24 administrative detention orders issued in early April; Fouad Bisharat suspends hunger strike

10 April 2017

Israeli occupation authorities issued 24 administrative detention orders against Palestinians between 1 April and 8 April, reported Palestinian lawyer Mahmoud Halabi of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. These administrative detention orders are used to jail Palestinians without charge or trial on the basis of so-called “secret evidence.”

There are approximately 500 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention out of a total of nearly 6,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. Administrative detention orders are issued for one to six months at a time, but are indefinitely renewable; many Palestinians have spent years on end imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention.

The use of administrative detention as a systematic policy by the Israeli occupation violates international law and has sparked strong resistance from Palestinian prisoners, including a series of hunger strikes. On Sunday, 9 April, Fouad Bisharat, a Palestinian prisoner held since 17 September 2016 under administrative detention without charge or trial, suspended his open hunger strike which he had carried out for 11 days on the basis of a commitment to not renew his administrative detention again. His mother, Mazzouzah Bisharat, told Asra Media that Bisharat, 28, was preparing for his wedding when he was seized and held under administrative detention, the first time he was arrested.

Among the Palestinian prisoners issued administrative detention orders in early April is Kifah Quzmar, the Palestinian student at Bir Zeit University who was seized as he returned to Palestine at the Karameh/Allenby crossing on 7 March. Over 70 international organizations have signed on to a student-initiated demand for his release and an end to the persecution of Palestinian students.

The 24 prisoners issued administrative detention orders are:

1. Mohammed Nasser Alaqimah, from Jenin, 4 months, extension
2. Yousef Abdel-Rahim al-Khatib, from Jerusalem, 6 months, new order
3. Omar Nasser Barghouthi, from Ramallah, 3 months, extension
4. Mustafa Ismail Safi, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
5. Itaf Ahmad al-Atrash, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
6. Mohammed Ahmed al-Najjar, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
7. Mazen Jamal Natsheh, from al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
8. Bajis Khalil Nakhleh, from Ramallah, 3 months, extension
9. Obeida Ahmad Marei, from Qalqilya, 4 months, new order
10. Ibrahim Mohammed Dahbour, from Jenin, 6 months, new order
11. Afif Salameh Awawdah, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
12. Kifah Mohammed Quzmar, from Ramallah, 6 months, new order
13. Murad Mohammed Zaghari, from Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
14. Jamal Ibrahim Maslamani, from Tubas, 4 months, new order
15. Mahmoud Hassan Nimr, from Ramallah, 6 months, new order
16. Musa Salem Sawarka, from Bethlehem, 6 months, new order
17. Yahya Hani Jaddo, from Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
18. Mohammed Sahib Kufaisheh, from al-Khalil, 4 months, new order
19. Hamdi Ali Khatatbeh, from Nablus, 4 months, extension
20. Salman Khaled Nassar, from Jenin, 4 months, extension
21. Bajis Mahmoud Suweyta, from al-Khalil, 3 months, extension
22. Abdel-Jaber Mohammed Jarrar, from Jenin, 3 months, extension
23. Sharif Taher Tahayna, from Jenin, 4 months, extension
24. Fadi Mohammed Srour, from al-Khalil, 6 months, extension

Palestinian child prisoner Natalie Shokha released Sunday after year in prison

10 April 2017

Palestinian child prisoner Natalie Shokha was released on Sunday, 9 April after a year in Israeli prison. Natalie, 15, from the village of Rammon near Ramallah, has been imprisoned since April 2016.

Her release came after a higher court rejected an appeal by the Israeli occupation against a decision to release her after completing two-thirds of her 18-month sentence. She was welcomed warmly by her family and friends upon her release.

Natalie was imprisoned alongside her friend, fellow child prisoner Tasneem Halabi. She was repeatedly denied family visits, even while she was severely wounded by Israeli occupation forces.

A letter from Natalie to her mother was widely distributed internationally:

My greetings to all of the generous people of my beloved village, Rammun. My greetings to the council of the village and to everyone who supports its development.

