Palestinian Jerusalemite teacher Khadija Khweis remains behind bars despite a decision to release her on bail, after the Israeli occupation prosecution appealed the decision for her release.
She was seized by Israeli forces on Wednesday, 5 September after being summoned to a police station in Jerusalem and questioned about her involvement in activism to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque, extending her detention for continued interrogation.
On Sunday, 10 September, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ordered her released in exchange for 5,000 NIS bail (approximately $1400 USD). The Israeli prosecution objected to her release and appealed the decision, which in turn postponed her release and turned the case over to the Jerusalem central court.
Khweis has been arrested several times and has been subject to bans from the ground of Al-Aqsa Mosque and house arrest by the Israeli occupation. She was banned from Jerusalem and from traveling outside occupied Palestine.
She and her family’s national insurance allowance was revoked after her involvement in defending Al-Aqsa Mosque from Israeli settler and military attacks, and was one of a group of Palestinian women attacked by Israeli forces after being denied entry, accused of involvement with the Murabitat, a group of women who gather at Al-Aqsa to protest Israeli control over the occupied holy site. In September 2015, Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon officially banned the Murabitat.
Khweis was last arrested in June 2017 before being ordered to 10 days under house arrest and a 60-day ban from Al-Aqsa Mosque and the old city of Jerusalem, as well as a 180-day ban from entering the West Bank. She is the mother of five children and married to academic Ibrahim Abu Aliya, who was forcibly removed to the West Bank from Jerusalem.
The Israeli Supreme Court convened in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday, 13 September in a hearing on the case of Palestinian families demanding the release of their imprisoned family members’ bodies, which have been held captive by the Israeli occupation since they were shot dead by occupation forces.
Often called the “cemeteries of numbers,” these unnamed graves have been used to secretly bury Palestinians killed by occupation forces over years. There are at least 249 Palestinians’ bodies that have been buried in the “cemeteries of numbers” and remain missing.
Lawyer Mohammed Abu Sneineh emphasized that the burial of these four bodies does not cancel or make the petition moot; “any court decision will include the bodies of the martyrs that were buried,” he noted.
“I cannot begin to imagine how the families whose sons’ bodies have been held in the cemeteries of numbers for decades feel,” said Azhar Abu Srour, the mother of Abdel-Hamid Abu Srour, in an interview with the Electronic Intifada. “But it is our duty – as mothers of martyrs and as Palestinians – to fight for our right to bury our sons in their land and among their loved ones.”
Protesters gathered near Manhattan’s Union Square on Monday, 11 September in New York City to demand freedom for imprisoned French-Palestinian lawyer, activist and human rights defender Salah Hamouri. Hamouri, 32, is a former Palestinian prisoner released in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011 and a field researcher at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. He was seized on 23 August in a pre-dawn raid on his Jerusalem home, only three days after passing the Palestinian bar examination to practice as a lawyer.
Organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, the protest joined dozens of others that have taken place across France and internationally urging freedom for Hamouri. Hamouri was originally ordered to six months in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, in an order signed by Israeli ultra-right Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Following international outrage, the judge at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ordered him instead to three months’ imprisonment – the amount remaining in his first prison sentence when he was released in 2011, in an attempt to legitimize the baseless detention of Hamouri.
Photo: Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace
Israeli prosecutors have instead appealed the three-month sentence, demanding Hamouri instead be held for six months without charge or trial under the indefinitely renewable administrative detention order. A ruling was expected on 14 September, but has now been delayed once more. However, the campaign to free Hamouri and to pressure the French government to take a clear stand for his release has continued to grow. Several women from France joined the New York City protest, noting that they knew Salah and his family and urging his immediate release.
Protesters in New York carried signs and posters highlighting Hamouri’s case and that of his fellow over 6,200 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails, demanding their release. They also supported the growing international campaign for boycott of Hewlett-Packard products like laptops, tablets, printers and ink due to HP corporations’ extensive contracts with the Israeli military, prison system and checkpoint and identity management system.
Protesting outside of the Best Buy electronics store, participants in the event handed out information to shoppers and passers-by about HP complicity in Israeli human rights violations and profiteering from Israeli apartheid. A growing number of churches and labor unions are declaring themselves HP-free zomes in protest of the company’s continued involvement in some of the most repressive institutions of the Israeli occupation.
Photo: Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace
Following the protest, a number of participants joined the New York City Jericho Movement’s dinner gathering to write letters to political prisoners in U.S. jails. The evening focused on Herman Bell, who was assaulted last week by prison guards. His family has urged supporters to write to him and show support.
Herman Bell, 69, is a Black Panther Party political prisoner who was attacked by guards at the Great Meadow Correctional Facility on 5 September. Bell was struck in the face by a guard, causing his glasses to fall to the ground. Five to six guards joined in the attack and Herman was repeatedly punched and sprayed all over the face with mace. He has fractured ribs, bruising to his boy and damage to his left eye. He is now being held in the Special Housing Unit, accused of “assault on staff,” claiming that Bell slapped the guard escorting him entirely out of view of all other inmates.
This incident comes after Bell – an elderly man – has not had a disciplinary violation in 20 years and only days before he was scheduled to start a three-day family visit with his wife, their first in over two and one-half years, as reported by the Jericho Movement.
