New Yorkers protest G4S after Israeli attacks on Palestinian prisoners in Nafha

23 April 2016

New Yorkers protested on Friday, 22 April for freedom for Palestinian political prisoners and the boycott of security conglomerate G4S. Part of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network’s weekly protests outside the New York City offices of the security corporation that provides control rooms, security systems and equipment to Israeli prisons, detention centers and checkpoints, the protest responded to Israeli attacks on Palestinian prisoners in Nafha prison.

On 13 April and a week later on 20 April, Israeli forces in Nafha prison attacked Palestinian prisoners with tear gas and pepper spray, injuring dozens of Palestinians and sparking a day-long hunger strike protest among 3,000 Palestinian prisoners on 17 April. Palestinian prisoners inside Nafha and other prisons called for a “day of anger” and mass protests in response to the attacks.

Participants in the protest expressed their solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, demanding their freedom. They also demanded that G4S get out of the business of profiting from the imprisonment of Palestinians. G4S has lost contracts around the world following global boycott calls from Palestinian prisoners and civil society, and campaigns against its complicity in the imprisonment of Palestinians, as well as its involvement in youth incarceration and migrant detention in the US, UK, Australia and elsewhere. G4S has pledged to exit these “reputationally damaging” businesses – including selling off its entire Israeli subsidiary – within the next one to two years, but Palestinian organizers have emphasized the necessity of keeping up the pressure on G4S so long as it remains part of the oppression and imprisonment of Palestinians.

Samidoun will protest next Friday, 29 April outside the G4S office at 19 W. 44th Street in Manhattan, at 4:00 pm, focusing on the case of Sami Janazrah, a Palestinian held in administrative detention without charge or trial who has now been on hunger strike for 52 days demanding his release.

Photos: Joe Catron

29 April, NYC: Protest to free Sami Janazrah and Stop G4S

23 April 2016

Friday, 29 April
4:00 pm
G4S Office – 19 W. 44th St
NYC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1719823864900772/

On Friday, Palestinian political prisoner Sami Janazrah will reach the 58th day of a hunger strike to protest his “administrative detention,” military internment by Israeli occupation forces without charge or trial.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club reports that Janazrah injured his head when he lost consciousness and fell on Wednesday, April 21 as occupation forces transported him from Ktziot prison to solitary confinement in Beersheba prison.

Janazrah, age 43, is 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.

Irish activists call for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, boycott of G4S

22 April 2016

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign marked Palestinian Prisoners’ Day with information stalls and street theater in several locations in Ireland, as well as a speaking tour by Palestinian lawyer Aouda Zbidat.

IPSC branches in Dublin and Portadown organized outdoor information stalls on Saturday, 16 April, where they presented information and leaflets about Palestinian prisoners and performed displays where members represented Palestinian prisoners “behind bars,” highlighting Palestinian prisoners from various sectors of society.

Campaigners also focused on the call to boycott G4S, the British-Danish security conglomerate that provides security systems, control rooms and equipment to Israeli prisons, interrogation centers, checkpoints and police training centers. G4S is subject to a global boycott and has lost contracts with both private and public entities around the world following campaigns against its complicity in the imprisonment of Palestinians, as well as its involvement in youth incarceration and migrant detention in the US, UK, Australia and elsewhere. G4S has pledged to exit these businesses – including selling off its entire Israeli subsidiary – within the next one to two years, but Palestinian organizers have emphasized the necessity of keeping up the pressure on G4S so long as it remains part of the oppression and imprisonment of Palestinians.

They performed street theatre and stood blindfolded around a G4S van in Dublin, and distributed materials on the role of G4S in supporting the occupation.

The IPSC in Limerick, Cork, and Dublin hosted Palestinian lawyer Aouda Zbidat on 18, 19 and 20 April; she spoke about representing Palestinian prisoners with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Assoiation before crowded halls. Zbidat discussed the issue of child prisoners, administrative detention, military courts, torture and hunger strikes in Israeli prisons.

Photos: Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC)

Paris march and forum highlight struggle to free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Palestinian prisoners

22 April 2016

Organizers and activists in Paris commemorated Palestinian Prisoners’ Day with two events on 16 and 17 April saluting the struggle of Palestinian prisoners, urging their immediate release, and highlighting the case of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine, in French prisons for 32 years.

On Saturday, 16 April, hundreds of people participated in a demonstration calling for freedom for Palestinians, organized by CAPJPO-EuroPalestine with other organizations, including Droits Devant, Children of Palestine, Palestine Nanterre, Saint-Ouen Palestine, Friends of Nablus, Collective for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.

