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.
Support the call for action!
Barclays bank funds Raytheon, BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed and other blood-drenched arms companies supplying advanced weaponry to Israel… AND to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and other allies of British and US imperialism.
We demand:
Victory to the Palestinian people!
Boycott Israel!
Free all political prisoners!
No to war and racism!
On 23 August, three days after his graduation as a lawyer, Salah Hamouri, a 32-year-old French-Palestinian dual citizen, was again seized by the Israeli army at his home in Jerusalem. Toay, he remains imprisoned, subject to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or tril.
During the evening, we will also hear the testimony of Fadwa Khader, president of the Sunflower Association. A friend of the Hamouri family, she lives in Al-Ram and will speak to the situation in Palestine, especially that of political prisoners.
Le 23 août dernier, trois jours après avoir obtenu son diplôme d’avocat, Salah HAMOURI, un Franco-Palestinien de 32 ans a été une nouvelle fois arrêté par l’armée israélienne à son domicile de Jérusalem.
Salah HAMOURI reste en prison ! L’ordre de mise en détention administrative du ministre de la défense a été rejeté par la Cour mais l’acharnement continue : il est condamné, situation totalement inédite, à purger la fin de sa peine précédente, soit trois mois !
Salah HAMOURI avait été libéré en décembre 2011 trois mois avant la fin de sa peine de sept ans d’emprisonnement, dans le cadre de l’échange de 1027 prisonniers politiques palestiniens contre le soldat franco-israélien Gilad SHALIT.
Au cours de la soirée nous entendrons également les témoignages de Fadwa KHADER, présidente de l’association SUNFLOWER. Amie de la famille HAMOURI, qui réside à Al Ram (Jérusalem), elle témoignera de la situation en Palestine et particulièrement de celle des prisonniers politiques.
Au lendemain de la journée internationale de la paix, Amitié Palestine solidarité propose d’amplifier la campagne pour la libération de tous les prisonniers politiques et de Salah Hamouri.
Tuesday, 19 September 4:30 pm-6:30 pm Short Term Parking at O’Hare Airport International Terminal 5
Organized by the Rasmea Defense Committee
#HonorRasmea
We now have the departure date for our dear Rasmea Odeh. She will be leaving the U.S. for Jordan on Tuesday, September 19th, 2017.
She was officially sentenced in August by Judge Gershwin Drain, who did not allow her to make a final statement in open court, but the Rasmea Defense Committee published that statement here, and now we are asking supporters to join us at O’Hare Airport on September 19th for Rasmea‘s final send-off.
This is our last opportunity to say goodbye before she is forced to depart the U.S. after an almost four-year legal and political struggle, a struggle in which the defense committee organized day and night for #Justice4Rasmea, educated thousands about her case and the cause of Palestinian liberation, and made the name Rasmea synonymous with all of the other major social justice fights in the country.
As she and the defense committee have said many times, regardless of where she lands, Rasmea will never stop working and organizing for justice and for the liberation of Palestine and other oppressed communities.
On September 19th, she will be moving on to the next chapter of her life, and we invite you to be with us that day.
WHEN:Tuesday, September 19th, 2017, from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM
WHERE: Short-term parking lot at O’Hare Airport International Terminal 5
Severely wounded Palestinian child Haitham Jaradat, 15, from Sair near al-Khalil, has had his detention extended by the Ofer military court for 11 days, even after he lies in intensive care in Shaare Tzedek medical center, shot with a bullet in his back that penetrated his abdomen and stomach. His lawyer, Karim Ajwa, said that he has had part of his intestines removed and is using artificial respiration, although he can see and hear. Despite his desperate and life-threatening medical condition, he is shackled to the hospital bed, Ajwa reported.
Along with Jaradat, the military court also extended the detention of Laith Muammar Daraghmeh, 18, from Tubas; Daraghmeh was also shot with a live bullet, in his case during a violent “arrest raid” as occupation forces invaded his city, and is too injured to attend the court hearing.
