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.
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.
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.
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
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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.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates our solidarity and call for the immediate release of Harun Turgan, co-founder of BDS Turkey and a longtime struggler for Palestinian freedom. Shortly before his arrest, he participated in demonstrations in solidarity with 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike organized by Samidoun and BDS Turkey. Today, he has been imprisoned for over one month and his lawyers have been told not to expect a trial before October. We reiterate our call to release Harun Turgan and all of the political prisoners detained and jailed in Turkish prisons!
Below, we circulate the new statement from BDS Turkey and join the call for people to send letters and messages of solidarity to Harun Turgan directly and to demand his immediate release:
Harun Turgan, who is an active participant in the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, one of the founding members and volunteers of BDS Turkey, and the editor of Intifada Publications, was arrested by Turkish police during a commemoration of the life of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya on 21st May 2017. He was detained 3 days later; now, his lawyers have been told that his trial will not take place before October.
Harun Turgan is a member of the Palestine solidarity movement and a friend of the Arab peoples. His unlawful and violent detention for participation in a peaceful political gathering reminds us of the Israeli crimes which Palestinians know all too well.
On behalf of BDS Turkey, we call upon all friends of Palestine around the world to show their solidarity to Harun, who has now been imprisoned for one months. We urge you to write to Harun and send letters and postcards, as well as to advocate for the immediate end of his unjust detention.
Harun Turgan prison mailing address:
Harun Turgan, Silivri, 5 nolu L tipi kapalı ceza infaz kurumu, C 19. Turkey
لقد تم احتجاز الناشط المؤسس في حركة المقاطعة في تركيا والمحرر العام ل”دار الانتفاضة للنشر” هارون تورغان يوم 21 من أيار لمدة ثلاثة أيام أثناء مشاركته في وقفة استذكارية للمفكر التركي “إبراهيم كايبك كايا”، ومن بعدها تم اعتقاله. وقد أعلن محاموا هارون تورغان أنه تأكد لهم بأن هارون سيبقى معتقلا حتى شهر تشرين الأول من العام الجاري، حيث ستبدأ أولى جلسات المحكمة له
إن هارون تورغان ناشط ومناضل من أجل حق الشعوب بالحرية وهو جزء من حركة التضامن مع فلسطين وهو صديق عزيز للشعوب العربية. إن احتجاز هارون بدون حق، وتعرضه للاعتداء الجسدي واعتقاله لمجرد مشاركته في وقفة سلمية يشبه كثيرا ما يعيشه الشعب الفلسطيني من ممارسات دولة الاحتلال الإسرائيلي
إننا ندعوا كل المحبين للقضية الفلسطينية لمساندة هارون اللذي أمضى شهره الأول في الاعتقال بإرسالهم رسائل وبطاقات التضامن له في السجن، وإننا ندعوا لإطلاق سراحه الفوري وإنهاء اعتقاله غير العادل
عنوان هارون في السجن
Silivri, 5 nolu L tipi kapalı ceza infaz kurumu, C 19. Turkey
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network activist Nick Maniace was unjustly arrested by the NYPD on Friday, 23 June as he participated in the International Al-Quds Day rally in Times Square in Manhattan. In an illegitimate and illegal arrest, Nick was seized by police for holding a bullhorn at a fully permitted rally with an outdoor sound permit for the use of amplified sound. Indeed, cops came through the barricades/pens that they had erected around the protesters to constrain the rally, invading the space to seize Nick, handcuff him and arrest him for approximately three hours.
Nick will appear in court on 28 August at 9:30 am at Midtown Community Court on bogus allegations of “illegal use of sound.” Samidoun and a number of Palestinian and Palestine solidarity organizations in New York City will be mobilizing to defend Nick and the right of activists to speak, chant and mobilize for Palestine.
The arrest and attack appears to represent an ongoing practice of attempted intimidation of Palestine activism throughout the city. Meanwhile, as the rally went on, a group of pro-apartheid and white supremacist counter-demonstrators from racist, violent organizations like the Jewish Defense League hurled abuse at the hundreds of Al-Quds Day rally participants from across the street. Various counter-protesters from this group would repeatedly walk across the street to the Al-Quds Day rally in an attempt to create disruption.
Of course, this is only the latest incident of police repression at the hands of the New York Police Department. In April, the NYPD attacked a demonstration against the U.S. bombing of Syria, arresting nine Palestine activists from a number of groups, including Samidoun organizers, and violently assaulting NYC Students for Justice in Palestine organizer Nerdeen Kiswani, slamming her into the concrete and grabbing her by her hijab, ripping it from her head.
