Five Palestinian journalists seized by PA security forces

9 August 2017

The Palestinian Authority’s intelligence services have launched a campaign of arrests against a number of Palestinian journalists in the West Bank on Tuesday, 8 August. Five journalists were seized by PA intelligence agents, including Qutaiba Qasem and Mamdouh Hamamreh in the Bethlehem governorate, Amer Abu Arafa and Ahmed Halaiqa in al-Khalil and Tareq Abu Zeid in Nablus.

Hamamreh, a correspondent for al-Quds TV, was arrested when PA forces broke into the studio in Husan, west of Bethlehem. His colleague, Qasem, was called for interrogation at the headquarters of the security services after they encircled his home, demanding that he turn himself over.

Abu Arafa is the correspondent of the Shehab News Agency; when he was seized, his cellular phones and computers were also taken. Halaiqa, also seized in al-Khalil, reports for al-Quds TV.

Abu Zeid was arrested from his home in Nablus; he is a correspondent for Al-Aqsa TV. Meanwhile, the journalist Islam Salem was summoned for interrogation.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate strongly condemned the arrests as a systematic attack on freedom of the press and freedom of expression. The union also denounced the Palestinian Authority’s justification for the detentions, that the journalists were “leaking sensitive information to hostile parties,” including, apparently, other Palestinian political parties. The syndicate considered this justification “worse than the detention.”

These arrests come as the latest in a series of attacks by PA security forces on journalists, writers and other critical voices, including detentions of journalists and banning of over 20 websites inside the West Bank, generally Palestinian news sites with differing political perspectives from the PA’s leadership. Many of those targeted have been particularly critical of Palestinian Authority “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation and the “revolving door” between PA detention and Israeli prisons.

Palestinian prisoner Nurhan Awad achieves excellent results in high school graduation exams

9 August 2017

Palestinian prisoner Nurhan Awad, 18, from Jerusalem, received an excellent result in her general high school graduation examinations, which she took from inside Israeli prisons, achieving an average score of 94 percent.

Nurhan is serving a 13-year sentence imposed upon her as a minor girl; she was in the process of studying for her high school examinations when she was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 23 November 2015.

Her cousin, Hadeel Awad, 14, was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces on the same day at close range as she lay already injured on the ground. Nurhan and Hadeel were accused of attempting to stab a man with scissors; in this case, a lightly-injured 70-year-old Palestinian man. The event was captured on video; Nurhan stood in place holding a pair of scissors. She was hit from behind by a chair and as she lay injured in the ground, she was shot again at close range. Nurhan was severely injured after taking two bullets in her chest. After her cousin was extrajudicially executed, Nurhan was imprisoned.

She still has a goal of studying law; always an excellent student, she has expressed her conviction that she will not allow the occupation to prevent her from academic achievement and study, even behind bars in HaSharon prison.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Nurhan Awad on her accomplishment and all of the Palestinian child and youth prisoners who continue to struggle to achieve their right to education denied to them by the Israeli occupation. We demand the release of all Palestinian child prisoners and Palestinian prisoners sentenced as children in Israeli jails, as part of the freedom of all Palestinians imprisoned by the occupation.

New York protest demands freedom of Bilal Diab, calls for boycott of HP

8 August 2017

Protesters in New York City gathered in the rain on Monday, 7 August to demand freedom for Bilal Diab and all Palestinian prisoners. Diab, a Palestinian prisoner held in isolation in the Israeli Megiddo prison, has been on hunger strike for over three weeks against his administrative detention without charge or trial.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organized the protest outside the Best Buy electronics store in Manhattan’s Union Square. Participants chanted and carried signs depicting Diab, who is on his second long-term hunger strike against imprisonment without charge or trial. Diab went on hunger strike in 2012 alongside Thaer Halahleh when the two were similarly jailed under administrative detention to demand their freedom; they ended their strike in an agreement after 78 days.

They distributed information and materials about the global campaign to boycott Hewlett-Packard corporations because of HP’s contracts with the Israeli occupation, including the identity card and checkpoint system, the Israeli occupation military and the prison system that holds approximately 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners, including over 500 administrative detainees like Diab. The protests are part of a growing international call for a boycott of HP consumer products, including computers, laptops, printers and accessories. Labor unions and churches are involved in declaring themselves HP-free zones in protest of the corporation’s involvement and complicity in human rights violations.

Administrative detention orders are issued by Israeli military commanders or the defense minister for periods of one to six months. They are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians have spent years at a time imprisoned without charge or trial. Diab is demanding his release and an end to the policy of administrative detention.

Samidoun activists will also support people facing political repression in New York City. Activists will be participating on Thursday, 10 August in a court support action for Darryl Goodwin, a New York City transit worker facing serious charges because he did not immediately stop assisting a passenger and open subway gates for an NYPD lieutenant, despite MTA rules requiring workers assisting passengers before addressing gate access issues. Goodwin is a member of TWU Local 100 and a 27-year veteran of the MTA.

