Palestinian youth activist and former prisoner Saleh al-Jaidi was seized by Israeli occupation forces in a dawn raid on his family home in Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. He was previously arrested three times before. In 2010, he was held for four months and in 2015 for six months in administrative detention without charge or trial.
In 2011, he was again seized by occupation forces and imprisoned for three years. On Friday morning, 22 September, Israeli occupation forces invaded the camp and his home, ransacking his family home, overturning plants and upending furniture.
Al-Jaidi is a well-known youth activist in the camp, which has come under frequent attack by Israeli occupation forces. His brother, Yazan, is also imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces.
The infamous so-called “Captain Nidal” is the Israeli occupation commander in the area, known for both his threats against the youth of Dheisheh to “make all of you disabled” by shooting them in the legs and his specific threat to Raed Salhi, 22, killed by Israeli occupation forces when they invaded the camp and his home on 9 August.
Video of the arrest of al-Jaidi by Israeli occupation forces was distributed by Dheisheh al-Hadath, a news page serving the camp:
The young man – unarmed when he was shot – suffered in a hospital for nearly one month under armed guard, denied family visits even as he lay in a coma until his death on 3 September. Before Israeli occupation forces invaded his home and shot Salhi, he had received a call from “Nidal” in which he threatened to “shoot you in front of your mother.”
Despite the ongoing attempts to instill a reign of terror in the camp through ongoing invasions, attacks and extrajudicial executions of Palestinian youth in Dheisheh camp, the camp’s youth have retained their spirit of resistance, confronting Israeli occupation forces whenever they invade the area.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Saleh al-Jaidi and urges greater international mobilization against the ongoing invasions, attacks and arrests directed at Palestinian youth. We urge the freedom of all 6,200 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and we demand that “Captain Nidal,” as well as the Israeli occupation commanders and officials that authorize his threats and terror against the youth of Dheisheh be held accountable and prosecuted for his crimes.
Three Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are continuing hunger strikes in protest of their conditions of confinement and demanding their freedom from unjust imprisonment. Imprisoned Palestinian hunger striker Anas Shadid, 21, is experiencing deterioration of his health on his 10th day of hunger strike, reported his brother to Asra Voice. Shadid previously engaged in a 90-day hunger strike to demand his freedom from administrative detention without charge or trial. Only weeks after Shadid was released to his home village of Dura, near al-Khalil, on 24 May, he was re-arrested once again by Israeli occupation forces on 15 June 2017.
Once again, he was ordered imprisoned without charge or trial under a six-month, indefinitely renewable administrative detention order. He launched his hunger strike when he was ordered to solitary confinement in Hadarim prison and has continued his strike against isolation and his detention without charge. Two days ago, on the eighth day of his strike, he was moved to the clinic in Hadarim prison after his health began to deteriorate.
Asra Voice also noted that Ahmed Sawarka, originally from el-Arish in Egypt, but who lived in the Gaza Strip with his wife for many years prior to being seized by the Israeli occupation in 2009, is continuing his hunger strike for the eighth day. Sawarka’s sentence ended in September 2016, yet he remains imprisoned. He is demanding release to the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli occupation is insisting that he can only be released to the Egyptian Sinai.
Furthermore, fellow administrative detainee Izzadine Amarneh, 55, is also continuing his hunger strike for the sixth day after being ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial. Amarneh, who is blind, is from the town of Yabed south of Jenin and has been imprisomed since 10 September. He was previously imprisoned for six years in Israeli jails.
Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian national leader, leftist parliamentarian, feminist and advocate for Palestinian political prisoners, was issued a six-month administrative detention order on Wednesday, 12 July 2017. The order was signed by the Israeli occupation military commander over the West Bank.
Jarrar was seized by Israeli occupation forces who invaded her home in a pre-dawn raid on Sunday, 2 July, along with multiple other Palestinians subjected to early-morning raids including Khitam Saafin, president of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees. Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, head of its Prisoners Committee and Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Addameer.
The order came three days after Saafin was also ordered to three months in administrative detention without charge or trial. Administrative detention orders are issued for one to six months at a time, but they are indefinitely renewable. Palestinians have been jailed for years under administrative detention.
Stand with Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin and demand that Israel release them, 448 other administrative detainees and all 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners, and that Hewlett Packard companies end their contracts with Israeli prisons and detention centers, occupation and security forces, and checkpoints and settlements.
Help build a growing international campaign to boycott HP over the companies’ support for Israeli crimes.
Support the Palestinian people, the Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian Resistance, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network supports the 2018 Certain Days calendar project! This calendar highlights the art and writing of political prisoners int he United States and internationally; the 2018 calendar includes work by the Rasmea Defense Committee, in support of Rasmea Odeh, former Palestinian political prisoner forced into deportation from the United States.
Proceeds from the calendar will go to support Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association in Palestine as well as Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), who have consistently stood not only in defense of prisoners in U.S. jails but also Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. We reprint below the new announcement that Certain Days is available for bulk pre-order, a great choice for groups supporting prisoners’ freedom and liberation.
We are getting very close to print for our 2018 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar and wanted to give you a heads up that we are now accepting pre-orders for bulk copies. Like in years past, you can buy the calendars in quantities of 10 or more at wholesale price and sell them for more, keeping the difference for your organization, campaign or infoshop. Pre-orders will ship within days of getting the calendars from the printer. We encourage you to get your pre-orders in now so you can be the first to have the calendars later this month.
Your group can buy 10 or more copies for the rate of $10 each and then sell them for $15, keeping the difference for your organization. Many campaigns, infoshops and projects do this as a way of raising funds and spreading awareness about political prisoners. Order at http://www.certaindays.org/?q=order
We think you will love this year’s calendar as its one of our best yet. This year’s theme is “Awakening Resistance,” and features art and writings by Jesus Barraza, Fight Toxic Prisons, Serena Tang, Andrea Ritchie, Roger Peet, Sophia Dawson, Rasmea Support Committee, EE Vera, Herman Bell, Fernando Marti, Alexandra Valiente, Billie Belo, Arlene Gallone Support Committee, Marius Mason, David Gilbert, UB Topia, April Rosenblum, Design Action Collective, Sundiata Acoli, Crimethinc, Annie Banks, Mutope Duguma, Xinachtli, Zola and more.
The proceeds from Certain Days 2018 will be divided among these groups: Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association (Palestine), Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) and other groups in need.
Copies for prisoners remain at $8 (postage-paid). If you order for a prisoner, be sure to let us know who the copy is for and their full legal name and prisoner number. If you work for a publication and wish to review our calendar, please let us know. Single copies of the calendar will be available for purchase in a few weeks. Any questions can be sent to info@certaindays.org
In solidarity and appreciation,
the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War Calendar collective
Every year, the academic year at the Catholic University of Leuven (KULeuven) begins with a procession of gowned professors from the University Hall on Namsestraat to St. Peter’s Church on the Grote Markt.
In 2016, the Stop Law Train campaign engaged in actions at the procession in protest against the participation of KULeuven in LAW-TRAIN, a research project on interrogation techniques funded by the European Union and involving the Israeli police, Bar-Ilan University alongside several European police agencies. Such cooperation with human rights violators is unacceptable, and faculty and students at KULeuven have waged a campaign to demand withdrawal from LAW-TRAIN, including 100 academics at the university and over 3,000 signatories of a national Belgian petition against the program.
Professor Luc Sels is the newly elected Rector of KULeuven. When the academic year begins, activists are urged to join students and faculty to join an honor guard with Stop LAW-TRAIN posters as a delegation presents a cake to Rector Sels with 3000 thanks and appeals to withdraw from LAW-TRAIN.
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We nodigen je van harte uit om op maandag 25 september om 9 uur ‘s morgens in de Naamsestraat in Leuven (ter hoogte van de Universiteitshal) deel te nemen aan een positieve actie om de kersverse rector Luc Sels aan te moedigen om de deelname van de KU Leuven aan Law-Train zo vlug mogelijk te beëindigen.
We willen graag met zoveel mogelijk actievoerders een EREHAAG vormen met Stop Law-Train affiches.
Een kleine delegatie zal de rector een TAART overhandigen met daarop “3000 x dankuwel” [om uit Law-Train te stappen]. Dat is namelijk het aantal ondertekenaars van de Stop Law-Train petitie. Uiteraard zullen een spandoek en infopamfletten voor voorbijgangers niet ontbreken.
Ondanks het feit dat ze op een maandagochtend plaatsvindt, mikken we toch op minstens 100 DEELNEMERS aan deze (korte) actie waarmee we de KU Leuven aanmoedigen om een moedige beslissing te nemen. In principe zal de actie slechts een half uurtje duren en zal ze tussen 9u30 en 9u45 afgelopen zijn.
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.
Every year, the academic year at the Catholic University of Leuven (KULeuven) begins with a procession of gowned professors from the University Hall on Namsestraat to St. Peter’s Church on the Grote Markt.
