Two Palestinian prisoners continue hunger strikes for freedom

6 April 2017

Palestinian prisoner Fouad Bisharat is currently on his ninth day of hunger strike, reported Ma’an News. Bisharat, 28, from the village of Tamoun near Tubas, is on hunger strike in protest of the renewal of his Israeli administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial under Israeli occupation military order – for the third consecutive time. Bisharat has been imprisoned since September 2016; he was first ordered imprisoned without charge for four months, then three additional months, and now once again for four months; his detention will be once again renewable at the end of that period.

Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and are issued for periods of one to six months at a time. There are nearly 600 Palestinian prisoners out of a total of 7,000 held in administrative detention without charge or trial. Among Palestinian administrative detainees are eight members of the Palestinian Legislative Council out of 12 total imprisoned PLC members; on 3 April, PLC member Ibrahim Dahbour of Arraba near Jenin, was ordered to administrative detention.

Also on hunger strike is Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Mahmoud Abu Shawka, 23, from Gaza City, who was seized on 8 March at the Container checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jericho despite having a valid permit for study in the West Bank after receiving a grant from the Arab League. Abu Shawka is active with the Fateh youth at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. Abu Shawka has been on hunger strike for 10 days in protest of his imprisonment.

On Monday, 3 April, Palestinian prisoner Mahmoud Saada, 41, suspended his open hunger strike which he conducted for 24 days in protest of his ongoing interrogation and detention in Jalameh interrogation center since his arrest in February 2017. He suspended his strike after an Israeli occupation military court hearing at the Salem military court. His detention was extended for seven more days, after which Palestinian lawyer Saleh Ayoub said he will be indicted before a military court or released; Ayoub said further that he will be transferred from Jalameh no later than Thursday.

Former hunger striker Raafat Shalash, 34, will be released in July of this year after the Israeli occupation Supreme Court issued a “fundamental” administrative detention order against him. A re-arrested former prisoner who has spent a total of seven years in Israeli jails, Shalash has been imprisoned since 17 January 2016 without charge or trial under administrative detention.

Samidoun organizer Mohammed Khatib denied visa to United States

3 April 2017

Palestinian organizer Mohammed Khatib, the Europe coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, was denied a visa to the United States, where he had been invited to speak at the Jewish Voice for Peace National Membership Meeting, which took place in Chicago from 31 March to 2 April. Along with Black4Palestine organizer Kristian Davis Bailey, Mohammed is working on a project to build Black-Palestinian transnational solidarity between liberation movements, focusing on youth organizing.

Additional events in the United States, focusing on Palestinian political prisoners, the struggle for justice in Palestine, Black/Palestinian transnational organizing and liberation struggle and the struggle of refugees – from the urgent need to fight racism in Europe today to Palestinian refugees’ right to return – were also being planned for Mohammed.

Mohammed is himself a Palestinian refugee from Ein el-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon. A Convention-recognized refugee, the mere sight of his Belgium-issued refugee travel document led visa processing staff members at the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece to deny his travel to the US, rejecting even a review of his invitation letters and travel program scheduled in the United States.

As Davis Bailey spoke at the JVP plenary on Sunday, 2 April, he said:

I would like to start by bringing into the room my dear friend and comrade Mohammed Khatib, who was scheduled to join us in person on this panel. Mohammed is the European coordinator of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon. It is explicitly because of his status as a refugee that he was refused the opportunity to even interview for a visa to the US. “There is nowhere to deport you to,” the embassy told him.

This would have been Mohammed’s first time to the US and he was very eager to engage the membership of Jewish Voice for Peace as a refugee in exile, and as a descendant of survivors of the Nakba. He was subject to the double violence of being denied access to his homeland by Israel and being denied the ability to travel because of his status as a refugee by the US.

Next year marks 70 years since the Nakba. As a solidarity movement we have to take seriously that the majority of Palestinians are refugees in exile and that the end of the occupation or even creation of a Palestinian state does not resolve the fundamental injustice they experienced. We need broad and massive commemorations of the Nabka and to expose the crimes and outcome of the Nakba as the fundamental root of this conflict. We need campaigns and demonstrations to end Israel’s “Palestinian ban” with the same amount of fervor as we rallied at airports against the US’s “Muslim ban.” We cannot abandon the right of return.

The denial of Mohammed Khatib’s visa is, of course, not at all an individual case, but part and parcel of long-time United States policies of ideological exclusion and racist profiling as well as refusal to recognize the rights of refugees. Palestinians traveling to the United States for public events or speaking tours have long faced the threat and the reality of visa denial based on ideological exclusion or racist categories of “suspicion.” The recent intensification of the “Muslim Ban” and promotion of anti-refugee, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim propaganda in order to justify the exclusion of peoples – often not people coming for events or speaking engagements, but people being denied access to their families, their education or simply a place of refuge from war and occupation – only underlines this ongoing and long-term policy of exclusion and deportation.

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/black4palestine/videos/1325208110842654/” width=”800″ height=”” onlyvideo=”1″]

Of course, this form of racist exclusion is also part and parcel of the U.S.’s imperial invasions, occupations and policies of hegemony and domination around the world. U.S. support for Israeli apartheid and colonization in Palestine comes hand in hand with its destruction, bombing and invasion of countries throughout the region. This year, we are marking the 14th anniversary of only the most recent U.S. invasion of Iraq and the intense misery and devastation it has unleashed upon the Iraqi people, as the U.S. bombs Syria, arms and applauds the destruction of Yemen and threatens war with Iran. Policies of exclusion are operating hand in hand with those of exploitation and destruction.

The denial of a visa to Mohammed also represents the blows suffered by the growing U.S. movement for justice in Palestine due to the constant barriers erected by the U.S., Israeli and other states designed to prevent interaction among Palestinians across national borders, and between Palestinian, Arab and international movements for justice and liberation, from denial of entry to deportation to so-called “anti-terror” laws that terrorize communities and movements. While Skype and video links allow communication to continue across borders, they are not a replacement for the benefit of face-to-face interaction and movement-building.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the denial of a visa to Mohammed Khatib, as part and parcel of the racist U.S. visa and entry policy that has impacted millions of people around the world – not only since the beginning of the Trump administration, but as a long-term policy stretching over decades. This visa denial is far from an individual case and represents an ongoing aspect of a policy of racism, ideological exclusion and separation and fragmentation of Palestinians from one another and from their national liberation movement.

Mohammed Khatib is available for Skype discussions or video presentations to organizations in the United States and elsewhere who would like to hear his perspective on the Palestinian struggle today, Palestinian political prisoners and Black/Palestinian solidarity. To arrange a video presentation, please email samidoun@samidoun.net or contact us on Facebook.

Palestinian student Kifah Quzmar ordered imprisoned for six months without charge or trial

3 April 2017

Palestinian student Kifah Quzmar was ordered to administrative detention for six months by the Israeli occupation’s Ofer military court on Monday, 3 April. Quzmar is an active student at Bir Zeit University, where he is in his final year of study for his degree in business administration. He is scheduled to be brought back before the Ofer military court on Thursday, 6 April to “confirm” his indefinitely-renewable imprisonment without charge or trial.

Quzmar was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 7 March as he returned from Jordan via the Karameh/Allenby crossing. He was then subjected to interrogation for 20 days and denied access to his lawyer, sparking a four-day hunger strike demanding an end to his interrogation before he was moved to Ofer prison.

Over 70 international organizations signed on to a collective statement initiated by student groups in Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, the United States and Palestine demanding Quzmar’s immediate release. The statement highlights the ongoing targeting of Palestinian students for arrest and persecution, especially for involvement in student activities, including annual student council elections. It also urges the academic boycott of Israel, particularly in response to the ongoing denial of Palestinians’ right to education.

Kifah Quzmar is one of nearly 600 Palestinians – out of 7,000 total Palestinian prisoners – imprisoned without charge or trial under so-called “administrative detention.” Administrative detention orders are issued from one to six months at a time – Quzmar’s is the maximum length – but are indefinitely renewable, and many Palestinians have spent years at a time imprisoned without charge or trial with repeatedly renewed administrative detention orders.

At the Jewish Voice for Peace National Membership Meeting in Chicago, in the United States, Kristian Davis Bailey of Black4Palestine spoke at the plenary on Sunday, 2 April. Over 75 solidarity activists gathered for a group photo to express their solidarity and send their support to Quzmar, demanding his release and that of fellow Palestinian prisoners. Mohammed Khatib of Samidoun was invited to address the same plenary, but was denied a visa to the United States due to his status as a Palestinian refugee in Europe.

Davis Bailey closed his presentation by speaking about targeted Palestinian youth, including assassinated youth organizer Basil al-Araj and imprisoned youth and students like Quzmar, alongside Black youth targeted for imprisonment and repression. “I’d like to close by paying homage to the martyrs and prisoners of the Black and Palestinian struggles. It is these groups that have borne the brunt of state violence. Specifically I would like to honor the life of Basil Al-Araj, a popular leader and participant in the youth movement in Palestine, initially targeted and imprisoned by the PA last year and finally assassinated by the Zionist military at the beginning of this month.”

“As I speak to you, a dear friend and comrade, Kifah Quzmar a popular student organizer at Birzeit University…is one of 7,000 Palestinians currently imprisoned by Israel. Roughly 700 of these prisoners are being held without charge or trial. It is our responsibility as a solidarity movement to organize for their release,” Davis Bailey said.

“What unites all of these prisoners is that they have been suspected or convicted of supporting, engaging, or intending to engage in resistance against an unjust colonial order. There is no action Palestinians take that Israel does not consider threatening or illegal. And whether or not Palestinians actually engage in any of these acts, the accusation is justification enough for their imprisonment, torture, indefinite detainment, extrajudicial assassination, the surveillance and harassment of their families, and the condemnation of the West. Yet for some of us coming to terms with our current administration, the word resistance suddenly takes on a new light. We see very clearly a regime of violence and injustice and understand it is our duty to organize for something better. This is no different in Palestine,” concluded Davis Bailey.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestinian rights – including Palestinian students and their right to education – to take action in solidarity with Kifah Quzmar and his fellow imprisoned Palestinians.

1) Sign up your organization to this statement: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BzCD9_hJeGFgQiJqxNC7OFjAfn1my0x4TXcYUq7ZI0g/viewform

2) Organize a protest or action at an Israeli consulate and/or university/community square, urging freedom for Kifah Quzmar and Palestinian student prisoners. Highlight Kifah Quzmar and fellow Palestinian students in actions for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, 17 April, and the Week of Action, 14-24 April.

3) Organize a table in a student center or a one-day hunger strike in support of Kifah Quzmar. Fellow students must know about the persecution faced by Palestinian students.

4) Organizations, associations and student unions and groups: write a letter or a statement in support of Kifah, or take a group photo with a sign that says, “Free Kifah Quzmar!” and use #FreeKifahQuzmar on social media. Share your statements and photos on Facebook, or email samidoun@samidoun.net.

5) Join the Boycott, Divest and Sanction Campaign to build the boycott of Israel, including the academic boycott of Israeli institutions. Israeli academic institutions are complicit in the system of imprisonment and occupation, while Palestinian students are denied their normal functioning and right to education by ongoing arrest campaigns.

*Graphic: NYC Students for Justice in Palestine*

Four Palestinian human rights defenders back in military court on Monday #alKhalil4

2 April 2017

The four Palestinian human rights defenders and grassroots activists from al-Khalil, Badee Dwaik, Younes Arar, Anan Dana and Ishaq al-Khateeb, were brought before Ofer military court on Sunday, 2 April – and now face a new hearing with additional charges today, Monday 3 April. The four were seized by Israeli occupation forces on Thursday, 30 March as they participated in a Land Day protest with the #DismantleTheGhetto campaign against settlements in al-Khalil.

The four activists will be brought back before a military court today, Monday 3 April, with additional charges against them for organizing a peaceful demonstration. The Hebron Defense Committee reported that Arar and al-Khateeb were brought to Ofer military court from the detention center in Gush Etzion, while Dwaik and Dana were brought from the Ofer detention center.

The four are accused of participating in an illegal demonstration and being in a closed military zone, but the military prosecutor added additional charges of “interfering with security officers’ work” and “assaulting officers in the course of their duties.” The military prosecutor demanded five more days of interrogation about these new charges; however, the military court judge called for a new hearing at 1:30 pm on Monday, 3 April.

In addition, the four were told that after their interrogation period, they would require a bail of 7,000 NIS ($1926 USD) per person to be released, despite their lawyer’s objections that the families of the four activists do not have the funds.

The hearing was attended by the director of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, James Heenan. The four are being brought before an Israeli military court, with a notorious conviction rate of over 99 percent for Palestinians.

Take action!

1. Speak up about these four Palestinian human rights defenders. Use the hashtag #alKhalil4 on Facebook and Twitter to highlight their case!

2. Demand your country’s officials speak up and end the silence and complicity in the arrest and military trial of Badee Dwaik, Younes Arar, Anan Dana, Ishaq al-Khateeb and nearly 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Call your foreign affairs officials – and members of parliament – and urge action on this case.

Call your country’s officials urgently:

Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop: + 61 2 6277 7500
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland: +1-613-992-5234
European Union Commissioner Federica Mogherini: +32 (0) 2 29 53516
New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully: +64 4 439 8000
United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson: +44 20 7008 1500
United States President Donald Trump: 1-202-456-1111

Tell your government:

1. Four Palestinian human rights defenders are facing an Israeli military court on Sunday, 2 April for participating in a peaceful protest against illegal settlements and colonization. These four activists – Badee Dwaik, Younes Arar, Ishaq al-Khateeb and Anan Dana – must be released immediately.

2. Governments around the world have condemned Israeli settlements, yet Palestinians are facing military courts for protesting against them. Your government must demand the immediate release of Badee Dwaik, Younes Arar, Anan Dana and Ishaq al-Khateeb.

3. The government must do more than express concern, both about the arrest of these four human rights defenders but about Israeli settlements and land confiscation that are targeting Palestinian existence. Representatives of your government should attend the Ofer military court on Sunday and take action by suspending agreements with Israeli institutions and the Israeli state, including trade, association and other agreements.

3. Hold a direct action, protest, picket, banner drop or demonstration, including building the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign to internationally isolate Israel, its institutions, and the corporations – like HP-that profit from imprisonment, occupation, racism, colonialism and injustice. Demand freedom for these four human rights defenders and all Palestinian prisoners. Please email samidoun@samidoun.net or post to Samidoun on Facebook about your events and actions.

Palestinian prisoners in Gilboa and Hadarim prisons vote to join collective hunger strike 17 April

2 April 2017

Palestinian prisoners in Gilboa and Hadarim prisons voted unanimously to participate in a collective prisoners’ hunger strike that is scheduled to begin on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, 17 April. Discussions within Israeli prisons about a collective hunger strike have been taking place for some time across political factions and throughout all organizations; earlier this month, Fateh prisoners announced their demands for the strike and their representative, imprisoned Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi.

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.

Wadah Bizreh, representative of the Fateh prisoners in Gilboa, said that all prisoners’ sections voted to join the strike. The prisoners in Gilboa include 430 Palestinian prisoners associated with Fateh and 70 prisoners from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

In Hadarim prison, there are 120 Palestinian political prisoners, held in 40 cells with three prisoners in each; 65 are Fateh prisoners, 27 with Hamas, 16 with Islamic Jihad, 5 with the PFLP and 3 with the DFLP. All voted to participate in the collective hunger strike on 17 April. In addition, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission reported that Akram Abu Bakr, one of the strike coordinators in Ramon prison, was transferred to Gilboa prison, while Hamza Taqtouq and Kamal Abu ‘Ar were transferred from Ramon to Hadarim. Abu Bakr announced that he would begin a hunger strike in protest of the arbitrary transfers meant to undermine the hunger strike.

46 more administrative detention orders issued by Israeli occupation in late March

2 April 2017

Israeli occupation authorities issued 46 administrative detention orders against Palestinian political prisoners for imprisonment without charge or trial, including a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, from 21 March to 31 March, reported Palestinian lawyer Mahmoud Halabi.

These orders are issued for one to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable; Palestinian prisoners have spent years at a time under administrative detention, without ever being charged or tried. The Israeli use of ‘administrative detention’ violates international law and has been widely condemned; many Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strikes have been sparked by the widespread use of administrative detention orders to imprison journalists, community organizers and youth leaders, among others.

Mohammed al-Tal, one of 12 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council imprisoned in Israeli jails, was ordered to imprisonment without charge or trial; he joins seven more PLC members held in administrative detention. There are over 550 Palestinians imprisoned under administrative detention orders among nearly 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners total in Israeli jails.

The orders issued were against the following Palestinian prisoners:

1. Sami Mohammed Ghoneim, from Jenin, 4 months, new order
2. Fouad Mohammed al-Qab, from Tulkarem, 4 months, extension
3. Yousef Shafiq Abdel-Karim, from Ramallah, 2 months, extension
4. Ahmed Azmi Abdel-Rahman, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
5. Aziz Wael Rahimi, from Ramallah, 3 months, extension
6. Ibrahim Ismail Zaanouneh, from al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
7. Ashraf Mustafa Daraghmeh, from Tubas, 3 months, extension
8. Maher Mohammed Shuraitah, from Ramallah, 3 months, extension
9. Fadi Hamad Ghanem, from Ramallah, 6 months, extension
10. Mohammed Abdel-Razeq Ayesh, from Ramallah, 4 months, extension
11. Adnan Ahed Asfour, from Nablus, 4 months, extension
12. Yazan Mohammed Shalbaya, from Ramallah, 3 months, new order
13. Musab Tawfiq al-Hindi, from Nablus, 6 months, ew order
14. Salah al-Din Yasser Sahwil, from Ramallah, 4 months, new order
15. Yousef Mohammed Abu Latifa, from Ramallah, 4 months, extension
16. Abdullah Abdel-Hafez Yousef, from Nablus, 4 months, extension
17. Issa Khalil Abu Arqoub, from al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
18. Mohammed Khaled Madani, from Nablus, 4 months, extension
19. Ayed Jamal Heraimi, from Bethlehem, 6 months, new order
20. Saddam Ghalib al-Sa’ada, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
21. Nawaf Suleiman Shawarka, from Bethlehem, 6 months, new order
22. Bassam Raban Hadami, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
23. Abdel-Salam Jamal Abu al-Hija, from Jenin, 3 months, extension
24. Othman Khalil Rashaida, from Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
25. Mohammed Ismail al-Tal, from al-Khalil, 4 months, new order
26. Ibrahim Mohammed Rashaida, from Bethlehem, 6 months, new order
27. Basil Ibrahim Mezher, from Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
28. Fouad Mohammed Bisharat, from Tubas, 2 months, extension
29. Salah al-Din Suleiman Houshiyya, from Jenin, 4 months, extension
30. Hussein Salah Abu Akar, from Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
31. Bilal Mahmoud Sweiti, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
32. Tariq Hassan Kani, from Nablus, 4 months, extension
33. Tamer Khalil Halabi, from Ramallah, 6 months, extension
34. Bilal Hassan Mansour, from Ramallah, 6 months, extension
35. Ali Talib Hroub, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
36. Jibril Adib Jiyawi, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
37. Ahmad Mustafa Zaid, from el-Bireh, 3 months, extension
38. Mahmoud Kamal al-Raza, from Jenin, 3 months, new order
39. Yousef Abdel-Aziz Qazzaz, from al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
40. Izzadine Jamil Saleh, from Jenin, 4 months, extension
41. Hammam Mounir Rahma, from Ramallah, 6 months, extension
42. Mohammed Khalil Sheikh Dura, from al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
43. Anas Hatem Kufaisheh, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
44. Mahmoud Ayoub Sidr, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
45. Abdullah Ibrahim Jawarish, from Bethlehem, 6 months, new order
46. Murad Ali Asakrah, from Bethlehem, 6 months, new order

London vigil demands freedom for Palestinian #DismantleTheGhetto Human Rights Defenders

2 April 2017

Below text is reprinted from a report by Inminds, www.inminds.com:

On the evening of Saturday 1st April 2017, Inminds human rights group held an emergency vigil to demand freedom for four Palestinian human rights defenders – Badee Dwaik, Younes Arar, Anan Dana, and Ishaq al-Khateeb, who have been abducted by Israeli occupation forces two days ago on 30th March after planting olive trees at Wadi Alhussein, east of Hebron, on Land Day as part of the #DismantleTheGhetto campaign. The vigil was held outside the Global headquarters of the BBC in London to highlight the BBC’s institutionalised suppression of reporting of Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people, including the abduction of the four.

As part of the vigil, images were projected onto the walls of BBC Broadcasting House.

Land day commemorates the shooting dead of 6 Palestinians by Israeli forces whilst they were protesting the confiscation of Palestinian land by the occupation for settlement building.

Activists from #DismantleTheGhetto campaign were planting olive trees when they were attacked by the settlers from the nearby illegal Kiryat Arba settlement. Kiryat Arba is infamous for its devotion and shrine to the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein who massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers, some as young as 12 years old, at the Ibrahimi Mosque; and its park named after Goldstein’s mentor the terrorist Meir Kahane who wanted to ‘gas the Arabs’.

Undeterred, the activists proceeded to the Jewish-only apartheid main road, built illegally on Palestinian land, where Palestinians are not allowed to drive. The Israeli occupation forces declared the area a closed military zone and attacked the activists, arrested the four.

The four were severely beaten by the soldiers both during arrest and transportation. Five soldiers attacked Badee Dwaik, after being shackled and dragged to the jeep he was badly beaten on his back and legs in the jeep.

The four have been moved to Israel, in contravention of the 4th Geneva Convention, and imprisoned at Ashkelon prison. Their military court hearing is tomorrow on Sunday 2nd April 2017.

The attack on these human rights defenders has been ongoing, just last month soldiers raided Badee Dwaik and Adnan Dana’s homes threatening their families and young children if they continue with the #DismantleTheGhetto campaign.

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said “We salute the human rights defenders Badee Dwaik, Younes Arar, Anan Dana and Ishaq al-Khateeb for their steadfastness in challenging the illegal occupation and colonization of their land. We demand their freedom and urge the BBC to break their silence and report of this injustice. The British government, along with the rest of the world, has declared Israeli settlements illegal under international law yet the BBC is silent when Palestinians are attacked and imprisoned for protesting against these illegal settlements.. exactly whose agenda is the publicly funded BBC following?”

Badee Dwaik heads the Palestinian Human Rights Defenders group; he is the father of 6 children, the youngest of which is 8 years old.

Inminds chair Abbas Ali added “Inminds is honoured to have worked with Badee Dwaik on several campaigns, especially the ongoing Free Shireen Issawi Campaign.”

Younes Arar, from the Colonization and Wall Resistance Committee of the PLO, and Anan Dana, from the Hebron Defense Committee, are both fathers of three children. Anan Dana is a teacher by profession. Ishaq al-Khateeb is local grass-roots activist.

A message from the wife of one of the four activists, Badee Dwaik, was read out at the vigil. She asked for international support to free her husband and the other activists, pointing out that their only ‘crime’ was to plant olive tree seedlings which symbolise peace.

The protest ended with video footage filmed by Palestinian Human Rights Defenders, projected on the BBC building showing the planting of the olive trees and subsequent attack and arrests of the four activists.

Inminds chair Abbas Ali concluded by saying “The BBC refuses to broadcast news about Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, so we have done it for them.. projecting onto their walls of BBC Broadcasting House, citizen journalist video footage, which they had access to but refused to show, of Israeli soldiers attacking and abducting peaceful activists planting olive trees.”

Learn more from Inminds at their website: www.inminds.com and Facebook page: fb.com/inmindscom.

New York protest demands freedom for longest-held Palestinian prisoner Nael Barghouthi

2 April 2017

New York activists protested outside the Best Buy electronics store in Union Square on Friday, 31 March to demand freedom for Nael Barghouthi and all Palestinian prisoners and build the campaign to boycott Hewlett-Packard (HP) products for the company’s involvement in Israeli occupation and apartheid.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network gathered in driving rain to call for the release of longest-held Palestinian prisoner Nael Barghouthi. Barghouthi has served 36 years in Israeli prisons; he was released in 2011 as part of the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange and was, at the time, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner. Barghouthi returned to his village of Kobar near Ramallah, where he farmed his family land and married his wife Iman Nafie, also a former political prisoner in Israeli jails.

In June 2014, Barghouthi and dozens of Palestinian former prisoners released in the prisoner exchange were swept up in raids by Israeli occupation military forces. Under Israeli military order 1651, the occupation claims the right to reimpose the sentences of prisoners released in an exchange on the basis of so-called “secret evidence.” While dozens of Palestinian prisoners had their former sentences reimposed, Barghouthi was ordered to a further 30 months in Israeli prison.

However, in 2015, the Israeli occupation military prosecution appealed his sentence, demanding instead the reimposition of his original life sentence plus 18 years. He was originally imprisoned on the basis of participating in a commando operation with fellow Fateh fighters that killed one Israeli settler near the illegal West Bank settlement of Halamish. Barghouthi was not released after his 30-month sentence expired, and on 22 February 2017, Barghouthi’s life sentence plus 18 years was reimposed by the Israeli military court. His lawyers and family are continuing the legal struggle for his freedom, but have urged the importance of international action and political support for his release. Samidoun activists in New York are conducting a campaign for the freedom of Nael Barghouthi, including regular protests and actions.

Protesters also highlighted the complicity of Hewlett-Packard (HP) corporations in profiteering from the architecture of Israeli colonialism, apartheid, occupation and oppression. HP provides technology services to Israeli checkpoints and the apartheid wall – including its Basel biometric ID system – as well as providing the database system the Israel Prison Service uses to manage Palestinian prisoners. There is a growing international campaign demanding HP get out of the business of profiteering from Israeli apartheid, and urging boycott of HP products, like printers, ink and computers, until it respects Palestinian human rights.

Participants in Friday’s protest also marked the Aafia Movement’s call for a global day of action commemorating the 14th anniversary of the abduction of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui by U.S. military forces in 2003. Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui, Aafia’s sister, has been leading a global campaign for Siddiqui’s repatriation to Pakistan. The Pakistan-USA Freedom Forum is a participant in this campaign and commemorated the day of action with Samidoun.

Samidoun activists will gather again in protest on Friday, 7 April at 5:30 pm in front of the Best Buy in Union Square, at 52 E. 14th Street, to demand freedom for Palestinian student prisoner Kifah Quzmar. All are welcome and encouraged to attend Friday’s demonstration.

7 April, NYC: Protest to free Kifah Quzmar and stop HP

1 April 2017

Friday, 7 April
5:30 pm
Best Buy Union Square
52 E. 14th St, NYC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/434442973558788/

Palestinian university student Kifah Quzmar, in his final year studying business administration at Bir Zeit University, launched a hunger strike on Sunday, March 26 in Ashkelon prison, where he is held shackled and remains under interrogation.

Quzmar, a popular, well-known student, was seized by Israeli occupation forces on March 7 at the Karameh/Allenby crossing from Jordan as he returned from travel. After denying that he was in their custody for several days, he was then denied access to a lawyer for 19 days. His lawyer, Anan Odeh, was finally allowed to see him on Sunday, March 26, when his detention was extended by an Israeli military court for eight more days. Odeh reports that his morale and commitment are high and that he is determined to achieve his freedom.

No charges or allegations have been made against Quzmar. On March 26, he reportedly demanded that he be charged with something or released. Instead, his interrogation was extended for eight additional days. He has been transferred to four separate prisons and interrogation centers during his confinement and has been kept almost continuously shackled throughout that time, subject to “severe and continuous pressure.” In response, he launched a hunger strike demanding his release.

Stand with Quzmar to demand that Israel release him and all 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.

70 organizations join call for action to #FreeKifahQuzmar and imprisoned Palestinian students

1 April 2017

70 organizations around the world have joined the call to action to free imprisoned Palestinian student Kifah Quzmar and his fellow students denied their right to education by Israeli imprisonment and repression. Quzmar, an active student at Bir Zeit University in his final year of study of business administration, was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 7 March at the Karameh/Allenby crossing as he returned from Jordan. He was immediately taken to interrogation which extended for 20 days before he was first allowed to see his lawyer, Anan Odeh. His detention was repeatedly extended, and he was transferred multiple times between four interrogation centers and military courts.

After a four-day hunger strike that he launched at the Israeli occupation military court on Sunday, 26 April, Quzmar’s interrogation was ended and he was transferred to the Ofer prison where he awaits another military court hearing on Sunday, 2 April. He is being threatened with administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial that can be indefinitely extended by Israeli military order. Of the nearly 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, nearly 600 of them are held in administrative detention, some for years on end through multiple renewal orders.

Quzmar is one of 60 Bir Zeit University students imprisoned by the Israeli occupation, among hundreds of Palestinian students imprisoned, often under administrative detention or on charges of participating in student activities or student elections, alleged by Israeli occupation forces to be “hostile organizations.”

Signatories of the statement, initiated by student organizations in the United States, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and Palestine, include the Concordia Student Union, the student union at the large Montreal University, the Palestinian Youth Movement – United States and National Students for a Democratic Society, among dozens of chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Students Against Israeli Apartheid. Additional signatories to the statement, urging freedom for Quzmar and his fellow student prisoners and the academic boycott of Israeli institutions, are welcome. The statement (also available in Arabic, Dutch, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese) and its full list of signatories are reprinted below.

Students for Justice in Palestine in Amsterdam organized an evening event on 30 March, with the participation of Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun, and Ekrem Deniz, active in organizing to free Turkish and Dutch political prisoners. The event included discussion of the struggle of political prisoners in Palestine and Turkey, including the case of Kifah Quzmar and the targeting of Palestinian students. Organizers held signs calling for freedom for Quzmar and for youth prisoner Seda Kaya, held in Turkish prison.

Take action! Kifah Quzmar will face a military court on Sunday, 2 April, so action is more timely than ever.

1) Sign up your organization to this statement: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BzCD9_hJeGFgQiJqxNC7OFjAfn1my0x4TXcYUq7ZI0g/viewform

3) Organize a table in a student center or a one-day hunger strike in support of Kifah Quzmar. Fellow students must know about the persecution faced by Palestinian students.

Solidarity Statement with Kifah Quzmar

We, the undersigned student organizations, groups, associations and unions urge all organizations to express solidarity with hunger striker, student and prisoner Kifah Quzmar and his fellow imprisoned Palestinian students and sign this statement:

Kifah Quzmar, 27, and in his last year of study of Business Administration at BirZeit University, was arrested by Israeli authorities on 7th March when returning from a trip at the Karameh/Allenby crossing from Jordan. As of now, no charges or allegations have been made against him. On 26 March he demanded to either be charged with something or released, but instead Israel extended his interrogation for eight additional days. To protest this injustice, the same day he started a hunger strike demanding his release.

The imprisonment of Palestinian students by the occupation is a clear breach of international, human rights and humanitarian law and academic freedom as a whole. The massive use of imprisonment in Palestine is a key weapon of settler colonialism as it attempts to suppress and eliminate Palestinian resistance. We condemn the Israeli Occupation for its grave violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Arts. 14, 17, 18, 19, 22), through its use of imprisonment and of the rights of students to education and to full and active political participation. At BirZeit University alone, 60 Palestinian students are denied access to education because they are held as political prisoners in Israeli jails. Students are repeatedly targeted for arrests, especially as annual student elections approach; activists involved with student political blocs are ordered to administrative detention or accused of support for “prohibited organizations.”

We, the undersigned student organizations, groups, associations and unions, demand the immediate release of Kifah Quzmar and all Palestinian political prisoners. We also demand an immediate end to the imprisonment of Palestinian students, which is a direct impediment of the right to education (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Art. 13). At last, we call upon all education institutions, companies and governments to comply with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) in order to pressure Israel in complying to International Law.

We call upon all organizations to express solidarity with Kifah Quzmar and his fellow imprisoned Palestinian students and sign this statement. We refuse to remain silent about the ongoing injustice in Palestine and we stand in solidarity with all Palestinians who are deprived of their unalienable rights of freedom, justice and return.

Palestinian students are being denied their education by the Israeli occupation. International solidarity can help to defend them!

Sign on to the statement: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeetFySFRMCIEFn59c7jEheUcq0sChRTr1-NO135Xt8hNkjTQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Endorsing organizations:

Al-Awda, PRRC
American Muslims for Palestine – NJ
Anakbayan New York
Anakbayan New Jersey
Arab-European Student Association – ULB
Asociación Palestina Biladi
Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP)
Association of Palestinian Community in Scotland
AWAke International Student Organisation for World Affairs
BDS Campaign – University of Manchester
CharityCo-EUCSA
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
Comité BDS-ULB
Concordia Student Union – CSU
Cornell Students for Justice in Palestine
Coup Pour Coup 31
Derry Branch – Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Edinburgh University Communist Society
Estudiantes por la Justicia en Palestina – Madrid
Exeter Palestine Action
Florida State University Students for Justice in Palestine
Fordham University Students for Justice in Palestine
Free Leonard Peltier!
Freedom Archives
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Fronte Palestina – Italy
Gentse studenten voor Palestina- Vrije Universiteit Gent / Hogeschool Gent
General Union of Palestine Students – (GUPS Aix-Marseille)
General Union of Palestine Students – (GUPS Paris)
General Union of Palestine Students – San Francisco State Univeristy
Human Rights March
Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Inminds, UK
Ireland supporting Palestinian youth
Jeunesses Libertaires Belgique
Jewish Voice for Peace, San Diego
John Jay Students for Justice in Palestine
King’s BDS Network
Manchester Boycott Israel Group
Merton PSC
National Students for a Democratic Society
New York City Students for Justice in Palestine
Not In Our Name (NION), Toronto, Canada
Palestina Rossa – Italy
Palestine Solidarity Committee – Austin
Palestine Solidarity Committee – University of Texas
Palestine Solidarity – Philippines
Palestinian Youth Movement – United States
People for Peace, London (Ontario)
Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine
Popular Resistance of Mississippi
Progressive Student Labor Front – Palestine
RiseUp
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at the University of Western Ontario
Strathclyde Students for Palestine
Studenten voor Rechtvaardigheid in Palestina – Universiteit van Amsterdam / Hogeschool van Amsterdam
Studenten voor Rechtvaardigheid in Palestina – Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Students Against Israeli Apartheid – Carleton University
Students Against Israeli Apartheid – George Mason University
Students Against Israeli Apartheid – Toronto
Students Against Israeli Apartheid – York University
Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Houston
Students for Justice in Palestine – Claremont College
Students for Justice in Palestine – Dublin
Students for Justice in Palestine – Kent State University
Students for Justice in Palestine – Leiden-Haaglanden
Students for Justice in Palestine – Maastricht
Students for Justice in Palestine – Nijmegen
Students for Justice in Palestine – Rotterdam
Students for Justice in Palestine – Saint Joseph’s College
Students for Justice in Palestine – The College of Staten Island
Students for Justice in Palestine – UGA
Students for Justice in Palestine – UOIT/DC
Tadamon, Montreal
UCL-Alma RiseUp
University of Manchester Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! Society
United for Palestine, Italia
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

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Solidarity Statement with Kifah Quzmar

Endorsing organizations:

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