15 April, Paris: Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners

13 April 2017

Saturday, 15 April
3:00 pm
Metro Jourdain
Paris, France
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/678719208979900/

At the church square of Metro Jourdain, we will symbolically commemorate the Place of Palestinian Prisoners as we approach the International Day of Solidarity with them on Monday, 17 April

The event will include a photo workshop, photo exhibition, wall of expression, music and political materials. The event is organized by various associations including Jeunes Communistes Paris Nord-est, GUPS, AFPS, Comite Palestine 19 and UJFP.

15 April, London: Palestinian Prisoners Day

13 April 2017

Saturday, 15 April
3:00 pm
Under Hungerford / Golden Jubilee Bridges on the Southbank (between London Eye and Southbank Centre)
London, UK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1986958591533520/

To mark Palestinian Prisoners Day, Inminds human right group will, on Saturday 15th April 2017, hold a vigil on the Southbank of the River Thames in London to highlight the plight of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, and to demand their freedom.

Figures for March 2017 show the Israeli occupation abducted 509 Palestinians last month, including 75 children, 13 women and 5 Palestinian MPs; and issued 111 administrative detention orders – indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial. Today here are around 6,500 Palestinians caged in Israel prisons including around 300 children and 62 women including 14 minor girls. Over 500 Palestinians are held without charge or trial indefinitely under administrative detention orders.

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said “The Israeli occupation is enforced by terrorising the indigenous Palestinian population; abducting its children; and imprisoning anyone who resists. In many cases the formality of a charge let alone a trial or even a set length of sentence are ignored – people are just locked up indefinitely on the whim of the colonizer. During interrogation physical torture, even of young children, is standard practice as is sexual abuse of children. Women have been electrocuted into submission, and some prisoners like Arafat Jaradat have died under torture. If they survive the interrogation then they face the military court and its ‘conveyor belt’ trial system with its ‘rubber stamp’ 99.74% conviction rate. In no other country in the world is such injustice law.”

Inminds chair Abbas Ali added “Some 20% of the Palestinian population of men, women, children and the elderly have been imprisoned by the Israeli military since 1967, every single Palestinian family has been effected. The prisoners form the cornerstone of Palestinian society, their suffering is felt in every home. We are here to show our solidarity with them and their families, and to demand their freedom from occupation dungeons. We are also here to demand that companies complicit in their suffering, like HP that provides the IT infrastructure for Israel’s torture dens and dungeons, end their complicity in these war crimes.”

Please join us on Saturday 15th April 2017 on the Southbank of the river Thames under Hungerford Bridge near the Southbank Centre.

If you support this activity please share this alert widely, thank you.

JazakAllah,

Abbas Ali

Inminds Palestinian Prisoners Campaign
www.inminds.com/caged

15 April, Berlin: Demonstration for Palestinian Political Prisoners

13 April 2017

Saturday, 15 April
3:00 pm
Rathaus Neukölln / Karl-Marx-Straße 83
Berlin, Germany
For more information: http://palaestina-solidaritaet.de/2017/03/30/berlin-sa-15-04-2017-kundgebung-zu-politischen-gefangenen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1854956604763820/

Organized by the Democratic Palestine Committees – Berlin

Every year, on 17 April, Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian people, and supporters of justice and liberation for Palestine all over the world mark the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners.

This date is one of protests, rallies, marches, forums and actions to commemorate, support and build solidarity for the struggle of imprisoned Palestinians.

There are approximately 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners behind Israeli bars today: women, men, children and elders.

Nearly 600 of them are held in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, while others face military courts with a conviction rate of over 99%.

Hundreds of Palestinian children, as young as 12 years old, are held in Israeli prisons. Palestinian political leaders, including PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat, Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi, and Samira Halaiqa and 11 more members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, are held behind bars.

Among the Palestinian political prisoners are writers, scholars, journalists, students and artists.

This year, thousands of Palestinian political prisoners have announced that they will launch a hunger strike beginning on 17 April to achieve a list of demands, including an end to the prohibitions and cuts to family visits, proper medical care and an end to medical neglect and an end to isolation and administrative detention. This strike comes five years after the collective Karameh strike of 2012, and is once again a critically important struggle for justice.

The Day of the Palestinian Prisoners 2017 also represents the 40th day after the death of Basil al-Araj, a symbolic figure of the new Palestinian resistance. He was assassinated on March 6 by the Israeli army.

Call for the immediate release of all Palestinian political prisoners.