Samidoun is also organizing a protest on Monday, 14 August at 4:30 pm in Union Square in support of Rasmea Odeh. The protest comes as part of a series of nationwide events – including the Farewell to Rasmea Odeh organized in Chicago by the Rasmea Defense Committee and an action in Detroit to support Rasmea in court on 17 August – supporting the former Palestinian political prisoner and revered community leader as she faces deportation from the United States. All supporters of Palestine are urged to attend the events in support of Rasmea.

14 August, NYC: Rally to Support Rasmea Odeh

8 August 2017

Monday, 14 August
4:30 pm
Union Square Park
New York City
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/802496649921497/

We urge all to join us on 14 August in NYC to show our love and support for Rasmea Odeh before her sentencing in federal court three days later in Detroit. The will be her last court appearance and Rasmea is planning to make a statement.

The plea agreement that has already been reached states that Rasmea will not get additional jail time – but she will have to leave the U.S. This rally will express our support for a legendary former political prisoner and beloved community leader.

Endorsed by:

Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
American Muslims for Palestine – NJ Chapter
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
International Action Center
International League of Peoples’ Struggle – ILPS US
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Labor for Palestine
Majlis Ashura -Islamic Leadership Council- of New York
Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition
NY4Palestine
NYC Jericho Movement
NYC Shut It Down: The Grand Central Crew #blacklivesmatter
Pakistan USA Freedom Forum
Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)- حركة الشباب الفلسطيني
Party for Socialism and Liberation – PSL
Release Aging People in Prison – RAPP
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
United National Antiwar Coalition
Workers World Party

10 August, NYC: Pack the Court! Support Transit Worker Arrested on False Charges

8 August 2017

Thursday August 10
9:00 AM
100 Centre Street
Fourth Floor, Part E, NYC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/122660075016957/

Petition: http://tinyurl.com/yb95pd5r

A fifty-four year old African American public transit worker is facing unwarranted serious charges, for doing his job according to MTA rules.

Because he didn’t immediately stop assisting a passenger and open the gate for an NYPD lieutenant, Darryl Goodwin is charged with obstruction of governmental justice, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.

The charges are absurd, because all NYPD members are equipped with MetroCards that give them unlimited subway access — as well as keys that open the gates. On top of that, station agents assisting passengers are required by the MTA to handle those passengers before turning their attention to anyone asking for gate access.

For this adherence to guidelines, Goodwin was arrested and suspended from his job without pay.

Goodwin, a 27-year MTA veteran and member of TWU Local 100, is now back at work. But the serious charges have not been dropped.

June 29 was the first court date, where dozens of transit workers showed up to support their union brother. On August 10, the next date, let’s join them – with a packed court, showing community support for Goodwin, station agents and all transit workers who do the hard work of running public transportation 24/7.

If you can’t make it, support the fundraising campaign to help defray legal expenses: http://tinyurl.com/funds4defense

Samidoun: Solidarity with Turkish hunger strikers Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça!

8 August 2017

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its solidarity with Turkish political prisoners and hunger strikers Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça on their 150th day of hunger strike. We urge their immediate release and that of all political prisoners in Turkey’s jails.

Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça are two civil workers who have lost their jobs by a legislative decree after the 15 July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, despite both of their commitment to progressive politics that rejects military coups.

They contested their firing, launching a sit-in protest in Ankara; each day they were arrested and detained by police. They launched a public hunger strike alongside their supporters, including Semih’s wife Esra Özakça. They have carried out a hunger strike, consuming lemon, salt-water, and sugar solutions along with vitamin B1 but no solid foods.

During their strike, they participated in the Ankara protests in support of Palestinian prisoners, including the protest organized on 16 May 2017. They saluted the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, standing together with the Palestinian community, and have received support from Palestinian community and solidarity organizations in Turkey as well as from Palestinian resistance icon Leila Khaled. Hassan Tahrawi of the Palestinian community in Ankara declared, “We declare our solidarity as Palestinians with Nuriye, Semih and Kemal Gün. The resistance here and in Palestine is a continuation of the historical solidarity between oppressed peoples.”

On 23 May, only one week after they joined the protest for Palestinian hunger strikers, they were seized and imprisoned. On 29 July, after two months of hunger strike in prison, they were forcibly taken to a hospital. It is clear that they are at risk of forced feeding or forced treatment in the hospital, despite the fact that medical intervention to end a hunger strike violates internationally recognized medical ethics, including the 1991 Malta Declaration.

During their transfer to the hospital, Semih was beaten by guards. They have appealed their case to the European Court of Human Rights but it has, so far, been rejected. Their health has deteriorated rapidly, including muscular atrophy and blurred vision as well as heart irregularities.

