Sunday, 8 May 6:00 pm OKAZ, Gusshausstrasse 14/3 Vienna, Austria
Handala – Palestinian Cultural Forum and OKAZ present a screening of “Tell Your Tale, Little Bird,” a film by Lebanese director Arab Lotfi, which recounts the experiences of Palestinian women in the national liberation struggle, including the experience of arrest and imprisonment. Following the film will be a discussion of the role of Palestinian women in the revolution historically and at present.
Sonntag 8 Mai 2016, 18:00 Uhr im OKAZ, Gußhausstraße 14/3, 1040 Wien
Die Dokumentation zeigt das Leben von fünf palästinensischen Widerstandskämpferinnen der ersten Stunde.
Inspiriert von Jamila Bouhreid, der Widerstandskämpferin im algerischen Unabhängigkeitskrieg, deren brutale Folterung durch die französische Besatzung seinerzeit Wellen geschlagen hatte und zum Skandal geworden war, der zur Beschleunigung des französischen Abzugs beitrug, schlossen sich die jungen Palästinenserinnen der Widerstandsbewegung an. In der Dokumentation der libanesischen Regisseurin Arab Lotfi erzählen Leila Khaled, Rasmiyya Oudeh, Teresa Halasa, Raschida Obeid und Aisha Oudeh über ihre persönliche Geschichte und die Beweggründen, die sie zur politische Aktivität brachten.
سيقوم نادي حنظلة الثقافي وبالتعاون مع مركز عكاظ بعرض الفيلم الوثائقي ( أحكي ياعصفورة) وسيعرض الفيلم يوم الأحد الساعة السادسة مساءاً في مركز عكاظ الواقع في الحي الرابع Gusshausstraße 14/3 بالقرب من ال Karlsplatz . الفيلم للمخرجة اللبنانية عرب لطفي ، ويتناول الفيلم قصص وتجربة بعض المناضلات الفلسطينيات في فترة السبيعنيات والحديث عن تلك المرحلة ودور المرأة الفلسطينية بالثورة والقضية الفلسطينية بشكل عام .
بعد العرض سيتاح المجال للضيوف الكرام بمناقشة ماقدمه الفيلم ، والحديث عن تلك المرحلة ودور المرأة الفلسطينية في تلك الحقبة وإلى الوقت الراهن .
الدعوة مفتوحة ونتشرف بحضوركم الكريم ..
New Yorkers protested on Friday, 6 May outside the offices of G4S, the British-Danish security corporation and the world’s second-largest private employer, demanding it get out of the business of profiting from occupation and apartheid; they highlighted the case of Palestinian prisoner Sami Janazrah, on hunger strike for 65 days against his imprisonment without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention.
Janazrah refused water in protest of being shackled to his hospital bed and denied access to the bathroom by Israeli prison guards in Etzion hospital, where he has been held for the past week after nearly two months of solitary confinement in several prisons since he began his hunger strike on 3 March. Imprisoned since 15 November 2015, Janazrah’s detention without charge or trial was renewed on 13 March for an additional four months; administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable. He is facing an Israeli court hearing on his case on 16 May; he is demanding his immediate release. At 65 days of refusing food and consuming only water, he is at extreme risk to his health and experiences pain and fainting spells, along with significant weight loss. Janazrah, 43, is a Palestinian refugee from Iraq al-Manshiyya born and living in al-Fuwwar refugee camp near al-Khalil in the occupied West Bank of Palestine; he is married, with three children, and was a youth activist with Fateh, having served five years in Israeli prison in the past.
He is not the only hunger striker in Israeli prisons – fellow administrative detainees Fouad Assi and Adib Mafarjah have been on hunger strike since 4 April, also demanding their release from imprisonment without charge or trial. Mohammed Qawasmeh has been on a hunger strike for 15 days against his isolation in Ashkelon prison, and Osama Rajbi has been on hunger strike for 27 days against his solitary confinement. Said Mujahid, 20, has now been on hunger strike for one week in protest of his solitary confinement and his torture under interrogation, where his left leg was broken.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organizes weekly protests in New York City outside the offices of G4S, a major security corporation that provides security systems, equipment and control rooms to Israeli prisons, checkpoints, police training centers and even the Erez/Beit Hanoun crossing with Gaza, where the Israeli occupation implements its siege. G4S is subject to a global boycott campaign due to its profiting from the occupation and oppression of Palestinians, as well as its involvement in youth incarceration and migrant detention and deportation in the US, UK and Australia. In March 2016, G4S pledged to exit “reputationally damaging” businesses and sell off its Israeli subsidiary; however, Palestinian organizers have emphasized the importance of continued boycott and pressure of G4S so long as Palestinian prisoners continue to suffer in G4S-equipped prisons and interrogation centers.