Demand that the US company Hewlett Packard (HP) end its contracts with Israeli jails and detention centers, occupation and security forces, checkpoints and settlements and immediately discontinue providing technology that Israel uses to suppress the Palestinian population.

Jedes Jahr am 17. April begehen palästinensische Gefangene, das palästinensische Volk und seine Unterstützer auf der ganzen Welt den internationalen Tag der Solidarität mit den palästinensischen Gefangenen.

Dieses Datum ist ein Datum von Protesten, Kundgebungen, Demonstrationen und Aktionen, um an den Kampf der inhaftierten Palästinenser zu erinnern.

Gegenwärtig sitzen etwa 7.000 palästinensische politische Gefangene in israelischen Gefängnissen hinter Gittern: Frauen, Männer, Kinder und Alte.

Fast 600 von ihnen sind in sogenannter Administrativhaft – eine Inhaftierung ohne Anklage, ohne Prozess, mit massiver Einschränkung des Besuchsrechtes.

Hunderte von palästinensischen Kindern unter 16 sind in israelischen Gefängnissen inhaftiert. Ihre Haftbedingungen unterscheiden sich nicht von denen der Erwachsenen, sie sind grausamer und entwürdigender Behandlung, darunter Folter und Einzelhaft, ausgesetzt.

Führende palästinensische politische Persönlichkeiten, darunter PFLP-Generalsekretär Ahmad Sa’adat, Fateh-Führer Marwan Barghouthi und Samira Halaiqa und 11 weitere Mitglieder des palästinensischen Legislativrates sitzen hinter Gittern.

Unter den palästinensischen politischen Gefangenen sind Schriftsteller, Gelehrte, Journalisten, Studenten und Künstler.

Für den 17. April 2017 haben tausende von palästinensischen politischen Gefangenen den Beginn von Hungerstreiks angekündigt, um Forderungen durchzusetzen, zu denen die Einstellung der Verbote und Kürzungen von Familienbesuche gehört sowie die Forderung nach angemessene medizinischer Versorgung und ein Ende der Isolations- und der Administrativhaft. Dieser Streik findet fünf Jahre nach dem kollektiven Karameh-Streik von 2012 statt und ist erneut von entscheidender Bedeutung im Kampf für Gerechtigkeit.

Der Tag der palästinensischen Gefangenen 2017 erinnert auch an den 40. Tag nach dem Tod von Basil al-Araj, einer Symbolfigur des neuen palästinensischen Widerstands. Er wurde am 6. März von der israelischen Armee ermordet.

Fordert die sofortige Freilassung aller palästinensischen politischen Gefangenen.

Fordert das US-amerikanische Unternehmen Hewlett Packard (HP) auf, seine Verträge mit israelischen Gefängnissen und Haftanstalten, Besatzungs-und Sicherheitskräften, Kontrollpunkten und Siedlungen zu beenden und die Bereitstellung von Technologien, die Israel zur Unterdrückung der palästinensischen Bevölkerung einsetzt, umgehend einzustellen.

15 April, Manchester: BDS protest: Manchester Day of Action for Palestinian Prisoners

13 April 2017

Saturday, 15 April
12 pm – 3 pm
Piccadilly Gardens
Manchester, UK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/424909251209003/

From 14-24 April protesters around the world will be standing in solidarity with the struggle for a free Palestine and for the release of all political prisoners in Israeli jails. Join the 15 April BDS rolling picket in Manchester targeting shops and banks which collaborate with the occupation. As we write, British foreign secretary Boris Johnson is defending Israeli airstrikes on Syria and calling for an end to boycotts on Israel. The University of Manchester acting to ban pro-Palestine events. And British banks like Barclays fund the arms companies fuelling the occupation. British imperialism is part of the problem and we have a duty to act. Bring megaphones, flags, banners, placards and people!

Support the Palestinian call for action:

“Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all organizations and groups that support justice, liberation and Palestinian freedom to organize events from 14-25 April in support of Palestinian prisoners, the prisoners’ movement’s collective hunger strike and demands, and the demand to end security coordination. 2017 is a year in which we mark 100 years of the Balfour declaration and colonization; 70 years of al-Nakba; 50 years of extended and intensified occupation. This is also the year to struggle for Palestinian freedom and support liberation for Palestinian political prisoners!”

