12 August, Online Event: Palestine Today – Occupation and Resistance, the vision of the Masar Badil with Khaled Barakat

11 August 2023

Join us on Saturday, August 12 for a discussion of the current situation in Palestine and developments on the Palestinian, Arab and international scene — with a framework for confronting the occupation and mobilizing to support the resistance.

Featuring Khaled Barakat, Palestinian writer and Executive Committee, Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil)

Saturday, August 12
9 am Pacific, 12 pm Eastern, 6 pm Europe, 7 pm Palestine

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81380183776

Meeting ID: 813 8018 3776

The “Palestinian Authority” and political arrests: Prison subcontractor of the occupation

8 August 2023

The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has, since its inception, represented a project created as part of the Oslo process, for the purpose of subjugating the Palestinian resistance, replacing the Palestinian revolutionary struggle with a pseudo-state entity, and serving the interests of the security of the Zionist occupation. Sponsored by the United States in security interests and the European Union in social programs, the existence of the Authority further serves to remove responsibility for the Palestinian people under occupation from the occupying power itself. The PA’s practice of “security coordination” means that it is currently detaining over 50 Palestinians for supporting their resistance movement and liberation from Zionist occupation, with two of those detainees on hunger strike for 10 days.

In the aftermath of the battle of Jenin, when the Palestinian people and their resistance made clear that the resistance forces are strong and growing throughout the West Bank and not only in Gaza — and particularly in the northern West Bank of occupied Palestine — the role of the Palestinian Authority has been increasingly and publicly exposed, as it has been unable to uproot the resistance from its popular cradle, despite the ongoing demands and entreaties of the Israeli occupation regime and the United States. The PA’s attempts to suppress the resistance and to fulfill its commitments to “security coordination” with the occupation have taken the form of arrests and imprisonment targeting resistance strugglers, political leaders, student activists and others, especially those from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement.

Jenin and after: Pursuing the resistance

Two of these detainees, Murad Malaysheh, 34, and Mohammed Brahma, 37, leaders of the Al-Quds Brigades, are currently on a hunger strike in Jericho prison for the past 10 days to demand their release. Both were seized as they attempted to travel to Jenin to support the resistance; the PA originally claimed it was detaining Malaysheh to “protect” him yet has since launched an arrest campaign targeting dozens of Islamic Jihad members. While Malaysheh and Brahma were ordered released by a PA court on 19 July, they remain imprisoned; this practice of ignoring court decisions has been routinely implemented against Palestinian resistance detainees. In a letter on 7 August, Malaysheh and Brahma declared that they had suspended their last strike because they had been promised efforts to secure their release, but have relaunched their strike after the claimed efforts led nowhere.

The Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine also noted that among its members imprisoned by the PA include:

Arqam Ahmarou, 57
Fadi al-Bari, 38
Eid Mohammed Hamamra, 28
Mohammed Salim Alawneh, 41
Mohammed Fayes Malaysheh, 42
Mo’men Adnan Fashafsha, 20
Imad Mohammed Khaliliya, 25
Khaled Ahmad Malaysheh
Yazan Munjed Maslamani, 24
Ahmad Abdel-Latif Nawasra, 41
Yousef Ikhlil, 24

They are among over 52 Palestinian prisoners of the resistance and the liberation movement detained by the PA, frequently former prisoner held in the Israeli occupation jails. Musaab Shtayyeh, the Palestinian resistance struggler from Nablus, has been jailed by the PA for 324 days.

Security coordination targets the “Jenin phenomenon”

Maher al-Akhras, former long-term hunger striker who won his freedom from occupation prisons, said that these attacks represent a plan by the PA security forces — administered and directed by the United States — to end the “Jenin phenomenon,” including setting up a high-ranking security operations team that intends to dismantle the Jenin Brigade, with similar plans used to target the Lions’ Den (Areen al-Osood) in Nablus. “The leadership of the Authority provided the security forces with dozens of personnel, along with armored military vehicles. They are charged with preventing any manifestations of celebration of the resistance in Jenin, and besieging and cordoning off any march of the resistance fighters in the camp.” He ascribed this plan to the Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh meetings, which, under U.S. auspices, brought together the Jordanian and Egyptian intelligence with the PA and Zionist representatives, noting that it took on a new priority after the power of the resistance in Jenin camp in the July battle.