Mother, I am in now in prison a member of the cultural committee. I have also become a member of the magazine. I discuss novels and I am the fourth in reading. 🙁 Thank God at any rate.

Mom, Dad, everyone here is proud of your raising of me. Have your head held high. And I am living in the room with six other girls. We are the twelve flowers (security prisoners who are minor girls). We live together through bad and good times. Mom, please say hello to all and tell them I miss them so much and that I am sorry if I forgot anyone. May God bring us together, united, soon. God, bring us freedom now!

They will not imprison the scent of jasmine in a flower!

The prisoner Natalie Shokha
HaSharon Prison
Division 14

Also released on Sunday was Bashar al-Khatib, 45, from Jerusalem, after serving 15 years in prison. He was seized by undercover Israeli occupation forces on 10 April 2002 in Jerusalem and imprisoned for participation in the Palestinian resistance with Fateh.

In addition, Thamer Sa’abaneh, writer and activist for Palestinian prisoners, from the town of Qabatiya near Jenin, was released on Sunday from the Negev desert prison after six months of imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention; he has been imprisoned on multiple occasions for his political activity.

NYPD attacks and detains Palestine activists, including Samidoun organizer

8 April 2017

Palestinian and solidarity activists in New York City, including organizers with Samidoun, New York City Students for Justice in Palestine, the ANSWER Coalition, Workers World Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Peoples Power Assembly and SPARC, were arrested on Friday, 7 April by the NYPD as their demonstration against U.S. bombing of Syria was attacked by police. Nine activists were arrested and two more were detained – one seriously attacked physically by police – before being released. The nine arrestees are now all released after several hours of jail support and advocacy by fellow organizers.

*Photo: Detainees and jail supporters moments following their release by David Jamesnovitch*

The activists were seized by police after about thirty minutes of marching, near 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue. They had marched north after gathering in Union Square. The anti-war rally, with a large contingent of youth, had grown to number in the high hundreds before taking the streets.

John Fletcher, one of the arrested activists and a Samidoun organizer, noted that he had earlier been pushed by NYPD while marching and that he and another comrade, Dan Cione of NYC Students for Justice in Palestine, were two of the first to be grabbed from the demonstration as police pried the Palestinian flag from his hands. At the same time, approximately eight to ten police surrounded NYC Students for Justice in Palestine organizer Nerdeen Kiswani, slamming her violently into the concrete, grabbing her by her hijab and choking her to the extent that it was ripped from her head as she was cuffed by police. Nerdeen was clearly singled out from the crowd by police as she was leading chants and targeted for particularly violent assault and repression.

Nerdeen recounted her experience following her detention and release:

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NYC SJP has been a leading organizer of events and actions for Palestinian prisoners in New York City, and it was one of the initiators of the recent student statement in support of Kifah Quzmar and fellow Palestinian student prisoners as well as a major organizer of the international student day of solidarity with Bilal Kayed and Palestinian prisoners in 2016. NYC SJP activists organize on a range of campuses as well as within the community in New York to build actions and mobilizations in support of the Palestinian liberation struggle.

More organizers were detained or arrested by police, including Angela Firestone of NYC SJP, Michael Bellamy of SPARC, Collin Ashley of Peoples’ Power Assembly, Stephen Millies of the Workers World Party and International Action Center, Brendan O’Brien of ANSWER and the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Jonah Quest. Stephen Millies is also the designer of many of the protest signs and placards of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Two of the organizers, including Nerdeen, were released after their detention, while the other nine were issued tickets and finally released after hours of jail solidarity by fellow activists. John Fletcher, one of the Samidoun arrestees, noted that this march was targeted by the police nearly as soon as it left Union Square, and in particular highlighted the large youth participation in this anti-war rally.

