Protesters in New York City gathered outside the offices of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise in Manhattan for the weekly Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network protest for Palestinian prisoners’ freedom on Monday, 18 September. Carrying signs and Palestinian flags, they demanded HP end its contracts with the Israeli occupation, including with the Israel prison service and Israeli military that impose apartheid, occupation and settler colonialism on the Palestinian people.
The weekly protest focused on the case of Issa Amro, an activist in al-Khalil with Youth Against Settlements who is facing 18 charges before an Israeli military court. An international campaign has been organized to defend Amro against the charges, all of which relate to popular, public protests against settlements in al-Khalil. Amro was also recently arrested by the Palestinian Authority and charged with violating the “Electronic Crimes Act,” recently instituted by decree by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
This new law has been used to detain and charge a series of journalists and activists for expressing their opinions on social media. Many Palestinian organizations and political parties are demanding the complete cancellation of the law – a call joined by Samidoun – noting the danger that it poses to freedom of expression for Palestinians, especially at a time when Israeli occupation forces regularly attack, detain and imprison Palestinians for their political expressions on social media and as the Palestinian Authority continues its “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation.
The charges against Amro come as part of ongoing repression against activists in organizers in al-Khalil, including the case of the “Al-Khalil 4” earlier in the year. Palestinians in al-Khalil face daily settler violence, attacks by occupation forces and the shuttering of Palestinian businesses and homes to create an occupation zones for 800 illegal settlers occupying the heart of the Palestinian city of 200,000. Most recently, the Israeli state issued a military order on 31 August to establish a “new municipal services administration” for the 800 settlers in al-Khalil, yet another attack on Palestinian existence and life in the city, even though even the Oslo accords state that the entire city is under Palestinian administration.
As the demonstrators protested outside HP, they garnered support both from drivers passing by on the West Side Highway and from a number of people walking by on the street. Participants distributed information about Palestinian prisoners as well as about the involvement of Hewlett-Packard in providing IT infrastructure and resources for the Israel Prison Service, the Israeli checkpoint and ID card system that maintains apartheid and the Israeli occupation military, demanding the company cancel its contracts and urging boycott of HP consumer and business products in protest. There is a growing international campaign to boycott HP in protest of these contracts.
Photo: North America Nakba Tour
Following the demonstration, protesters participated in several events taking place in New York City. Samidoun was one of a number of endorsers of the North America Nakba Tour‘s stop at New York University, where Palestinian refugees from Lebanon spoke about their experiences. Khawla Hammad (Umm Mousa), a Nakba survivor, and Amena el-Ashkar spoke about the situation for Palestinians in Lebanon’s refugee camps and the struggle for the right of return. The North America Nakba Tour kicked off on 15 September with a series of events in New York and New Jersey, including a dialogue with the Ramapough Lenape Nation on joint indigenous struggle as well as events in Clifton, NJ and at Hunter College and NYU. The Tour will continue through December with stops up and down the East Coast and Midwest.
Photo: Amena el-Ashkar
Amena of the Nakba Tour had actually spotted the Samidoun protesters as they drove to set up the NYU event, taking photos through their car windows and honking in solidarity as they passed.
Lydia of Samidoun also participated in a protest organized by BAYAN as part of the National Week of Action in Solidarity with the Philippines. The demonstration at the US Army Recruiting Station in Times Square demanded an end to U.S. political and military intervention in the Philippines.
“Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network protests arbitrary detention of activists and politicians in Palestine. We stand in solidarity with the Filipino struggle because the United States is an imperialist power involved in funding the zionist entity as well as the Duterte regime,” she said, highlighting as well the role of Israeli weapons sales and “security” advice in the Philippines and internationally.
Myriam De Ly of Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine and Mustafa Awad of Samidoun at ManiFiesta. Photo: Pour La Palestine
A number of actions and events at two festivals held over the past weekend, ManiFiesta in Belgium and Fete de l’Humanite in France, highlighted the cases of Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom, especially the cases of Salah Hamouri, French-Palestinian lawyer, and Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, imprisoned Lebanese struggler for Palestine held in French jails for the past 33 years.
Photo: Mustafa Awad, Samidoun
At ManiFiesta, organized annually in Ostende, Belgium, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network had a table and tent on 16-17 September with information and posters about Palestinian political prisoners. The stand for Samidoun was located close to those for other Palestine organizations, including the Boycott Israel tent organized by Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine and the presence of Palestinian community organizations like Raj’een Dabkeh Troupe.
