Issa Amro released on bail following campaign for his freedom

10 September 2017

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.

Issa Amro remains imprisoned as international calls for release grow

9 September 2017

**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.

Amnesty International has denounced Amro’s arrest, while Youth Against Settlements has issued a call to action for people to urge PA representatives around the world to free Amro. CODEPINK has planned a demonstration in Washington, DC, to demand Amro’s freedom on 12 September; it is one of a number of international organizations that have already been mobilizing to defend Amro against the charges in Israeli military courts.

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.

TAKE ACTION:

Sign the petition to support Issa Amro’s release: http://www.yashebron.org/free_issa_from_pa_arrest
In the US? Take CODEPINK’s action for Issa Amro: http://codepink.org/issa
CALL the PA and tell them to free Issa!
United States: General Delegation of the PLO to the US (202) 974-6360

United Kingdom: Palestinian Mission +44 20 85 63 0008

France: Mission of Palestine in France +33 1 48 28 6600

Germany: Representative Office of Palestine in Berlin +49 30 20 61 77 0

Italy: Embassy of Palestine in Italy +39 06 700 879

Belgium: Palestinian Embassy in Brussels +32 2 735 24 78

Thousands of Palestinians march in mass funeral for slain imprisoned youth Raed Salhi

9 September 2017

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.”

14 September, Ottawa: 1,000 Days in Detention and Counting: Event for an Innocent Man

9 September 2017

The Hassan Diab Support Committee and Octopus Books invite you to a screening of the short documentary “Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story”, followed by a panel discussion with Carleton University professors Maeve McMahon and Peter Gose, together with Roger Clark, former Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada.

What: “Rubber Stamped: The Hassan Diab Story”, followed by a panel discussion
Date: Thursday, September 14, 2017
Time: 7:00 PM
Where: The Lieutenant’s Pump, 361 Elgin Street (at Waverly), Ottawa, Canada – Map

This is an all ages event. Free and open to the public. The space is wheelchair accessible.

Background:

Dr. Hassan Diab is a Canadian citizen and sociology professor who taught at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. He was extradited to France on November 14, 2014, in connection with the 1980 rue Copernic synagogue bombing in Paris.

The Canadian extradition judge described the evidence in the case as “very problematic”, “illogical”, and “suspect”, and stated that “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely”. However, the judge felt obliged under Canada’s extradition law to commit Hassan to extradition.

Since his extradition over 1,000 days ago, Hassan has been locked up in a French prison cell, 20 hours a day, deprived of his freedom and torn from his family and home in Canada.

The French judge investigating the case found “consistent evidence” supporting Hassan’s innocence, and concluded that Hassan was not in France at the time of the 1980 bombing. Hassan was ordered released on bail six times. However, each time the French prosecutor appealed and the Court of Appeal overturned the release order.

To this day, Hassan remains locked up in prison and faces the prospect of wrongful conviction under France’s anti-terrorism laws.

For more information:

Hassan Diab Support Committee
diabsupport@gmail.com
http://www.JusticeForHassanDiab.org

CANCELLED – 12 September, Washington DC: Issa Amro Should be Free – Protest the PA

9 September 2017

NOTE: This event was cancelled after Issa Amro was released

Tuesday, 12 September
4:00 pm
General Delegation of the PLO
1732 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington, DC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/141319383139796/

Organized by CODEPINK

Join us to call for the release of Palestinian Human Rights Defender Issa Amro! Issa is being detained by the Palestinian Authority for a Facebook post. He is already facing 18 charges in Israeli military court for his nonviolent activism. Now, he is being persecuted by the PA as well.

Issa is a world reknowned human rights defender. The UN, Amnestly Internation, mand human rights groups, and even members of congress are calling for his release.

Stand WIth Issa

Read more about Issa’s arrest and how it shows Israel and the PA’s partnership in silencing dissent in Electronic Intifada https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-palestinian-authority-partners-silencing-critics

Take action: Twitter Storm 9 September to Tell Abbas to free Issa Amro! Tweet for Issa!

9 September 2017

During a Twitterstorm, everyone who wants to highlight a cause tweets at the same time to raise the profile of an issue. You can use Tweet schedulers or just make sure to send your message on Twitter at the right time.

Join us for this Twitterstorm for Issa Amro today, 9 September, at 11:00 pm Pacific Time, 2:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 pm Central European time, 12:00 am (10 Sep) Palestine time. Issa Amro is a Palestinian human rights defender facing 18 Israeli military charges who is currently being detained by the Palestinian Authority.

Join the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/214801832386656/

Issa Amro continues to remain in a Palestinian Authority detention center today. He has been in custody since he was arrested last Monday by PA security forces for a Facebook post. Yes, for a Facebook post! Yesterday, the PA extended his detention for at least another four days. Issa was beaten during interrogation. He is being kept in a tiny, filthy cell. No family, media, or even international diplomats, were allowed inside his court hearing yesterday.

Sample Tweets – use these or make your own! Make sure to include the hashtag, #StandWithIssa :

Whether jailed by the PA for Facebook post or in Israeli military court fighting 18 charges for his nonviolent activism – #StandWithIssa

#StandWithIssa: “My dream has always been to see my people in a mass movement of nonviolent resistance”
http://forward.com/opinion/382158/why-every-jew-should-call-for-this-palestinian-to-be-freed/

Members of US Congress demand freedom for @IssaAmro. Release him immediately! #StandWithIssa https://imeu.org/uploads/files/09062017-Amro-Letter.pdf

Amnesty International, UN and more call for the PA to release @IssaAmro #StandWithIssa https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/09/palestinian-human-rights-activist-charged-under-repressive-new-cybercrimes-law/

#StandWithIssa Respect freedom of speech @IssaAmro, arrested and beaten over a Facebook post. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/05/palestinian-authorities-arrest-activist-issa-amro-in-growing-free-speech-crackdown

Why are both the PA and Israeli government attacking human rights activist @IssaAmro? #StandWithIssa http://forward.com/opinion/381870/israel-and-the-palestinian-authority-finally-agree-about-jailing-peace-acti/

SIGN @YASHebron petition for @IssaAmro’s release now! #StandWithIssa
http://www.yashebron.org/free_issa_from_pa_arrest

Beaten, kept in miserable tiny, filthy cell. @IssaAmro deserves to be free #StandWithIssa https://972mag.com/pa-court-orders-activist-issa-amro-to-jail-intl-backlash-grows/129616/

9 September: Brooklyn March against Gentrification, Racism and Police Violence

9 September 2017

Saturday, 9 September
11 am – 6 pm
Gather at Barclays Center
Brooklyn, NY
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/833546563459181/

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in NYC is participating in the following event:

#BKMarch2017
#BANGentrification
#TakeBackOurCommunities

FLOW of the DAY
11:00am GATHER at Barclays Center
12:00 MARCH
1:30 RALLY at Ebbets Field (Crown Heights)
3:30 RALLY at Herbert Von King Park (Bedford-Stuyvesant)
5:30 RALLY at Myrtle Wyckoff Plaza (Bushwick/Ridgewood)
6:30 Join us after the march to relax with community at Starr Bar in Bushwick! We will be walking over together after the Bushwick rally and speakout.

Where to Pick up #BKMarch2017 Flyers: as of August 14th

Bushwick
Mayday Space
176 St. Nicholas Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237
info@maydayspace.org

Crown Heights
MTOPP: (718) 703-3086

Downtown BK
FUREE
388 Atlantic Avenue,
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 715-1352 x202

Flatbush
Equality for Flatbush
646 820 6039

Manhattan
The Solidarity Center
147 West 24th Street, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10011
Call 212 633 6646 for office hours

Sunset Park
UPROSE
166A 22nd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232
Phone: (718) 492-9307

Main Hashtags :
#BKMarch2017
#BANGentrification
#TakeBackOurCommunities

Hashtags we will also use :
#BKRiseUp
#BKFightsRacism
#BlackLivesMatter
#BrownLivesMatter
#EndBrokenWindows
#HereToStay

Our neighborhoods are being torn apart by skyrocketing rents and terrorized by police brutality. Low-to-middle income New Yorkers are being priced out or displaced by gentrification while our city is being made over into a playground for the super rich.
We say NO MORE!

Mobilize with The Brooklyn Anti-gentrification Network – BAN for a Brooklyn-wide March against Racism, Gentrification and Police Violence on SATURDAY September 9th at 12 noon
Check The BAN Facebook page and website for the next planning meeting

Please post widely to your networks –
Endorse TODAY! To have your group, business or organization endorse the Brooklyn-wide March against Racism, Gentrification & Police Violence email:
info@bangentrification.org
or call/text (646) 820 -6039

Whose City? Our City! Brooklyn-wide March against Racism, Gentrification & Police Brutality
#BKMarch2017
#BANGentrification
#TakeBackOurCommunities
#BKRiseUp
#BKFightsRacism
#BlackLivesMatter
#BrownLivesMatter
#EndBrokenWindows
#HereToStay

http://bangentrification.org/
Follow us Twitter
https://twitter.com/BANgentrifying
@BANgentrifying

11 September, NYC: Protest to free Salah Hamouri and stop HP

6 September 2017

Monday, 11 September
4:30 pm
Best Buy Union Square
52 E. 14th St, NYC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2036797963206978/

French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hamouri‘s six-month administrative detention order was replaced by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 5 September. Unfortunately, rather than being released, Hamouri was instead sentenced to three months’ imprisonment – the remainder of his former sentence when he was released in the 2011 Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange. (He was scheduled for release on 13 March 2012 and was released early on 18 December 2011.)

While in this specific case, the total amount of his sentence is half of the administrative detention order, it also highlights yet another unjust and unaccountable mechanism for sentencing former Palestinian prisoners – the arbitrary reimposition of former prison sentences on dubious grounds or no grounds at all, in many cases by a secret military committee. For example, Nael Barghouthi – and dozens of others – have seen former life sentences or other large sentences reimposed by a secret military committee.

Mahmoud Hassan of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Hamouri’s lawyer, noted that “this decision will not prevent Hamouri from being placed under administrative detention again even after he serves the rest of his previous sentence.” Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable.

Stand with Salah to demand that Israel release him, 449 other “administrative detainees” and all 6,128 Palestinian political prisoners, and that Hewlett Packard companies end their contracts with Israeli prisons and detention centers, occupation and security forces, and checkpoints and settlements.

Help build a growing international campaign to boycott HP over the companies’ support for Israeli crimes.

Support the Palestinian people, the Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian Resistance, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Imprisoned women and girls: Updates from Israeli prisons

6 September 2017

As administrative detainee Ihsan Dababseh was once against ordered imprisoned without charge or trial – one of five Palestinian women held under administrative detention orders – the youngest Palestinian female prisoner was denied access to family visits.

The parents of Malak al-Ghaliz, 14, from al-Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah, were turned back by Israeli occupation forces at a checkpoint west of Ramallah on Monday, 4 September, as they went to visit their daughter. Malak, who has sent messages to her mother about her desire to return to school, has been jailed since 20 May when she was seized by occupation soldiers at Qalandiya checkpoint. She has been accused of attempting to stab occupation soldiers, despite a clear lack of evidence and no injuries on the part of the occupation forces at the checkpoint.

On Tuesday, 5 September, Sahar al-Natsheh, 48, turned herself into Israeli occupation officials at the Ramle prison to serve a three-month sentence. Natsheh, 48, a Palestinian Jerusalemite from Beit Hanina, was sentenced to three months in prison last month by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, for posting on Facebook about the situation in Jerusalem and the Israeli occupation and settlers’ attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque. Al-Natsheh had been seized on 21 March 2016 and held in solitary confinement for 11 days before being released to house imprisonment; after extended home confinement, she was then ordered to three months in Israeli prison. Married with seven children, Natsheh is a prominent activist in defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On Wednesday, 6 September, an Israeli occupation military court will hold a hearing in the case of Ahlam al-Mahluk, 19, from the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid in the Ramallah area. Al-Mahluk has been imprisoned since 16 June on allegations of “incitement” for posting on Facebook. She is one of hundreds of Palestinians targeted for arrest and imprisonment for sharing their opinions about politics on social media by Israeli occupation forces. Her wedding – scheduled for August – has been postponed due to her prolonged imprisonment.

In addition, Ibtisam Musa, 59, from Khan Younis in Gaza, will face a military court hearing on Thursday, 7 September. She was seized by occupation forces in April 2017 as she attempted to cross the Erez/Beit Hanoun crossing, for which she had received a permit; she was accompanying her sister, a cancer patient, for treatment. Musa was accused of attempting to bring explosives into Israel, but the substance she carried – nitroglycerin – is more widely available in 1948 occupied Palestine, is only a precursor to explosives, and is also a heart medication.

*Sabreen Abu Sharar, photo via Asra Media Office*

Meanwhile, the case of Sabreen Abu Sharar, 28, a Palestinian doctor from the town of Dura who was arrested and re-imprisoned when she sought permission to leave Palestine and accompany her fiance in the United States, where he is already working as a doctor as well, was continued until 19 September 2017. She was previously detained for 18 months before being released in December 2016; she had served as the representative of the women held in Damon prison.

Palestinian student Sujoud Daraweesh, 22, was ordered to one month imprisonment and a fine of 3000 NIS ($850 USD) on 5 September, after she was seized from her family home on 30 August in a 2:00 am raid. She had previously been arrested and released on the condition of displacement from her home city of al-Khalil, delaying her graduation from Hebron University.

9 September, Lyon: Rally to Free Salah Hamouri

6 September 2017

Saturday, 9 September
3:00 pm
Place de la Republique (Lyon 2e)
Lyon, France

Rally to free French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hamouri, newly re-imprisoned by Israel without charge or trial, after he was seized in a pre-dawn raid on his home on 23 August. No to three months of imprisonment, no to six months, freedom now!

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