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.
Abdel Jaber Fuqaha, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was attacked and arrested by Israeli occupation forces on Tuesday, 15 May, after a dawn raid by occupation forces on his home. Fuqaha, 49, who has been arrested several times and has spent years in Israeli prison, most frequently under administrative detention without charge or trial, is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council representing the Change and Reform Bloc, allied with Hamas.
After Fuqaha’s release in 2011 after 27 months of administrative detention, he was arrested again in 2012, and then again in June 2013. He was last released in April 2015. He has spent over six years in Israeli prison; he was beaten during his arrest and his home ransacked. He is one of seven members of the Palestinian Legislative Council currently imprisoned in Israeli jails, including prominent Palestinian leaders Ahmad Sa’adat, Marwan Barghouthi, Khalida Jarrar, and Hassan Yousef.
The case of the Holy Land Five – Mohammed el-Mezain, Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker, Abdulrahman Odeh, and Mufid Abdelqader – is one of the most prominent, and most troubling, cases of Palestinian political prisoners imprisoned in US jails. Serving sentences of up to 65 years, the five imprisoned Palestinians were accused of nothing more than fundraising for charity in Palestine.
Prosecuted under the “material support” laws that have been used to criminalize financial and other support for Palestinians under occupation, the HLF5 were accused and convicted – after a hung jury in their first trial – of ” conspiring to give charity to zakat committees that prosecutors argued were fronts for Hamas.” The star witness for the government in the case was an anonymous Israeli intelligence officer allowed to testify under a pseudonym.
On 17-18 May, Al Jazeera Documentary channel will release a new, two-part documentary examining the Holy Land Foundation 5 case. The documentary will be presented in Arabic, with English subtitles.
Part 1 will air on Tuesday, 17 May, at 19:00 GMT and again at 23:00 GMT. (19:00 GMT is 2:00 PM Central US Time, or 9:00 PM Central European Time. Visit http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/ to convert Greenwich Mean Time to your local Time Zone)
Part 2 will air on Wednesday, 18 May at 19:00 GMT and again at 23:00 GMT. (19:00 GMT is 2:00 PM Central US Time, or 9:00 PM Central European Time. Visit http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/ to convert Greenwich Mean Time to your local Time Zone)
Hundreds of Palestinians and supporters of the Palestinian cause marched in New York City on Sunday, 15 May, in commemoration of the 68th anniversary of the Nakba, the expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands by Zionist militias in 1947-48 and the occupation of Palestine, demanding Palestinian refugees’ right to return and the liberation of Palestine. The rally and march was organized by the NY4Palestine coalition, of which Samidoun is a member organization.
Beginning at City Hall Park, participants marched over the Brooklyn Bridge toward a closing rally at Cadman Plaza. Two members of the recent Anti-Prison, Labor and Academic Delegation to Palestine, professor Johanna Fernandez and former US prisoner Laura Whitehorn, spoke about their experiences in Palestine and the struggle against mass imprisonment and racist repression in the United States and in Palestine. Ayman Nijim and Joe Catron spoke together for Samidoun, on the situation of Palestinian prisoners and the ongoing attacks, siege, and collective imprisonment of Palestinians in Gaza as a manifestation of the ongoing Nakba. Ayman shared his story of how Israel is preventing him from returning to see his family in Gaza, making him a refugee twice over.
Maggie Tobin of NYC Free Peltier spoke about the case of imprisoned indigenous struggler Leonard Peltier, alongside the struggles of imprisoned indigenous Palestinians. Speakers included representatives of New York City Students for Justice in Palestine, Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, American Muslims for Palestine, International Action Center, Existence is Resistance, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, Muslim American Society, BAYAN USA and other groups struggling for justice in Palestine and internationally.
Mike from Shut it Down NYC, part of the Black Lives Matter movement, spoke about the struggle against racism, brutality and police repression from NYC to Palestine. Shut it Down organizes #PeoplesMonday, a weekly protest highlighting a victim of police brutality and institutional racism; on Monday, 16 May, marking the Nakba, the #PeoplesMonday protest will highlight the case of Nadim Nuwara, killed by an Israeli Border Police officer as he walked down the street.
Marchers chanted for justice and liberation for Palestine, including chants like “We don’t want two states – we want 48!” “Settler, settler go back home, Palestine is ours alone!” and “New York City, you will learn, the refugees will return!” as they proceeded over the Brooklyn Bridge.
The New York City protest joins events around the world commemorating the Nakba and demanding Palestinian refugees’ right to return, including actions and events in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago, Boston, Tampa, Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, Marseille, Malmo, Milan, Turin, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Oslo, Tunis, Johannesburg and countless other cities.
Nerdeen Kiswani of New York City Students for Justice in Palestine wrote that “the rally was full of Palestinian youth, which gave me an intense feeling of hope and optimism, that the next generation does not forget their history, their roots, and the right of return. They cheered loudly whenever someone proclaimed that refugees languishing in camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, don’t want to just go to the West Bank and Gaza, they’re entitled to go back to the homes they were expelled from. Back to Yaffa, back to Haifa, back to Akka. Although so many here today were people born and raised in Brooklyn, because their grandparents were displaced from Palestine, they know where their roots lie and that the right of return is not just symbolic but a key aspect of the Palestinian struggle.”
Video:
Samidoun will gather this Friday, 20 May at 4 PM outside the offices of G4S, the private security corporation that provides security services, equipment and control rooms to Israeli prisons, checkpoints and even the Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing where the siege of Gaza is imposed, at 19 W. 44th Street in Manhattan for the weekly protest against G4S and for freedom for Palestinian prisoners.
Mohammed Khatib, Palestinian youth organizer in Europe and Samidoun Europe coordinator, spoke on the Voice of Palestine online radio program with co-host Hanna Kawas on Saturday, 14 May, commemorating the 68th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.
Voice of Palestine has been broadcast both over the air and online for 29 years, from Vancouver, Canada. This week, Khatib spoke with Kawas about Palestinian youth organizing in Europe, his experience growing up as a Palestinian refugee in Ain el-Helweh camp in Lebanon, and the meaning of the Nakba and the struggle for the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
Listen online:
Selected quotes from Khatib’s interview (transcribed by Kristian Davis Bailey of Black4Palestine)
“I would like to mention that more than 80 percent of the population in Gaza are refugees– they are Palestinian refugees. In the West Bank 30 percent are refugees. The youth who are starting the intifada they are from Aida camp, Dheisheh camp, Jalazone camp.
The people who led the First and the Second Intifada in Gaza they are from Jabalia–they are from the camps. This class, this Palestinian class–the refugees–are the main one suffering from the occupation and they are the main ones ready to pay all that they have because have nothing to lose in confronting this occupation.”
“As a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, who has to travel with a refugee document from the UN, I have nothing to do with this authority [the PA]. I say this as a Palestinian refugee from the outside that this authority doesn’t represent me. So they also don’t represent more than 7 million Palestinians who live in the diaspora. So who are they representing? And if they are not struggling for right of return, that means they are not representing 80 percent of the Palestinian refugees in Gaza. So who are they representing? So in reality, this authority has no authority at all.”
“The refugees should take a role from outside and this is what will make a change. We can not look for a real future and real change for Palestine without seeing the role of the Palestinian refugees from outside who are bringing the struggle from outside against our enemy. Because to be realistic, our enemy is not just in inside Israeli. We don’t see out enemy as the Jewish people who live in Tel Aviv and Haifa and the cities–our enemy is the system. I think you in the US and Canada know very well what kind of system settler colonialism is. You know the history of the indigenous people of Canada and the US. we are saying the same political reality of this regime, so our struggle should also be from the outside.”
“What you can do for us is to struggle for your rights in your country and to change your system because your system is affecting us. So any change in the US, any change in Canada – this is a change for Palestine. If the indigenous people in Canada will get their rights, this means we, the indigenous people of Palestine will be victorious. If the Black community in the US will get their rights and will lead the struggle for change in the US, this means we will be victorious.”
Adib Mafarjah and Fouad Assi have now been on hunger strike for 44 days against their imprisonment without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention. Both are held in isolation in very difficult conditions, demanding their release from detention; their strikes began on 3 April 2016. Mafarjah was moved today from isolation in Eshel prison to Soroka hospital after a deterioration in his health. He has lost 30 kilograms (over 60 pounds) since he began his strike.
Mafarjah and Assi are joined by Mansour Moqtada, seriously injured and permanently held in the Ramle prison clinic, has been on a partial (liquids only) hunger strike for 36 days in protest of medical neglect, as has Muhannad al-Azzeh, who has undertaken a 26-day hunger strike for medical care. Daoud Habboub has joined Mafarjah and Assi on hunger strike for 11 days in protest of his administrative detention without charge or trial, while Mahmoud Issa and Osama Rojbi are on hunger strike against their solitary confinement.
Former prisoner Muhammad Allan, a Palestinian lawyer whose hunger strike won his release from administrative detention, sent a message to the striking prisoners, saying that they are not alone in their battle and that the Palestinian people are with them and will not remain silent, speaking on Saturday, 14 May at a rally in Ramallah in support of the striking prisoners.
Ayat Mafarjah, Adib’s wife, spoke with Asra Media Center about her husband’s strike, saying that 11 years ago he was a student at Bir Zeit University’s faculty of law, but has been unable to complete his studies due to repeated arrests. He has been imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 10 December 2014, his detention repeatedly renewed.
Ayat Mafarjah called for broad support for her husband’s case, calling “on humanity, on every free person who believes in justice, to carry the message of Adib Mafarjah, Fuad Assi and other striing prisoners to international institutions, and pressure the occupation to recognize their minimum rights that have been stolen from them without justification and without charge, through administrative detention, rejected under international law.”
“His health gets worse daily, he vomited blood and could not drink water and his weight has dropped significantly, he always feels sick, and on top of all of that, the occupation imprisons him in a cell full of insects, without bath water, with a foul smell,” she said.
She said that they had organized sit-ins for her husband in front of their home and held seven vigils in Ramallah, but the amount of attention to his case and that of his fellow prisoners does not equal the pain they are currently suffering. “He does not represent himself only, but is demanding the rights of all Palestinians,” Ayat said.
Meanwhile, Sami Janazrah, whose 69-day hunger strike was suspended on 11 May during a new investigation or interrogation following an Israeli Supreme Court hearing, was moved from Soroka hospital to the Negev desert prison. Janazrah continues to consume only liquids and may resume his hunger strike in the coming days if his administrative detention without charge or trial continues.
Conditions at the Negev prison are alarming Palestinian prisoner advocates amid a rising heat wave throughout Palestine. Many Palestinian prisoners are held in tents in the desert prison camp. Riyad al-Ashqar of the Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies said he feared prisoners would suffer heat stroke or blackouts due to the high temperature. He also noted the danger of reptiles and scorpions in the tents in the high temperatures.
Palestinian journalist Sami al-Saee, an editor at Al-Fajer TV, was sentenced to 9 months in prison by an Israeli military court on Monday, 16 May, for alleged “incitement” by facebook postings. Al-Saee has been imprisoned since 9 March 2016 when his Tulkarem home was violently raided at 3:00 am while his mobile phone and computer were confiscated.
Ghaith Ghaith
His detention was repeatedly extended without charge until the imposition of the Facebook “incitement” charges; he is sentenced to 9 months imprisonment and a 12-month suspended sentence for three years. Ghaith Ghaith of Jerusalem was also sentenced today to six months imprisonment over charges of Facebook “incitement.”
Over 150 Palestinians have been arrested and accused of “Facebook incitement” or sent to administrative detention over social media posts
including 22-year-old Palestinian beautician Majd Atwan and poet Dareen Tatour of Nazareth, who is facing imprisonment for posting her poetry on Facebook and Youtube. Palestinian professor Imad Barghouthi, held under administrative detention without charge or trial, is allegedly being imprisoned largely due to allegations over Facebook postings, claim the Israeli military.
Samah Dweik, another Palestinian journalist accused of “incitement” for Facebook postings, was to face a military court also on Monday, 16 May, but the hearing in her case was postponed until at least 1 June. Dweik has been jailed since 10 April since an early-morning raid on her home in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood of Silwan.
The Israeli occupation has issued a home demolition order against the Issawi family, including imprisoned family members Shireen, Medhat and Samer Issawi, and their home in Issawiya village northeast of Jerusalem.
The order, which alleges that the home was constructed without an Israeli building permit, states that the home, which has stood since the 1970s, will be demolished. Leyla Issawi, 65, the mother of Shireen, Medhat, Samer and their siblings, said that this comes as an attack against her imprisoned children and the will and steadfastness of their family.
Construction permits are routinely denied to Jerusalemite Palestinians and their homes targeted for demolition. Fewer than 4,500 construction permits have been issued for Palestinians since 1967; over 48,000 Palestinian homes and buildings have been demolished by the Israeli occupation army in that time period.
Shireen and Medhat Issawi are serving 4 and 8 year sentences, respectively, for their work in helping families to support and gain representation for their imprisoned loved ones; Samer Issawi‘s original 26-year sentence was reimposed after his 2014 re-arrest. He had previously been freed after a lengthy hunger strike.
What: Sneak preview of short documentary on Dr. Hassan Diab Date:Friday May 20, 2016 Time:7:00 pm (Doors open at 6.45 pm) Place: First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, 30 Cleary Avenue (off Richmond Road, one traffic light East of Woodroffe Avenue)
Please come out, watch the short documentary, and hear the latest updates from Hassan’s lawyer, Don Bayne. There will be plenty of time for Q&A.
Guest Speaker: Don Bayne (Hassan’s lawyer)
Hear Baraa Arar present some of her own powerful poems.
Hassan’s wife, Rania, and their two children will be happy to meet you!
There will be refreshments and plenty of yummy finger foods.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“We now have the classic recipe for the wrongful conviction of a Canadian citizen.” (Statement by Hassan’s lawyer, Don Bayne, on Hassan’s extradition)
Hassan Diab is the Carleton University professor who was extradited to France on November 14, 2014, in connection with the 1980 Rue Copernic bombing. Hassan has been in prison near Paris for over 17 months.
As many of you know, the Canadian extradition judge described the evidence that the French authorities submitted as “very problematic” and “suspect”.
In an unprecedented move, the Canadian judge stated that “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely”.
However the judge said that he felt obliged under Canada’s extradition law to commit Hassan to extradition. * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Some links of interest:
Join the Stop G4S campaign at the G4S AGM to protest the company’s role in human rights abuses in the UK and across the world.
Join us to Stop G4S and demand that the government stops giving the company control over our public services.
Bring banners, flags and drums and bring yourself and your friends.
–BACKGROUND–
– G4S is facing mounting pressure over abuses in child detention centres it runs for the UK government
– G4S operates 3 immigration detention centres and provides health services to Yarl’s Wood detention centre. Numerous complaints have been made about the health services G4S provides.
– G4S is under investigation for fraud in the electronic tagging systems G4S houses asylum seekers in unsanitary slum conditions and stigmatises residents by marking the doors with red paint.
– G4S helps Israel run prisons where Palestinian political prisoners, including children, are illegally held, often without trial and subject to torture. It also provides equipment and services to Israeli checkpoints, police training centres and military bases
– G4S has been accused ofabuses in detention centres and prisons it runs in the US, South Africa and the Manus Island Detention Center in Papua New Guinea
– G4S has a track record of inadequate screening and training processes for their staff. The same restraints that killed Gareth Myatt and Jimmy Mubenga are still being used in secure training centres run by G4S.
UNICEF, UNHCR and the University of Helsinki are some of the latest organisations to cut their ties with G4S following campaigns over the role of G4S in human rights abuses.
G4S has reacted to growing anger by saying it wants to sell off its Israeli subsidiary and childrens’ services in the UK and its youth prisons in the US.
But we know that G4S has a track record of saying one thing and then doing another and we know that even if these sales go ahead, G4S will remain involved in some of the world’s worst human rights abuses.
