Berlin demonstration urges boycott of Hewlett-Packard; Palestinian community commemorates Abu Ali Mustafa

27 August 2017

BDS campaigners in Berlin, Germany protested on Saturday, 26 August outside the Alexanderplatz Saturn, a large electronics retailer, campaigning for the boycott of Hewlett-Packard (HP) products due to the corporation’s profiteering from Israeli occupation.

HP is subject to a global boycott campaign due to the corporation’s involvement in contracts with the Israel Prison Service as well as the operation of Israel’s apartheid ID card and checkpoint system and even providing IT support for the Israeli navy as it maintains its siege on Gaza. A growing number of churches and labor unions have declared themselves HP-free zones as the corporation’s role in Israeli apartheid has become more visible.

Campaigners in Berlin distributed information to passers-by and shoppers about HP’s involvement in human rights violations, including its role in the imprisonment of over 6,200 Palestinians.

The protest in Berlin came after major victories for the BDS movement in the German capital. The Pop-Kultur Festival, held between 23 and 25 August in the city, saw a number of significant performers, including Hello Psychaleppo, Young Fathers, Iklan with Law Holt, Emel Mathlouthi, Mazzaj, Islam Chipsy, Annie Goh and Oranssi Pazuzu, withdraw from their performances due to the addition of an official sponsorship by the Israeli Embassy to the festival’s program.

Eight Arab and international bands and artists pulled out in solidarity with the Palestinian call for boycott. The bands who pulled out included multiple award-winning performers whose presence at the festival had been heavily anticipated. However, festival organizers continued to adhere to their official Israeli state sponsorship and attempted to blame BDS campaigners rather than the apartheid, settler-colonial state from which they accepted support, including emblazoning the website with the logo of the embassy.

Some participants in the protest on Saturday, 26 August later joined a Palestinian community commemoration of the 16th anniversary of the assassination of Palestinian national leader and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Secretary Abu Ali Mustafa.

Organized by the Democratic Palestine Committees, the event included speeches, poetry and a musical and dabkeh performance by the Al-Awda Band, a Palestinian community troupe based in Berlin.

A number of Palestinian community organizations joined in the event memorializing the assassination of the Palestinian leftist leader on 27 August 2001 by Israeli occupation forces with a US-made and -provided missile shot from a helicopter into his office in Ramallah as he worked.

The Berlin event was particularly meaningful considering recent attacks on the Democratic Palestine Committees and other organizations by pro-Zionist politicians and Israeli media in an attempt to criminalize their organizing and activity in the Palestinian community in Berlin.

There has been a concerted effort to demand the suppression of events supporting the Palestinian struggle in Berlin, including targeting Palestinian community and solidarity organizations and attempting to have event venues cancelled, bank accounts closed and activists subjected to repression.

Organizers emphasized that they were committed to the representation of struggle that Abu Ali Mustafa stood for throughout his life and refused to be silenced by racist attacks that aim to undermine Palestinian and Arab community organizing and activities in Berlin and throughout Germany. The enthusiastic musical and dance performance by Al-Awda Band added a celebratory flair to the evening, envisioning a future of return and liberation for Palestine.

Jordan BDS announces 7 more companies have dumped G4S

27 August 2017

Jordan BDS announced that seven Jordanian corporations are cutting ties with G4S on the basis of its involvement in the imprisonment of Palestinians and police training projects in coordination with the Israeli occupation. The Jordan BDS campaign has been extensively involved in building a movement against the use of G4S both by private institutions as well as public entities like United Nations bodies.

The seven public and private companies that ended their contracts with G4S following the BDS campaign are:

Jordan Hospital Medical Centre
Abdali Boulevard Company & MAB Facilities Management
Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank/Safwa
Specialized Technical Services
Orange
IKEA
A leading local bank

They noted also that multiple other institutions in Jordan have previously ended contracts with or refrained from working with G4S, including Aramex, Landmark Hotel, City Mall, Mecca Mall and Taj Mall.

Four United Nations agencies dropped contracts with the global security firm following the Jordan BDS campaign, including the United Nations World Food Program, the refugee agency UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), the children’s fund UNICEF and operations agency UNOPS.

