Palestinian student, former prisoner detained by Palestinian Authority

30 August 2017

*Baraa al-Amer. Photo via Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.*

Palestinian student Baraa al-Amer, former prisoner held in Israeli jails and a trainee at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, is currently being detained by the Palestinian Authority’s intelligence service, reported his family. Al-Amer is apparently the latest Palestinian to be detained for posting critical commentary about the Palestinian Authority leadership on his social media and Facebook accounts and pursued for prosecution or detention under the widely-criticized “Electronic Crimes Law.” He has announced that he is engaged in an open hunger strike.

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 as well as Palestinian youth activists like Ahmed Abdel-Aziz. 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.

Baraa al-Amer is the son of journalist Nawaf al-Amer, who told Quds News that his son had been beaten during his seizure by the security forces and that his lawyer had witnessed bruises on his body and other injuries due to his ill-treatment and abuse at the hands of PA security forces. These are the same security forces responsible for security coordination with the Israeli occupation against Palestinian activists and ressitance figures and organizations.

Al-Amer said that the Palestinian public prosecution had actually rejected charges against his son for his Facebook posts and ordered him released, only for the PA intelligence agencies to refuse to release him and continue to detain him. He said that this is a personal attempt at retaliation from PA intelligence officials and urged human rights activists to call for Baraa al-Amer’s release.

Baraa al-Amer is a law student at An-Najah University who previously served a 10-month sentence in Israeli prison for his student activism for the Palestinian cause. Prior to his seizure by occupation forces, he had been jailed by the PA in Nablus and Bethlehem.

For its part, EuroMed denounced the arrest of its trainee Baraa al-Amer; the institution has been vocal on the subject of the repression of Palestinian freedom of expression via the “Electronic Crimes Law.” EuroMed noted that it is “closely monitoring the ongoing arbitrary detention of its trainee in law, An-Najah University law student Baraa al-Amer, for the third consecutive day, despite the decision of the Palestinian public prosecutor to release him.” EuroMed noted their concern that the reason al-Amer is not being released is because of the visible bruising and injuries on his body noted by his lawyer.

Al-Amer was arrested alongside seven more students at An-Najah University, all fellow student activists; the university semester only began one week ago.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network strongly denounces the arrest of Baraa al-Amer 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, the clear context of the political detentions of Baraa al-Amer, Ahmed Abdel-Aziz and other voices of conscience.

Palestinian musicians targeted for arrest by Israeli occupation forces

30 August 2017

Israeli occupation forces seized Palestinian singer Mohammed Barghouthi, composer Naji al-Rimawi and musician Nazzal Barghouthi from their homes in the town of Beit Rima near Ramallah in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, 30 August.

The seizure of the musicians seems to come in retaliation for their song about Omar al-Abed, the Palestinian prisoner who carried out an armed operation at the Halamish illegal settlement in July, killing three Israeli settlers. The song has been performed at many weddings in the area over the summer.

Al-Abed’s family in the Ramallah-area village of Kobar has been subject to intense collective punishment, including the imprisonment of his mother, father and brother and the demolition of their family home. The village itself has been subject to a series of raids and violent attacks by Israeli occupation forces.

Occupation forces ransacked Barghouthi’s home and attacked his father, who was taken to hospital after his son was seized. They also confiscated his archive of music, songs and performance recordings.

Arafa and al-Salhi remain imprisoned, denied family visits despite serious health dangers

30 August 2017

Seriously injured Palestinian prisoners Raed al-Salhi and Abdel-Aziz Arafa remained imprisoned by the Israeli occupation. Both Salhi and Arafa are Palestinian refugee youth from Dheisheh refugee camp; they were attacked by Israeli occupation forces invading the camp on 9 August and severely injured by the occupation troops, who fired live bullets on them.

Raed al-Salhi remains dependent on a ventilator for respiration in Hadassah Hospital, while Arafa was brought to the Ofer military court on 29 August on a hospital bed.