Both of these cases are particularly poignant following the death of Raed Salhi, shot six times by Israeli occupation forces who invaded his home in Dheisheh refugee camp, accusing the unarmed youth – a camp activist involved with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – of “fleeing.” Salhi, from an impoverished refugee family in the camp, was targeted in a violent arrest raid that his comrades and family have underlined as an assassination raid, especially following threats from notorious Israeli commander “Captain Nidal” to “shoot him in front of his mother.”
After nearly a month in intensive care, in a coma, hooked to artificial respiration, throughout which his detention was repeatedly extended, he was held under armed guard, and he was denied visits from his family, he died of his injuries on 3 September. His body was withheld from his family for several days until they filed a court challenge for his return, when he was buried in a mass funeral of resistance that marched through Bethlehem and Dheisheh.
Ajwa, a lawyer for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission who now represents Jaradat, also represented Salhi. Haitham, 15, was accused of “attempting a stabbing” at the Kiryat Arba settlement when he was shot by occupation forces, after settlers claimed he was running towards them with a knife. No occupation soldiers or illegal settlers were injured. Haitham was interrogated on video as he lay injured on the ground after being shot by Israeli occupation forces, during which he asked for water and said that he had come “to commit suicide.”
Meanwhile, Laith Daraghmeh was shot in the left leg with live ammunition on 13 September as occupation forces invaded Tubas in a pre-dawn raid, also reminiscent of the attack on Dheisheh in which occupation soldiers fatally wounded Salhi and shot another Palestinian refugee youth, Abdel-Aziz Arafa, in the leg.
The ongoing detention of Haitham and Daraghmeh comes as Abdel-Nasser Ferwana, head of the Prisoners’ Studies and Documentation Unit, said that occupation forces have arrested 927 children so far since the beginning of 2017, while over 300 children remain imprisoned in Israeli jails. Palestinian children in Israeli interrogation and detention have been subject to numerous forms of torture and mistreatment, including humiliation, physical abuse, psychological threats and cruelty and denial of access to lawyers or their family, as well as the use of solitary confinement in order to extract confessions or seek information from minor children. 22 Palestinian teens have been held without charge or trial under administrative detention in the past two years.
Paris protest against the labor law changes, 12 September
An Israeli military court ordered Salah Hamouri to six months imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention on Thursday, 14 September, reinstating the order against him by ultra-right, racist Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman. Hamouri, 32, a French-Palestinian lawyer, human rights defender and former prisoner who works as a field researcher at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, had been sentenced by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court to a three-month sentence, the remainder of his original prison sentence before he was released in 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange.
Hamouri was seized by occupation forces from his home in Jerusalem on 23 August 2017 in a pre-dawn raid, only three days after he passed the Palestinian bar exam to become a lawyer. He was shortly thereafter ordered to six months in administrative detention, indefinitely renewable imprisonment without charge or trial. On 5 September, however, rather than confirming the order as written, the court ordered him to serve out the remainder of his sentence from the time of his release in 2011, a three-month period. While this sentence was indeed shorter, his lawyers, family and supporters around the world highlighted that it remained unjust, unaccountable, arbitrary and unacceptable.
However, the Israeli prosecution appealed the sentence, calling for the administrative detention order to be reinstated. On 12 September, a hearing was held on the appeal. While previously the ruling had been announced as delayed, on 14 September, the higher court ruled in favor of the prosecutor’s appeal, ordering Hamouri to administrative detention for six months, an indefinitely-renewable and nearly unchallengeable sentence in the Israeli courts. A new confirmation hearing for the order will take place on 17 September. There are nearly 500 Palestinians held without charge or trial out of nearly 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails; because these orders can be renewed indefinitely, Palestinians have spent years at a time in administrative detention.
This outrageous decision was met by supporters of Hamouri in France issuing urgent statements and demands that French President Emmanuel Macron take action on the case of Hamouri, a French-Palestinian dual citizen subject to arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial that is subject to indefinite renewal. This is only the latest in a long campaign of harassment to which Hamouri has been subject; he was banned from the West Bank for several months, preventing him from attending law school classes. His French wife, Elsa Lefort, was denied entry to Palestine while pregnant and is now banned from entering Palestine.