Jordan BDS called on other institutions in the country to join the rejection of G4S for its role in violating Palestinian rights. “We renew our appeal to these entities to adhere to universal ethical principles and cease dealings with G4S, given this security company’s deep complicity not only in Israel’s crimes against humanity but also in violations of the human rights of peoples and refugees around the world,” said the organization. They demanded that the two remaining UN agencies in Jordan to contract with G4S, UN Women and UNDP local and regional offices (UNDP MENA and UNDP Jordan) end their agreements immediately with the security corporation.

G4S has been actively involved in training Israeli police attacking Palestinian civilians; its subsidiary, AMAG Technology, also partners with FST Biometrics, the company involved in Israeli “security” measures it attempted to impose on Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Palestinian Boycott National Committee reported that G4S-logo cars had been spotted involved in the placement of electronic gates and metal detectors at the mosque.

In addition, G4S owns 50 percent of Policity, the corporation operating the Israeli National Police Academy, fully implicating G4S in the massive ongoing violations of Palestinian rights, particularly in Jerusalem and occupied Palestine ’48, where Israeli police are involved in daily arrest raids, beatings, arrests and abuse of children, detention of human rights defenders, closure of human rights institutions and the military enforcement of occupation on the Palestinian population.

This remains the case even after G4S sold off most of its business in occupied Palestine to FIMI, a private equity firm. G4S previously provided security services and equipment to the Israel Prison Services, Israeli checkpoints and illegal settlements. Despite the sale, however, G4S has remained deeply complicit in profiteering from Israeli occupation – and the international campaign has continued to grow. G4S is also implicated in the abuse of immigration detainees in both the US and UK, oppression of indigenous communities in Australia and defense of the “tar sands” tearing through indigenous land in Canada, the exploitation of prison labor, imprisonment of youth and in particular youth of color in the United States and suppression of workers’ struggles in South Africa, India and elsewhere.

Samidoun participates in OCML-VP summer camp in France

27 August 2017

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network participated in the OCML-VP (Organisation communiste marxiste-leniniste-Voie Proletarienne) summer school 2017 in France along with a number of other organizations. This report is largely translated from the original French article, posted at OCML-VP.

Samidoun activists joined OCML-VP, YDG France (New Democratic Youth, member of ATIK), Secours Rouge of Belgium, Revolutionäre Jugend Zürich and Revolutionäre Aufbau and supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the summer initiative for study and discussion.

The event began with a solidarity message from Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the imprisoned Lebanese communist struggler for Palestine held in French jails for nearly 34 years:

Dear Comrades,

For various reasons and to my great regret, I cannot participate actively at this time in this very interesting discussion that I would say is very necessary, especially these days.

From behind these abominable walls where I have been for an eternity, I address my warmest revolutionary greetings to all the comrades and friends present, and especially to those who organized this gathering.

Certainly the interventions of the local participants make it possible to hope that the debate goes beyond the abstract framework of generalities and banalities and clarifies the regional specificities in the global anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist struggle.

Honor to all those who fight against capital and its barbarism!

Honor to the popular masses in struggle!

Your comrade Georges Abdallah

The political program of the event included several half-days focusing on the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, work in political and trade union movements, the lessons of 1917 for today and the role of revolutionaries in anti-imperialist struggle. The event also included collective child-care and meal preparation to support the participation of all in the program.

Afternoons involved workshops on computer security, graffiti, art, theater, self-defense and other activities as well as cultural presentations and political discussons about struggles today.

Family members of Omar al-Abed sentenced by Israeli occupation military court

27 August 2017

The family members of Palestinian prisoner Omar al-Abed, 19, who have already seen their home in the Ramallah-area village of Kobar demolished in an act of illegitimate collective punishment by the Israeli occupation, were sentenced by the Ofer military court on Sunday, 27 August to prison terms, reported Palestinian lawyer Fadi al-Qawasmeh. The sentences come as another act of collective punishment targeting the family members of al-Abed in an attempt to frighten other young Palestinians from engaging in resistance activity.

Al-Abed remains imprisoned, accused of killing three Israeli occupation settlers in the illegal settlement of Halamish built on stolen Palestinian land inside the occupied West Bank of Palestine one month ago.