This was reflected in the actions of PA security forces on Saturday, 5 August, after PA forces attacked a march in Jenin camp in support of an armed resistance operation in Tel Aviv. Live bullets were fired during the attack on the march, and journalist Mohammed Abed was injured. This followed a crisis at Hebron University, after PA security force members, who also study at the university, assaulted and confiscated the phones of women students participating in a vigil against political arrests by the PA, launching a series of protests and sit-ins. While the university’s staff union and concerned organizations negotiated an agreement between students to end political attacks and arrests, the university administration expelled Ahmad al-Sharif, the spokesperson of the Islamic Bloc, with the Bloc noting that this action “equates the aggressor and the victim,” rejecting “the policy of punishing everyone at the expense of justice and law.”

Student movements have been particularly targeted for PA repression and arrest, with students at Birzeit University, An-Najah University and several other universities detained by PA forces as well as Israeli occupation forces. At both of these universities, election results indicated clear support for the political and social forces associated with the resistance.

Bolstering security coordination at the expense of the Palestinian prisoners

Hussein al-Sheikh, a PA official with an extensive and lengthy history of normalization and collaboration with the occupation regime (profiled in “Foreign Policy” for his extreme unpopularity among Palestinians yet sponsorship by the United States and the Israeli regime), has reportedly been charged with dealing with the Zionist regime to discuss “strengthening the Authority” and its “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation. On Monday, 7 August, the occupation cabinet voted to provide additional (Palestinian) funds, confiscated illegally by the occupation, and facilitation to the PA in order to strengthen the Authority and its role as a security force for the occupier.

The arrests and attacks have continued, particularly on former prisoners; Amjad al-Sayeh, the brother of Bassam al-Sayeh, the prisoner who died behind bars as a result of Israeli medical negligence and whose body is one of the martyrs held captive today, was ordered detained an additional eight days by the PA on Sunday, 6 August. Amjad is himself a former prisoner and an engineer. On the same day, PA security forces detained Muhiydeen Sharawna, the son of released prisoner Ayman Sharawna, now deported to Gaza; while on Monday, they detained former prisoners Yasser Bilal Yamin and Mahmoud Asida after raiding their homes in Nablus.

Detention by the PA is routinely part of a “revolving door” with occupation prisons, whereby recently released prisoners are called for PA interrogation and detained, and detainees released by the PA are seized days later by Zionist occupation forces.

Cairo meeting fails to resolve PA crisis after principled boycott

This escalating situation, mirroring the escalation in Palestinian resistance, has also led to an increasing political crisis in which the broad support for the Palestinian resistance forces renders the Ramallah PA increasingly irrelevant, especially amid a Zionist onslaught of invasions, assassinations, land confiscation, settler attacks and assaults on Palestinian civilians and their land. On 29 July, the PA’s president, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), called for a meeting of Palestinian faction general secretaries in Cairo, ostensibly to strengthen Palestinian national unity or achieve reconciliation, while ordering yet more arrests, assaults, detentions and attacks on the resistance in Palestinian streets, hand in hand with the Israeli occupation.

The Islamic Jihad Movement announced its boycott of the Cairo meeting, demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners in PA jails and noting that unity could not be achieved while the PA continues to arrest and pursue the cadres of the resistance.

This position was adopted by several other Palestinian factions, including the PFLP-General Command and al-Saiqa. Given the leading role of the movement in the prisoners’ movemnt and the resistance, its boycott of the meeting was a significant blow to the PA’s efforts to impose its security framework over the Palestinian political forces.

At the same time, the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, also highlighted the fundamental contradictions in the Cairo meeting, noting that it seeks to resolve the crisis of the PA rather than to support real national unity, which is developed in the field by the resistance on a daily basis.

Real national unity cannot include those who imprison the resistance

Khaled Barakat, co-founder of the Masar and a Palestinian writer, said in an interview with Palestine Today TV, “The real question is, ‘why should we go to the Cairo meeting?’ at all, and not the other way around. The position of the brothers in the Islamic Jihad Movement and any Palestinian faction that later aligns with this position, is justified by logic and national principles to boycott the Cairo meeting. It is clear to see the interests of the Authority and the profit that some regimes reap from these meetings, but where is the interest of the Palestinian people in them?”

Noting the principle of the primary and secondary contradiction for liberation movements and the primacy of confronting the colonizer, he said, “For the Palestinian cause, there is a central enemy for all of us, the Zionist entity, and our collective effort must be united in confronting it. Likewise, liberation movements include political and intellectual currents, multiple parties and visions, and different schools and approaches, and this is very natural. However, this does not apply to the relationship with the security Authority in the West Bank, as it is not part of the Palestinian liberation movement, especially when it targets the Palestinian people and their resistance with arrests, harassment and torture. This principle can apply, for example, to the relationship of the Islamic Jihad Movement with the brothers in Hamas, who can have pluralism in their vision, actions, and tactics, and dialogue, even if it is harsh, can resolve any crisis that may arise.”