The Association France-Palestine Solidarite wrote, “ENOUGH! How many twists, deferrals, changes in tactics, prisons or tribunals, provisional convictions, new convictions, announcements of release or administrative detention, orders of the Minister of Defense, appeals of the prosecutor, provisional decisions, how many blows to the heart will Salah Hamouri still have to undergo before the President of the Republic realizes that on the other side of the Mediterranean there is a real scandal, a denial of justice, a violation of basic human rights which should have already attracted his attention since 23 August?…Salah Hamouri must not stay one more day in jail; it is your responsibility!”
A number of French parliamentarians, writers, activists and trade unionists have joined in the call for freedom for Salah Hamouri, and dozens of protests have been organized across the country and internationally. Contingents of support for Hamouri have also been part of mass demonstrations against the state of emergency in France and proposed neoliberal, austerity-minded changes to French labor law.
**
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
One of the most difficult aspects of imprisonment that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails face is medical neglect and mistreatment. While cases like those of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh and Jaafar Awad are well-known, Palestinian prisoners struggle daily with access to proper medical care. They frequently report being given only painkillers if they receive treatment at all as well as lengthy delays in receiving necessary procedures.
Currently, Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Bisharat, 32, from the town of Tammun. He has reportedly been returned to the Assaf Harofeh hospital after he again lost consciousness. He is suffering from renal failure and kidney disease in both of his kidneys. He had been returned from Assaf Harofeh hospital to the Ramle prison clinic last Thursday but continued to suffer from poor vision, difficulty speaking and severe weight loss. He is currently held in the intensive care unit, Asra Media reported. Bisharat is serving an 18-year sentence; he has been imprisoned since August 2001, at the age of 16.
Bisharat’s life is at urgent risk; he is one of the most severely ill Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. His family noted that he must receive dialysis three times a week and he and his family were prevented from testing for the possibility of a kidney transplant from a living donor. Among other severely ill prisoners is Moatassem Raddad, 35, suffering from colon cancer, severe pain and infections
In this context, we present the below essay by Palestinian prisoner and prisoners’ movement leader Kamil Abu Hanish on medical neglect and mistreatment in the occupation prisons, focusing on the case of Jalal al-Faqih:
Racism and medical mistreatment in the occupation prisons By Kamil Abu Hanish
The catastrophic health conditions of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Israeli jails require in-depth studies to reveal and expose the crimes committed by one of the most prominent institutions of the occupation over the prisoners for the past decade. This article seeks to sound the alarm for all involved, focusing on the situation in recent years in regard to Palestinian prisoners’ health. The prisoner Jalal al-Faqih, who has been detained since 2003 and is sentenced to life imprisonment at age 37, suffers from several health problems, including back pain and hemorrhoids, for years. This struggler is frequently in the clinics and hospitals of the prison service without succeeding in extracting his human right – the need for surgery for his hemorrhoids. Every time, the prison administration in Gilboa prison, where he has been held for years, procrastinates and delays while al-Faqih’s situation worsens.
Since the beginning of 2015, they have been preparing him for the surgery in the language of numbers. He visited the prison clinics about 70 times between 2015 and 2016. In the same period, he was referred for further treatment 15 times, and each time, they hint at an approaching date for surgery. This date was treated as a highly important security secret and left as one promise after another, his condition worsening all the while until the life and health of the prisoner was in danger.
After pressure exerted by the prisoners on the prison administration, they informed Jalal that his operation will take place in November 2016. Jalal approached the date with assurance but his hopes were disappointed. The months of November and December 2016 passed, and we entered the new year 2017. Every day, the administration further procrastinated and invokes the argument that it is not in charge of the surgery, but instead the hospitals and their bureaucracy are responsible for. The struggler has no choice but to go for an open hunger strike to seek a date for surgery. He was promised treatment in February without a specific date, but then al-Faqih was ordered to undergo further tests prior to treatment, which means a journey of severe suffering before the procedure. In the first week of February, Jalal was taken for tests in Afula hospital and a week later taken to a final test in the Ramle prison clinic, on a dangerous road journey where dozens of prisoners are crammed in the transport vehicles.