The military court ordered the detention of Arafa, who was shot in the leg by live Israeli bullets during the invasion of their refugee camp, extended until 9 October. Following the hearing, Arafa was transferred to the Ramle prison clinic. His lawyer, Karim Ajwa of the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, said that the Ramle clinic lacks the minimum standards of life necessary to treat prisoners effectively, worsening their conditions. Arafa has had an metal bar implanted in his leg and will need to have future surgery to remove the bars and further reconstruct his leg.

Salhi is suffering from damage to his kidneys as well as to his liver and thighs, and is suffering from pneumonia as well, according to Ajwa. As Salhi struggles to survive, his family members have so far been denied permits to visit him on the pretext that his interrogation was continuing – even as al-Salhi was sedated and in a coma. He is being held under strict security guards at the hospital despite his severe health situation in intensive care.

“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.

French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hamouri ordered jailed without charge or trial

29 August 2017

Salah Hamouri, French-Palestinian human rights defender and activist, was ordered to six months imprisonment without charge or trial under an Israeli administrative detention order on Tuesday, 29 August. The order, which is indefinitely renewable, will expire on 22 February 2018, reported Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, where Hamouri, 32, is a field researcher.

The order came less than half an hour after the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court had ordered him to be released on conditions; he had already received a decision ordering him to house arrest in Reineh, a village in the north of occupied Palestine ’48 for 20 days, followed by a three-month ban from entering Jerusalem, his home city, or traveling outside Palestine. He was ordered to pay 10,000 NIS bail ($2794) USD and receive third-party guarantees of his house arrest.

However, when his family arrived promptly at the Moskobiyeh interrogation center to pay the bail for his release, they were informed that he was instead being ordered to administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial. Israel has continued and expanded the practice of administrative detention introduced in Palestine by British colonial powers during the Mandate era and tens of thousands of Palestinians have been jailed without charge or trial under Israeli occupation orders.

As Hamouri is a Jerusalemite Palestinian, the order for his imprisonment without charge or trial came directly from the Minister of Defense, the extreme right, racist Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman is known for his advocacy of “transfer” of Palestinian citizens of Israel, advocacy for mass killing in Gaza and calling for the execution of Palestinian prisoners.

Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians have spent years at a time held without charge or trial under repeatedly renewed detention orders. Hamouri is not alone among his colleagues; Addameer’s Arabic media coordinator, journalist Hasan Safadi, has been jailed without charge or trial since May 2016. Addameer board member and former Executive Director Khalida Jarrar, today a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was seized and ordered to six months in administrative detention on 2 July 2016. There are currently approximately 500 Palestinians held without charge or trial out of nearly 6,200 total Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

Salah Hamouri is a former Palestinian prisoner who was released in 2011 as part of the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange. During his prior detention, he was the subject of a large campaign throughout France by Palestine activists, leftist organizations and defenders of human rights, demanding that the French state act for the freedom of their citizen. The video below, by Chris DenHond, shows an action in the Council of Paris by EuroPalestine activists in 2009, when that very council was honoring occupation soldier Gilad Shalit, then captured by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, while remaining silent on the imprisonment of Hamouri.

Since his release, Hamouri and his family have been subjected to repeated, repressive actions by the Israeli occupation. Hamouri’s pregnant wife, Elsa Lefort, was denied entry to Palestine and remains banned from entering her husband’s homeland with their child. He has been banned from traveling to the West Bank, including while he was in the process of completing a law degree that would require him to breach the ban. Indeed, this latest arrest comes only three days after he passed the Palestinian bar exam on 20 August to practice professionally as a lawyer in Palestinian courts.

Addameer wrote, “This arrest and decision is but one in a list of many, where the occupying power has attempted to stifle the legitimate pursuit of Palestinian human rights and basic dignity. For those who dare to speak up against this oppressive colonial regime, arbitrary detainment awaits….For human rights defenders, there are two choices. Give up on your cause, or accept the life of constant punishment. It is not an easy choice to make. Salah could easily leave, live in France, and have a quiet life with his wife and child. Though, he stays as an example for us all. He remains in to the place of his birth and struggles for those who the occupation seeks to reduce from humans to subjects. For the assertion that he, and the people he serves, are human, the occupation ensures that he pays the price.”