The protest gathered numbers in the high hundreds and began immediately following Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network’s weekly protest in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, which focused on the case of Kifah Quzmar, Palestinian student activist currently held in administrative detention without charge or trial. Samidoun activists gathered outside the Best Buy in Union Square to demand freedom for Quzmar and his fellow imprisoned Palestinian students; they also highlighted the growing international campaign to boycott Hewlett-Packard (HP) because of the corporation’s involvement in profiteering from the Israeli occupation, including providing technical services and systems to Israeli checkpoints, the Apartheid Wall and the Israel Prison Service.

Kifah Quzmar’s case has seen support from over 70 organizations around the world in a statement initiated by international student organizations demanding his release and that of fellow Palestinian students, often targeted for any form of political involvement or student activism on campus. Participants in the Samidoun protest distributed materials and information about Quzmar’s case and fellow Palestinian prisoners, while urging Best Buy shoppers to refrain from purchasing HP goods and demanding the corporation get out of the business of repressing Palestinians living under occupation, apartheid and settler colonialism. They chanted for the freedom of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails and liberation for the land and people of Palestine.

The Samidoun demonstration also served as the gathering point for the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) contingent for the anti-war demonstration gathering in Union Square. Following US President Donald Trump’s military strikes with 59 missiles against a Syrian air force base near Homs, emergency demonstrations were organized in New York City to demand an end to all forms of US intervention in Syria, including bombing raids, missile strikes and the presence of US military personnel in Syria. Two demonstrations, one organized by the International Action Center and one by the ANSWER Coalition, united together in Union Square to form a unified march in the high hundreds against US wars, invasions and bombing.

ILPS organizations involved in organizing the contingent and the rally included Samidoun, NYC SJP, BAYAN USA, the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and the International Action Center. Participants carried signs, banners and Palestinian flags denouncing US wars and imperialism in Syria and throughout the region. Michela Martinazzi of Samidoun and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression led numerous chants at the demonstration while Nerdeen Kiswani and Noura Farouq of NYC SJP emceed the rally and continued leading chants throughout the march.

The protest was not the only march against US war and imperialism attacked by police yesterday. In Jacksonville, Florida, one demonstrator, Connell Crooms, was severely injured and hospitalized after being hit in the kidneys and tasered. The police attacked the protesters after a group of about six pro-Trump, pro-war supporters began hitting the demonstrators with a Trump flag. Despite his injuries, Crooms is still facing charges at the hands of the police.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwTYulcSX0w

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the attack by the police on protesters in NYC, Jacksonville and elsewhere, despite the fact that such attacks come as no surprise from the same police forces that terrorize Black communities and other oppressed communities on a daily basis in the cities and towns of the United States. We stand in solidarity with all those arrested and targeted and urge the organizing of more protests and actions to confront US and Zionist imperialist war, aggression, racism, colonialism and imprisonment.

All Out for Rasmea’s April 25th plea hearing in Detroit!

7 April 2017

The following statement is recirculated from the Rasmea Defense Committee. Videos below are from Jewish Voice for Peace, from the National Membership Meeting where Rasmea Odeh was a featured keynote speaker.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 25, 1:00 PM
Rally at 1:00 PM, hearing starts at 2:30 PM
(Eastern Time)

WHERE: U.S. District Court, 231 W. Lafayette Blvd., downtown Detroit, Michigan

The Rasmea Defense Committee is calling on everyone to mobilize for Rasmea’s final court appearance in Detroit on April 25^th, and tell us here that you’re attending, or if you need a ride or can provide transportation!

It is essential that we fill the courtroom one final time, in support of our leader and shero Rasmea Odeh, who accepted a plea agreement two weeks ago (statement below), and will be forced to leave the United States soon.

Supporters from Chicago and other parts of Illinois, as well as from Milwaukee, Detroit / Dearborn, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Minneapolis / St. Paul, Cincinnati, Indiana, and other Midwest areas are already committed to attend.

Continue to support #Justice4Rasmea, and stay in touch through www.justice4rasmea.org and justice4rasmea@uspcn.org.
The Rasmea Defense Committee is led by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

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I will continue my struggle
– Rasmea Odeh, April 5, 2017

(This essay is adapted from speeches delivered by Rasmea Odeh at the Crossroads Fund Seeds of Change event on 31 March 2017 and at the Jewish Voice for Peace national conference on 2 April 2017.)

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I was an infant during the Nakba, the 1948 catastrophe in Palestine. Growing up I heard many stories of pain and bitterness from my family, who were forced, along with 750,000 other Palestinians, to leave the homes, lands, lives and memories they had built for generations.

Now I face a similar Nakba, forced to leave the country and the life that I built for myself over 23 years in the US – the relationships, the memories and all the people I know and love, especially the women of Chicago’s Arab community.

But I will continue my struggle for justice for my people wherever I land. I will continue the struggle for the right of return, for self-determination and for the establishment of a democratic state on the entirety of the historic land of Palestine.

When I immigrated to this country and found myself in Chicago, after many years of working on women’s rights and other legal advocacy issues in the Arab world, I found psychological tranquility and stability amongst family and new friends, far away from any kind of fear or threats. I determined that this would be my second home, where I would build a life amongst a Palestinian community that I love and respect so dearly.

Community and struggle

I have been a community organizer for the past 13 years with the Arab Women’s Committee, a project of the Arab American Action Network. I have spent the best years of my life with these Arab immigrant and refugee women. We protect each other, and struggle for justice together through our organizing work. They are all helping me to live a generous and simple life, and forget a lot of my personal pain.

We created this committee from scratch; it now has over 700 members. The committee promotes leadership by and for Arab women, to build their

capacity to fight for social change, and to challenge systems of oppression like racial profiling, sexism and patriarchy. We built a formation of immigrant and refugee women who fight for their own rights and the rights of all oppressed peoples.

We all have a role to play in our own cities, our own neighborhoods. Organizing is difficult. It’s hard work, but it’s the only thing that is guaranteed to make change in this world.

White people didn’t just decide to give up their power and allow people their civil rights. It was fought for in a Black-led movement that inspired the whole world, and it is still being fought for. Mubarak in Egypt didn’t just walk away quietly from his presidency. It took 10 million workers on strike to push him out, and that revolution is still not complete.

The Arab American Action Network was one of the leaders of the shutdown of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago the day after Trump’s Muslim Ban was announced. We helped get 5,000 people to that airport over two days, and thousands more shut down a number of other airports in the US.
Later that same weekend, a federal court froze that executive order, but it wouldn’t have happened without the mass movement in the streets. Trump lost Muslim Ban 2.0 as well, and the Republican bill to take healthcare away from millions, and he will lose many times more. Even though he said he was going to win more than any other president, he keeps losing because people in the US are in the streets resisting every single day.

Our role in Palestine’s liberation

Of course, Zionists aren’t going to stop their land grab in Palestine either. The Palestinians there — and the Palestinians and our supporters here — have to stop them with our resistance and our organizing. With boycott, divestment and sanctions – including the cultural and academic boycott of Israel. With challenging the Jewish United Fund in Chicago, and with shutting down Zionists when they try to defend their war crimes. With defending our students and our community-based institutions and our organizers and our allies when they get attacked.

Many hundreds of Palestinians and our supporters in the US have had to face government repression because of our organizing for peace and justice, and it is important that all of you continue your activism despite the attacks, because we are doing effective work in this country that is having an impact. Our community organizations, our student organizers, our academics, our solidarity activists — all exposing Israel for the criminal, apartheid state that it is.

There is a long history of repression against oppressed communities in this country. Law enforcement goes after those, like the Black liberation movement and so many others, who are fighting for social justice, those who want to make a difference in the world.

We are those people, and we will be targeted, but we should understand that we have the support of millions of others around the world who share our vision of historical Palestine liberated from Zionism, where all Palestinian refugees can return to their original homes, and where everyone there can live together with dignity and equal rights.

