Al-Qeeq and Abu Leil continue hunger strikes; 17 administrative detention orders renewed

28 February 2017

Two Palestinian prisoners are continuing on hunger strike against their administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial. Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq, 35, is currently on his 23rd day of hunger strike, demanding his release from administrative detention, while Jamal Abu Leil is on his 13th day of hunger strike for his release.

Raed Mteir ended his strike on the 12th day after reaching an agreement for his release in April 2017 and that his administrative detention will not be renewed.

Al-Qeeq’s health has continued to deteriorate, said his lawyer Khaled Zabarqa. He has lost weight significantly and is having difficulty speaking; he has had to use a wheelchair to move and cannot walk. Zabarqa visited al-Qeeq on Monday in the Ramle prison clinic, and reported that his health continues to deteriorate as his health is weaker due to his 94-day hunger strike last year that won his May 2016 release from administrative detention.

A secret session was held in Israeli military court on Tuesday, 28 February with the military prosecution on al-Qeeq’s case, Zabarqa said, which confirmed his three-month administrative detention order.

Abu Leil met with lawyer Jawad Boulos in Ashkelon prison, where he is held in isolation after being transferred on Monday from Eshel prison. He has lost nearly 10 kilograms.

Palestinians rallied in Ramallah and in Ramle outside the prison hospital in support of the hunger strikers, demanding their immediate release.

As Al-Qeeq and Abu Leil continue their hunger strikes, they are among approximately 600 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are issued for one to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable, which means that Palestinians can be imprisoned for years without charge or trial.

17 administrative detention orders were issued between 19 and 26 February, reported Palestinian lawyer Ashraf Abu Sneineh, all of them renewals of existing administrative detention orders:

1. Yacoub Imad Turki, from al-Fuwwar camp, 4 months extension
2. Hasan Husni Shawkat, from Bethlehem, 4 months extension
3. Samer Mahmoud Hanani, from Beit Furik, 4 months extension
4. Kamal Mazen Boustah, from Arabah, 4 months extension
5. Ashraf Ghassan Jibril, from Qalqilya, 4 months extension
6. Majdi Abdel-Qader Oweidat, from Jericho, 6 months extension
7. Saadi Mohammed Khaddeirat from al-Zahiriya, 4 months extension
8. Saif Bassam Abu Eisha, from al-Khalil, 4 months extension
9. Nour Shaker al-Atrash, from al-Khalil, 6 months extension
10. Jadallah Abdel-Alim Da’na, from al-Khalil, 6 months extension
11. Musab Manasrah, from Bani Naim, 6 months extension
12. Bakr Mohammed Kharyoush, from Tulkarem, 4 months extension
13. Ahmad Mahmoud Kharoush, from Qaryout, 4 months extension
14. Raafat Khalil Abu Rabie from al-Mazria al-Qablia, 4 months extension
15. Baha’ Taha al-Najjar, from al-Khalil, 4 months extension
16. Ramzi Tawfiq Qarini, from Jenin camp, 6 months extension
17. Ashraf Mohammed al-Jouda, from Burqin, 4 months extension

Milan event highlights common struggles for Palestinian and global liberation, fighting repression

27 February 2017

Samidoun’s Charlotte Kates participated in a conference in Milan, Italy on Saturday, 25 February, speaking about Palestinian political prisoners, Zionist repression and the internationalization of repression and resistance. The conference, organized by Fronte Palestina, brought together Italian activists from various cities to speak about repressive legislation designed to suppress Palestinian and pro-Palestinian activism, including the BDS movement, and the Israeli role in the export of repressive technology internationally.

