Protests in New York and Washington demand justice, accountability for Basil al-Araj, end to security coordination

15 March 2017

Palestinian and international protests continued as Mahmoud al-Araj, the father of Basil al-Araj, filed a complaint on Tuesday, 14 March against Palestinian Authority officials and directors of the security services. The elder Al-Araj was beaten on Sunday, 12 March by PA security forces alongside many other protesters denouncing PA security coordination with Israel. His son Basil was murdered by Israeli occupation forces on 6 March 2017 when they invaded the home where he was staying in El-Bireh.

Basil al-Araj and five of his comrades had been arrested by PA security forces in April 2016 in a case touted at the time by PA President Mahmoud Abbas as an important achievement for PA/Israel security coordination. They were tortured and imprisoned for five months without charges before being released after a hunger strike that received widespread Palestinian attention and support. Four of Basil’s comrades, Haitham Siyaj, Mohammed Harb, Mohammed al-Salameen and Seif al-Idrissi, have now been seized by Israeli occupation forces and are held without charge or trial under administrative detention. Al-Araj went underground and his family was repeatedly harassed by occupation forces, their home invaded in the middle of the night and their belongings ransacked, before al-Araj was shot dead by occupation forces as he resisted on 6 March. Israeli occupation forces have continued to deny the return of Basil’s body.

Protesters took the streets in Ramallah on Sunday, 12 March against the PA court system continuing criminal charges of “possession of an unlicensed weapon” against al-Araj and the five, four of whom are held in Israeli jails. While the charges against al-Araj were dismissed, the other four’s PA trial was continued until 30 April, with the statement that they may be released from Israeli jail at that time.

The protesters, including al-Araj’s father, were attacked with batons, tear gas, sound grenades and rubber bullets. Many were injured and several arrested; Mahmoud al-Araj was taken to hospital. Along with lawyers Farid al-Atrash and Anas Barghouthi, he filed the complaint against a series of PA officials, including Adnan al-Damiri, the spokesperson of the PA security forces, Sliman Qandil, head of National Security, Abdel-Latif Qaddoumi, chief of Ramallah police, and generally against police and security forces who participated in attacking demonstrators on 12 March. The complaint includes the use of excessive force, attacking a peaceful protest, making false statements in the media and defamation; al-Damiri engaged in public statements attacking the demonstrators, labelling them “mercenaries” and foreign agents, following the violent assault on them by PA forces.

Thousands of Palestinians also took the streets on 13 March in Ramallah, marching from Manara Square in protest of the attack by PA security forces, while demanding an end to PA security coordination with Israel. The mass marches in Ramallah included demands for PA officials, including Mahmoud Abbas, to resign. The demonstrators also emphasized the importance of supporting and protecting Palestinian resistance strugglers.

As the large march wound through Ramallah, demonstrations were organized by young Palestinians in New York City and Washington, DC. On Sunday, 12 March, protests were held in Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, London, Amman, Beirut, Tunis and Rabat demanding justice for al-Araj and an end to PA security coordination.

Organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, the protests in New York City and Washington and took place at the Palestinian Mission to the United Nations and the PLO Delegation to the United States, respectively.

In New York City, around 40 people gathered to demand justice for al-Araj. Zachariah Barghouti, other PYM representatives and speakers from a number of Palestinian and solidarity organizations, including Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Existence is Resistance and Decolonize this Place, addressed the rally, as well as a number of young Palestinians who knew al-Araj personally. Participants chanted in Arabic and English and left signs and posters at the door to the mission, expressing the demands of the protesters. Adnan Farsakh of Samidoun led spirited chants in Arabic, denouncing Israeli assassination and PA complicity.

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“Basel’s unrelenting passion for freedom and justice should be an example for us all. Basel was a hero and freedom fighter. And we have to honor him by securing liberation for Palestine!” said Michela Martinazzi of Samidoun. Another Samidoun activist read the statement about al-Araj’s assassination by Israeli occupation forces.