Photo: Pour La Palestine
On Sunday, 17 September, as Salah Hamouri’s administrative detention order was being confirmed by an Israeli court in Jerusalem, Samidoun came together with Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine and many other organizations at ManiFiesta, including ABP, Comac, Intal, M3M, Palestina Solidariteit, PJPO and UJPB to stand together to demand the release of Palestinian political prisoners. Participants focused on the cases of Hamouri, Palestinian parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar, women’s organization leader Khitam Saafin and national leaders Ahmad Sa’adat and Marwan Barghouthi, along with the struggle to free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah from French prisons.
Events for Palestine at ManiFiesta included panels featuring former UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk as well as performances by Ibdaa, the Palestinian dance troupe from Dheisheh refugee camp in occupied Palestine.
At Fete de l’Humanite, the names of Salah Hamouri and Georges Ibrahim Abdallah were prominent throughout the festival. On Sunday, 17 September, Elsa Lefort, the wife of Hamouri and the spokesperson of his support committee – herself banned from Palestine for 10 years by the Israeli occupation – spoke at the large main stage to the festival about Salah Hamouri’s case. She was joined on stage by a group of people wearing shirts calling for “Liberte pour Salah Hamouri” (“Freedom for Salah Hamouri”) and also holding signs demanding freedom for fellow prisoners, like Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.
She conclude her speech, by saying, “Freedom for Salah Hamouri! Freedom for all Palestinian prisoners! Freedom for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah! Freedom for Palestine!”
Lefort participated in many activities and events at the festival, including a panel on joint struggle featuring Assa Traore, the sister of Adama Traore, killed by French police, and Bagui Traore, imprisoned following the protests that erupted following the murder of Adama.
The festival was also home to a number of events and actions focusing on the case of Abdallah, including a collective march through the festival on Saturday afternoon, 16 September. Organized by a number of groups, including the Unified Campaign to Free Georges Abdallah as well as Moroccan organizations working to free political prisoners who had a strong presence at the festival, the march wound through the festival urging freedom for Georges Abdallah and fellow prisoners.
Participants in the march included OCML-VP, the Committee for the freedom of Georges Abdallah, the Moroccan collective to support political prisoners, Le Cri Rouge, Liberez-les (Lille), EuroPalestine, SRA, AFPS-Paris13, NPA and many others.
Freedom for Salah Hamouri at Fete de l’Humanite. Photo: Yanis B.
The administrative detention order against French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, ordering him imprisoned without charge or trial for six months, was confirmed on Sunday, 17 September. The confirmation of the order for his imprisonment without charge or trial came after a roller coaster of charges and sentences following his seizure by Israeli occupation forces on 23 August in a pre-dawn raid on his home in Kufr Aqab near Jerusalem.
Occupation forces arrested Hamouri, a field researcher for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, on 23 August and shortly thereafter, far-right Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered him detained without charge or trial, as protests grew in France to demand the French government pressure the Israeli state to release Hamouri immediately. Hamouri’s wife, Elsa Lefort, was denied entry to Palestine when pregnant with their son last year; she is now banned from Palestine for 10 years by the Israeli occupation. She is the spokesperson for the campaign to free Salah Hamouri in France.
In fact, as Hamouri’s administrative detention order was being confirmed in the Israeli court, Lefort was speaking at the main stage at Fete de l’Humanite in Paris, urging action for Hamouri’s liberation.
Rather then confirming the administrative detention order, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court originally instead imposed a sentence of three months – the remainder of Hamouri’s sentence from 2005, from which he was released in 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange. The Israeli prosecution appealed the sentence and on 12 September, Hamouri’s administrative detention order was reimposed.
The indefinitely renewable administrative detention order expires on 22 February 2018. Palestinians have spent years at a time jailed under administrative detention orders, which can be renewed for up to six months at one time. There are currently over 450 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention out of 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails in total.
“We believe that Salah’s imprisonment is an attempt at punishing him for his activism and human rights work. It represents but one part of the occupation’s continue attempts to stifle the Palestinian people’s legitimate struggle for human rights, autonomy, and basic dignity,” said Addameer, in response to Hamouri’s administrative detention.
Hassan Hamouri and Sahar Francis speaking with MEPs
On Monday, 18 September, Hamouri’s father, Hassan Hamouri, joined Sahar Francis, executive director of Addameer and the families of other Palestinian prolitical prisoners, including Iman Nafie, the wife of Nael Barghouthi, to speak to Members of European Parliament on a delegation to Palestine.