We express our solidarity and demand freedom and reinstatement for Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça and all Turkish and Kurdish political prisoners in Turkey’s jails. We also reiterate our solidarity with Harun Turgan, Turkish leftist and Palestine solidarity organizer against Turkey’s normalization of Israel, co-founder of BDS Turkey, and demand his immediate release. From Turkey to Palestine, free all political prisoners!

Tübingen protest stands with Palestinian struggle in Jerusalem

6 August 2017

The Palestinian community and supporters of Palestinian rights protested in Tübingen, Germany on 1 August 2017 in order to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle against oppressive Israeli policies against the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Participants in the protest expressed their support for the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and their victory against the Israeli occupation measures of oppression in Jerusalem, as part of the struggle for freedom and liberation.

61 Palestinian women political prisoners in Israeli jails include five administrative detainees

6 August 2017

There are currently 61 Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli jails, according to reports by the Asra Media Center. They include 10 minor girls and five women jailed without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention, including Palestinian parliamentarian, national leader and leftist feminist Khalida Jarrar.

On Sunday, 6 August, Palestinian prisoner Dalal Abu Hawa, 39, from occupied Jerusalem, was released after a 12-month sentence inside Israeli occupation prisons. She was seized on 28 August 2016 and accused of transferring funds to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, especially those affiliated with Hamas. She is also barred from entering her home city of Jerusalem. Her son, Omar, 17, is a Palestinian child prisoner who has been jailed for 17 months out of a two-year sentence, accused of throwing stones at occupation forces. She is the mother of six children and was separated from her then nine-month-old baby by her arrest by Israeli occupation forces.

At the same time, on early Sunday morning, Amina Abatli, the wife of Palestinian prisoner Adib al-Ghoulban, was seized by Israeli occupation forces along with eight other Palestinians. Al-Ghoulban has been held in Israeli prison for one and a half months and was ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial; first his uncle, Khamis al-Ghoulban was arrested by occupation forces and now his wife.

The number of women prisoners in Israeli jails has escalated in the past several months. There are reportedly 25 women held in Damon prison and 36 in HaSharon prison. 29 of the Palestinian women prisoners are still subjected to ongoing interrogation and have not been sentenced.

25 Palestinian women have been sentenced and are serving sentences of eight months to 16 years, and five women are held without charge or trial under administrative detention.

There are 10 Palestinian minor girls held in HaSharon prison, in addition to multiple 18-year-old women who have been jailed since they were girls and were sentenced as minor girls. One of the youngest women in Damon prison is Jamila Daoud Jaber, 18, of Salfit; she turned 18 while jailed by the Israeli occupation forces. She has been imprisoned since 7 May 2016. Esraa Sameeh Jaber, 18, from al-Khalil, has been imprisoned since 12 February 2017 and is not sentenced until today. Also from al-Khalil are Nour Zureiqat, 18, imprisoned for one year, and Lama al-Bakri, 17.

Amal Jamal Kabha, 17, from Jenin, is serving an 18-month sentence. She has been jailed since August 2016. Marah Louay Jaidi, 16, from Qalqilya, has been imprisoned since early 2017. The Jerusalemite prisoner, Malak Yousef Suleiman, 16, has been jailed since 9 February 2016 and like other Jerusalemite child prisoners, has been subject to an extremely lengthy sentence of 10 years.

Some of the other young Jerusalemites who have been subject to lengthy sentences include Marah Bakir, 18, sentenced to 8 years imprisonment, Nurhan Awad, 18, sentenced to 13 years imprisonment, and Manar Shweiki, 18, sentenced to 6 years in prison. All three were minors when seized by occupation forces and imprisoned.

A fellow child prisoner among the Palestinian girls is Hadia Ibrahim Arainat, 16, from Jericho, imprisoned since 3 March 2016 and serving a 3-year sentence. Malak al-Ghaliz, 14, is the youngest Palestinian girl prisoner, imprisoned since 20 May 2017, charged with possession of a knife.

The ages of the women prisoners range from 14 to 59 years. The eldest woman prisoner is Ibtisam Mousa, 59, of Gaza, seized on 19 May 2017 as she attempted to cross the Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing – in full possession of a permit from the Israeli occupation – accompanying her sister as she sought treatment for cancer.

The two Palestinian women prisoners serving the longest sentences are Shatila Abu Ayada, 24, from Kufr Qasem and a Palestinian from ’48, and Shurouq Dwayyat, 20, a Palestinian student from Jerusalem. Both are serving 16-year sentences inside Israeli occupation prisons and were subject to massive and highly disparate and unjust sentencing.

There are 11 women prisoners from Jerusalem and 12 from al-Khalil.