His mother, Ibtisam al-Abed, was sentenced to 31 days in prison and a fine of 3,000 NIS ($830 USD), whie his father was sentenced to 60 days imprisonment. His brother and his uncle were hit even harder and sentenced to eight months of imprisonment on the basis of dubious claims by Israeli occupation forces of his relatives’ “knowledge” that Omar may carry out the armed action in the settlement.

Qawasmi emphasized that the sentences indicated once more that the military courts are nothing more than a tool of Israeli intelligence and the Netanyahu government carrying out a policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people.

Twenty more administrative detention orders issued to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial

27 August 2017

The Israeli military court at Ofer issued 20 more administrative detention orders for the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial, reported the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission on Thursday, 24 August, bringing the number of such orders issued in August so far to 104.

Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and issued on the basis of ‘secret evidence’, making them nearly impossible to challenge on legal grounds. Palestinian prisoners have spent years at a time jailed under administrative detention orders.

There are currently over 500 Palestinians out of nearly 6,200 total Palestinian prisoners jailed by the Israeli occupation under administrative detention orders, including a number of well-known ativists, political leaders and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

The new orders were issued against the following prisoners:

1. Emad Hammad, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
2. Adham Ajlouni, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
3. Nael Abu al-Asal, Jericho, 4 months, extension
4. Musab Hindi, Nablus, 6 months, extension
5. Mohammed Munther, Ramallah, 4 months, new order
6. Yousef Tartir, Nablus, 4 months, extension
7. Omar al-Hih, al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
8. Ziad Shahatit, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
9. Yousef Nassar, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
10. Abdel-Aziz Hamideh, Ramallah, 6 months, new order
11. Imad Mutran, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
12. Sari Abu Alia, Ramallah, 3 months, extension
13. Mohammed Jamal Hamideh, Ramallah, 3 months, new order
14. Mohammed Ahmed Hamideh, Ramallah, 3 months, new order
15. Abdallah Samir Hamideh, Ramallah, 6 months, new order
16. Shadi Abu Aker, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
17. Imad Jadallah, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
18. Mahmoud Ayyad, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
19. Ghaith Attiyeh, Tulkarem, 3 months, extension
20. Mahmoud Shabaneh, al-Khalil, 3 months, extension

Salah Hamouri in court on Sunday – Act Now to Demand His Freedom

26 August 2017

French-Palestinian activist and human rights defender Salah Hamouri was seized by Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday, 23 August. A former prisoner, Hamouri is a legal advocate and field researcher for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

After Hamouri, 32, was seized from his home in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kufr Aqab, he was taken to the Moskobiyeh interrogation center in Jerusalem. His detention was then extended until 27 August for further interrogation.

Take action! Demand France act to defend their citizen.

The seizure of Hamouri is only the latest act of repression and intimidation carried out by the Israeli state. After six years in Israeli prison amid an extensive grassroots campaign in France for his freedom, Hamouri pursued studying law in order to advocate for fellow prisoners. Hamouri’s wife was denied entry to and banned from Palestine while pregnant with their child and he has been banned from the West Bank until September 2016 – including in apparent attempts to prevent him from completing his legal studies. Indeed, on 20 August – just days before his arrest – he had just passed the Palestinian bar examination.

He has been an international representative of the Palestinian cause and the prisoners’ struggle, speaking at the World Social Forum in Brazil, large events across France (including the main stage at Fete de l’Humanite) and Israeli Apartheid Week in Belgium in February 2017, among many others.

Organizations and parliamentarians across France are mobilizing to demand Hamouri’s freedom once again and to pressure the French government to take action on this case. While an observer from the French consulate in Jerusalem was present in al-Moskobiyeh court on Wednesday, 23 August, this is not sufficient. The French state must take real action to demand freedom for Salah Hamouri, the Palestinian human rights defender.

