Reprinted from Palestine News Network: Leading Belgian Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have announced their nomination of Marwan Barghouthi for the Nobel Peace Prize.
This is the first European nomination of Marwan for the Prize. The signatories of the letter of nomination include Gwenaëlle Grovonius (PS), President of the bilateral section Belgium-Palestine of the Belgian group to the Inter-Parliamentary Union and federal parliamentary deputy, Dirk Vandermaelen (sp.a.), President of the External Relations Committee, Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open-VLD), President of the Social Affairs Committee, Jean-Marc Delizée (PS), President of the Economy Committee, Benoit Hellings (Ecolo), Vice-President of the National Defence Committee, and Senators Piet De Bruyn (N-VA) and Nadia El Yousfi (PS).
The letter of nomination states “Marwan is an elected representative of the Palestinian nation, and was the first parliamentarian to be arrested…He is a democrat defending Human rights, notably women rights. He was actively engaged in the promotion of political and religious pluralism, and as such he is an important actor for the future of a region more fragmented than ever…Peace requires the freedom of Marwan Barghouthi and of the political prisoners, and more generally the freedom of the Palestinian people living for decades under occupation. By granting the Nobel Peace Prize to the one who embodies the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, but also their aspiration to achieve peace, a leader that can unite Palestinians around a political project that clearly includes a two-state solution on 1967 borders, more threatened than ever by colonisation and the absence of a political horizon, the Committee for the Nobel Prize would help resurrect the indispensable hope to go out of the current impasse.”
The International Campaign to Free Marwan Barghouthi and all Palestinian prisoners was launched from the cell of Nelson Mandela in October 2013 by anti-Apartheid icon Ahmed Kathrada, who launched the Free Mandela campaign before spending 26 years in Apartheid jails. The Campaign has since received the support of 8 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates (Jimmy Carter, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, José Ramos Horta, Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Jody Williams, Sherin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú Tum), 115 Governments around the world, 15 former Heads of States and Governments, hundreds of parliamentarians, artists, intellectuals, academics, and thousands of citizens, making it the biggest international campaign in the history of the Palestinian struggle.
The nomination by leading Belgian parliamentarians is the third nomination of Marwan Barghouthi to the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Adolfo Perez Esquivel was the first to nominate Marwan in January 2016. Esquivel is an Argentinian artist and was a leading figure and icon of the struggle against dictatorships in Latin America, notably in Argentina, where he was arrested and tortured under the dictatorship. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980. The second nomination came as a result of a unanimous decision of the Arab Parliament.
There are today 7000 Palestinian prisoners, including 7 parliamentarians, 400 children, 30 pre-Oslo prisoners, 67 women, 20 journalists, 750 administrative detainees, hundreds of sick prisoners.
The Committee calls on Israel to end administrative detention, repeal the Unlawful Combatants Law, and prohibit the solitary confinement of children; emphasizes that forced feeding of hunger strikers may be torture or ill-treatment.
The Committee raised concerns about Israel’s extrajudicial executions of Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and in the access-restricted areas of Gaza; and called for the immediate release of the bodies of deceased Palestinians.
On 13 May 2016, the UN Committee Against Torture issued its extensive concluding observations on Israel. Spanning over 50 items, these recommendations follow from the Committee’s 3 and 4 May 2016 review of Israel’s compliance with the UN Convention against Torture (CAT). Israel ratified the CAT in 1991, and as other state parties, is reviewed regularly by the Committee Against Torture.
Adalah, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel submitted a joint NGO report to the Committee, and attended the review session in Geneva. The Committee raised numerous issues highlighted by the human rights organizations in its report in the concluding observations as matters of grave concern. Included among the principal subjects of concern and recommendations are the following:
Scope of the Convention’s applicability: Despite Israel’s contention otherwise, the Committee reaffirmed that the Convention applies to the Occupied Territories (para. 9)
Definition and criminalization of torture, removal of necessity defense: The Committee remained “concerned that a specific offence of torture” based on the Convention has not yet been adopted. While the Committee noted that the Justice Ministry is drafting a new bill in this regard, the Committee called on Israel “to speed up the process”. It also urged Israel again “to completely remove necessity as a possible justification for torture.” (para. 12-15) In the partners’ view, Israel is in non-compliance with the Convention 25 years after ratification, as Israeli law contains no crime of torture and includes the “necessity defense”.