The arrest at the Al-Quds Day rally came as numerous protesters filled the area, demanding justice for Palestine. Speakers included Kiswani of NYC SJP, Joe Catron of Samidoun, Sara Flounders of the International Action center, Bernadette Ellorin and Mike Legaspi of BAYAN USA, longtime activist Esperanza Martel, Richard Kossally of Peoples’ Power Assembly, Mike Bento of NYC Shut it Down, Syed Istafa Naqvi of the Islamic Association of North America, Shahid Comrade of the Pakistan USA Freedom Forum, Larry Holmes of the Workers World Party and Lawrence Hamm of the Peoples Organization for Progress, reflecting an alliance of social justice movements. The New York City rally came as part of the international Al-Quds Day rallies organized in cities around the world, marking the last Friday of Ramadan.
Nick’s arrest took place midway through Joe Catron’s speech for the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. In his talk, Catron emphasized al-Quds Day as a celebration of Palestinian, Arab, Islamic and international resistance to Zionism, and the importance of resistance in establishing Israeli prisons, key points of Israeli repression, as sites of Palestinian mobilization and struggle. The crowd chanted loudly for Palestine with slogans like “1, 2, 3, 4; open up the prison door. 5, 6, 7, 8; smash the settler Zionist state” and “There is only one solution: Intifada, revolution.”
Sara Flounders of the International Action Center led dealings with the police over the arrest, demanding Nick’s immediate release. A small team of demonstrators engaged in jail support arrived with Nick to the Al-Quds Day Iftar organized by NYC Students for Justice in Palestine after the demonstration, meeting with cheers and strong solidarity and support.
This comes in a long series of arrests targeting participants in Palestine rallies, from the “Palestine Nine” – nine Arab and Palestinian American youth targeted for arrest after leaving a demonstration – to the case of Michael Williams. More critically, these arrests reflect an underlying policy of surveillance and police repression that included massive religious and racial profiling of Muslim and Arab communities throughout New York City. The NYPD had a “Demographics Unit” that singled out Muslim and Arab community leaders, student groups, community organizations and even restaurants for continuous surveillance and intimidation for years on end.
The NYPD’s repression and surveillance program reached far outside New York City, targeting mosques, student groups and community spaces in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. In 2012, the NYPD made its “counter-terror” collaboration with the Israeli occupation state official as it opened an office inside the police department of Kfar Saba in occupied Palestine. NYPD reportedly also participated in interrogations in CIA black sites and US detention centers in Egypt, Yemen, Pakistan and Guantanamo.
An NYPD officer using the name “Ilter Ayturk” infiltrated numerous community organizations, including Palestinian and Palestine solidarity organization Al-Awda New York, befriending community members and activists and even traveling to the U.S. Social Forum as a Palestine campaigner. The same NYPD infiltrator later targeted vulnerable, isolated community members suffering from mental illness, like Ahmed Ferhani, for a bogus “terrorism case” created by “Ayturk” and fellow police.
This police repression targeting Palestinian, Arab and Muslim was certainly built on the deeply rooted foundation of the NYPD’s long-time history and present of violent repression and targeting of the Black community and other oppressed communities in the city. The recent police killings of Eric Garner, Kimani Grey, Ramarley Graham and Akai Gurley represent only a few recent examples of the ongoing assault on Black communities, including the notorious “stop-and-frisk” policy and the framework of “broken windows” policing characterized by intense repression of communities of color and working class communities, especially Black and Latinx communities.
Black Lives Matter and other Black community movements and organizations have been consistently targeted for surveillance, infiltration and repression, including the use of undercover NYPD officers as infiltrators. “Cop Watch” organizers highlighting the level of repression faced by targeted communities have also been repeatedly targeted for arrest and surveillance.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the unjust and illegitimate arrest by the NYPD of Nick Maniace. Such attacks are in no way surprising from a police department engaged in daily terror against Black people and other oppressed communities. This incident reflects ongoing NYPD support for Zionism and racism and the framework of repression and surveillance targeting the Palestine movement and Arab and Muslim organizing and community existence. We urge full support for Nick Maniace at his scheduled court date on 28 August and, most importantly, continued and intensified organizing, protest and action against racism, Zionism, imperialism and colonialism, from NYPD repression on the streets of New York to Zionist settler colonialism in occupied Palestine.
All supporters of Palestine are encouraged to join Samidoun for our next New York City protest for Palestinian political prisoners, at 5:30 pm on Friday, 30 June, outside the Best Buy in Union Square.