Parliamentarians of the French Communist Party (PCF) Pierre Laurent, Jean-Paul Lecoq, Jean-Pierre Bosino, and Alain Bruneel as well as Philippe Poutou, the spokesperson of the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA) Philippe Poutou and Fronte de Gauche (FG) municipal counselor Madjid Messaoudene have joined organizations including the Association France-Palestine Solidarite, Coup Pour Coup 31, Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine (Belgium), Agence Media-Palestine, Union Juive Francaise pour la Paix, EuroPalestine, Samidoun, League for Human Rights, Comac (Belgium) , the CNT left labor union, and others in demanding Salah Hamouri’s immediate liberation. It is critical to act quickly to intensify the calls on France to act before the court hearing on Sunday.

TAKE ACTION

1. SIGN this petition to French president Emanuel Macron and European officials. Demand that they act now to free Hamouri: https://www.change.org/p/emmanuel-macron-demand-the-immediate-release-of-human-rights-defender-salah-hamouri

2. SIGN this French-language petition to the French government to demand they act for Hamouri’s freedom: http://liberezsalahhamouri.wesign.it/fr

3. SEND an individual message to several offices of the French government demanding action. The text below is provided by the Association France-Palestine Solidarite (AFPS).

Write to:
Consulate General of France in Jerusalem by following this link: https://jerusalem.consulfrance.org/Contactez-nous-par-mail

Ministry of Foreign Affairs at this link: http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/mentions-legales-infos-pratiques/nous-ecrire/ By filling in the form with the subject line “Français de l’étranger” (French abroad)

Presidency of the Republic: http://www.elysee.fr/ecrire-au-president-de-la-republique/

Monsieur le Consul,
ou Monsieur le Ministre des affaires étrangères
ou Monsieur le Président de la République,

Je viens d’apprendre l’arrestation de Salah Hamouri par le message de son épouse Elsa Lefort, retranscrit ci-dessous :

“Salah Hamouri a été arrêté cette nuit à notre domicile de Jérusalem-Est par l’armée d’occupation venue en grand nombre le cueillir dans son sommeil. Comme souvent, les autorités militaires ne donnent aucun motif à cette arrestation et nous n’avons que peu d’informations au sujet de sa détention, il n’a pu contacter personne. 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.”

L’arrestation de notre concitoyen est inadmissible et insupportable. Les autorités françaises ne doivent pas laisser passer une telle infamie.

Je vous demande d’œuvrer dès aujourd’hui, au nom de la France, pour la libération de Monsieur Salah Hamouri.

Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l’expression de ma haute considération.

English translation:

Dear Consul (or Minister of Foreign Affairs, or President of the Republic)

I have learned of the arrest of Salah Hamouri through the message of his wife, Elsa Lefort, below:

“Salah Hamouri was arrested last night at our home in East Jerusalem by the occupying army who had come to take him in his sleep. As often occurs, the military authorities gave no reason for the arrest. We are calling upon France to act with conviction to protect and obtain the release of our fellow citizen who is once again subjected to Israeli arbitrary practices.”

The arrest of our fellow citizen is unacceptable and unbearable. The French authorities must not allow such infamous behavior to pass.

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.

Dirar Abu Sisi once again ordered to six months in isolation

26 August 2017

Imprisoned Palestinian engineer kidnapped from Ukraine, Dirar Abu Sisi, had his isolation extended for another six months by the Israeli occupation on 26 August. Abu Sisi’s health has recently deteriorated and he is suffering from severe pain in his lower back; he has been held in long-term solitary confinement repeatedly since he was abducted from a train by Israeli intelligence forces.

Abu Sis, 47, i is an engineer from Gaza who was abducted from the Ukraine on 19 February 2011 by the Mossad. He is married (to a Ukrainian citizen), the father of six children, and holds a graduate degree in electrical engineering. He was the deputy engineer of Gaza’s power plant. From Gaza, Veronika Abu Sisi, his wife, has continually advocated for his release and an end to his isolation.

“We won’t give up until Dirar Abu Sisi is released,” Veronika Abu Sisi said in 2013. “They steal our land, they put us in jail, but we have the right to live here. This is our home. I just hope my husband will be back soon with me and our children.” The family has six children. Abu Sisi is now serving a 21-year sentence on charges of participating in the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and continues to be subject repeatedly to solitary confinement and isolation.

