Palestinian prisoners are continuing their hunger strike, demanding freedom from administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Hassan Shokeh, from Bethlehem, has been on hunger strike for 18 days – since 11 October – while Bilal Diab, from Kafr Rai near Jenin, has been on strike for 11 days – since 18 October.

Both Shokeh and Diab are held in solitary confinement, where they were transferred after launching their hunger strikes. Shokeh has spent 12 years in Israeli jails, eight of those in administrative detention over various arrests. He was released on 28 August and then seized once more by occupation forces on 31 August and promptly returned to administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial.

Shokeh is suffering from a headache, dry eyes, weakness and other symptoms following his strike. He is held in isolation in Ofer prison.

Diab is a former long-term hunger striker who fought a 78-day hunger strike alongside fellow administrative detainee Thaer Halahleh in 2012 for their freedom. He was seized again by occupation forces on 14 July and ordered to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Held in solitary confinement in Ashkelon prison, his appeal against his administrative detention was rejected by an Israeli higher court on 17 October. His case will come before the Supreme Court on 30 November. He had been held in the Negev desert prison but was transferred to isolation in Ashkelon prison on Tuesday, 24 October, imposing the grueling prison transfer process upon him as a means of pressure.

Palestinian lawyer Karim Ajwa said that Diab has had all but the one set of clothing which he is wearing confiscated from him and is held in a narrow cell with dirt, insects and only one blanket. Ajwa said that Diab refused even water for two days in protest of his conditions of isolation and that he is refusing medical examinations in the prison clinic, noting that Diab is suffering from exhaustion, headache, fever, dry throat and abdominal pain.

Palestinians in Gaza organized a rally on Thursday, 26 October, in support of the two hunger strikers and against administrative detention. Yasser Saleh of the Muhja Al-Quds Foundation said that Diab and Shokeh are fighting a battle with their empty stomachs in order to confront administrative detention, arbitrary imprisonment that flouts international law and conventions. He said that administrative detention is a sword on the necks of the Palestinian people and must be ended completely.

Samidoun in New York will hold a protest on Monday, 30 October, to support Diab and Shokeh’s hunger strike and demand their release. They will also urge the boycott of HP, the global corporation with contracts with the Israel Prison Service and other military and security contracts with Israeli occupation forces and settlements. The protest will take place at 5:30 pm outside the Best Buy in Union Square in Manhattan, at 52 E. 14th Street.

Twenty-two more Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial

28 October 2017

Israeli occupation authorities issued 22 administrative detention orders for imprisonment without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence against Palestinian prisoners between 15 and 25 November, reported Palestinian lawyer Mahmoud Halabi.

Among those ordered to administrative detention was Khadija Jibril Ruba’i, 30, from Yatta, who was ordered imprisoned for 3 months without charge or trial after occupation forces invaded her home and seized her on 10 October.

Among the 18 prisoners whose administrative detention was renewed was Mohammed Salameen, one of the four comrades of Basil al-Araj originally detained by the Palestinian Authority for several months, their imprisonment trumpeted as a victory for security coordination. Following their release after a Palestinian outcry, four were seized by the Israeli occupation – Salameen, Mohammed Harb, Haitham Siyaj and Seif al-Idrissi – and have been imprisoned without charge or trial since that time. Al-Araj, Palestinian youth activist and intellectual, was shot down in March in an assassination/arrest raid by Israeli occupation forces in El-Bireh as he resisted.

There are currently over 450 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention, among 6,200 Palestinian prisoners in total. The orders are issued for one to six months at a time but are indefinitely renewable; many Palestinians have spent years at a time jailed with no charge and no trial under these orders, first imposed on Palestine by the British mandate.

Administrative detention orders were issued against:

1. Islam Fayeq Nimer, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
2. Yousef Fakhri Atrash, Jenin, 4 months, extension
3. Bassel Hussam Ma’aleh, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
4. Adam Taha Abu Sharar, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
5. Fayez Mohammed Atta, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
6. Abdel-Rahman Jamal Zeer, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
7. Lutfi Hassan Awawdeh, al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
8. Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Kweik, Ramallah, 6 months, new order
9. Mehi Sami Hajir, Ramallah, 6 months, new order
10. Khadija Jibril Ruba’i, al-Khalil, 3 months, new order
11. Obeida Adnan Barghouthi, 4 months, extension
12. Mohammed Hussein Salameen, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
13. Suhaib Jamil Shabah, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
14. Mahmoud Yousef Abu Daoud, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
15. Ismail Najib Faraj, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
16. Mahmoud Ishaq Abu Hashhash, al-Khalil, 6 months extension
17. Moatassem Tayseer Samara, Tulkarem, 6 months, extension
18. Rizq Mohammed Shreim, Qalqilya, 4 months, extension
19. Mohammed Yassin Shalaldeh, al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
20. Saeb Fahmi Salem, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
21. Adnan Ahmed Khader, Tulkarem, 4 months, extension
22. Mohammed Shukri Awad, Ramallah, 4 months, new order

Palestinian prisoner’s petition to see his severely ill son continued until 29 October

28 October 2017

Palestinian prisoner Rajab al-Tahhan’s petition to visit his son, Majd, who is in the Hadassah hospital with severe leukemia, was continued until Sunday, 29 October, on the grounds of presenting a report by the Shin Bet intelligence agency.

