29 November, Tallahassee: Justice for Rasmea Rally at Florida State University

27 November 2016

Tuesday, 29 November
2:00 pm
Oglesby Union
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1727135537607535/

On November 29th, Rasmea Odeh will be heading to court where the expert testimony of Dr. Fabri, a renowned psychologist who has worked with rape and sexual assault survivors, will be challenged by the prosecution.

The 69-year-old Rasmea is a legend in the Palestine national movement. In Drain’s courtroom in 2014, she was convicted of a politically-motivated immigration charge, and in 2015, sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation. Rasmea appealed the decision, arguing that Drain had denied her defense the right to make its case.

While Rasmea is fighting her conviction in Detroit, we will be standing in soldarity at FSU, raising awareness about her case, and gathering support for the movement to defend her.

We urge all to stand up and fight to get #Justice4Rasmea.

Please bring signs, Palestinian flags and any other symbols of solidarity.

NYC Black Friday protest draws dozens to protest HP involvement in oppression of Palestinians

27 November 2016

On the busiest shopping day of the year, protesters in New York City – hailing from Manhattan to Gaza – joined in the Black Friday kick-off of the International Week of Action against HP’s complicity with Israeli attacks on Palestinian rights, protesting outside Best Buy in Union Square.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organized the protest, which highlighted HP’s role in providing servers and management systems to the Israel Prison Service that imprisons over 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Hewlett Packard is also involved in providing imaging equipment for Israeli checkpoints and ID cards, enabling the siege of Gaza, providing services to Israeli settlements, and supporting other occupation infrastructure. The New York City event is one of over 99 protests around the world between 25 November and 3 December demanding a boycott of HP and an end to HP’s involvement in deportations, incarceration and oppression in Palestine, the United States and around the world. These protests were organized in response to a call from the International Boycott HP Coalition and the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC).

Reaching out to Best Buy shoppers on Black Friday with materials and information about HP’s role in human rights violations, protesters faced the rain for several hours to spread the word about Hewlett Packard’s involvement in the oppression of Palestinians.

Several Zionist counter-protesters, including one person dressed in an Israeli military uniform, repeatedly heckled the protesters and attempted, yet failed, to provoke confrontations. Throughout the protest, demonstrators chanted loudly against HP and its complicity in the occupation of Palestine, urging shoppers to boycott Hewlett Packard technology products. A wide range of activists, groups and writers concerned with Palestine participated in the demonstration, while a group of youth from a video training class organized by Picture the Struggle interviewed participants. Picture the Struggle works to document justice movements, including the Black movement, in New York City, through video, photography and audio recording.

Samidoun is planning to join and encourages all to attend the protest on Monday, 28 November in New York City in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh, former Palestinian prisoner and torture survivor facing persecution in the United States. A major hearing in her case to determine the entry of evidence relating to her PTSD after torture will take place on 29 November in Detroit, which is also the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The Rasmea Defense Committee is organizing protests and buses to Detroit to support Odeh, while protests are taking place in Tampa, Tucson, Fort Lauderdale, Salt Lake City and elsewhere to demand justice for Rasmea. In New York City, protesters will gather at Zuccotti Park at Liberty Street and Broadway at 3:30 pm on Monday.

Photos 1, 3 by Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace

Photos 2, 4, 6 by Joe Catron

Photo 5 by Anne Pruden

29 November, Tucson: Justice for Rasmea

27 November 2016

Tuesday, 29 November
5:00 pm
University of Arizona
Location TBA – See Facebook
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1948822252011608/

JUSTICE FOR RASMEA ODEH!
Tucson Supports Rasmea!
Detroit Turns up on November 29th
(Important hearing on her case taking place in Detroit)
BACKGROUND:
Rasmea Odeh is a 67 year old Palestinian American community leader who was tortured by the Israeli government in 1969.
On November 10th in front of supporters in the courtroom, Rasmea was unjustly convicted of one count of Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization and sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation.
The appeals court heard oral arguments on October 14th and we are currently awaiting the decision. Rasmea’s struggle is far from over and we still need your support to ensure that we win justice.
WHY:
Rasmea’s case is part of a larger campaign against Palestinian leaders, institutions, and community members; as well as an example of government repression waged against oppressed nationalities, anti-war, social justice, and international solidarity activists.

We will discuss the history of her case as well as other injustices of political repression. This day is also International Day of Solidarity with Palestine so we will also provide a brief history of that struggle and update the current prospects for Liberation in Palestine!

Please join the UA Students for Justice in Palestine and the Tucson Anti War Committee for this night of resistance to injustice!

29 November, Salt Lake City: Justice for Rasmea and International Day of Solidarity

27 November 2016

Tuesday, November 29
6:00 pm
Wallace Bennett Federal Building
125 S. State Street
Salt Lake City, UT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1110710602350596/

On November 29th, Rasmea Odeh will be heading to court where the expert testimony of Dr. Fabri, a renowned psychologist who has worked with rape and sexual assault survivors, will be challenged by the prosecution.

The 69-year-old Rasmea is a legend in the Palestine national movement. In Drain’s courtroom in 2014, she was convicted of a politically-motivated immigration charge, and in 2015, sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation. Rasmea appealed the decision, arguing that Drain had denied her defense the right to make its case.

In February of this year, in a major legal victory, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Drain was wrong when he refused to allow defense attorneys to present evidence that Rasmea suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The PTSD caused her to misunderstand the questions about the unlawful conviction and imprisonment she suffered under the Israeli occupation. At the trial, Rasmea was not allowed to tell the story of Israel forcing her to falsely confess to alleged bombings in 1969, when she endured over three weeks of brutal sexual, physical, and psychological torture at the hands of the Israeli military.

Salt Lake activists will stand in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh on November 29th, the same day as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. We demand justice for Rasmea, an end to political repression and an end to the oppression of Palestinian people!

Shadid, Abu Fara threatened with forced treatment on 63rd day of hunger strike

26 November 2016

Four Palestinian prisoners continue on hunger strike, including Anas Shadid and Ahmad Abu Fara on their 63rd day of hunger strike against their imprisonment without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention. Both Shadid and Abu Fara’s administrative detention was “suspended” during their critical health treatment at Assaf Harofeh hospital; however, they insisted on maintaining their hunger strike and demanding their liberation.

On Friday, 25 November, they were separated; they had previously held in one room at the hospital. However, Shadeed was transferred to a separate room in intensive care. The two were separated after they refused to receive intravenous vitamins and minerals. Their lawyer, Ahlam Haddad, said that Israeli prison guards were attempting to force the two to end their strike and that their health is further deteriorating. Palestinian lawyers have appealed for their immediate transfer to the Palestine Medical Center in Ramallah for their continued treatment. Haddad said that their lawyers are waiting for a response from the Israeli Supreme Court, but emphasized that their conditions cannot be left in the hands of the Israeli state and they are at risk of death or severe damage to their health.

Shadid, 19, and Abu Fara, 29, have been on hunger strike since 25 September. They have both been imprisoned without charge or trial since August. They are currently being threatened with forcible treatment and forced feeding in Assaf Harofeh should they continue their strike; both are experiencing comprehensive deterioration to their health, said Issa Qaraqe of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission.

Also on hunger strike for the 21st day is Nour el-Din Amer, demanding an end to his solitary confinement and isolation in Ashkelon prison. Ammar Ibrahim Hmour, 27, is also on strike for his 6th day in the Negev desert prison against his imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network emphasizes that the Israeli occupation bears full responsibility for the health and life of Anas Shadid, Ahmad Abu Fara and their fellow hunger strikers. We demand their immediate release and transfer to a Palestinian medical facility for care. We urge the international solidarity movement to escalate actions in solidarity with Shadid, Abu Fara and their fellow Palestinian prisoners – and we demand that official international institutions and human rights bodies break their silence on these cases, which represent not only individual Palestinians struggling for freedom, but the collective demand to bring an end to administrative detention.

Samidoun salutes Fidel Castro’s lifetime of revolutionary struggle, from Cuba to Palestine

26 November 2016

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the lifetime of struggle and revolution of Fidel Castro upon the occasion of his passing on Friday, 25 November 2016. Throughout his life, Castro was a symbol and a practitioner of revolutionary struggle for the people of Cuba, of Latin America and the world.

As a law student and later a lawyer himself, Fidel became a communist and an anti-imperialist, committed to struggling against the role of United States imperialism in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America, and the right-wing governments it supported and imposed. He was imprisoned as a political prisoner in Cuba for his revolutionary involvement and struggle and after his release became a co-founder of the 26th of July Movement, the organization that would build the Cuban Revolution and defeat US-sponsored dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. His speech at his trial, “History Will Absolve Me,” defended the right to popular revolution as it affirmed defiantly, “But I do not fear prison, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.”

Castro consistently upheld a strong principle and practice of internationalism, with a particular focus on building support and solidarity for the revolutionary and anti-colonial struggles of the people of Asia, Africa and Latin America, including the Palestinian people. He urged action to “put an end to the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people that is taking place while the world stares in amazement.” In 1975, Cuba co-sponsored UN Resolution 3379, affirming the racist nature of Zionism. As the Cuban position statement at the time said, the situation “left no doubt about the identical imperialist origins and racist structure of the Israeli Zionist regime that is occupying Palestine and the one that is exploiting the black masses in South Africa.”

Castro was not alone in this regard; in fact he has come to symbolize Latin American revolutionary solidarity with Palestine, that has continued through popular movements across the continent as well as the principled positions of nations like Venezuela and Bolivia, in rejecting ties with the Israeli state and defending the rights and the struggle of the Palestinian people. Of course, this solidarity was not limited to Palestine; Castro and the Cuban government he led is perhaps most renowned for its international solidarity with African people’s movements against apartheid and imperialism, and its commitment to international health care solidarity. Castro also worked to build ties with oppressed peoples and social movements within imperialist nations, including Black revolutionary movements in the United States. Throughout his life, as leader of the Cuban revolution, prime minister and then president of Cuba, and then as a continuing symbol of struggle, Castro consistently stood against capitalism and imperialism, and with the struggling people of Cuba and the world.

In 2014, Castro wrote a searing message that resonated around the world in response to the Israeli attack on Gaza, declaring that “a new and disgusting form of fascism is emerging with considerable force at this moment in human history….Why does this [Israeli] government believe that the world will be insensitive to the macabre genocide which today is being perpetuated against the Palestinian people? Perhaps it is expected that the complicity of the U.S. empire in this shameful massacre will be ignored?”

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, in particular leftist prisoners of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, have already announced that they will hold commemorations inside the prisons in memory of Fidel Castro, recalling his legacy of revolutionary struggle and internationalist commitment. Samidoun joins these prisoners and the struggling peoples of the world in mourning the loss of a great struggler for liberation, saluting his historic accomplishments and those of the Cuban people, and pledging to continue on the road to victory and liberation.

BDS leader Salah Khawaja ordered to 9 more days of interrogation; appeal hearing on Sunday

25 November 2016

Palestinian activist Salah Khawaja, the secretary of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions National Committee, the largest Palestinian civil society coalition that leads the BDS movement, was ordered by an Israeli military court to nine additional days in interrogation on Wednesday, 23 November.

Khawaja, 45, is also very active in the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall) and is a leader of the Palestinian National Initiative. He was seized in his home by Israeli occupation forces in a pre-dawn raid on 26 October. Since that time, he has been continually imprisoned and held under interrogation at the Petah Tikva interrogation center. No charges have been filed against him; he has been subject to harsh interrogation and sleep deprivation. He was prohibited from seeing his lawyer until the prior renewal of his interrogation, on 16 November. Khawaja reported the various forms of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment to which he has been subject, including interrogators beating him, kicking his genitals and screaming and spitting in his face. He has been regularly subjected to 8-16 hour interrogation periods on a daily or twice daily basis.

An appeal hearing will convene at the Ofer Military Court on Sunday, 27 November, against the renewal of Khawaja’s interrogation period. Reportedly, he may be moved to the Ofer prison.

Front Line Defenders, Unadikum and Stop the Wall have issued calls for action in support of Khawaja and urging international attention to support this case of a Palestinian human rights defender targeted for his activism.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins in the call for action in the case of Salah Khawaja and demands his immediate freedom. We urge international action in support of Salah and all imprisoned Palestinians.

Take action!

1. Participate in the Front Line Defenders action, urging the Israeli state to immediately release Khawaja and end its persecution of Palestinian human rights defenders. Join in here: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/action/take-action-salah-khawaja

2. Participate in the Stop the Wall action and send the sample letter to your government officials to demand they speak up about the case of Salah Khawaja and other human rights defenders. http://stopthewall.org/2016/11/11/freesalah-send-message-your-governments-now

3. Demand your country’s officials speak up and end the silence and complicity in the detention of Salah Khawaja and other Palestinian human rights defenders, and over 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Call your foreign affairs officials – and members of parliament – and urge action on this case.

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:

Salah Khawaja, a Palestinian human rights defender, has been arbitrarily detained since 26 October and subject to cruel and inhumane treatment potentially amounting to torture. Salah is one of the primary Palestinian voices against the illegal settlements and wall destroying Palestinian land.
Your government must demand Salah’s immediate release and an end to the persecution of Palestinian human rights defenders by the Israeli state.
Israel’s interrogation of Salah at Petah Tikva violates the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians during Times of War, which prohibits the transfer of protected civilians to the territory of the occupying power. Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians during Times of War, which prohibits the transfer of protected civilians to the territory of the occupying power.
The government must do more than express concern, but should also take serious measures to end these violations. Representatives of your government should attend Salah’s hearings beginning on 27 November, and suspend agreements with Israeli institutions involved in the ongoing imprisonment and oppression of Palestinians.

Dareen Tatour questioned about poetry; trial to resume on 26 January

24 November 2016

Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour once again faced the Magistrate’s Court in Nazareth on Thursday, 24 November. The hearing was the latest development in her prosecution by the Israeli state for writing and publicly posting her poetry. Arrested in October 2015, Tatour has spent over a year subject to ongoing confinement and repression, including over three months in prison and over nine months in house arrest. The presentation of the case is expected to end on 26 January 2017, when the next hearing will convene.

Tatour, 34, earlier had a court hearing on 14 November, where she declared that she did write her poem, “Resist, My People, Resist Them.” She was questioned by the prosecution on Thursday about her writings and poems.

Tatour’s father stressed in an interview with Arab48 that his daughter is continuously suffering, despite the “easing” of her detention conditions won after worldwide attention to her case from international poets, artists and writers, including PEN, the freedom of expression association, as she is denied any meaningful freedom of movement. She continues to be threatened with years in prison for so-called “incitement,” among one of the most prominent Palestinians – and one who holds Israeli citizenship – targeted under this charge. The arrest and prosecution of Tatour also comes in the context of a long history of occupation persecution of Palestinian writers and artists, including such former prisoners as Mahmoud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim and Tawfiq Zayyad, like Tatour, Palestinians from occupied Palestine ’48. Learn more about the case at the Free Dareen Tatour facebook.

Long-serving Palestinian prisoner transferred as family fears re-imposed life sentence

24 November 2016

Longtime Palestinian prisoner Nael Barghouthi is at risk for the re-imposition of the life sentence against him, reported his wife Iman Nafie to the Asra Media Center. Barghouthi, 59, from the village of Kobar near Ramallah, was first detained in 1978 at the age of 20.

He has spent more than 35 years in Israeli prisons. Released in 2011 as part of the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange by Palestinian resistance organizations for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Barghouthi married Nafie, a fellow ex-prisoner. In 2014, he was among over 60 of these former prisoners rounded up in a series of mass re-arrests. Today, he is one of over 50 who remains re-imprisoned.

Under an Israeli military order, the Israeli occupation forces claim the right to re-impose the prison sentence of any prisoner released in an exchange on the basis of secret evidence, including alleged “support for” or “association with” prohibited organizations, including all major Palestinian political parties. Many of the re-arrested prisoners, like Samer Mahroum, Ala Bazian and Nidal Zaloom, had their life sentences reimposed against them. Barghouthi was ordered to 30 months mprisonment on 25 November 2015. He completed those 30 months of imprisonment earlier in the month; however, he has not been released as the Israeli military prosecution have filed an appeal calling for the reinstatement of his life sentence.

Rather than preparing for his release, he was transferred from the Negev desert prison to Ramon prison on 21 November. Nafie noted that the family fears this is in preparation for his life sentence being reimposed; she noted that she is awaiting a decision before 7 December in this case. Nafie has been barred from visiting her husband under the pretext of security, while his brother Omar is imprisoned under administrative detention without charge or trial and will be released later in the year. His sister Hanan is the only family member allowed to visit him in prison.

Nafie urged action to release all of the re-imprisoned released prisoners of the Wafa al-Ahrar agreement.

Palestinian university student Noor Darwish sentenced to eight months for student activities

24 November 2016

Palestinian student Noor Darwish, 22, a student at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, was sentenced to eight months in Israeli prison and a fine of 2000 NIS (approximately $500) on Wednesday, 23 November.

From the village of Deir Abu Mashal near Ramallah, Darwish was arrested with two other female students, Hala Bitar, 19, and Salam Abu Sharar, 21, on 19 April. The three were arrested among an escalated series of arrests targeting Palestinian students around the time of annual student council elections at Palestinian universities. All three were charged with participation in the public student activities of the Islamic Bloc at the university, including organizing a book fair.

Bitar was earlier sentenced to four months in prison, while Abu Sharar was sentenced to 10 months in Israeli prison. Darwish has been held in Damon prison, which requires a three-day trip to the Ofer military court, which pronounced her sentence. Her case involved six hearings, each accompanied by the lengthy “bosta” travel from the prison to the military court and back.

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