Sheikh Raed Salah accused of incitement: “this trial is only about the…defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque”

26 August 2017

Sheikh Raed Salah is being accused of incitement via “sympathy, support and praise” for Palestinian resistance, labeled as “terrorist” by the Israeli occupation, according to an indictment filed in the Haifa District Court by the Israeli Public Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday, 24 August. Salah, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and leader of the Islamic Movement in occupied Palestine ’48, is renowned for his outspoken defense of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from various Israeli occupation projects intended to change its character or undermine its existence.

Despite the highly public and political nature of the case, the judge banned filming in the court in Salah’s case, stating that “the case does not concern the public.” Salah has been arrested on multiple occasions and was released in January 2017 after being imprisoned for nine months on charges relating to a sermon he delivered in Jerusalem in 2007; he spent most of his imprisonment held in solitary confinement and was threatened with extended sentencing before release. Israeli occupation officials have also been involved in attempts, including in the United Kingdom, to deny Salah an international platform for advocacy. He has been subjected to repeated travel bans by the Israeli state. He has also been repeatedly barred from entering Jerusalem itself.

His detention has been repeatedly extended since he was seized by Israeli forces on 15 August who invaded his home in Umm al-Fahm. “The judicial grounds for this case are trivial. In reality, this trial is only about Sheikh Raed’s defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the slogan, Al-Aqsa is in danger,” said his lawyer Khaled Zabarqa.

Salah is the leader of the Islamic Movement in Palestine ’48; in 2015, the Israeli state banned the Islamic Movement in an action condemned by Palestinian organizations across the political spectrum as an attack on all Palestinians in ’48 Palestine, who hold Israeli citizenship.

Palestinian youth activist Ahmed Abdel-Aziz jailed by Palestinian Authority forces

26 August 2017

Palestinian youth activist Ahmed Abdel-Aziz has been detained by Palestinian Authority security forces since Monday, 21 August; on Thursday, 24 August, his detention was extended for 15 days pending interrogation. Abdel-Aziz’s case is only the latest in a series of attacks on Palestinian freedom of expression at the hands of the Palestinian Authority under the so-called “Electronic Crimes Law;” he is reportedly being detained for his critical Facebook posts about PA officials.

Abdel-Aziz and other young Palestinians have been pursued by the PA for posting in opposition to ongoing PA security coordination with Israel and PA corruption and concessions to the Israeli occupation. His lawyer, Taha Hussein, told Quds News that he has dealt with several similar issues recently, indicating the frequency of arrests for posting on Facebook and other social media services.

Even 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 earlier this week, also in the context of the law. A number of journalists have been interrogated and detained for publishing critical material about the PA as well.

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.

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.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network strongly denounces the arrest of Ahmed Abdel-Aziz and demands his immediate release and the release of all political detainees. In addition, we join and support the Palestinian calls to cancel the dangerous and unlawful “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. It is very important for international supporters of the Palestinian people and Palestinian cause and Palestinian communities in exile to make their voices heard demand the release of Ahmed Abdel-Aziz and fellow PA political detainees and an end to security coordination and repressive legislation.

Wounded Palestinian prisoners from Dheisheh camp remain jailed; Salhi dependent on artificial respiration

26 August 2017

Wounded Palestinian prisoners Raed al-Salhi and Abdel-Aziz Arafa remain detained under the pretext of “completing interrogation” by the Ofer Military Court despite the fact that Salhi remains in critical condition and in a coma in the intensive care unit at Hadassah Hospital, relying on a ventilator to breathe. Meanwhile, Arafa is still recovering from surgery on his left foot.

Both Salhi and Arafa were wounded by Israeli occupation forces who invaded Dheisheh refugee camp and opened fire on the youths on 7 August. Arafa’s left leg and foot were broken and injured while Salhi’s stomach and thigh were seriously hurt.

Arafa had left his home at 4:30 am to head to work in Doha municipality, where he is a cleaner. He was shot with two bullets and was held in a military vehicle on the floor for half an hour before being brought to the hospital, noted his lawyer Karim Ajwa; Salhi has been unable to speak. Since the moment Arafa arrived at the hospital, he has been shackled to his bed despite his injuries.

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