Access to a lawyer and arraignment before a judge: The Committee recommended that Israel “ensure, in law and in practice, that all persons deprived of liberty, irrespective of the charges brought against them, the law applicable to them or wherever they may be located, are afforded all legal safeguards from the very outset of the deprivation of liberty, including the rights to be assisted by a lawyer and to be brought before a judge without delay.” (para. 16, 17)
Audio-visual documentation of interrogations: The Committee recommended that Israel “ensure the compulsory audio-visual recording” of all suspects’ interrogations … and that “Audio-visual footage should be monitored by an independent body and kept for a period sufficient for it to be used as evidence in courts.” (para. 18, 19)
Independent medical examinations of persons deprived of liberty: Israel should to guarantee that all physicians and medical staff dealing with imprisoned persons “duly document all signs and allegations of torture or ill-treatment and report them without delay to the appropriate authorities.” Further, it should consider “transferring responsibility for all types of healthcare of persons deprived of liberty to the Ministry of Health in order to ensure that medical staff can operate fully independently from the custodial authorities.” (para. 20, 21)
Administrative detention and Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law: Israel should take urgent measures to “end the practice of administrative detention” and ensure that all persons who are currently held in administrative detention are “afforded all basic legal safeguards; and to “repeal the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law.” (para. 22, 23)
Solitary confinement: Israel should “(a) ensure that solitary confinement and [isolation] are used only in exceptional cases as a measure of last resort, for as short a time as possible and subject to independent review, in line with international standards; (b) put an immediate end and prohibit the use of solitary confinement … for juveniles and persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities; and (c) … regularly publish comprehensive disaggregated data on the use of solitary confinement and equivalent measures.” (para. 24, 25)
Hunger strikes/forced feeding: Israel should guarantee that hunger strikers “are never subjected to ill-treatment or punished for engaging in a hunger strike, and are provided with necessary medical care in accordance with their wishes.” Further, that hunger strikers, who are competent to take informed decisions, “are never subjected to feeding or other medical treatment against their will, as these are practices that may amount to torture or ill-treatment.” (para. 26, 27)
Excessive use of force: The Committee raised concerns at allegations of excessive use of force, including lethal force, by security forces, mostly against Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the access-restricted areas (ARAs) of the Gaza Strip, particularly in the context of demonstrations, in response to attacks or alleged attacks against Israeli civilians or security forces, and to enforce the ARAs of the Gaza Strip. Notably the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that, “some of these responses strongly suggest unlawful killings, including possible extrajudicial executions” (A/HRC/31/40, para. 10). Thus, Israel should ensure that “the rules of engagement or regulations on opening fire are fully consistent with the Convention and other relevant international standards” and that “all instances and allegations of excessive use of force are investigated promptly, effectively and impartially by an independent body, that alleged perpetrators are duly prosecuted and, if found guilty, adequately sanctioned.” (para. 32, 33)
Return of bodies: While noting Israel’s new agreement to initiate the return of the bodies, the Committee urged Israel“to return the bodies of the Palestinians that have not yet been returned to their relatives as soon as possible so they can be buried in accordance with their traditions and religious customs, and to avoid that similar situations are repeated in the future.” (para. 42, 43)
Now, in the same week as the 17th anniversary of the VFA signing, the Lumad delegates will be joining Filipinos and allies in the Northeast to protest the unrestricted U.S. military aid flowing to the Philippine military and the continued U.S. military and economic intervention in the Philippines. The controversial (VFA) has served as the basis for U.S. intervention in the Philippines and paved the way for the indefinite permanent presence of at least 660 U.S. Special Operations Forces in Mindanao, dozens of annual war games with thousands of foreign troops on Philippine soil and in Philippine waters, and unlimited docking and travel of U.S. warships in Philippine ports and through Philippine land and airspace. This year, the United States increased its military aid to the Philippines from $50 million to $79 million. BAYAN USA Northeast condemns this foreign military financing as a tool of imperialism, which is wrongly justified as a way to “assist” the Philippines in the midst of rising tensions with China.
We urge you to join us in ensuring that U.S. tax dollars are not used to perpetuate blatant human rights violations under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino and the incoming administration of Rodrigo Duterte. We call on the prosecution and jailing of the President Benigno S. Aquino, whose administration was the primary actor responsible for the human rights violations against the Lumad. We also celebrate the victories of the Lumad people in the midst of adversity and their relentless struggle towards peace with justice!
Let us bid our Lumad brothers and sisters farewell and safe travels as they end their historic speaking tour in the U.S in the best way we know how — JOIN THEM IN THEIR JUST & RIGHTEOUS DEMANDS FOR JUSTICE!!
More than 300 human rights and aid organisations, church groups, trade unions and political parties from across Europe have called on the EU to uphold its legal responsibilities and hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law and to defend the right of individuals and institutions to take part in the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for justice and equality.
Signatories to the letter called on the EU commission to “introduce the human rights guidelines guaranteeing freedom of speech and right to boycott and to use all other means you have in your disposal to support European citizens in their struggle to uphold basic human rights.”
The 354 strong list of signatories includes: Transform! Europe – a european network of 28 European organizations from 19 countries, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, The Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions, Parti de Gauche in France, Podemos in Spain, Norwegian Church Aid, the Flemish branch of Oxfam in Belgium, major Belgian NGO coalition CNCD 11.11.11, Defence for Children in Belgium, Greenpeace in Germany, the international catholic peace movement Pax Christi International in Belgium and major French Catholic NGO Terre Solidaire. See here for letter and full list of signatories.
At Israel’s request, European governments including the UK and France are introducing anti-democratic legislation and taking other repressive measures to undermine the BDS movement. In France, one activist was arrested simply for wearing a BDS t-shirt.
The EU envoy to Israel was criticised recently for participating in an anti-BDS conference in Jerusalem at which Israeli government ministers threatened BDS activists.
Israel has also imposed an effective travel ban on BDS movement co-founder Omar Barghouti, following thinly-veiled threats of physical violence against him by Israeli government ministers that prompted Amnesty International to express concern“for the safety and liberty of Palestinian human rights defender Omar Barghouti”.
Israeli state repression against human rights defenders and the BDS movement is designed to shield it from being held accountable for its violations of international law. Israel has openly boasted that it is spying on international BDS activists.
Riya Hassan, Europe Campaigns Officer for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the broadest coalition of Palestinian organisations that leads and supports the BDS movement, said:
“Rather than helping Israel to repress the BDS movement, it is time for the EU to meet its obligations under international law and hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. The EU must uphold the right of European, Palestinian and Israeli citizens to uphold human rights and take part in the nonviolent BDS movement.”
Aneta Jerska, the coordinator of the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP), one of the organisations that has signed the statement, said:
“It is empowering to see so many European civil society organisations and representative bodies publicly declaring their support for the right to participate in the BDS movement that aims to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law and human rights.
“This is a powerful sign that European public opinion is increasingly viewing BDS as an act of free speech. We will continue to fight to bring an end to Israel’s unjust system of oppression over the Palestinian people.”
On Wednesday, 18 May, Palestinian lawyer Jawad Boulos announced that Palestinian prisoner Sami Janazrah had resumed his hunger strike after a one-week partial strike (consuming liquids only). Janazrah engaged in a hunger strike for 70 days and suspended the strike on Wednesday, 11 May, during the one-week period directed by the Israeli Supreme Court to resume the investigation of Janazrah’s case.
Janazrah, 43, a Palestinian refugee from Al-Fuwwar refugee camp near al-Khalil, has been on strike in protest of his administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial. He has been imprisoned since 15 November 2015, and his detention extended shortly after he began his strike on 3 March 2016. The Israeli military prosecution today requested an additional seven days to complete the claimed “investigation into new evidence” in his case. As Janazrah is held without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence, he has no means of challenging any evidence alleged against him, or even knowing the content of such material.
“We’ve tried to fight the occupation in every way possible. It is our legal right to fight against this occupation,” Janazrah’s brother Mahmoud told Al-Jazeera. “Sami is only fighting this occupation to try to get our rights back. He is like any other Palestinian who refuses the occupation.”
Janazrah resumed his hunger strike – as he had stated he would do when suspending it one week prior, as his administrative detention order remains in place. He is one of 750 Palestinians held under administrative detention, a practice widely condemned internationally.
Also on hunger strike are Adib Mafarjah and Fouad Assi, two more Palestinians held under administrative detention without charge or trial. On their 46th day of hunger strike, both are held in Barzilai hospital as they continue to refuse food and demand their freedom.
Organized by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression – Tampa
Come out to support Palestinian leader Rasmea Odeh in Tampa, on the same day as her upcoming court hearing. She is currently under attack by the US government and facing imprisonment and deportation. A former political prisoner and torture survivor, Rasmea is struggling for justice. Learn more about her case at justice4rasmea.org.
As these words were being written, three Palestinian prisonerswere on hunger strike in protest against their imprisonment without trial, a practice cloaked by the anodyne sounding term “administrative detention”. Sami Janazra was on his 69th day and his health has sharply deteriorated, Adeeb Mafarja was on his 38thday, and Fuad Assi was on his 36th. These prisoners are amongstat least 700 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who are currently being held in administrative detention, a practice that Israel routinely uses in violation of the strict parameters set by international law.
Palestinian political prisoners have long used hunger strikes as a form of protest in response to violations of their rights by Israeli authorities. Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association traces the first use of hunger strikes by Palestinian prisoners to as early as 1968. Since then, there have been over 25 mass and group hunger strikes with demands ranging from ending solitary confinement and administrative detention to improving imprisonment conditions and allowing family visits.
As more and more Palestinian prisoners are forced to embark on lengthy hunger strikes as a “last resort” form of protest by inflicting violence on their bodies until they win their rights, it is worth reviewing the use of this political tool across countries and centuries and spotlighting the way in which Palestinian prisoners are using it to counter Israel’s monopoly on violence within the prison walls.
Past and Present Use of Hunger Strikes
While the exact origins of hunger strikes – the voluntary refusal of food and/or fluids – are not well known, there are examples of their use in various historical periods and geographical locations. The earliest uses of hunger strikes aretraced to medieval Ireland where one person would fast on the doorstep of another who had committed an injustice against them, as a way of shaming them. More recent and better-known uses of hunger strikes include those by British suffragettes in 1909, Mahatma Gandhi during the revolt against British rule in India, Cesar Chavez during the struggle for farm workers rights in the United States, and the prisoners incarcerated by the US in Guantanamo Bay.
There is great danger of irreversible physical harm to the body through hunger strikes including loss of hearing, blindness and severe blood loss. 1 Indeed, death has been the outcome of many hunger strikes as in the case of the 1981 Irish Republican prisoners’ strike.
The demands by hunger strikers vary but are, in all cases, a reflection of broader issues and social, political and economic injustices. For example, the 1981 Irish Republican prisoners’ hunger strike demand for the return of Special Category Status reflected the broader context of “the troubles” in Northern Ireland. 2
One of the earliest Palestinian hunger strikes was the seven-day hunger strike in Askalan (Ashkelon) prison in 1970. During this strike the prisoners’ demands were written on a cigarette pack as they were prevented from having notebooks, and included a refusal to address their jailers as “sir”. The prisoners won their demand and never had to use ”sir” again, but only after Abdul-Qader Abu Al-Fahem died after being force-fed, becoming the first martyr of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.
Hunger strikes at Askalan prison continued to be carried out through the 1970s. In addition, two more prisoners, Rasim Halawe and Ali Al-Ja’fari, died after being force-fed during a hunger strike at Nafha prison in 1980. As a result of these and other hunger strikes, Palestinian prisoners were able to secure certain improvements to their prison conditions, including being allowed family pictures, stationery, books and newspapers.
In recent years, ending the practice of administrative detention has been a persistent demand by Palestinian prisoners, given Israel’s escalation of its use since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000. For example, the mass2012 hunger strike, which involved nearly 2,000 prisoners, demanded an end to the use of administrative detention, isolation and other punitive measures including the denial of family visits to Gaza prisoners. The strike ended after Israel agreed to limit the use of administrative detention.
However, Israel soon reneged on the agreement, leading to another mass hunger strike in 2014 by over 100 administrative detainees pushing for an end to this practice. The hunger strike ended 63 days later without having achieved an end to administrative detention. The prisoners’ decision was reportedly influenced by the disappearance of three Israeli West Bank settlers and Israel’s large-scale military operations in the West Bank (which was followed by a massive assault against Gaza).
In addition, there have been several individual hunger strikes sometimes coinciding with or leading to decisions to begin wider hunger strikes. Indeed both the 2012 and 2014 hunger strikes were sparked by individual hunger strikes demanding an end to the use of administrative detention. The individual hunger strikers included Hana Shalabi, Khader Adnan, Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab, all of whom secured an end to their administrative detention. However, some of the individual hunger strikers were re-arrested after their release as in the case of Samer Issawi, Thaer Halahleh, and Tareq Qa’adan, as was Khader Adnan, who was released after a prolonged hunger strike protesting his re-arrest in 2015.
The Violence Israel Inflicts on Palestinian Prisoners
Israel continues to subject Palestinian prisoners to many forms of violence as has been well documented by human and prisoner’s rights organizations, as well as in the writings of prisoners and in a number of documentaries. 3 In a2014 report Addameer notes, “Every Palestinian who was arrested was subjected to some form of physical or psychological torture, cruel treatment including severe beatings, solitary confinement, verbal assault, and threats of sexual violence.”
In addition, and in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome statue, Israel has deported Palestinian detainees outside of the occupied territories and to prisons inside Israel, as well as threatening West Bank prisoners with deportations to the Gaza Strip if they do not confess. It also routinely and arbitrarily denies or restricts family visits. Prisoners are exposed to deliberate medical negligence and abuse, as well as restrictions on phone calls and access to lawyers, books, and television.
Furthermore, the Israeli authorities classify Palestinian political prisoners as “security prisoners” a classification that makes it legally possible to automatically subject them to many restrictions. This characterization denies Palestinian prisoners some of the rights and privileges enjoyed by Jewish prisoners – even those few who are labeled security prisoners – including home visits under guard, the possibility of early release, and the granting of furloughs.
The violence to which Palestinian prisoners are subjected must be seen within the context of Israel’s colonial project and its subjection of the entire population to different forms of violence, including the loss of their land, destruction of their homes, expulsion, and exile. It is worth recalling that since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, Israel has arrested more than 800,000 Palestinians, nearly 20% of the overall population, and 40% of the male population. This fact alone makes clear the extent to which arrests and imprisonment are a mechanism Israel uses to control the population while it dispossesses them, settling Israeli Jews in their place.
It is within this broader understanding of violence that hunger strikes emerge as a way in which Palestinian prisoners are able to counter the Israeli state’s various forms of violence.
Using the Prisoner’s Body to Subvert the State’s Power
Through hunger strikes, prisoners no longer remain silent recipients of the prison authorities’ ongoing violence: Instead, they inflict violence upon their own bodies in order to impose their demands. In other words, hunger strikes are a space outside the reach of the Israeli state’s power. The body of the striking prisoner unsettles one of the most fundamental relationships to violence behind prison walls, the one in which the Israeli state and its prison authorities control every aspect of their lives behind bars and are the sole inflictors of violence. In effect, prisoners reverse the object and subject relationship to violence by fusing both into a single body – the body of the striking prisoner – and in so doing reclaim agency. They assert their status as political prisoners, refuse their reduction to the status of “security prisoner”, and claim their rights and existence.
The fact that the Israeli state uses several measures to put an end to hunger strikes and to re-assert its power over the prisoners and over the use of violence demonstrates the challenge that the bodies of the hunger strikers pose to the Israeli state. Among other measures, the prison authorities continue to subject the striking prisoners to violence and torture. In fact, the violence to which the striking prisoners are subjected intensifies and changes form. For instanceduring the 2014 hunger strike, the striking prisoners were denied medical treatment and family visits and were shackled by their hands and feet to hospital beds 24 hours a day. They remained shackled when allowed to go to the bathroom, and the open bathroom doors denied them any right of privacy. The Israeli authorities also intentionally left food near the hunger strikers to break their will. Ex-hunger striker Ayman Al-Sharawna said, “They’d bring a table of the best food and put it next to my bed… Shin Bet knew I loved sweets. They used to bring all kinds of dessert.”
Israel has recently given legal cover to the force-feeding of hunger striking prisoners through the “Law to Prevent Harm Caused by Hunger Strikers”, which is tantamount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. The law is also in contradiction with the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikes.
Israel also labels the striking prisoners “terrorists” and “criminals” to undermine their assertion of political agency and their efforts to reverse the object and subject of state violence. During the 2014 mass hunger strike, Israeli officials maintained that the hunger strikers were “terrorists.” Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev, one of the sponsors of the recent bill, said, “Prison walls don’t mean an action is not terrorism […] There is terrorism on the streets and this is terrorism in prison.” Gilad Erdan, Israeli Minster of Public Security declared that hunger strikes were a “new type of suicide attacks.”
The Vital Importance of National and International Support
Central to the success of any hunger strike is the ability of the strikers to mobilize communities, organizations and political bodies in their support and to exert pressure on the authorities to concede to the hunger strikers’ demands or negotiate an agreement.
Through hunger strikes, Palestinian prisoners have been able to continuously force their struggles onto the Palestinian and often the international political stage. Given that there are currently no alternatives through which prisoners can secure their freedom or a change in Israeli policies, the importance of mobilizing communities and political bodies around prisoners’ rights cannot be underestimated.
Grassroots, human rights organizations and official bodies both within and outside Palestine have mobilized during hunger strikes by Palestinian prisoners. The support has included daily gatherings, protests outside the offices of international organizations, calls on the Israeli government to heed the prisoners’ demands, and demonstrations outside prisons and hospitals. Local and international organizations including Addameer, Jewish Voice for Peace,Amnesty International, and Samidoun, among others, have highlighted the injustices faced by Palestinian prisoners to add to the pressure on Israeli authorities to concede to the prisoners’ demands and negotiate an agreement with them.
Furthermore, through these networks, the struggle of the Palestinian hunger strikers, and of the prisoners more broadly, is internationalized with parallels drawn to past and present injustices facing peoples worldwide. In reporting and analysis on the Palestinian hunger strikes, references are continuously made to the plight of Irish prisoners during the “troubles,” mass-incarceration in the US and conditions at Guantanamo Bay, among others. In this way the struggle of Palestinian prisoners becomes part of the growing solidarity movements and campaigns demanding justice for the Palestinian people. This helps to counter the Israeli labeling of them as “criminals” and “terrorists” and its monopoly over the discourse.
As with other forms of resistance within and outside prison walls hunger strikes are acts of resistance through which Palestinians assert their political existence and demand their rights. It is vital to sustain and nurture this resistance. In addition to giving strength to and supporting the prisoners in their struggle for rights, this form of resistance continuously and powerfully inspires hope among Palestinians at large and the solidarity movement. It is our responsibility to both support Palestinian prisoners – and to work for a time when Palestinians no longer need to resort to such acts of resistance through which their only recourse is to put their lives on the line.
See Beresford, David, Ten Men Dead London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994. ↩
See, for example, reports and testimonies by the Prisoners’ Center for Studies; Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; Adalah: the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel; Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network; Al-Jazeera’s documentary Hunger Strike; and Mai Masri’s film 3000 Nights; al-Nashif, Esmail. “Attempts at Liberation: Materializing the Body and Building Community Among Palestinian Political Captives”. The Arab Studies Journal 12/13 (2004): 46–79; and Abdo, Nahla. Palestinian Women’s Anti-Colonial Struggle Within the Israeli Prison System. Pluto Press, 2014. ↩
Following the Israeli arrest of over 150 Palestinians for postings on social media alleged to be “incitement,” Palestinian student Kifah Quzmar is currently being detained by the Palestinian Authority for investigation related to Facebook postings about the Palestinian Authority.
Quzmar, a leftist student and active organizer at Bir Zeit University with the Progressive Democratic Student Pole, was detained by Palestinian Authority security forces as he returned home from university on 12 May. His detention was then extended for an additional 15 days for interrogation and investigation regarding social media postings.
Quzmar was previously attacked by PA security forces for protesting against Palestinian Authority officials’ meetings and negotiations with Israeli leaders and officials, and had been summoned on multiple occasions for interrogation by PA intelligence.
The Palestinian Authority security forces engage in “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation forces, sharing intelligence and information with Israeli officials. PA President Mahmoud Abbas has boasted of the effectiveness of security coordination in undermining the intifada, while the Israeli occupation forces have praised PA officials for arresting Palestinians allegedly involved in resistance.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian leftist political party, demanded Quzmar’s “immediate and unconditional release as well as that of all political detainees and prisoners of security coordination in PA jails.” The PFLP further denounced “the policy of the attacks on students by PA security services which have escalated in recent weeks amid campus elections. This method of police repression against Palestinian students not only widens Palestinian internal division but also endangers the lives of students and political detainees in light of the actions of the occupation in arresting former PA detainees in the context of shared intelligence and security coordination.”
Students from various political and student groups, including leftists like Quzmar and members of the Islamic Bloc at Palestinian universities, are among the PA political detainees. Also among their number are five young Palestinians detained by the Palestinian Authority following reports of their torture under interrogation. As Samidoun noted at the time, “the context of these arrests is that of ongoing PA security coordination with the Israeli occupation. These young men are not a threat to Palestinian security; they are well-known, beloved members of their community and trusted strugglers for the freedom of the Palestinian people.”
UPDATED: Facebook friends of Kifah Quzmar have highlighted the post below as the reason for his arrest. The English translation of the text below is “Do you know why the mukhabarat (intelligence service) is a rotten agency? Because the entire PA is rotten. Seif al-Idrissi is under arrest! #Freedom for Seif (hashtag)” Seif al-Idrissi is a friend of Quzmar, also detained by the PA, in the photo with Quzmar below:
Two more Palestinian fishers were attacked and detained off the coast of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, 17 May, Ma’an News reported. Samih and Ibrahim Zayid were attacked by an Israeli gunboat while fishing, ordered off the boat, and detained; their boat was towed to the Ashdod port.
This comes after the detention and boat confiscation of 10 Palestinian fishers on Sunday, 15 May. Two of the fishers, Khamis Baker and Hasan Madi, remained imprisoned while the other eight were released. Two more fishing boats were confiscated on Sunday. Another fishing boat was damaged and submerged by the gunboat’s attack; the damaged boat was later recovered by Palestinian fishers. Dozens of shells were fired at the fishers and their boats; the fishers were ordered to take off their clothes, jump into the water, and swim toward the gunboats.
While Israeli authorities in April expanded the fishing zone designated for Palestinian fishermen to nine nautical miles in the southern Gaza Strip, and retained the six-mile zone in the north, fishermen regularly report detentions, live fire, and boat confiscation within these limits,” reported Ma’an.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Israeli forces detained 71 fishermen and confiscated 22 fishing boats throughout 2015, and opened fire on Palestinian fishermen at least 139 times over the course of the year.
PCHR noted that it “considers that attack as a grave violation of the fishermen’s right to sail and fish freely and to protect their property in the Gaza waters. Moreover, PCHR believes that such attacks against Palestinian fishermen constitute a form of collective punishment against them which aims to target fishermen and their livelihood. Furthermore, PCHR calls upon the international community to provide protection for Palestinian fishermen and their right to sail and fish freely, and to stop all forms of collective punishment against fishermen and their property which violate the international humanitarian law and the international human rights law.”
The Union of Agricultural Work Committees, a Palestinian grassroots organization, works with fishers and farmers in Palestine to defend their land and seas and their right to farm and fish in the face of occupation attacks. Saad al-Deen Ziadah of UAWC said that “Most of these attacks and violations occurred within the allowed fishing area by Israeli navy forces. These arrests are generally carried out under very intense situations – the Israeli navy shooting bullets and shells at the fishermen and their boats. It has been recorded that the Israeli navy targets the outboard engine of the boats, which is the ‘soul of the boat’, as the fishers say.”
Palestinian hunger strikers Adib Mafarjah and Fouad Assi, on their 45th day of hunger strike, are now being held in Barzilai Hospital in the same room, reported Palestinian lawyer Ashraf Abu Sneineh. This is the first time throughout the strike that Mafarjah and Assi, who launched their strike against Israeli administrative detention without charge or trial on 3 April, have been held in the same place.
Mafarjah has been imprisoned without charge or trial since 10 December 2014, while Assi has been imprisoned since 9 August 2015. Both are demanding their freedom and an end to the system of administrative detention in which 750 Palestinians are currently held. Previous prominent hunger strikers, like Mohammed al-Qeeq, Khader Adnan, Muhammad Allan, Nidal Abu Aker and Ghassan Zawahra have also been imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention. The practice violates international law and has been widely internationally condemned, most recently by the United Nations Committee Against Torture.
Abu Sneineh also reported that an Israeli Supreme Court hearing will consider Mafarjah’s appeal on 1 June. Both Assi and Mafarjah are from Beit Liqiya near Ramallah.