Samidoun’s next weekly protest, on Friday, 13 May, will also call for the release of Janazrah and his fellow imprisoned hunger strikers, and all Palestinian prisoners. Protesters will gather at 4:00 pm at 19 W. 44th Street, outside G4S’ Manhattan office. Samidoun activists will also join the Nakba Day March for Resistance and Return on Sunday, 15 May, at 1:30 pm at City Hall Park, marching over the Brooklyn Bridge to Cadman Plaza, in a mass protest remembering the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, and supporting Palestinians’ right to resist; Palestinian refugees’ right to return; and the liberation of Palestine.
On Friday, Palestinian political prisoner Sami Janazrah will reach the 72nd day of a hunger strike to protest his “administrative detention,” military internment by Israeli occupation forces without charge or trial.
Janazrah, age 43, is a father of three from from al-Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron and one of 700 “administrative detainees” out of 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel.
G4S, the world’s largest security company and second-biggest private employer, equips Israeli prisons and detention centers where Palestinian political prisoners are held and tortured, as well as the occupation forces and infrastructure that routinely massacre Palestinians while holding millions under military rule.
Demand G4S immediately end its contracts with Israeli prisons and detention centers, occupation and security forces and checkpoints, and that Israel release administrative detainees and all Palestinian political prisoners.
Support the Palestinian people, the Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian Resistance, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
The participants discussed their organizations’ efforts, and heard from Francis and Quzmar about international campaign work that is particularly helpful to their organizations’ work in Palestine. In particular, discussions focused on how best to work together to support Palestinian prisoners and support each other’s efforts.
In New York, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network holds weekly protests on Fridays outside the offices of G4S, at 19 W. 44th St, in New York City at 4:00 pm. The next weekly protest will take place on Friday, 6 May, focusing on the ongoing 65-day hunger strike of Sami Janazrah against his administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. G4S, the British-Danish security corporation, provides control rooms, equipment and security systems to Israeli prisons, checkpoints and police training centers. It is the subject of a global boycott call for its involvement in the occupation of Palestine – including a call from Palestinian prisoners – as well as international campaigns due to its involvement in the imprisonment of children and of migrants in the US, UK and elsewhere.
While G4S has stated that it plans to exit these “reputationally damaging” businesses, including selling off its Israeli subsidiary, Palestinian organizers have emphasized the importance of continuing the boycott campaign against G4S because its current practices continue to oppress Palestinians on a daily basis, and remains a critical area for joint struggle with Black, migrant justice and anti-prison movements.
The meeting with Francis and Quzmar was followed by an evening event, “In Our Own Words,” hosted by the NY4Palestine coalition, of which Samidoun is a member. As the New York stop of the North America Nakba Tour, the event featured presentations by Palestinian refugees Mariam Fathalla (Umm Akram) and Amena al-Ashkar.
Fathalla, 86, a survivor of the Nakba 68 years ago who has remained a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon since that time, told her own story of Palestinian dispossession and struggle to return; Al-Ashkar, the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Nakba survivors who has lived her entire life as a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, shared her own experience as well as providing political background and context. The powerful event filled a hall at NYU and energized the room to struggle for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
On the 68th anniversary of the occupation of Palestine, and as the Palestinian people enter the 68th year of dispossession and exile, we call on all Palestinians, friends of Palestine and supporters of justice and liberation to come together to march and rally, commemorate the Nakba, stand against the continuing Nakba, and call for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and freedom for Palestine.
68 years after the Nakba – the war of 1948 in which over 800,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and land and the state of Israel created on that land – Palestinians continue to struggle for their right to return, for freedom from occupation, for justice, and against the Nakba that continues today.
After a rally at City Hall, we will march over the Brooklyn Bridge for an afternoon of Palestine-focused and family-friendly activities at Cadman Plaza Park.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Brussels participated in several events which took place as part of a visit to the city by Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director of Defence for Children International Palestine. Abu Eqtaish highlighted the struggles of Palestinian children threatened daily with imprisonment, torture and ill-treatment at a series of events in Brussels and the surrounding area following the release of DCI’s new report, “No Way to Treat a Child.”
On 26 April, Abu Eqtaish joined Maren Mantovani of Stop the Wall for an event organized by Intal, highlighting Palestinian campaigns for international accountability and calls for solidarity and action. Abu Eqtaish discussed the situation faced by Palestinian children, including the large-scale escalation in arrests since October 2015. He noted that approximately 700 children are prosecuted each year in the military courts, although this number is escalating dramatically – and that even children who are detained and released are significantly traumatized by violent arrest raids, physical and psychological abuse and torture.
On 27 April, Abu Eqtaish participated in a roundtable discussion at the European Parliament in Brussels chaired by Ivo Vajgl, Member of European Parliament for Slovenia and member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).
Speakers included Alexis Deswaef, lawyer and President of the League for Human Rights in Belgium, as well as Rawda Odeh, a former Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails and the mother of prisoners. Deswaef recalled a legal delegation to Palestine in which he participated, which included observing an Israeli military trial. He noted the lack of resemblance to any standards of a fair trial and the conviction of over 99% of Palestinians who appear before Israeli military courts.
Odeh recalled her own experience of arrest and imprisonment; born in the month and year of the Nakba in May 1948, she recalled her involvement in the early years of Palestinian struggle. “After 1967, I was one who joined all of the Palestinian people in refusing the occupation. We will never accept it with flowers. We greeted it with resistance.” A student at Bir Zeit University, she served 4 years in prison; her father died immediately following her court hearing and she was not informed until months later. She recalled her later arrests, including one during the first intifada, when her home was invaded in front of her children, and the pain of separation from her children, noting that of the nearly 70 Palestinian women imprisoned today, many are also mothers.
Abu Eqtaish highlighted the inequality and discrimination central to the Israeli military legal system, referring to the military commander of the West Bank, who can issue administrative detention and other military orders, as “dictator of the area” in the West Bank. He noted Israeli violation of the rights of children, and highlighted that since October 2015, resumption of administrative detention for children has escalated dramatically. He also noted the role of pretrial detention in the trials of Palestinian children; in the past 10 years, 87% of Palestinian children have been imprisoned prior to and throughout their trials. Further, he highlighted the role of solitary confinement in inducing forced and false confessions, recalling the cases of children who had been held for weeks at a time in solitary confinement.
The event also featured a screening of the short informational film, “700,” by Palestina Solidaritaet, a Belgian organization. The film highlights the impact of Israeli military raids, courts and imprisonment on Palestinian children:
The hearing at the European Parliament was followed by a community forum hosted by the Plate-forme Charleroi Palestine in Charleroi, Belgium. Samidoun’s Charlotte Kates joined Abu Eqtaish at the event, discussing the role of Israeli military courts and the imprisonment of Palestinians within the context of colonialism and Zionism. She recalled the origins of administrative detention in the British colonial mandate over Palestine and its re-imposition by the Israeli state. She emphasized the need for collective action, and in particular boycott, divestment and sanctions, to support freedom for Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian people, and highlighted the global boycott of G4S, the security corporation that provides control rooms, equipment and security systems to Israeli prisons, checkpoints and police training centers. G4S has announced it plans to sell of its Israeli business after years of ongoing campaigns.
Abu Eqtaish again highlighted the suffering of Palestinian children, noting the long-term effects of trauma and imprisonment on Palestinian minors. He again focused on the role of solitary confinement in inducing confessions from imprisoned Palestinian children as part of a regime of torture and ill-treatment that includes physical beatings, threats and insults, and isolation, referring to 150 affidavits collected by DCI staff from Palestinian children. He recalled that at least 66 children had been held in solitary confinement between 2012-2015, for an average of 13 days – most in order to force confessions under duress. The event also highlighted Plate-forme Charleroi Palestine’s “Je boycotte Israel” (I boycott Israel) campaign, gathering 1,000 photos of people in Belgium expressing support for BDS to counter attempts to criminalize the campaign.
Events continued the following evening, 28 April, at the Presence et Action Culturelles center in Brussels, currently hosting an exhibition by two Palestinian artists, Mahmoud Alkurd and Iyad Sabbah, both from Gaza. PAC is a longtime partner of the Palestinian Circus School, whose performer and trainer Mohammed Abu Sakha, 24, is currently held in Israeli administrative detention without charge or trial. The event was moderated by Belgian journalist Dominique Rombaut, director of “Une cirque en terre ceinte,” a film about the Palestinian Circus School and its cultural work under occupation.
Abu Eqtaish of DCI and Kates of Samidoun were joined on the panel by Eric David, professor emeritus of international law at the Free University of Brussels and a contributor to the Russell Tribunal on Palestine and Gwenaelle Grovonius, a member of the Federal Parliament of Belgium representing the Socialist Party. She has proposed a resolution in the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Parliament on administrative detention, urging the Belgian government to act strongly to condemn the ongoing use of administrative detention.
Following presentations on the legal framework of administrative detention and why it violates international law, the specific impact on children, and highlights of specific cases including that of Abu Sakha, a spirited discussion was held in which participants urged Belgian officials, including the Socialist Party and supportive parliamentarians, to do more to advocate for justice for Palestinians, in particular for Belgian parties and not solely individuals to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
Samidoun members also participated in the Odessa Commemoration prior to the May Day rally, commemorating the deaths of the victims of the right-wing attack on the Trade Unions House in Odessa, Ukraine on 2 May 2014.
During the Immigrant Worker Justice Tour following the rally, among a number of sites where participants stopped and chanted included Bank of America, a client of G4S, the massive security corporation that provides security systems, equipment and control rooms to Israeli prisons, checkpoints and police training centers; as well as Aroma Espresso Bar, the largest Israeli coffee shop chain and the subject of an international boycott campaign. Bank of America also invests in Corrections Corp of America and GEO Group, America’s largest for profit prison corporations.
Other stops on the Justice Tour included Wendy’s, which is the subject of a boycott campaign supporting the Coalition of Immokalee Workers Fair Food program fighting abuse of workers in US agriculture; Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and City Winery, whose baguettes are supplied by Amy’s Bread Factory, where many workers struggle to survive on meager wages and work two or three jobs.
Palestinian and solidarity activists participated in May Day events around the world, including in Berlin, Hamburg and Paris, where slogans calling for freedom for Palestinian prisoners and the freedom of imprisoned Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, were raised.
In Palestine, Palestinian labor organizations marched in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine against siege and for the rights of workers, and workers’ role in the Palestinian liberation movement.
Photos by Joe Catron, Michael Letwin, Afif el-Ali, Somaya Badawi
The following message was released from imprisoned Palestinian journalist Omar Nazzal on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day. Nazzal, member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, was arrested by Israeli occupation forces at the border crossing with Jordan as he attempted to travel to Sarajevo to attend the General Meeting of the European Federation of Journalists. Nazzal was ordered to four months’ administrative detention – Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial – on 2 May; he is one of 18 imprisoned Palestinian journalists:
Greetings and congratulations to you on your freedom.
On this day, I would like to greet you, my colleagues and fellow journalists in Palestine and all free journalists around the world, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, which has been marked by the United Nations for a quarter of a century. The UN Security Council in its Resolution 2222 last year reaffirmed and called upon all countries to respect and preserve freedom of opinion and expression and provide protection for journalists.
The occupation state today is considered one of the most serious violators of international resolutions and conventions, including Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this context, I was arrested because of the expression of my views and positions, my work as a journalist and my defense of the human rights of journalists, and rejecting the ongoing attacks and violations by the occupation of the freedom of journalists, freedom of movement, and the right of movement for journalists. This includes my support for the efforts undertaken by the Journalists’ Syndicate to provide information on these issues in order to hold the leaders of the occupation accountable for these crimes to international courts of justice.
My arrest is a qualitative attack not only on the freedom of journalistic work, but also the freedom of labor and trade union organization. It is in this sense an attack on the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate and its leaders, including the president Nasser Abu Bakr and all membes of the Secretariat and Administrative Council of the union, an attack on the Democratic Journalists’ Assembly and my colleagues in the governing body of journalists.
This aggression is an additional escalation of the attacks which have impacted hundreds of journalists, including over 17 fellow journalists who are now in Israeli jails as witnesses to repression and tyranny.
I am following with pride and gratitude all movements of struggle and steps you have taken for our victory. Thank you for all of the supporters of journalists, including the Ministry of Information and all Palestinian, Arab, international, trade unions and associations of journalists, and human rights institutions. I urge you to continue your work in this direction and defend our rights against the occupation.
I pledge today on behalf of the imprisoned journalists, that our pens remain writing, our voices remain high, and our camera lenses remain open to document the crimes of the occupation and transmit them to the world, and of course pledge to you and my colleagues, that we will always uphold that our voice is higher than the whips of the occupation.
All support for your efforts and their growth. Long live the third of May.
Your colleague, Omar Nazzal
Member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate
Secretary of the Democratic Assembly of Journalists
Ofer Prison, 3 May 2016
The following letter was sent by three European associations, the Association of Academics for the Respect of International Law in Palestine (AURDIP), the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP), and the Belgian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI) to the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, urging action to release imprisoned Palestinian astrophysicist Imad Barghouthi, held under Israeli administrative detention without charge or trial. Original letter at AURDIP:
Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation European Commission Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200 1049 Brussels, Belgium
Dear Sir,
On 6 December 2014 Israeli occupation forces detained Imad Barghouthi, Professor of Theoretical Space Plasma Physics at Al-Quds University, as he sought to cross into Jordan to attend a meeting of the Arab Association of Astronomy and Space Sciences in the United Arab Emirates. In common with many other Palestinians, the Israelis held Professor Barghouthi without charge and hence with no means of obtaining justice. Fortunately for him, the Association of Academics for the Respect of International Law in Palestine (AURDIP), the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) and other human rights organisations alerted the international scientific community, which raised its voice loudly enough to persuade the Israelis to release him [1]. Forty-seven days after his arrest he was permitted to return to his family and resume his academic work.
However, on Sunday 24 April this year Israeli occupation forces again arrested Professor Barghouthi, and on Monday 2 May, without charge or trial, he was sentenced to three months’ detention. This sentence, imposed under the emergency regulations introduced during the British Mandate, may be renewed indefinitely. According to Amnesty International and other human rights organisations, individuals held on this basis by the Israeli military authorities are frequently subject to violations of their fundamental rights, through torture and ill treatment during their interrogation and cruel and degrading treatment while in detention. But in any event, Israel’s use of these emergency regulations is contrary to its obligations as the occupying power since under international law individuals suspected of a criminal offence must, among other things, be informed of the reason for their arrest, charged with a specific offence and given a fair trial as quickly as possible.
We have begun to alert the international scientific community of Israel’s renewed detention of Professor Barghouthi. But we call upon you, Sir, to demonstrate your commitment to justice by insisting upon Israel’s obligations under its Association Agreement with the European Union and to use the means at your disposal to see that Israel respects these obligations.
As we wrote to you on 10 January 2015, Israel has access to the European Union’s research and innovation programmes on the same basis as member states of the European Union and has taken full advantage of this privilege. Access to these programmes is subject to certain very precise conditions concerning respect for fundamental rights. Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement stipulates that “relations between the parties must be based upon respect for human rights and democratic principles, guiding their domestic and international policies, and constitute an essential element of this Agreement.”
Israel’s latest arbitrary arrest of Professor Barghouthi is a serious violation of both the spirit and the letter of the Agreement. We therefore call upon you to use the authority of your office to see that Israel immediately releases Professor Barghouthi. We call for this as European citizens, or in some cases as academics with strong connections to Europe, who are concerned for the political and human values on which the European Union is founded. But we also do so as scholars who will do everything in our power to denounce and block EU-Israel agreements, if Israel continues to flout international law and the right of Palestinians to education.
Yours sincerely
Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, President, British Committee for Universities of Palestine (BRICUP)
Professor Ivar Ekeland, President, Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP)
Professor Herman De Ley, Steering Committee, Belgian Campaign for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI)
Cc. Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Sami Janazrah, 43, has now been on hunger strike for 62 days in protest of his administrative detention without charge or trial. He is now held in Soroka hospital, where he was attacked by soldiers on Sunday after he protested the shackling of his hands and feet in bed.
He complained to medical staff regarding the attack on him by guards. He is refusing to consume vitamins or nutrients; the hospital’s “ethics committee” will convene for the first time today to discuss Janazrah’s case after he was returned to the hospital from solitary confinement.
He has lost 25 kg in weight (approximately 52 pounds), and reported to his lawyer from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society that he has been visited by a number of representatives of the Israeli intelligence service (Shin Bet) in the past few days.
He has been detained under administrative detention without charge or trial since 15 November 2015; his detention has been renewed once. A Palestinian refugee from Iraq al-Manshiyya living in al-Fuwwar camp near al-Khalil, Janazrah is a married father of three and a previous prisoner in Israeli jails, arrested five times.
Fouad Assi and Adib Mafarjah have also been on hunger strike for 31 days in protest of their own detention without charge or trial. Assi, 30, and Mafarjah, 29, both from Beit Liqya near Ramallah, were transferred on Tuesday from isolation in Ella prison to Megiddo and Gilboa solitary confinement, respectively, reported the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
The PPS said that the transfer of prisoners during hunger strikes is a deliberate tactic of the Israeli prison administration in an attempt to pressure strikers to end their strikes.
Mansour Moqtada, who has been engaged in a partial open hunger strike for 23 days in a demand for improved health treatment and freedom for sick and severely ill prisoners, is facing a worsened health condition, his lawyer Fadi Obeidat said on Tuesday. Moqtada, who is consuming only liquids and is refusing medicine, uses a wheelchair after being severely injured during his arrest in 2002; he has an artificial stomach and uses catheter and colostomy bags. Moqtada, serving a 30-year sentence, is imprisoned permanently at the Ramle prison clinic.