Jalal must go on this hellish journey standing on his feet with his hands and feet shackled because he cannot sit on the cold iron seats for the full eight-hour journey. The transport vehicles stop at a number of prisons before they arrive at Ramle prison and are held overnight in the prison cells, which are not suitable for people suffering from health conditions.
The next morning, they took him from the cell to the hospital to meet with the doctor, who only sat behind his desk, flipping through te papers of Jalal’s medical file without examining him or asking any questions. After two minutes of this inhumane interview, he was told again to come out despite Jalall’s protest. He found himself shackled again, returned to the cell, to stay another night, and the disastrous journey back again to prison the next day, returned to us with a much worsened health condition after this journey of more than sixty hours of suffering to be viewed by the doctor for the period of a few minutes only.
After a few days of suffering and on the morning of 22 February, Jalal was told that he must prepare quickly to travel to Afula hospital for the operation. The operation was carried out the next day on Thursday, 23 February, and the hospital management did not accept to host him for more than one night. He was removed on the morning of Friday, 24 February, after a complicated procedure to remove internal and external fissures and damage. In the normal circumstances of a similar operation, the patient stays at least a week in the hospital. However, in the “democratic, human-rights-respecting Israeli” hospitals, the prisoner stays only one night. The prisoner Jalal was returned once again. His situation was difficult after the operation and we thought that he needed several days of care and attention by his comrades and he will start to recover. However, his condition worsened day by day and he suffered day and night.
On the seventh day after the operation, his condition worsened and his pain was unbearable. After a two-hour delay, the clinic transfered the prisoner for treatment and then shocked him again, as the doctor refused to examine him in the clinic and only provided him with pills. Jalal refused to return to his section without a medical examination. The doctor then threatened to throw him in the cells, and in front of this fascist doctor, a security officer and several jailers appeared and raised the stretcher on which Jalal was laing, lifting it vertically from the front and throwing him to the ground despite his extreme pain and then sending him to the section. He told us from his pain and tears what happened to him, which instantly raised a tense atmosphere as prisoners closed the section and demanded the administration would be responsible for what will happen in the prison if Jalal is not immediately transferred to the hospital.
The prison administration was forced to move Jalal to the hospital after calling an ambulance, and there he was subject to new tests and found to have infections and given new medications, mostly painkillers, and returned him on the same day. The atmosphere was tense on that day, as the prison administration and its officers attempted to contain prisoners’ anger and justify what had happened and to emphasize their own human feelings after being confronted with their lack of care. Especially after his condition is now improving, slowly, day by day.
The case of the prisoner Jalal is one of hundreds of such difficult cases in the occupation prisons. This is an example of what has become known as a deliberate policy of medical or health neglect or negligence, which has led to the martyrdom of dozens of prisoners in past years.
The policies and violations by the prison administration against the Palestinian prisoners are expressed as a form of retaliation. The doctors in the clinics are cold as well as lacking necessary medical qualifications, and we also note their lack of human care, which is one of the most important elements of the medical profession.
The concept of medical neglect is not a passing concern and only harms the prisoners. It is a daily fact of human rights violations and crimes. This is a call upon the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and all human rights organizations to engage in a serious investigation into what is happening in Israeli jails. They can begin to take statements from thousands of former prisoners and hundreds who are still in prison to uncover all of the terrible facts that expose the crimes of the occupation and its repressive institution, the Prison Service, against the prisoners, for more than five decades. We must start by compiling hundreds or even thousands of files that will expose Israel’s false democracy and its crimes against humanity and hold it accountable for prosecution.
Kamil Abu Hanish is the leader of the prison branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Abu Hanish, from Beit Dajan, is serving nine life sentences in Israeli prisons for his role in the Palestinian resistance, especially during the second Intifada. He is known as a writer on political, social and economic affairs and has written several books, including poetry collections and short stories, all written behind bars in occupation prisons.
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