I am going to have to leave the life I have built for more than a decade at some point in the next few months. I am going to have to leave Chicago and all the beautiful people who have welcomed me so warmly to this country and this city. But I will still be organizing wherever I end up.

And I’ll be watching developments in the US very closely, because besides Palestine, this is the main front of the battle for the liberation of my homeland. And liberation we will win.

Ten days before his release, imprisoned journalist Al-Qeeq hit with new military court charges

6 April 2017

Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq was suddenly slapped with new charges before an Israeli occupation military court on 4 April, 10 days before his scheduled release from three months of imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention.

Al-Qeeq ended a 33-day hunger strike on 10 March after an agreement that his administrative detention would not be renewed when it expired on 14 April, three months after he was seized on 15 January by Israeli occupation forces as he returned home from a demonstration in Bethlehem.

Fayha Shalash, al-Qeeq’s wife and a fellow journalist, described the charges as “a dirty attempt to keep him in detention for as long as possible,” saying that new charges could be related to her husband’s participation in demonstrations in solidarity with prisoners and demanding the return of the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces.

Shalash said that this action by the Israeli occupation “aims to break the will of the Palestinian prisoners and circumvent the hunger strike and send a message that strikes are useless, attempting to suppress the next strikes of prisoners in defense of their freedoms.”

Al-Qeeq previously won his release from imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention in 2016, after a 94-day hunger strike. He was released in May 2016 and has been a frequent participant in protests for Palestinian prisoners’ rights since that time. Al-Qeeq will once again be brought back before the Ofer military court on Thursday, 6 April.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network strongly condemns the filing of new, unjust charges against Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq in a transparent attempt to keep him imprisoned only ten days before his release, secured through 33 days of hunger strike. We urge actions and protests by people of conscience around the world to immediately demand the release of Mohammed al-Qeeq and his fellow Palestinian prisoners.

24 Palestinian journalists imprisoned; freed journalist Omar Nazzal barred from Jerusalem, travel and banking

6 April 2017

Palestinian journalist and former prisoner Omar Nazzal recently reported on his Facebook page about a series of restrictions that have been issued by Israeli occupation forces against him through military orders. Nazzal was released from administrative detention on 20 February after 10 months of imprisonment without charge or trial; since that time, he has been slapped with a two-year travel ban preventing him from leaving occupied Palestine; banned from Jerusalem and Palestine ’48 for 99 years; and forbidden from opening bank accounts until further notice.

Nazzal was seized by Israeli occupation forces in April 2016 as he attempted to enter Jordan through the Karameh/Allenby crossing en route to the European Federation of Journalists conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is a member of the Secretariat of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and president of the Assembly of Democratic Journalists. His detention was internationally condemned by the EFJ, the International Federation of Journalists and other international associations.

There are currently 24 Palestinian journalists imprisoned in Israeli jails, the Palestinian Media Assembly reported on 2 April on March violations of the rights of journalists by the Israeli occupation. They include the five journalists of Sanabel Radio, who have been imprisoned since August 2016, when occupation forces invaded the radio station, abducting all of the staff present. Nine journalists were arrested in March, including Samah Dweik, Hassan Sawan, Mohammed Abed Rabbo, Khaleda Ghosheh, Raed Abu Remaileh (since released) and Mohammed Batrakh, Ayoub Sawan, Asim Mustafa and Musab al-Said (all still detained.)

Palestine TV correspondent Ahmed Shawar was injured by rubber-coated metal bullets as he covered a demonstration against settlements and the apartheid wall in Kufr Qaddoum. In addition, multiple photographers were injured in Nabi Saleh by Israeli occupation forces, including Rasha Herzallah, Hamza Shalash, Essam Rimawi, Mohammed Turkman, Majdi Shtayyeh, Abbas Momani and Saleh Hamad. In Kafr Malek, Nasser Shyoukhi and Abdel-Kader Bilbeisi were injured after inhaling tear gas. In addition, Israeli occupation forces attacked and confiscated several print shops, including Nahda in Tulkarem, Ibn Khaldoun in Tulkarem and Dozan in Bethlehem.

Israeli occupation forces stormed the home of Palestinian cartoonist Osama Nazzal on 27 March, smashing his paintings on the wall and drawing tools as well as confiscating other artwork.

Israeli minister Gilad Erdan threatens to force hunger strikers to a “field hospital,” isolation in Negev desert prison

6 April 2017

Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan – who also leads the Israeli occupation’s anti-BDS efforts, in addition to overseeing the Israeli national police, prison and security agencies responsible for the killing, torture and imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians – announced on 5 April via Channel 2 that hunger-striking prisoners will be moved to the Negev desert prison where a field hospital will be established.

Erdan announced this action in advance of the large hunger strike announced to begin on 17 April by Fateh prisoners. According to Asra Voice, Channel 2 reported that this step is meant to keep hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners out of Israeli hospitals, where their presence has sparked protest and solidarity actions throughout occupied Palestine ’48.

In addition, it should be noted that traditional Israeli hospitals have so far refused to engage in force-feeding through the use of a nasogastric tube against Palestinian hunger strikers in recent years (although a recent High Court decision has once again “legitimized” the torturous and unethical practice), although they have engaged in multiple occasions in forcible treatment of Palestinian prisoners including the forced administration of nutrition, which is also a clear violation of medical ethics principles. It is highly possible that this “field hospital” is an attempt to impose mass force feeding on striking Palestinian prisoners outside the civilian medical framework. Erdan, who was one of the proponents of 2015’s “Law to Prevent Harm Caused by Hunger Strikers,” has compared Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for their rights to “terrorists.”

Erdan’s announcement came as the Palestinian prisoners’ movement continues to discuss plans for the announced 17 April strike. Originally discussed by prisoners from all political organizations in Israeli prisons, in March, Fateh prisoners announced their demands and their plans to strike on 17 April in a statement from imprisoned Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi. In some prisons, including Gilboa and Hadarim, where the large majority of prisoners are Fateh prisoners, Palestinian prisoners across factional lines have announced they will participate in the strike.

Demands of the strike include a strong focus on family visits, including the denial of family visits to Palestinian prisoners by various Israeli agencies, including the Israel Prison Service and the Shin Bet, as well as the cuts to these visits implemented by the International Committee of the Red Cross. In addition, prisoners’ demands also focus on achieving proper medical treatment for sick prisoners, an end to the abuse of prisoners during transfer via the “bosta” and an end to solitary confinement and administrative detention.

However, the prison branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that it greeted the announcement with “appreciation and high regard for the declaration of the brother, struggler and Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi and a group of Fateh prisoners to launch a strike on 17 April,” the strike was not launched as a collective and unified step with the participation and voice of all political forces. It urged that national and collective actions should be organized to strengthen unity, built on a national consensus of the prisoners’ movement and involve all factions; the statement declared that the PFLP prisoners are not officially participating in the strike, but that PFLP prisoners in joint sections with Fateh prisoners will join in the strike.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies reported that the prisoners’ movement is carrying out intense discussions within all the Israeli prisons to identify priorities and work to build success for the prisoners’ struggles, including the 17 April strike, particularly in light of attempts to suppress prisoner organizing like Erdan’s “field hospital” plans.

8 April, Derry: Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners

6 April 2017

Saturday, 8 April
2:00 pm
Guildhall, Derry, Ireland
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1310687462344813/

Derry Branch of Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign is holding a protest in Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners. Recent arrests of 4 Human Rights Defenders from Hebron and Palestinian student Kifah Quzmar ordered imprisoned for six months without charge or trial on Monday 3rd April highlights the brutal oppression that Palestinians are living under 24/7. Join with us to stand in Solidarity with our Palestinian comrades.

Palestinian youth activist Seif al-Idrissi and former hunger striker Ayed Heraimi ordered to six more months in administrative detention

6 April 2017

Imprisoned Palestinian youth activist Seif al-Idrissi, a comrade of assassinated organizer Basil al-Araj, was ordered to an additional six months in administrative detention, indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial, on 5 April.

Idrissi, 28, from Tulkarem, was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 10 October, only weeks after his release from Palestinian Authority prisons, where he was jailed for over five months with al-Araj, Mohammed Harb, Mohammed al-Salameen, Haitham Siyaj and Ali Dar al-Sheikh. The six youth were released after they launched a hunger strike with widespread Palestinian support; their case had earlier been trumpeted as an example of the success of PA security coordination with Israel.

Mohammed Harb‘s administrative detention was earlier renewed for an additional six months. Al-Salameen and Siyaj are also both imprisoned under administrative detention orders; jailed since they were seized and beaten by Israeli occupation forces on 24 October 2017, both are also threatened with the renewal of their administrative detention orders.

Al-Araj was assassinated by Israeli occupation forces on 6 March 2017 when they invaded the home where he was staying in el-Bireh. They had previously invaded and ransacked his family home in Walaja near Bethlehem over 10 times. Al-Araj resisted the occupation forces until his last breath. Well-known for his involvement in all forms of community and youth organizing and his dedication to Palestinian history and struggle, al-Araj’s assassination sparked protests across Palestine and internationally, demanding an end to Palestinian Authority security coordination with Israel. On 17 April, Palestinian youth will also take to the streets to commemorate both Palestinian Prisoners’ Day and the 40th day on the assassination of al-Araj, demanding justice and freedom for Palestinian prisoners and an end to security coordination.

Also ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial was Ayed Heraimi, 24, of Bethlehem, a former hunger striker who was re-arrested by Israeli occupation forces on 20 March 2017, only two months after his release from Israeli prisons in January 2017. Heraimi previously launched a hunger strike for 45 days, securing his release in January at the end of his six-month detention order; he had held in administrative detention without charge or trial for 14 months in total, re-arrested less than 10 days after serving a three-year prison sentence for membership in Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.

Idrissi and Heraimi are among nearly 600 Palestinians held without charge or trial under administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and Palestinian prisoners can be held for years at a time with no charge and no trial.

Military court hearings continued for student Istabraq Tamimi, parliamentarian Samira Halaiqa

6 April 2017

The Ofer Israeli occupation military court again adjourned the hearing of Palestinian student Istabraq Yahya Tamimi on Wednesday, 5 April. Her military court hearings have been repeatedly adjourned since her arrest on 20 March when Israeli occupation soldiers invaded the female students’ dormitory at Bir Zeit University.

Tamimi, 22, a broadcast journalism student, is formerly the secretary of the cultural committee of the Bir Zeit University student council. She is held at HaSharon prison and faces a potential transfer to Damon prison. Her case is one of 60 Bir Zeit students – and hundreds of Palestinian students overall – who are imprisoned in Israeli jails. In particular, active students who are involved with student council and student election activities have been targeted by Israeli occupation forces in an attempt to undermine student organizing. Fellow Bir Zeit student Kifah Quzmar was recently ordered to six months without charge or trial in administrative detention.

Meanwhile, the Ofer military court also adjourned the hearing of Palestinian Legislative Council member Samira Halaiqa of al-Khalil, one of 12 PLC members imprisoned by the Israeli occupation. She has been imprisoned since 9 March, when her family home was invaded by Israeli occupation forces. On 3 April, the Ofer military court ordered her release on 20,000 NIS bail (approximately $5,000 USD) and the imposition of a travel ban; however, the military prosecution filed an objection against her release, keeping her imprisoned in HaSharon prison.

I will continue my struggle – Rasmea Odeh, April 5, 2017

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I will continue my struggle
– Rasmea Odeh, April 5, 2017