Photo: Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace
Robert Boyle, Bell’s attorney, has written to the New York State Department of Corrections commissioner Anthony J. Annucci, protesting his assault and mistreatment. Boyle noted that Bell has not received proper medical treatment or a CT scan despite a probable concussion. “The instant incident was not only a racist attack. It was elder abuse. Moreover, there is certainly probable cause to believe these guards committed assault in the first degree, P.L. §120.04 and/or gang assault in the first degree, P.L § 120.07. The law applies to everyone. When prison guards commit violent crimes, they should be prosecuted like anyone else,” Boyle wrote, urging proper, independent medical care for Bell, his return to general population, and the suspension and prosecution of the guards responsible.
Samidoun joins Jericho Movement’s call for people to write to Herman Bell or send him a get-well card so that it is clear that people are aware of his situation and supporting his recovery. His address is:
Herman Bell 79 C 0262
Five Points Cor. Fac.
P.O. Box 119
Romulus, N.Y. 14541
Bell is a Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Movement veteran who is committed to struggles for justice and liberation. He has repeatedly expressed his solidarity with the Palestinian people, including participating in a book of writings for Palestinian political prisoners.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network will be protesting again next week, on 18 September, outside Hewlett-Packard in Chelsea. Protesters will gather at 4:30 pm and focus on the case of Issa Amro, facing 18 charges before Israeli military courts and recently detained by the Palestinian Authority under the new repressive “Electronic Crimes Act.” The protest will demand freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and urge the boycott of HP. All supporters of justice for Palestine are invited to attend.
French-Palestinian lawyer and human rights activist Salah Hamouri is still waiting on a decision from a higher Israeli court after prosecutors appealed a judge’s order for him to be imprisoned for three months instead of six months without charge or trial under administrative detention.
On 13 September, the Israeli high court judge ruled that his decision on Hamouri’s sentence will be presented in the Jerusalem district court at the beginning of the next week, without specifying the day. Earlier, the ruling had been scheduled for 14 September.
The campaign for Salah Hamouri’s freedom noted that “the Israeli authorities are delaying the process and leaving Salah Hamouri totally uncertain about his own fate. Amplify the mobilization: the French authorities must intervene and stop this attack as quickly as possible and obtain the immediate release of Salah Hamouri!”
He has been subject to ongoing harassment by the Israeli occupation, including being barred from entering the West Bank, delaying his law school classes. His pregnant French wife, Elsa Lefort, was denied entry and is now banned from Palestine. On 23 August, armed Israeli forces invaded Hamouri’s Jerusalem home in a pre-dawn raid. He was shortly thereafter ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial – almost immediately after he had initially been ordered released on bail.
For Jerusalemite Palestinians like Hamouri, administrative detention orders must be issued directly by the ultra-right racist Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The six-month order is indefinitely renewable. There are currently nearly 500 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention on the pretext of a “secret file.” Many Palestinians have spent years at a time jailed under administrative detention orders.
His arrest was met with a growing outcry in Palestine, France and internationally, as Hamouri is not only personally known and beloved to many but an international spokesperson for the Palestinian cause and, in particular, the struggle of Palestinian prisoners. He has spoken on campuses across Europe and at the World Social Forum in Brazil, as well as at many large events across France, including the annual Fete de l’Humanite, on the situation of Palestinian prisoners seeking freedom. Across France, prominent politicians, trade unionists and activists urged the French government to take a stand for Hamouri, a French-Palestinian citizen.
On 5 September, an Israeli judge ordered Hamouri sentenced to three months in prison – the remainder of his sentence when he was released in the 2011 exchange – rather than the six month administrative detention order. Addameer, the campaign for his freedom, his family, Samidoun and many other organizations denounced this sentence as an attempt to legitimize Hamouri’s detention while maintaining the same repressive threat.
However, the Israeli prosecution appealed the sentence in order to demand that the six-month administrative detention order be imposed. The high court has now postponed its ruling until next week.
Protests are continuing for Hamouri’s release. Contingents in protests in Paris against the state of emergency and proposed labor law changes demanded freedom for Hamouri, while this years Fete de l’Humanite will feature numerous events highlighting Hamouri’s case.
Member of European Parliament Patrick Le Hyaric spoke on Hamouri’s case in the parliament on Monday, 11 September, urging action for his release:
Le Hyaric said:
“I want to tell you about a 32-year-old man. He is a French-Palestinian citizen, lives in Jerusalem and has just become a lawyer. A few days after he graduated as a lawyer, he was arrested on 23 August for no reason. And after a lot of dithering of the Israeli justice, like thousands of Palestinians he has been placed in administrative detention, apparently on the basis of a secret file, because it is totally empty.
His name is Salah Hamouri.
This reveals the relentlessness and total lack of respect for the law by a state that is constantly proclaiming itself one of our closest partners. Our External Action Service can not let this go and must demand the release of Salah Hamouri without condition and without delay. It is high time for the European Union to put the issue of fundamental rights and respect for international law and conventions as a condition for its cooperation with the State of Israel, as it does with so many other States.
In the immediate future, freedom for Salah Hamouri!”
**
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates its urgent demand for the immediate release of Salah Hamouri and all Palestinian prisoners and call for the French state to defend the rights of their citizen and take action for Salah Hamouri’s freedom. It is no less critical now; it must be made clear that it is unacceptable to imprison Hamouri – or any other Palestinian – without charge or trial. 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
24 October 2017 marks the 33rd anniversary of the arrest of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, revolutionary Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine, by French police. Since 1984, he has remained behind bars, one of the longest-held political prisoners in the world. From 14-24 October 2017, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins organizations in France and around the world to call for a week of international actions to demand freedom for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and all Palestinian prisoners!
Georges Abdallah has been committed throughout his life to the revolutionary struggle in Lebanon and the liberation of Palestine. He was involved with the Palestinian leftist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, resisting Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Later, he joined other Lebanese revolutionary leftists in the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions, pointing to a non-sectarian, socialist and revolutionary path to liberation for the people of Lebanon, faced with civil war militias and Israeli invasion and occupation in the south of Lebanon.
