New York protesters demand justice for Gaza fishermen, end to Israeli siege

5 June 2016

New Yorkers protested on Friday, 3 June against the siege on Gaza in support of Palestinian fishermen under attack by Israeli occupation forces. To date, 70 fishers have been detained by Israeli naval forces and 20 boats confiscated in 2016; these numbers parallel the already troubling figures for the whole of 2015.

The protest came as part of Samidoun’s weekly protests in New York City outside the offices of G4S, the British-Danish security corporation that provides security systems, control rooms and equipment for Israeli prisons, checkpoints, and the Beit Hanoun-Erez crossing where Israel imposes the siege on Gaza.

G4S is subject to a global campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions due to its involvement in human rights violations not only in Palestine but also in youth incarceration and migrant detention in the US, UK, Australia and elsewhere around the world. Palestinian prisoners have urged the escalation of the G4S boycott. Following significant contract losses in Colombia, Jordan, Europe and at several US universities, G4S announced that it will sell off its Israeli business – however, Palestinian activists have emphasized the need to keep the pressure up on G4S.

In Gaza, the occupation’s draconian restrictions on the movement of people and goods, along with its repeated military onslaughts and their destruction of Palestinian industry, resources, infrastructure, and life, have pushed the local unemployment rate to 41.2%, the highest in the world. 75,000 remain displaced following Israel’s destruction of their homes, which have yet to be rebuilt, during its 2014 bombardment. Family members, patients, students, and workers are trapped, with over 25,000 having applied for rare permits to leave through the one crossing with Egypt.

The fishing economy in Gaza – which supports 70,000 Palestinians – has been nearly destroyed by the naval siege on Gaza and the attacks on Palestinian boats, causing expensive boat damage to small fishing families who cannot afford repairs and preventing Palestinian fishers from entering deep waters where mature fish are available. Fishers in Gaza have lost 85% of their income since 2006 and the tightening of the siege.

Marking the sixth anniversary of the killing of ten Turkish and international activists on the Mavi Marmara, part of the Freedom Flotilla seeking to break the siege on Gaza, by Israeli navy who attacked the ship, Palestinian and international campaigners organized actions against the siege on Gaza from 31 May – 4 June; this protest also came in the context of this week of actions.

Samidoun will protest next Friday, 10 June in New York City beginning at 4 pm at the G4S office at 19 W. 44th Street before marching at 5:30 pm, demanding justice and freedom for Rasmea Odeh, former Palestinian prisoner, torture survivor, and Palestinian community leader facing deportation and imprisonment in the United States after being targeted for her advocacy for Palestinian women in Chicago. On Monday, June 13, 2016, Rasmea Odeh will appear with her attorneys before Judge Gershwin Drain for a status conference at the federal courthouse in Detroit, Michigan. The protest is jointly organized with a wide range of Palestine solidarity and social justice groups in New York City, including Committee to Stop FBI Repression NYC, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, NYC Students for Justice in Palestine, Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, International Action Center, NY 4 Palestine Coalition, American Muslims for Palestine, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, Labor for Palestine, and more.

Photos by Joe Catron

Samidoun joins San Sebastian film event highlighting Palestinian child prisoners

5 June 2016

The Asociacion Palestina Biladi organized its third festival of Arab cinema created by women in San Sebastian/Donostia in the Basque Country on 1 and 2 June, highlighting Palestinian struggles through film and discussion.

On 2 June, the program focused on Palestinian political prisoners, with a screening of “A Stone’s Throw from Prison,” a one-hour documentary focusing on the imprisonment of Palestinian children in Israeli jails, which today number over 330. Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, spoke after the film alongside the film’s director, Raquel Castells. Castells discussed the process of making the film as well as her own experience in meeting the children and families impacted by imprisonment and learning how significantly it has affected their lives. She discussed connecting with Palestinian organizations who work with children who are ex-prisoners, as well as the reluctance of large international NGOs to address imprisonment directly, as well as the torture, solitary confinement, and ill-treatment that is part of the detention, interrogation, and imprisonment process for Palestinian children.

Kates provided an overview of the current situation of Palestinian prisoners, including the present-day statistics: over 7000 Palestinian prisoners, 750 of them in administrative detention without charge or trial, over 330 child prisoners and 71 imprisoned women. She highlighted how imprisonment is used by the Israeli state as a means of colonial control that is part and parcel of the imposition of a racist state in occupied Palestine. Kates noted that the issue of imprisonment is one that affects all sectors of the Palestinian people, noting how the present-day system of military orders governing the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank is based on the military law imposed on Palestinians in 1948 occupied Palestine until 1966. She noted the role of administrative detention in targeting Palestinian community and political leaders and removing them from their people, as well as the military courts’ status as a sham “legal system” that places a veneer of legitimacy on military occupation. She noted in particular the criminalization of Palestinian political organizing and existence, with all major Palestinian political parties labeled prohibited organizations and membership or “affiliation” with them criminalized.

Kates highlighted the case of Palestinian leftist political leader, parliamentarian and feminist Khalida Jarrar and her upcoming release on 3 June. She concluded by urging those participating to build the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, and noted in particular the role of the British-Danish security corporation G4S in providing security systems, control rooms and equipment to Israeli prisons and the importance of continuing to pressure G4S despite previous assurances that it is planning to sell its Israeli business.

Discussion continued after the film on a range of issues related to the making of the film and the situation of Palestinians struggling for liberation.

The Thursday night event followed the 1 June opening of the festival, where Annemarie Jacir’s film “When I Saw You” was screened, followed by a lecture and discussion with Palestinian writer and activist Tamara Tamimi. The feature film, set in 1967 among Palestinians displaced to Jordan in the Naksah amid the rise of the modern Palestinian revolution, telling the stories of a mother and her young son.

Tamimi placed the film in a factual historical context of the continuity of Palestinian struggle, from prior to 1948 to the present day. She highlighted the role of Palestinian women in the film and in life and struggle, so often suppressed or made invisible in Western accounts of Palestinian politics and life. She recalled Palestinian women’s role in the armed struggle, as well as the role of Palestinian women as workers, community members, teachers and mothers. Tamimi discussed the experiences of her own family in Palestine due to colonization, and, in particular, the attempts to force Palestinians from Jerusalem and deny their Jerusalem IDs and right to the city. She also discussed the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions and the growing international BDS movement among students, trade unionists, and social justice movements around the world.

Biladi is actively involved in the BDS campaign in the Basque Country and works with organizations throughout Spain. It organizes events, activities and actions in solidarity with Palestine and highlighting Palestinian history, life and culture.

Successful Toulouse event defeats anti-BDS censorship, calls for support for accused activists

5 June 2016

On Tuesday, 31 May, 150 people gathered in Toulouse to hear Mohammed Khatib of Samidoun Europe and writer Eric Hazan speak in defense of the four Toulouse BDS activists facing criminalization and prosecution for their advocacy for the boycott of Israeli goods.

The meeting, organized by the Comité de Soutien aux inculpéEs BDS toulousains, had earlier been censored by the Mayor of Toulouse, whose refusal to rent the organizers the meeting room was overturned by Toulouse’s administrative court, which labeled the mayor’s action “a grave and manifestly illegal infringement of the fundamental freedom of assembly” and ordered the room to be provided and 1500 EUR paid to the organizers.

Mohammed Khatib of Samidoun Europe began his speech saying, “I am a Palestinian from the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. I would like to affirm that the Palestinian people recognize Georges Abdallah as one of their own, as one of the over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners.” Abdallah, a Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine, has been imprisoned in France for 32 years despite being eligible for release for over 16 years, in part due to the intervention of US presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current French prime minister and proponent of anti-BDS prosecutions Manuel Valls.

“The BDS call for us, as Palestinians, is not a call to isolate individual Israelis, but a call to isolate the Israeli state as a whole. The Israeli regime is an extreme example of racism and fascism in the world,” said Khatib. He highlighted the so-called “French initiative,” rejected by multiple Palestinian resistance groups and political parties, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as an example of French hypocrisy while prosecuting BDS activists and imprisoning Georges Abdallah, alongside its own lengthy and bloody history of colonialism in the Arab world.

“The French state submits its ‘French initiative,’ supposedly for peace. Who is more poorly placed than the French state – not the people of France – to offer a ‘French initiative’ anywhere in the world? The French government is a colonial and neo-colonial government. The French government has supported Israel for a very long time, and assisted in providing nuclear weapons to this state,” Khatib said. He addressed the alternative to proposed solutions that undermine fundamental Palestinian rights, particularly the right of return: “We, the Palestinian people, have a historic democratic project…for a single democratic Palestine from the sea to the Jordan river…Two states means, for us, apartheid! Two states means, for us, colonialism! Two states means, for us, segregation!”