Tahhan is held in Nafha prison; he has been separated from his son for most of Majd’s 19 years of life. Tahhan was accused of killing an Israeli occupation settler in 1998, when Majd was four months old, and was imprisoned until 2011, when he was released as part of the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange. After spending only two years and eight months with his son and family, he was among over 60 Palestinians seized by the Israeli occupation in 2014 as part of an organized pressure campaign against the Palestinian resistance. Most of these prisoners have had their original sentences reimposed by a secretive military committee on the basis of secret evidence and allegations of “association” with members of prohibited organizations, which include all major Palestinian political parties.

Palestinian resistance organizations and political movements have demanded the immediate release of all of the re-arrested prisoners.

His family spoke to Al-Jazeera:

“This is not about politics […] It is an issue of depriving a son from his father. What is being asked of anyone with a conscience is to realise that there is a son in need of his father,” a close relative of Majd and Rajab, told Al Jazeera from Jerusalem.

“We’re not even asking for Rajab to be released because we know they won’t release him. We just want the son to see his father – even for just 30 minutes,” he said, adding they would be content with transporting Majd with an ambulance to the prison.

“Majd has bone marrow failure and he is not stable. He has no immunity – any germ or virus that enters his body can end his life at any moment.”

Palestinian prisoner’s petition for early release postponed

28 October 2017

*Image: Sami Abu Diak, via Asra Media Center*

On Wednesday, 25 October, the Early Release Committee of the Israel Prison Service held a hearing on the case of Sami Abu Diak, the severely ill Palestinian prisoner suffering from colon cancer. Palestinian lawyers have petitioned for his release so that he can receive urgent medical treatment. However, a further hearing on the case was delayed until 21 November 2017 after a request by the Israeli prosecution to prepare an additional report about Abu Diak’s treatment.

Abu Diak has been sentenced to three life sentences and has undergone three operations while imprisoned. 80 cm of his intestines were removed at Soroka hospital in 2015; following the surgery, he was quickly transferred to the Ramle prison clinic where his wounds became infected and he fell into a coma following the severe infection. His disease has continued to worsen since that time. He was denied early release in 2015 after his coma.

Injured Palestinian child prisoner released after two months in prison

28 October 2017

Injured Palestinian child prisoner Haitham Jaradat, 14, was released by Israeli occupation forces after 58 days in detention, following a ruling by the Ofer military court on Thursday, 26 October, which also imposed a 2,000 NIS ($564 USD) fine. He has been detained since he was shot in the back by Israeli occupation soldiers in Share Tzedek hospital and then the Ramle prison clinic.

He was handcuffed to his bed while held in the hospital and was repeatedly denied family and legal visits during that time; he underwent surgery and lost a portion of his intestines. He was shot by occupation forces outside the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba east of al-Khalil and accused of attempting to stab Israeli occupation forces. After Haitham was shot, a video was released in which an Israeli occupation soldier questioned the boy about why he was there, with him saying that he came to commit suicide, before asking for water.

Meanwhile, consideration of the case of ill child prisoner Anas Adnan Hamarsheh, 17, from Yabad near Jenin, was continued until 29 October 2017. Anas, who suffers from a rare condition that causes erosion of his bones, was seized by occupation forces on 8 October 2017 and accused of participating in stone-throwing.

26 October, Givors: Evening of Solidarity with Salah Hamouri

24 October 2017

Thursday, 26 October
6:30 pm
Salle Malik Oussekine
Givors, France
For more information: https://www.facebook.com/freesalahhamouri/

Meeting and discussion on the campaign for the immediate and unconditional liberation of Salah Hamouri, Palestinian-French lawyer jailed without charge or trial by Israel since 23 August.

With the participation of Jean-Claude Lefort, the National Coordinator of the Soutien a Salah Hamouri committee.

31 October, Manchester: Protest the Balfour “Celebrations” #ApartheidOffCampus

24 October 2017

Tuesday, 31 October
6:30 pm
University of Manchester – Whitworth Hall
Manchester, UK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/710174839180731/

We have learned that the University of Manchester plans to host an event co-organised by the Israeli embassy and the Zionist Federation, to celebrate 100 years since the Balfour Declaration on Tuesday 31st October at 7.30pm. Although not yet made public, despite numerous requests, this event is planned to be held in the Whitworth building at the University of Manchester. It will ‘celebrate’ the Declaration that lead to the expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians from their homes and the destruction of over 400 villages during Al-Nakba in 1948. To celebrate this is to dance on the rubble of Palestinian homes, to rejoice at the massacres of innocent people, and mock the ongoing horrors of Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza for the past 50 years.

This perverse celebration compounds the University of Manchester’s existing institutional and investment links with Israeli institutions complicit in war crimes.

FULL STATEMENT: https://bdsuom.com/2017/10/12/statement-from-student-societies-demanding-the-university-cancel-the-balfour-celebrations/

We call on all students, academics, trade unionists, and concerned individuals to take a stand for the Palestinians, still occupied, still violently forced from their land, and still the victims of the shameful support of UK institutions, from the Balfour Declaration to the University of Manchester today. Join the ‘Apartheid Off Campus’ protest at the Whitworth building Tuesday 31st October.

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