Support the international callout for action to support Palestinian prisoners! In the third week of the prisoners’ strike protest this Friday in Picadilly.
1500 Palestinian prisoners launched their hunger strike on Monday, 17 April to achieve a series of demands: access to public telephones, an end to the denial of family visits, proper medical care, and an end to policies of solitary confinement and administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial.
The strike was announced by Fateh prisoners with Barghouthi as their spokesperson. Prisoners from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Islamic Jihad, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas, the People’s Party and others have declared participation in the strike, especially in Hadarim, Gilboa and Nafha prisons, where there is nearly unanimous participation in the strike among political prisoners.
The strikers have been met with harsh repression. Nearly all of the 1500 strikers have been denied legal visits; all have been denied family visits. Their personal belongings and clothing have been confiscated; many prisoners have even reported that the salt that they consume with water to sustain themselves has been confiscated by Israeli prison administration.
Manchester Boycott Israel Group – Victory to Palestine!
Victory to the Intifada
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) Manchester
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
On 17 April 2017 around 1500 Palestinian prisoners announced the beginning of an open hunger strike calling for an end to the state of Israel’s practice of prisoner abuse, solitary confinement, torture, medical negligence and denial of rights guaranteed under international law—including the right to a fair trial and family visits. Several Palestinian prisoners leading the hunger strike have been transferred into isolation and at the moment all striking prisoners are being denied lawyer and family visits.
Currently the state of Israel holds more than 7150 Palestinian political prisoners of which approximately 6300 are male political prisoners, 300 male children and approximately 56 females (including 13 female children) as well as an estimated 500 Palestinians in administrative detention (including 2 children), held for indefinite periods without charge or trial.
We are deeply alarmed that despite this clear injustice inflicted on the people of Palestine, European states, the European Union (EU) and representative institutions have failed to fulfill their duty to hold Israel accountable for its grave violations of international law.
Shamefully, the European Union even includes the Israeli National Police in research projects, like LAW TRAIN, funded by the EU taxpayers money, that aims to further develop interrogation techniques.
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign expresses its support and solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike and supports their demands.
We urge the Irish government and the European Union to intervene with the Israeli Government to: ensure it stops stop punishing the hunger strikers for their action; to lift restrictions on family visits for the prisoners; to increase visit duration from 45 to 90 minutes; to allow at least for women prisoners for family visits without glass barriers to allow mothers to hold their children; to ease restrictions on the entry of books, clothing, food and other gifts from family members; to restore educational facilities for the prisoners; to install phones to enable prisoners to communicate with their families and last but not least to substantially improve their access to medical care.
Furthermore we call for the abolition of Israel’s Apartheid Military Court system (under which only Palestinians are tried, which have a 99.7% conviction rate and which Amnesty International says “do not meet international standards for fair trial”) and freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners.
Belfast Event organized by the Justice for Palestine Society; other events organized by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
As Palestinian prisoners enter their 17th day of open hunger strike, a major escalation is planned to take place tomorrow, 4 May, when significant political leaders will join the hunger strike. Imprisoned Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and fellow PFLP leader Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh will join the strike with dozens of leaders from all factions, announced former political prisoner and leftist parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar, at a joint press conference held simultaneously in Ramallah and Gaza City on Wednesday morning, 3 May.
Jarrar denounced attempts to re-start “negotiations” while the prisoners are starving for freedom, saying that anyone who wishes to speak to the leadership of the Palestinian people should go to the prisons to find that leadership and meet with them. She also denounced Palestinian Authority security coordination with Israel, demanding that it come to an end immediately. She emphasized that the strike would continue to grow, with an increasing number of leaders joining the strike.
Sa’adat, Abu Ghoulmeh and the PFLP leaders are not alone in joining the strike; the Islamic Jihad movement announced that 16 members of its leadership in Ramon prison will join the hunger strike on Thursday, 4 May, in support of their fellow prisoners: Ziad Bseiso, Said Tubasi, Tamim Salem, Munif Abu Atwan, Iyad Abu Hashem, Mohammed Aridat, Mahmoud Kalibi, Mohammed Abdel-Hamid, Ahmed Bseiso, Abdel-Rahman Abu Libdeh, Ahmed al-Shanna, Hamza al-Haj Mohammed, Omar Abu al-Rub, Adnan Hussein, Abdel-Rahman Rayyan and Majdi Yassin.
