Palestinian prisoners plan 17 April hunger strike; Fateh prisoners announce program

25 March 2017

Palestinian prisoners are gearing up for a large hunger strike, scheduled to begin on 17 April, commemorated each year as Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. Prisoners from all political factions have indicated plans for the strike, to center on collective issues of struggle for the prisoners, especially the ongoing denial of family visits and cuts to the lifeline provided by family visitation by the constant “security” denials of the Israeli prison administration as well as the “budget cuts” pretext of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Fateh prisoners announced on Friday, 24 March their program of struggle for the strike, confirming that imprisoned Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi will represent Fateh prisoners in all negotiations or decisions concerning the open hunger strike. In a statement, Barghouthi urged widespread actions and protests to support the prisoners’ demands.

The demands of the strike released so far by the Fateh prisoners include:

Family Visits – The return of the second monthly visit that was suspended by the ICRC; the end of prohibitions on family visits and denials of visitation for first- and second-degree relations. Extending the duration of visits from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours; allowing photography for each prisoner with their families every three months.

Women prisoners – Respond to the demands of women prisoners regarding private transportation (as opposed to the bosta system) and direct visits with family members, including children, without barriers between relatives.

Medical care – Ramleh prison hospital is unfit for treatment; prisoners must receive periodic examinations and surgery on a quick and responsive basis; allow the entry of private doctors who are specialists to examine sick prisoners; release ill prisoners with high-level medical needs and terminal illness; do not charge prisoners for their medical care.

Bosta (transportation van) – Humane treatment of prisoners during transport and transfer; return the prisoners promptly to prison from clinics and courts rather than holding them for lengthy periods at crossing points; humane treatment at the crossing points, including access to bathrooms and food.

Additional specific demands include:

Ending solitary confinement
Ending administrative detention
Allowing the entry of books, newspapers, clothing, food and other gifts from family members
Restoring the right to access education at the Hebrew Open University
Additional kitchens for prisons under the complete supervision of the prisoners
Formal provision of the general secondary school examinations (Tawjihi) for prisoners
Access to additional satellite channels
Installation of a public phone for prisoners to communicate with their families

Building international solidarity for the prisoners in their struggle will be critical. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges organizations and activists to prepare for the upcoming collective hunger strike and build events, actions and demonstrations to support their demands.

With arrest of Ibrahim Dahbour, number of imprisoned Palestinian legislators rises to 12

25 March 2017

There are now 12 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council imprisoned by the Israeli occupation, following the seizure of PLC member Ibrahim Dahbour, 52, on Wednesday, 22 March at a military checkpoint near the town of Arraba southwest of Jenin. Dahbour was seized from his car and his vehicle searched and confiscated.

Dahbour is a member of the Change and Reform bloc, associated with Hamas in the PLC. There has been a recent escalation in the arrests of PLC members, including five arrests in the month of March 2017.

The imprisoned PLC members are:

Ibrahim Dahbour, 52, of the Change and Reform Bloc, from Jenin, imprisoned since 22 March.
Mohammed al-Tal, of the Change and Reform bloc, of al-Khalil. Al-Tal previously spent 11 years in Israeli prisons, half of that time in administrative detention. He was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 21 March.
Samira Halaiqa, 53, of the Change and Reform bloc, of al-Khali. She was seized on 9 March by occupation forces who invaded and ransacked her family home. She was previously imprisoned for one year under administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, in 2006, following her election to the PLC. She is now being accused in the military courts for her participation in public political events and “incitement,” for posting on Facebook.
Khaled Tafesh, of the Change and Reform bloc, from Bethlehem. He was seized by occupation forces on 6 March. He was previously held without charge or trial under administrative detention in 2014 and was a deportee to Marj al-Zohour in southern Lebanon with other Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders in 1993.
Anwar Zboun, of the Change and Reform bloc, from Bethlehem. He was seized by occupation forces on 6 March, and previously spent over six years in Israeli prison, including being held in administrative detention without charge or trial in 2014.
Hassan Yousef, 60, of the Change and Reform bloc, from Ramallah. He has been imprisoned without charge or trial since Israeli occupation forces’ raid on his home in Beitunia on 20 October 2015. He has been held on four separate occasions under administrative detention without charge or trial. He is currently held in administrative detention.
Ahmad Mubarak, 48, of the Change and Reform bloc in Ramallah, seized by Israeli occupation forces on 16 January after they invaded and ransacked his home. He has spent over five years in Israeli prison, including five months in administrative detention in 2014. He is currently held in administrative detention.
Azzam Salhab, 62, of the Change and Reform bloc, from al-Khalil, was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 28 November 2016. He has been detained on numerous occasions in administrative detention, and was last released from prison in July 2015. He is currently held in administrative detention.
Mohammed Jamal Natsheh, 59, of the Change and Reform bloc from al-Khalil, has been held under administrative detention without charge or trial since 28 September 2016. He has spent over 15 years in Israeli prison and has been repeatedly ordered imprisoned without charge or trial in recent years. He was first arrested in 1988.
Mohammed Abu Teir, 65, of the Change and Reform bloc from Jerusalem, is currently serving a 17-month prison sentence. He was seized by Iraeli occupation forces on 26 January 2016. He has spent over 30 years in Israeli prisons in total and since his election in 2006 he has been subject to multiple arrests. He was stripped of his Jerusalem ID in 2006 for participating in the PLC elections along with fellow PLC members Ahmed Attoun and Mohammed Totah and former PA Jerusalem Affairs minister Khaled Abu Arafah.
Ahmad Sa’adat, 63, is the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and an elected member of the PLC on the Abu Ali Mustafa slate. Sa’adat was seized by Israeli occupation forces in a raid on the Palestinian Authority’s Jericho prison on 14 March 2006. He had been imprisoned there with his comrades under US and British guards since 2002. He is now serving a 30-year sentence in Israeli prisons after boycotting Israeli military courts, and he is a prominent Palestinian and international political leader and figure with a lengthy history of struggle and leadership in the Palestinian liberation movement.
Marwan Barghouthi, 57, is a member of the Fateh Central Committee. He has been imprisoned since April 2002 by Israeli occupation forces and is serving five life sentences after boycotting the Israeli military courts, accused of leading the Fateh armed wing during the second Intifada. Barghouthi, like Sa’adat, is one of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners and plays a major role in Fateh and Palestinian politics from inside Israeli prisons.

Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike against imprisonment without charge or trial

25 March 2017

At least two Palestinian prisoners are currently engaged in a hunger strike against their detention by Israeli occupation forces without charge or trial.

Raafat Shalash, 34, of Beit Awwa near al-Khalil is on hunger strike for the ninth day in protest of his administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. He has been imprisoned since 17 January 2016 without charge or trial under administrative detention. His administrative detention has been extended repeatedly since that time. He is married with three children. Shalash previously spent two years in Israeli prison and his two brothers, Mohammed and Yousri Shalash, are also imprisoned. On Thursday, 23 March, he was transferred to isolation in the Negev desert prison.

Also on hunger strike is Palestinian prisoner Mahmoud Saada, 41, from the village of Huwarra in Nablus. He has been striking for 12 days, reported his lawyer. He is being held under interrogation and has been held for 36 days in the Jalame detention center; he is demanding his release.

Akram al-Fassisi, former long-term hunger striker held under administrative detention, suspended his hunger strike after the Israeli military prosecutor agreed that his detention will not be renewed, on 23 March. He has spent five and a half years in prison under various arrests, most of them under administrative detention. He carried out hunger strikes for 58 days and 70 days in 2013 and 2014, respectively, against his previous imprisonment under administrative detention without charge or trial.

30 March, Amsterdam: The Struggle of Palestinian Political Prisoners

25 March 2017

Thursday, 30 March
7:00 pm
De Verrekijker
De Boelelaan 1085
1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/987416864691777/

March 30th SJP Amsterdam invite you to an event on the stuggle of Palestinian political prisoners. We are joined by speakers Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun, and Deniz Ekram, active for Turkish and Dutch political prisoners.
This event is free but registration is recommended (see link for tickets), donations are welcome on the night. It will begin at 7pm in De Verrekijker (on the VU campus, De Boelelaan 1105).

There is an estimated 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners, of which over 300 are children, held in Israeli jails – sentenced in military courts with 99.7% conviction rates, rounded up in night-time raids, often held under administrative detention (without charge or trial) on the basis of “secret evidence”. Since 1967, around 750,000 Palestinians have been in custody. Palestinian political prisoners represent all sectors of Palestinian society – men, women, children, elders, students, teachers, farmers, workers, artists, organizers and strugglers for freedom. Indeed, dozens of Palestinian student activists and student union representatives are currently imprisoned in Israeli jails. There are 750 Palestinians held without charge or trial under administrative detention.The massive use of imprisonment in Palestine is a key weapon of settler colonialism as it attempts to suppress and eliminate Palestinian resistance.

Charlotte Kates is the International Coordinator of Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. This network of organizers work to build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for freedom. Samidoun developed out of the September-October 2011 hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, seeing a need for a dedicated network to support Palestinian prisoners. Samidoun works to raise awareness and provide resources about Palestinian political prisoners, their conditions, their demands, and their work for freedom for themselves, their fellow prisoners, and their homeland. Charlotte will speak about Palestinian prisoners and the treatment they face in Israeli jails (including torture), EU complicity in Israeli occupation, the case for a HP boycott and attacks on the BDS* movement. She will also highlight the recent assasination of Basil Al-Araj, a Palestinian intellect and youth leader in the resistance.

Ekrem Deniz is active for political prisoners in Turkey and against police repression in the Netherlands and Turkey. He was among other things involved with the case of Ihsan Gürz, who was killed in a Dutch prison in 2011. He will speak about the history and current state of political prisoners in Turkey, torture in Kurdistan and the cases of Turkish and Kurdish political prisonors in Europe.

*Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

Israel is occupying and colonising Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law.

BDS is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, churches and grassroots movements across the world. Eleven years since its launch, BDS is having a major impact and is effectively challenging international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.

See you on Thursday!

SJP Amsterdam

26 March, Missisauga: Screening of “Tell your tale, little bird” and discussion with director

25 March 2017

Sunday, 26 March
5:00 pm
84 South Service Rd
Mississauga, ON L5G 2T3

The Arab Canadian Cultural Association will be hosting a film screening, “Tell your Tale, Little Bird”, followed by a discussion with Arab Loutfi, the film maker. The film recounts the experiences of seven Palestinian women in the national liberation struggle, who took part in the fight of the Palestinian people, including their experiences of arrest and imprisonment.

Rasmea Odeh accepts a plea agreement with no prison time

23 March 2017

For Immediate Release Thursday, March 23rd, 2017

Contact: Hatem Abudayyeh, hatem85@yahoo.com, 773.301.4108

Rasmea Odeh, the 69-year old Palestinian American community leader who was tortured and sexually assaulted by the Israeli military in 1969, is bringing to a close her battle to win justice from the U.S. legal system.After living in this country for over 20 years, Rasmea was charged in 2013 with an immigration violation that was always just a pretext for a broader attempt to criminalize the Palestine liberation movement. She has spent the last three and a half years leading a powerful battle to resist this attack, joined by hundreds of supporters for every court appearance, and thousands of supporters across the country and the world. However, the prospects for a fair trial are slimmer than ever. The prosecution team is now under the regime of racist Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and a new superseding indictment re-frames this as a case about “terrorism” rather than immigration. There is the great likelihood that a jury would be prejudiced by hearing the zionist Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel call Rasmea a “terrorist” and her supporters “mobs and hordes,” as he has done many times before. As a Palestinian who has dedicated her life to the cause of liberation, it is impossible for Rasmea to expect a fair trial in U.S. courts.

In 1969, as a college student, Rasmea was arrested by the Israeli police, along with as many as 500 others, and accused of involvement in two bombings. She was horrifically tortured for 25 days (including electric shocks and sexual assault), as was her father in her presence; and then tried before a kangaroo Israeli military court. This tribunal has military officers, and not civilians, as prosecutors and judges, and convicts over 99% of its Palestinian prisoners. She was found guilty based on a confession coerced through torture, and then given a life sentence. In 1979, she was freed with other Palestinians in a prisoner exchange.

In her 2014 trial in U.S. federal court, where she was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison for allegedly giving false answers to questions on her applications for permanent residency and citizenship, Judge Gershwin Drain prohibited the defense from challenging the legality of the military tribunal or offering proof of her innocence of the bombings. She was also not allowed to put forward that she suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the torture, but she won an appeal and a new trial expressly based on the excluded torture evidence. Its back against the wall, the government then filed a vindictive new superseding indictment that falsely accused Rasmea of being a “terrorist” and a member of a “designated terrorist organization.”

Under this current, racist political climate, and facing 18 months or more of imprisonment, as well as the possibility of indefinite detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Rasmea has made the difficult decision to accept a plea agreement. She will plead guilty to Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization, lose her U.S. citizenship, and be forced to leave the country, but will exit the U.S. without having to serve any more time in prison or ICE detention, a victory, considering that the government had earlier fought for a sentence of 5-7 years. Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel L. Lemisch and Tukel clearly want to dodge a public and legal defense that puts U.S.-backed Israel on trial for its crimes against Rasmea and its continuing crimes against the Palestinian people as a whole.

Through a massive, organized defense campaign, Rasmea Odeh—a long-time icon of the Palestine liberation movement—is now a name known in every corner of the movement for social justice in the U.S. From the Movement for Black Lives in Ferguson, Chicago, and beyond, to the call for a global #WomenStrike on International Women’s Day, Rasmea has become synonymous with resilience and resistance. This fight not only brought her story to the U.S. and the world, but also pushed forward the cause of the liberation of Palestine. She exposed Israel for what it is – a racist occupier and colonizer – and put its policy of torture and sexual assault on the permanent record in a U.S. court of law.

We had practical victories too. When the first judge assigned to Rasmea’s case was exposed as a lifelong supporter of Israel, and it was then found that he had direct financial ties that affirmed this bias, he was forced to remove himself from the case. After the first trial led to a conviction that did not hold up under appeal, Rasmea was taken immediately into custody. Supporters mobilized to demand her release. Within weeks, the movement had helped to post her bond, and Rasmea was back in Chicago, planning her successful appeal and continuing her important community organizing. And Rasmea never once walked into a courthouse alone. Whether by the dozens or the hundreds, at every hearing, every day of trial, from Detroit to Cincinnati, we were with her.

Rasmea’s choice today was not easy, but nothing in this journey has been, and our support continues to be critical. Soon, a hearing date will be set for Judge Drain to consider the plea agreement. We will again call for All Out to Detroit and stand beside her on that difficult day. After that, Rasmea will continue her incredible organizing work wherever she is, and so will we.

As she said to supporters outside the courthouse after the initial verdict, “There is justice in this world, we will find it. We will face injustice and we have to change this world, not just in this country, in all the world in all the places there is no justice, we have to bring the justice together. In spite of everything, we are the stronger people, not the government who is unjust.”

The case of Rasmea Odeh presents us all with an example of how to resist. The current political climate is formidable. The Muslim Ban, attacks on Latino immigrants and Black people, the cuts to programs serving women … these and other attacks will call on each of us to be unwavering, like Rasmea; to be consistent like her supporters; and to never run scared or fall silent in the face of injustice.

Rasmea Defense Committee, led by U.S. Palestinian Community Network and Committee to Stop FBI Repression
March 23rd, 2017 #Justice4Rasmea

Israeli attacks on Omar Barghouti part of ongoing attempt to silence and criminalize growing BDS movement

22 March 2017

Leading Palestinian advocate for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign for Palestinian rights, Omar Barghouti, has faced repeated attacks by the Israeli state, including attempts to undermine his residency or impose a travel ban upon him to prevent his international advocacy and hinder his work as a human rights defender. On Sunday, 19 March, Israeli tax authorities invaded the home of Barghouti and his wife Safa, detaining them for 16 hours on the first day; Barghouti has been subsequently interrogated for four days.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in solidarity with Barghouti and all Palestinian activists, strugglers and human rights defenders daily struggling against a settler colonial regime of criminalization, racism, apartheid and repression. In response to all attempts to criminalize or suppress BDS advocacy or campaigns for justice in Palestine, the most necessary response from all people concerned with justice is to escalate and build the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions and the international isolation of Israel, to demand justice and liberation for the land and people of Palestine.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) issued the following statement in response to the attacks on Barghouti, as part and parcel of the systematic attack of the Israeli government against BDS and the struggle for Palestinian rights and freedom:

A prominent Palestinian human rights defender and co-founder of the BDS movement, Omar Barghouti, has for years been subjected to intense threats, intimidation and repression by various arms of the far-right Israeli government, particularly after it considered the movement a “strategic threat” to its entire system of injustice against Palestinians.

At a March 2016 conference in occupied Jerusalem, several Israeli government ministers threatened Omar and key BDS human rights defenders with severe measures, including “targeted civil elimination” – a euphemism for civil assassination. The Ministry of Strategic Affairs last year established a “tarnishing unit,” as exposed in the Israeli daily Haaretz. This unit’s job is to tarnish the reputation of BDS human rights defenders and networks.

It is in this context that the Israeli tax department’s investigation of Omar and his wife, Safa, must be understood. After failing to intimidate them through the threat of revoking Omar’s permanent residence in Israel, and after the effective travel ban imposed on him proved futile in stopping his human rights work, the Israeli government has resorted to fabricating a case related to Omar’s alleged income outside of Israel to tarnish his image and intimidate him.

The fact that this investigation includes a travel ban and that it comes a few weeks before Omar Barghouti is scheduled to travel to the U.S. to receive the Gandhi Peace Award jointly with Ralph Nader in a ceremony at Yale University proves its true motive —repression.

The fact that the Israeli government publicized the inflammatory fabrications against Omar just 24 hours after he was taken in for investigation shows beyond doubt that the investigation’s real goal is to tarnish his reputation.

No matter what extreme measures of repression Israel wields against the BDS movement or its human rights defenders and vast network of supporters, it cannot stop this movement for human rights. Bullying and repression can hardly affect a grassroots movement that grows in people’s hearts and minds, empowering them to do the right thing — to stand on the right side of history, against Israel’s fanatic regime of apartheid, occupation and ethnic cleansing, and for freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people.

This latest desperate chapter of repression and intimidation by the Israeli government against Omar Barghouti is the strongest indicator yet of the failure of the Israeli regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid to slow down the impressive growth of the BDS movement for Palestinian rights.

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society. It leads and supports the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Visit www.bdsmovement.net and follow @BDSmovement

Palestinian legislator Mohammed al-Tal seized by Israeli forces; Samira Halaiqa indicted by military court

22 March 2017

The number of imprisoned Palestinian Legislative Council members climbed to 11 on Tuesday, 21 March after a pre-dawn raid by Israeli occupation forces seized PLC member Mohammed al-Tal from al-Khalil, along with 19 more Palestinians. Al-Tal has previously spent 11 years in Israeli prisons, half of those in administrative detention without charge or trial.

Also on Tuesday, 21 March, an Israeli occupation military court at Ofer submitted an indictment against PLC member Samira Halaiqa, 53, from al-Khalil, accusing her of participating in political and social activities and engaging in “incitement” for making political posts on Facebook. Halaiqa was seized on 9 March by occupation forces who invaded her home. She, along with her husband Mohammed Halaiqa, had previously been imprisoned for one year in 2006 under administrative detention, following her election to the PLC

Both Halaiqa and al-Tal are part of the Change and Reform bloc, the PLC bloc associated with Hamas.

The 11 detained PLC members include: Khaled Tafesh and Anwar Zboun, both from the Bethlehem area, members of the Change and Reform bloc, seized on Monday, 6 March. Zboun spent over six years in Israeli prison, including several months in administrative detention in 2014. Tafesh, a former deportee to Marj al-Zohour, was also previously held in administrative detention in 2014. Tafesh, Zboun, Halaiqa and al-Tal were all arrested in the month of March.

Other detained PLC members include Hassan Yousef and Ahmad Mubarak of Ramallah and Azzam Salhab and Mohammed Jamal Natsheh of al-Khalil. All members of the Change and Reform bloc, they are held in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Sa’adat, is serving a 30-year sentence in Israeli prison, while Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi is serving several life sentences. Jerusalemite PLC member of the Change and Reform bloc, Mohammed Abu Teir, was subject to expulsion from his home city of Jerusalem and is now serving a 17-month sentence in Israeli prison.

30 more administrative detention orders issued to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial

22 March 2017

Israeli occupation forces issued another 30 administrative detention orders for the imprisonment without charge or trial of Palestinians between 13 and 20 March, 2017.

Palestinian lawyer Mahmoud Halabi reported that the orders included 12 new orders and 18 renewals of existing administrative detention orders. One of the detention orders renewed here was that of Mohammed Harb, 23, from Jenin, one of the comrades of slain Palestinian youth leader Basil al-Araj, who was assassinated by Israeli occupation forces on 6 March. Harb was among five young Palestinians imprisoned with al-Araj in Palestinian Authority prisons for five months; he was seized by Israeli occupation forces soon following his release. Seif al-Idrissi, Mohammed al-Salameen and Haitham Siyaj are also held in administrative detention without charge or trial.

There are currently nearly 600 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of nearly 7,000 total Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. Administrative detention orders are issued for one to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable, meaning that Palestinians can spend years in prison without charge or trial.

Currently, three Palestinians are on hunger strike against their administrative detention: Mohammed Alaqimah, Raafat Shalash and Akram al-Fassisi, himself a former long-term hunger striker re-arrested after his prior release from imprisonment without charge or trial.

The 30 Palestinians who were ordered to administrative detention are:

1. Mohammed Mahmoud Awad, from al-Khalil, 2 months, extension
2. Mohammed Abdullah Harb, from Jenin, 6 months, extension
3. Abdel-Fattah Kamal Ajrab, from Ramallah, 3 months, extension
4. Issa al-Sanadiyeh, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
5. Sami Mohammed Ghoneim, from Jenin, 4 months, new order
6. Mohammed Fouad al-Qab, from Tulkarem, 4 months, extension
7. Abdel-Rahim Bassam Hammad, from Ramallah, 4 months, extension
8. Fares Hosni Shawahneh, from Jenin, 4 months, new order
9. Zakaria Abdel-Hamid Oweidat, from al-Khalil, 4 months, new order
10. Anwar Mohammed Zein, from Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
11. Abdel-Rahman Hussein Qawasmeh, from al-Khalil, 4 months extension
12. Saif Mustafa Nasser, from Ramallah, 4 months, extension
13. Mustafa Fahmi Balout, from Jenin, 4 months, new order
14. Amer Nizar Khawaja, from Ramallah, 6 months, new order
15. Louay Sati Ashqar, from Tulkarem, 4 months, extension
16. Fadi Munther Raddad, from Tulkarem, 4 months, new order
17. Ghassan Issa Hermas, from Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
18. Hussein Mohammed Mardawi, from Nablus, 4 months, extension
19. Ali Abdel-Rahman Jaradat, from Ramallah, 4 months, extension
20. Eyad Omar Hamad, from Nablus, 3 months, extension
21. Mohammed Akram Taqatqa, from Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
22. Salah al-Din Ayman Dweikat, from Nablus, 4 months extension
23. Shadi Mohammed Jarrar, from Jenin, 4 months, extension
24. Mahmoud Karim Ayyad, from Bethlehem, 6 months, new order
25. Khaled Ibrahim Dweib, from Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
26. Hassan Mohammed Wardian, from Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
27. Mohammed Hussein Shalash, from al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
28. Sami Mohammed Birawi, from Nablus, 4 months, extension
29. Nader Abdel-Halim Natsheh, from al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
30. Shadi Mohammed Shouli, from Nablus, 4 months, extension

Australia finds no funds diverted in World Vision probe, further debunking Israeli claims against al-Halabi

22 March 2017

In yet another blow to the propaganda-driven case against Palestinian aid worker Mohammed al-Halabi, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reported on Tuesday, 21 March that “an internal review into World Vision funding in Gaza has uncovered nothing to suggest any diversion of government aid funding to Hamas.”

Al-Halabi was seized by Israeli occupation forces at the Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing and in August 2006, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, went on a propaganda offensive, claiming that Halabi had redirected World Vision funds to the Palestinian resistance organization, Hamas. Israeli occupation officials declared that he had diverted $43 million in charitable funds to the Palestinian resistance, including a video from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Palestinians of not caring about their people. The amounts cited dwarfed the actual budget to which al-Halabi had access, by all accounts. These seemingly impossible claims were made after nearly a month of interrogation, during which Halabi was subjected to torture and inhumane treatment.

The claims against Halabi were accompanied by similarly touted claims against civil engineer Waheed Bursh, a contractor with the UN Development Program, also accused of redirecting resources to the Palestinian resistance – in his case, rubble from the Israeli bombing of Gaza. However, despite the large-scale publicity surrounding Borsh’s arrest, he was released seven months later, indicating that no serious charges were ever made. He was cited as a “witness” againat al-Halabi, and later confirmed that he completely denied any allegations against the aid worker.

“The news DFAT found no evidence of the misuse of World Vison funds comes as Mr Halabi’s trial continues in Israel. He has rejected a plea deal offered by Israeli authorities and has pleaded not guilty, claiming he is innocent of all charges,” reported the Australian Brodcasting Corporation. The plea agreement he rejected would have seen him imprisoned for three years, a short sentence which again indicates a lack of serious charges or evidence in the case.

Indeed, rather than presenting any evidence to back up the widely-publicized public claims against World Vision and Halabi, Israeli occupation officials have instead submitted additional, lesser charges against Halabi that have no relation to diverting funds or his work with World Vision; two such charges are those of “passing information to the enemy” and of “aiding and abetting the enemy in a time of war,” with the enemy in question being Palestinians in Gaza. Al-Halabi is, himself, of course, a Palestinian living under occupation and siege in Gaza.

He is also charged with giving small donations of his own money, rather than redirecting World Vision funds, to charities and mosques in Gaza. ABC notes that “One incident detailed accuses El Halabi of allegedly giving ‘300 Israeli shekels on a monthly base to a charity managed by Hamas’…Another says the defendant transferred ‘hundreds of shekels during 2015-2016 to a mosque managed by Hamas’…No details are given of the ‘millions’ of dollars Israeli intelligence officials initially accused El Halabi of diverting.” 100 NIS is approximately $26 USD.

“So far, our own ongoing forensic audit has not uncovered any money subverted and to hear DFAT say their investigation hasn’t either is consistent and is very good news,” said Tim Costello of World Vision.

Despite the severe lack of evidence or credibility for Israeli claims in this case, World Vision’s work in Gaza – and government funding from the Australian and German governments – have been shut down. Over 100 Palestinian workers for World Vision have lost their jobs in Gaza in an area already suffering from massive unemployment and poverty.

1...401402403...691 Page 402 of 691

Follow us on Instagram @samidounnetwork