The PYM presented a statement noting that the protests in New York and Washington were denouncing the killing of Al-Araj by occupation forces while simultaneously demanding accountability for the PA’s role in his assassination due to security coordination.

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In Washington, DC, protesters gathered amid falling snow outside the PLO General Delegation to the US. Jehad Salim spoke, delivering a speech in Arabic mourning Basil al-Araj. In his speech, he denounced the Oslo agreements and all that has followed from them, including the PA’s security coordination with the Israeli occupation.

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“Al-Araj’s assassination is a continuation of the sordid Israeli practice to eliminate Palestinian leaders and undermine the national liberation movement. Rather than protest these murders and Israel’s use of lethal force against civilians, the PA continues to collude with the Israeli occupying power, thus exacerbating the vulnerability of nearly four million Palestinians residing in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip,” noted the call for the protest.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is organizing another protest against the assassination of Basil al-Araj on Friday, 17 March at 5:30 pm outside the Best Buy electronics store in Union Square. The protest will also highlight the growing international campaign to boycott HP for its involvement in Israeli colonization and apartheid while demanding justice for al-Araj. All are invited to attend the Friday protest.

Eleventh anniversary of Israeli attack on Jericho prison: From Ahmad Sa’adat to Basil al-Araj

14 March 2017

14 March 2017 marks the 11th anniversary of the attack on Jericho prison by Israeli occupation forces and the abduction of six Palestinian political prisoners. Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, his comrades Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Majdi Rimawi, Hamdi Qur’an and Basil al-Asmar, along with Fateh veteran leader Fouad Shobaki, were seized from the PA prison after US and British guards suddenly left their posts in a violent attack by Israeli occupation forces. Today, all six of the kidnapped Palestinians remain imprisoned. Two Palestinians were killed and 23 injured by occupation forces as they waged a military assault on the prison.

The attack on Jericho prison not only reflected yet another Israeli crime against the Palestinian people and the targeting of one of Palestine’s most prominent political leaders, Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Palestinian leftist party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. It also clearly indicated the joint role of imperialist powers like the United States and the United Kingdom and the devastating impact of Palestinian Authority “security coordination” with Israel.

This anniversary is particularly poignant today, following the Israeli assassination of Palestinian youth leader Basil al-Araj, months after he was released from a Palestinian Authority prison. Thousands of Palestinians have taken the streets inside Palestine and in exile to demand an end to the policy of security coordination and Palestinian Authority attacks on Palestinian resistance. Just as the Palestinian Authority’s imprisonment of Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades under US and British guard cannot be separated from their present imprisonment by the Israeli occupation, the PA’s arrest of al-Araj and his comrades cannot be separated from his murder by the Israeli occupation.

The imprisonment of Sa’adat and his comrades in a Palestinian Authority prison had been negotiated by parties representing a full array of the forces allied against the Palestinian people, including Mahmoud Abbas, Mohammed Dahlan, Saeb Erekat, Yasser Abed Rabbo, then-Prince Abdullah of Jordan, Omri Sharon and Tony Blair. Even inside the PA prison, the imprisoned Palestinians were further held under US and British guard, reflecting the dominant role of the United States and the European Union in ensuring Palestinian Authority subservience in the framework of security coordination. Some of those British guards had played a role in imprisoning Irish republican prisoners in the North of Ireland; today, former officers from the Royal Ulster Constabulary have trained PA security forces mandated to carry out security coordination. The prisoners themselves had been seized through trickery and deception by Palestinian Authority officials, including Tawfiq Tirawi, then the PA’s security chief.

Those US and British guards deliberately left their posts in order to provide a clear path for the Israeli attack on Jericho prison. Indeed, much of the weaponry with which the Israeli occupation forces attacked the prison, destroying much of it, was US-made or US-funded. Furthermore, in 2017 we also mark 100 years of British colonialism in Palestine and the issuance of the Balfour declaration – and 100 years of Palestinian resistance, which was met with brutal repression, mass jailings, home demolitions and the execution of Palestinian freedom strugglers at the hands of British colonial authorities, who introduced administrative detention to Palestine.