Eric Hazan, writer and founder of La fabrique editions, denounced French attempts to prosecute and criminalize BDS organizing. “The Israeli government considers that BDS is a ‘strategic threat’ and created a special body designed to combat BDS abroad. There are millions of dollars that have been given by the Israeli government to this body….this intensification of the fight against BDS is a direct consequence of this action,” Hazan said, urging not only defense of persecuted activists but the intensification of boycott work. “We must continue to fight on two fronts – first of all, on a defensive front in solidarity with all those attacked, especially today in Toulouse. The second front is an offensive front – to enlarge and make the boycott more threatening to the fascist and racist regime which is rampant in Israel: the intellectual, cultural and artistic boycott.”

On 30 June, the four accused activists in Toulouse, Bernard, Jean-Pierre, Loic and Yamann will face the court again for distributing leaflets about boycotting Israeli goods in public squares in 2014 and 2015, accused of “obstructing the normal economic activity” of three stores by encouraging customers to not buy Israeli goods there. Activists will rally outside the court at 1:00 pm in Toulouse; in addition, another support event will take place on 18 June at La Chapelle in Toulouse.

Activists across France, including BDS France and the Association France-Palestine Solidarite hailed the successful organizing of the event as a victory for freedom of expression against criminalization in France. The Green group in the Toulouse council also hailed the court decision as a victory for freedom of expression in Toulouse.

Photos by: Ben Art’core

6 PLC members remain imprisoned following release of Khalida Jarrar

4 June 2016

Following the release of Khalida Jarrar, prominent leftist and feminist legislator and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, six members of the PLC remain imprisoned in Israeli jails.

Two are serving sentences issued to them by Israeli military courts – Palestinian national leaders Ahmad Sa’adat and Marwan Barghouti, both of whom boycotted the military courts that sentenced them – and four held in administrative detention without charge or trial.

Ahmad Sa’adat, 63, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been imprisoned in Israeli prison since 2006, when he was abducted in a military raid on the Palestinian Authority’s Jericho prison, where he had been imprisoned since 2002 under US and British guard under an agreement between the US, UK, PA and Israel. Sa’adat was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for incitement and membership and leadership in a prohibited organization, his party, the PFLP.

Marwan Barghouti, 58, Fateh representative in the Palestinian Legislative Council, was arrested in 2002 and is serving five life sentences, accused of leading Fateh’s armed resistance wing in the West Bank.

Hassan Yousef, 60, from the Change and Reform bloc, associated with Hamas, is currently being held under a six-month administrative detention order following his arrest on 20 January; his order is, like all administrative detention orders, indefinitely renewable. Also held under administrative detention from the Change and Reform bloc is Hatem Kufaisheh, 56, ordered to three months in administrative detention after his detention was renewed on 24 April; he was arrested on 24 January. Mohammed Abu Teir, 65, also of the Change and Reform Bloc, has been held in administrative detention since 28 January;
and Abdel Jaber Fuquha, ordered to three months in administrative detention after his arrest on 17 May.

Palestinian journalist and human rights defender’s interrogation extended once more by Israeli court

4 June 2016

The detention and interrogation of Palestinian journalist and human rights defender Hasan Safadi, Arabic media coordinator for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, was renewed on Friday, 3 June. Safadi, 24, has been under interrogation for more than a month, since his arrest by Israeli occupation forces on 1 May as he attempted to cross al-Karameh bridge, returning to the West Bank of occupied Palestine from Jordan.

The Jerusalem Magistrate Court extended his interrogation period for 4 additional days; he will have another court hearing on Tuesday, 7 June.

The arrest of Safadi comes amid an ongoing attack on Palestinian journalists and media workers, including the administrative detention without charge or trial of Omar Nazzal, member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate; Musab Kafisheh, freelance journalist; Mohammed Kaddoumi, freelance journalist; and Ali al-Oweiwi, an announcer at Arabah radio station.

In addition, Syrian journalist from the occupied Golan Heights (holding Israeli citizenship) Bassam al-Safadi, a correspondent for the Iranian Al-Alam TV channel, was arrested on 1 June and is being imprisoned in Tzalmon prison, accused of “incitement” and “support for terrorism,” apparently on the basis of public media statements.

Other Palestinian journalists like Sami al-Saee, Samer Abu Aisha and Samah Dweik are imprisoned and charged with “incitement” for publishing on social media; Abu Aisha faces charges for going to Lebanon – where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees live – labeled an “enemy country.” Journalists like Hazem Nasser and Mujahid Saadi are targeted and accused of membership in or support for an “illegal organization” – any Palestinian political party.

Khalida Jarrar freed – Palestinian leftist leader calls for action to liberate Palestinian prisoners

3 June 2016

Palestinian leftist legislator, feminist, and prisoners’ advocate Khalida Jarrar was released after 14 months in Israeli prison on Friday, 3 June, where she was met by a crowd of supporters at the Jubara checkpoint near Tulkarem. Jarrar will hold open receptions tonight, 4 June and tomorrow, 5 June, at the Palestinian Legislative Council offices, celebrating her release.

At the press conference, Jarrar urged intensified action for prisoners. “We must move from words to actions.” She denounced the action of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to cut family visits for Palestinian men prisoners from twice to once a month, saying that this action must be fought and is entirely rejected by Palestinian prisoners. Imprisoned Palestinians “wait minute by minute for vistation,” Jarrar said, noting that family visits are crucial for Palestinian prisoners on many levels.

Jarrar detailed the situation faced by Palestinian women prisoners, including the difficulties of their lives and the abuses against them by the Israeli prison administration. She also discussed the prisoners’ work among themselves to collectively continue to struggle, learn from one another and develop their resistance inside the prison. Jarrar emphasized that Palestinian women in prison are struggling for national and social liberation, as full participants and leaders in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian liberation struggle.

In particular, she highlighted the case of Lena Jarbouni, the longest-serving woman prisoner in Israeli jails. Imprisoned for nearly 15 years, Jarbouni is serving a 17-year sentence. A Palestinian from Akka who holds Israei citizenship, she was accused of “aiding the enemy” and sentenced to 17 years imprisonment. She is the spokesperson and representative of women prisoners held in HaSharon prison, and Jarrar referred to her as a “teacher” for herself and their fellow prisoners, who teaches Hebrew to fellow women prisoners and plays a critical role in advocating for education for imprisoned minor girls. Jarrar repeatedly urged broader action to support and advocate for freedom for Jarbouni.

She also noted the cases of Karim Younis and Walid Abu Daqqa, some of the longest-serving prisoners in Israeli prisons, having spent over 30 years in prison. She noted that she briefly met Younis while they were being transported in the infamous prison transfer vehicle known as the “bosta,” a metal vehicle where prisoners are shackled for lengthy transfers, trips to court or to the hospital. She also noted that with the approach of Ramadan, Palestinian prisoners yearn for the connection to their families which is being denied them by the Israeli occupation.

Jarrar, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council of the Abu Ali Mustafa Bloc and a prominent leftist leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is a member of the Board of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and its former executive director, a lifelong struggler for Palestinian freedom, Palestinian women and Palestinian prisoners. “We stand as part of a global struggle with all the world’s women freedom fighters: against injustice, exploitation and oppression,” said Jarrar. Arrested in a pre-dawn raid by Israeli occupation soldiers who raided her home on 1 April 2015, Jarrar was first ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial. Following an international outcry, Jarrar was charged in the Israeli military courts with 12 charges based entirely on public political activity, including giving speeches, attending events, and expressing support for Palestinian prisoners and their families. She was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, in addition to a suspended sentence and a fine.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Khalida Jarrar, a struggler for liberation for the Palestinian prisoners and for the Palestinian people as a whole, on her release from the prisons of the
occupation, and welcomes her home with great joy. We join in her calls for intensified action to free Palestinian prisoners, to resist the ICRC’s attack on Palestinian prisoners’ family visits, and to campaign to free Lena Jerbouni and the Palestinian women prisoners. Khalida Jarrar is a Palestinian national leader who has remained such from behind prison bars, committed to the path of liberation from all forms of oppression and injustice. We congratulate Khalida Jarrar on her freedom and pledge to continue on her path of struggle until the freedom of every Palestinian political prisoner behind bars, and the freedom of Palestine.

4 June, Milan: Protest – Support Palestinian Resistance, Against the French Initiative

2 June 2016

Saturday, 4 June
11:00 am – Rally, French Consulate, Via Turati 21, Milan
2:00 pm – March, Piazza della Repubblica, Milan

Organized by Fronte Palestina

Fronte Palestina and Palestina Rossa will respond to the Palestinian call to mobilization and action against the so-called “French initiative” and to defend the Palestinian right to return at a day of demonstrations and actions on 4 June. This event comes in conjunction with actions by independent trade union SI Cobas, in solidarity with French workers and their struggle against the new labor law being imposed by the French government.

Omar Nayef Zayed’s funeral to take place in Sofia on 10 June

2 June 2016

Family, comrades and friends of former Palestinian prisoner Omar Nayef Zayed, found dead in the Palestinian embassy in Sofia Bulgaria after seeking sanctuary from extradition to Israel for 71 days, will lay him to rest at his funeral in Sofia on Friday, 10 June.

Nayef Zayed, 52, escaped from Israeli imprisonment in 1990 after four years of imprisonment, accused of participating in a Palestinian resistance action against settlers in Jerusalem. He lived in Bulgaria for 22 years with his wife and three children, all of whom are Bulgarian citizens, and was a leader in the Palestinian community in Sofia.

In December 2015, the Israeli embassy in Sofia demanded that the Bulgarian government extradite Nayef Zayed on the basis of his original 30-year sentence. Nayef Zayed took refuge in the Palestinian embassy in Sofia; Palestine is recognized as a state in Bulgaria and its embassy bears the full Vienna Convention protections of any other.

Nayef Zayed struggled inside the embassy, working with Samidoun on a campaign for Justice for Omar and a legal team inside and outside Bulgaria to fight the extradition. He was shockingly and surprisingly found dead inside the Palestinian Embassy on 26 February 2016, bloody and severely injured, having fallen – or been pushed – from a height into the embassy’s garden. The embassy had no guards, cameras, or automated key lock system, making it nearly impossible to gather meaningful evidence of who had been in the embassy with Omar that night.

Throughout his time in the embassy, Omar was heavily pressured by Palestinian Authority representatives, including Ambassador Ahmad al-Madhbouh, to leave the embassy and find another solution for his situation. Omar’s comrades, family and friends have gathered around the world demanding accountability, transparency and justice for his death, revealing the responsible parties and holding them accountable for their direct and indirect roles in his slaying.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns Omar Nayef Zayed with his family and comrades. A Samidoun delegation will take part in the funeral. We salute Omar Nayef Zayed, a veteran of the Palestinian struggle everywhere he lived. He is a martyr of the Palestinian cause who died resisting Israeli attempts to seize and attack Palestinian prisoners and ex-prisoners everywhere in the world, defending not only his own rights and freedom, but that of former Palestinian prisoners targeted for repression around the world, and that of the Palestinian people as a whole.

May 2016 Report: 471 Palestinians arrested by Israeli occupation forces, 750 held in administrative detention

2 June 2016

The following summary report on Palestinian prisoners in May 2016 was released by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Mezan Center and the Prisoners’ Affairs Committee; Samidoun has translated below.

In May 2016, Israeli occupation forces arrested 471 Palestinians, bringing the number who have been detained since the beginning of the popular uprising in October 2015 to 5805.

The report pointed out that among those detained in May are included 84 children and 15 women, including 5 girls, and the Palestinian Legislative Council member, Abdel-Jaber Fuquha.

The highest number of arrests took place in Jerusalem, where 111 Palestinians were arrested. 80 were arrested in al-Khalil; 60 in Ramallah; 48 in Bethlehem; 45 in Nablus; 34 in Jenin; 24 in Tulkarem; 14 in Qalqilya; 10 in Salfit; five in Tubas; five in Jericho; and 34 from the Gaza Strip.

There are approximately 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including over 330 children and 71 women, including 15 girls. There are seven imprisoned Palestinian Legislative Council members, and 750 Palestinians imprisoned under administrative detention without charge or trial. 156 administrative detention orders were issued in May, including 40 new (first-time) orders.

In the Gaza Strip, the majority of detainees were fishermen and often suffered cruel and degrading treatment during detention and interrogation.

Eight prisoners conducted a hunger strike during May, in protest of systematic violations against them; the institutions protest the violations against prisoners on hunger strike, including isolating them in solitary confinement.

Palestinian prisoners continue to suffer from the use of the “Bosta” for prisoner transport, noting that it is metal, hot in summer and cold in winter and takes an excessive time for transferring prisoners, from eight hours to three days, with the prisoner often detained in vehicles or waiting rooms that lack access to bathrooms or minimum sanitary conditions, before reaching the court or the hospital. For example, Rami Sabarneh of al-Khalil was returned to Ramon prison via Bosta after surgery in an Israeli hospital, leading to injury and bleeding and the reopening of his wound.

Furthermore, the Israeli occupation continues a policy of torture and intimidation against children held in detention and interrogation centers. They are frequently threatened with lengthy detention and with arrest or other harm to family members, or are kept in solitary confinement for a long period. On the other hand, they also suffer physical torture and abuse such as beatings and being handcuffed to the chair in stress positions during interrogation.

In regard to the continued use of administrative detention without charge or trial, the case of Imad Barghouthi must be highlighted. He was arrested on 24 April by occupation forces. His arrest was arbitrary and without evidence, yet he is now facing military courts, which do not represent justice in any way and merely serve to place a legal facade on the decisions of the Israeli security services. Furthermore, the case of Imad Barghouthi underlines that administrative detention is used as a tool of repression, punishment and retaliation, and violating the rights to freedom of expression and opinion.

Israel continues to engage in gross and systematic violations of international law against Palestinian prisoners, yet Palestinian prisoners continue to struggle and confront their torturers. It is criticual to continue efforts to defend Palestinian prisoners and expose the abuses against the. The issue of prisoners is a Palestinian national cause, and a moral and human issue, requiring Arab and international efforts to exert maximum pressure on the occupation to stop its systematic violations of international humanitarian law and human rights principles, and to free Palestinian prisoners.

Palestinian prisoners’ institutions urge international civil society and human rights organizations, political parties, and all forces of justice in the world to work hard to expose the abuses by the occupying forces. They also call upon the United Nations and international community to take actions to stop the grave violations of the rights of Palestinian prisoners, and the violations of human rights and the rights of the child, through arbitrary arrests of children, during interrogation and detention. They also urged action to compel the occupation authorities to respect their legal obligations and the rights of prisoners and detainees to be protected from torture and ill-treatment, to receive health care and family visits. They called for the release of child prisoners, women prisoners, and administrative detainees, struggling for the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Palestinian leftist parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar to be released 3 June

2 June 2016

Palestinian leader Khalida Jarrar, prominent Palestinian parliamentarian and leftist leader, will be released from prison on Friday, 3 June, reported Palestinian media.

Jarrar, the former executive director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a well-known prisoners’ rights advocate, serving as a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 2006, was arrested by Israeli occupation forces in her home on 1 April. Initially ordered to six months administrative detention without charge or trial, after an international outcry, rather than being released, she was transferred to the Israeli military courts and presented with a list of 12 charges, all related to public speaking and public political activity.

Jarrar was sentenced to 15 months in Israeli prison, as well as a fine of 10,000 NIS (approximately $2500 USD) as well as a suspended sentence of one year. “I did not expect anything from military courts. They are a joke, it’s like a big theater, I do not trust them and my detention has been political since the beginning,” said Jarrar, noting that she rejected the legitimacy of the military court system – which convicts over 99% of Palestinians before it – as a mechanism of occupation and colonial control.

Jarrar will be released at the Jubara checkpoint north of Tulkarem, where she will be received by comrades and supporters for a motorcade to her home; she will receive supporters on Saturday and Sunday at her office at the Palestinian Legislative Council on Sunday.

Jarrar’s case has drawn attention and support from thousands of international parliamentarians, women’s organizations and solidarity groups. Her arrest followed months after an attempt to forcibly transfer her to Jericho from her home in Ramallah, an attempt defeated in a month-long sit-in and permanent protest at the PLC building.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Khalida Jarrar and the Palestinian, Arab and international activists and supporters around the world who raised their voices for her freedom. Khalida Jarrar has always been a leading voice for freedom, justice and liberation for Palestinian prisoners and the entire Palestinian people. In the past 15 months, Khalida Jarrar has been a leader of the Palestinian people and of the Palestinian prisoner movement from behind bars, supporting her fellow imprisoned Palestinians and expressing her dedication to the cause of Palestinian liberation. We look forward not only to welcoming Khalida Jarrar to freedom, but to continue on her path of struggle until the freedom of every Palestinian political prisoner behind bars, and the freedom of Palestine.

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