Take Action: Demand action to free British citizen Fayez Sharary from Israeli prison

11 December 2016

layla-sharari Fayez Sharary, a British citizen of Palestinian descent, has now been held in Israeli prisons for nearly three months. He traveled with his wife Laila and their daughter, Aya, 3, to Palestine, to visit Laila’s widowed mother and to mark Eid al-Adha in Jerusalem, reports Inminds, the British organization currently leading a campaign to free Sharary. As the family attempted to leave Palestine on 15 September at the bridge to Jordan, they were stopped by Israeli forces; they had a flight scheduled for 17 September to return to the UK.

Sharary was separated from his wife and daughter, while he was interrogated for five hours while his daugher was refused access to a toilet. Laila’s mobile phone was confiscated and Sharary was detained; when she attempted to refuse to leave and stay with her husband, Israeli soldiers screamed at her.

Sharary was held for three weeks in Petah Tikva interrogation center and subject to ill-treatment, abuse and torture throughout that time. He was denied access to a lawyer until he signed a forced confession on 6 October and was moved to Ofer prison. Sharary’s torture by Israeli forces was further substantiated by Judge Azriel Levi, who ordered his release in a hearing in Ofer military court on 26 October, citing his confession as a result of “the method of interrogation, which included pained and prolonged shackling, threats, and a blatant exploitation of the defendant’s demonstrated weakness.” The military judge further said that the confession had a value of “less than zero” and that some of the allegations against Sharary were not prosecutable in the military courts.

However, as is frequently the case when on the rare occasion a military judge orders the release of a detainee, the Israeli military prosecution appealed and Sharary has remained imprisoned ever since.

Daniel Zeichner, the British Labour Party’s Shadow Minister for Transport, raised a parliamentary question regarding the involvement of the British consulate in providing support for Sharary’s case; Tobias Ellwood, under-secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, replied that “Our Embassy in Tel Aviv has raised, and continues to raise, the detention of Mr Sharary with the Israeli authorities, most recently on 15 November. Consular officials continue to provide consular support to Mr Sharary and his family.”

Laila Sharary has participated in several protests in London demanding that the UK government act to free her imprisoned husband, 49, who has lived in the UK for 23 years. Sharary is allegedly accused of “contact with an enemy organization,” “services to an illegal organization,” and “bringing money into the region from an enemy.” Part of these allegations allegedly relate to Sharary’s time in Lebanon in 1993 or earlier; Sharary is not a resident of Palestine. The initial judge in the case who ordered Sharary released also dismissed the allegations of financial involvement due to irrelevant claims by the military prosecutor.

Despite these flimsy charges and his experience of torture – all too common, but publicly confirmed in this case by an Israeli military judge – Sharary remains imprisoned and will face a military court in Ofer on Wednesday, 14 December.

TAKE ACTION:

Please take action to urge the UK government to intervene and pressure Israel to release torture victim Fayez Sharary. This includes asking for UK representatives to attend the hearing in Sharary’s case at Ofer Military Court.

Email the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk and the British Consulate in Jerusalem at britain.jerusalem@fco.gov.uk to express your concern about the case of Fayez Sharary.

You can use the sample letter below or write your own letter:

SAMPLE LETTER

To whom it may concern,

I am writing in regard to the urgent case of Fayez Sharary, a British citizen currently imprisoned by Israel in its military court system for the occupied Palestinian territories. Sharary, 49, was previously ordered released due to the torture he experienced under interrogation.

Nonetheless, he remains imprisoned and will once again face a military court at Ofer prison on Wednesday, 14 December from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm.

It is critical that the British government support its citizen Fayez Sharary by pressuring Israel for his immediate release. It is particularly critical that there is a British official presence at the military court hearing on 14 December.

Israeli military trials do not meet international standards for fair trials and can rely on evidence obtained through torture. Please act to release Fayez Sharary and reunite him with his wife and family in Britain.

Sincerely,

Daoud Ghoul released, ordered to 10 days home imprisonment because his release from prison was celebrated

11 December 2016

Palestinian youth activist Daoud Ghoul was released again from Israeli occupation custody on Sunday, 11 December, but ordered to 10 days house imprisonment in his home in Silwan, Jerusalem, because he was received by a celebration held for him by the people of his town when he was released from Israeli prison after 18 months on 27 November. Ghoul, the director of youth programs for the Health Work Committees in Jerusalem, had been seized once more by Israeli forces one week after his release, on Monday, 5 December.

Ghoul has been subject to a series of escalating repressive Israeli attacks since he returned to Palestine from Brussels, Belgium in November 2014 after speaking before the European Parliament about Israeli attacks on Palestinian life in Jerusalem.

He was first ordered exiled from his home city of Jerusalem, then barred from the West Bank and international travel. The HWC office in Jerusalem was shut down by military order, and Ghoul was arrested, accused of affiliation with a banned political party, the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and sentenced to 18 months in Israeli prison.

Also today, former prisoner and hunger striker Munir Abu Sharar, released from administrative detention in April of this year and married just one week ago, was arrested in a night raid by Israeli occupation forces. However, Abu Sharar was released this afternoon after several hours’ detention and has returned to his home and family.

Mohammed Abu Sakha, Palestinian circus trainer, ordered to six more months in prison without charge or trial

11 December 2016

Palestinian circus trainer and performer Mohammed Abu Sakha, 25, was once again ordered to six months in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, on Sunday, 11 December. Abu Sakha has now been imprisoned for a full year with no charge and no trial; his case has received widespread attention.

He is a circus teacher and performer who works with Palestinian children with disabilities at the Palestinian Circus School. He has toured around Palestine and internationally as part of the circus. Abu Sakha was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 14 December 2015 at the Zaatara military checkpoint, as he attempted to cross while traveling from his home to his workplace in Bir Zeit. Abu Sakha has spent nearly 10 years participating in, performing in, and now working for the circus school, and was scheduled to participate in multiple international circus events at the time of his detention.

The renewal of his detention unfortunately did not come as a surprise, following the public hearing at the Israeli Supreme Court on 5 December, in which the court declared that the “secret file” on Abu Sakha – to which both the detainee himself and his lawyers are denied access – indicated that he “still poses a threat to the security of the state.”

Abu Sakha’s case was raised in a statement on 8 December by the European Union Representative, the EU Heads of Mission and the Heads of Mission of Switzerland and Norway in Jerusalem and Ramallah, who said that “the Heads of Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah reiterate their longstanding concern about the extensive use by Israel of administrative detention without formal charge. Mohammed Abu Sakha, a trainer at the Palestinian Circus School, has been in administrative detention for almost a year and the decision for a possible extension will be taken within the coming days.”

Abu Sakha’s case has received widespread international attention, in part due to his own wide network of international friends and fellow circus performers. Events and actions in the United States, Canada, Uruguay, Chile, Germany, the UK, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere have highlighted Abu Sakha’s detention without charge or trial. His case has drawn not only the attention of Palestine solidarity organizers but also of human rights organizations like Amnesty International and circus performers and arts organizations around the world.

This marks the third consecutive administrative detention order against Abu Sakha. Administrative detention orders are issued for one to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable; some Palestinians have spent years at a time held under administrative detention. There are currently 700 Palestinians held without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of 7,000 total Palestinian political prisoners.

Currently, three Palestinians held under administrative detention are on hunger strike, including Ahmad Abu Fara and Anas Shadid, who have been refusing food for 79 days to demand their freedom from administrative detention. Both are in an extremely critical health condition in Assaf Harofeh hospital and have vowed to continue their strike for freedom. Another hearing on their case before the Israeli Supreme Court is scheduled to take place today, 11 December. Also on strike is Ammar Hmour, who has refused food for 20 days in protest of the renewal of his administrative detention and is held in solitary confinement in Ashkelon prison.

New York City protest calls for G4S out of Palestine, ramps up for HP boycott

10 December 2016

Protesters in New York City gathered outside the offices of G4S, the massive British-Danish security corporation, on Friday 9 December. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network gathered to protest its ongoing involvement in Policity, an Israeli occupation police training center, and to mark its sale of its Israeli subsidiary, which contracts with the Israeli prison administration.

Demonstrators braved the cold to find that G4S had posted a large sign on a tripod denying entry as well as stationing a security guard outside the building throughout the protest. In over a year of protests against G4S, protesters have frequently marched through the corridor of the building, which is a designated public space in New York City, demanding that G4S get out of Palestine.

The protest in New York followed Samidoun’s participation in an earlier action on Friday, 9 December, when activists joined BAYAN USA and the NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines for a protest for freedom for political prisoners in the Philippines outside the Philippines Consulate.

After major international BDS pressure, including the loss of millions of dollars in contracts – with just this week UN agencies in Jordan and Lebanon refusing to contract further with G4S – G4S sold its Israeli subsidiary to Israeli private equity firm FIMI. Its subsidiary provides security systems, control rooms and equipment to the Israeli prison service. In addition, G4S has been targeted for global boycott campaigns not only for its profiteering from the occupation and oppression of Palestinians but also for its role in youth incarceration, migrant detention, and private security for the Dakota Access Pipeline and mining corporations in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and elsewhere.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in New York City is also ramping up its focus on Hewlett-Packard – HP – as a target of boycott and protest. HP was recently the subject of a global week of action called for by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee. Over 150 actions took place in 101 cities and 30 countries around the world, demanding HP drop its contracts to provide technology that enables occupation and oppression of Palestinians. In particular, HP Enterprise provides specialized biometric access control systems for Israeli military checkpoints, IT infrastructure to the Israeli army and navy, and tens of millions in technological services for the Israel Prison Service, including a prison management system.

On Friday, 16 December at 4:00 pm, Samidoun in New York will protest against HP’s role in Palestine outside Best Buy, a major electronics retailer selling HP products, in Union Square in New York City. All supporters of Palestinian rights and freedom for Palestinian political prisoners are invited to join the demonstration.

Samidoun activists are also participating in and supporting an array of activities for political prisoners in US jails, including a 9 December protest in Philadelphia for freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a 10 December gathering for US political prisoners, and a week of action in Washington, DC for freedom for Leonard Peltier.

Photos by Joe Catron (Philippines protest pic via NYCHRP)

16 December, NYC: Protest to free the hunger strikers and stop HP

10 December 2016

Friday, 16 December
4:00 pm
Best Buy
Union Square – 52 E 14th St
New York City
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1449156061780541/

On Friday, Anas Shadid and Ahmad Abu Fara will reach their 84th day on hunger strike against their “administrative detention” without charge or trial by Israel.

The two Palestinian political prisoners issued an urgent appeal on December 8 “calling on every free human with a conscience … to help us for immediate release”.

“Administrative detention” is a British colonial-era policy Israel uses to intern 720 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank indefinitely.

Stand with Shadid and Abu Fara to demand that Israel release them, other “administrative detainees,” and all 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners immediately, and that Hewlett Packard companies end their contracts with Israeli prisons and detention centers, occupation and security forces, and checkpoints and settlements now.

Help build a growing international campaign to boycott HP over the companies’ support for Israeli crimes.

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

Palestinian journalist, human rights defender Hasan Safadi ordered to additional 6 months imprisonment without charge, trial

8 December 2016

Palestinian journalist, youth activist, human rights defender and prisoners’ rights advocate Hassan Safadi’s administrative detention – Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial – was extended for an additional six months by Israeli occupation forces on Thursday, 8 December. Friends and family of Safadi, the Arabic media coordinator for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, had anticipated his release until his detention was suddenly extended at the last minute.

Safadi, 24, was seized by occupation forces on 1 May while crossing the Karameh bridge between Jordan and Palestine’s West Bank returning from an Arab youth conference in Tunisia. He was held under harsh interrogation for 40 days at al-Moskobiyeh interrogation center in Jerusalem and then ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial after previously given a release decision. He was simultaneously sentenced to three months in prison for contact with an enemy state, for participating in a Palestine solidarity conference in Lebanon.

Safadi is one of dozens of Palestinian media workers and journalists imprisoned by the Israeli state, some like him without charge or trial under administrative detention. There are over 700 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial on the basis of “secret evidence” and 7000 Palestinian political prisoners.

The administrative detention order against Safadi followed the issuance of 19 such orders between 1 and 6 December, as follows below. 111 administrative detention orders were issued in the month of November.

1. Yousef Ahmad Masharaqah, from Jenin, 4 months, extension
2. Islam Bassam Abu Ali, from Jenin, 4 months, extension
3. Tariq Abdel-Karim Khader, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
4. Abdallah Asad Amireh, Ramallah, 3 months, extension
5. Ahmad Yasri Suweiri, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
6. Shadi Mohammed Herama, Bethlehem, 3 months, extension
7. Mohsen Mahmoud Shreim, Qalqilya, 3 months, extension
8. Omar Subhi Mutir, Qalandiya refugee camp, 4 months, extension
9. Ayoub Mohammed Khaddour, Ramallah, 6 months, extension
10. Bilal Mohammed Suwayta, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
11. Adam Mohammed Shaikha, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
12. Abdel-Qader Mohammed Sharawna, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
13. Mohammed Mahmoud Awad, al-Khalil, 4 months, new order
14. Mohammed Ahmed al-Najjar, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
15. Issam Maher Obeid, al-Khalil, 4 months, new order
16. Yousef Ismail Hamdan, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
17. Khaled Ahmed Abed Rabbo, Tulkarem, 6 months, new order
18. Saif Mustafa Nasser, 4 months, new order
19. Louay al-Ashqar, from Tulkarem, 4 months, new order

Abu Fara, Shadid, call for support and assistance as they enter 76 days of hunger strike

8 December 2016

Anas Shadid, 19, and Ahmad Abu Fara, 29, issued a call for urgent support from Palestinian officials and international organizations and states concerned for human rights to take action around their case as they enter 76 days of hunger strike.

Palestinian prisoner support activist from Palestine ’48 Qadri Abu Wasel visited Shadid and Abu Fara in Assaf Harofeh hospital, where both are held under “suspended” administrative detention orders. While they are not shackled to their beds, they cannot be transferred to a Palestinian hospital and their imprisonment without charge or trial will be officially re-imposed when their health improves. Both have refused to consume anything but water since 25 September, when they launched hunger strikes against their imprisonment without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention. Both have been subject to administrative detention orders since 1 August and 2 August and they are demanding their freedom.

They gave him the following letter, composed with extreme difficulty:

Calling on every free human with a conscience
Calling on President Abu Mazen and the government
To help us for immediate release
Our situation is very difficult, Your sons Anas Shadid and Ahmad Abu Fara

They have rejected Israeli proposals to end their strike that involve the renewal of the administrative detention orders against them. After 75 days on hunger strike, both are severely ill. Their lawyer, Ahlam Haddad, said that the two are at high risk of sudden death and have become “living skeletons.” She said that Shadid cannot urinate, his liver and kidney function are impaired, he has severe pain throughout his body and can speak and see only with great difficulty. Abu Fara can speak or move only with difficulty, he has lapsed into unconsciousness on multiple occasions and suffers from kidney and liver disease.

Their lawyers submitted an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court for their release, but is decision was deferred on Thursday, 8 December until Sunday, 11 December. Doctors at Assaf Harofeh have demanded the transfer of the two strikers from the hospital due to their urgent health situation.

At the same time, fellow administrative detainee Ammar Hmour is also on hunger strike for 19 days for his freedom, held in isolation in Ashkelon prison, while long-time Palestinian prisoner Kifah Hattab is on hunger strike for 15 days, demanding to be considered a prisoner of war. Hmour is held in a tiny isolation cell and has reported multiple attempts to force him to end his strike.

Abu Fara, Shadid and Hmour are among over 700 Palestinians imprisoned without trial under Israeli administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are issued from one to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable; Palestinians have spent years at a time in administrative detention.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges active international solidarity with Anas Shadid and Ahmad Abu Fara and their fellow Palestinian prisoners at this critical time. Their bodies are on the front lines of the struggle against administrative detention and for the freedom of imprisoned Palestinians. Protests, phone calls and actions are necessary to support their struggle as their lives are at risk for seeking freedom.

Take action!

1. Hold a direct action, protest, picket or demonstration, including building the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign to internationally isolate Israel, its institutions, and the corporations – like G4S and HP-that profit from imprisonment, occupation, racism, colonialism and injustice. Demand freedom for Ahmad Abu Fara, Anas Shadid and all Palestinian prisoners. A flyer is provided below for distribution at your events and other actions. Please email samidoun@samidoun.net or post to Samidoun on Facebook about your events and actions.

2. Call political figures to demand action for the hunger strikers. Call your government officials to pressure them to end the silence and complicity with the Israeli regime of political imprisonment and administrative detention.

Call during your country’s regular office hours:

Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop: + 61 2 6277 7500
Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion: +1-613-996-5789
European Union Commissioner Federica Mogherini: +32 (0) 2 29 53516
New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully: +64 4 439 8000
United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson: +44 20 7008 1500
United States President Barack Obama: 1-202-456-1111

Tell your government:

Two Palestinian prisoners, Anas Shadid and Ahmad Abu Fara, have been on hunger strike since 25 September against administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial.
Your government must demand the strikers’ immediate release and end all support for Israel’s political imprisonment and other crimes against Palestinians.
Israel’s use of administrative detention is a universally-recognized violation of human rights and international law.
The government must do more than criticize administrative detention or express concern, but should also take serious measures to end these violations.

Download the leaflet: Click here to download PDF

14 December, Liege: A qui le tour? Discussion of Administrative Detention

7 December 2016

Wednesday, 14 December
8:00 pm
Centre Culturel Arabe en Pays de Liege
Rue Henri Orban 1
Liege, Belgium
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/563235263869835/

This event is part of the campaign “A qui le tour?” (Who’s Next?) organized by Presence et Action Culturelles (PAC) and the Association Belgo-Palestinienne (ABP).

8:00 pm. Projection of documentary film, “Palestine: la case prison” by Franck Salome

9:00 pm. Discussion with Gwenaelle Grovonius, federal member of parliament and President of the Belgium-Palestine Interparliamentary Union.

“A qui le tour?” denounces the abusive and unjust use of administrative detention in occupied Palestine. This Israeli policy is designed to suppress the resistance of the Palestinian people to the occupation and unravel the Palestinian family and social fabric. International organizations affirm that Israel uses administrative detention as a means of collective punishment, in violation of international law. We call upon the Belgian state to strongly act on the international diplomatic front to condemn the arbitrary use of administrative detention, and we call on the state to demand the Israeli authorities cease the use of administrative detention and free the Palestinians held under administrative detention. We draw specific attention to the cases of children and those arrested in the exercise of projects funded by the Belgian Development Corporation.

12 December, Paris: Freedom for Georges Abdallah and all Revolutionary Political Prisoners

7 December 2016

Monday, 12 December
6:00 pm
Metro Strasbourg Saint-Denis
Paris, France
More info: https://paris.demosphere.eu/rv/51738

12 December is the International Day of Action for Political Prisoners. The Unified Campaign for the Freedom of Georges Abdallah is calling for a demonstration in Paris on this occasion to urgently demand the immediate release of our imprisoned comrade, Georges Abdallah. An Arab communist struggler for Palestinian liberation, he has been held in French prisons for 32 years and has been eligible for release since 1999.

The struggle for his liberation is part of the wider international struggle for revolutionary prisoners around the world, representing the internationalit spirit that has always guided our comrade as a resisting Lebanese Communist anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and anti-Zionist struggler. He has always fought and continues every day to struggle for the just cause of the peoples in struggle in Palestine, Lebanon, throughout the region and around the world.

In his latest message on 22 October 2016, he concluded his article with the following sentences:

Let a thousand solidarity initiatives bloom in support of the masses in struggle! Let a thousand solidarity initiatives bloom in support of the revolutionaries resisting in the Zionist prisons and in the isolation cells in Morocco, Turkey, Greece, the Philippines, and around the world!

9 December, London: Free Fayez Sharary and demand UK action; protest HP complicity in torture

7 December 2016

DATE: Fri 9th Dec 2016 2:30pm-4:30pm
LOCATION: Foreign & Commonwealth Office, corner of King Charles St and Whitehall, London SW1A 2AH London (closest tube: Westminster )
FACEOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/201362226936678/
WEB: http://inminds.com/article.php?id=10734

Organized by www.inminds.com

On 9th December 2016 Inminds human rights group will hold a vigil outside the British Foreign Office to demand that the British government act to free British citizen Fayez Sharary who according to the Israeli judge’s own admission has been tortured and should be released. The judges ruling was quickly overturned by the military court and Fayez Sharary remains caged, now for nearly 3 months. Fayez Sharary’s wife Laila Sharary will address the vigil.

Fayez Sharary’s military court hearing is next week on 14th December, its imperative that representatives from the British government attend the hearing. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has described the farcical court proceedings “as if the courtroom were a fully-automated conveyor belt” observing that “every file [case] got a minute to a minute and a half of discussion”.

The protest will also highlight the role HP plays in Israel’s torture and caging of Palestinians.

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said “Its shocking that the British government is silent about the plight of a British citizen who has been abducted by a foreign power who admits that they have tortured him and that he has no case to answer. The British government has shamefully left Fayez Sharary to rot in an Israeli dungeon. Why is the government doing nothing to secure his release? We demand that the British government put pressure on the Israeli regime to immediately and unconditionally release Fayez Sharary so he can be reunited with his family.”

Regarding HP, Inminds chair Abbas Ali said “Its unacceptable that just one street away, here in London, HP is selling its printers and laptops; and in Palestine the same company, HP, is assisting in the torture of a Londoner. When Londoners are made aware of HPs dirty secrets they will rightly reject this company.”

Please join us on 9th December on Whitehall, outside the Foreign Office at 2:30pm.

Laila Sharary speaking outside HP Discover 2016 event, ExCel centre, 29th Nov 2016

Background – Fayez Sharary

Father of five children, Fayez Sharary is a British citizen from the Palestinian diaspora who has lived in the UK for over 23 years.

In September 2016 he travelled to the West Bank with his wife Laila and their youngest daughter Aya, just 3 years old, to visit their families and spend the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha with Laila’s mother who had recently been widowed. Fayez yearned for the opportunity to offer the Eid prayers at the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

After the holiday Fayez Sharary and his family were returning home when on 15th September 2016, they were stopped by Israeli forces at the Allenby Bridge border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan. They were meant to fly back to the UK from Jordan on 17th September.

The family were taken at gunpoint from Allenby Bridge and made to walk 5-10 minutes to an interrogation building. Israeli forces interrogated Fayez for 5 hours with his wife and daughter kept just outside the interrogation room in the corridor. No food or water was provided to the family for the 5 hours. When 3 years old Aya needed to use the toilet they refused her at first, and then said they will allow her if her mother Laila first submits to a strip search. After the degrading strip search they still refused Aya the use of a toilet. Instead they brought a plastic tray which is used for passing luggage through the x-ray machine, and told her to do it in there.

After the five hours they took Laila’s mobile phone and said she and her daughter could go but that they will be detaining Fayez. When she insisted that she will not go without her husband the soldiers got very abusive with her, screaming at her.

Fayez was taken to Petah Tikva Interrogation Centre in Israel and tortured for 3 weeks until he broke. He was denied a lawyer for these 3 weeks until he signed their forced confession on 6th October. Soon after that he was moved to Ofer prison in the West Bank where he is still caged today.

Fayez managed to get a message out to his wife via another prisoner. Laila finally managed to speak to her husband on the phone for the first time on 17th October, over a month after he was taken.

On 26th October Fayez appeared in military court. In a highly unusual move, for the very first time an Israeli judge, Judge Lt.-Col. Azriel Levi, ordered the release of Fayed Sharary, saying that “There’s no doubt that the defendant’s confession, which was given an hour after the end of his Shin Bet interrogation, was dramatically influenced by the method of interrogation, which also included pained and prolonged shackling, threats, and a blatant exploitation of the defendant’s demonstrated weakness.” Keeping prisoners shackled in back breaking stress positions for hours on end is standard practice in Shin Bet interrogations. He pointed out that “Shin Bet’s own record of the interrogations included multiple statements by Sharary that he was downcast and ready to admit to whatever they asked him to admit to”. In light of the torture, Judge Azrieli said his confession was “not given voluntarily” and its “value was zero.” The Judge added that several of the crimes attributed to Sharary did not even fit the definitions of crimes under the IDF’s West Bank laws.The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel responded to the story noting “using torture happens and is not exceptional in interrogations..” It stated that over a 1000 complaints of torture have been submitted but not a single complaint has led to a criminal investigation, let alone a trial or a conviction. Israeli law has never criminalized torture and whilst Israel is a signatory to the UN Conventions Against Torture it insists that it doesn’t apply to Palestinians. United Nations funded Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture for Occupied Palestinian Territory, in 2014, treated 845 Palestinian victims of torture including 317 women and 135 children.

Despite the judge’s ruling Fayez Sharary was never released and a few days later at a hearing on 6th November the military overturned the judge’s decision to release Fayez Sharary on bail.

Fayez Sharary and his family are all British citizens, yet the British embassy has done nothing to secure his release. Admission on record by an Israeli judge that a British national has been tortured in Israel should have raised alarm bells in the foreign office. Yet no action has followed. Not even one representative of the British embassy has attended any of the hearings. Without their presence the judge’s ruling to release Fayez Sharary was overturned with impunity.

Fayez Sharary’s next military court hearing is on 14th December 2016.

Background – HP helping Israel’s dungeons and torture dens to operate

Hewlett Packard provides the essential IT services and infrastructure that enable the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) to function.

Last year between Oct 2015 and Aug 2016 Israel abducted and caged 2,320 Palestinian children, some as young as 11 years old – that’s more than one child taken from their parents every 4 hours! Figures for Jerusalem show that 40% of the children were sexually abused by Israeli soldiers during arrest or interrogation. During interrogation 75% of Palestinian children detained by Israel are physically tortured. The United Nations “Rights Of The Child” report documents the brutal torture of Palestinian children as standard practice during interrogations in order to coerce confessions, usually to stone throwing which carries a sentence of up to 20 years’ imprisonment. Today there are over 7000 Palestinian political prisoners, including women and children, imprisoned by the Israeli Prison Service – many locked up indefinitely without even a charge let alone a trial. 72 Palestinian prisoners have been tortured to death in Israeli prisons since 1967. The latest being father of five young children, Raed Abdul-Salam al-Jabari, who was died following interrogation at Eshel prison on 9th Sep 2014. He had been arrested over a simple car accident involving an illegal Israeli settler. The IPS claimed he had committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell but the autopsy revealed he had been savagely tortured with repeated blows to the head and face causing brain hemorrhage. His neck showed no signs of hanging.

In an ongoing contract, worth millions of dollars, HP provides the Israeli prison service the systems and servers needed to keep it operational. In 2012 HP provided the central servers for the operational system of the IPS (“Tzohar”) and it’s ongoing maintenance. In a contract worth $35 million.

HP developed the Kidma information system for the IPS which includes the prisoners management system and intelligence subs systems, helping the occupation keep illegal records on Palestinians it has abducted and their families. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Children has reported that Palestinian child prisoners are often coerced to confess by sexually threatening their family members or themselves.

HP has also executed a project for e-mail storage and archive for the IPS.

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