Rather than participating in the PA’s meetings, Barakat said that real national unity is built through the resistance and the engagement of the people with the resistance, further urging broader regional unity and action. “What is required now is to strengthen and develop the relationship between the poles of the resistance camp in the region on the basis of the unity of the fronts, especially with Hezbollah, which constitutes the solid nucleus of the resistance in the region,” he concluded.

The road to liberation: the defeat of Oslo

As we noted in a previous report on the PA’s assault on the Palestinian resistance:

We recall the assassination of anti-corruption struggler, the martyr Nizar Banat by PA security forces — for which justice is still delayed and institutionally denied — and the many Palestinian strugglers and resistance fighters imprisoned by the PA over the decades of Oslo as part of “security coordination”; that is, serving as an agent of the occupation.

From Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades (jailed for four years by the PA under British, Canadian and U.S. guard), to Basil al-Araj, to Nizar Banat, to Musaab Shtayyeh, PA imprisonment is used on behalf of the occupation to target the Palestinian resistance, in its form of armed struggle and in its broader popular cradle of support…

The crimes of the Palestinian Authority are not simply independent “human rights violations” or “political detention” targeting rival forces. They are carried out as part and parcel of the Oslo framework that created the PA as a subcontractor for the occupation; and the current Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh new security demands to attack the rising resistance in the West Bank and throughout Palestine from the river to the sea. These arrests are the responsibility of Israel, the United States, Canada, the European Union and all parties involved in creating, sustaining and propping up the “security coordination” framework, which benefits only the occupier and colonizer at the expense of the Palestinian people.

As we noted after the assassination of the martyr Nizar Banat: Now is the time to take action to confront the Palestinian Authority and all those responsible for imposing it upon the Palestinian people to the detriment of the Palestinian struggle for return and liberation. The PA and its funders and trainers must be held accountable for its ongoing betrayal of the Palestinian people and its collaboration with the occupation regime and Zionist colonialism. The Oslo project is backed by Zionism, imperialism and reactionary regimes – and it must and will fall on the road to the liberation of Palestine.

Freedom for all Palestinian prisoners, in PA, Zionist, reactionary regime and imperialist jails — and freedom for all of Palestine, from the river to the sea!

21 October, all out to Lannemezan! International demonstration to free Georges Abdallah and Palestinian prisoners

8 August 2023

Join the annual demonstration to free Georges Abdallah, marching to the gate of the prison where he is detained, with the calls and participation of many support committees, associations, unions and political parties.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all to participate in this demonstration to free the Lebanese struggler for Palestine and all Palestinian prisoners in Zionist, imperialist and reactionary regime prisons. Organize to come to Lannemezan for a mass presence that makes our voices heard!

Gather on Saturday 21 October 2023 in front of Lannemezan train station (65) in Lannemezan, France at 2 p.m.

Georges Abdallah is a Lebanese communist activist and struggler for the Palestinian cause imprisoned in France since 1984 and eligible for release since 1999. Having become one of the longest-held political prisoners in Europe, he will begin his 40th year of detention on 24 October 2023. In June, his lawyer filed his ninth request for parole and deportation so that he could return to live freely in his country, Lebanon. More than ever, it is time to build the mobilization for his release!

Departures by bus and carpooling: information to come

Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/6571688702893923/

Sixth Palestinian prisoner joins hunger strike as battle escalates inside the occupation prisons

8 August 2023

The battle inside Israeli occupation prisons is escalating as a growing number of imprisoned Palestinians are taking protest steps to challenge repression, isolation and administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial.

On Tuesday, 8 August, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society announced that Sultan Khallouf, 42, from Burqin near Jenin, is also on hunger strike against his arbitrary detention, joining Kayed Fasfous, who has been on hunger strike for six days, and Saif Hamdan, Osama Khalil, Salah Rabaya and Qusay Khader, all of who have been on hunger strike for 10 days.

Khallouf also launched his hunger strike since 3 August, the day he was seized by occupation forces from his home. On 8 August, the occupation military court in Salem held a session for Khallouf which extended his detention an additional 72 hours, while the military prosecution declared their intention to consider issuing an administrative detention order against him.

Khallouf is a former prisoner who in 2019 carried out a 67-day hunger strike against his administrative detention, only suspending it after a specific date was set for his release. He previously spent four years in Israeli prisons.

The growing movement against administrative detention inside the prisons, with over 1,200 detention orders issued this year and over 1,100 prisoners jailed without charge or trial, out of 5000 total Palestinian prisoners, is continuing to escalate. Six Palestinians are now on hunger strike, and the Administrative Detainees’ Committee has announced escalating protest steps. This is the highest number of administrative detainees held in 20 years, representing over one-fifth of all Palestinian prisoners.

Today, 8 August, prisoners in Ofer prison refused to stand for roll call or give their numbers in the count. Tomorrow, Wednesday, 9 August, a group of prisoners will leave their cells to protest administrative detention. On Thursday, 10 August, prisoners will hold sit-ins and information sessions in the prison yards, and on Saturday, 12 August, prisoners will close their sections and wear prison uniforms, signalling their willingness to confront the jailers. On Sunday, 13 August, administrative detainees will focus on various protest actions to pressure the occupation to bring this form of detention to an end.

Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoners are also facing ongoing repression while escalating their protests in defense of imprisoned leaders who have been subjected to transfer, interrogation and isolation, including Wael Jaghoub, Nael Barghouthi, Yaqoub Qadri and the Freedom Tunnel Prisoners.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine prisoners launched their protest steps inside the prison following the isolation of Wael Jaghoub and the transfer to interrogation of a number of leaders of the Front in prisons, including Nader Sadaqa, Hikmat Abdel-Jalil and Ahmad al-Ardah. The PFLP prisoners refused to participate in the count or roll call, disrupted inspections of the cells and wore prison uniforms to demonstrate their protest.

After the beginning of these protest steps, the Zionist prison administration in Megiddo prison imposed a number of collective sanctions on the PFLP prisoners, including banning them from family visits, confiscating electrical appliances from inside the rooms (including electric fans, necessary amid the intense summer heat) and locking down the sections of the PFLP prisoners to prevent them from going to recreation or the halls.

Also on Tuesday, 8 August, the prison administration suddenly transferred all the prisoners held in Section 4 of Ramon prison to Nafha prison, several hours after they also suddenly transferred the prisoners from Ashkelon prison to Nafha prison. The prisoners were, in many cases, prevented from bringing their clothing and personal belongings, and the use of frequent and mass transfers is intended to destabilize the prisoners’ lives and deny them the opportunity to organize and confront the occupation. This is a long-standing strategy of the occupation, currently practiced by the notorious far-right fascist Minister of Public Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the prison administration.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine to take action to support the Palestinian hunger strikers and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom, for their own lives and for the Palestinian people. These sons of the Palestinian popular masses are confronting the system of Israeli oppression on the front lines behind bars, with their bodies and their lives, to bring the system of administrative detention to an end. With over 1100 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial — over 20% of all Palestinian prisoners — the struggle to bring down administrative detention is more urgent than ever. Take these actions below to stand with the hunger strikers and the struggle for liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea!

Download these signs for use in your campaigns:

TAKE ACTION:

Protest at the Israeli Embassy or Consulate in Your Country!

Join the many protests taking place around the world — confront, isolate and besiege the Israeli embassy or consulate in your city or country of residence. Make it clear that the people are with Palestine! Send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Take to the streets: Organize a protest in solidarity with Palestine!

Take to the streets and join actions for justice! Organize your own if there is none in your area, and send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Boycott Israel!

The international, Arab and Palestinian campaign to boycott Israel can play an important role at this critical time. Local boycott groups can protest and label Israeli produce and groceries, while many complicit corporations – including HP, G4S, Puma, Teva and others, profit from their role in support Zionist colonialism throughout occupied Palestine. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism.

Demand Your Government Sanction Israel!

The racist, settler colonial state of Israel and its war crimes against the Palestinian people are enabled and backed extensively by the over $3.8 billion each year given to Israel by the United States — targeted directly to support the Israeli occupation military killing children, women, men and elders throughout occupied Palestine. From Canada to Australia to the European Union, Western governments and imperialist powers provide ongoing diplomatic, political and economic support to Israel as well as selling billions of dollars of weaponry to the settler-colonial state. Meanwhile, they also purchase billions of dollars in weaponry from the Israeli state. Governments in league with imperialist powers, such as in the Philippines, Brazil, India and elsewhere, also buy weapons and “security” services — all “battle-tested” on the Palestinian population. Call your representatives, MPs, political officials and demand your government sanction Israel now, cut off all aid, expel its ambassadors, and stop buying and selling weapons!

Palestinian women prisoners struggling for justice, dignity and freedom

8 August 2023

Palestinian women prisoners are continuing their battle for justice, dignity and freedom from the occupation prisons. There are currently 32 women prisoners jailed in occupation prisons, with most of them held in Damon prison, while Fatima Shaheen and Etaf Jaradat are held in Neve Tirza prison; three Palestinian women are jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention orders, and one minor girl is behind bars. (There are over 1132 administrative detainees in total, out of nearly 5000 Palestinian political prisoners.)

Shaheen and Jaradat carried out a hunger strike for several days in late July — joined by several male prisoners, including Zakaria Zubaidi, of the Freedom Tunnel prisoners, as well as those in the Ramleh prison clinic — after they were subjected to increasing restrictions and moved to the Neve Tirza prison for Zionist criminal prisoners. The two were transferred suddenly and, after they objected, the guards bound their hands and feet, and their fellow prisoners erupted in outrage. They suspended their strike on 27 July after a commitment to follow up on their situation.

Shaheen, 33, was shot by occupation soldiers on 15 April 2023 and injured in the spine and abdomen; she was told that she would be unable to walk in the future and is using a wheelchair. Jaradat was transferred to the Ramle prison clinic (and then Neve Tirza) from Damon prison solely to provide assistance with daily life activities to Shaheen, whose severe injuries prevent her from doing those activities.

Both of them have been held in poor conditions, with Jaradat provided only a chair to sleep on for weeks, despite the fact that she was moved to accompany Shaheen. Meanwhile, Shaheen was denied access to any telephone contact with her family, and the two have been held in a tiny cell with poor ventilation. Jaradat is also cut off from access to her family, including her imprisoned sons, Omar and Ghaith Jaradat.

However, the women prisoners have been continuing to take collective protest steps to demand improvement in their conditions of confinement, and have been subjected to sanctions and collective punishment by the Zionist prison administration, incluing preventing them from using the public telephones, closing the “canteen” (prison store) and denying them family visits.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses our strongest solidarity with the Palestinian women prisoners, and Palestinian women in Palestine and everywhere in exile and diaspora, struggling for justice and liberation for all of Palestine, from the river to the sea. We urge women’s organizations and feminist groups around the world to show their solidarity with Palestinian women and to highlight the struggle of the Palestinian women prisoners, escalate the campaigns to boycott and isolate the occupation, its institutions and complicit corporations, and resist with all Palestinian prisoners as they confront fascism with their bodies and their lives. Palestinian women prisoners are on the front lines of struggle for national and social liberation, and we urge their immediate release, the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners — and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

International actions demand freedom for Palestine Action prisoners

8 August 2023

The international campaign to free Palestine Action prisoners is growing, even as the British state continues to ramp up its campaign of repression against direct actionists who have confronted Israeli arms manufacturers and related corporations in the weapons trade. On Wednesday, 9 August, three Actionists who dismantled a factory of the French arms firm, Thales, in Glasgow, to stop its production of weapons for the Israeli occupation army, will begin a four-day trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Three actionists who dismantled French arms firm Thales in Glasgow to halt production of weaponry for the Israeli military, will stand trial tomorrow at Glasgow Sheriff Court. #ThalesIsGuilty, not @pal_action_scot pic.twitter.com/0Sl8LU9hiQ

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) August 8, 2023

Supporters are encouraged to come each day at 8 am to the court to show support with banners and flags. Across Britain, four Actionists are detained and over 100 Palestine Actionists face prison for taking direct action to shut down the production of weapons used against the Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian people. Palestine Action is seeking support from people who can provide court support, mentoring to those facing trial, arrestee support and more. Fill out their form to get in contact!

The Palestinian prisoners’ movement has expressed its support for Palestine Action prisoners, noting that “We condemn the British authorities’ arrest of members of the Palestine Action movement and call on all international legal and human rights organizations to take a serious position, and to take official and popular action to pressure the British government to immediately release the remaining activists, as well as to bring an end to the British complicity with the Zionist apartheid regime, from the issuing of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 until the present day.”

Palestine Action marked its third anniversary on 1 August. During that time, two separate Elbit Sytems sites (the Israeli company that provides 85% of the Israeli armed drones used to assassinate Palestinians in Jenin, Gaza and elsewhere) have been shut down, and contracts between the British Ministry of Defence and Elbit Systems were cancelled, cutting off millions of pounds from the Israeli arms dealer.

On Saturday, 22 July, people across Britain and around the world participated in a day of action to free Palestine Action prisoners and drop the charges against Actionists — as well as challenging the Zionist arms industry and its imperialist partners.

In Charleroi, Belgium, the Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine (Charleroi pour la Palestine) gathered to protest the participation of the “Israel Premier Tech” team in a cycling race, calling for Elbit to get out of Belgium and solidarity with the Palestine Action prisoners.

In Paris, France, Samidoun Paris Banlieue posted a large solidarity mural with the slogan: “Solidarity with Palestine Action: #FreeTheActionists” on the walls of Paris.

🇵🇸 A l'occasion d'une journée internationale de mobilisation, affichage dans les rues de Paris pour exiger la libération immédiate des 6 prisonniers politiques de Palestine Action (@Pal_action) détenus en Grande Bretagne.

➡️ https://t.co/tlSvMgw6j6 #FreeTheActionists pic.twitter.com/fAUoXUUsmG

— Samidoun Paris Banlieue (@SamidounPB) July 22, 2023

In Toulouse, France, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra — a member organization of the Samidoun Network — issued a solidarity video highlighting the work of Palestine Action:

🇵🇸 A l'occasion d'une journée internationale de mobilisation, le Collectif Palestine Vaincra réaffirme son soutien aux militants de Palestine Action (@Pal_action) face à la répression !#FreeTheActionists #ShutElbitDown pic.twitter.com/6JKqXKweQA

— Collectif Palestine Vaincra (@Collectif_PV) July 22, 2023

The Collectif also posted signs and posters throughout Toulouse’s neighbourhoods, calling for freedom for the Palestine Action prisoners and developing the boycott of Israel:

🇵🇸 À Toulouse, solidarité avec les six militants de Palestine Action (@Pal_action) détenus dans des prisons britanniques pour leurs actions contre le fabricant d'armes israélien Elbit Systems. Face à la répression, vive la solidarité internationale !#FreeTheActionists pic.twitter.com/QaOC23tfTx

— Collectif Palestine Vaincra (@Collectif_PV) July 22, 2023

In Vancouver, Canada, Samidoun Vancouver, the Canada Palestine Association and BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish organized a Palestine stand and a march to Scotiabank, one of the major Canadian banks and the largest single foreign investor in Elbit Systems. The Scotiabank branch had closed without explanation as the group arrived, putting a “Temporarily closed” sign on the door seemingly to prevent customers from learning the truth about the bank’s investments in Israeli war crimes.

Meanwhile, people came out in cities across England to show solidarity with Palestine Action, including Manchester, Liverpool, London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Brighton.

In Manchester, a banner drop and action was organized by Youth Front for Palestine, Manchester Palestine Action and the Manchester PSC, with a massive banner calling for freedom for the Palestine Action political prisoners:

Banner drop in Manchester calling for the freedom of Palestine Action prisoners, locked up for taking necessary action to disrupt the British Israeli weapons trade #FreeTheActionists pic.twitter.com/ZCjR9Khpth

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) July 22, 2023

Hastings and Rye PSC held up an Elbit is Guilty sign around Hastings, taking photos with participants to show solidarity:

✴️Today we join calls to free the Palestine Actionists imprisoned for attempting to end UK complicity with Israeli Apartheid
✴️ Have your picture taken with our Elbit is Guilty sign, share on social media Hastings town centre 12 – 2pm#FreeTheActionists #ShutDownElbit @pal_action pic.twitter.com/2YMl01Z2VW

— Hastings and Rye PSC (@HRyepsc) July 22, 2023

In Sheffield and London, people came out to rally at the courts to call for the charges to be dropped, and then marched to Barclays bank, which invests millions of pounds in Elbit:

From London to Sheffield, people are mobilising because Israel’s arms trade is guilty, not Palestine Action #FreeTheActionists pic.twitter.com/pFjADtX5Vm

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) July 22, 2023

Sheffield mobilise outside Barclays Bank, investor of £millions in Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems #FreeTheActionists pic.twitter.com/fPvMrM5T6T

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) July 22, 2023

Brighton PSC organized a solidarity stand that shared information about Palestine and showed solidarity with the prisoners;

#Brighton sending solidarity to all Palestine Action prisoners!
(& all those currently on or awaiting trial). #ShutElbitDown 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/vHtS6wkmkJ

— Brighton PSC (@BrightonPSC) July 22, 2023

Birmingham activists came out to rally to free the Palestine Action prisoners and stop the prosecutions.

Birmingham standing in solidarity with Palestine Action and mobilising against our prosecutors #FreeTheActionists pic.twitter.com/RAaWpjDXpL

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) July 22, 2023

In Liverpool, marchers took the streets waving Palestinian flag and a large banner calling for freedom for the Palestine Action prisoners.

Huge support in Liverpool for the fight to free Palestine Action prisoners and all Palestinians #FreeTheActionists pic.twitter.com/CSVHmC8fiI

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) July 22, 2023

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers also passed a resolution “calling for the release of all Palestine Action prisoners in Britain and for all pending charges to be dropped against Palestine Action activists arrested for their actions confronting weapons manufacturers and their agents.” A number of prominent celebrities, scholars, lawyers and activists, including Roger Waters, South African MP Nkozi Zwelivelile Mandela, MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, and many others, have also spoken out to demand that all charges be dropped against the Palestine Actionists.

The struggle continues — to #ShutElbitDown and to free the Palestine Action prisoners. Palestine Action maintains a resource on their website about the upcoming trials for those who can go in person to provide court support. People around the world can continue to support the campaign, including by writing letters to imprisoned Actionists, who benefit greatly from the global support. Here are some actions that you and your organization can take:

(1) In Britain: Organise a solidarity protest/direct action against your local CPS office or any company which facilitates the production of Israeli weapons. Internationally: Protest at British embassies and consulates and/or any company or entity involved in supporting the Israeli arms trade (eg, Scotiabank in Canada; Elbit properties in the US)

(2) Organise a banner drop or poster run and outreach event in solidarity. You can pre-order flyers and posters here: https://bit.ly/PrisonersOutreach

(3) Post the pictures and videos of your actions online and tag @pal_action or/and use the hashtag #FreeTheActionists

(4) Write solidarity messages to the prisoners which you an send to palactprisoners@protonmail.com

(5) Donate to support prisoners and actionists facing trial at https://palestineaction.org/defence-fund

Rising revolt against administrative detention: 5 Palestinians on hunger strike, over 1100 jailed without charge or trial

7 August 2023

Palestinian prisoners are rising up behind bars in Zionist prisons to confront administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Out of nearly 5,000 total Palestinan political prisoners, approximately 1,132 are held without charge or trial under indefinitely renewable administrative detention orders, the largest number of administrative detainees in 20 years.

Five prisoners are on hunger strike to end their administrative detention, while dozens more are launching protest steps against the prison administration. Kayed Fasfous — former long-term striker who previously won his freedom through a hunger strike — has been on hunger strike for five days, joining Saif Qassem Hamdan, Osama Maher Khalil, Qusay Jamal Khader and Salah Rafaat Rabaya, who have been on hunger strike for 9 days.

Saif Hamdan, 27, is from Barqa in Nablus and has been jailed without charge or trial since 4 October 2022, after he was seized at a checkpoint near Barqa. Held in Nafha prison, his detention has been renewed three times already. A construction labourer, he is the father of five children.

Osama Khalil, 23, from al-Faraa refugee camp near Tubas, has been detained since 17 May 2022 and is also held in Nafha. His administrative detention has been repeatedly renewed since that time. He worked in tile workshops and a vegetable store prior to his arrest.

Qusay Khader, 24, from Al-Amari camp near Ramallah, has been detained since 14 December 2022. He is a former prisoner who previously spent 14 months in occupation prisons; he is a labourer in an aluminum factory. His detention has already been renewed three times.

Salah Rabaya, 22, from Maythaloon in Jenin, has been detained since 8 February 2023. He is a student at Khadouri University, majoring in sports and athletics, and works in a furniture store with his family.

Kayed Fasfous, 34, has been detained since 2 May 2023. Fasfous, whose four brothers are also imprisoned under administrative detention, has spent 7 years in the occupation prisons in total, 4 of them in administrative detention, after he was first detained in 2007. He is held in the Naqab desert prison. In late May and the beginning of June, he went on hunger strike for 9 days, which he ended with a promise to set a limit for hi detention. In 2021, Kayed Fasfous conducted a 131-day hunger strike; images of his emaciated body were widely circulated, in sharp contrast to his commitment to fitness and bodybuilding while free. Fasfous is married and a father of a daughter, Joanne. He has been denied family visits since his arrest in May.

These hunger strikes come amid an escalation in collective confrontation. On Thursday, 3 August, 16 Palestinian prisoners launched a series of protest actions in Ofer prison against the policy of administrative detention. This was followed by a statement by the Administrative Detainees’ Committees, announcing collective steps to challenge the escalating use of administrative detention.

On Saturday, 5 August, the administrative detainees delayed their entrance to and return from the prison yard and on Sunday, 6 August, returned two meals collectively. On Tuesday, 8 August, the prisoners announced that they would not go out to the prison medical clinics and would closed the laundries.

The statement affirmed:

“At a time when our people are subected to the most severe Zionist repressive and racist measures, including killing, land confiscation and systematic displacement, and as our peopl express their revolutionary will in the highest meanings of confrontation and steadfastness in their principled adherence to their land, identity, freedom and dignity, we, the administrative detainees in the prisons of the oppressive colonial occupation, are exposed to the worst forms of arbitrary detention and suffering through our continuous detention that contradicts the most basic human rights and provisions of international law. This detention is practiced by their security services against the fighters of our people and our social activists, with the aim of subjugation and submission, and as an individual and collective punishment to inflict even greater harm upon us and our families under the pretext of the ‘secret security file’ and the hypothetical ‘danger to the security of the region.'”

“The policy of invasion and retaliation pursued by their security services against us, which we have witnessed in the recent period, is represented by the increase in our numbers, as our number has reached more than 1,200 administrative detainees, a number that has not been reached for 20 years, and the intensive renewal of detention orders for the majority of us in the recent period, as well as the arrest of women, children, the sick and the elderly, and the adoption of a revolving door policy that takes us out of administrative detention only for a short respite that does not exceed the one or two months that many of us spend outside the prison.”

“We are confronting this reality that has been going on for decades, where the state of emergency has been turned into a permanent and continuous state, in which the Zionist judicial system is used to legitimize this kind of arbitrary detention in order to subjugate us and attack our freedom and our lives. Many of us have spent more than 10 years and some have exceeded 15 years in detention.”

“Based on all this and our long experience in struggle and previous battles of confrontation, and after we have exhausted all means of dialogue and messages to many parties, as we did not find any listening ears to our demands, nor did we receive any positive reactions that put an end to our ongoing tragedy, we, the administrative detainees, of our various national orientations and paths, and from all factions in the prisons, demand that we proceed with our protest steps within the framewor of the open, escalating and comprehensive program of confrontation in response to this criminal policy. So that our confrontation is not seasonal, intermittent or a mere reaction, it was agreed in Ofer Prison as a preliminary start on a series of collective steps, which include open disobedience, mass exit from the cells, hunger strikes in limited batches, protests and delays in returning from and going to the yard, returning medicines, and refusing to deal with the clinics, which will extend to the rest of the prisons at the appropriate time. Based on developments and how we are dealt with, we will determine the appropriate time for the strategic step represented by the collective open hunger strike. Accordingly, on Thursday 3 August 2023, a group of administrative detainees in Ofer prisons will remain in their cells, which will be followed by many steps in the coming days, including sit-ins in the prison yards and the return of meals, all conducted under the supervision and direction of the Administrative Detainees’ Committee in the prisons of the Zionist occupation, and in coordination with the Higher National Emergency Committee of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement, to approve the program of national confrontation against administrative detention, with a national document of honour to express our united joint work.”

“As we raise our voice in rejection of this racist policy holding us hostage in detention, we look forward to the active, responsible role of our people and their activities from all popular and official sides, to join their efforts in our steps of struggle to support us in this battle. Our victory in this battle will enhance our confidence in our national and collective action and will open the door to other victories. Together, we will be able to expose these criminal measures and bring the perpetrators to the International Criminal Court, and we will remain loyal to the path of steadfastness and sacrifice.”

There are 18 child prisoners held in administrative detention and three women. In the past year, the occupation has issued 1608 detention orders, including 813 new orders and 795 renewal orders. Administrative detention orders are being issued on a near daily basis; on Monday, 7 August, occupation forces renewed the detention of Raghad Shamroukh from Dheisheh camp for four months; Ghassan Karajah from Safa village for four months; Abdel-Rahman Jarrar from Jaba for 4 months; and Nazih Abu Aoun, all of these for the third or fourth time consecutively. On 3 August, they renewed the detention of child prisoner Jamal Brahma, 17, for the second time for a new four-month period, and Bahaa Imad Qaadan, fom Tulkarem, was ordered to 6 months in detention after being seized from his home on 12 July 2023.

What Is Administrative Detention?

Administrative detention was first used in Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist regime; it is now used routinely to target Palestinians, especially community leaders, activists, and influential people in their towns, camps and villages.

There are currently approximately 1132 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners, the highest number in 20 years.

Administrative detention orders are issued by the military and approved by military courts on the basis of “secret evidence”, denied to both Palestinian detainees and their attorneys. Issued for up to six months at a time, they are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians — including minor children — can spend years jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. Hundreds of Palestinians have gone on hunger strike to win their liberation from this form of arbitrary detention, which is not only illegal under international law but a form of psychological torture and collective punishment targeting Palestinian families and communities, as detainees are unable to predict or plan for their release.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine to take action to support these Palestinian hunger strikers and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom, for their own lives and for the Palestinian people. These sons of the Palestinian popular masses are confronting the system of Israeli oppression on the front lines behind bars, with their bodies and their lives, to bring the system of administrative detention to an end. With over 1100 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial — over 20% of all Palestinian prisoners — the struggle to bring down administrative detention is more urgent than ever. Take these actions below to stand with the hunger strikers and the struggle for liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea!