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.

Milan, Paris, Manchester: Protests and actions demand freedom for Palestinian political prisoners

11 March 2017

Protests and actions in a number of cities stood in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners struggling for freedom, with a number of events focusing on the struggle of imprisoned women as part of International Women’s Day events and actions.

In Milan, Italy on Friday, 10 March, Fronte Palestina organized a protest in solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq, then on his 33rd day of hunger strike. Later in the day, al-Qeeq ended his strike in an agreement securing his release on 14 April. He is imprisoned without charge or trial under the Israeli policy of “administrative detention,” under which nearly 600 Palestinians are detained. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable, and many Palestinians have been imprisoned for years at a time under such orders.

The Milan protest also focused on the Israeli assassination of Palestinian youth leader Basil al-Araj, shot down in a hail of Israeli occupation forces’ bullets in a home in El-Bireh on Monday morning, 6 March. Al-Araj was widely known for his involvement in a range of activities, including protests, demonstrations, youth organizing projects and oral history work; he resisted the occupation soldiers until his last breath. He and five of his comrades were imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority for five months in 2016, in a case touted as an example of security coordination with the Israeli occupation; today, four of his comrades are held without charge or trial under administrative detention. Israeli occupation forces continue to refuse to return his imprisoned body to his family for burial. In cities across Europe, North America and the Arab world, Palestinian youth are organizing protests to demand an end to PA security coordination and the return of al-Araj’s body on 12 and 13 March.

Photos: Fronte Palestina

As part of International Women’s Day actions in Paris and Israeli Apartheid Week activities, CAPJPO-EuroPalestine brought together around 40 people to participate in the Women’s March in Paris on 8 March, holding the images and names of Palestinian women political prisoners held in Israeli occupation prisons.

Installed PluginsAmong others, they higlighted the cases of women and girls, including lawyer Shireen Issawi, student Shorouq Dwayyat, teen Malak Salman, severely injured Israa Jaabis, administrative detainee Sabah Faraoun, and longest-held Palestinain woman prisoner Lena Jarbouni. The group chanted for justice and freedom for Palestinian women prisoners, denouncing the torture to which they were subject and saluting their resistance.

Full report and photos in French: http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article12749

Photos: CAPJPO-EuroPalestine

Meanwhile, in Manchester, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! Student society at Manchester University gathered outside the Student Union on Wednesday, 8 March to highlight the struggles of Palestinian women prisoners and demand freedom for all imprisoned Palestinians. Protesters focused on the imprisonment of Lena Jarbouni, the longest-held Palestinian political prisoner and a leader in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, calling for her release.

Protesters noted that G4S, despite selling off most of its involvement in occupied Palestine, retains a stake in the Policity training center for the Israeli police. G4S operates security services at Manchester University. Organizers also noted the widespread attempts of pro-Zionist organizations to suppress student organizing for Palestine and Israeli Apartheid Week activities throughout the UK, highlighting the importance of campus events and protests for Palestine.

Photos: Andrew McCoy

Palestinian Women Behind Bars and on the Front Lines in the Struggle for Liberation

11 March 2017

On International Women’s Day, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the women of Palestine, struggling behind bars, throughout Palestine and in exile and diaspora, for the liberation of Palestinian people and Palestinian land. Palestinian women have always been leaders and strugglers in all aspects of working for the freedom of their people, in the streets and in the fields, educating children and raising families, leading in all forms of struggle and playing a key role as political leaders of the Palestinian national liberation movement.

As we mark International Women’s Day 2017, there are 55 Palestinian women political prisoners in Israeli jails, held in HaSharon and Damon prisons, continuing to struggle behind bars. There are 12 minor girls being deprived of their families and education in HaSharon prison; 16 are mothers whose children have been taken from them by Israeli occupation. Over 15,000 Palestinian women have been imprisoned since 1967, and since 2000, over 1400 Palestinian women have been arrested and imprisoned.

In addition, all aspects of Palestinian women’s life are deeply impacted by the mass imprisonment of Palestinian men. Over 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned since 1967 and 1,000,000 since 1948; 40% of Palestinian men in the West Bank and Jerusalem have spent time in Israeli prison or detention. Palestinian women are the mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, lovers and friends of Palestinian male prisoners. They make homes for themselves and their children, denied access to their husbands and fathers. They fight against the denial of family visits and ongoing cutbacks, restrictions and sanctions that deny them even a visit across a glass wall over a telephone.

And the wives, sisters and mothers of Palestinian prisoners are leaders of the campaigns to support them, at every demonstration at the International Committee of the Red Cross for freedom for the prisoners, speaking to media, demanding their rights and the freedom of their loved ones. Palestinian women – current former prisoners and the relatives and partners of prisoners – are powerful leaders in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and all actions to support the prisoners’ freedom, both inside and outside prison walls.

Palestinian women like Ihsan Dababseh and Sabah Faraoun are currently held in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Just three days ago, Ihsan Dababseh was ordered to six months in administrative detention; this is her third arrest by Israeli occupation forces. Seized in a violent pre-dawn military raid on her home in the town of Nuba, she had been released in July 2016 after 21 months in Israeli prison; she previously spent two years, from 2007-2009, in Israeli prison. Each time, she was accused of membership in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, like all major Palestinian political parties designated as a prohibited hostile organization by Israeli military order. This time, she was not even charged, or tried – instead she was ordered to indefinitely-renewable imprisonment with 650 fellow Palestinians. During her first arrest, Israeli soldiers filmed themselves as they danced around her, blindfolded, to post on social media; during her second imprisonment, she was ordered to isolation with four other women as punishment for raising the Palestinian flag on Nakba day, 15 May.

While Dababseh was seized again just three days ago, Lena Jarbouni has been imprisoned since 2002. Excluded from the 2011 Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange due to her Israeli citizenship, Jarbouni is the longest-serving Palestinian woman political prisoner and has been jailed since 2002. A leader inside the prisons, she is the elected representative of women in HaSharon prison and an advocate for the educational rights of jailed minor girls. She has participated in multiple collective hunger strikes and protests and been thrown in solitary confinement for her continued defiance.

There are over a dozen minor girls in Israeli prisons whose education has benefited from Jarbouni’s persistence and dedication. Among them is Natalie Shokha, 15, whose letter to her family spoke on behalf of the “flowers,” the minor girls held as Palestinian political prisoners. “We are the twelve flowers. We live together through bad and good times….They will not imprison the scent of jasmine in a flower.” Natalie is serving an 18-month sentence in prison alongside her friend Tasneem Halabi, also 15. The two girls were accused of “possession of a knife,” an increasingly common charge against imprisoned children.

*Photo: NYC Students for Justice in Palestine*

While Palestinian women are on the front lines of struggle behind bars, former Palestinian prisoners continue to lead in the movement for justice and liberation. The International Women’s Strike united women across the globe in a collective expression of rejection of the struggle for liberation, fighting imperialism, racism, austerity and neoliberalism. The call for the Strike was led by women like Rasmea Odeh, a former Palestinian prisoner and survivor of sexual assault and torture at the hands of occupation forces during her interrogation in 1969. Odeh was imprisoned for ten years before being released in a prisoner exchange with the Palestinian resistance; since coming to the United States, she has been an organizer and a leader among women and the Palestinian community in Chicago. Odeh was one of a group of women who initiated the call for the Strike and was relentlessly attacked by pro-Zionist forces seeking to silence and suppress the call for liberation for Palestine in the women’s movement. In Chicago, she received two standing ovations as she delivered a resounding speech to the International Women’s Day rally.

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/USPCN/videos/1478392545528916/” width=”800″ height=”” onlyvideo=”1″]

In New York City, Palestinian activist and lawyer Lamis Deek, one of the strike’s national organizers, rallied thousands to demand freedom for Palestine and its people. As the march took the streets, Palestinian flags led on the front banner as women chanted against sexism, racism and imperialism. Palestinian women, Arab women and women in solidarity with Palestine played leading roles in building the strike and marching, with organizations like Al-Awda NY, NYC Students for Justice in Palestine, Labor for Palestine, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and many others.

In the days that have followed International Women’s Day, Israeli occupation forces have continued to target Palestinian women, seizing novelist Khalida Ghosheh, parliamentarian Samira Halaiqa and former prisoner Souad Shyoukhi, the sister of fellow prisoners and of her young brother, shot down by Israeli occupation forces.

At the same time, Palestinian women continue on the front lines of resistance, whether in diaspora and exile or inside Palestine, demanding justice, freedom, return and liberation. As we mark 100 years of colonization in Palestine and 100 years of Palestinian resistance, women have always been an integral and leading part of the Palestinian revolution. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the movement of Palestinian women and their leadership in the ongoing and daily struggle for national and social liberation.

Read Rasmea Odeh’s full speech transcription:

Good evening everyone. My name is Rasmea Odeh, and along with my friends Barbara Ransby, Angela Davis, and five other organizers from the U.S. and around the world, I signed the article that called for the women’s strike on this day. I am a Palestinian, and I have dedicated my life to the liberation of women and of my people in general.

I want to talk tonight about my homeland of Palestine, and about my adopted homeland of the U.S., because there are clear similarities. Israel’s government today is more right wing than ever, and it continues to target my people with racist policies, political imprisonment, stealing of land, and killing. An Israeli soldier just recently received only 18 months for killing a Palestinian who was wounded and lying on the ground unarmed. He probably won’t even serve the entire sentence, because Palestinian lives are not worth much to the Israeli government.

In the U.S., we are living in a time that is worse than the few years after the September 11^th attacks. The Muslim Ban tries to keep people from six Arab, African, or Muslim countries from entering the U.S. for many months. Other policies threaten undocumented Mexicans, Central Americans, and other immigrants with mass detention and deportation. Still other policies are criminalizing protests and making it easier for police to get away with committing crimes and killing Black people. An 18 year old Black young man, Ben Keita, was found hanging from a tree in Washington State in January, and African and South Asian men have also been recently murdered in hate crimes.

Israeli and U.S. policies make it easy to target our people, but Palestinians are resisting these attacks in Palestine, and here in the U.S., we are all resisting Trump’s attacks on immigrants, Black people, Arabs and Muslims, and others.

I want to end by telling you a little bit about my own story. Articles in the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, New York Post, and other newspapers are attacking me because of my participation in this day of action. They are calling me a terrorist because members of the Israeli military tortured and sexually assaulted me into a false confession almost 50 years ago.

On International Women’s Day in 2017, I am here to say that I am a survivor of sexual assault, and I testified to the United Nations about it in 1979. I have been convicted in the U.S. based on this torture evidence, but I won my appeal and am going to a re-trial on May 16^th. Before that, please join us in Detroit on April 4^th for a pre-trial hearing. Sign-up sheets for t he trip are on our table in the back. This is a time of resistance of women and all people in Palestine, the U.S., and across the world. And I am resisting too!

Thank you.

Rasmea Odeh – #InternationalWomensDay March 8, 2017

Resources:

Sofia Arias and Bill V. Mullen, On March 8, Stand With the Women of Palestine: https://electronicintifada.net/content/8-march-stand-women-palestine/19766

Prison, Labor and Academic Delegation to Palestine, For the Love of Palestine: Stories of Women, Imprisonment and Resistance: http://www.freedomarchives.org/Pal/womenprisoners.pdf

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, International Women’s Day: Imprisoned Palestinian Women and Girls Struggle for Freedom: https://samidoun.net/2016/03/international-womens-day-imprisoned-palestinian-women-and-girls-struggle-for-freedom/

Nahla Abdo, From Captive Revolution to Grand Gaza Prison: https://plutopress.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/from-captive-revolution-to-grand-gaza-prison/

(Also see Abdo’s book, Captive Revolution: https://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745334936&%3C/)

Reham Alhelsi, The Women of Palestine and the Struggle for Liberation: https://avoicefrompalestine.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/the-women-of-palestine-and-the-struggle-for-liberation/

Reham Alhelsi, Palestinian Female Political Prisoners and Detainees: Ongoing Resistance Behind Zionist Bars, https://avoicefrompalestine.wordpress.com/2015/12/28/palestinian-female-political-prisoners-and-detainees-ongoing-resistance-behind-zionist-bars/

Reham Alhelsi, Palestinian Female Political Prisoners and Detainees: Resistance and Steadfastness towards the Liberation of Palestine: https://avoicefrompalestine.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/palestinian-female-political-prisoners-and-detainees-resistance-and-steadfastness-towards-the-liberation-of-palestine/

Addameer, Occupied Lives: The Imprisonment of Palestinian Women and Girls: http://www.addameer.org/publications/occupied-lives-imprisonment-palestinian-women-and-girls

Leena Jawabreh, Facing imprisonment in Israeli Jails: A Palestinian Woman’s Testimony: https://samidoun.net/2013/09/facing-imprisonment-in-israeli-jails-a-palestinian-womans-testimony-by-leena-jawabreh/

International Women’s Day: Khalida Jarrar’s statement from HaSharon prison: https://samidoun.net/2016/03/international-womens-day-khalida-jarrars-statement-from-hasharon-prison/

Film, Women in Struggle, Dir: Buthaina Canaan Khoury, 2004: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Va7-cNxf8

Film, Tell Your Tale, Little Bird, Dir: Arab Loutfi, 2007: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdkoxBjKM1Q

The Struggle of Palestinian Women (PLO, 1975): http://www.palestinianconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/PLO-PalestinianWomen.pdf

International Women’s Day and the General Union of Palestinian Women, PFLP Bulletin, April 1982: http://www.palestinianconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/WomensDay-PFLPBulletin-April1982.pdf

Palestinian Women Develop Their Struggle through Democratic Revolutionary Resolutions, September 1974, PFLP Bulletin: http://www.palestinianconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/WomensDay-PFLPBulletin-13-SepOct74.pdf

Women’s Struggle in Occupied Palestine, Democratic Palestine, May 1984: http://www.palestinianconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/WomensStruggle-DemocraticPal-Mar1984.pdf

International Women’s Day Palestinian Poster Collection: http://www.palestineposterproject.org/special-collection/international-womens-day

Institute for Palestine Studies – Special Focus on Palestinian Women: http://www.palestine-studies.org/resources/special-focus/palestinian-women-%E2%80%93-shared-struggle-diverse-experiences

Women’s Organization for Political Prisoners, February 2016: http://www.wofpp.org/english/home.html

18 March, Brussels: International Day of Revolutionary Political Prisoners

11 March 2017

Saturday, 18 March
6:00 pm
Local Sacco Vanzetti
54 chaussee de Forest
1060 Brussels, Belgium
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1848204555391471/

18 March is the Day of Revolutionary Political Prisoners and the 146th anniversary of the Paris Commune. On this occasion, an evening of solidarity will take place at the Local Sacco Vanzetti in Brussels. The evening will include interventions by political prisoners, a presentation by Kevin Rashid Johnson (prisoner, member of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party – Prison Chapter) and discussions and screenings about political prisoners. With a bar and a vegan buffet.

Organized by Secours Rouge

18 March, Paris: Meeting for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah

11 March 2017

Saturday, 18 March
4:30 pm
Librarie Resistance
40 rue Guy Moquet
75017 Paris
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/224966524642234/

Let’s make 2017 a decisive year of struggle for the liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. With the national and international success of the 2016 unified campaign for the liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, including the demonstration outside Lannemezan prison as Georges Abdallah began his 33rd year in prison, we urge growing, uniting and coordinating our forces to make 2017 a strong year of struggle for the liberation of our comrade.

16 March, Leuven: Stop Law Train NOW!

11 March 2017

Thursday, 16 March
1:00 pm
Grote Markt
3000 Leuven, Belgium
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/143153512873326/

We will do an action headed to the University of Leuven to demand them to quit LAW Train. We will gather at the Grote Markt at 1PM on thursday 16/3 where we will stage some interrogations (Israeli style) and have banners and signs (make your own!) to show the university board that we do not accept the cooperation between Israel and the university.

What is LAW Train?
Law-Train is a research project which aims to enhance interrogation techniques in the fight against international drug crime. It is funded by the European Union Horizon2020 programme and half of the sum goes to the Israel National Police and Ibar Ilan University, which coordinates the project.
This project legitimizes and facilitates the repressive Occupation, the violation of international law and Human Rights. It is our conviction that the project should be juridically, ethically and morally revised.
-It is time for our university to take Human Rights and institutional context as seriously as academic freedom. Nowhere where these two questions asked:
Is the partner institution or organization implicated in serious or systematic violations of human rights?”
What is the risk that the activities undertaken in the context of the cooperation agreement could directly or indirectly contribute to the violation of one of the rights guaranteed in any of the Core International Human Rights Instruments? 2)

-Partners: Bar Ilan University & Israel National Police/
Bar Ilan University coordinates and stands in for the ethical supervision of the project. It was the first and hitherto only university to build an illegal settlement in Ariel, West-Bank.
Moreover, it has close ties to Shin Beth, the Israel Security Agency, which is feared for its torture methods, blackmail practices (forcing people e.g. to become an informer) 170 and other infringements on human rights. Shin Bet perfected torture techniques which afterwards were used by the American armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, the secret “black sites “ of the CIA and in Guantanamo Bay. Shin Bet operatives receive a B.A. from Bar-Ilan University after a mere 16 months.
The Bar Ilan University practices forms of discrimination against Palestinian students and allows teachers, such as dr. Mordechai Kedar, publicly promote the rape of wives and mothers of Palestinians as ‘deterrent’.

The Israeli National Police and Prison Service, controlled by the Ministry of Public Security, have been repeatedly denounced by Palestinian and international human rights organizations for systematic and ongoing violations of Human Rights and International Law in its practices. Since 1994, the UN Committee against Torture has consistently but unsuccessfully asked Israel for remedies. These methodologies are part of the Israeli system of repression, military control and racial discrimination (apartheid) against the Palestinian people; they are combined with practices of ‘administrative detention’ (preventive and without fair trial prison), arbitrary arrests and collective punishment, sometimes of children.
– The headquarters of the Israeli National Police is in Palestinian occupied territory in Jerusalem Est. Cooperation with these institutions legitimates and gives support to serious breaches of international law, in contradiction to the opinion on Israel’s Wall (2004) of the International Court of Justice.
This project ecognizes as legal the Israeli system of control and military repression, which includes illegal methodologies for ‘interrogation’, and assist in its maintenance. With that the EU and states violate their obligations under international law.

CANCELLED/POSTPONED 14 March, NYC: Protest Zionist racism and violence at the FIDF Gala

11 March 2017

Please note that due to the blizzard, the FIDF gala has been postponed to an undeclared future date. This protest will also be rescheduled and will not take place on Tuesday, 14 March!

Tuesday, 14 March
5:30 pm
New York Hilton Midtown
1335 Avenue of the Americas
New York City
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/193932617753971/

Protest the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces annual gala, where fanatical Zionists gather alongside Israeli soldiers to raise tens of millions of dollars to support Israel’s political imprisonment and other war crimes against occupied Palestinians.

Stand against Israel’s internment of thousands of Palestinians, its military rule over millions, its continuous displacement of Palestinians and theft of their land, its siege of the Gaza Strip, and its ongoing exclusion of ethnically-cleansed refugees.

Support the Palestinian people, the Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian Resistance, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Organized by:

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Endorsed by (list in formation):

Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Committee to Stop FBI Repression NYC
International Action Center
International League of Peoples’ Struggle – ILPS US
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Labor for Palestine
NY4Palestine
NYC Students for Justice in Palestine
Students for a Democratic Society (National)
United National Antiwar Coalition

13 March, Leuven: Screening of “3000 Nights”

11 March 2017

Monday, 13 March
8:00 PM
Aula Max Weber/Jean Monnet
Parkstraat 51
3000 Leuven, Belgium
Sponsored by Comac Leuven
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1268803769862463/

Inspired by the true stories of children born in Israeli prisons and young women coming of age behind bars, 3000 Nights is first and foremost a human story of a young mother who, through her struggle to protect her child and her relationship with the prisoners around her, finds the space to reflect, develop, and mature as a young woman.

3000 Nights is a 2015 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Mai Masri. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

The film focuses on a Palestinian woman, who whilst in jail, gives birth to a son. Inspired by a true story and shot in a real prison, 3000 Nights traces a young mother’s journey of hope, resilience and survival against all odds.#IsraeliApartheidWeek

Location: Aula Jean Monnet (AP 01.30)

12-13 March: International Protests Against the Murder of Basil al-Araj

11 March 2017

London: 12 March, 12 pm, Palestinian Mission UK, 5 Galena Road, W6 0LT London. Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/events/1510172015673981/

Vienna: 12 March, 12 PM, Palestinian Mission, Josefsgasse 5/1/7, 1080 Wien. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1764864636864411/

Berlin: 12 March, 11 AM, Rheinbabenallee 8, 14199 Berlin. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/265434763881649/

Brussels: 12 March, 2 PM, Mission of Palestine to the EU, Brussels and Luxembourg, Avenue d’Auderghem 289, 1040 Brussels. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/393322651041270/

Rabat: 12 March, 5 PM, Embassy of Palestine in Rabat. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/207954063018867/

Tunis: 12 March, 12 PM, Palestinian Embassy in Tunis. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1719745801650549/

Amman: 12 March, 5 PM, Palestinian Authority embassy in Amman, Wadi Sakhra, Riyad al-Mifleh Steet

Beirut: 12 March, 12 PM, Palestinian embassy in Lebanon, behind the Hotel Marriott al-Janah. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1845013699157178/

Cairo: 12 March, 7 PM, Party for Life and Freedom, 5 Sabri Abo Alam, Cairo, Egypt. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1118893861572859/

Gaza: 12 March, 11 AM, Al-Azhar University, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/759733274193984/

Washington DC: 13 March, 5:30 PM, PLO Delegation to the US, 1732 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/661131077422685/

New York City: 13 March, 5:30 PM, Palestine Observer Mission, 115 E. 65th St, NYC 10065. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1822830484634682/

Ramallah: 13 March, 4:00 PM, Manara Square. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1285203761573791/

Palestinian youth in a number of cities are organizing protests to honour the Palestinian martyr Basel AlAraj and demand
– the return of Basil’s body and
– the end of the security coordination with Israeli occupation forces

Basel was assassinated by the Israeli occupation forces in Ramallah- just a few minutes away from the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority security forces. We condemn the complicity of the PA security forces in arresting Palestinian activists with no charge and torturing them with impunity. We are gathering to demonstrate our absolute rejection of the security coordination policy with the Israeli occupation.

Israeli forces delay return of Basil al-Araj’s body as young Palestinians plan international protests

11 March 2017

As Palestinians in Palestine and in exile and diaspora organize in protest of the Israeli assassination of Basil al-Araj and Palestinian Authority security coordination, Israeli occupation forces continue to refuse to return al-Araj’s body to his family.

On Friday, 10 March, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society noted that the handover of his body had been “postponed until further notice” after Israeli officials had earlier stated he would be returned to his family on Friday for his funeral. Al-Araj was shot down in a hail of bullets by occupation forces who invaded the home in El-Bireh where he was staying. Al-Araj, 31, was a prominent Palestinian youth leader, thinker and intellectual.

The killing of Al-Araj has also highlighted the ongoing issue of Palestinian Authority security coordination with Israeli occupation forces. He and five of his friends and comrades were imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority for months without charge after PA President Mahmoud Abbas boasted of their arrest and the value of PA security coordination with the Israeli occupation. After a hunger strike and widespread support, they were released from PA prison; however, they were then pursued by the Israeli occupation. Four of al-Araj’s fellow hunger strikers, Mohammed al-Salameen, Seif al-Idrissi, Haitham Siyaj and Mohammed Harb, are currently imprisoned without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention.

The integral role of PA security coordination in the pursuit, arrest and now murder of al-Araj has been reflected in the protests following his murder as young Palestinians internationally have organized a series of demonstrations against security coordination on 12 March, the date when al-Araj was to have his next hearing in a PA court for “unlawful possession of a weapon.” On Tuesday, 7 March, protesters in Beirut gathered outside the Palestinian embassy to demand an end to security coordination as a crime against the Palestinian people after the extrajudicial execution of al-Araj.

Protests being planned for 12 and 13 March outside Palestinian Authority institutions and embassies include those in New York, Washington DC, London, Berlin, Vienna and Rabat. Additional actions are being organized by diverse Palestinian organizations and groups and will be added to the list below:

London: 12 March, 12 pm, Palestinian Mission UK, 5 Galena Road, W6 0LT London. Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/events/1510172015673981/

Vienna: 12 March, 12 PM, Palestinian Mission, Josefsgasse 5/1/7, 1080 Wien. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1764864636864411/

Berlin: 12 March, 11 AM, Rheinbabenallee 8, 14199 Berlin. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/265434763881649/

Brussels: 12 March, 2 PM, Mission of Palestine to the EU, Brussels and Luxembourg, Avenue d’Auderghem 289, 1040 Brussels. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/393322651041270/

Rabat: 12 March, 5 PM, Embassy of Palestine in Rabat. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/207954063018867/

Tunis: 12 March, 12 PM, Palestinian Embassy in Tunis. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1719745801650549/

Amman: 12 March, 5 PM, Palestinian Authority embassy in Amman, Wadi Sakhra, Riyad al-Mifleh Steet

Beirut: 12 March, 12 PM, Palestinian embassy in Lebanon, behind the Hotel Marriott al-Janah. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1845013699157178/

Cairo: 12 March, 7 PM, Party for Life and Freedom, 5 Sabri Abo Alam, Cairo, Egypt. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1118893861572859/

Gaza: 12 March, 11 AM, Al-Azhar University, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/759733274193984/

Washington DC: 13 March, 5:30 PM, PLO Delegation to the US, 1732 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/661131077422685/

New York City: 13 March, 5:30 PM, Palestine Observer Mission, 115 E. 65th St, NYC 10065. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1822830484634682/

Ramallah: 13 March, 4:00 PM, Manara Square. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1285203761573791/

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Please note that due to the blizzard, the FIDF gala has been postponed to an undeclared future date. This protest will also be rescheduled and will not take place on Tuesday, 14 March!

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