In the case of al-Araj, PA President Mahmoud Abbas publicly proclaimed his arrest and that of his comrades by PA forces in April 2016 to be a major coup for security coordination, declaring publicly and non-specifically that they were “planning an attack” and were “tracked down and arrested.” They remained for five months within PA prisons without charge, before entering a hunger strike that secured their release. Today, four of the five youths imprisoned with Basil al-Araj are held without charge or trial in Israeli prisons under administrative detention. Al-Araj’s own family home was repeatedly raided and ransacked and his family members subjected to continuous summons for interrogation, before he was shot down – resisting till the last breath – in el-Bireh on 6 March 2017.

Security coordination is a devastating and daily threat to the lives and freedom of Palestinians struggling to bring an end to Israeli occupation and settler colonialism. From Ahmad Sa’adat, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Hamdi Qur’an, Majdi Rimawi, Basil al-Asmar and Fouad Shoubaki to Basil al-Araj, Palestinians continue to resist under the constant threat of imprisonment and death at the hands of occupation forces, with full economic, military and political support from the US, the UK, Canada and the European Union. There are approximately 6,500 Palestinians imprisoned today in Israeli jails. That number is supplemented by the political detainees in Palestinian Authority prisons, alongside Palestinians and strugglers for Palestine targeted for imprisonment and persecution in international prisons, from former prisoners and torture survivors like Rasmea Odeh in the United States to charity workers like the Holy Land Five to Lebanese struggler for Palestine Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, imprisoned for over 32 years in French prisons.

On the eleventh anniversary of the attack on Jericho prison, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates the call for freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners. We also reiterate and join in the demand heard loudly in the streets from thousands of Palestinians, including those in Ramallah, Dheisheh, Gaza, London, New York, Brussels, Berlin, Amman, Beirut, Rabat, Tunis, Washington DC and elsewhere seeking justice for Basil al-Araj, for an immediate end to PA security coordination with the Israeli occupation.

From Basil al-Araj to Ahmad Sa’adat, Palestinian leaders and symbols of resistance have been targeted for imprisonment and assassination with the complicity and support of governments around the world, including those of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and European states. This anniversary is also an occasion to inspire all international movements standing with Palestine to escalate our actions to expose and put an end to that support, complicity and involvement, through building the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, supporting Palestinian national liberation organizing and resistance, and building the struggle to free all Palestinian political prisoners and free the land and people of Palestine.

17 March, NYC: Protest Israel’s murder of Basil al-Araj and Stop HP

14 March 2017

Friday, 17 March
5:30 pm
Best Buy Union Square
52 E. 14th St., NYC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1874232936195319/

In a pre-dawn raid attacking a home in el-Bireh, Basil al-Araj, 31, a Palestinian youth activist and writer pursued by Israel for nearly a year, was assassinated by invading Israeli occupation forces the morning of March 6.

Al-Araj, from the village of Walaja near Bethlehem, fought back and resisted the invading forces for two hours before the attacking occupation soldiers broke into the home where he was staying and executed him at close range. They then seized his body and took it to an unknown location.

The attack on the home included rocket fire as well as al-Araj’s extrajudicial execution in a hail of bullets. Al-Araj’s family home in al-Walaja had been repeatedly raided by occupation forces for months.

Join us as we mourn al-Araj, stand with other Palestinians – including 6,500 political prisoners – pursued by Israel because of their struggles for freedom, and demand Hewlett Packard companies end their contracts with Israeli occupation forces, prisons and detention centers, 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.

Israeli occupation issues 35 administrative detention orders so far in March

13 March 2017

Israeli occupation authorities issued 35 administrative detention orders between 1 and 12 March, reported Palestinian lawyer Mahmoud Halabi of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.

Administrative detention orders are used to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial; they are issued for one to six month periods, but are indefinitely renewable. Therefore, Palestinians can spend years at a time imprisoned with no charge and no trial. There are currently around 600 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention orders.

Among the Palestinians issued administrative detention orders in this group is Ihsan Dababseh, former prisoner and one of two Palestinian women currently held in administrative detention. Among the orders, 13 are new orders and 22 are renewals of existing administrative detention orders.

The list of prisoners against whom orders were issued are:

1. Mumin Fathi Fashafsheh, Jenin, 4 months extension
2. Khaled Mansour Abdel-Nabi, al-Khalil, 3 months, new order
3. Samarah Sami Majid, Ramallah, 3 months, extension
4. Mahmoud Mohammed Salah, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
5. Omar Ali al-Hih, al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
6. Khaled Majid al-Badr, Jerusalem, 4 months, extension
7. Tariq Mahmoud Blalou, Jenin, 6 months, extension
8. Mohammed Ahmed Suqia, Jenin, 3 months, new order
9. Mahmoud Khalil Ghuneim, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
10. Said Ismail Abu Hadid, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
11. Yousef Naim Ghuneim, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
12. Mohammed Ribhi Saleh, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
13. Rami Hisham Abu Safiya, al-Khalil, 6 onths, extension
14. Musab Mahmoud Suwaita, al-Khalil, 3 months, new order
15. Ismail Khalil al-Zeer, Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
16. Ahmad Nasri Ibrahim, Jenin, 4 months, extension
17. Ahmed Fayez Saadi, Jenin, 3 months, new order
18. Mohammed Ibrahim Yahya, Jenin, 4 months, extension
19. Alaa Abdel-Rahim al-Azm, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
20. Yousef Mahmoud Laham, Bethlehem, 6 months, new order
21. Amer Omar Za’aroureh, Nablus, 4 months, extension
22. Khaled Jamil Shanaiteh, Bethlehem, 6 months, new order
23. Eyad Habib Mohammed, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
24. Shadi Mohammed Abu Aker, Bethlehem, 6 months, extension
25. Walid Daoud Bustanji, Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
26. Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Hamed, Qalqilya, 4 months, extension
27. Mohammed Suleiman Srouji, Tulkarem, 6 months, new order
28. Ismail Ahmed Hawamdeh, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
29. Jaoudat Ahmad Mashal, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
30. Maan Hamdallah Hamidat, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
31. Walid Mohammed Hmeidan, Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
32. Ahmed Diab Burash, Ramallah, 4 months, new order
33. Ihsan Hassan Dababseh, al-Khalil, 4 months, new order
34. Essam Rashid al-Ashqar, Nablus, 2 months, extension
35. Mohsen Raafat Asfour, Ramallah, 4 months, extension

Palestinian woman’s detention extended for 11 days, denied access to lawyer

13 March 2017

An Israeli occupation court convening in the Moskobiyeh interrogation center in Jerusalem ordered young Palestinian woman Batool Ramahi to 11 more days of detention, forbidding her from receiving a visit from a lawyer until 16 March.

Ramahi, 24, was arrested from her home in the village of Surda near Ramallah in a pre-dawn military raid on Sunday, 12 March.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Legislative Council member Samira Halaiqa was brought before an Israeli military court on Sunday, 12 March, where her detention was extended, and was scheduled to be returned to military court on Monday, 13 March.

Halaiqa’s arrest brought the total number of imprisoned PLC members to 10 and prompted protest in Gaza by PLC leaders affiliated with her Change and Reform bloc, associated with Hamas.

A Palestinian girl, Sondos Joulani, 17, was among 21 Palestinians seized by Israeli occupation forces on Sunday night, 12 March and Monday morning, 13 march. She was one of 11 people arrested in Jerusalem, including Karim Abu Tayeh, Ayman Abu Tayeh, Uday Abu Tayeh, Mohammed Abu Hammam, Mahmoud Abu Nabi, Hatem Shweiki, Wael Qarout, Wael Abu Ramouz, 15-year-old Musleh Naser Shehadeh, and Mahmoud Matar, the father of Ibrahim Matar, killed on Monday morning by Israeli forces.

Four more Palestinians from the town of Jiftlik were seized, including Ibrahim Abu Salem Dalakh, Mohammed Abu Gheith Dalakh, Nawaf al-Jahalin and Yasser Abu Hatab. In al-Khalil, three people were arrested, including Rabie Jawad Zaaqiq, Malik al-Jabari, and Salim Mahmoud Tarayreh, 48, the father of Issa Tarayreh, who was 16 years old in September 2016 when he was shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces.

Tareq Maher Zakarneh was seized in Qabatiya, Mohammed Ghazi Suleiman Abu Jaber in Tulkarem and Jumaa el-Desoki in Jalazone refugee camp.

Since International Women’s Day, an average of one Palestinian woman has been arrested by Israeli forces daily, including Joulani, Halaiqa, Ramahi, Souad Shyoukhi – whose brother was killed by occupation forces – and novelist Khalida Ghosheh, currently released on bail after being arrested and interrogated about her forthcoming novel, “The Jackal’s Trap,” looking at Palestinian collaborators with Israel.

Protest against LAW-TRAIN in Charleroi, Belgium faces police harassment

13 March 2017

Original in French by Myriam De Ly at Pour La Palestine

On Saturday, 11 March, thirty members and supporters of Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine gathered in the afternoon to protest the LAW-TRAIN project.

Belgium, and specifically the judicial police and KU Leuven, are collaborating with the Israeli police in the LAW-TRAIN project, which aims to develop interrogation techniques, despite the fact that Israel is regularly condemned for its use of torture and inhumane and degrading treatment during its interrogations of prisoners.

The action came as part of the international Israeli Apartheid Week.

Over 200 universities, towns and cities around the world are participating in this week of action with a common theme: 100 years of colonialism in Palestine, 100 years of popular resistance!

During the symbolic action, the participants expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners and their resistance.

There are approximately 6,500 Palestinians in prison, including 69 women and 350 children.

These children are often arrested at night and can receive lengthy sentences. Children are prevented from seeing their parents for three or four months at a time, if not more. During these visits, they are denied physical contact between parent and child.

1000 Palestinian prisoners are ill and do not receive proper health care. In addition, some Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and Israeli authorites refuse to return their bodies to their families.

Hundreds of Palestinians are held in administrative detention without charge or trial. Their detention can be arbitrarily extended, 6 months at a time. 75 Palestinians have been imprisoned for over 25 years and six for over 30 years.

The participants expressed their rejection of their government’s adoption of Israeli methods. In France, a Lebanese struggler, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who struggled for Palestine, has been imprisoned for 33 years despite being eligible for release since 1999.

They demanded: an end to the Belgian cooperation with Israeli institutions implicated in violations of international humanitarian law and human rights. The immediate end of the participation of the Belgian prosecutor’s office and judicial police and KU Leuven with Israeli police. The end to financing of such projects by the European Union.

Harassment by police in Charleroi

The action went well. At the moment the participants dispersed, they were stopped by the police for an identity check.

We explained that this was a symbolic action that had ended. We left again in small groups, and headed to a bistro to drink and eat together when we were stopped again for a second time.

Five minutes later, three young people who were on their way called us on the telephone to tell us they had been stopped by the police. We joined them. 15 police officers and a dog encircled them.

One of the police said: “A group that is moving and carrying a political message, it is normal that there is a control.”

The “political message” was nothing other than the keffiyehs that the three young people were wearing while walking on the Place du Manege. We recalled the previous Police Order concerning us, in which they claimed that wearing a keffiyeh is an appeal for violence or hate.

This harassment is outrageous and yet another attack on the right to expression for Palestine in Charleroi. We will not allow this to happen.

Stop LAW-TRAIN!
Stop the harassment by Charleroi police!

Photos by Raymond, Shady and Coralie.

Palestinian administrative detainee Jamal Abu Leil ends hunger strike in agreement

12 March 2017

Palestinian prisoner Jamal Abu Leil ended his hunger strike on Sunday, 12 March in an agreement that he will be released after the end of his current administrative detention period, in August 2017. Abu Leil, 50, had refused food for 25 days and had been transferred to multiple prisons while held in solitary confinement.

A Fateh leader in Qalandiya refugee camp, Abu Leil has been imprisoned since 15 February 2016 in administrative detention without charge or trial. Jawad Boulos, of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, said that he had visited Abu Leil in Ramon prison and that he extended thanks and appreciation to all who supported him in his battle against administrative detention.

Abu Leil is a member of the Popular Committee in Qalandiya camp and an administrator of the Qalandiya youth center. He is a former member of the Fateh Revolutionary Council. He is one of over 600 Palestinian prisoners held without charge or trial under indefinitely-renewable administrative detention orders.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network congratulates Jamal Abu Leil and salutes all of the Palestinian prisoners behind bars struggling to achieve freedom and end injustice.

Protesters attacked in Ramallah by PA forces as Arab and international cities demonstrate for Basil al-Araj

12 March 2017

Protesting Palestinians in Ramallah came under attack by Palestinian Authority security forces this morning, including the father of slain Palestinian youth activist Basil al-Araj, journalists and former prisoners, such as Khader Adnan. Later in the evening, PA police also attacked a march in Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem demanding an end to security coordination and honoring al-Araj.

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The demonstration was called in protest of PA security coordination with the Israeli occupation, under which al-Araj and his comrades were initially imprisoned by the PA after a court hearing was maintained for charges against al-Araj and his comrades for Sunday, 12 March. Their arrest was touted as a significant achievement for PA-Israeli security coordination in April 2016.

Al-Araj was shot down by Israeli occupation forces on Monday morning, 6 March, resisting until the end. The prominent youth activist had gone underground following his release from PA prison after a hunger strike; four of his five comrades imprisoned with him have since been seized by Israeli occupation forces and ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial. All six were charged by the Palestinian Authority with “unlicensed possession of a weapon.” Despite the imprisonment of four of the young people – Haithem Siyaj, Mohammed Harb, Mohammed al-Salameen and Seif al-Idrissi – and the assassination of al-Araj, the trial was scheduled to go forward as planned, sparking calls for protest and action.

Ma’an News reported that at the hearing in the Ramallah Magistrate’s Court, only the sixth former PA prisoner, Ali Dar al-Sheikh was present. Lawyer Muhannad Karajah had previously requested that charges be dropped against the four imprisoned Palestinians, and that the judge requested documented proof that the four were held in Israeli prison. When Karajah presented that proof in the court session today, rather than dropping the charges, the judge rescheduled the trial for 30 April, reportedly stating that “the four may be out of Israeli prison” by that time, as they are imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention. Further, Karajah said, the judge dropped charges against al-Araj only when his death certificate was presented in court, as the charges “expired” upon his death.

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Palestinians protesting outside denounced the trial, which was also condemned by a number of Palestinian political organizations, including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The protesters were violently attacked by PA police shooting tear gas canisters directly into the crowd, using rubber bullets, and hitting protesters with batons. At least 11 were injured, including Mahmoud al-Araj, the father of Basil al-Araj, who was taken to hospital after being beaten amid shouts from participants that he was the father of the martyr. Several more were detained for a few hours, including former hunger striker Khader Adnan.

Multiple journalists reported that they were barred from covering the protest and some reported the breaking of their equipment, including reporters for Palestine TV, Watan and Roya TV. The attack on journalists was condemned by the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate and several other media organizations. Palestinian human rights organizations and NGOs also widely condemned the attack on the protest, urging accountability for the security forces.

Speaking several hours later, Mahmoud al-Araj spoke at a press conference alongside Adnan, saying that the attack on the protest was an attack on his son the martyr, as well as a violation of the rights of the people and of the freedom fighters. He noted that a sit-in was being called for 4 PM tomorrow, Monday, 13 March in response to the attack on the demonstrators today. He also said that he would file a complaint against the security services, with lawyer Karajah. Farid al-Atrash, of the Independent Human Rights commission, said that the events today were a crime, and that anyone who gave orders for the attack on civilians must be held accountable.

Shortly after he spoke, a march in Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem demanding an end to security coordination in honor of al-Araj was attacked by PA police, who fired on the crowd with rubber bullets and shot tear gas canisters into the march. People in the camp reported that a child was injured by rubber bullets fired by PA police inside the camp.

The protests were accompanied by actions elsewhere in Palestine and in Arab and international cities. In Gaza City, student organizations gathered to denounce the assassination of al-Araj and demand the Palestinian Authority stop security coordination and arrests against the Palestinian resistance.

In London, protesters gathered outside the Palestinian Mission, demanding an end to security coordination and attaching a large banner bearing Basil’s image to the building’s railing. The protesters, mainly young Palestinians, recalled al-Araj’s life and commitment to struggle and denounced the PA’s role in his arrest, persecution and eventual assassination.

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Meanwhile, in Brussels, demonstrators came together outside the Palestinian Mission to the EU, Brussels and Luxembourg to denounce PA security coordination and remember al-Araj. Several protesters were personal friends of al-Araj, and recalled their interactions and experiences with him as well as his commitment to struggle. One participant, Hala, recalled her own interactions with al-Araj while reviewing today’s events in Ramallah. Writer and researcher David Cronin discussed in detail the role of the European Union and the United States in PA security coordination with the Israeli occupation, while Charlotte Kates of Samidoun noted the connection of security coordination with the imprisonment of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
In Berlin, Palestinian activists gathered outside the Palestinian mission to Germany to denounce the PA’s ongoing security coordination with Israel and demand real action after the killing of al-Araj.

Meanwhile, in Amman, protesters gathered outside the Palestinian Embassy, waving their shoes at the embassy and holding signs and posters saluting al-Araj as they demanded an end to security coordination.

Protesters also gathered in Beirut, Tunis, Vienna and Rabat. More protests are being organized, and two will take place on Monday, 13 March in New York City and Washington, DC.

Novelist released on bail after hours of interrogation as six more Palestinian youth seized by occupation forces

12 March 2017

Palestinian novelist Khalida Ghosheh was released in Jerusalem on Saturday, 11 March on a payment of 10,000 NIS in bail ($2722 USD) with an unspecified future court date after hours of interrogation by the Shin Bet.

Israeli occupation police invaded her Jerusalem home in the morning on Saturday, telling her she was under arrest and taken to interrogation. In an interview with Quds News, she said that the subject matter was her forthcoming novel, “The Jackal’s Trap,” focusing on Palestinian collaborators with Israeli occupation forces. She said that the interrogators claimed that her novel poses a threat to collaborators working with the occupation, saying that the novel reflects her own experiences and aims to warn young people about ways the occupation may attempt to compel them to become collaborators.

As Ghosheh was released and awaits charges and a trial for writing a novel about the Israeli occupation, six more Palestinians were seized in military raids in the early morning hours of Sunday, 12 March. Among those taken by Israeli forces include Palestinian journalist Musab al-Said of Bir Zeit, as well as Osama Fuqaha, a Palestinian student and a member of Bir Zeit University’s student council.

Also seized by occupation forces was Batal al-Ramahi, 24, a young woman from the town of Surda near Ramallah, Ali Mohammed Sa’adat from Huwwara near Nablus, and two young people, Muhtadi Ayyash and Salah Attia, from the town of Biddu in Jerusalem.

Belgian students resist attempts to shut down #IsraeliApartheidWeek, focus on Palestinian political prisoners

12 March 2017

Belgian students stopped attempts to shut down Israeli Apartheid Week events at their universities, holding a wide range of events and actions that frequently focused on the struggles of Palestinian political prisoners between 6 and 11 March.

Zionist organizations had attempted to block the participation of Palestinian-French former political prisoner and researcher Salah Hamouri, directing complaints at university administrations and demanding his voice be silenced. Despite these attempts, all IAW events in Belgium went forward as planned despite attempted disruptions.

Israeli Apartheid Week 2017 in Belgium focused strongly on the struggle of Palestinian political prisoners, in part because of LAW-TRAIN, an EU-funded research collaboration that brings together Belgian judicial police and prosecutors and KU Leuven with the Israeli National Police, Ministry of Public Security, Bar-Ilan University and Spanish police and prosecutors to study interrogation techniques. A growing campaign across Belgium has included protests in multiple cities, including at KU Leuven’s academic convocation, as well as a delegation by prominent human rights lawyers and scholars to Palestine to look at the impact of Israeli interrogations on Palestinians. Israeli interrogations are infamous for their use of torture, abuse and ill-treatment against imprisoned Palestinians, including Palestinian children.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network participated actively in the week of events across Belgium. Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun, spoke alongside Salah Hamouri at the University of Antwerp on Tuesday, 7 March, at KU Leuven on Wednesday, 8 March and at Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) on Thursday, 9 March. At all of these events, she spoke about the LAW-TRAIN program and its implications for complicity in torture, racism and apartheid.

Kates also focused on the situation of Palestinian student prisoners and the targeting of Palestinian students for arrest and imprisonment for their involvement in student organizing and activities, noting the political importance of student elections for Palestinians. She highlighted the importance of international solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners specifically as leaders of the Palestinian national liberation movement, as well as noting the complicity of the European Union in the ongoing imprisonment of Palestinians by the Israeli occupation. She made remarks at these events highlighting the Israeli assassination of Palestinian youth leader Basil al-Araj, dedicated to struggling against Israeli apartheid, quoting his famous remark that “If you are an intellectual, you must be an intellectual in the struggle.”

Hamouri provided a thorough overview of the current and historical situation of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, emphasizing the experience of arrest, interrogation and imprisonment. He discussed the large-scale use of administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial as well as the Israeli military courts that convict over 99 percent of the Palestinians brought before them. He provided a political analysis of the situation of Palestinian prisoners, as well as discussing his own experience behind Israeli bars.

Other events during Israeli Apartheid Week in Belgium also focused on the struggle of political prisoners, including several screenings of the film “3000 Nights,” a feature film by Mai Masri about the life of an imprisoned Palestinian woman, and a Palestinian evening at UCL-Alma which included a Skype conversation with Mariam Barghouthi, a formerly-imprisoned Palestinian youth activist. Salah Hamouri spoke alongside Alexis DeSwaef, the director of the League for Human Rights in Belgium and a participant in the human rights delegation to Palestine that studied LAW-TRAIN in an evening event in Louvain-La-Neuve on 8 March.

The focus on Palestinian prisoners during Israeli Apartheid Week was not restricted to Belgium. Across the border in Maastricht, the Netherlands, Students for Justice in Palestine – Maastricht hosted Samidoun’s Kates on 8 March for a presentation on Palestinian political prisoners, anti-BDS repression and EU complicity. Kates provided an overview of the situation of Palestinian political prisoners today, including key statistics, as well as situating their struggle in the context of the Palestinian movement against colonialism and attempts to suppress it. She emphasized the importance of raising the level of activity in solidarity with Palestine in response to attempts to suppress BDS activism and organizing, particularly noting the role of the right wing in allying with Zionism and attacking Palestinians and Arabs, not only in Palestine but also in Europe, and emphasizing the role of the Palestinian movement as part and parcel of struggles against racism, fascism and oppression. She also discussed the growing international campaign to boycott Hewlett-Packard (HP) products, noting the company’s involvement in Israeli checkpoints, prisons, settlements and the Apartheid Wall and dismissing claims that HP technology “improves” checkpoints for Palestinians, as such technology is in fact perpetuating occupation and colonization.

Israeli Apartheid Week events in Belgium were organized during the week at the ULB (Universite Libre de Bruxelles), KU Leuven, University of Antwerp, Universite catholique de Louvain (UCL) Alma, University of Ghent, and UCL in Louvain-la-Neuve, as well as a closing cultural event at Le Space. Additional events are planned in the coming days at the University of Ghent, KU Leuven, Saint-Louis University, and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), including a mobilization on 16 March at KU Leuven protesting the university’s involvement in LAW-TRAIN.

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