For more info on the prisoners check out the Samidoun website:
https://samidoun.net/

Manchester Boycott Israel Group – Victory to Palestine!
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) Manchester
RCG – Revolutionary Communist Group
Victory to the Intifada

www.frfi.co.uk

14 April, Vienna: Commemoration of the 40th day of the assasination of Basil al-Araj

13 April 2017

Friday, 14 April
6:30 pm
OKAZ
Gusshausstrasse 14/3, 1040 Vienna, Austria (near Karlsplatz metro)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/187418165107576/

Basil al-Araj represented a model of a political activist engaged in resistance despite a degraded political context. His writings moved beyond the despair of the present divisions and concessions toward a vision of resistance, freedom and liberation.

Basil al-Araj was assassinated by a Zionist death squad in full view of the pawns of the Palestinian self-rule “authority,” and while his body was detained by the occupation who refused to return him to his family to complete his burial, the forces of security coordination insisted on continuing with the trial of the martyr, along with a group of young strugglers already imprisoned in Israeli jails under administrative detention. Then Palestinian security forces suppressed the demonstration which rejected this trial of the martyr and his comrades and condemned security coordination with the occupation; they did not hesitate to beat protesters, including the father of the martyr, Mahmoud al-Araj. This event comes to honor and remember basil al-Araj and adhere to the growing call of progressive Palestinians to honor the martyr and denounce the murderers and their accomplish. We urge all friends and comrades in Vienna who knew the martyr Basil al-Araj in life or in death, and all who support the Palestinian liberation struggle, to join in the commemoration of the martyr Basil al-Araj on the 40th day of his assassination.

Organized by the Friends of Basil al-Araj in Vienna, in cooperation with Handala Palestinian Cultural Forum, the Palestinian Arab Club and OKAZ.

فعالية إحياء ذكرى أربعين الشهيد باسل الأعرج في فيينا.

السادسة والنصف من مساء الجمعة، 14 نيسان (أبريل) في قاعة المركز الثقافي العربي النمساوي (عكاظ) Gußhausstraße 14/3
الحي الرابع، بالقرب من محطة Karlsplatz

في كل مكان نقولها: لا للتنسيق الأمني! الخزي للمتعاونين مع العدو! عاشت المقاومة!

لقد مثل الشهيد باسل الأعرج حالة متقدمة في العمل النضالي الفلسطيني إذ قدم نموذجا للناشط السياسي كجزيرة مقاومة وسط سياق سياسي متآكل، وخطابا يتجاوز دواعي اليأس التي يقدمها الحاضر وحدود التقسيم التي فرضتها اتفاقيات التنازل ليؤسس لاستمرارية حركة المقاومة المتطلعة نحو المستقبل، نحو الحرية والتحرر.

اغتالت فرقة اعدام صهيونية باسل الأعرج في مخبئه في رام الله على مرأى ومسمع عساكر سلطة الحكم الذاتي الفلسطينية، وبينما احتجزت سلطات الاحتلال جثمان الشهيد ورفضت تسليمه الى أهله لإتمام مراسم الدفن، أصرت سلطة التنسيق الأمني على محاكمة الشهيد مع ثلة من الشباب المناضل الموجودين أصلا في السجون الاسرائيلية بتهمة مقاومة الاحتلال. ثم قمعت عناصر الأمن الفلسطيني التظاهرة التي خرجت رافضة لمحاكمة الشهيد ورفاقه ومنددة بالتنسيق الأمني مع الاحتلال ولم تتوانى عن الاعتداء بالضرب على المتظاهرات والمتظاهرين ومنهم والد الشهيد، السيد محمود الأعرج.
وفاء لنهج المقاومة ولذكرى الشهيد، وانضماما إلى حراك القوى الوطنية والتقدمية في كل مكان (رابط لبيان 17 أبريل) للاحتفاء بنهج الشهيد والتنديد بالقتلة والمتواطئين ندعو كل الأصدقاء والرفاق في فيينا ،من عرفوا نهج الشهيد باسل الأعرج أو تعرفوا إليه عقب استشهاده، وكل المؤمنين بديمومة النضال العالمي ضد الاستعمار والصهيونية، إلى المشاركة في فعالية إحياء ذكرى أربعين الشهيد باسل الأعرج في فيينا.

أصدقاء باسل الأعرج في فيينا

بالتعاون مع المنتدى الثقافي الفلسطيني (حنظلة)، نادي فلسطين العربي، والمركز الثقافي العربي النمساوي (عكاظ)

14 April, NYC: Protest to free Palestinian Political Prisoners and Stop HP

13 April 2017

Friday, 14 April
5:30 pm
Best Buy Union Square
52 E. 14th St, NYC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/191869654662310/

On April 17, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, Palestinian political prisoners plan to launch a collective hunger strike to secure their dignity and win their freedom.