Salah’s wife, Elsa Lefort, and mother, Denise Hamouri, posted updates on Facebook:

A wide array of French activists and organizations have joined the call for Hamouri’s immediate release. 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.

Hamouri 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.

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!

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. 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/

Students for Justice in Palestine (Netherlands): We condemn the arrest of Salah Hamouri!

27 August 2017

Students for Justice in Palestine in the Netherlands (Studenten voor Rechtvardigheid in Palestina) has issued a statement demanding the immediate release of Salah Hamouri and urging action on his case. The statement follows below:

While the human rights violators and the torturers of the Palestinian people are still at large, the Israeli occupation forces continues to illegally raid Palestinian homes and detain them under administrative detention, without charge or trial.

Salah Hamouri, a French-Palestinian dual citizen and a field researcher of a Palestinian civil institution that supports the Palestinian political prisoners detained in Israeli occupation jails; Addameer, was arrested in a raid last August 23, 2017 from his home in Kufr Aqab, Palestine. In 2004 Hamouri was arrested and imprisoned for seven years, he was released during Wafa al-Ahrar exchange deal in 2011. Upon his release, he was banned from entering the West Bank until 2016 while his wife Elsa Lefort is banned from entering Palestine.

The IOF is infamous for its policy to renew administrative detention orders every 6 months, this administrative detention could last from months to years. The IOF is also infamous for torturing and hiding prisoners and it is the likes of Hamouri and Addameer who advocate for their rights and join their trials, if there are any. Furthermore, those advocating for these human rights are being arrested and vilified by the Israeli apartheid state and its allies.

When the Palestinian Authority works with the Israeli occupying forces in arresting Palestinian activists,

The right to self-determination is protected by international law, a right that is constantly denied to Palestinians by the brutal repression of the Israeli occupation. The IOF is one of the biggest human rights violators. Those like Hamouri who struggle for the justice, rights and freedom of the Palestinian people against the Zionist settler-colonial project are arrested; tortured; imprisoned; shot; tear-gassed; their families threatened; houses demolished. All realms and levels of Palestinian resistance is subject to the ruthless repression of the occupation forces.

The Student for Justice in Palestine / Studenten voor Rechtvardigheid in Palestina delegation to Palestine condemns the illegal raid and arrest of Salah Hamouri. We condemn the illegal arrests of the Palestinian political prisoners and the torture inside the Israeli occupation jails they are facing.

Hamouri was taken to a Russian compound, Al-Moskobyeh interrogation centre. His detention is extended until Sunday, August 27, 2017 for further interrogation.

We demand the immediate and safe release of Salah Hamouri. We demand his rights to be respected, including the right to counsel. We demand that the French government work to securing his prompt release. We demand that he will not be vilified as criminal or terrorist.

We demand an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine!

Take Action:
Sign the petition to Emmanuel Macron – Demand the immediate release of Salah Hamouri
For more ways to support see the Samidoun website

Free Salah Hammouri!
Free all political prisoners!
Free Palestine!

French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hamouri ordered to three more days under Israeli interrogation

27 August 2017

French-Palestinian human rights defender and re-arrested former prisoner Salah Hamouri was ordered to three more days under interrogation at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Sunday, 27 August. Palestinian lawyer Mahmoud Hassan, with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association – where Hamouri is a field researcher – submitted an appeal against the decision. Hamouri has already been held under interrogation at the Moskobiyeh interrogation center for five days since he was seized from his home in the Jerusalem-area village of Kufr Aqab in a pre-dawn raid by Israeli occupation forces on 23 August.

His wife, Elsa Lefort, denied entry to Palestine while pregnant and banned by the Israeli occupation, posted to Facebook urging action by the French government and greater mobilization for his freedom:

This is only latest act of repression and intimidation carried out by the Israeli state against Hamouri. 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. 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. 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!

TAKE ACTION

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.

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.

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