April 2016 Report: 567 Palestinians arrested by Israeli occupation, including 123 children

3 May 2016

In a report by Palestinian prisoners’ institutions, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and the Prisoners Affairs’ Commission, the organizations released the relevant statistics and overall report on Palestinian prisoners in April 2016. The following figures were compiled and released by these three organizations.

567 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli occupation forces during April 2016, bringing the number of those arrested since the beginning of the popular uprising in October 2015 to 5334 Palestinians. The highest number of arrests were in Jerusalem, where 213 were arrested including 60 minors; al-Khalil, where 120 were arrested; followed by 43 in Ramallah, 40 in Nablus, 38 in Bethlehem, 35 in Qalqilya, 23 in Jenin, 12 in Tulkarem, 9 in Tubas, five in Salfit and four in Jericho; in the Gaza Strip, 25 were arrested, including 20 fishers who were subjected to firing and attacks in the sea, two who passed Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing, and three near the “border” of Gaza.

Among the arrestees were 123 children and 24 women and girls (including 3 minor girls). 69 Palestinian women and girls are imprisoned in Israeli jails, including 15 minor girls; the total number of children in Israeli jails remains over 400. There are over 750 Palestinians held in administrative detention and 700 sick and ill prisoners. 133 administrative detention orders were issued in April, including 97 renewals of ongoing administrative detention orders.

Invasions and Inspection Policy in Prisons

The Israel Prison Service used special units in raid and search operations launched by the prison administration on a regular basis as a means of collective punishment by the Israel Prison Service from arrest until release. The prison administration fabricates pretexts to launch these attacks, in which prisoners are subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment.

These special units suddenly invade or launch inspections, so as to prevent prisoners from preparing themselves or taking precautionary measures, usually in the early morning hours and sometimes in the hours after midnight; sometimes these fall in the middle of the day, including during prayer times or during iftar in Ramadan. The aim of these raids is to harass and abuse detainees; these special units use provocative actions against prisoners, including dragging prisoners from the rooms, yelling in their faces, verbally abusing them, and confiscating personal documents and family photos, creating provocations which are then used to justify attacks on prisoners.

In the month of April, the incident of the storming of section 14 in Nafha prison went beyond a typical invasion/inspection process with beating of prisoners. This incident occurred after guards refused to allow Akram Siyam and Muharreb Da’is to use the bathroom, which led to an altercation between the guards and the prisoners, during which armed units broke into the section, beat prisoners, sprayed pepper spray and tear gas, removed prisoners from the section, then returned Da’is to the section and invaded again to take him back. Prisoners refused to hand him back and a large force returned with dogs, forced all the prisoners from the room, and attacked them with batons. This caused numerous injuries, including to the ill prisoner Yousry al-Masri, who has cancer and was beaten with a baton on his neck and in his liver area.

The prison administration closed all sections of the prison, and imposed sanctions on section 14, including removal of electrical appliances, denial of family visits, and isolation from other prisoners.

Isolation conditions

17 prisoners are isolated under the pretext of “threat to state security,” without evidence to indicate this threat. They are held in solitary confinement cells for 23 hours a day except for one hour of recreation when they are with guards only. Solitary confinement is harmful to mental and physical health. The prison service issues isolation orders which can be extended every six months on the decision of the military court, based on a secret file not revealed to prisoners or their lawyers.

Among the isolated prisoners are Noureddine Amer, 34, from Qalqilya, isolated since 21 September 2013, imprisoned since 2 February 2002, and serving a 55 year sentence. He is held in a 3.5 m x 1.5 m room, in Eshel prison, which contines a toilet and a metal door with a slot for introducing food, and has a closed window. He is allowed out for recreation alone for one hour per day.

He has been held in isolation in multiple prisons: Ramon, Ashkelon, Megiddo, Shatta, Gilboa and Ayalon. He is transfered by “Bosta”; transfers take many hours. Prisoners transfered by “Bosta” are prevented from looking through the window and their hands and feet are shackled. During these transfers, Amer is accompanied by special forces who often engage in provocations and subsequent attacks. In July 2015, he was beaten by five military guards; his nose was bleeding and he was in pain but was not given treatment. His belongings were scattered, and they told him to gather them again while he was handcuffed.

He suffers from several diseases worsened by the environment of isolation, including shortness of breath, high cholesterol, joint problems, severe headaches, and stomach ulcers. He sustained a fracture in his hand eight years ago in Gilboa prison and did not receive treatment, and continues to suffer today from the injury to his hand.

He has been denied all forms of communication with his family since his isolation. His mother is elderly, suffers from cancer and had a stroke; he has learned this news only through visits from his lawyers. Three of his brothers are also imprisoned; Nidal Amer is sentenced to life imprisonment, Abdul Salam Amer to 20 years, and Aysar Amer is held in administrative detention since February 2016.

Systematic policy of torture and abuse during the detention of children

Children are exposed to systematic torture, humiliation and cruel treatment from the first moment of arrest, characterized by methods of detention, whether through late-night home invasions, detention by special units or by undercover soldiers who seek to appear “like Arabs” on the street. In addition to degrading treatment of children during their arrest and transfer, they are shackled hand and foot and blindfolded while taken to detention or interrogation centers where they are directly exposed to ill-treatment. This comes either through beatings using hands and feet, cursing and yelling at them in order to provoke fear, or through solitary confinement and harsh conditions to psychologically pressure them,

Among the cases of minor prisoners is that of Mohammed Amarna, 17, from Ya’bad near Jenin, who was arrested on 2 March 2016 from his home. During a legal visit inside the prison, his lawyer confirmed that Amarna had been beaten, insulted and mistreated during transfer to a detention center where he was blindfolded and his hands cuffed behind his back. He was held for hours ouside, slapped by a soldier in the face repeatedly as well as by an interrogator.

157 Palestinians detained in connection with activities on social media

The Israeli government formed in recent months the so-called “Cyber Unit” to step up its prosecutions of Palestinians on social media, especially Facebook.

From October 2015 to April 2016, there have been 157 cases of arrests based on expression and opinion posted on Facebook. A number of people have been indicted for “incitement,” while others have been ordered to administrative detention.

The majority of arrests have taken place in Jerusalem as part of the targeting of Palestinians in Jerusalem. Many of the statements express sympathy or solidarity with Palestinian martyrs killed by Israeli occupation forces, or include publishing the photos of martyrs or prisoners.

The suppression of freedom of speech, opinion and expression on social media is not limited to cases of arrest, but has also included terminating the employment of accused Palestinians from institutions in Jerusalem or 1948 occupied Palestine, or forcibly expelling them from their city of residence, especially Jerusalem.

Battle of the empty stomachs

During the month of April, Palestinian prisoners engaged in a number of individual and collective hunger strikes for multiple reason. Sami Janazrah, 43, from al-Khalil, has continued his hunger strike since 3 March, and Fuad Assi, 30, and Adib Mafarjah, 29, both from Ramallah, continue their hunger strikes since 3 April. All are striking against their administrative detention without charge or trial.

Shukri al-Khawaja, 48, from Ramallah, engaged in a strike for a number of days against his continued isolation; dozens of prisoners in several prisons launched solidarity strikes with him. Abdullah Mughrabi, 24, from Jerusalem, also struck for a number of days against isolation.

Mahmoud Suwayta, 40, from al-Khalil, went on hunger strike for over a week against the denial of visits from his son for over two years; Iyad Fawajrah of Bethlehem also engaged in a hunger strike for family visits.

Mansour Moqtada, 48, from Salfit, is engaged in a partial hunger strike as a result of complicated and difficult health conditions, demanding improved medical treatment. Muhannad al-Izzat of Bethelehm engaged in a 9-day hunger strike, also for medical treatment.

Two re-arrested former prisoners, Abdel-Rahim Sawayfeh and Mohammed Daoud, engaged in hunger strikes against their re-arrests.

In addition, thousands of prisoners collectively engaged in a protest, returning food in rejection of the attacks on prisoners in Nafha prison.

Palestinian astrophysicist Imad Barghouthi imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention

3 May 2016

Prominent Palestinian astrophysicist Imad Barghouthi, a professor of theoretical space-plasma physics at Al-Quds University, was ordered by the Israeli occupation military to three months in administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – on Monday, 2 May.

Barghouthi, who marked his 54th birthday in Israeli prison, joins nearly 750 fellow Palestinians held without charge or trial under administrative detention. Detention orders are indefinitely renewable on the basis of “secret evidence” to which both Palestinian detainees and their lawyers are denied access. The scientist, from Beit Rima near Ramallah, was arrested by Israeli occupation forces at a military checkpoint in Nabi Saleh on 24 April.

Barghouthi, a former employee of NASA in the United States, is a prominent figure in the Palestinian scientific community and his work is internationally known. He received his BS in physics from the University of Jordan in 1985, followed by his masters’ degree in nuclear physics in 1988. In 1994, he completed his Ph.D. at Utah State University in the United States.

He was arrested before, on 6 December 2014, as he traveled to a scientific conference in the United Arab Emirates, and ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial; he was released early, on 22 January 2015, following an international outcry from the scientific community, including statements fromAURDIP (Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine), BRICUP (British Committee for the Universities of Palestine), Committee of Concerned Scientists, MESA (Middle East Studies Association) Committee on Academic Freedom, and Euroscience.

Upon Barghouthi’s release, he wrote a letter to international organizations that had supported him: “I call on the international community that spoke up on my behalf to speak up also on behalf of all Palestinian political prisoners. There are approximately 500 Palestinians held in administrative detention, imprisoned without charge or trial. The systematic use of arbitrary imprisonment by Israeli forces to punish Palestinians violates international humanitarian law under the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Al-Quds University, where Barghouthi teaches, has also been subject to ongoing Israeli repression, including invasion of the campus, destruction of student organizations’ offices and materials, and arrests of students.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network calls for the immediate release of Palestinian scientist Imad al-Barghouthi, which comes as part of a systematic attack on Palestinian academics, journalists, writers and other cultural workers by the Israeli occupation. We reiterate that the case of Imad al-Barghouthi underlines the necessity of the international academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions – a call adopted by an increasing number of academic associations and academic labor unions. Such institutions are deeply complicit in the structures of occupation that deny Palestinian human rights at all levels, including denying Palestinians’ rights to education and academic freedom, and upholding the structures of colonialism and occupation that target Barghouthi, his students and fellow faculty at Palestinian universities like Al-Quds, and the Palestinian people as a whole.

Photo: Al-Quds Human Rights Clinic

Palestinian journalist Omar Nazzal ordered to imprisonment without charge or trial by Israeli occupation military

3 May 2016

As the world marks World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, Palestinian journalist Omar Nazzal, member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate and president of the Association of Democratic Journalists, was ordered to four months in Israeli administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial on the basis of “secret evidence.”

Nazzal’s order to administrative detention came alongside the imprisonment of journalist, human rights defender and media and communications officer of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Hassan Safadi, in a dawn raid on Monday, 2 May.

The Israeli military made vague accusations that Nazzal is linked to the Palestinian leftist political party and resistance organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. “His lawyer, Mahmoud Hassan, said he believes his client, a leading member of the Palestinian journalists’ union, is being targeted because of his political activism. Hassan noted that under the system of administrative detention, the defence is not shown any alleged evidence against them,” reported the Guardian following the order against Nazzal on Monday, 2 May in Ofer Military Court. All major Palestinian political parties are labeled “prohibited organizations” by the Israeli occupation.

Palestinian journalists have protested repeatedly in Ramallah, Jenin and elsewhere, demanding Nazzal’s freedom and an end to the attacks on Palestinian journalists. “The military occupation’s decision as a dangerous precedent against the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and sends a very clear message of targeting the leadership of the union and all journalists,” said Nasser Abu Baker, president of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate following the administrative detention order.

The EFJ General Meeting released a declaration, noting that the meeting “condemns in the strongest terms the arrest of Palestinian journalist board member, Omar Nazzal, as he was crossing from the West Bank into Jordan to attend this meeting and his subsequent incarceration at Etzion prison near Bethlehem. GM demands that Omar Nazzal is released forthwith.”

Nazzal was arrested on 23 April 2016 as he attempted to cross the al-Karameh crossing to Jordan in order to participate in the General Meeting of the European Federation of Journalists, part of the delegation of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate.

Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable following their initial imposition; not only is Nazzal imprisoned without charge or trial, he has no way to know when his detention will end in reality. He joins 19 imprisoned Palestinian journalists and 750 Palestinians held in administrative detention without charge or trial. Among those held in administrative detention include civil society leader Eteraf Rimawi, circus teacher and performer Mohammed Abu Sakha, and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, including Hatem Kufaisheh, whose detention was extended in a new military order for three-months administrative detention on 2 April. Kufaisheh was originally arrested on 24 January and ordered to administrative detention; in total, he has spent 13 years in Israeli prison and 150 months in administrative detention.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Omar Nazzal, Hasan Safadi, and all Palestinian journalists imprisoned by the Israeli occupation. We also demand the immediate release of all Palestinian administrative detainees, an end to the practice of administrative detention and the freedom of all 7,000 Palestinian prisoners.

We urge international media organizations, media workers’ associations, and journalists’ unions to take up the call to defend Palestinian journalists under attack, including organizing to free Omar Nazzal and his fellow imprisoned journalists. All international organizations and governments who today mark World Press Freedom Day have an obligation to defend the freedom of the press for occupied Palestinians and pressure Israel to release imprisoned Palestinian journalists, and end the closures of Palestinian media outlets and mass arrests of Palestinians for posts on social media.

This includes the implementation of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel – including ending special economic agreements like the EU/Israel Association Agreement and an end to billions of dollars in US military aid – because of its ongoing violations of Palestinian rights, including the rights of Palestinians to freedom of the press and freedom of association.

International Workers’ Day: Palestinian Workers in the Struggle to Break Down Prison Bars

1 May 2016

On 1 May, we mark International Workers’ Day, a day of struggle around the world for all workers’ liberation from exploitation, racism, capitalism and oppression. It is also a day of struggle in Palestine specifically, marking the leading role of Palestinian workers in the struggle for liberation – including the struggle behind prison walls for freedom and liberation.

From the earliest revolts in Palestine for national liberation and self-determination, Palestinian workers have always been on the front lines, pushing the struggle forward as a leading revolutionary force. In the 1936 Palestinian revolution against British and Zionist colonialism, Palestinian workers launched a six-month general strike, then the world’s longest, demanding Palestinian self-determination; in the first Intifada, Palestinian labor unions and workers’ organizations led in organizing the struggle locally. It has always been Palestinian workers, peasants, and the Palestinian refugees in the camps – the displaced and expelled workers and peasants – providing the deepest and most consistent leadership in the liberation struggle.

Through nearly 100 years of struggle, Palestinian general strikes have been a constant of the struggle over decades. It was organizations of workers in Palestine – and then of UNRWA workers and others in the refugee camps of Lebanon and elsewhere – that paved the way for the organizing of the modern Palestinian revolution. Palestinian revolutionary leaders like Abu Maher al-Yamani built their organizing of Palestinian refugees for return and liberation on long histories of organizing workers in Palestine before the Nakba. As such, Palestinian workers and their leaders have consistently been targeted for repression and imprisonment.

Palestinian union organizers in Occupied Palestine ’48 were arrested in the 1950s as they struggled to remain organized under martial law; trade unionists were detained and deported throughout the 1970s and 1980s. At least seven Palestinian labor leaders in the West Bank were deported outside Palestine by the Israeli occupation between 1969 and 1979. At the same time, Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails struggled against forced labor in the prisons; Omar Shalabi, a Syrian prisoner, was killed under torture on 22 October 1973 as he protested against forced labor in Israeli prisons. Today, unionists and syndicate leaders like Omar Nazzal, member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate remain imprisoned by the Israeli occupation.

This comes in addition to the frequent arrests and imprisonments of Palestinian workers for “entering Israel without a permit,” generally seeking work to support their families. Because of the isolation and repression of the Palestinian economy, and its subjugation to the Israeli economy under the Paris Protocols accompanying the Oslo accords, Palestinians are forced to seek work – with or without permits – often as day laborers in construction. These arrested, fined and detained Palestinians are not classified as “security” prisoners and thus remain outside the statistics calculated of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails – but there is no other way to view their situation but as deeply political, imprisoned for being Palestinians in Palestine, and specificially Palestinian workers on Palestinian land. Their imprisonment is part of the ongoing Nakba, the drive to exclude Palestinian workers from Palestine.

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are denied access to over 70 professions; meanwhile Palestinian refugees forced to flee to Europe and elsewhere confront repressive policies that deny them the right to work. Palestinian migrants in the United States, Europe and elsewhere around the world face deportation, detention and exclusion alongside their fellow migrants and workers, people seeking safety and refuge from the very disasters, social, economic, environmental and military, visited upon their nations by the imperialist states that deny their rights- while continuing to struggle for liberation.

Of course, Palestinian workers face not only Israeli occupation and oppression, and the oppression of the same imperialist states that provide massive political, economic and military support to the Israeli state;
they also confront the role of Palestinian capitalists and the Palestinian Authority as a subcontractor to Israeli occupation. From the efforts of the Jordanian monarchy to support Palestinian capitalists and suppress union organizing in the 1970s and the 1980s to the role of Palestinian capitalists like Bashar al-Masri in promoting trade with Israel and breaking the boycott, to the PA’s attempts to suppress the mass movement of Palestinian teachers for their rights as workers and its promulgation of a draft Social Security Law that leaves Palestinian workers deeply insecure while meeting the demands of big Palestinian capitalists, it has been Palestinian workers pushing forward the movement to liberate Palestine, and those who exploit them engaging in ongoing negotiations and agreements that suppress the rights of Palestinians as workers and as oppressed people struggling for justice.

Palestinian workers also confront not only the Israeli state but the Israeli Histadrut – a trade union framework set up with the express purpose of excluding Palestinians and building the Zionist colonization of Palestinian land. As the US Prison, Labor and Academic Delegation to Palestine noted, “The exploitation of Palestinian labor is part and parcel of the ongoing colonization project. Palestinian trade unionists detailed this exploitation to our delegation historically and contemporarily. They explained that the Histadrut—the Israeli labor federation that enjoys a fraternal relationship with the AFL-CIO—has been an integral part of the Zionist movement and the colonization of Palestine even before the creation of the state of Israel. The Histadrut exploits Palestinian workers in Israel by deducting a portion of their salaries for benefits they never receive.”

We salute the growing calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions from labor unions around the world, including the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the National Union of Teachers, Public Services International, the Quebec Confédération des syndicats nationaux, the United Electrical Workers union, the Scottish Trade Union Congress and more labor organizations in Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Basque Country, Spain, Galicia, Brazil and more. We salute the workers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 in Oakland, California, who have taken real, material action to implement BDS and stand with Palestinian workers by Blocking the Boat and preventing the unloading of a ZIM ship for days; we salute the Labor for Palestine campaigners and the UAW locals and student workers across the US struggling for Palestine. We recall the leadership of Black and Arab autoworkers in Detroit in 1973 striking against their union’s purchase of Israel Bonds.

We express our solidarity and common struggle with workers around the world, and the imprisoned leaders of workers’ movements struggling for liberation. From Colombia to India to Egypt to the Philippines, we stand with workers’ movements targeted for repression, and with the workers of the world who continue to struggle not only to stop neoliberal attacks like France’s new proposed labor law, but also to seek their – and all of our – full liberation from imperialism, capitalism and oppression.

We urge labor activists around the world to escalate solidarity and struggle to support Palestinian workers, on the front lines confronting the occupation; for unions to divest from Israel Bonds, boycott the Histadrut and stand with Palestinian workers as they struggle to achieve their liberation as laborers and as Palestinians, from oppression, exploitation, occupation, Zionism and settler colonialism.

Images: Classic posters of the Palestinian revolution

Janazrah, at least three more Palestinians continue hunger strikes against Israeli imprisonment

1 May 2016

Sami Janazrah, 43, entered his 60th day of hunger strike on 1 May; held in Israeli administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – since 15 November, he has refused food since 3 March. As he did so, he was transferred once again to solitary confinement in Ella prison from Soroka hospital, where he had been held for one day.

Janazrah had been taken to hospital once before, on 24 April, when he was injured after fainting during another forced prison transfer, from solitary confinement in the Ketziot Negev prison to Ella. He has been repeatedly transfered from Ketziot to Ella and to the hospital and back again, despite severe health deterioration, weight loss, and fainting spells, adding even greater psychological stress. Ahmad al-Najjar of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society described the repeated transfers as a deliberate attempt to break Janazrah’s strike.

Adib Mafarjah, 28, and Fouad Assi, 30, both from Beit Liqiya near Ramallah, also continued their hunger strikes against imprisonment without charge or trial for the 29th day; they began to refuse food on 3 April in protest of their ongoing imprisonment under administrative detention. Assi has been imprisoned since 9 August 2015, while Mafarjah has been imprisoned since 10 December 2014. Both of their administrative detention orders – like Janazrah’s – have been renewed, extending their imprisonment. Janazrah, Mafarjah and Assi are among over 700 Palestinians held without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention.

Janazrah, Mafarjah and Assi were joined on hunger strike by Majdi Yassin, 33, a Palestinian lawyer living in Sweden who holds Swedish citizenship; he was arrested by Israeli occupation forces while returning to Sweden across the Allenby bridge to Jordan from a visit to his hometown of Aneen in Jenin. He has been on hunger strike for one week.

In addition, Mansour Moqtada, the seriously ill prisoner permanently held in Ramle prison clinic, continued his partial hunger strike against Israeli medical neglect for the 20th day. There are also reports that there is a Palestinian prisoner from Jerusalem, Osama al-Rajbi, who is on hunger strike for 20 days protesting his solitary confinement.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges people of conscience around the world, Palestine solidarity organizations and supporters of justice to take action in support of these Palestinian prisoners on the front lines in the struggle against occupation and apartheid. Samidoun protested on Friday, 29 April in New York City and will protest again on Friday, 6 May at 4:00 pm outside G4S offices at 19 W. 44th St in Manhattan for their freedom. We urge people around the world to join us in protest, action, and raising our voices to demand freedom for Sami Janazrah, Fouad Assi, Adib Mafarjah and all Palestinian prisoners!

6 May, NYC: Protest to free Sami Janazrah and stop G4S

30 April 2016

Friday, 6 May
4:00 pm
G4S Offices – 19 W. 44th Street
New York, NY
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/771989372937228/

On Friday, Palestinian political prisoner Sami Janazrah will reach the 65th 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 firm 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.

Join us to answer a united appeal by Palestinian prisoners for escalated boycotts of G4S.

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.

Free Sami Janazrah! New Yorkers protest outside G4S to free Palestinian prisoners

30 April 2016

New Yorkers protested on Friday, 29 April, as Palestinian prisoner Sami Janazrah, 43, reached his 58th day of hunger strike, protesting his administrative detention without charge or trial. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organized its weekly protest outside the offices of British-Danish security corporation G4S, which provides security systems, equipment and control rooms to Israeli prisons, interrogation centers, checkpoints and police training centers. Protesters demanded G4S get out of occupied Palestine – and freedom for Janazrah and his 7,000 fellow Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Janazrah, a Palestinian refugee from Iraq al-Manshiyya living in al-Fuwwar refugee camp near al-Khalil, has been on hunger strike since 3 March protesting his administrative detention without charge or trial. He has been held in solitary confinement since he began his strike and was moved to hospital as protesters demanded his freedom – and then once again to solitary confinement one day later. He is joined by fellow hunger strikers Fouad Assi and Adib Mafarjah, on hunger strike since 3 April in protest of their own administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial. Majdi Yassin, 33, has also been on hunger strike for one week; he is a lawyer and a Swedish citizen detained by Israeli occupation forces at the Allenby bridge crossing to Jordan as he left Palestine for Sweden. Janazrah, Assi and Mafarjah are among approximately 700 Palestinians held without charge or trial under administrative detention – military orders that can imprison Palestinians for up to six-month periods, indefinitely renewable. They are also among approximately 7,000 total Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

New York protesters – including Palestinians from Deir al-Balah and Ramallah – urgently demanded Janazrah’s release as he approaches the critical 60th day of hunger strike. Despite his physical weakness, significant weight loss, fainting spells and pain, Israeli prison officials continue to transfer him repeatedly between solitary confinement prisons and between prison and the hospital, causing him further physical distress and pain.

G4S is subject to a global call for boycott from Palestinian prisoners and civil society because of its involvement in profiting from the Israeli imprisonment and oppression of the Palestinian people – as well as its role in deporting and detaining migrants and in youth detention in the US, UK, Australia and elsewhere – and has lost significant contracts due to the boycott campaigns. In March 2016, the corporation announced that it would sell off its Israeli subsidiary and other “reputationally damaging” businesses; however, Palestinian organizers emphasized the importance of continuing to pressure G4S until it follows through on its pledge, as Palestinian prisoners continue to suffer in the prisons G4S equips.

New York organizers will return outside the offices of G4S, 19 W. 44th Street, on Friday, 6 May at 4:00 pm, and encourage supporters of Palestine and the rights of the Palestinian people to join them, in urging freedom for Janazrah and his fellow prisoners and justice and liberation for Palestine.

Photos: Joe Catron

Prominent Palestinian astrophysicist Imad Barghouthi detained by Israeli occupation forces

26 April 2016

Palestinian astrophysicist Imad Barghouthi was arrested again by Israeli occupation forces at Nabi Saleh checkpoint northwest of Ramallah on 24 April. Barghouthi, 53, is a professor of theoretical space-plasma physics at Al-Quds University. A former employee at NASA in the United States, his scientific work is well-regarded internationally.

He was arrested before, on 6 December 2014, as he traveled to a scientific conference in the United Arab Emirates, and ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial; he was released early, on 22 January 2015, following an international outcry from the scientific community, including statements from AURDIP (Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine), BRICUP (British Committee for the Universities of Palestine), Committee of Concerned Scientists, MESA (Middle East Studies Association) Committee on Academic Freedom, and Euroscience.

At the time, his lawyer, Jawad Boulos, stated that “Barghouthi was arrested because of statements he made in support of Palestinian activists during Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip last summer. ‘In an interrogation after his arrest, he was asked about what he wrote on Facebook and stated on TV against the occupation,'” Boulos told Nature.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network calls for the immediate release of Palestinian scientist Imad al-Barghouthi. The ongoing arrests of Palestinian academics, scientists, writers and journalists are an attempt on the part of the Israeli occupation to silence important Palestinian voices. We urge international scientific and academic organizations to call for Barghouthi’s release. Further, Samidoun underlines that cases like that of Imad al-Barghouthi are fundamental denials of Palestinian rights to education and academic freedom. This case underlines the necessity of the international academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions – a call adopted by an increasing number of academic associations and academic labor unions. Such institutions are deeply complicit in the structures of occupation that deny Palestinian human rights at all levels, including denying Palestinians’ rights to education and academic freedom.

Hunger Striker Sami Janazrah returned to prison from the hospital; Assi and Mafarjah also continue strikes

26 April 2016

Palestinian prisoner Sami Janazrah, on hunger strike for 55 days, has been removed from Soroka hospital and returned to the isolation cells in the Israeli Ketziot prison in the Naqab desert as of Tuesday, 26 April.

Janazrah, 43, a Palestinian refugee from Iraq al-Manshiyya living in al-Fuwwar camp near al-Khalil, has been held without charge or trial under administrative detention by the Israeli occupation since 15 November 2015. He launched his hunger strike on 3 March 2016, demanding his release; throughout that time, he has been held in solitary confinement. He was moved to the hospital after he suffered a head injury after fainting while being transferred to the isolation cells in Ela prison. Despite significant weight loss, constant pains and fainting spells after 55 days of hunger strike, he is now being denied medical care and oversight and has been returned to solitary confinement.

Janazrah and his wife have three children, Firas (13), Mahmoud (10) and Maria (4). He participated in the first intifada as a youth and the second intifada, and was spent seven years in Israeli prisons during multiple arrests. He was previously the secretary of Fateh in al-Fuwwar and an active Fateh youth member; he organized a solidarity tent in support of Samer Issawi during his lengthy hunger strike in 2013, until Issawi’s strike ended.

Two more Palestinians held without charge or trial under administrative detention are also on hunger strike; Fouad Assi and Adib Mafarjah, both held in solitary confinement in Ela prison. Assi and Mafarjah have been on hunger strike since 4 April – they are demanding their release from Israeli administrative detention.

Nearly 750 Palestinians are held without charge or trial under administrative detention, of 7,000 total Palestinian political prisoners.

Palestinian journalists call for protest outside military court hearing for Nazzal

26 April 2016

Palestinian journalist Omar Nazzal will be brought before Israel’s Ofer military court on Wednesday, 27 April, reported the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society. Nazzal was arrested by Israeli occupation forces at the Al-Karama crossing on Saturday, 23 April, en route to the European Federation of Journalists’ general meeting in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Nazzal is a member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. The EFJ, along with the PJS a member of the International Federation of Journalists, has called for the immediate release of Nazzal; dozens of Palestinian journalists protested on Sunday demanding his release.

Palestinian journalists will again rally outside the Ofer prison, west of Ramallah, at 10:30 am tomorrow, 27 April, protesting for the release of Nazzal to coincide with the military court convening in his case.

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