The joint press conference included representatives of the PFLP, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fateh and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine as well as Issa Qaraqe of the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission.
The strike, which was launched by 1500 prisoners in Israeli jails on 17 April, Palestinian Prisoners Day, highlights key, basic demands: end to denial of family visits, the right to access distance higher education, appropriate medical care and treatment, and an end to solitary confinement and imprisonment without charge or trial.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, also issued a statement on 2 May, warning the Israeli prison administration that it would take swift action if the demands of the prisoners did not find a response within 24 hours; it also noted that it would increase its demands for prisoner releases in exchange for captured Israelis held in Gaza on a daily basis so long as the strike continues with no action to implement the prisoners’ demands.
Among the striking prisoners are three Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails, Riad Saleh, Abdallah Abu Jaber and Raafat al-Asa’s, out of the 23 Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails. The National Committee for Imprisoned and Missing Jordanians issued a statement on 3 May highlighting their involvement in the strike and urging international and Arab action to support the hunger strikers. Also participating in the hunger strike is Syrian prisoner in Israeli jails Sidqi al-Maqt, from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Al-Maqt joined the strike on 19 April, its third day. “I salute, from the heart of Israeli jails, the souls of all martyrs of Syria and Arab nations. The hunger pains in our empty stomachs are a battle towards the victory of our humanity and national dignity,” he said.
Since the strike began, over 20 prisoners have been taken to hospitals and clinics and a number of prisoners have reportedly fainted during the strike. The prisoners consume only salt and water during the strike, without additives, vitamins or other supplements.
Prisoners have faced sharp repression since the strike began – with hundreds of prisoners transferred, many leaders ordered into solitary confinement and hunger strikers widely denied legal visits or family visits. A hearing will take place in the Israeli Supreme Court today, Wednesday, 3 May, in response to a petition filed by Adalah and the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission demanding legal visits with their imprisoned hunger-striking clients. The hearing will convene at 11:30 am in Jerusalem.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges the escalation of international support and solidarity just as the prisoners are escalating their strike. Students on campuses throughout Europe are organizing hunger strike solidarity actions while a growing number of cities and towns are hosting actions and demonstrations. It is critical to break the isolation imposed by the Israeli state with broader, wider, louder and stronger international solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners as they continue their valiant struggle in the Strike of Freedom and Dignity.
BUS INFO:
Two buses will leave the Mosque Foundation at 4 pm.
Stand in solidarity with the more than 1500 Palestinian prisoners currently on a hunger strike. We will be across the street from the Israeli Consulate. Announcements forthcoming regarding buses.
Organized by the Coalition for Justice in Palestine – CJP
The event, part of solidarity activities in support of #PalestinianPoliticalPrisoners currently on hunger strike since 17 April 2017, will take place tomorrow (Wednesday 3 May 2017, 7pm) at Constitution Hill (Lekgotla Room, Women’s Jail, Constitution Hill, 11 Kotze St, Johannesburg. Safe parking available).
The event is a collaboration between various South African organizations in support of #PalestinianPoliticalPrisoners and their open hunger strike which is now in its second week.
The documentary screened will be “Stone Cold Justice” (click here for trailer) and will be followed with a presentation by Dr Sadna Balton (an early childhood interventionist who was the South African representative at the 3rd International Prisoner Conference recently held in Palestine). The event will be chaired by Khulekani Skosana (Secretary-General of the Congress of South African Students).
There are currently over 6500 #PalestinianPoliticalPrisoners detained by Israel. Over the past 50 years, more than 800 000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or detained by Israel (about 40% of all Palestinian men living under military occupation have at some point been detained by Israel). Presently there are more than 500 Palestinians held under Israel’s “administrative detention” (equivalent of Apartheid SA’s “detention without trial”). In the last one year period Israel has arrested more than 400 Palestinians for social media posts. 25 Palestinian journalists and 13 Palestinian parliamentarians are also currently being incarcerated in Israeli prisons. Virtually every single Palestinian family has been affected by Israeli imprisonment of a loved one.
