Friday, 7 July
6:30 pm
Breitscheidplatz (near the church)
Berlin, Germany
Organized by the Democratic Palestine Committees
Join the Democratic Palestine Committees for a protest in solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian leaders like Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin. We will demand an end to administrative detention without charge or trial and call for the freedom of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
Friday, 7 July
5:30 pm
Best Buy Union Square
52 E. 14th St.
New York City
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1545093875549302/
On July 7, Muhammad Allan, a Palestinian attorney and political prisoner held by Israel, will reach his 30th day on a hunger strike demanding his immediate release.
Allan, 33, previously engaged in a 65-day hunger strike to win his freedom from administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, winning his release in 2015.
Allan was seized once more by Israeli occupation forces, who invaded his home in the village of Einabus near Nablus on June 8, and once again launched a hunger strike.
On June 28, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies called for broad Palestinian and international support for Allan’s strike.
Stand with Allan to demand that Israel release him and all 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners, and that Hewlett Packard companies end their contracts with Israeli prisons and detention centers, occupation and security forces, and checkpoints and settlements.
Help build a growing international campaign to boycott HP over the companies’ support for Israeli crimes.
Support the Palestinian people, the Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian Resistance, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
The following report is translated from Pour la Palestine, the website of Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine:
“Sol, sol, sol, … solidarité avec les femmes, du monde entier!”
(“Solidarity with the women of the whole world!”)
These were the words that resounded at the opening session of the Vie Féminine week of study on Tuesday, 4 July. Hundreds of women of diverse origins, including many young women, attended the annual meeting in Namur, Belgium.
This year, the theme of the event is “Weaving solidarity in an increasingly sexist and racist society.” Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine participated with a stand with information on Palestine, the BDS campaign and the boycott of Israel, and was met with a warm reception.
The campaigners particularly drew attention to the recent arrests of Khalida Jarrar, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and Khitam Saafin, president of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, and to the boycott of Israel.
A number of women stood to take a photo with signs in French and English demanding the release of the two Palestinian leaders and showing support for the BDS campaign.
Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine published copies of the report by Richard Falk and Virginia Tiley, “Israeli practices towards the Palestinian people and the question of apartheid,” and distributed copies; they also distributed their “Boycott Guide” as well as stickers for sticking on Israeli apartheid products for sale.
Below are the photos calling for the release of Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin, by Myriam De Ly of Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine:
The detention of Palestinian women leaders Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin was extended by the Ofer military court on Wednesday, 5 July, reported Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. At the military court hearing, Jarrar’s detention was extended for six days and Saafin’s for 72 hours.
No evidence was brought forward; instead, the military prosecution demanded more time to investigate the five computers seized from Jarrar’s family home.
Saafin and Jarrar were seized by Israeli occupation forces who invaded their family homes in the Ramallah area in pre-dawn raids on 2 July 2017. They recounted the experience of the raids to Addameer lawyer Muna Naddaf, who said that the two were taken to Ofer military court for interrogation after being seized. Both were only interrogated for 30 minutes before being placed in a small room with no windows for four hours. By 4:00 pm on the same day, the two were transferred to HaSharon prison, one of the two prisons where dozens of Palestinian women are held.
Khalida Jarrar is a prominent Palestinian national leader. A leftist, feminist parliamentarian in the Palestinian Legislative Council, she is also vice-chair and the former executive director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association as well as chair of the PLC’s Prisoners Commission. She has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli occupation forces and was most recently arrested on 2 April 2015 and imprisoned until June 2016. Jarrar’s imprisonment – including one month in administrative detention without charge or trial – was met with worldwide protest and outrage.
Khitam Saafin is the president of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees who is well-known in the Palestinian, Arab and international arenas for her organizing and leadership in the Palestinian women’s movement. She has participated on multiple occasions in the World Social Forum, linking together women’s struggles around the world for national and social liberation.
The re-arrest of Jarrar and Saafin has been met with international protest once again. The Communist Party of Spain, the Landless Workers Movement (MST) of Brazil, the Hellenic Union of Progressive Lawyers, the Communist Party of Brazil, Coup Pour Coup 31, Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine, Marche Mondiale des Femmes France, the Kuwaiti Progressive Current, and the Union do Povo Galego, among others, have already issued statements of solidarity in support of Jarrar and Saafin.
In Lebanon, 50 Lebanese figures urged parliamentary solidarity with Jarrar in an event widely attended by Palestinian and Lebanese organizations and political forces, emphasizing the importance of solidarity to demand freedom for imprisoned Palestinian political leaders. In Manchester, people organized a protest on 4 July against the band Radiohead, urging it to cancel its performance in Tel Aviv in line with the Palestinian call for cultural boycott of Israel; protesters demanded the release of Jarrar, Saafin and their fellow Palestinian prisoners. Upcoming protests are planned in Berlin, New York City and elsewhere.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges international mobilization and action to demand the immediate release of Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin, prominent Palestinian progressive and feminist leaders and strugglers committed to the freedom and liberation of their people. The arrests of Jarrar and Saafin clearly come as an attempt by the Israeli occupation to attack Palestinian popular movements and suppress them through fear, arrests and intimidation carried out by a massively armed occupation force.
We urge all friends of Palestine and the Palestinian people to join us in reactivating the Khalida Jarrar Solidarity Campaign as well as the campaign in solidarity with Khitam Saafin. These arrests represent an attack on the leaders, the political activity and the popular organizing of the Palestinian people. They must be met with intensified solidarity to demand the freedom of Khalida Jarrar, Khitam Saafin and all of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners behind bars in Israeli occupation prisons.
Take Action to support Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin:
1. Sign the petition! Sign and share this petition, demanding freedom for Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin immediately.
2. Contact your Member of Parliament, Representative, or Member of European Parliament. The attack on Khalida is an attack on Palestinian parliamentary legitimacy and political expression. The arrest of Khitam is an assault on the Palestinian women’s movement. Parliamentarians have a responsibility to pressure Israel to cancel this order.
3. Use the Campaign Resources to inform your community, parliamentarians and others about Khalida and Khitam’s case.
4. Protest at the Israeli consulate or embassy for Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin. Bring posters and flyers about Khalida and Khitam’s case and hold a protest, or join a protest with this important information. Hold a community event or discussion, or include Khalida and Khitam’s case in your next event about Palestine and social justice.
5. Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. Don’t buy Israeli goods, and campaign to end investments in corporations that profit from the occupation. Learn more at bdsmovement.net.
The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees issued a statement, condemning the arrest of the president of the UPWC, Khitam Saafin and Palestinian leftist leader and parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar:
The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees strongly denounces the attack of occupation forces at dawn on Sunday, July 2, to arrest the Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council Khalida Jarrar and the President of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, Member of the Secretariat of the General Union of Palestinian Women, and feminist activst Khitam Saafin, after storming and ransacking their homes.
The Union views this ongoing campaign of arrests as part of the continuing crimes of the occupation against the resistance to the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.
The Union further confirmed that the political detention of the leaders of the women’s movement is part of many attempts to silence the free Palestinian voice that confrnts the occupation and its attacks on the Palestinian people. It calls on all Arab and international human rights organizatins to act to stop these attacks and demand the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners.
2 July 2017
The Progressive Labor Union Front in Palestine also issued a statement on the seizure of Jarrar and Saafin by Israeli occupation forces:
The Progressive Labor Union Front in Palestine condemns the attack of occupation forces who arrested the struggler Khalida Jarrar, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and the struggler Khitam Saafin, president of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, along with the continuing extensive detention campaigns that affect all of our people and their strugglers. These arrests are racist, fascist actions aimed at silencing the voices of truth.
The occupation is carrying out a desperate attempt to silence and subjugate the Palestinian people, taking advantage of the prevailing political situation and the humiliating actions of Arab regimes to normalize relations with the Zionist entity alongside the silence of the official Palestinian leadership and identification with the U.S. “requirements” and conditions for American satisfaction with the region.
The Progressive Labor Union Front confirmed that both Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin represent a model of leadership that prioritizes the issues and concerns of the Palestinian people, confronting all forms of political and social oppression.
The Palestinian people have experienced over 100 years of colonization and has confronted and resisted through struggle. Our people are capable of continuing the struggle and will respond to all attempts to undermine their will and steadfastness to seek their legitimate rights.
The Progressive Labor Union Front called on labor and trade union organizations of the world to advocate for freedom, social justice and people’s issues and stand together to demand an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people and the occupation’s racist and fascist attacks on the people and their leaders and strugglers.
2 July 2017
Israeli occupation forces seized prominent Palestinian leftist parliamentarian and prisoners’ advocate Khalida Jarrar in a pre-dawn raid on Sunday, 2 July, along with Khitam Saafin, president of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and at least nine other people, including Ihab Massoud, just released less than six months ago from Israeli prisons, and four community leaders in al-Aroub refugee camp. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network calls for urgent international action to demand their immediate release.
Sign the petition to demand freedom for Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin!
The seizure of Khalida Jarrar – now the 13th member of the Palestinian Legislative Council held by the Israeli occupation – comes slightly over one year after she was released from Israeli occupation prison after 14 months of imprisonment. She recently conducted a lengthy interview with the Journal of Palestine Studies.
Jarrar was last seized on 2 April 2015; originally ordered to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, the international outcry about her case caused her administrative detention to be cancelled. However, her case was then transferred to the equally-illegitimate Israeli occupation military courts.
Her daughter, Suha, captured part of the raid on their family home on video as armed occupation forces invaded:
The seizure of Jarrar was accompanied by similar raids targeting Khitam Saafin, the General Coordinator of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, who has spoken internationally and participated in many worldwide events, including the World Social Forum, linking women’s struggles internationally with the struggle of Palestinian women for national and social liberation. The UPWC has organized and hosted numerous international delegations building solidarity with Palestinian women and the Palestinian people.
At least seven other Palestinians were seized by Israeli occupation forces in pre-dawn raids. Among them was Ihab Massoud, released on 12 February after 16 years in Israeli prison. A leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, he participated in multiple hunger strikes inside Israeli prisons.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges international mobilization and action to demand the immediate release of Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin, prominent Palestinian progressive and feminist leaders and strugglers committed to the freedom and liberation of their people. The arrests of Jarrar and Saafin clearly come as an attempt by the Israeli occupation to attack Palestinian popular movements and suppress them through fear, arrests and intimidation carried out by a massively armed occupation force.
We urge all friends of Palestine and the Palestinian people to join us in reactivating the Khalida Jarrar Solidarity Campaign as well as the campaign in solidarity with Khitam Saafin. These arrests represent an attack on the leaders, the political activity and the popular organizing of the Palestinian people. They must be met with intensified solidarity to demand the freedom of Khalida Jarrar, Khitam Saafin and all of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners behind bars in Israeli occupation prisons.
Take Action to support Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin:
1. Sign the petition! Sign and share this petition, demanding freedom for Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin immediately.
2. Contact your Member of Parliament, Representative, or Member of European Parliament. The attack on Khalida is an attack on Palestinian parliamentary legitimacy and political expression. The arrest of Khitam is an assault on the Palestinian women’s movement. Parliamentarians have a responsibility to pressure Israel to cancel this order.
3. Use the Campaign Resources to inform your community, parliamentarians and others about Khalida and Khitam’s case.
4. Protest at the Israeli consulate or embassy for Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin. Bring posters and flyers about Khalida and Khitam’s case and hold a protest, or join a protest with this important information. Hold a community event or discussion, or include Khalida and Khitam’s case in your next event about Palestine and social justice.
5. Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. Don’t buy Israeli goods, and campaign to end investments in corporations that profit from the occupation. Learn more at bdsmovement.net.
ALERT: 30TH JUNE 2017 – VIGIL IN SOLIDARITY WITH IMPRISONED HUNGER STRIKING PALESTINIAN LAWYER MUHAMMED ALLAN, AND HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER SHIREEN ISSAWI
DATE: Friday 30th June 2017, 3-5pm
LOCATION: The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Parliament Square, Little George St, London SW1P 3BD (behind Nelson Mandela statue, Westminster tube)
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/
WEB: http://inminds.com/article.
27th June 2017, www.inminds.com
On Friday 30th June 2017, Inminds humans rights group will hold a vigil outside the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, in solidarity with Palestinian lawyers targetted by the Israeli occupation, in particular demand the release of Palestinian lawyers Muhammed Allan and Shireen Issawi.
Inminds chair Abbas Ali said “We are symbolically holding this vigil outside the highest court in the land to focus on the plight of Palestinian lawyers in Israeli dungeons. Israel cannot justify abducting Muhammed Allan so they are pointing to his facebook posts as a catch all reason to cage any Palestinian who disagrees with the occupation of his land. And Shireen Issawi and her brothers are caged simply for doing their job as human rights lawyers providing a legal defence for fellow Palestinians incarcerated by the illegal occupation. It is about time the legal profession recognised Israel as a pariah state that has total contempt for the law, and to treat it as such!”
MUHAMMED ALLAN
33 years old Palestinian lawyer Muhammed Allan was abducted by the Israeli army from him home in the village of Einnabus, near Nablus on the West Bank, in a pre-dawn raid on 8th June 2017. To protest is imprisonment he has been on hunger strike since then, Friday will be his 23rd day without food. He is being held without charge or trial.
The only reason given by the occupation as to his abduction is that they don’t like his facebook posts. According to figures released by the Israel army and security service Shin Bet, in less than a year, the Israeli occupation forces and Shin Bet have arrested more than 400 Palestinians for facebook posts critical of the occupation, and the names of another 400 were passed to the PA for arrest as part of the policy of security coordination between the PA and Israel.
MUHAMMED ALLAN – PREVIOUS HUNGER STRIKE
Previously, in 2014, Muhammed Allan was abducted by the occupation forces, dragged to his law office and forced to hand over all his confidential client files to the occupation in disregard of attorney-client privilege laws, and then he was locked up without charge or trial under Israels illegal system of administrative detention. He was caged for 6 months without any reason being given. Muhammed Allan demanded Israel either charge him and put him on trial so he can defend himself, or otherwise release him. At the end of the 6 months Israel just renewed his administrative order for another six month. To protest, Mohammed Allan went on hunger strike. Both the Brussels based International Association Of Democratic Lawyers, and the National Lawyers Guild in the Unites States urged Israel to release Muhammed Allan. Israel ignored their requests and it took Muhammed 66 days of hunger strike to finally win his freedom in November 2015.
ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION
Many Palestinians are caged without the formality of a charge, let alone a trial, or even a set length of sentence – people are just locked up indefinitely on the whim of the occupation under what is called administrative detention – a vile form of internment.
Administrative detention orders can be up to 6 months long, and can be renewed indefinitely.. month after month.. year after year. For example administrative detainee Mazen Natsheh has been locked up cumulatively for nearly 10 years without charge or trial. Detention orders can be based on so called “secret information” which never needs to be produced, either to the detainee nor their lawyer, but often Administrative Detention is used to arbitrarily jail Palestinians where there is no evidence for a trial, or as punishment. Israel has on average issued over 2000 detention orders every year. Today over 500 Palestinians are held under Administrative Detention orders. The United Nations Human Rights Office has on many occasions condemned Israels practice of administrative detention, demanding Israel end it, pointing out that it violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Israel has ratified.
SHIREEN ISSAWI
Palestinian human rights lawyer Shireen Issawi has been imprisoned by Israel for defending Palestinian political prisoners and supporting their families.
Shireen lives in the village of Issawiyeh in occupied East Jerusalem. On 6th March 2014 Israeli forces surrounded her home. With helicopter circling above they attacked, breaking the front door, they terrorising her elderly parents. But she wasn’t in, they tracked her to a nearby checkpoint and abducted her. She was dragged to Israel’s infamous torture den at Jerusalem Prison called the ‘Russian Compound’. For two months she endured their endless interrogation sessions, forced into torturous stress positions for hours, which has left her with permanent joint and back pain. She was caged in solitary confinement, and denied family visits. Her weight dropped to just 39Kgs. Despite the abuse she did not break, and in May they moved her to HaSharon womens’ prison near Haifa.
Five other lawyers were arrested at the same time as Shireen, including her brother Medhat and Amjad Safadi. Sadafi suffered 50 days of torture at the Russian Compound. Five days after his release he was found hanged.
HaSharon is a filthy prison infested with rats and cockroaches where women prisoners have to endure beatings, insults, threats, sexually explicit harassment and sexual violence, and humiliation at the hands of Israeli guards. They are often forced to undergo degrading strip searches during the middle of the night – forced to squat naked and subjected to intrusive internal body searches, for no reason other than as a punitive measure. On 3rd May 2015 the prison guards at HaSharon savagely beat Shireen right across her entire body before taking her into isolation in Ramleh for several months. Her tiny cell was completely sealed with plastic so there was no room for air until she choked and lost consciousness then the prison administration removed the plastic from the door. In June 2015 Shireen went on hunger strike to protest the poor conditions, she says “the cell lacked the minimum requirements for life. I was forced to sleep on the floor without even a mattress. The guards confiscated my personal belongings..” The cell had no amenities like water, and she was not allowed to buy any food.
The Law Society of England and Wales, representing 145,000 solicitors, demanded that Israel immediately release Shireen or conduct her trial in accordance with international human rights standards (17 Apr 2015) . The Israeli military court, with its Palestinian conviction rate of 99.7%, ignored this petition and on 7th May 2016 sentenced Shireen to 4 years imprisonment and her brother Medhat to 8 years.
Shireen Issawi has always worked for prisoners rights and in 2014 she won the Swiss based Alkarama Award for Human Rights Defenders for her work for Palestinian prisoners. Her parents received the award in Geneva on her behalf.
Inminds protest from 2014 when Shireen Issawi was abducted
If you support this activity please share this alert widely, thank you.
JazakAllah,
Abbas Ali
Inminds Palestinian Prisoners Campaign
www.inminds.com/caged
Palestinian women prisoners in Damon prison are being subject to harsh sanctions, deprived of family visits and thrown in solitary confinement, reported prisoners and advocates. They are also being denied access to the “canteen” (prison store) and subjected to financial fines.
Taghreed Jahshan, lawyer with the Women’s Organization for Political Prisoners, visited the women prisoners and reported that they have been subject to sanctions for one week, since 22 June, amid a media blackout.
One of the most prominent prisoners held under solitary confinement is Shireen Issawi, 39, a Palestinian lawyer serving a prison term of four years, accused of helping her client’s families support them financially in prison. She is also the sister of long-term hunger striker and re-arrested Palestinian releasee, Samer Issawi, and was the public spokesperson for his campaign during his strike. Dalal Abu Hawa, 39, serving a 1-year prison sentence, is also being held in solitary confinement. Both were transferred from Damon prison to the Jalameh/Ketziot interrogation center, reportedly due to the lack of isolation rooms in Damon prison.
In addition, Haifa Abu Sbeih, former prisoner, reported that Sabah Faraoun, whose administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – was just extended for another four months, is also being held in solitary confinement. Abu Sbeih told Wattan TV that the prisoners were acing a number of sanctions, including fines and denial of family visits. Some prisoners were fined 700, 500 and 200 shekels while others had electronic items confiscated. She noted that Ansam Shawahneh, 20, has been denied all family visits for over four months and will now face even longer periods of time.
Shawahneh faced a military court on 20 June; she is accused of attempting to stab an Israeli occupation soldier. On 20 June, she was told in court that she would be sentenced to four to five years in prison, pending approval by the soldier in question. Her family members, speaking to Asra Media, raised extreme objection to the terms of the sentencing and the individual role of soldiers in determining the sentence of Palestinian political prisoners.
Ataya Abu Aisha, 29, is the representative of the women prisoners in Damon after Abu Sbeih was released. She is one of the prisoners subjected to the harsh sanctions inside the prison. The repression has targeted the Palestinian women prisoners following prisoners’ protests over denials of their rights within the prison.
There are 23 women prisoners in Damon prison out of 56 women Palestinian prisoners; most are held in either Damon or HaSharon prisons.
Zeinab Ankoush, the mother of Adel Ankoush, 19, who was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem along with Bara’a Saleh Atta and Osama Atta after they carried out a stabbing attack targeting armed occupation forces, has been imprisoned for one week since she was seized from the family home in Deir Abu Mashaal near Ramallah. She will be brought before the Ofer military court today, 29 June, where she is accused of “incitement” for speaking about the death of her child. Meanwhile, her husband – Adel’s father, Hassan Ankoush, was seized by Israeli occupation forces in a series of pre-dawn raids on Thursday, 29 June, as the forces also invaded Osama Atta’s family home, ransacking its contents.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its full solidarity with the women prisoners and demands the immediate release of all Palestinian women prisoners and all Palestinians jailed by the Israeli occupation.
Palestinian lawyer Muhammad Allan is on his 21st day of hunger strike, demanding his immediate release from Israeli prison. Allan, 33, previously engaged in a 65-day hunger strike to win his freedom from administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, winning his release in 2015.
Allan was seized once more by Israeli occupation forces on 8 June who invaded his home in the village of Einabus near Nablus, and he once again launched a hunger strike to demand his release. He was held in the Jalameh/Ketziot interrogation center before being transferred to the isolation cells in Megiddo prison after news of his hunger strike spread.
Prior to his hunger strike, he spent three years in Israeli prison, accused of affiliation with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. He was again arrested in 2014 and ordered to imprisonment without charge or trial; in 2015, he conducted his hunger strike to win his release in November 2015.
Meanwhile, fellow former long-term hunger striker Anas Shadid, 21, from the village of Dura near al-Khalil, was once again ordered to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Shadid conducted a 90-day hunger strike alongside Anas Abu Fara to win his release from imprisonment without charge or trial and was released on 24 May 2017.
Only 20 days later, Israeli occupation forces raided his family home in a pre-dawn raid on 15 June after he had earlier been summoned to interrogation by Israeli occupation forces. Now, Shadid has once again been ordered to six months of imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges action and solidarity to free Muhammad Allan, Anas Shadid and end the arbitrary detention of Palestinians without charge or trial under administrative detention. International protest is critical to demand the freedom of nearly 500 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial and all 6,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israeli occupation forces stormed the home of Mohammed Badr on Wednesday morning, 28 June, in a violent pre-dawn raid in al-Khalil. Badr, 61, is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council representing the Change and Reform Bloc. His famiy home was ransacked and personal belongings confiscated before he was taken away by occupation forces.
He has previously been arrested on multiple occasions and spent approximately 11 years in Israeli prison, with much of that time in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Most recently, he was arrested in October 2013 and spent a year and a half imprisoned without charge or trial. He has also served as a lecturer at al-Khalil University for 20 years in Islamic law.
The number of imprisoned Palestinian parliamentarians had risen to 13 earlier in the year; recently, Mohammed Abu Teir of Jerusalem was released after serving a 17-month sentence in Israeli prison, and Samira Halaiqa was released after two months of imprisonment.
Nine of the detained parliamentarians are imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention; the longest-held, Hassan Yousef of Ramallah, has been detained since October 2015 and his detention has been extended five times. The other parliamentarians, all from the Change and Reform bloc, held in administrative detention without charge or trial are: Mohammed al-Tal; Khaled Tafesh; Anwar Zboun; Ahmed Mubarak; Azzam Salhab; Mohammed Jamal Natsheh; Ahmad Attoun; and Ibrahim Dahbour.
In addition, Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been imprisoned since 2006 by Israeli occupation forces since they invaded the Jericho prison where he was held by the Palestinian Authority under U.S. and British guard, is serving a 30-year sentence in Israeli prison. Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi was sentenced to five life sentences after his seizure by occupation forces in 2002.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of all of the imprisoned Palestinian parliamentarians. Their imprisonment reflects an Israeli drive to criminalize and confiscate Palestinian leaders while denying any true political expression to people under occupation.