Stand with them to demand that Israel release 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners immediately, and that Hewlett Packard companies end their contracts with Israeli prisons and detention centers, occupation and security forces, and checkpoints and settlements now.

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.

13 April, Cambridge: Prisoners, Incarceration and Illegality in Palestinian and Latinx Communities

12 April 2017

Thursday, 13 April
6:30 pm
Emerson Hall 305
Harvard Yard, Harvard University

As part of Israeli Apartheid Week 2017, the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee presents a panel on the racialized mass incarceration and criminalization of communities from the United States to Palestine. Co-sponsored by Consilio Latino.

Panelists:
Gabriel Camacho, American Friends Service Committee – Immigration program coordinator
Randa Wahbe, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, PhD student in Anthropology at Harvard
Nadia Ben Youssef, USA rep for Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel

Justice for the #Jax5: Drop all charges against Florida anti-war protesters attacked by police

12 April 2017

Five protesters attacked by police in Jacksonville, Florida as they protested U.S. bombings against Syria are now facing charges, amid a growing #JusticefortheJax5 campaign demanding all charges be immediately dropped.

On 7 April, a peaceful demonstration was organized to call for an end to U.S. intervention in Syria; protesters held signs and chanted against bombing. The demonstration was disrupted by right-wing Trump supporter Gary Snow. As the change.org petition supporting the five demonstrators notes: “Despite the demonstrators committing no crimes according to dozens of witnesses and extensive video footage, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) beat and arrested 5 prominent union and community activists in Jacksonville.”

The Jacksonville Five who were arrested and charged are:

Connell Crooms, disabled Black man and Teamster union activist
Willie Wilder, a 74 year old Vietnam Veteran and leader of Vets for Peace
Christina Kittle, a Queer Black woman and advocate for women & children who face domestic violence
Tom Beckham, a Trans rights activist and student activist
Dave Schneider, a Teamster Shop Steward and community leader

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has charged the five protesters with multiple felonies on the basis of false allegations. A campaign is urging the immediate dismissal of these charges as well as further investigation:

1. Drop all Charges Against the #Jax5
2. Demand the protection of the right to free speech and to peacefully assemble.
3. Full Investigation of JSO Misconduct, brutality & any ties to White Supremacist Groups/Individuals
4. Full Investigation of Surveillance and Spying on union leaders & Community Organizers

In the days since the attack on the protesters, Facebook photographs have revealed that Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams posed for photos with the right-wing rally disruptor, Gary Snow, at a local Trump rally, despite Williams earlier denying any connection to Snow. In addition, just a week before the rally, it was revealed in local media that the Sheriff’s Office had been spying on protesters and contracting with private corporations to do so; those subject to this spying included Black Lives Matter and labor activists including Schneider, Crooms and Kittle.

Crooms, a Deaf Black labor activist, was particularly heavily attacked by the police, beaten and Tasered; he was hospitalized due to his injuries at the hands of police. Crooms’ mother spoke to a large rally of over 200 people against the police attack on peaceful demonstrators:

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/FLTimesUnion/videos/10154694532964790/” width=”800″ height=”” onlyvideo=”1″]

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network supports the campaign for Justice for the Jax5 and urges supporters to participate in the campaign:

1. Sign the petition to demand the charges be immediately dropped: https://www.change.org/p/city-of-jacksonville-justice-for-the-jax-5

2. Join the call-in campaign; call State Attorney Melissa Nelson‘s office at +1 904-255-2500 and demand she drop all charges against the Jacksonville 5.

3. Follow the Justice for the Jax 5 campaign on Facebook and join in future actions: https://www.facebook.com/JusticefortheJax5/

13 Palestinian parliamentarians imprisoned after Israeli occupation forces seize Ahmad Attoun

12 April 2017

Ahmad Attoun, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was seized by Israeli occupation forces in the early pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, 12 April, bringing the number of PLC members imprisoned by Israel to 13. Attoun was among 11 Palestinians seized by Israeli occupation forces in overnight raids.

Attoun, 52, is a Jerusalemite Palestinian who was forced out of Jerusalem and his residency in his home city stripped from him by the Israeli occupation in 2010, along with fellow imprisoned parliamentarian Mohammed Abu Teir and PLC member Mohammed Totah, as well as former PA Jerusalem minister Khaled Abu Arafa. He was seized at his home in El-Bireh, which was invaded and ransacked by occupation forces, damaging and upending furniture.