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There will be a national day of action and 24 hour fast on the 15th of May (starting at 6pm on the 14th of May and ending at 6pm on the 15th of May) in solidarity with #PalestinianPoliticalPrisoners currently on hunger strike. A build up fast will also take place tomorrow 3 May (starting at 6pm on the 02nd of May and ending at 6pm on the 3rd of May). All South African organizations are invited to join this campaign.
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ISSUED BY KWARA KEKANA ON BEHALF OF BDS SOUTH AFRICA
Progetto Palestina invites you to a day of Palestinian resistance! From 12:30 pm, join a social lunch at the self-managed center in hall C1, with the proceeds to finance BASKETBALL BEATS BORDERS, a project to support the Shatila Girls Basketball Team Real Palestinian Youth. Shatila Girls Basketball Team is made up of eight Palestinian girls between 16 and 20 years of age born and raised in Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. From 9 to 16 May, this team will be in Rome as part of a sports exchange.
At 5 pm, there will be a meeting in Classroom 5 of Einaudi Building, dedicated to the situation of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. This event is in solidarity with the hunger strike of thousands of Palestinian prisoners and the struggle for freedom for Palestinian prisoners. The meeting will include a presentation by Myassar Atyani, cultural director of the General Union of Palestinian Women in Nablus, who will speak about her experiences in Israeli prisons. She will be joined by Sara Rawash, who will speak about her research in Palestine on the experiences of women political prisoners. The event will also include a screening of a portion of the documentary film, “Women in Struggle.” This will be followed at 9 pm by further discussion on Radio Blackout with Myassar Atyani at Via Antonio Cecchi 21.
In solidarity with the Palestinian Prisoners on hunger strike South Wales Palestine Action will be out leafleting and spreading awareness about the Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails including the 58 women, 300 children & 500 Palestinian Prisoners which are currently under administrative detention.
Leaflets kindly provided by Inminds.com – Boycott Israel
Student groups at the University of Manchester in England and Edinburgh University in Scotland have launched solidarity hunger strikes in support of the Palestinian prisoners’ strike for freedom and dignity that have now extended for days of action in support of the prisoners’ struggle. Their campaign is now spreading across Europe, with activists in Madrid, Turin, Brussels, London and elsewhere joining growing solidarity strikes that highlight the prisoners’ demands and their urgent calls for support.
After 1500 Palestinian prisoners launched their hunger strike on 17 April for a series of demands, including an end to the denial of family visits, the right to access distance higher education, appropriate medical care and an end to solitary confinement and administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, protests across Palestine and around the world have demanded freedom for Palestinian prisoners and urged the immediate implementation of their demands. Now in their 17th day without food, strikers are facing harsh repression – including denial of legal visits, frequent transfers, and isolation of strike leaders – inside Israeli prisons.
In Palestine, a number of solidarity hunger strikes and fasts have been organized to support the prisoners, including a large one-day strike in Gaza, a five-day strike by Lina Khattab and fellow Bir Zeit University students who are themselves former prisoners, and ongoing open-ended solidarity strikes in the protest tents in Qalqilya, Jenin, Nablus and elsewhere. A call has been issued from Palestine for a day-long solidarity strike by artists and other cultural workers on 3-4 May, linking with ongoing art actions by Decolonize this Place in support of the strikers.
Internationally, there have been several solidarity fasts in support of the hunger strikers, including a one-day hunger strike organized by lawyers, legal workers and law students with the National Lawyers Guild. Students have taken the lead in organizing these international solidarity strikes, with groups at the University of Manchester and Edinburgh University organizing ongoing, sustained strikes in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners.
On 27 April, five students who work with the BDS Campaign at the University of Manchester launched a hunger strike; the campaign has been subject to campus repression and silencing of activities, including university administrators’ attempts to shut down Israeli Apartheid Week.
“Decades ago, university students were key in demanding the end of apartheid of South Africa. University students have paid a key role in many anti-racist struggles, including Black Lives Matter. The struggle for justice for the Palestinians is no different, they have 70 years of unremitting mistreatment, including thousands of deaths, systemic expulsions, institutional racism and apartheid. We stand in solidarity with them,” wrote the strikers.
“The pain, solidarity and hunger will keep us in solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strikers as they continue their struggle,” said Huda Ammori, one of the organizing students. The students have been chronicling their experiences on hunger strike in a series of videos (below) published by the Middle East Monitor.
Photo by Edinburgh University Communist Society
Next, students affiliated with the Edinburgh University Communist Society launched a hunger strike on campus to build support for Palestinian political prisoners. Like the Manchester students, they linked their own campaign as part of local and global justice movements – and their Israeli Apartheid Week event was also repressed by university administration.
“As committed Irish republicans, we often look to the socialist martyrs of 1981, and the sacrifice they made. We know, that occupying a building, or holding a strike will only achieve so much- but by putting our bodies through the potential dangers of a hunger strike, we are hoping people will realise just how committed we are to Palestine,” wrote the students, who called on the university to boycott and divest from apartheid Israel.
Now, the strike is growing as fellow student and community groups across Europe have launched a call for hunger strikes starting 3 May. Confirmed participants are coming from Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and Ireland. “As European citizens, we feel a responsibility to support the Palestinian cause for an end of the occupation, apartheid and settler colonialism. It is not only our right, but also our responsibility to end this injustice…We hope everyone who stands with Palestine, including MPs, will show their support. Through our actions, we hope to raise awareness of the Palestinian cause in our respective towns and cities across Europe,” write the organizers in their call to action.
Students with Progetto Palestina in Turin, Italy are launching their hunger strike on 4 May, even as they organize a campus event in support of the strikers on 3 May, with more cities planning to join in, including activists in Madrid, Brussels, Bologna, Rome and elsewhere.
Photo by Mahmoud al-Sarsak
In London, Ayssar Shamallakh, a British-Palestinian activist who has been organizing in support of the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike with the 17 April Group, announced on 2 May that he is launching an open hunger strike in London, with a gathering at Parliament Square, next to the statue of Nelson Mandela.
Numerous events and actions are being organized in the coming days in support of Palestinian political prisoners, with demonstrations and gatherings in Turin, Cardiff, Charleroi, Coventry, Paris, Johannesburg, Brussels and Dearborn on 3 May, and in Chicago, Middletown, London, Oslo, Belfast, Dublin, Newbridge and Galway on 4 May, with ongoing events stretching into the future in New York, Brussels, Berlin and elsewhere.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of justice in Palestine to join these solidarity hunger strike campaigns, participate in announced protests, or organize events, demonstrations and actions in your own city to support the hunger strikers and build solidarity for their actions.
Support the international callout for action to support Palestinian prisoners! In the third week of the prisoners’ strike protest this Friday in Picadilly.
On 17 April 2017 around 1500 Palestinian prisoners announced the beginning of an open hunger strike calling for an end to the state of Israel’s practice of prisoner abuse, solitary confinement, torture, medical negligence and denial of rights guaranteed under international law—including the right to a fair trial and family visits. Several Palestinian prisoners leading the hunger strike have been transferred into isolation and at the moment all striking prisoners are being denied lawyer and family visits.
BUS INFO:
A vigil in solidarity with our 1500 Palestinian prisoners on #HungerStrike in Israeli prisons.
Members of the media and public are invited to a free film screening and presentation on the over 300 Palestinian children currently incarcerated in Israeli prisoners (
Progetto Palestina invites you to a day of Palestinian resistance! From 12:30 pm, join a social lunch at the self-managed center in hall C1, with the proceeds to finance BASKETBALL BEATS BORDERS, a project to support the Shatila Girls Basketball Team Real Palestinian Youth. Shatila Girls Basketball Team is made up of eight Palestinian girls between 16 and 20 years of age born and raised in Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. From 9 to 16 May, this team will be in Rome as part of a sports exchange.