Amnesty International issued a statement on Salah Hamouri as well denouncing his imprisonment without charge or trial and calling for his release. Magdalena Mughrabi of AI said: “The arbitrary detention of Salah Hammouri is yet another shameful example of the Israeli authorities’ abusive use of administrative detention to detain suspects indefinitely without charge or trial. Rather than locking him up without presenting a shred of evidence against him, the Israeli authorities must either charge him with a genuine criminal offence or order his immediate release.”
Hamouri is an internationally known speaker on Palestinian prisoners and Palestinian rights. He spoke at a number of Belgian university campuses as part of Israeli Apartheid Week in 2017 and has spoken throughout France as well as in the World Social Forum in Brazil on Palestinian prisoners’ struggle for freedom.
On Monday, 18 September, Lefort issued a statement, urging the French government to end its silence and take action, especially after French citizen Loup Bureau was released from Turkish prison and returned to France following French state pressure.
“We affirm, with the support of a multitude of people from all walks of life, that more than ever we intend to make justice and law prevail; that, more than ever, we stand beside Salah Hamouri and his family, who have been so harshly tried; that more than ever we intend to bring about this demand, the correctness of which is indisputable: freedom for Salah Hamouri!”
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Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates its urgent demand for the immediate release of Salah Hamouri and all Palestinian prisoners and for the French state to act immediately to defend the rights of their citizen and take action for Salah Hamouri’s freedom. This arduous and endless process of injustice and arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial is not only an attack on Hamouri, but on all Palestinians who continue to struggle, resist and seek their freedom. This is clearly an attempt on the part of the Israeli state to target an effective, local and international human rights defender working for Palestinian freedom.
The French state must take real action to demand freedom for Salah Hamouri, the Palestinian human rights defender. From the jails and the courts of the occupation to the cities and campuses of the world, he is a consistent and clear voice against oppression and for liberation. Free Salah Hamouri! Libérez Salah Hamouri!
3. LIKE AND SHARE the Facebook page for Salah Hamouri, which will be regularly updated with news and actions to demand Salah’s freedom: https://www.facebook.com/freesalahhamouri/
4. ORGANIZE protests and actions to demand Salah’s release and that of his fellow Palestinian prisoners. Events are scheduled in multiple cities – add your own! Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net
Three Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are currently on hunger strike, reported Asra Voice on Tuesday, 19 September. Anas Shadid, 21, from the village of Dura near al-Khalil and former long-term hunger striker who engaged in an 90-day hunger strike to win his release from administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, is on his sixth day of hunger strike.
He was once again seized by Israeli occupation forces on 14 June and ordered to administrative detention for a six-month indefinitely renewable period. He is one of over 450 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention. He was ordered to solitary confinement in Hadarim prison and launched his hunger strike to demand an end to his isolation and administrative detention, reported his brother, Abdel-Majid Shadid.
Ahmad Salameh al-Sawarkeh, from Gaza City, also is on hunger strike for the fourth day after he remains jailed in Israeli prisons; his sentence expired one year ago, in September 2016. He had been detained since 16 March 2009 and sentenced to seven and a half years in Israeli prisons. Last year, he was told that he would be released to Sinai as an Egyptian, but he has rejected this and demands to be released to Gaza City where he lived before his arrest with his wife from Deir al-Balah. He is now demanding his release to Gaza.
Sheikh Izzadine Amarneh. Photo: Asra Media Center
Sheikh Izzadine Amarneh, 55, who is blind, was detained by Israeli occupation forces from his home in the village of Ya’abed south of Jenin on 10 September. He was ordered to administrative detention on 18 September without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence and launched his hunger strike on 18 September demanding his freedom. A former prisoner, he has been held in the past for 6 years in Israeli jails.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in solidarity with the three hunger strikers and all of the over 6,200 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in their struggle to defend their rights and dignity and achieve their freedom and the liberation of their land and people.
Sabah Faraoun, Palestinian Jerusalemite seamstress and mother who is held without charge or trial under administrative detention, was issued a final order for three months in administrative detention on 19 September 2017. She has been repeatedly ordered to different periods in administrative detention since she was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 19 June 2016.
Her administrative detention order has been renewed six times for periods ranging from one to four months; administrative detention orders are generally indefinitely renewable and Palestinians have been jailed for years at a time without charge or trial. She is one of five Palestinian women held in administrative detention, among over 450 total administrative detainees and 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners. This final order means that her administrative detention will not be renewed upon its expiration.
The other four Palestinian women held in administrative detention are former prisoner Ihsan Dababseh, Afnan Abu Haniyeh, Palestinian leftist parliamentarian and national leader Khalida Jarrar and Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees president Khitam Saafin.