Georges Abdallah was originally arrested for allegedly carrying false documents; his detention was repeatedly extended as French intelligence searched for information to charge him with involvement in armed actions that killed a U.S. diplomat and an Israeli representative in Paris. Even one of his lawyers was reportedly involved in spying on Abdallah for the French intelligence agency. While he was supposed to be exchanged with prisoners held by Arab revolutionaries, the French state reneged after obtaining their own prisoners, keeping Abdallah as a prisoner.
In 1987, when Georges Abdallah was sentenced, he was expected to receive a lengthy sentence of ten years or less – as recommended by the prosecutor in his case. Instead, he received a life sentence, as argued by a private lawyer representing the U.S. government.
Today, Georges Abdallah remains behind bars. Despite being eligible for release since 1999, his applications have been denied repeatedly. Even when they have been approved judicially, French officials have intervened at the highest levels to block his release, such as former Prime Minister Manuel Valls. U.S. officials like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have also intervened in an attempt to block Abdallah’s release. In essence, Georges Abdallah is a prisoner not only of the French colonial state but also of U.S. imperialism and the Israeli occupation. Meanwhile, the Lebanese government has failed to live up to its responsibility in seeking the freedom of its imprisoned countryman.
Despite being held in Lannemezan prison for over 33 years of his life, Georges Abdallah is an active participant in struggle. He has written letters and issued statements in response to revolutionary struggles around the world and always maintains a special eye toward the Palestinian prisoners, who have declared him one of their own.
His words continue to inspire generations of revolutionaries, strugglers and freedom fighters. And his participation is not limited to words – indeed, he has refused meals and organized his Basque and Arab fellow prisoners in Lannemezan to do so as well, in solidarity with the hunger strikes of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Georges Abdallah expressed his solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian national leader, Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, wearing a shirt demanding his release. In return, Sa’adat issued a public letter to Abdallah from Ramon prison:
We are chained by the common injustices manufactured in the United States of America, which are the same ones used in Palestine, and I do not doubt that there are many examples in all of the strongholds of imperialism.
You and those who unite with you in support and solidarity, the true comrades in France, Lebanon, Palestine and all over the world, are the natural extension of those who once carried hammers, stormed the Bastille and broke into the prison walls…the extension of those who turned the cells of the Zionist occupation into revolutionary schools from which successive generations learn the meaning of will, determination and commitment…the extension of all of the forces and movements for liberation in the world who resist for true democracy and a world free of exploitation, tyranny and subjugation, where the values of social justice, liberation and dignity prevail.
Until we meet one day in the world of freedom, you remain a symbol and a model for us to follow.
This year, on 14-24 October, we call on you to join us, in your cities, communities, neighborhoods, camps, towns and campuses, to organize events, protests, marches and activities to demand freedom for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and all Palestinian prisoners. Events are already being organized in France, including the mass annual march to Lannemezan prison, in Ireland, in the United States, in Germany, in Spain, in Belgium and in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, among other locations.
Georges Abdallah is not alone; his imprisonment comes alongside that of Ahmad Sa’adat and over 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails and the prisoners of Palestine in U.S. and other international jails. They are imprisoned in an attempt to silence and suppress the anti-colonial struggle of the Palestinian people for justice, liberation and return – yet their leadership remains a symbol of hope and inspiration to all those who struggle for freedom. Join the movement to free Georges Abdallah, free Palestinian political prisoners and free Palestine, from the river to the sea!
TAKE ACTION:
1. Organize events, actions and protests at French embassies and consulates around the world. Where there is not a French consulate, protest at U.S. or Israeli embassies and consulates and in public squares. Send us your events! Use this form or email samidoun@samidoun.net
2. Join the broad national protest in Lannemezan on 21 October. Every year, hundreds arrive to demand George’s freedom, raising a call so loud the prisoners can hear us inside. Don’t miss this year’s action!
NEW YORK:
Monday, 16 October
Protest to Free Georges Abdallah and Salah Hamouri
5:00 pm
France Mission to the United Nations
245 E. 47th St, NYC
Organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1897506840567283/
MANCHESTER:
Wednesday, 18 October
Free Georges Abdallah! Free all Palestinian Prisoners!
12:00 pm
University of Manchester Students Union
Manchester, UK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/529973637336876/
DEN HAAG (THE HAGUE):
Friday, 20 October
Freedom for Salah Hamouri and Georges Abdallah
2:00 pm
Embassy of France to the Netherlands
Den Haag
More information: https://www.facebook.com/events/182938298942362/
TOULOUSE:
Friday, 20 October
Palestine: They can’t stop our solidarity!
6:30 pm – 11 pm
Le Hangar de la Cépière
8 rue de Bagnolet, Toulouse
More information: https://www.facebook.com/events/1330369670424161/
LANNEMEZAN:
Saturday, 21 October
National Demonstration to Free Georges Abdallah
2:00 pm
Gare de Lannemezan (March to Lannemezan Prison)
Lannemezan, France
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/814700755345206/
LYON:
Saturday, 21 October
Boxing event and “Soul Train” evening in support of Georges Abdallah
7:00 pm
Lyon 7th-Gerland
Email: csao-harraga@riseup.net
Organized by: Dar Harraga (Lyon) / Jugurtha band’s (St Etienne) / Comité lyon sud/est pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
More info: https://rebellyon.info/Gala-de-boxe-et-soiree-Soul-Train-en-18143
BAALBEK:
Saturday, 21 October
Freedom for Georges Abdallah: 33 Years Without Compromise
5:00 pm
Martyr Basil al-Asad cultural Center
Baalbek, Lebanon
BEIRUT:
Sunday, 22 October
Lebanon demands the release of Georges Abdallah from French prisons
11:00 am
Al-Sham Street
Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth – USJ
More information: https://www.facebook.com/events/131239200959946/
NEW YORK:
Monday, 23 October
Free Georges Abdallah and Salah Hamouri!