Attoun is a member of the Change and Reform bloc in the PLC, associated with Hamas. He has spent over 12 years in Israeli jails, including in 2013, when he was seized and held in administrative detention without charge or trial for 20 months. He has been prohibited from even entering his home city of Jerusalem.

Also seized by Israeli occupation forces was Hamas spokesperson Fayez Abu Warda of el-Bireh, Bashar Sabatin and Amir Zaoul of Husan near Bethlehem, Moatassem Samer Brigheith of Beit Amr near al-Khalil, and Mustafa Abu Armelah, Ahmad Joudah, Sbeih Abu Sbeih, Noor al-Shalabi, Jihad Qous and Rawhi Koulghasi, all of Jerusalem. In addition, Mohammed Ma’an Fuquha, 32, the brother of Mazen Fuquha, the former prisoner and prominent Hamas leader recently assassinated in Gaza, was seized by Israeli occupation forces in Tubas. Mazen Fuquha had been forcibly displaced to the Gaza Strip following his release in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange of 2011.

The seizure of Attoun comes amid a recent escalation against PLC members; seven members of the PLC have been seized so far this year. PLC member Samira Halaiqa, seized by Israeli occupation forces on 9 March from her home in al-Khalil, is being charged in Israeli military court for her public political activities, including activities in support of Palestinian political prisoners. While the Ofer military court ordered Halaiqa, 53 and a representative of the Change and Reform bloc, released on a bail of 40,000 NIS (approximately $10,000) during the military trial, the military prosecutor appealed the order and Halaiqa remains imprisoned.

It also comes one day after the renewal of the administrative detention order against PLC member Hassan Yousef, 61, of the Change and Reform bloc, ordering him to another three months of imprisonment without charge or trial. This is the fifth time consecutively that he has been ordered to administrative detention since his seizure by Israeli occupation forces on 20 October 2015. In addition, the military prosecutor rejected Yousef’s lawyer’s petition to declare this his final period in administrative detention.

Also recently ordered to administrative detention were PLC members Ibrahim Dahbour and Mohammed al-Tal, both seized in March by occupation forces and ordered to administrative detention. Ahmad Mubarak, seized in January 2016, Azzam Salhab, arrested in November 2016, and Mohammed Jamal Natsheh, arrested in September 2016, are also imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention. All are members of the Change and Reform bloc, as are Khaled Tafesh and Anwar Zboun, currently imprisoned since they were seized by Israeli occupation forces on 6 March.

They join Abu Teir, fellow Jerusalem deportee with Attoun, currently serving a 17-month sentence in Israeli prison, as well as Ahmad Sa’adat, 63, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine serving a 30-year prison sentence after he and his comrades were abducted by Israeli forces attacking a Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho in 2006, and Marwan Barghouthi, prominent Fateh leader serving five life sentences and imprisoned since 2002.

Prisoners gearing up for hunger strike as Nafha sections announce they will join action

12 April 2017

Palestinian prisoners associated with Fateh are building plans for their collective hunger strike scheduled to begin on 17 April, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.

In Nafha prison, Palestinian detainees associated with Fateh, the Islamic Jihad movement and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced that they would participate in the strike to achieve its demands, including proper health treatment for sick prisoners, an end to the denial and cutbacks on family visits, and an end to administrative detention and solitary confinement. The prisoners in sections 3, 4, 10, 13 and 14 in Nafha prison – approximately 530 prisoners – announced they were joining the strike.

Nashaat al-Wahidi, the spokesperson for Fateh in the National and Islamic Forces’ prisoners’ committee in Gaza, said that 1,500 Palestinian prisoners will participate in the strike, including 120 Palestinian prisoners in Gaza. Marwan Barghouthi, the imprisoned Fateh leader, is the spokesperson and representative of the striking Fateh prisoners.

Palestinian prisoners from all factions held in Gilboa and Hadarim prisons will join the strike, as well as two sections in the Ofer prison (approximately 240 prisoners), 30 prisoners in Ashkelon prison, 120 prisoners in Ramon prison and 150 prisoners in the Negev desert prison, in addition to the participants held in Nafha prison.

Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan has threatened to deny prisoners on hunger strike access to standard hospitals in an attempt to thwart the strike and block popular solidarity in Palestine ’48. Instead, he has ordered the creation of a “field hospital” in the Negev desert prison, planning for the transfer of hunger strikers, and potentially threatening hunger strikers with forced feeding.

Fadwa Barghouthi, Palestinian lawyer and the wife of Marwan Barghouthi, urged solidarity for the prisoners’ demands and their hunger strike. A number of Palestinian organizations and institutions have organized events for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day and the coming weeks.

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