Five women are being held under administrative detention:

Palestinian parliamentarian and leftist national leader Khalida Jarrar, 54, was ordered to six months in administrative detention after she was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 2 July. Also ordered to administrative detention was Khitam Saafin, the President of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, jailed for three months without charge or trial after she was seized simultaneously with Jarrar on 2 July.

Sabah Faraoun, 35, from Jerusalem, has been imprisoned without charge or trial under repeatedly renewed detention orders since 19 June 2016. Ihsan Dababseh, 32, was ordered to six months in administrative detention after she was seized by occupation forces on 27 February 2017. Afnan Ahmad Abu Haneya, 21, from Ramallah, was recently ordered to three months in administrative detention.

They are among approximately 500 total Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention orders, which are indefinitely renewable. Palestinians have routinely spent years at a time jailed under such orders.

Ongoing Nakba: Israeli occupation court strips citizenship of ’48 Palestinian Alaa Zayoud

6 August 2017

On Sunday, 6 August, an Israeli court in Haifa revoked the citizenship of Palestinian citizen of Israel, Alaa Zayoud, 23, from Umm al-Fahm. Zayoud, 23, was born in Umm al-Fahm to a mother who is also a Palestinian citizen of Israel; he has no other citizenship and this court order functions so as to render him stateless.

He is serving a 25-year sentence in Israeli prisons, accused of hitting two Israeli soldiers with his car near Hadera and stabbing two more Israelis. Sawsan Zaher of Adalah is part of the legal team fighting the confiscation of Zayoud’s citizenship. Maan News quoted Zaher, saying: “Jewish Israelis have also committed similar acts. But no one demands that their citizenship be revoked,” Zaher added. “This decision sets a precedent that (Israeli) courts can revoke the citizenship of any Arab who commits a criminal act.” The revocation is set to go into effect in October.

This action was pursued by ultra-right Zionist Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, on the basis of “breach of loyalty” to the state. Zaher told Ma’an that the last time such an act was considered was in 1995, when right-wing Jewish Israeli Yigal Amir assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The Supreme Court ruled against such an action at the time. Zaher noted that Adalah would be carrying the legal struggle forward at all levels and that the action was a clear breach of international law by rendering Zayoud stateless.

The attack on Zayoud comes in the context of over 70 years of first martial law and then systematic racist discrimination and oppression against those Palestinians who remained on their land after the 1948 Nakba, in which over 700,000 Palestinians were rendered stateless by Zionist forces who expelled them from their homes and lands. Today, millions of Palestinian refugees continue to be denied their right to return to their homes and lands inside Palestine. It is also part of a systematic policy of exclusion and expulsion of Palestinians through land confiscation, isolation and the stripping of Jerusalem IDs and residency by the Israeli occupation state.

Palestinian child imprisoned without charge or trial warns he could launch hunger strike

6 August 2017

Palestinian child prisoner Nour Issa, 16, the youngest Palestinian imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention, is seriously considering an open hunger strike against his detention, reported Asra Voice on 3 August.

Nour was supposed to be released on 1 August, but instead, his administrative detention was renewed for an additional three months and is now set to end on 1 November 2017. He has stated to his lawyers that he will begin an open hunger strike if his administrative detention is not ended.

Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians have spent years at a time jailed under these orders without charge and without trial. There are currently approximately 500 Palestinians jailed under administrative detention orders out of approximately 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners in total.

The use of administrative detention is only one of the abuses being visited upon Palestinian child prisoners and their families by occupation forces. In July 2017, the Ofer military court imposed fines of 87,000 NIS ($24,000 USD) on Palestinian child prisoners under the age of 18. The previous month saw fines imposed on child prisoners of 42,000 NIS ($11,500 USD), reported the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission. 36 children were brought before the Ofer military court in July, including 18 seized from their homes, 12 from the roadway and six from military checkpoints. 34 of them were sentenced from one to 40 months in Israeli occupation prisons, in addition to the heavy burden of these fines.

Other Palestinian child prisoners reported their experiences of torture and abuse behind bars in a report by the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission. For example, Yazan Abu Odeh, 14, from Ramallah, reported that he was seized by undercover Israeli armed occupation forces on 27 July near the Beit El checkpoint, when he was attacked and hit over the head with a gun before being taken to Benyamin settlement for interrogation. He was beaten and humiliated under interrogation and denied access to a lawyer and his parents, Yazan said.

Mohammed Taha, 16, said that he was seized on 21 July and was beaten by Israeli occupation soldiers who wounded his head and arm. He was taken to Hadassah Hospital for treatment and then returned to interrogation after being severely beaten by occupation forces. Wadie al-Ghoul, 17 and Ezzedine Amarneh, 17, from Yabad village in Jenin district also reported that they were subject to abuse, torture and degrading treatment during interrogation in Jalameh/Kishon before being transferred to the children’s section of Megiddo prison.

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