Ahlam al-Mahlouk. Photo: Asra Voice
Also on Tuesday, 19 September, an Israeli military court sentenced Ahlam al-Mahlouk, 19, from the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid near Ramallah, to six months and one day in prison for “incitement,” for posting on social media. She was seized by Israeli occupation forces who invaded her home on 16 June 2017 as she was in the midst of planning for her upcoming wedding.
A hearing was also held in the case of Rawan Dabbas, 22, from the village of Jaffna, near Ramallah, who has been imprisoned since 24 July during a pre-dawn raid on her family home. The case of Istabraq Yahya Tamimi, the Palestinian student at Bir Zeit University who was seized from the girls’ dormitory in a military raid on 20 March 2017, was continued until 31 October 2017 after convening Tuesday. She was to graduate in the summer, but has been forced to delay her studies due to her continued imprisonment by the Israeli occupation.
Hanadi Halawani
Meanwhile, on Sunday, 17 September, two Jerusalemite women known for their involvement in the defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque against Israeli settlers and occupation forces, Khadija Khweis and Hanadi Halawani, both had their detention extended an additional week until Sunday, 24 September. Both Khweis and Halawani have been banned from the holy site by occupation forces in the past but are dedicated to continuing their activities at the mosque, under threat from Israeli forces who seek to take it over.
There are currently 58 Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli jails, including 10 minor girls under the age of 18. It should be noted that several more of the jailed women were under 18 when sentenced and have turned 18 behind Israeli bars, such as Nurhan Awad.
The 10 girls, all held in HaSharon prison among 35 Palestinian women (the remaining 23 women prisoners are held in Damon prison) are: Iman Ali, Marah Jaida, Lama al-Bakri, Israa Jaber, Amal Kabha, Manar Shweiki, Malak al-Ghaliz (the youngest prisoner at age 14), Huda Areenat, Malak Salman and Nour Zreikat.
Lama al-Bakri
Lama al-Bakri, 17, was sentenced on Tuesday to three years and two months in Israeli prison and a fine of 6,000 NIS ($1700 USD). Meanwhile, the mother of Amal Qabha, 17, from the village of Umm al-Rayhan near Jenin, serving a one and a half year sentence, had an interview with the Prisoners’ Information Office, in which she said that her daughter is beloved within the prison among her fellow Palestinian women prisoners for her creativity and artwork. Amal was accused of attempting to attack an occupation soldier at a checkpoint between her home village and the village of Tura; she is attempting to complete her 11th grade studies inside prison. Her mother emphasized that she is an excellent student who wants to take the Tawjihi exam and has always planned to attend university.
She denounced the conditions of the girls’ imprisonment in Israeli prisons including frequent trips on the “bosta,” which can often last for multiple days, when being transported back and forth to the military courts, noting that the military court convened 14 times in Amal’s case.
Donald Trump is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in New York City while Netanyahu is in town to speak at the United Nations. We know what this meeting means: a deepening of Trump and Netanyahu’s “shared values” of racism and hate, advocating for the construction of oppressive walls, the displacement of people of color, and the militarization of civilian populations.
We must seize this opportunity to say loud and clear: from the US to Palestine, #BuildMovementsNotWalls!
The American Muslims for Palestine – NJ Chapter and Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City are calling on all allies to join us as we stand against injustice from the US to Palestine. On Tuesday, September 19th at 6:00 pm we will gather in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza (corner of 47th st and 1st ave, across from the UN) and have a rally from 6:30-7:00, followed by a march to Trump Tower.
Netanyahu publicly applauds Trumps regressive and disastrous policies, supporting a wall on the US/Mexico border, remaining silent on the Muslim ban, and issuing a delayed and tepid response to white supremacists and neo-Nazis in the streets of Charlottesville. Trump, in turn, points to Israel’s wall as a security success and a justification for his immigration plans and aligns his administration with those in Israel calling for annexation and apartheid, setting the stage for provocative moves that amount to a complete endorsement of Israel’s policies of occupation, displacement and discrimination.
For decades, Palestinians have been fighting the systems and policies that are bringing thousands into the streets across the US since November: an ethno-nationalist regime that bans indigenous Palestinian refugees, denies them the right to return to their homeland, tears families apart, and displaces millions.
We’re saying: #NoToBoth. The racist and Islamophobic agendas of the Trump and Netanyahu administrations go hand in hand and we’ll resist them together.
We envision a world free of bans, walls, capitalism, colonization and racism. We are committed to building the movements capable of winning a world of justice, equity and liberation for all.
Join us as we say: From the US to Palestine, #BuildMovementsNotWalls!
Palestinian prisoners’ institutions released their monthly report on Palestinian prisoners and detainees of the Israeli occupation for August 2017. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission compiled the report below. Translation by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
In August 2017, Israeli occupation forces continued their policy of arbitrary detention against hundreds of civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory and their ongoing practices which violate international humanitarian and human rights law.
Arrest Statistics
In August 2017, 522 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli occupation forces, including 130 children and 16 women.
According to the documentation of the prisoner support organizations, 194 Palestinians were arrested from Jerusalem, 70 from al-Khalil, 50 from Ramallah, 45 from Nablus, 38 from Bethlehem, 33 from Jenin, 27 from Tulkarem, 24 from Qalqilya, 19 from Salfit, 11 from Jericho, seven from Tubas and four from the Gaza Strip.
The total number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails reached 6300 prisoners, 64 of whom are women. Among them are 10 minor girls and 300 boys, 450 administrative detainees imprisoned without charge or trial and 12 detained members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
134 administrative detention orders were issued in August for imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial; 61 were new orders and 73 were renewal orders, as administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable.
The Arrest of Human Rights Defenders
Article 1 of the Declaration on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders was approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1998, providing that: “Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels.” Despite this, the occupation continues to arrest and prosecute activists and human rights defenders.
On 23 August, Israeli occupation forces arrested a human rights defender, Salah Hamouri, a field researcher for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, after invading his home in the town of Kufr Aqab north of Jerusalem, ransacking it. Hamouri has been arrested more than once. He was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison in a plea bargain but was released in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011. A few days after his arrest, he was initially released on several conditions:
1) House imprisonment in the village of Reineh in occupied Palestine ’48 for 20 days
2) Travel ban for 3 months
3) Expulsion from the city of Jerusalem for 90 days
4) Paying a bail of 10,000 NIS ($3,800 USD)
However, before he was to be released, he was instead issued a 6-month administrative detention order. When brought before the court for confirmation, he was instead sentenced to return to the remainder of his prison sentence from which he was released in 2011, approximately 3 months. The prosecution appealed this sentence, and his 6-month administrative detention order was reimposed.
The arrest of Hamouri is an example of the arbitrary detention targeting human rights defenders and human rights activists for imprisonment, with the goal of preventing them from playing their role in the community in raising awareness and defending the rights and freedoms of the people. It is notewirthy that Hamouri was arrested more than once, during which he was subjected to various forms of torture and ill-treatment, most recently in 2004, after which he was imprisoned for nearly 7 years before being released in the 2011 Wafa al-Ahrar agreement. During his detention in 2004, he was offered a plea bargain by the Israeli occupation authorities to deport him to France for 10 years, since he is a French citizen, instead of sentencing him, but he refused the offer and stayed in Palestine. After he was released, he was subjected to several arbitrary practices by the Israeli occupation forces. He was issued an order preventing him from entering the West Bank twice, and the period of his prohibition was a year and a half. In 2016, Israeli occupation officials deported his pregnant wife Elsa, a French citizen, and banned her from Palestine for 10 years, with their child, Hassan, who she is forced to raise away from his father. Finally, all of his requests for the right to family reunification have been refused as an arbitrary punitive measure against Salah and his family.
Extrajudicial Killings: The Case of the Martyr Raed al-Salhi from Dheisheh Camp
The policy of field executions and shooting to kill is not a surprising action committed by individuals, but is instead a deliberate and systematic policy approve at the highest levels of the occupying power. Statements made by the government officials of the occupation state in the media or directly in proposals from members of the government emphasized the need to reduce the legal requirements for the use of live ammunition against Palestinians, to the extent that it constitutes a breach of international law.
Since September 2015, human rights organizations have been monitoring and documenting cases in which occupation forces engaged in extrajudicial executions of Palestinian civilians, by shooting at the upper body with intent to kill (areas between the head and abdomen) during demonstrations and confrontations that broke out in most of the occupied Palestinian territories.
The occupation did not hesitate to use this method even during the implementation of its arrest raids and invasions carried out by the army in Palestinian camps, villages and cities. On 9 August 2017, in the early hours of the morning, the Israeli occupation forces invaded the Dheisheh refugee camp, east of Bethlehem city, in order to carry out a campaign of arrestts of youth in the camp.
Occupation forces opened fire at point-blank range on the young Abdel-Aziz Arafa, who was wounded in the left leg by live ammunition, and Raed Salhi, who was critically wounded after being shot six times during his arrest. He was martyred on 3 September 2017 as a result of his injuries. He was directly wounded in the liver and kidney by live ammunition, and through field testimony collected from the families of the youths and others, it was confirmed that the army deliberately fired live ammunition at him, carrying out a field execution.