Kates began her remarks at the conference by speaking about Omar Nayef Zayed, the former Palestinian prisoner killed one year earlier in Sofia, Bulgaria, and found dead outside the Palestinian embassy where he had taken refuge from an Israeli attempt to extradite him. Her remarks echoed the event’s opening, as the conference began with a salute to Nayef Zayed, recalling his struggle for freedom. Kates discussed Nayef Zayed’s imprisonment, escape in 1990 and his life in Bulgaria with his family as a leader in the Palestinian community, noting that the extradition request came after years of increased security coordination between the Bulgarian government and the Israeli state. She noted that there is a “triangle of responsibility” for the death of Omar Nayef Zayed, the Israeli state, the Bulgarian state and the Palestinian Authority, who pressured Nayef Zayed to leave the embassy, denied him visitors and discouraged international campaigners on his behalf rather than supporting his efforts to fight Israeli extradition.

She then discussed the role of “anti-terror” legislation and the use of lists of so-called “terrorist organizations” to separate exiled Palestinians from their national liberation movements and cut off international solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle, as well as the ways in which these lists replicate and mirror Israeli lists of “prohibited” or “hostile” organizations for which thousands of Palestinians have been imprisoned for membership, affiliation and support, remarking on the case of the Holy Land Five in the United States. She also noted other key international cases relating to the Palestinian struggle, including the case of Rasmea Odeh in the US and the imprisonment for 32 years in French prisons of Arab struggler for Palestine, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.

Kates spoke about the importance of international solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners and the work of Samidoun, highlighting the role of Palestinian prisoners as examples of Palestinian national unity, leaders of the Palestinian liberation struggle and representatives of Palestinian resistance, on the front lines confronting Israeli occupation. She noted that supporting Palestinian prisoners is part and parcel of supporting Palestinians’ right to resist occupation and oppression, and highlighted specific cases, such as the current hunger strike of imprisoned journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq, and the struggle of imprisoned Palestinian leader and PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat against isolation.

The talk also addressed the role of Palestinian prisoner solidarity as part of an international struggle against imperialism and repression. She noted European complicity in the imprisonment of Palestinians and highlighted programs such as LAW-TRAIN, funded by the Horizon 2020 research grant program, which brings European and Israeli police agencies together, along with several universities including Bar-Ilan University and KU Leuven, to study interrogation techniques. The project also includes the Israeli Ministry of Public Security, headed by far-right figure Gilad Erdan, who also holds the portfolio for fighting BDS organizing around the world.

“Building solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners is a way to support Palestinian national unity, real Palestinian struggling leadership, support Palestinian resistance and build alliances of mutual support and solidarity to fight the alliance of imperialism, Zionism and reactionary regimes that threatens us all. This is why we build campaigns to boycott and internationally isolate Israel and the corporations that are part of its prison infrastructure…This is why we organize protests and actions and come together ever more strongly with domestic movements against racism, against fascism, against repression and imprisonment,” concluded Kates.

The event included a number of interventions; Italian lawyer Ugo Giannangeli spoke about DDL 2043, a proposed anti-BDS law making its way through the Italian legislature, contrasting the attempts to suppress Palestine solidarity activism with Israel’s own egregious violations of international law. Enrico Bartolomei spoke about the university as a site of capitalist research and development, and how this drive towards profit works together with militarization and partnerships with Israeli universities, such as the Technion, for repressive industries locally and globally.

Several students from the University of Torino spoke about their work as part of Students Against Technion, working to expose the Israeli university’s involvement in the development of military technologies that oppress Palestinians, including drone technologies and tunnel detection. The university, along with other Italian universities, maintained a partnership with the Technion that expired in November 2016; no official word has been issued on its resumption, and the students are demanding an end to this partnership and all future such partnerships. They also spoke about the repression of their own activities on campus, including the cancellation of a speaking event with Israeli pro-BDS activist Ronnie Barkan.

Diana Carminati spoke about another proposed Italian law, DDL 2186, to implement increased bilateral agreements between Italy and Israel in military, security and defense matters, as well as the importance of a political and anti-imperialist approach to Palestine solidarity organizing. Silvano Falessi of Fronte Palestina spoke about the use of law to serve far-right and imperialist interests in Italy while suppressing the exposure of the genocide against the Palestinian people, while youth activists with Fronte Palestina in Padua addressed their organizing against anti-BDS legislation alongside anti-NATO and anti-imperialist organizing. Activists from Soccorso Rosso (Red Aid) spoke about the case of Georges Abdallah and the importance of supporting Palestinian political prisoners.

The event concluded with lively discussion and political analysis presented by Fronte Palestina organizers, as well as strategizing to build campaigns to confront repression in Palestine, in Italy and internationally.

NYC protest condemns resentencing of Palestinian prisoner Nael Barghouthi and HP’s collusion with Israel

27 February 2017

New York City activists protested on Friday, 24 February in response to the re-sentencing of longest-held Palestinian prisoner Nael Barghouthi, demanding his freedom and urging a boycott of HP products for its complicity and involvement in Israeli imprisonment, occupation and settler colonialism.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network gathered outside the Best Buy electronics store in Union Square, carrying signs and chanting for freedom for Barghouthi and his fellow Palestinian prisoners. They distributed leaflets and information about the involvement of Hewlett-Packard (HP) corporations in contracting with the Israel Prison Service as well as other Israeli state entities for technology that enables the running of checkpoints, settlements, prison and other infrastructure of colonialism and occupation.

On Wednesday, 22 February, the Israeli occupation Ofer military court reimposed the original prison sentence of life plus 18 years against Palestinian prisoner Nael Barghouthi. Barghouthi has spent 36 years in Israeli prison and is the longest-held Palestinian prisoner, originally released in October 2011 as part of the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange with over 1,000 fellow Palestinian political prisoners. At the time of his release, he had been the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner after 34 years of imprisonment.

He was re-arrested by Israeli occupation forces in June 2014 alongside dozens of former prisoners released in the exchange; under Israeli military order 1651, former Palestinian prisoners released in such an exchange can have their former sentences reimposed on the basis of “secret evidence” by an Israeli military commission.

Nearly 60 Palestinian prisoners have had their original sentences reimposed, mostly on the basis of association with members of “prohibited organizations,” which include every major Palestinian political party. However, Barghouthi was sentenced to 30 months in Israeli prison. On 17 December, Barghouthi’s 30-month sentence expired, yet he was denied release on the basis of an appeal filed by the Israeli military prosecution calling for the reimposition of his original life sentence plus 18 years. He was originally imprisoned on the basis of participating in a commando operation with fellow Fateh fighters that killed one Israeli settler near the illegal West Bank settlement of Halamish.

Barghouthi’s wife, Iman Nafie, a fellow former prisoner, his family and his lawyers have pledged to continue the struggle. The Samidoun protest is part of an international campaign to demand the release of Barghouthi and his fellow re-imprisoned Palestinian prisoners.

Samidoun activists also joined a protest on Sunday, 26 February in New York City’s Grand Central Station denouncing the sentencing of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for murdering a wounded Palestinian in his custody, Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif; his killing was captured on video by Palestinian human rights activist Imad Abu Shamsiyeh. The brief sentencing of Azaria, who openly murdered a captive Palestinian, has been widely contrasted to the sentencing of Palestinians, including children sentenced for several years for stone-throwing. The protest denounced the sentencing of Azaria as part of the Israeli apartheid settler-colonial system of racist injustice.

The next Samidoun protest in New York City will take place on Friday, 3 March, highlighting the struggles of Palestinian women prisoners and in particular the case of Lena Jarbouni, the longest-held Palestinian woman prisoner, at 5:30 pm outside the Best Buy in Union Square. Other upcoming actions include the International Women’s Strike and a protest on Tuesday, 14 March outside the New York Hilton Midtown against the “Friends of the Israel Defense Forces” annual gala, where fanatical Zionists gather each year alongside Israeli soldiers to raise tens of millions of dollars to support Israel’s political imprisonment and other war crimes against occupied Palestinians. The protest will take place at 5:30 pm outside the hotel and is endorsed by a number of organizations, including Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, the Committee to Stop FBI Reception NYC, International Action Center, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, NY4Palestine and the United National Antiwar Coalition.

Former prisoner Ihsan Dababseh seized once more by Israeli occupation forces

27 February 2017

Former Palestinian prisoner Ihsan Dababseh was seized by Israeli occupation forces in a pre-dawn raid on her home in the town of Nuba south of al-Khalil on Monday, 27 February; they took her to the Etzion interrogation center, reported Asra Voice.

The home of Dababseh, 30, has been raided on multiple occasions over the last weeks with demands that she report for interrogation. During these raids, her family home was ransacked and belongings torn apart.

Dababseh is one of ten Palestinian women prisoners whose story is featured in “For the Love of Palestine: Stories of Women, Imprisonment and Resistance,” created by members of the Prison, Labor and Academic Delegation to Palestine.

Dababseh was released after 21 months in Israeli prison on 10 July 2016; she had been imprisoned since 13 October 2014 on charges of membership in a prohibited organization, in her case the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. She previously spent two years in Israeli prison from 2007 to 2009 on similar charges. All major Palestinian political parties are labeled prohibited organizations by the Israeli occupation. During her imprisonment she had been isolated with four other Palestinian women as punishment for raising the Palestinian flag on the anniversary of the Nakba.

In 2014, Reham Alhelsi reported, “Israeli occupation soldiers raided her house several times, sent her 4 summons and threatened to blow up her house of she didn’t come to interrogation center. She went with her mother to detention center and was detained and her personal computer was confiscated, while her mother told to leave.”

During her prior arrest from 2007 to 2009, the Israeli occupation soldiers who had arrested and blindfolded her made a video of themselves dancing around her as she was blindfolded and held against the wall, which they distributed.

Samidoun: One year later, demand justice and accountability for Omar Nayef Zayed

27 February 2017

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network marks the one-year anniversary of the loss of Omar Nayef Zayed with a renewed call for justice and accountability for the death of this struggler for Palestine and former Palestinian political prisoner whose life was taken as he struggled once more for his freedom.

Nayef Zayed, 52, was a former Palestinian prisoner who was imprisoned in 1986, as a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, accused with his brother Hamza and Samer Mahroum of being part of an attack on an Israeli extremist settler in Jerusalem. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he escaped in 1990 after a 40-day hunger strike. His escape from Israeli prison is almost legendary, securing his freedom amid close and intense repression.

After traveling in the Arab world for 4 years, he arrived in Bulgaria in 1994. Nayef Zayed was married to Rania, a Palestinian Bulgarian; they had three children. He owned a grocery store and was a leader in Sofia’s Palestinian community. In December 2015, moments before the expiration of the statute of limitations, the Israeli state demanded he be arrested and turned over to them by the Bulgarian police, after years of escalating “security cooperation” and security agreements between Bulgaria and Israel. He took sanctuary in the Palestinian embassy in Sofia while internationally, Samidoun and others campaigned against the extradition demand. Throughout this time, he was constantly subject to pressure by PA representatives to leave the embassy.

On 26 February, Nayef Zayed’s bloodied body was found on the ground of the garden of the embassy. Since that time, Samidoun has joined his family and comrades in an ongoing struggle to hold those responsible for Nayef Zayed’s death accountable and uncover the truth.

During Omar Nayef Zayed’s 70 days within the Embassy, he struggled for his freedom, facing a triangle of injustice and responsibility – the Israeli state, the Bulgarian state and also the Palestinian Authority, whose embassy and ambassador did their best to push Omar from the embassy and make his life there difficult or impossible, denying him visitors and threatening to remove him at any time.

Today, despite several investigations, one year on, there has still been no justice or accountability on the death of Omar Nayef Zayed. His family recently won an appeal in Bulgarian courts against the original autopsy findings and are securing a new investigation into his death. Today, we revive the demand for truth, justice and accountability for Omar Nayef Zayed. This demand for justice is also being heard, resoundingly from Palestine; a mass march in Gaza on Saturday, 25 February demanded justice for Nayef Zayed, while events are being organized elsewhere in Palestine, in the refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria, and in events around the world, in Sofia, Bulgaria, Milan and Cagliari, Italy, and elsewhere.

Throughout his life, Nayef Zayed struggled for Palestine and for the Palestinian people; he was loved by his family, his friends and his comrades. We pledge to continue to organize and demand justice in this case and to remember his life, his struggle and his commitment to freedom, justice and liberation for the land and people of Palestine.

Samidoun supports the Women’s Strike: Liberation for Women, Liberation for Palestine #March8Strike

23 February 2017

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network actively supports and endorses the International Women’s Strike being organized on March 8, International Women’s Day, and the #WomenStrikeUS taking place on that day. The program for the strike highlights the centrality of anti-imperialist, anti-racist and anti-colonialist principles in the struggle for women’s liberation. As the platform states, “movements such as Black Lives Matter, the struggle against police brutality and mass incarceration, the demand for open borders and for immigrant rights and for the decolonization of Palestine are for us the beating heart of this new feminist movement. We want to dismantle all walls, from prison walls to border walls, from Mexico to Palestine.”

One of the original authors of the article urging an international women’s strike on March 8 is Rasmea Yousef Odeh, former Palestinian political prisoner, survivor of torture and current struggler against repression and persecution in the United States. Every day, Palestinian women inside and outside Palestine are on the front lines of struggle for the liberation of Palestinian women, Palestinian people and Palestinian land. Palestinian women prisoners have long been leaders in the prisoners’ movement, and today continue to play a leading role in the struggle for Palestinian freedom.

As Khalida Jarrar said in 2016 from HaSharon prison on International Women’s Day, “On this day, we affirm that we are Palestinian prisoners of struggle, and part of the Palestinian women’s movement, and that the national and social struggle goes on constantly and continuously until we win our freedom from occupation, and our freedom as women from all forms of injustice, oppression, violence and discrimination against women….We stand as part of a global struggle with all the world’s women freedom fighters: against injustice, exploitation and oppression.”

We encourage all supporters of Palestine and the Palestinian liberation struggle to get involved with the Women’s Strike. The platform is below:

The International Women’s Strike on March 8th, 2017 is an international day of action, planned and organized by women in more than 30 different countries.

In the spirit of solidarity and internationalism, in the United States March 8th will be a day of action organized by and for women who have been marginalized and silenced by decades of neoliberalism directed towards working women, women of color, Native women, disabled women, immigrant women, Muslim women, lesbian, queer and trans women.

March 8th will be the beginning of a new international feminist movement that organizes resistance not just against Trump and his misogynist policies, but also against the conditions that produced Trump, namely the decades long economic inequality, racial and sexual violence, and imperial wars abroad.

We celebrate the diversity of the many social groups that have come together for the International Women’s Strike. We come from many political traditions but are united around the following common principles.

An End to Gender Violence.

All women deserve a life free of violence, both domestic and institutional. Working women, trans women, and women of color face the worst aspects of direct institutionalized violence, be it in the form of police brutality, immigration raids, or day-to-day violence in the form of state policies that create and consolidate poverty in our communities. Against all such state and personal violence, we demand that our lives and labor be treated with dignity for they form the basis of this society.

Reproductive Justice for All

We stand for full reproductive justice for all women, cis and trans. We want complete autonomy over our bodies and full reproductive freedom. We demand free abortion without conditions and affordable healthcare for all, irrespective of income, race or citizenship status. The history of sterilization of women of color in this country goes hand in hand with the attack on abortion rights. Reproductive justice for us means the freedom to choose both whether to have children and when to have them.

Labor Rights

Labor rights are women’s rights because women’s paid labor in the workplace and unpaid labor at home is the basis of wealth in our society. All over the world millions of women are forced to work for slave wages in dangerous sweatshops and other ‘hell factories’ that kill thousands every year. In the United States 46% of union members are women and a majority of them are women of color. All women, irrespective of citizenship status, sexuality or race, must have equal pay for equal work, $15 minimum wage, including for caregivers, free universal child care, paid maternity leave, sick leave, paid family leave and the freedom to organize a fighting union in the workplace. As working women who hold up half the sky we refuse to be divided over the kind of labor we perform, whether skilled or unskilled, formal or informal, sex work and domestic work.

Full Social Provisioning

Decades of neoliberal policies have seen the violent dismantling of social provisioning that has affected all women. While our working lives have been made increasingly precarious, social services that might have provided a safety net against such harsh exploitation of labor, have either been attacked or removed completely. Against these attacks, we demand an expansive restructuring of the American welfare system to serve the needs of the majority, such as universal healthcare, robust unemployment and social security benefits, and free education for all. We demand that the welfare system work to support our lives rather than shame us when we access such rights.

For an Antiracist and Anti-imperialist Feminism

Against the open white supremacists in the current government and the far right and anti-Semites they have given confidence to, we stand for an uncompromising anti-racist and anti-colonial feminism. This means that movements such as Black Lives Matter, the struggle against police brutality and mass incarceration, the demand for open borders and for immigrant rights and for the decolonization of Palestine are for us the beating heart of this new feminist movement. We want to dismantle all walls, from prison walls to border walls, from Mexico to Palestine.

Environmental Justice for All

We believe that both social inequality and environmental degradation are due to an economic system that puts profit before people. We demand instead that the earth’s natural resources be preserved and sustained to enrich our lives and those of our children. The struggle of Water Protectors against the Dakota Access Pipe Line inspires us. The emancipation of women and the emancipation of the planet must go hand in hand.

Mohammed Zeidan Mahmoud ordered to Jericho for 3 days to prevent celebration of his release after 15 years in Israeli prison

22 February 2017

Mohammed Zeidan Mahmoud, 39, of Issawiya in Jerusalem, was released on Wednesday evening, 22 February from detention after 15 years in Israeli prison. While he had been scheduled for release one day earlier and his family was awaiting his release, instead he was taken from Gilboa prison to the Moskobiya interrogation center in Jerusalem by Israeli occupation intelligence agents.

Upon his release, he was ordered to the city of Jericho for three days and any celebration of his release was prohibited. Earlier in the day, police and intelligence agents had raided Issawiya, arresting several youth and destroying the reception tent set up for Mahmoud. Two youth from Issawiya were expelled from the village for seven days and an order was issued to forbid any gathering of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine as a “terrorist” organization.

The seizure of Mahmoud upon his arrest and the extreme measures to prevent celebration upon his release are reminiscent of the detention of recently released prisoners Sufian Fakhri Abdo and Daoud Ghoul, both Palestinian Jerusalemites re-arrested – and then released with repressive conditions – after their release from Israeli prison in an attempt to shut down celebrations of their freedom.

URGENT ALERT: Take Action to Free Mohammed al-Qeeq as he is hospitalized on 17th day of hunger strike

22 February 2017

Take Action | Flyers and Literature

Imprisoned Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq was suddenly transferred on Wednesday, 22 February to the Ramle prison hospital after a sudden deterioration in his health on his 17th day of hunger strike. Al-Qeeq, 35, has been refusing food for 17 days, demanding his freedom from Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention. At this time, it is critically important to escalate international action and solidarity to demand freedom for Mohammed al-Qeeq and an end to administrative detention.

Sign and share the petition: https://www.change.org/p/council-of-the-european-union-take-action-to-free-hunger-striking-palestinian-journalist-mohammed-al-qeeq

Al-Qeeq is one of nearly 550 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are issued for one to six month periods, but are indefinitely renewable, which means that Palestinians can be held for years on end without charge or trial at the order of the Israeli occupation military. These orders are issued on the basis of “secret evidence” to which both the detainee and their lawyer is denied access. Administrative detention as practiced by the Israeli state is a systematic mechanism of colonial repression and violates international law.

This is Mohammed al-Qeeq’s second time on hunger strike. In 2016, he conducted a 94-day hunger strike to win his freedom from administrative detention without charge or trial, winning his release in May 2016. Palestinian prisoners have frequently carried out collective and individual hunger strikes to demand basic rights as well as their liberation from imprisonment, especially from administrative detention.

Al-Qeeq was seized by occupation soldiers on 15 January at a checkpoint near Ramallah as he returned from a demonstration demanding the return of the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israel. Since his release in May 2016, al-Qeeq has been a particularly vocal advocate for imprisoned and oppressed Palestinians, supporting fellow prisoners on hunger strikes and engaged in struggles for justice. He was held under interrogation for 22 days and subjected to harsh interrogation and ill-treatment before once again being ordered imprisoned with no charge or trial. He was originally ordered to six months in administrative detention, which was then reduced to an indefinitely renewable three month period. Al-Qeeq refused to stop his strike, noting that he rejects entirely being imprisoned without charge or trial under the policy of administrative detention.

After his 2016 hunger strike that lasted over three months, Al-Qeeq’s health is particularly fragile. Nevertheless, his body, his health and his life are on the line to resist the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial and demand an end to administrative detention. His strike has been joined by two fellow administrative detainees, Jamal Abu Leil and Raed Mteir, both of Qalandiya refugee camp, who have been refusing food for a week to demand their freedom after a year of imprisonment without charge or trial.

Mohammed al-Qeeq is one of 23 Palestinian journalists imprisoned by the Israeli state. His life and health are on the line not only for his freedom, but for Palestinian freedom overall and an end to administrative detention without charge or trial. It is critical to raise our voices internationally and demand freedom for Mohammed al-Qeeq, an end to administrative detention and the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners.

Take Action!

1. Sign and share the public petition to international officials to demand they take a stand on administrative detention and Mohammed al-Qeeq’s imprisonment. Sign and share at: https://www.change.org/p/council-of-the-european-union-take-action-to-free-hunger-striking-palestinian-journalist-mohammed-al-qeeq

2. Organize a protest or a forum for Mohammed al-Qeeq and Palestinian prisoners. Israeli Apartheid Week is approaching and the Israeli injustice system is an excellent example to highlight in IAW activities, especially as your support can help to bring the international attention needed to help Mohammed al-Qeeq in his struggle for freedom. You can invite a speaker, hold a discussion, hold a protest, or just distribute leaflets and information (see below for sample leaflets and posters). To request resources or let us know about your event so we can post it publicly, email samidoun@samidoun.net or contact us on Facebook.

3. Hold a Symbolic Hunger Strike. This is an especially effective tactic on a campus for Israeli Apartheid Week, but can be used anywhere. A symbolic one-day hunger strike in which participants publicly express their solidarity with al-Qeeq and fellow Palestinian prisoners can help to raise local attention. Email samidoun@samidoun.net to let us know about your event!

Flyers and Literature

	Mohammed al-Qeeq Leaflet – Download PDF
	Mohammed al-Qeeq sign/poster (A3/11×17) – Download PDF
	Apartheid in Israeli Prisons – Half-Page Leaflet – Download PDF

Israeli military court reimposes life sentence on longest-held Palestinian prisoner Nael Barghouthi

22 February 2017

The Israeli occupation Ofer military court reimposed the original prison sentence of life plus 18 years against Palestinian prisoner Nael Barghouthi. Barghouthi has spent 36 years in Israeli prison and is the longest-held Palestinian prisoner.

He was released in October 2011 as part of the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange with over 1,000 fellow Palestinian political prisoners. He was re-arrested by Israeli occupation forces in June 2014 alongside dozens of former prisoners released in the exchange; under Israeli military order 1651, former Palestinian prisoners released in an exchange can have their former sentences reimposed on the basis of “secret evidence” at the discretion of an Israeli military commission.

While nearly 60 Palestinian prisoners had their original sentences reimposed, mostly on the basis of association with members of “prohibited organizations” – otherwise known as every major Palestinian political party – Barghouthi was sentenced to 30 months in Israeli prison. At the time of his release, he had been the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner after 34 years of imprisonment. He has now served 36 years in Israeli prison.

On 17 December, Barghouthi’s 30-month sentence expired, yet he was denied release on the basis of an appeal filed by the Israeli military prosecution calling for the reimposition of his original life sentence plus 18 years. He was originally imprisoned on the basis of participating in a commando operation with fellow Fateh fighters that killed one Israeli settler near the illegal West Bank settlement of Halamish.

Barghouthi’s wife Iman Nafie, a fellow former prisoner who he married after his release in 2011, and his lawyers filed appeals demanding his release, which was denied by the military court. Now, Barghouthi’s original sentence has once again been reimposed, while his family and lawyers have pledged to continue the struggle for his freedom and that of his fellow reimprisoned former prisoners.

The sentencing of Barghouthi is cast into particularly egregious relief coming only one day after the 18-month sentence meted out to Israeli occupation soldier Elor Azaria for deliberately murdering a captured Palestinian, Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif, after he had already been wounded and was laying on the ground, incapacitated.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the racist re-sentencing of Nael Barghouthi, part of a systematic policy that is holding re-captured former prisoners hostage in an attempt to pressure the Palestinian resistance through arbitrary detention of long-time strugglers for the Palestinian people. In New York City, Samidoun will rally on Friday, 24 February at 5:30 pm at Union Square outside the Best Buy at 52 E. 14th Street to denounce the reimposition of Barghouthi’s sentence and call for his freedom and that of all Palestinian prisoners. We urge all international supporters of the Palestinian people to take action and build solidarity with Nael Barghouthi and his fellow imprisoned Palestinian strugglers.

TAKE ACTION:

Sign and share the Change.org petition to urge international officials to take action for Nael Barghouthi’s release: https://www.change.org/p/international-officials-pressure-israel-to-free-nael-barghouthi

Organize a protest, demonstration, speaking event or banner drop in your city, community or campus calling for freedom for Nael Barghouthi and his fellow Palestinian prisoners.

Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Zeidan Mahmoud immediately re-arrested upon release after 15 years imprisonment

21 February 2017

Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Zeidan Mahmoud, 39, was re-arrested by Israeli occupation forces only moments after his release from 15 years in Israeli prison today, Tuesday 21 February. Released from Gilboa prison, Mahmoud was immediately taken to the notorious Moskobiya interrogation center in Jerusalem. Palestinian lawyer Mohammed Mahmoud reported that his detention has been extended for 24 hours to “complete interrogation.”

Instead of being released to his family who were awaiting him, Gilboa prison administration handed over Mahmoud to Israeli occupation intelligence who came from Jerusalem to take him to the interrogation center. Earlier in the day, his family in the town of Issawiya in Jerusalem had set up a welcoming tent for the expected celebration of his release; at dawn, the tent was stormed by occupation intelligence and police who seized a group of his relatives, dismantled the tent, confiscated chairs, tore down decorative lights and demanded a group of villagers appear for interrogation at the intelligence agency later in the day. Occupation forces fired tear gas throughout the area indiscriminately.

Mahmoud served 15 years in Israeli prison, accused of membership in the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and participation in the Palestinian resistance during the second Intifada.

The transferred arrest of Mahmoud is highly reminiscent of the case of Bilal Kayed, the Palestinian prisoner who served 14.5 years in Israeli prison and was immediately ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial upon his release as his family and comrades awaited him. Kayed immediately launched a 71-day hunger strike which garnered widespread Palestinian and international support and action demanding his release; he was finally released to his family in December 2016.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Mohammed Zeidan Mahmoud and the end of the harassment and persecution of his family members and community. The targeting of Mahmoud is an example of the constant raids, arrests and interrogation summons suffered by Palestinian former prisoners and their families and illustrates the role of imprisonment in maintaining colonial and settler-colonial control over occupied Palestine.

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An End to Gender Violence.

Reproductive Justice for All

Labor Rights

Full Social Provisioning

For an Antiracist and Anti-imperialist Feminism

Environmental Justice for All

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Flyers and Literature

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