5:00 pm
Consulate General of France in New York
934 5th Avenue
New York City
More information: https://www.facebook.com/events/888197914668181/
SHATILA CAMP:
Friday, 27 October
Solidarity with Georges Abdallah – Organized by the Palestinian Chess Club in Shatila
6:00 pm
Palestinian Chess Club
Shatila Camp, Beirut, Lebanon
Over 100 people gathered in Toulouse, France on 8 September at the call of an array of political parties and Palestine solidarity organizations to demand the release of French-Palestinian lawyer, human rights defender and political prisoner Salah Hamouri and his fellow Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. The protest came only days before Hamouri will be brought before an Israeli court once again, as an Israeli prosecutor argues that his three-month sentence is too low.
Protest in Toulouse to free Salah Hamouri
Participants in the Toulouse protest included Coup Pour Coup 31, anti-imperialist collective and Samidoun affiliate, as well as BDS Toulouse, OCML VP, the NPA, Ensemble!, the Association France-Palestine Solidarite and many more. They also carried signs highlighting France’s imprisonment of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine, demanding his release and urging participation in the 21 October national rally in Lannemezan.
Protest in Toulouse to free Salah Hamouri
Hamouri, 32, a former prisoner released in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange, was seized by occupation forces in his home outside Jerusalem in a pre-dawn raid on 23 August. The attack came only three days after Hamouri passed the Palestinian bar examination to practice law in Palestine. He is a field researcher with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and has spoken around the world in defense of Palestinian prisoners.
Protest in Toulouse to free Salah Hamouri
Hamouri is a French-Palestinian citizen, and his French wife, Elsa Lefort, has been banned from Palestine by the Israeli occupation after being denied entry while pregnant with her and Salah’s son. Lefort has been an active and prominent defender of her imprisoned husband, appearing at events across France and participating in numerous television and radio interviews. Hamouri’s supporters have urged the French government to take action to release their fellow citizen.
After his arrest, Hamouri was quickly issued an order, signed by ultra-right Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, for six months imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention. Nearly 500 Palestinians are jailed under these indefinitely renewable administrative detention orders, among 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners in total.
However, on 5 September, rather than approving the administrative detention order, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court re-imposed the three months of Hamouri’s sentence that remained when he was released in 2011. This arbitrary sentence, while shorter than the six-month order, seems to have come as a response to international pressure and in an attempt to legitimize the widely-criticized imprisonment of Hamouri, a well-known human rights defender.
As Addameer pointed out, Hamouri remains vulnerable to a new administrative detention order imposed after the expiration of the three month sentence, and any such arbitrary sentence – regardless of the length – is a basic and unacceptable violation of human rights. “Addameer again emphasizes that Salah’s arrest and subsequent detainment represents an egregious attack by the occupation against the work of human rights defenders in Palestine,” the organization noted.
Protest in Lyon to Free Salah Hamouri
However, the Israeli prosecution has appealed the sentence, demanding instead that a six-month administrative detention order be imposed on Hamouri. The Israeli court will convene on this appeal again on 12 September, where Salah Hamouri will again be faced with an extended sentence of imprisonment with no charge and no trial.
Protest in Lyon to Free Salah Hamouri
Protests across France have demanded Hamouri’s release. A new Committee to Support Salah Hamouri was formed in Paris on the evening of 5 Septemer, and protests continued across the country. In Lyon, France, on 9 September, the Collectif 69 de Soutien au Peuple Palestinien protested in the center of Lyon, gathering over 150 people to demand freedom for Hamouri.
Protest in Lyon to Free Salah Hamouri
During the protest, speakers discussed Hamouri’s arrest and the ongoing travesty of administrative detention, re-imposed sentences and Israeli “justice.” They noted the situation of all Palestinian prisoners as well as the concerted attacks and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population of Jerusalem, where Salah Hamouri lives.
Protest in Avignon to free Salah Hamouri
Many people signed a petition to demand Salah Hamouri’s freedom and over 1,500 leaflets were distributed. Earlier, on 7 September, in Avignon, activists distributed leaflets and carried signs and banners demanding freedom for Salah Hamouri. Political parties, including the French Communist Party and Jeunes Communistes as well as Palestine solidarity activists joined the protest demanding his release.
Protest in Avignon to free Salah Hamouri
**
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates its urgent demand for the immediate release of Salah Hamouri and all Palestinian prisoners and call for the French state to defend the rights of their citizen and take action for Salah Hamouri’s freedom. It is no less critical now; it must be made clear that it is unacceptable to imprison Hamouri – or any other Palestinian – without charge or trial. 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
Jennifer Marley, an Indigenous activist in Santa Fe, New Mexico, remains detained two days after she was arrested by Santa Fe police on Friday, September 8. Marley was among hundreds of protesters who demanded that the City of Santa Fe end its reenactment of the re-conquest of the area, called “the Entrada.” The protest also highlighted fracking taking place illegally in Chaco Canyon, a site which The Red Nation notes is sacred to Diné and Pueblo people.
During the peaceful protest and march, at least eight people were arrested. Jennifer Marley, a protest leader and activist with The Red Nation, was pulled from the protest crowd, seized by police, and is reportedly now facing charges of criminal trespass and “assault” of police, a fourth-degree felony, despite the fact that her arrest was clearly documented on video:
The Red Nation is urging the following actions to support Jennifer Marley and her fellow protesters:
Call, contact and flood the Mayor’s office with calls, emails, tweets, and Facebook posts to demand Jennifer Marley’s release; all charges against all protesters are dropped; and that the Entrada is abolished:
The following video shows Jennifer Marley speaking while being detained:
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its full solidarity with Jennifer Marley and The Red Nation and demands her immediate release and the dropping of all charges against all protesters. We join their call to abolish the “Entrada” event, an official celebration of genocide. The protest was not merely against the symbolism of genocide but against the ongoing genocide against Indigenous peoples. As we stand with Palestinian prisoners of and Palestinian resistance to Zionist settler colonialism, we stand with Indigenous resistance to settler colonialism.
We reprint below the statement from The Red Nation and urge action to free Jennifer Marley and support Indigenous struggle:
Santa Fe Refuses to Stand Up Against Racism, Instead Chooses to Brutalize Native People
Artwork by Julianna Sanderson
On Friday, September 8, approximately two hundred people rallied in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico to demand that the City of Santa Fe abolish the racist reenactment of reconquest known as the Entrada (“the entry”) and to bring attention to illegal fracking in Chaco Canyon, a site that is sacred to Diné and Pueblo people. The rally was led by The Red Nation (TRN), UNM KIVA Club, In the Spirit of Po’Pay, and New Mexico Showing Up for Racial Justice (NM-SURJ), as well as various other Native and non-Native groups.
The City ignored a statement issued by the #AbolishTheEntrada coalition prior to the protest encouraging officials to stand with us in denouncing racism and the celebration of genocide and conquest. They instead chose to double down on their defense of racism and violent colonial revisionist history by brutalizing Indigenous people and violating their First Amendment rights. On Friday, in Santa Fe, history didn’t repeat itself — it stayed the same.
Indigenous people undergo ongoing brutalization by armed men of the state who uphold white supremacy and settler colonialism on stolen Pueblo land. Today, conquistadors and cavalrymen simply wear different uniforms. But the tactics remain the same.
Police targeted, pulled from a crowd, and arrested TRN leader Jennifer Marley.
Protesters faced obstacles before the protest, which was scheduled to start at 1 PM MST. Around 11 AM social media posts began to circulate alerting protesters to the decision by Los Caballeros de Vargas to start the reenactment two hours earlier than the scheduled time of 2 PM. Although Manuel Garcia, the President of Los Caballeros, claims the time change was made several days prior, the announcement was not issued until late Friday morning. Although clearly a tactic to silence public dissent, the eleventh hour decision neither deterred nor demoralized protesters.
From mid-morning onward, social media posts and photos showed extensive police presence, what the Santa Fe New Mexican called a “small army of police officers”. With state, city, and county forces on the ground, it is clear that the City intended to wield the power of the state to further censor #AbolishTheEntrada protests.
Sniper nests were posted atop buildings.
But protesters would not be silenced. At noon, five Indigenous women were the first to arrive. Slowly, hundreds joined them filling the streets. Entire families came out with their children. Native students from nearby colleges such as the Institute of American Indian Arts and University of New Mexico (UNM) joined. Standing on the right side of history, every walk of life came together in unison to demand the abolition of the racist Entrada. The City of Santa Fe stood as it has for centuries: on the side of conquest; on the wrong side of history, with blood on its hands.
In a further attempt to silence constitutionally protected free speech, the Santa Fe police captain Adam Gallegos took to the mic on the Plaza stage to announce that the event permit holders wanted to limit protest to a designated “Free Speech Zone.” The “Free Speech Zone” was a heavily-guarded police barricade that was meant to corral protesters and force them off public space. Of questionable constitutional or legal validity, this “Free Speech Zone” had a clear political message: shut up and go away or you will be silenced and arrested. The Santa Fe Police Department and Los Caballeros De Vargas made the unconscionable decision to not only keep protesters out-of-sight and out-of-earshot by limiting their First Amendment right to free speech, but they also dehumanized Native people by corralling them — just like conquistadors and cavalrymen of the past who forced Native men, women, children and elders into heavily-policed and surveilled open air concentration camps like Fort Sumner. Again, the racist message was loud and clear: go back to the reservation or get arrested; Indians are not welcome here.
After several other protesters were arrested, our very own TRN-Albuquerque leader and UNM KIVA Club Vice-President, Jennifer Marley (San Ildefonso Pueblo), was seized. Jennifer is a leader in efforts to #AbolishTheEntrada. The Santa Fe Police knew this. It is clear to us that she was targeted for arrest and harassment by police specifically because she is a high-profile leader of the resistance. Multiple videos of her arrest show several male officers violently grabbing Jennifer without provocation, slamming her to the ground and aggressively pinning her arms behind her. Officers then paraded her through the streets where she was verbally assaulted by bystanders jeering “Go back to where you came from!”
The parading of Jennifer through the streets of downtown Santa Fe parallels a long history of parading captured Indigenous prisoners of war as trophies on their way to prisons. An eyewitness to the arrest, TRN organizer Demetrius Johnson (Diné) recounts,
“During the Long Walk, in the very beginning the cavalry would purposefully take us [Diné] through Santa Fe, Las Vegas, and all the way back down to Fort Sumner. They did that to humiliate us, but also to lift morale for the soldiers and these [white] towns. That’s what these police officers did to [Jennifer Marley] yesterday. They cleared that whole street and walked down this vendor line with her in the front. Parading her like, ‘look, we caught her.’ But what they didn’t know is that it didn’t lower our morale, like they hoped, but instead made it stronger.”
While Santa Fe sent its weakest men armed to the hilt to defend the City’s genocidal pageantry, we sent our strongest women armed only with their love for Indigenous peoples and lands.
Weeks earlier, the City of Santa Fe welcomed Indigenous artists at the annual SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market. On Friday, Native people faced an entirely different scene. Police created a militarized zone with sniper nests, barricades, and processing tables for mass arrests to protect a racist celebration of genocide. In this “Free Speech Zone,” protesters were surveilled under the oppressive gaze of the police state. The City loves to exploit Indigenous art and culture because of the cash flow it brings to City coffers. But at the first sign of Native political demands for human rights and justice, what does the City do? It pursues an aggressive campaign to silence and criminalize Indigenous people by unleashing the full force of the police state on Indigenous women, children, and elders, pointing guns at them and arresting them for “criminal trespass” on their own ancestral lands.
The City of Santa Fe is guilty of criminal trespass on the lands and bodies of Pueblo people, not Pueblo people themselves.
The police were so empowered after Jennifer’s arrest that they arrested an Indigenous man, Julian Rodriguez, who had nothing to do with the protest. Eyewitnesses report that Mr. Rodriguez was walking down the street with his partner when police officers stopped him and asked him to remove his bandana. He removed it and then put it back on as he walked away. He was then arrested and charged with “criminal trespassing.” In a clear case of racial profiling consistent with the City’s racist message to silence Native people for resisting dehumanization, Mr. Rodriguez was made a criminal simply for being Native in Santa Fe. He was “off the reservation” and therefore open to arrest.
As Jennifer Marley stated prior to the protest,
“We don’t expect the cops to protect us now or ever. In fact we expect intensified police brutality, and intensified violence from Entrada attendees. The lengths [to which] the city is going to police this event with firearms and even police from departments all across the state is disgusting. But what it does tell us is that Pueblo resistance is a true threat to them. Their cowardice is a show of our strength and potential to make cracks in the settler colonial project!”
Despite dozens of live streaming feeds (see below) that documented this cowardice as it was unfolding, Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales did nothing to stop the police free-for-all against peaceful protesters and innocent bystanders. Instead, Mayor Gonzales took to social media Friday afternoon to thank the Santa Fe police officers who “helped maintain public safety.” To detract from the actual repression he promoted, he euphemistically called the arrest and censorship of Native people and allies “a very difficult conversation” that “move[d] forward” as a result of the day’s events.
How can we move forward when Santa Fe uses spectacular violence to silence Native free speech? When it so brazenly and unmercifully profiles, harasses, brutalizes, intimidates, and humiliates Native men, women, and children? When it continues to celebrate genocide and settler revisionist history?
A month prior to the Entrada protest, hundreds of white supremacists and Nazis descended on Charlottesville, Virginia to protect the “history and heritage” of racist Confederate monuments similar to the Entrada reenactment. Police stood down to protect Nazis’ right to free speech in Charlottesville, but came out in full force to prevent Natives’ free speech in Santa Fe. One Nazi, James A. Fields, drove his car into a crowd of protesters, injuring dozens and killing anti-racist protester, Heather Heyer. Last February, Santa Fe Police Union chief Troy Baker posted a meme that read “ALL LIVES SPLATTER” to his Facebook page encouraging murderers like Fields to run over protesters exercising their First Amendment rights. Baker is still employed with the Santa Fe Police Department.
Clearly, Santa Fe police officers are inclined towards violence against those demonstrating their First Amendment rights. As history has shown, Nazis, racists, and white supremacists are never brutalized by police; it is always people of color, women, non-gender conforming people, the poor, and Natives who are. In other words, it is always those who challenge power and oppression who are met with the full force of the police state. Yesterday was no different. Claiming it was because they did not want “anyone getting hurt,” Santa Fe police protected Los Caballeros and their followers at the behest of City officials. The lone white racist pro-Entrada protester, Richard Polese, arrived at the #AbolishTheEntrada protest with a full police escort. Meanwhile, Entrada protesters did get hurt, all at the hands of the police.
They can arrest us, but they cannot kill or imprison this movement. Native people will never relinquish our human rights to move and speak freely on our own lands.
Prior to the protest, the #AbolishTheEntrada coalition undertook a public education campaign to explain why celebrating a crime against humanity — genocide — is wrong. These organizations also asked the City to stop violating the “separation of church and state” clause of the First Amendment because the Entrada is a Catholic Church-run event that is partially funded by public tax money: the lodgers tax. It is worth noting that Indian Market is the largest annual event in Santa Fe that draws over 80,000 visitors each year. These visitors pay a lodgers tax every time they book a room for Indian Market. Not only does the City make a killing off of lodgers tax revenues from Indian Market, but it uses these revenues to fund a celebration of genocide. It exploits Native labor, then uses profits from that exploitation to dehumanize Native people.
This is called anti-Indianism, and Santa Fe is anti-Indian to its core.
While we continue to work towards total Indigenous liberation, it is not too much to ask that the colonizer uphold his own laws set forth in the First Amendment. The City of Santa Fe has deliberately rejected Pueblo and Native concerns despite several peaceful attempts since 1977 to ask the City to stop celebrating conquest and genocide. It has instead offered empty gestures of “dialogue” and “conversation” while also aggressively pursuing censorship and violent repression.
In other words, the City has a long track record of denying Indigenous people free speech and fundamental human rights. This must end NOW.
In closing, The Red Nation issues the following demands to the City of Santa Fe:
DEMAND #1: RELEASE JENNIFER MARLEY IMMEDIATELY. As of approximately 1:30 PM MST on Saturday, September 9th, all of those arrested have been released except for Jennifer Marley, who now faces five counts — both felonies and misdemeanors — of battery of a peace officer, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct. This is a clear case of a strong freedom fighter and leader being persecuted for political dissent. Jennifer is a political prisoner. Her political act is defined as criminal by the state to discredit the Indigenous liberation movement because it is gaining momentum and legitimacy in New Mexico. The political act of protesting genocide is reduced to a criminal act to affirm the absolute invulnerability of the existing order. In other words, Santa Fe criminalizes Native people to justify its own criminal behavior.
DEMAND #2:DROP ALL CHARGES against those arrested. As of now, there were eight confirmed arrests. Those who were arrested include Chad Brown Eagle, Julian Rodriguez, Nicole Ullerich, Trenton Ward, Carmen Stone, Jennifer Haley, Sierra Logan, and Jennifer Marley. The Santa Fe police department has also charged several of those arrested with felonies, after the fact, in an attempt to justify the outrageous charges of “criminal trespass” in a public plaza. Anyone with a basic knowledge of trespass law knows “criminal trespass” is reserved for trespassing on private property, not public property.
DEMAND #3: ABOLISH THE ENTRADA
We ask that people flood the Mayor’s office with calls, emails, tweets, and Facebook posts to demand Jennifer Marley’s release; all charges against all protesters are dropped; and that the Entrada is abolished:
Palestinian human rights defender Issa Amro was released from Palestinian Authority jails on Sunday, 10 September, following a widespread international outcry among human rights organizations and others. Amro, who is also facing 18 charges by an Israeli military court for his popular advocacy against illegal settlements in al-Khalil, was jailed on 4 September by PA security after posting critical commentary about the PA to Facebook.
The al-Khalil Magistrate’s Court ordered Amro released on a bail of 1,000 Jordanian dinars ($1410 USD). The release came following a growing international call and demands by numerous human rights groups to release him.
Upon his release, Amro, coordinator of Youth Against Settlements in al-Khalil and a recognized human rights defender by the European Union and United Nations, urged the abolition of the Electronic Crimes Law, a new PA law put into place by decree by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Widely condemned by Palestinian human rights organizations and political parties as well as Amnesty International, the law aims to criminalize a broad swath of critical commentary on social media sites like Facebook under the pretext of disrupting social harmony or similar allegations.
The law and associated repressive arrests of journalists and activists by the PA come amid the targeting of hundreds of Palestinians for arrest and imprisonment by the Israeli occupation for their social media posts. It also highlights the issue of PA security coordination with Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people, especially activists and human rights defenders.
Amro said that he was arrested for expressing his personal opinion on matters of concern to the Palestinian population, saying to Wattan TV that “I am a citizen who loves my country, and I reject the charges against me of setting up pages that harm the security of Palestine.”
Amnesty International, nine members of U.S. Congress and European institutions had called for the release of Amro. There is a campaign involving many organizations against his Israeli military charges that also took up the call for his release from PA detention. Amro’s case was perhaps the most prominent of the recent cases of PA imprisonment of activists for social media posts; his arrest itself came as a result of his criticism of the PA’s arrest of journalist Ayman Qawasmeh after his radio station was raided by Israeli forces. Qawasmeh was later released.
**UPDATE: Issa Amro was released on bail on Sunday, 10 September.**
Palestinian human rights defender Issa Amro remains imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority after his detention was extended an additional four days by the PA, accused of a series of allegations related to public postings on Facebook that are critical of PA officials, including PA president Mahmoud Abbas.
As CODEPINK noted, following the PA’s arrest of journalist Ayman Qawasmeh, Issa wrote on Facebook: “Yes to freedom of opinion and expression. We are living in a quasi-state, and it must respect the freedom of opinion and expression, that’s what its international commitments require. It must defend freedom of opinion and expression.” (Qawasmeh was released on 6 September as Amro’s detention was extended.)
There is growing Palestinian and international outrage about the continued detention of Amro, who ended a hunger strike on Saturday afternoon, 9 September, after he was finally moved from a tiny cell that may have been a shower, allowed family visits and granted a change of clothing. Amro had reportedly been beaten by PA forces upon his arrest and had launched the hunger strike against the continued mistreatment and poor conditions.
Amro is currently facing 18 charges in an Israeli military court related to his popular activism with Youth Against Settlements, a grassroots group in al-Khalil that organizes against illegal Israeli settlements, land confiscation and settler violence in the occupied Palestinian city.
On Thursday, 7 September, Amro was charged with “disturbing the public order” under the new Electronic Crimes Law of the PA, denounced by Amnesty International and a wide array of Palestinian human rights organizations and political parties as an unprecedented attack on Palestinian freedom of speech and expression from a Palestinian entity. It is particularly damaging at a time when Palestinians under occupation are regularly subject to violent arrest raids, imprisonment and detention without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation for their social media posts.
Amro is the latest, and perhaps highest-profile target of the new law; previous detainees have included journalists and Palestinian youth activists critical of the PA. In fact, Amro himself was arrested after posting his critical commentary about the detention of Palestinian journalist Qawasmeh by the PA, shortly after he expressed frustration about the violent Israeli raid that shut down his radio station, Manbar al-Hurriyeh. In addition to the charges under the new law, Amro was also accused of “causing sectarian strife” and “insulting higher authorities” under the 1960 Jordanian penal code, two charges that have also been repeatedly used against PA political detainees, including journalists.
Nine members of U.S. Congress signed a letter to the PA urging Amro’s release; earlier, 32 members of Congress wrote a letter urging the State Department to act to urge that Israeli military court charges against Amro be dropped. The chair of the European Parliament’s commission on human rights also issued a statement urging Amro’s release. Amro has been an internationally prominent voice in the United Nations, European Union and elsewhere against the confiscation of the land and the rights of the Palestinian people of al-Khalil by the Israeli occupation settlement policy.
**
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins Youth Against Settlements, Amnesty International and numerous others in demanding the immediate release of Issa Amro. We also call for the immediate release of all PA political detainees and an end to the “Electronic Crimes Law” and the ongoing attacks on Palestinian websites, journalists and activists. This law is particularly chilling in light of the ongoing Israeli targeting of Palestinian journalists, writers and organizers for expressing their opinion on social media and the context of PA security coordination with the Israeli occupation.
We also join our voices with Palestinian organizations and activists demanding an end to Palestinian Authority security coordination with the Israeli occupation.
Thousands of Palestinians participated in a mass funeral on Saturday, 9 September for Raed Salhi, the Palestinian youth killed by Israeli occupation forces outside his home when they invaded Dheisheh refugee camp on 9 August in an “arrest raid.” They shot the unarmed youth nine times, left him to bleed in the streets of the camp and then imprisoned him under armed guard in the hospital for nearly a month until his death from his injuries on 3 September. The date of his funeral would have been Salhi’s 22nd birthday.
His body continued to be imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces until Karim Ajwa, Salhi’s lawyer who had been advocating for his release, filed an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court. Raed’s body was finally turned over to his family on Friday evening, 8 September, before the mass funeral on Saturday afternoon following noon prayers. The funeral was led by a group of Salhi’s young comrades from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, carrying his body wrapped in a Palestinian flag and a PFLP banner, and all Palestinian political organizations – as well as masses of Palestinians – participated in the funeral.
His relatives, friends and comrades joined the massive procession from the Beit Jala Government Hospital to the family home in the camp to the boys’ school to the martyrs’ cemetery. The funeral was accompanied by a commercial and general strike in the city of Bethlehem which lasted until 3:00 pm. Salhi’s brother, Bassam, has also been imprisoned by occupation forces; they seized him in the camp one week after shooting Raed. He was ordered to four months in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial.
The return of Salhi’s body was accompanied by the return of the body of Qutaiba Zahran, whose body had been held captive by the Israeli occupation since last month, when he was shot and killed by occupation forces at the Zaatara checkpoint south of Nablus, accused of attempting to stab occupation soldiers at the checkpoint. Qutaiba, 17, was also buried on Saturday in a funeral procession in Tulkarem.
When Salhi’s body was returned, it was met with hundreds of Palestinians who marched demanding justice and accountability for the assassination and extrajudicial killing of Salhi. Following Salhi’s funeral, intense protests broke out against occupation forces as Palestinian youth confronted occupation forces at checkpoints and military occupation sites around the city of Bethlehem.
Raed Salhi was remembered as a beloved and active member of his community. In an interview published in Middle East Eye, his brother Khaled spoke about both his love for animals and his political commitment. “Raed, whom his brother Khaled described as a cat lover who would rescue stray kittens from the street, much to his family’s displeasure, was described by several Dheisheh residents as loved by the community….Raed had also been a committed member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the main Palestinian leftist political party, since he was 15…and was imprisoned by Israel for around four months in 2014. ‘He was a good-hearted guy, he was always smiling and joking,’ Khaled said.”
“Raed was from one of the very poorest families in the camp… but he wanted to help the people as much as he could, and to educate them more,” said Naji Owdah, the director of Laylac Community Center in Dheisheh, to Middle East Eye. Salhi was involved in a number of volunteer projects, including voluntary health days and a campaign to set up small libraries around the camp.
Salhi had been held under high security guard within Hadassah hospital, despite being unconscious and in a coma. His impoverished family members, including his mother, were denied family visits or the ability to see him, while his detention was extended several times by the Ofer military court as he lay in a coma, dying.
Before the raid in which Raed was fatally shot by invading occupation forces, he had been theatened by occupation forces, including the infamous “Captain Nidal,” the pseudonym used by the local Israeli occupation military official in charge of Dheisheh – specifically, that “Nidal” would “shoot [Raed] in front of [his] mother.” Palestinian NGO Badil reported that Captain Nidal had threatened to “make all the youth of (Deheisha) camp disabled,” saying “I will have all of you walking with crutches and in wheelchairs.”
Palestinian Jerusalemite teacher Khadija Khweis remains behind bars despite a decision to release her on bail, after the Israeli occupation prosecution appealed the decision for her release.
The Israeli Supreme Court convened in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday, 13 September in a hearing on the case of Palestinian families demanding the release of their imprisoned family members’ bodies, which have been held captive by the Israeli occupation since they were shot dead by occupation forces.
French-Palestinian lawyer and human rights activist 
Jennifer Marley, an Indigenous activist in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 
Palestinian human rights defender 
His body continued to be imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces until Karim Ajwa, Salhi’s lawyer who had been advocating for his release, filed an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court. Raed’s body was finally
His relatives, friends and comrades joined the massive procession from the Beit Jala Government Hospital to the family home in the camp to the boys’ school to the martyrs’ cemetery. The funeral was accompanied by a 
When 
Raed Salhi was remembered as a beloved and active member of his community.