The prisoner, Bassam al-Salhi, the brother of Raed Salhi, said:
“On 9 August 2017 at 3:43 am, I was woken from my sleep by my mother’s voice screaming and crying, saying that the army is killing people and that they fired inside the house specifically. When I got up I went out to the living room and my mother was crying and screming. She told me that Raed is martyred, that he is wounded and is behind the wall behind our house. I was with my younger brother Mohammed and we went to try to save Raed, going out the door leading to the back wall. I jumped on the balcony to try to get to the back wall, because our houses in the camp are close together. And the occupation forces opened fire on the railings of our neighbors, the soldiers firing heavily. Then I saw a soldier lying on the railings of our home and it looked to me as if he was wounded. I later learned that the soldiers who fired at Raed hit the soldier, and all the soldiers concentrated on evacuating the wounded soldier. I thought I would take advantage of their preoccupation and jumped to the house of the other neighbors, where Raed was lying on the ground near their house, just behind ours. I saw Raed, who was lying on the ground and trying to walk and losing a lot of blood, and I approached him and extended my hand for him to take, but at this moment, one of the Israeli soldiers caught Raed in his laser sight. I dragged him by the hands quickly and his left leg was bleeding. He had a bullet in his leg and he was full of blood, we moved away from the place between the houses until we were settled away from our besieged neighborhood full of soldiers. Throughout this time, Raed was bleeding in large amounts and speaking to me about many things, as if he were dying. He was starting to spit up blood and after about 15 minutes a number of soldiers stormed the place, following the trail of blood. During this time, one of the soldiers asked me to move away from him but I refused, and then a soldier attack me. Another pulled out his gun and fired to frighten me but I did not move. Then the same soldier hit me on my right shoulder and leg and pushed me away by force from Raed. They took him away from me, and a soldier examined his pulse. I did not know what to do. Two soldiers then carried him by his arms and legs and I did not know where they took him after the army left the camp.”
The practice of extrajudicial executions and killings by the Israeli occupation forces is a war crime under international law, under article 8 (a)(i) of the Rome Statute. Murder is a war crime, and therefore the occupation bears full responsibility in this context of war crimes against the Palestinian people as a whole.
Arrests and Heavy Fines Imposed on Children
In August, the Israeli courts issued sentences against 39 children and imposed heavy fines on child prisoners, amounting to more than 110,000 NIS ($31,200 USD).
Human rights organizations’ monitoring and documentation showed that in the past month, 59 children were taken to the “Cubs” section of Ofer prison. Of these, 40 were arrested from their homes, 10 on the roads, 3 at the military checkpoints, 4 after being summoned to interrogation and two for lack of possession of work permits.
Four children were arrested after being shot and 13 more were injured. They were beaten and harassed during their arrest and taken to interrogation centers. Sentences issued ranged from one month to 32 months.
The Palestinian institutions consider that the imposition of excessive financial burdens on child prisoners is a major constraint on the future of the child, a form of collective punishment and a major burden amid the prevailing state of poverty, which affects and violates other human rights for themselves and their families. During the prior month, these fines reached the amount of 87,000 NIS. ($24,700 USD).
Legal Concerns
Here, the Palestinian organizations introduce the international humanitarian and human rights law on the human rights of detainees and the legal guarantees it provides, as well as Israeli violations and the legal prohibitions against such violations, as follows:
1 – Legal safeguards relating to the prohibition of arbitrary detention of Palestinian civilians. These arrests violate international human rights law, including the article 9 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 9 and 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976).
2 – The policyof administrative detention by the occupation state, in which detention is carried out on the basis of secret evidence and without any charge against the detainee, violates internationally recognized rights to a fair trial according to the following:
a) It is contrary to Article 11 (1) of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that: “Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.”
b) It violates articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1976, which guarantees everyone the right to a fair trial, to be informed of the charges against them and to be able to defend themselves.
c) The failure to disclose any charges against the person detained under the administrative detention order precludes every possibility of verifying the compliance of the occupying state with Article 78 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which states that “If the Occupying Power considers it necessary, for imperative reasons of security, to take safety measures concerning protected persons, it may, at the most, subject them to assigned residence or to internment.” It is impossible to verify whether this detention is permitted without knowing what the reasons have been and are.
d) Not to inform the detained person of the charges against them constitutes a violation of Article 71 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which obliges the occupying power to report charges without delay. They also constitute a violation of article 10 of the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons in Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment of 1988, which requires the same.
3. The killing of Raed al-Salhi by point-blank shooting is a violation of the right to life under Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The practice of extrajudicial executions and killings is a war crime under international law, pursuant to article 8 (2/a/1) of the Rome Statute. Murder is a war crime, and therefore the occupation bears full responsibility in this context amid the upsurge in war crimes against the Palestinian people as a whole.
4. The detention of children violates Principle 13 of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Juvenile Justice (the Beijing Rules), adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1985, which stipulated that pre-trial detention should only be used as a last resort and for the shortest possible period, as well as providing for protection and social, psychological, educational, professional and medical assistance, which are not provided by the prison administration. The Israeli judiciary imposes heavy fines on children in the framework of collective punishment, contrary to the rules of international humanitarian and human rights law.
Conclusion
This report sustains a number of findings, through our analysis of the practices of occupation authorities and the reality of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, as follows:
1) The occupying forces are continuing their grave breaches and systematic violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
2) These Israeli violations have resulted in severe suffering for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
3) The silence of the international community has encouraged the occupying power to increase their violations against Palestinian detainees.
4) The High Contracting Parties to the Geneva COnventions did not play their roles and have in fact encouraged the occupation authorities to escalate their violations.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns the statements of former Palestinian Authority minister of prisoners affairs Ashraf al-Ajrami and his participation in a “joint conference” with former Israeli occupation military leaders marking the 24th anniversary of the Oslo Accords. We join with Palestinian organizations and activists in demanding accountability for al-Ajrami’s attacks on Palestinian prisoners and their families.
Al-Ajrami’s participation came as Palestinians and their friends and supporters around the world are building a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against the Israeli state and, especially, its military forces of racism, apartheid and colonial oppression. Rather than boycotting and protesting this Israeli occupation conference in occupied Jerusalem, al-Ajrami’s remarks attacked Palestinian prisoners and their families in an attempt to seek favor with the military forces of the occupier.
Among al-Ajrami’s statements were allegations that Palestinian families of prisoners receive large sums of money while their loved ones are jailed. This is far from the case, as even with social assistance or support to the families of prisoners, many Palestinian prisoners’ families live in poverty and struggle to get by at all. He attempted to claim that “Hamas” had created the law supporting prisoners’ families, when in fact it had been approved by the PLC in 1996.
Furthermore, he claimed that during his tenure as minister of prisoners, Palestinian prisoners’ families did not receive “large sums,” implying that there are in fact prisoners’ families who receive large sums of money, and invoking the canard of Hamas as the supporter of social funds for prisoners’ families, when in fact such has broad support from all Palestinian political organizations and, in fact, long predates the Palestinian Authority, when such social support was provided through the Palestine Liberation Organization, as a right for Palestinian family members of strugglers and veterans.
This attack by al-Ajrami comes at a time when Zionist organizations and the Israeli state are engaged in an international campaign of defamation against Palestinian prisoners, especially in European and North American parliaments and governments. The existence of social support for Palestinian prisoners’ families has been represented as an ‘incentive’ to engage in resistance actions, a ludicrous claim in light not only of Palestinian prisoners’ families ongoing poverty, home demolitions, arrests and collective punishment at the hands of the Israeli occupation, but particularly as it seeks to erase the existence of that very apartheid, occupation, racist colonial system that presents a daily threat to Palestinian lives and existence, sparking resistance over 70 years of occupation. The social and physical costs of imprisonment upon Palestinians are already massive and social support income does very little to address that in a land under occupation and constant military assault.
It is quite obvious that this campaign by Zionist organizations is fundamentally racist, claiming that Palestinians’ resistance over 70 years is somehow motivated by money despite the impoverishment, dispossession and suffering that Palestinians face amid a constant threat of extrajudicial killing and assassination for involvement in the resistance. The existence of social support for the families of prisoners and martyrs at the hands of the Israeli occupation does nothing whatsoever to spark or encourage Palestinian resistance; that is entirely in the hands of the Israeli occupation. In fact, Palestinian prisoners and their families receive too little social sustenance – and, most importantly, action and political support for their freedom – and many receive no funds at all.
Nevertheless, it must be noted that al-Ajrami’s remarks to Israeli officials come in the context of a campaign not only by Zionist organizations but also the U.S. Trump administration to further impoverish Palestinian families in an attempt to crush the resistance (operating hand in hand with Israeli policies of collective punishment, including demolitions of family homes and imprisonment of prisoners’ family members) and break the will of the Palestinian people.
In his speech, al-Ajrami not only played into this mythology but helped to give it “authoritative Palestinian” cover. Palestinian organizations and activists have widely denounced his remarks, including political parties and prisoners’ organizations; even al-Ajrami himself, rather than defending his statements, claimed to have been misquoted or mistranslated despite the confirmed translation of his videotaped remarks in Hebrew.
In addition, al-Ajrami described Palestinian resistance actions as “terrorist” and aimed at undermining the catastrophically destructive Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority. While al-Ajrami no longer holds a position in the PA, his remarks were framed as a “defense” of the PA as against Palestinian prisoners and their families. This is particularly relevant in light of the ongoing security coordination with the Israeli occupation pursued by the Palestinian Authority at all levels of its security forces as well as the intensified arrest campaign against journalists, activists and organizers who speak out against PA policies.
It is no accident that al-Ajrami’s remarks to Israeli former officials in Jerusalem took place on the 24th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords. If anything, these remarks represent the devastating path of Oslo in its clearest form – the subjugation of Palestinian rights, including the right to return and self-determination, to the Israeli occupation, and the creation of a Palestinian authority aimed to serve the interests and protect the security of a settler-colonial project.
Furthermore, al-Ajrami denounced the naming of Palestinian streets and squares after Palestinian prisoners, martyrs and revolutionary leaders, another statement that comes directly in accordance with an Israeli campaign that included the invasion of a Palestinian square to uproot the monument remembering Khaled Nazzal, Palestinian leader assassinated by Israel (after an earlier attempt by the PA to remove the honor). This attempt was far from a one-time action. It came amid a slew of attempts to delegitimize and isolate Palestinian institutions for taking the name of Dalal al-Mughrabi, complete with demands from Israeli and European and even U.N. officials to remove the names of Palestinian freedom fighters from community institutions. It also is accompanied by related campaigns outside Palestine – for example, the recent racist attacks on Reem’s bakery in Oakland for displaying a mural of Rasmea Odeh, former Palestinian prisoner, torture survivor and community leader – through the use of the “terrorist” label.
Al-Ajrami’s remarks to this gathering of Israeli occupation retired military officials went beyond the question of the normalization of occupation and the breaking of the boycott, though this in itself is a slap in the face to the over 6,200 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. More than that, his remarks came directly in the context of forwarding two major anti-Palestinian Zionist campaigns being pursued at an international level against Palestinian prisoners, their families and the legacy and continuing reality of Palestinian struggle and resistance. In essence, al-Ajrami’s remarks were an endorsement of the criminalization of Palestinian resistance and the use of the “terror” label to attempt to silence everything from community events to academic scholarship.
This event only serves to remind us and inspire us yet again about the critical importance of the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel and the international isolation of the apartheid state. Furthermore, this incident must inspire us to reject these campaigns in our countries and locations everywhere around the world, including resisting repressive attempts to criminalize Palestinian resistance and silence and erase the names, images and legacies of Palestinian struggle, from Khaled Nazzal to Dalal al-Mughrabi to Rasmea Odeh. If anything, this campaign must come as an inspiration to name more squares, streets and spaces, inside and outside Palestine, for all of the strugglers for justice – for Palestine and all liberation movements – who have sacrificed their lives and freedom for the future of the people and the world.
There are over 6,200 Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom inside Israeli prison today – these campaigns of impoverishment and attack are an attempt to silence their voices. It has been shown that even prison walls and solitary confinement cannot do so, and it is urgent that we continue and escalate our campaigns for Palestinian freedom, justice, return and liberation.
Organized by the Union of Palestinian Communities and Institutions – Europe
Great Arab poet and novelist Ibrahim Nasrallah will be joined by oud musician Jamal Kassem and interviewed by Dr. Wassim Dahmash, professor of Arabic language and literature. With the participation of Dr. Fawzi Ismail, president of the Union of Palestinian Communities and Institutions – Europe and the participation of a number of guests.
Supported by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Democratic Palestine Committees, El-Kauthar sports club, Union of Palestinian Engineers
Palestinians in Gaza are still on lockdown and the UN is warning of a humanitarian catastrophe – the illegal settlements are still being built on the West Bank while occupation violence intensifies – the refugees are denied the most basic of rights – and Israel continues to hold over 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners.
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Donald Trump is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in New York City while Netanyahu is in town to speak at the United Nations. We know what this meeting means: a deepening of Trump and Netanyahu’s “shared values” of racism and hate, advocating for the construction of oppressive walls, the displacement of people of color, and the militarization of civilian populations.
Organized by the Union of Palestinian Communities and Institutions – Europe
Palestinians in Gaza are still on lockdown and the UN is warning of a humanitarian catastrophe – the illegal settlements are still being built on the West Bank while occupation violence intensifies – the refugees are denied the most basic of rights – and Israel continues to hold over 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners.