NYC protest calls for freedom for Palestinian hunger strikers, demands G4S get out of Palestine

4 September 2016

Demonstrators in New York City protested on Friday, 2 September in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, calling for their freedom. Samidoun’s weekly protest in support of Palestinian prisoners highlighted the hunger strikes of Mahmoud al-Balboul, Mohammed al-Balboul and Malik al-Qadi, all striking to demand their freedom from administrative detention without charge or trial.

Mahmoud al-Balboul and his brother Mohammed have been on hunger strike since 4 and 7 July, respectively. Both were arrested on 9 June in a violent pre-dawn raid on their home by Israeli occupation forces; they were then ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial. Mahmoud is a student and works with the Palestinian police, and Mohammed is a dentist. Their 15-year-old sister Nuran was imprisoned for three months and their father, Ahmad, a Fateh leader, was assassinated by Israeli occupation forces in 2008. Malik al-Qadi, 20, is a journalism student at Al-Quds University on hunger strike since 16 July against his own administrative detention without charge or trial. Al-Qadi has been imprisoned since 23 May, and was previously imprisoned from December through April without charge or trial by occupation forces before being re-arrested.

All of the hunger strikers’ health conditions have deteriorated markedly in recent days, with Mohammed al-Balboul being rushed to intensive care. All are refusing to take vitamin supplements and are demanding their immediate release from their hospital beds in Assaf Harofeh and Wolfson hospitals.

Participants in the New York demonstration distributed flyers and materials demanding the immediate release of the hunger strikers and their fellow Palestinian prisoners. They are among 750 Palestinians held without charge or trial under administrative detentions, and 7,000 total Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. Former hunger striker Bilal Kayed urged widespread support for the hunger strikers in Palestine and internationally.

The protesters also demanded that G4S, the British-Danish security corporation, get out of the business of profiteering from occupation in Palestine. G4S is subject to a global boycott call due to its contracting with the Israeli prison service and other occupation entities to provide control rooms, security systems and equipment for Israeli prisons, checkpoints, police training centers and even the Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing where the siege is enforced. The corporation also contracts for youth incarceration and migrant detention and deportation in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and elsewhere, and is part of major campaigns for prison divestment. The corporation has pledged to sell off these “reputationally damaging” businesses, but the campaign against G4S continues so long as it profits from the imprisonment of Palestinians.

Demonstrators at the New York City protest included a number of Palestinians, who engaged in political discussion regarding the upcoming municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza.

Next week, on 9 September, Samidoun organizers and supporters of Palestinian prisoners will support two events: a rally in support of the Standing Rock Sioux and their struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline in defense of indigenous land and water, at 5 pm at Washington Square Park, and a protest in support of the National Prison Strike in US prisons at 7 pm at 29th St. and 2nd Ave. in Brooklyn at 7 pm.

Photos by Joe Catron

New Video: Samidoun’s Mohammed Khatib on Black-Palestinian Solidarity and Liberation Struggles

2 September 2016

Black4Palestine published an interview with Mohammed Khatib, a Palestinian refugee and the coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Europe, as part of its ongoing video series highlighting Palestinian and Black solidarity and joint struggle.

Khatib reflects on learning about the Black struggle at the same time as he learned about the Palestinian struggle, the escalation in violence against Black and Palestinian lives in the last decade, and the need to go beyond solidarity for a unified struggle against our common oppressors around the world.

“We have to focus on a few things that we can be successful if we do in the US for Palestine and in Palestine for the Black struggle, and against racism in the Arab world and in our societies. This relationship is needed. It’s for our people and for our struggle,” he concludes.

The video is released alongside the development of a new statement, Arabs4BlackPower, highlighting Palestinian and Arab support for the Black liberation movement and the Movement for Black Lives, including the Movement’s newly-released Platform.

The video was filmed by Kristian Davis Bailey of Black4Palestine in Brussels, Belgium in July 2016. Further videos as part of the series are available at the Black4Palestine facebook page.

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/black4palestine/videos/1325208110842654/” width=”800″ onlyvideo=”1″]

Mohammed al-Balboul rushed to intensive care on 56th day of hunger strike; Malik al-Qadi’s health deteriorating

2 September 2016

Hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Mohammed al-Balboul was transferred to the intensive care unit at Wolfson hospital on Thursday evening, 1 September after a serious deterioration in his health, reported Palestinian lawyer Tariq Barghout.

Balboul, 26, a dentist, has been on hunger strike since 7 July; he was imprisoned since 9 June and held without charge or trial under administrative detention. He entered a hunger strike along with his brother, Mahmoud, 21, arrested alongside him in a violent pre-dawn raid by Israeli occupation forces who invaded their family home. Mahmoud, who launched his own hunger strike on 4 July, works with the Palestinian police and is a masters’ degree student. Both brothers are held without charge or trial under administrative detention. Their sister, Nuran, 15, was also imprisoned for three months at the time and their father, Ahmad, a Fateh leader, was assassinated by Israeli occupation forces in 2008.

Barghout said that Mohammed’s liver and kidneys are exposed to serious danger as he refuses to consume any vitamins or supplements. He has been on hunger strike for 56 days since the strike began; Mahmoud has been on strike for 60 days and is held at Assaf Harofeh hospital. Lawyers warned that he is in danger of paralysis or other serious health consequences with the continuation of his hunger strike.

Malik al-Qadi, 20, a journalism student at Al-Quds University, has been on hunger strike for 47 days and is also held at Wolfson hospital. Al-Muhja Jerusalem reported that al-Qadi’s condition has become critical as it has deteriorated further. He is suffering from severe pain in the chest and abdomen and has been warned by doctors that he is risking organ damage due to his continued hunger strike. His lawyer was notified on Friday, 2 September of his deteriorating health. He is refusing any supplements, vitamins or medical examination and confirmed that he is committed to his hunger strike until “freedom or death.”

The three strikers are among 750 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention; they are demanding their immediate release. They launched their strikes during the 71-day hunger strike of Bilal Kayed; Kayed has urged broad participation in the movement to support their ongoing struggle.

3 September, Rabat: Protest for freedom for six detainees in Palestinian Authority prisons

2 September 2016

Saturday, 3 September
12 pm – 3 pm
Palestinian Embassy
Rabat, Morocco
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1258416987525100/

The Palestinian Authority has arrested six youth who previously participated in the Arab national youth camp. These youth are imprisoned without charge and are engaged in a hunger strike. Instead of responding to the demands of the six youth, the PA has placed them in isolation and denied them family visits. We as youth supporters of the Palestinian cause and protesters of Zionism, find ourselves today forced to protest at the Palestinian Embassy in Rabat to demand freedom for the six detainees.

Seif al-Idrissi’s detention extended further as six young Palestinians continue hunger strike in PA prison

2 September 2016

Seif al-Idrissi, one of the six young Palestinian men on hunger strike to demand an end to their imprisonment by the Palestinian Authority since March/April 2016, was brought before a PA court on Thursday, 1 September, where his detention was extended for another 45 days. The judge did not allow his lawyer, Muhannad Karajah, to present his case before approving yet another extension of al-Idrissi’s detention; al-Idrissi, a well-known youth activist, was held caged when brought before the court.

Idrissi’s arrest in April 2016 prompted online protests by fellow activists, including leftist student leader Kifah Quzmar, whose arrest by the PA for his facebook posts drew international protest. Today, Idrissi is on hunger strike alongside Basil al-Araj, Mohammed Harb, Haitham Siyaj, Mohammed al-Salameen and Ali Dar al-Sheikh since Sunday, 28 August. The six young Palestinians have had their detention without charge or trial repeatedly extended by the Palestinian Authority after they were arrested in late March and early April, apparently as part of security coordination with the Israeli occupation. Under the Oslo accords, the Palestinian Authority shares intelligence information with Israel and has repeatedly arrested or jailed Palestinians in the context of stopping or preventing Palestinian resistance to occupation.

The young men’s lawyers, Muhannad Karajah and Anas Barghouthi of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, visited the six in Beitunia prison outside Ramallah on 1 September. The youth were deprived of their regular clothing and given a uniform to wear following the beginning of their hunger strike. Dar al-Sheikh is held in na isolation cell, as is Basil al-Araj. Siyaj and al-Salameen share one room and Saif al-Idrissi and Harb are sharing another room. They are provided with a sponge mattress from midnight until 8 am and it is then removed, and they must sit in their cells without a mattress. Al-Araj, who relies on his eyeglasses for sight, has had his eyeglasses confiscated by PA officials; they were returned to him for the legal meeting and then confiscated again after the meeting. Al-Araj is suffering from severe headaches as a result of being deprived of his eyeglasses. They were also denied family visits for 21 days.

The six emphasized their dedication to continue their hunger strike until freedom. The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council issued a statement on 1 September, pointing out that the detention of the six violates the right to a fair trial guaranteed in the Palestinian Basic Law. Palestinians in Ramallah will protest on Saturday, 3 September to support the six strikers and demand their freedom, as will supporters in Rabat, Morocco. Supporters of the six have phoned Palestinian embassies internationally to register the discontent of the Palestinian people and Palestinian communities in exile and diaspora with the continued imprisonment of these six young activists.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network revives and renews its call for international solidarity with these six detained Palestinian youth, prisoners of security coordination. Samidoun emphasizes that support for these six prisoners comes hand in hand with support for the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in a comprehensive defense of Palestinians under attack and facing imprisonment at the behest of the Israeli occupation. We urge that international voices be raised to demand the immediate release of these six youth on hunger strike an and end to the policies of security coordination that further threaten Palestinian life and freedom at the behest of the occupation.

Take Action!

1. It is critical that official Palestinian institutions hear from Palestinian communities in diaspora and exile and from friends of the Palestinian people in support of the six detained Palestinian youth.

We urge you to CALL the Palestinian Mission to the United Nations at +1 212 288-8500 and EMAIL the mission at palestine@un.int.

* Tell the mission that you are calling as a supporter of Palestine or as a Palestinian and your location, regarding the case of the six Palestinian youth detained in PA prison in the West Bank.

* Tell the mission that you are urging the immediate release of the six detained Palestinian youth who are currently on hunger strike in Beitunia prison.

* Tell the mission that PA security coordination with Israel only hurts the Palestinian people.

We also urge you to CALL the office of PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah at + 970 229 68989, or EMAIL the office at info@pmo.gov.ps. Please emphasize the same points above and the importance of the immediate release of the six youth.

2. Sign and Share the Petition – Call on PA officials to immediately release the six Palestinian youth! This petition was launched upon their arrest in April. Please sign and share this petition and build international solidarity to free the six! Sign and share: https://www.change.org/p/palestinian-authority-free-six-young-palestinian-activists-from-political-detention

August 2016 report: 516 Palestinians arrested by Israeli occupation forces

2 September 2016

The following monthly report was compiled by four Palestinian organizations that work on prisoners’ issues: the Prisoners’ Affairs Committee; Palestinian Prisoners’ Society; Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; and Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights. Translation by Samidoun.

During August 2016, Israeli occupation forces arrested 516 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, including 73 children and ten women, including two minor girls. The institutions noted that 143 arrests took place in Jerusalem; 100 in al-Khalil; 57 in Bethlehem; 51 in Jenin; 37 in Ramallah and El-Bireh; 35 in Nablus; 34 in Tulkaren; 18 in Qalqilya; nine in Tubas; five in Jericho; and four in Salfit.

There are approximately 7,000 total Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 56 women prisoners. This number includes 13 minor girls. The total number of child prisoners is 340, held mostly in Megiddo and Ofer prisons. 159 administrative detention orders were issued in August, including 52 new orders issued for the first time.

Israeli occupation forces continue arbitrary detention policy in the Gaza Strip

Israeli occupation forces continued a systematic policy of arbitrary detention against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law, particularly in failing to follow legal procedures on the matter of arrest and detention as well as the violation of fair trial guarantees in international conventions. Palestinian detainees are deprived of their right to access evidence about their cases or identify the reasons for their detention and are denied the right to legal council before trial. Under the law of the Israeli occupation, they can be denied access to a lawyer for over 21 days as well as denied the ability to communicate with the outside world, including refusing to allow detainees to inform a third party of their arrest and detention.

The occupation forces use excessive force, notably that faced by the fishermen, including heavy gunfire at sea, in clear violation of the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement of 1979, and the use of torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

The institutions highlighted nine incidents resulting in the arrests of 23 civilians in August, including 17 arrested at sea, 2 from Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing, and 4 as they approached the eastern borders of Gaza.

Individual and collective strikes by prisoners in Israeli jails

Three prisoners are continuing hunger strikes against administrative detention: the brothers Mahmoud and Mohammed Al-Balboul and Malik al-Qadi. Mahmoud began his strike on 4 July and Mohammed since 7 July. They are being held in Assaf Harofeh and Wolfson hospitals. Al-Qadi has been on hunger strike since 16 July and is held at Wolfson hospital.

Prisoners in the occupation prisons carried out hunger strikes in August for various reasons, most critically administrative detention. The most notable strike is that of the prisoner Bilal Kayed, who refused food for 71 days in rejection of the imposition of administrative detention upon him after completing a 14.5-year sentence in Israeli prisons. He ended his strike in an agreement that will see him released on 12 December.

Ayed al-Heraimi engaged in a 47-day hunger strike against his administrative detention and ended in an agreement for his release. Walid Musalam, sentenced to life in prison, waged a hunger strike for 37 days against his isolation, and ended the strike in an agreement that will return him to Ramon prison and end his isolation after three months.

Four more prisoners carried out a hunger strike for 19 days: Ziad al-Bazzar, Ahmed Barghouthi, Mahmoud Sarahna and Amin Kamil, in protest of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ cuts to family visits from two monthly visits to one, and their strike ended after receiving promises of serious moves to restore their family visits.

Prisoners also engaged in mass strikes, most notably the solidarity strike conducted by the prisoners of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in support of Bilal Kayed, carried out in successive waves in most prisons. For several days, dozens of Hamas prisoners engaged in a hunger strike in protest of collective punishment and the aggressive “inspections” and raids carried out by repressive forces, as well as arbitrary transfers of a number of prisoners.

Sanctions imposed on prisoners for solidarity with the striking prisoners

Since Bilal Kayed launched his open hunger strike on 15 June 2016, a number of prisoners of the PFLP engaged in solidarity protest steps in successive waves to support Kayed’s demands, especially his refusal to accept administrative detention after completing his prison sentence. The prison administration imposed a series of sanctions on prisoners engaged in solidarity actions, including cutting canteen (prison store) account availability from 1,200 NIS to 600 NIS, isolation of prisoners on hunger strike, transfer of a number of leaders of the prisoners from one prison to another, locking down sections of the prisons and invasions with special repressive units.

During a visit by lawyers to the prisoners in Gilboa prison, they reported that they were subject to a series of repressive practices during 21 days of hunger strike in support of Kayed, including denial of lawyer visits, denial of family visits for two months, closure of their canteen accounts, isolation and transfer to other prisons. They were also subject to daily invasions and raids by repressive units despite the fatigue of the striking prisoners.

These sanctions remain imposed on a number of PFLP prisoners even after the conclusion of the hunger strike, and some prisoners are continuing to return meals for two days weekly in protest of the continued sanctions and harassment against them.

Three Palestinian Prisoners Continue Hunger Strike as Health Deteriorates: New Flyer for Distribution

1 September 2016

Three Palestinian prisoners remain on hunger strike in Israeli jails: Mahmoud al-Balboul, 21; Mohammed al-Balboul, 26; and Malik al-Qadi, 20. The three strikers are all held in Israeli hospitals and have experienced serious deterioration of their health over the past days.

The Balboul brothers, whose father Ahmed al-Balboul was a Fateh leader assassinated by Israel in 2008, have been imprisoned since 9 June and are held without charge or trial under administrative detention. At the time they were arrested, their 15-year-old sister Nuran was also imprisoned; she spent three months in Israeli prison. Mahmoud, a student and part of the Palestinian police, began his strike for freedom on 4 July; his brother Mohammed, a dentist, who begin his own strike on 7 July.

Al-Qadi began his own hunger strike on 16 July; a journalism student at Al-Quds University, he was previously held from December 2015 for four months without charge or trial. He was arrested again by Israeli occupation forces on 23 May and is held under administrative detention.

The Balboul brothers are held in Assaf Harofe hospital. Mahmoud has lost over 30 kilograms and is suffering from severe pain throught his body. Al-Qadi is held in Wolfson hospital.

The three strikers are continuing their protest against administrative detention without charge or trial; they are among 750 Palestinians imprisoned under the administrative detention policy. They are continuing their strikes after Ayed al-Heraimi ended his strike, and following the 71-day strike of Bilal Kayed, which drew worldwide attention after Kayed was ordered to administrative detention immediately following the completion of his 14.5-year sentence in Israeli prison.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges supporters of justice and liberation for Palestinian prisoners and for Palestine to build on their excellent work to support Bilal Kayed and his fellow hunger strikers to continue efforts to free these three Palestinian prisoners and take action between 3-10 September 2016. Their bodies are on the line in the struggle to secure their freedom and end administrative detention – and the struggle for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian people.

Now is the time for urgent action to support Mahmoud al-Balboul, Mohammed al-Balboul and Malik al-Qadi in their struggle for freedom.

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 -that profit from imprisonment, occupation, racism, colonialism and injustice. Demand freedom for the Balboul brothers, al-Qadi and all Palestinian prisoners. 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 four 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:

Three Palestinian prisoners, Mahmoud al-Balboul, Mohammed al-Balboul and Malik al-Qadi, have been on hunger strike since July 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.

New letter from Bilal Kayed urges support for hunger striking Palestinian prisoners

1 September 2016

The following letter from Bilal Kayed was issued from Ramle prison clinic on Wednesday, 31 August; Kayed ended his strike one week prior after 71 days without food after securing an agreement for his release. Kayed is held under administrative detention without charge or trial after completing his 14.5 year sentence in Israeli prison. He will be released in December 2016. In the letter, Kayed urges his supporters and comrades to take up the struggle to support the three Palestinian prisoners currently on hunger strike against their administrative detention, Mahmoud al-Balboul, Mohammed al-Balboul and Malik al-Qadi.

To the heroic Palestinian masses…and to the free people of the world:

My thanks and appreciation for all of your sacrifices for the sake of Palestine and the Palestinian cause which is too often lost in the halls of politics and the shelves of postponement, and in particular the cause of the prisoners, which is abandoned and lost here and there. Today, this issue was brought to the table with your efforts and your support and your mobilization in the homeland and in the diaspora. The prisoners are yesterday’s strugglers and tomorrow’s leaders. We must support them and I remind you that there are still those prisoners who are fighting a vicious battle against this occupier that does not understand anything but the language of challenge. You are the ones who can do this; and I remind you of the two Balboul brothers and Malik al-Qadi, and bless the victory of Ayed al-Heraimi, which is no less than my victory and the victory of others. I call upon you to stand with them in their struggle until the battle of hunger is victorious against the arsenal of the occupier. Inevitably, they will win.

Let us not forget the sick prisoners and those who are suffering from deliberate medical neglect, administrative detainees, and the re-arrested freed prisoners who have been set by the occupation for a slow execution. I do not forget my comrades who continue to refuse to bow in the dungeons of solitary confinement, deprivation of visits, redution of rights who remain on strike to defend the prisoners. The truth is that they are the ones who have written the glorious historical epic, from the teen prisoners, the girls, the leaders and the elders, at their head the General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, and the leaders of the PFLP prison branch, as the occupation attempts to dismantle the organization and liquidate the victory, but every moment, they are victorious. Certainly, they will prevail.

Your brother, Bilal Kayed
From Ramle Prison Clinic
31 August 2016

Rasmea’s prosecutors deny the horror of torture; Judge Drain accepts their argument

31 August 2016

New release from USPCN and the Rasmea Defense Committee:

Rasmea Odeh, a survivor of vicious torture at the hands of the Israeli military, will be compelled to undergo hours of psychological evaluation by a government forensic examiner, according to a ruling by Federal Judge Gershwin Drain. Drain cancelled a September 22 hearing on the matter in Detroit, where supporters from across the Midwest had planned to join Rasmea.

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.

The appeals court sent the case back to Drain for an evidentiary Dauberthearing, where the government will challenge the validity and admissibility of testimony by torture expert and clinical psychologist, Dr. Mary Fabri. With Drain’s latest decision, issued yesterday, Rasmea will be subjected to as many as six sessions (up to 18 hours) of interrogation by a government expert seeking to support its claim that Fabri’s testimony should still be excluded.

By forcing Rasmea to meet with a government expert whose job it is to discredit her, she faces the real possibility of being re-traumatized by the horrible experiences of her torture. The government is clearly using legal maneuvers to convolute a medical diagnosis by a world-renowned mental health professional, and Drain is allowing it.

In his decision, Drain rejected the defense argument that it is harmful to Rasmea’s mental health to be forced to repeatedly discuss the rape and torture she suffered. He sided with the prosecution, claiming that Rasmea had discussed the torture on “numerous occasions” … “in the media and elsewhere.”

Lead defense attorney Michael Deutsch responded today: “That is just not true. While Rasmea has become the most famous target of a political trial in the U.S. today, she has always avoided discussion of the crimes committed against her in that Israeli prison in 1969. The government case against Rasmea is based on the word of her Israeli captors, and yet at every turn, Judge Drain has denied her defense the right to challenge those statements in his courtroom. Once again, his latest decision favors the prosecution’s endless attempts to cover up the crimes of Israel against Rasmea.”

The hearing on the challenge to Fabri’s expert testimony is set for November 29, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Rasmea’s supporters are already making plans to stand with her in Detroit that day, and they continue to educate the public on Israel’s crimes and this specific case, as well as raise money for the defense.

Six Palestinian youth hunger striking in PA prison denied family visits, isolated

30 August 2016

The six youth prisoners held in Palestinian Authority prisons since March/April 2016 as part of PA security coordination with Israel are now being held in isolation and denied family visits in the PA’s Beitunia prison near Ramallah.

Basil al-Araj, Haitham Siyaj, Mohammed Harb, Mohammed al-Salamen, Seif al-Idrissi and Ali Dar al-Sheikh launched a hunger strike to demand their release after the third continuation of their detention without charge or trial. The detained youth were subject to torture and abuse under interrogation.

According to their lawyers, as of today, they are now being denied family visits and have been ordered to isolation for 21 days. Samidoun reiterates its call for urgent international action to pressure the Palestinian Authority to immediately release these six Palestinian youth, clearly being imprisoned at the behest of the Israeli occupation.

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