Zeinab Ankoush, 46, the mother of Adel Ankoush, one of the three young Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem after carrying out a stabbing targeting Israeli military forces, remains detained by occupation forces. The Ofer military court extended her detention for one week on Thursday evening, 22 June.
She was seized by Israeli occupation forces who raided her home in the Ramallah-area village of Deir Abu Mashaal on Wednesday morning, 21 June, in a pre-dawn raid. Her village, home to the three young men, her son Adel Ankoush and Bara’a Saleh Atta and Osama Atta, was under an intensive siege by occupation military forces for one week. She was seized by occupation forces under the pretext of “incitement,” for her public comments after the death of her son.
Ankoush is one of 55 Palestinian women held by the Israeli occupation, including 14 mothers and 10 minor girls under the age of 18. Another of the imprisoned mothers is Sabah Faraoun from the Jerusalem village of Bethany. She is held without charge or trial under administrative detention; she was scheduled for release on 22 June, but her administrative detention order was extended for an additional three months. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable; Palestinians can be imprisoned for years at a time under such orders.
Palestinian lawyer Hanan al-Khatib emphasized the suffering of families, especially those of the child prisoners and the imprisoned mothers, as the Eid al-Fitr holiday approaches. She noted that Faraoun will be deprived of celebrating the holiday with her four children.
Meanwhile, released prisoner Lena Jarbouni, the longest-serving female Palestinian prisoner until her release after 15 years in April 2017, was summoned by the Shin Bet intelligence agency for interrogation on Wednesday, 21 June. Her brother, Saber Jarbouni, said that she was interrogated for two and one-half hours about her activities since her release from Israeli occupation prisons, including speaking out for the freedom of Palestinian prisoners, especially child prisoners. He noted that this interrogation was “an attempt by the Shin Bet intelligence agency to say that we are always watching you” in an attempt to intimidate Jarbouni.
Palestinian student and youth activist Nassar Jaradat and journalist Zaher al-Shammali were released by the Palestinian Authority on 22 June after 15 days of detention, since 7 June 2017, reported Palestinian lawyer Muhannad Karajah of the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
Both have spoken publicly against the statements and actions of prominent Palestinian Authority official Jibril Rajoub, in an interview with Israeli Channel 2 where he announced his support for Israeli sovereignty over al-Buraq Wall in Jerusalem, a site of significant cultural, religious, historical and political importance to Palestinians and which Palestinians have continually defended from Zionist occupation since before 1948.
Shammali wrote a critical article about Rajoub – following other critical articles about PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other PA figures – while Jaradat commented on Facebook regarding the article and Rajoub’s remarks. Now, the two Palestinian youths are facing a trial in September, accused of “insults” to holy sites and “incitement of sectarianism,” although there is no “sectarian” content to their writings on Rajoub’s political concessions to the Israeli occupation. Both Shammali and Jaradat are Palestinian progressives.
The two are scheduled to go on trial in September and have been released on a bail of 1,000 Jordanian Dinars each. Previously, PA courts in Ramallah have refused to release them on four separate occasions, claiming that the investigation was not complete.
The Democratic Journalists’ Assembly denounced the ongoing political arrests of journalists and others, warning against further repression particularly of Palestinians already suffering the severe repression of occupation.
Many people around the world participated in Samidoun’s call to action, urging Palestinian embassies around the world to release the political detainees and end political detention and security coordination. The Union of Palestinian Communities and Organizations in Europe also denounced the detention of the young Palestinians and joined in the call to end security coordination with the Israeli occupation.
The imprisonment of Jaradat and Shammali comes as over 20 websites, including popular news sites like Quds News Network and the Palestine Information Center, have been blocked by the Palestinian Authority; Palestinian readers are denied access to these news sites. This action has been widely denounced by the Palestinian NGO Network, press organizations and a wide range of Palestinian political organizations.
The PNGO Network emphasized that this “dangerous step” is particularly threatening to Palestinian rights that are already under severe and sustained assaults by the Israeli occupation. The blocking was done with no court order on the basis of an order by the Attorney General and was apparently done purely in an attempt to silence and deny Palestinians access to the writing of political opponents of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
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:
Israeli occupation forces seized prominent Palestinian leftist parliamentarian and prisoners’ advocate 
ALERT: 
Palestinian women prisoners in Damon prison are being 
Palestinian lawyer 
Israeli occupation forces stormed the home of 
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates our solidarity and call for the immediate release of 
Zeinab Ankoush, 46, the mother of Adel Ankoush, one of the three young Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem after carrying out a stabbing targeting Israeli military forces, remains detained by occupation forces. The Ofer military court 
Meanwhile, released prisoner 
Palestinian student and youth activist