Israeli occupation officials continue to refuse to hand over the body of Palestinian prisoner Raed Salhi, who died yesterday of his injuries at the hands of Israeli occupation forces. They shot Salhi, 21, at point-blank range nearly a month ago as they invaded Dheisheh refugee camp in a pre-dawn violent “arrest” raid.
Salhi, an active member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was left bleeding for over an hour and a half after being shot by occupation forces, causing him to lose a great deal of blood. He was shot with five bullets in the abdomen; the unarmed youth was apparently targeted for murder, even as the Israeli occupation forces claimed that he was “fleeing.”
He has remained in Israeli custody since that time in Hadassah Hospital, where he has been held under heavy armed guard and denied family visits even as he remained unconscious, in a coma and dependent on a ventilator for respiration.
During that time, his detention was extended on multiple occasions by the Ofer military court along with that of Abdel-Aziz Arafa, another young man from Dheisheh refugee camp shot simultaneously by occupation forces. Arafa was shot in the leg and foot, and was brought to the Ofer military court on 29 August on a hospital bed.
Upon the news of his death, large crowds took to the streets of Dheisheh camp, marching to honor Salhi and support his family. A large mourning tent was set up outside the family home by fellow youth activists. Despite expectations that his body would be turned over on Sunday, Salhi’s body remained imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces. Salhi’s body was transfered to Rishon Lezion hospital from Hadassah, Ma’an News reported.
Karim Ajwa, a Palestinian lawyer with the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, filed a preliminary petition on Monday, 4 September, demanding that the Israeli state immediately turn over the body of the martyr Raed Salhi. Palestinian social media accounts in Dheisheh camp said that the legal case would be taken up quickly to demand Salhi’s body be turned over without conditions. The Israeli state has held hostage a number of Palestinians’ bodies slain by occupation forces or imposed conditions on their funerals in attempt to quiet Palestinian outrage and mourning.
Fellow Palestinian prisoner Qusay Abu Srour, also of Dheisheh camp, was released on 4 September and immediately headed to the mourning tent outside Salhi’s home to pay his respects to Salhi’s family and comrades and salute the martyr and his sacrifices.
**
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns the loss of Raed Salhi, Palestinian refugee and beloved member of his community, under armed guard, denied his family even as he lay dying, shot by the bullets of the Israeli occupation. The outrageous murder of Raed Salhi stands once again as a call to all people of conscience in the world to escalate their campaigns to support the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice, return and liberation, including through the international isolation of Israel and building campaigns for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).
Palestinian human rights defender Issa Amro, of the Youth Against Settlements campaign in al-Khalil, has reportedly been arrested by the Palestinian Authority’s “Preventive Security Service” following critical comments about the PA’s seizure of journalist Ayman al-Qawasmeh of Manbar al-Hurriya radio. Amro, along with lawyer Farid al-Atrash, is currently facing a list of charges in Israeli military court in relation to popular demonstrations in al-Khalil against settlements and occupation. l
The 18 charges against Amro include “insulting a soldier” and “assault,” and have been widely condemned by a range of organizations, including Amnesty International and Jewish Voice for Peace. Even 32 members of the US Congress signed a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson against the charges against Amro. Israeli military courts have a 99.74 percent conviction rate against Palestinians; while Amro’s last court hearing took place on 9 July, it will convene again on his case on 22 October.
Amro’s brother Ahmad said that PA preventive security had detained him since the early morning hours of Monday 4 September. This is apparently in retaliation for his comments on Facebook about the detention of Ayman Qawasmeh by PA forces only days after Israeli occupation forces stormed the radio station’s office, destroying and confiscating equipment under the pretext of “efforts against incitement,” reported Ma’an News.
Photo: Ayman Qawasmeh (Quds News)
Qawasmeh had openly criticized PA officials including PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, calling for their resignation in the wake of ongoing Israeli attacks on Palestinians under occupation, given that the PA cannot protect Palestinian institutions from Israeli occupation assault.
The cases of Qawasmeh and Amro are only the latest cases in a series of repressive arrests carried out by PA forces under the new “Electronic Crimes Law.” The “Electronic Crimes Law” has been widely condemned by political parties and organizations throughout occupied Palestine. The PA law, which attempts to criminalize Palestinian political expression on Facebook and in the media, comes alongside systematic Israeli attacks on Palestinian expression, including the persecution of hundreds of Palestinians for their posts on social media and the jailing of teens, journalists and elders in Israeli occupation prisons.
Amnesty International has joined the denunciation of the law created by decree of PA president Mahmoud Abbas, due to its use against journalists and writers. Zaher al-Shammali and Nassar Jaradat were subject to detention for Facebook posts critical of PA officials, and Palestinian-American activist Mashal Alkouk was detained for several days last week, also in the context of the law, as was youth activist Ahmed Abdel-Aziz. A number of journalists have been interrogated and detained for publishing critical material about the PA as well.
The “Electronic Crimes Law” goes so far as to threaten sentences of hard labor against people convicted of committing “offenses” with the “purpose of disturbing public order…or harming national unity.” Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association has published a lengthy analysis of the dangers posed by the law.
Palestinian lawyer Fadwa Barghouthi, the wife of prominent imprisoned Palestinian leader and Fateh central committee member Marwan Barghouthi, said on Monday, 4 September that she had been banned from visiting her husband until 2019 in retaliation for her involvement in supporting the prisoners’ hunger strike in April-May 2017.
Barghouthi said that she had been denied a visit to see her husband four months ago, turned back at an Israeli occupation checkpoint. Donia al-Watan reported that Barghouthi said she received a one-time visit permit from the International Committee of the Red Cross one week ago, and that she went in a group visit with other families. She remained at the prison from 9 am until 4 pm, only to be told that she was prohibited from seeing her husband.
She was told that she was banned from visiting all prisons and would not be allowed to see her husband until 2019, according to news reports. Barghouthi said that she was told specifically that this was a response to her support for the prisoners’ hunger strike.
Fadwa Barghouthi is the spokesperson for the International Campaign to Free Marwan Barghouthi and was a prominent advocate for the prisoners during the hunger strike for access to family visits and other key aspects of life inside the prisons. Thousands of prisoners participated in the strike and many have reported serious retaliation in the following months.
Saturday, 9 September 10 am Marché de Longwy Longwy, France
The administrative detention confirmation hearing for Palestinian-French human rights defender Salah Hamouri, recent law graduate, field researcher at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and re-arrested Palestinian political prisoner, has been delayed until 5 September, and French activists are organizing to demand that the French government put pressure on Israel to release Hamouri.
Hamouri, 32, was ordered on Tuesday, 29 August to six months imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention, only six days after he was seized in a pre-dawn raid on his home in Jerusalem. The order for his imprisonment without charge or trial came directly from ultra-right racist Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, only hours after he had been ordered released by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.
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!
Friday, 8 September 6:00 pm Hotel de ville Villerupt, France
The administrative detention confirmation hearing for Palestinian-French human rights defender Salah Hamouri, recent law graduate, field researcher at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and re-arrested Palestinian political prisoner, has been delayed until 5 September, and French activists are organizing to demand that the French government put pressure on Israel to release Hamouri.
Hamouri, 32, was ordered on Tuesday, 29 August to six months imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention, only six days after he was seized in a pre-dawn raid on his home in Jerusalem. The order for his imprisonment without charge or trial came directly from ultra-right racist Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, only hours after he had been ordered released by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.
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!
The administrative detention confirmation hearing for Palestinian-French human rights defender Salah Hamouri, recent law graduate, field researcher at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and re-arrested Palestinian political prisoner, has been delayed until 5 September, and French activists are organizing to demand that the French government put pressure on Israel to release Hamouri.
Hamouri, 32, was ordered on Tuesday, 29 August to six months imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention, only six days after he was seized in a pre-dawn raid on his home in Jerusalem. The order for his imprisonment without charge or trial came directly from ultra-right racist Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, only hours after he had been ordered released by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.
Salah Hamouri at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court after his administrative detention order, via Farah Bayadsi
In France, protests by many organizations, including the Association France-Palestine Solidarite, the French Communist Party, Jeunes Communistes, EuroPalestine, Coup Pour Coup 31, local BDS organizations, the New Anticapitalist Party and a number of others have been mobilized to demand Hamouri’s release and real action on the part of the French government.
Photo: Jeunes Communistes, Vienne
Hamouri was seized by Israeli occupation forces who invaded his Jerusalem home on 23 August, only three days after he passed the Palestinian bar examination to begin practice as a lawyer. Jailed by the Israeli occupation from 2005 until his release in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011, he has been subject to repeated repression and harassment by the Israeli occupation, including being barred from the West Bank (and his university classes), his pregnant wife being banned from Palestine and now this current administrative detention order.
Photo: Mechkar Elmostafa, Paris, 2 September
In Paris, multiple sizable protests have gathered to demand action on Hamouri’s case. Protests have gathered in cities and towns, including Mitry-Mory, Martigues, Chambery, Ales, Bagneux, Vienne and Metz, while more mobilizations are planned in Toulouse, Avignon and elsewhere in the country. On Tuesday, 5 September, an initial meeting is planned to launch a support committee for Salah Hamouri in Paris. In Gennevilliers, the mayor, Patrice Leclerc has hung a large banner on city hall, calling for freedom for Salah Hamouri and directing people to sign the petition for his release.
Photo: Ville de Gennevilliers
While French president Emmanuel Macron has tweeted from his official account to urge the release of right-wing Venezuelan opposition figures detained by the Venezuelan Bolivarian government of Nicolas Maduro, he has remained silent on French citizen Salah Hamouri, imprisoned without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation.
Photo: Elsa Lefort at Paris demonstration, 31 August
Parliamentarians from France Insoumise , the French Communist Party and others have demanded Macron and the French government act officially to call for freedom for Salah Hamouri. While Hamouri has received a consular visit, French official state demands appear to be limited to visitation rights for Hamouri’s family, including his wife, Elsa, who is denied entry to Palestine, rather than his release.
The large labor union, la CGT – Federation des services publics, has also spokn out on the case of Salah Hamouri, urging immediate action by the President Emmanuel Macron and the French government to demand Hamouri’s release and expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people.
These actions come, of course, in the context of a French state that has imprisoned Lebanese struggler for Palestine Georges Ibrahim Abdallah for 34 years despite a grossly unfair trial and his eligibility for release since 1999, working hand in hand with Israel and the United States, while pursuing the criminalization of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign for Palestinian human rights in France. Macron himself infamously equated anti-Zionism (opposition to racism) with anti-Semitism (anti-Jewish racism) a week before Hamouri’s seizure at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.
Photo: Bagneux demonstration, 2 September
It is urgent to continue to take action to build the campaign for freedom for Salah Hamouri and all Palestinian prisoners. He is one of nearly 500 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention and nearly 6,200 total Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and Palestinians have spent years at a time jailed with no charge or trial on the basis of an unchallengeable “secret file.” Demand the French government act to defend its citizen from arbitrary and racist imprisonment.
**
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/
Monsieur le Consul, ou Monsieur le Ministre des affaires étrangères ou Monsieur le Président de la République,
Salah Hamouri a été arrêté dans la nuit du 23 août à son domicile de Jérusalem-Est par l’armée d’occupation venue en grand nombre le cueillir dans son sommeil. Comme souvent, les autorités militaires n’ont donné aucun motif à cette arrestation. Il a ensuite été entendu par le tribunal pendant 20 minutes puis placé à l’isolement où il est toujours.
L’arrestation de notre concitoyen est inadmissible et insupportable. Les autorités françaises ne doivent pas laisser passer une telle infamie. C’est un véritable acharnement contre Salah Hamouri qui a déjà passé plus de 7 ans en prison.
Nous demandons à la France d’agir avec conviction pour protéger et obtenir la libération de notre concitoyen qui subit une fois de plus l’arbitraire israélien.
Dans un premier temps, la décision qui devait être rendue dimanche 27 a été reportée de deux jours à la demande de l’armée pour les besoins de « l’enquête ».
Mardi 29, alors que ses avocats négociaient les conditions d’une remise en liberté sous contrôle, un ordre ministériel est arrivé demandant au tribunal de placer Salah en détention administrative pour 6 mois. Le tribunal ayant 48 heures pour confirmer ou contester la décision à savoir jeudi 31 août.
Jeudi 31, les avocats de Salah Hamouri ont obtenu 5 jours de délais, c’est-à-dire jusqu’au mardi 5 septembre pour pouvoir examiner la seule pièce qu’ils puissent obtenir : le PV de l’audition de 20 minutes du 23 août.
Notre inquiétude est vive. Rien ne garantit qu’à cette date notre compatriote retrouve la liberté. Pire encore, il pourrait rejoindre les 6128 prisonniers politiques palestiniens dans les geôles israéliennes, en détention administrative comme 450 d’entre eux (dont plusieurs député-e-s), c’est-à-dire sans procès ni chef d’inculpation.
Je vous demande d’œuvrer dès aujourd’hui, au nom de la France, pour la libération immédiate de Monsieur Salah Hamouri.
Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l’expression de ma haute considération.
English translation:
Dear Consul, (or the Minister for Foreign Affairs, or the President of the Republic,)
Salah Hamouri was arrested in the night of 23 August at his home in East Jerusalem by the occupation army, who had come to take him in his sleep. As often, the military authorities gave no reason for the arrest. He was then heard by the court for 20 minutes and then placed in solitary confinement where he remains today.
The arrest of our fellow citizen is unacceptable and unbearable. The French authorities must not allow such infamous behavior to pass.
It is a real outrage against Salah Hamouri, who has spent over 7 years in prison. We urge France to act with determination to protect the rights and obtain the release of our fellow citizen who is once again subject to arbitrary Israeli detention.
Initially, the decision to be rendered on Sunday, 27 August, was postponed by two days at the request of the army for the purposes of “interrogation.” On Tuesday, 29 August, after his lawyers negotiated the conditions for his release, a ministerial order was issued demanding that the court place Salah in administrative detention for 6 months. The court had 48 hours to confirm or contest the decision, until Thursday, 31 August. On Thursday, 31 August, Salah Hamouri’s lawyers obtained five days’ postponement, that is until Tuesday, 5 September, to examine the only document they could obtain: the minutes of the 20-minute hearing on 23 August.
Our concern is immense. There is no assurance that our compatriot will regain his freedom. He could join the 6, 128 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, in administrative detention like 450 of them, including several parliamentarians – that is to say, without charge or trial.
I ask you to act today, on behalf of France, for the release of Mr. Salah Hamouri.
Please accept the assurance of my highest consideration.
On May 18, 2017 Oscar López Rivera was welcomed by a large and loving crowd in Chicago’s Paseo Boricua after 35 years of imprisonment for the “crime” of supporting Puerto Rican independence. One of the people who greeted Oscar was Rasmea Yousef Odeh who will soon be punitively deported from her home in the United States for the “crime” of supporting Palestinian freedom.
When Oscar was arrested as a member of the FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional) in 1981 and was then imprisoned for 35 years on the political charge of seditious conspiracy, he became part of a long line of independentistas who spent years in U.S. prisons because of their militant resistance to the U.S. conquest of Puerto Rico in 1898. Starting with Pedro Albizu Campos in the 1930’s who was imprisoned for the “crime” of sedition,the U.S. has consistently used surveillance, infiltration, and imprisonment as a major part of its arsenal to suppress the Puertan Rican movement. Puerto Ricans were one of the first targets of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program, dating back to the 1930’s, which was aimed at disrupting, undermining and criminalizing all political activism on the island and in the United States.
One of the major goals of the FALN in the 1970’s was to win the freedom of the five Puerto Rican Nationalist prisoners who had been disappeared for over two decades within U.S. prisons. The Nationalists had brought the demand for Puerto Rican independence to the U.S. mainland with attacks on Blair House in 1950 and the U.S Congress in 1954. In its very first action in 1974, the FALN demanded the release of the Five, noting that they were “the longest held political prisoners in the Western Hemisphere.”(communique Oct 1974). The FALN identification of the Nationalists as an integral part of the independence movement helped to spark a multi-pronged campaign that ultimately resulted in their release by then President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
International law denounces colonialism as a crime and recognizes a colonized people’s right to end colonialism by any means at their disposal. But the resurgent Puerto Rican independence movement of the seventies and eighties was met with a full battery of repressive tactics which resulted in the imprisonment of many independentistas. In the nineties, the fight to free this new generation of political prisoners once again became a leading focus of struggle, uniting a broad spectrum of Puerto Ricans across political tendencies. In 1999 the struggle for the freedom of the prisoners converged with the fight against the U.S. Navy’s control over the Puerto Rican island of Viequeswhich it used as a site for its bloody war games. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Puerto Rico in a series of demonstrations demanding the return of Vieques and unconditional amnesty for the prisoners. On September 11, 1999 eleven of the Puerto Rican prisoners were released by Clinton and greeted as national heroes all over Puerto Rico and the U.S.
Oscar didn’t accept Clinton’s commutation because two other Puerto Rican prisoners were not included at the time. After the others were released, Oscar and his supporters began a broad-based effort to win his freedom. Refusing to accept the Federal Parole Board’s ruling in 2011 that he serve 12-15 more years, his campaign gathered strength, winning impressively broad support, including several members of Congress, 10 Nobel Peace Prize winners, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Senator Bernie Sanders as well as a global coalition of human rights and religious, labor, and business leaders. Once again a campaign for the freedom of a political prisoner became a unifying force within the Puerto Rican movement. The passage of PROMESA in June 2016 caused outrage among Puerto Ricans and fueled the mobilization for Oscar’s freedom. On January 17, 2017, Obama commuted Oscar’s sentence and on May 17, 2017 Oscar was released from house arrest in Puerto Rico.
Oscar’s designation by the New York Puerto Rican Parade Committee as its first ever “National Freedom Hero” shortly after his release, became a flashpoint for controversy. Corporate sponsors and politicians withdrew support from the Parade, denouncing Oscar as a terrorist and condemning the Parade Committee. But as Johanna Fernández and Carlito Rovira pointed out, “On closer inspection, the outcry against the Puerto Rican Day Parade Committee and the defamation of Oscar Lopez are smokescreens for the real injustice—that Puerto Ricans are daily terrorized by systemic racism and poverty in the US mainland and colonial domination in their homeland. Consider, for example, the passage of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) — a ploy recently imposed by Washington officials to assure the payment of a $73 billion dollar debt, created not by Puerto Ricans but by the colonizers themselves.”
Rasmea emigrated to the U.S. and became a citizen in 2004. She has been a leading organizer with the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) of Chicago, coordinating its Arab Women’s Committee and continuing her active support for Palestinian freedom. Then in 2013, Rasmea was arrested on charges of immigration fraud, a bogus pretext for persecuting a leading, effective Palestinian woman activist. Rasmea was jailed, tried, and convicted. Her conviction was overturned on appeal because presiding Judge Drain had refused to allow an expert to testify about the PTSD Rasmea suffered from as a result of her torture and rape. Rasmea was preparing for a second trial on the immigration charges when the U.S. government suddenly added new charges of belonging to a terrorist organization to her indictment in December 2016. In the extreme Trump administration right-wing climate, Rasmea decided to accept a plea agreement that will mean deportation and loss of U.S. citizenship but avoids many years of possible prison time.
Rasmea’s prosecution has coincided with a growing Zionist offensive within the United States aimed at intimidating and stopping scholars, students and activists who support Palestinian freedom and the Palestinian-initiated Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Recently, Zionist groups have expanded their targets to a Bay Area community bakery started by a Palestinian woman activist, Reem Assil, because it features a striking mural of Rasmea on its walls. Since Reem’s opened in early 2017, the bakery has been demonized on social media and Yelp, Zionist groups have held a protest rally in front of the restaurant, and Breitbart News has taken up the chorus of denunciations.
When Rasmea and Oscar reached out and hugged each other in Humboldt Park, they won a victory over the power of imprisonment, torture,erasure, and criminalization in a political climate where repressive power looms large. They affirmed that the love and defense of their homelands has persisted over generations despite decades of colonial control. And they reminded us all of the inextricable connections between struggles and the necessity for international solidarity in the fight against imperialism and for liberation. As Rasmea remarked about the occasion, “I felt stronger than ever that I was part of the universal struggle to make changes in our countries and all over the world!”
Diana Block is the author of a novel, Clandestine Occupations – An Imaginary History (PM Press, 2015) and a memoir, Arm the Spirit – A Woman’s Journey Underground and Back (AK Press, 2009). She is an active member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and the anti-prison coalition CURB. She is a member of the editorial collective of The Fire Inside newsletter and she writes periodically for various online journals.
On 23 August, three days after passing the Palestinian bar exam to practice as a lawyer, Salah Hamouri, a 32-year-old French-Palestinian, was arrested at his home in East Jerusalem by Israeli occupation forces in the most arbitrary manner and ordered to six months of administrative detention on the order ot the Minister of Defense.
Administrative detention is one of the weapons used by the Israeli authorities to imprison Palestinians without justification or pretext. The “secret file” remains unknown to the accused and their lawyers. Renewable every six months, a person can be held indefinitely in priosn with no charge. Dozens of Palestinian prisoners have spent years behind bars with no charge or trial. There are over 6,128 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including 450 in administrative detention, among them several members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
This is not the first time Salah is imprisoned by Israel, he spent seven years in prison between 2005 and 2011 on false and dubious charges.
Israel is constantly harassing him – barring him from the West Bank, forbidding his wife from Palestine, and now, since 23 August, again imprisoning him in a totally illegitimate manner!
Enough! We demand the immediate release of Salah Hamouri and thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
We cannot remain silent in the face of this new manifestation of the occupier’s power, convinced that it will not be held accountable to anyone, and for good reason. The French governments have not been characterized by their courage against arbitrary Israeli colonial practices, preferring to hide behind the manufactured image of Israel as an embattled democracy. This impunity must cease. The French government must do everything in its power to obtain the immediate release of its citizen.
Raed Salhi, 21, the young Palestinian refugee from Dheisheh camp who has been held in a coma and in intensive care since 9 August, when he was shot at point-blank range by Israeli occupation forces invading the refugee camp, died of his injuries on the evening in Hadassah Hospital of 3 September 2017. During the weeks following his arrest, he was denied family visits and held under heavy security guard despite his unconsciousness and severe medical condition.
Salhi was seized after being shot at point-blank range by Israeli occupation forces invading the camp on 9 August; along with him, occupation forces seized Abdel-Aziz Arafa, who they shot in the leg. The Israeli occupation army claimed at the time of his shooting that the two unarmed young men were shot as they “attempted to flee the area.”
His family and comrades in Dheisheh camp are still awaiting news of the delivery of his body from occupation forces; upon the news of his death, a spontaneous march broke out in the camp to his family home, where his mother and family received the support of their community, surrounding the home.
Dheisheh camp social media pages reported that media would not be welcomed at the funeral due to the lack of coverage of his situation; many people in the camp and throughout Palestine posted about their memories of Salhi, saluting his dedication to the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause, including his affiliation with the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Photo: Hisham Abu Shaqrah
During his imprisonment in Hadassah hospital, his family members were denied permits to visit him under the pretext of ongoing interrogation, despite the fact that the young man was in a coma and unable to speak. His lawyer, Karim Ajwa, reported just days ago that he was being held under strict security guard at the hospital despite his severe health crisis.
“All of the family’s attempts to obtain a permit to visit have failed. The occupation authorities are preventing all members of his family from visiting him to check on his health. The last attempt was several weeks ago by his mother, who suffers from several diseases herself and cannot sleep due to her worry,” said Khaled al-Salhi, Raed’s brother, to Quds News at the time.
Indeed, Salhi’s detention was extended on several occasions by the Ofer military court under the pretext of “completing interrogation,” despite the fact that he was held in critical condition, unconscious and dependent on a ventilator. On 29 August, Arafa was brought to Ofer military court on a hospital bed to further extend his imprisonment before being moved to the Ramle prison clinic.
Not only was Salhi’s family denied visits with their dying brother, his brother Bassam Salhi was seized by occupation forces in another invasion of Dheisheh camp one week after the shooting, on 16 August, Ma’an News reported.
The PFLP issued a statement on the martyrdom of Raed Salhi, saying, “Palestine, Dheisheh camp and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have lost a courageous struggler committed to liberation of the Palestinian people from Zionist occupation. This young man was committed in his veins with loyalty to the Palestinian cause and his people.” In the statement, they said that “he was always present to confront the occupation in Bethlehem area.” Salhi was also known for his commitment to volunteer activities, incluing health support days and other social activities to support the people of the camp.
He is the 212th imprisoned Palestinian to die in Israeli custody, and Issa Qaraqe, the chair of the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, joined multiple prisoners’ organizations issued statements noting that the killing of al-Salhi was an execution by occupation forces through their point-blank shooting on the streets of Dheisheh as they invaded the camp.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns the loss of Raed Salhi, Palestinian refugee and beloved member of his community, under armed guard, denied his family even as he lay dying, shot by the bullets of the Israeli occupation. The outrageous murder of Raed Salhi stands once again as a call to all people of conscience in the world to escalate their campaigns to support the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice, return and liberation, including through the international isolation of Israel and building campaigns for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).
Palestinian lawyer Fadwa Barghouthi, the wife of prominent imprisoned Palestinian leader and Fateh central committee member Marwan Barghouthi, said on Monday, 4 September that she had been
Rally to free our comrade, French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hamouri, newly re-imprisoned by Israel without charge or trial
The administrative detention confirmation hearing for Palestinian-French human rights defender Salah Hamouri, recent law graduate, field researcher at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and re-arrested Palestinian political prisoner, has been delayed until 5 September, and French activists are organizing to demand that the French government put pressure on Israel to release Hamouri.
The administrative detention confirmation hearing for Palestinian-French human rights defender Salah Hamouri, recent law graduate, field researcher at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and re-arrested Palestinian political prisoner, has been delayed until 5 September, and French activists are organizing to demand that the French government put pressure on Israel to release Hamouri.
The administrative detention confirmation hearing for Palestinian-French human rights defender 
These actions come, of course, in the context of a French state that has imprisoned Lebanese struggler for Palestine 
On 23 August, three days after passing the Palestinian bar exam to practice as a lawyer, Salah Hamouri, a 32-year-old French-Palestinian, was arrested at his home in East Jerusalem by Israeli occupation forces in the most arbitrary manner and ordered to six months of administrative detention on the order ot the Minister of Defense.