They marched from Place du Chatelet to Place de la Republique, where they where they found wide support among large numbers of young people, students and others participating in the ongoing “Nuit Debout” gathering. The event included street theater; marches and chants for the boycott of Israel, justice for Palestine, and freedom for Palestinian prisoners and for Palestine; and speeches on the Palestinian struggle. Organizers also set up exhibitions with information on Palestinian prisoners, as well as on Israeli opposition figures.

On Sunday, 17 April, the Academy of Arts and Culture of Kurdistan hosted a day of solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, organized by the Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah with other organizations, including the organizers of the previous day’s protest.

Mohammed Khatib of Samidoun spoke on the panel, highlighting the role of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in the Palestinian national movement, and the leadership from behind the prison walls. He discussed recent attacks and arrests of Palestinian students and youth intended to crush the growing intifada on the streets of Palestine. He emphasized that the struggle to free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is one struggle with that to free Palestinian prisoners, and the necessity to build a broader movement for Palestine and its imprisoned strugglers for freedom.

He was joined on the panel by Jean-Louis Chalanset, lawyer for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, and a representative of the BDS France campaign, struggling against criminalization in France and for justice in Palestine. The event also included the screening of a film by Anna Riche, “Prison, visages de Palestine.”

Photos: CAPJPO-EuroPalestine

30 April, Berlin: Palestinian children and women in Israeli prisons: Scars for Life

22 April 2016

Saturday, 30 April
2:00 pm
Im Tagunszentrum
Franz-Mehring-Platz 1
10243 Berlin Friedrichshain
More info: http://palaestina-solidaritaet.de/2016/04/04/berlin-sa-30-04-2016-palaestinensische-jugendliche-und-frauen-in-israelischen-gefaengnissen-narben-fuer-das-ganze-leben/

A discussion on the situation of Palestinian prisons in Israeli military detention, organized by the Palestinian Women’s Association in Germany.

Speakers:

Felicia Langer, lawyer and human rights activist
Ulrike Vestring, peace activist and Middle East expert
Ihsan Adel, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor
Inge Hoger, member of the Bundestag and representative of the DIE LINKE fraction in the Bundestag
Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Defence for Children International Palestine

Samidoun joins Palestine Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, urges justice for Palestinian child prisoners

21 April 2016

Three Samidoun activists participated on Tuesday, 19 April, in the second Palestine Advocacy Day in Washington, DC. Joe Catron and John Becker, from New York, and Ayman Nijim, originally from Deir al-Balah and currently in New Jersey, joined over 40 participants in the day of Congressional and State Department advocacy meetings, organized by American Muslims for Palestine.

Participants met with Congressional offices and State Department officials to urge changes in U.S. policy on Palestine; the recent letter by eleven members of Congress, including Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative Henry C. Johnson urging investigation of human rights violations by the Israeli and Egyptian militaries, was raised frequently by participants.

In particular, Samidoun participants raised the issue of torture of imprisoned Palestinians, including the cases of Wasim Marouf and Ahmad Manasra referenced in the Leahy letter. Participants also discussed the treatement of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention, a topic highlighted in a 2015 letter by Representative Betty McCollum and 19 other members of Congress that has received renewed attention with reports from Defence for Children International Palestine and Human Rights Watch. There are currently over 400 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons.

The recent regulatory challenge to the Jewish National Fund’s tax-exempt status filed by the National Lawyers Guild International Committee was a frequent topic raised by participants. The challenge calls on the IRS to review and remove the JNF’s tax-exempt status because of its direct involvement in racism and racial discrimination, settlement building, and the violation of Palestinian rights. Extrajudicial killings by Israeli occupation forces – including those mentioned in the Leahy letter – were also frequently discussed by participants, indicating a need for meaningful change in U.S. policy on Palestine.

The United States provides over $3 billion in military aid to the Israeli state annually, in addition to political and diplomatic support, including vetoes of UN resolutions condemning or criticizing Israeli violations of Palestinian rights. Repressive legislation threatening organizations and individuals working to build the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel is being pushed in multiple U.S. states in an attempt to silence the growing popular revulsion at U.S. support for Israeli racism, occupation and apartheid.

Photos: American Muslims for Palestine

Agreement in Nafha follows second attack by Israeli forces on Palestinian prisoners

21 April 2016

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and Prisoners Voice Radio are reporting that Palestinian prisoners in Nafha are suspending their protest steps following an agreement on their demands after prisoners were attacked with tear gas and pepper spray by Israeli forces inside the prison.

The prisoners’ demands that have been agreed to and will be implemented include the removal of police/guard escorts to recreation; weekly or more frequent meetings of prisoners’ representatives; the lifting of sanctions following recent events, especially in sections 13 and 14; admission of some small appliances from prisoners’ families, including kitchen utensils, an ice maker, a small refrigerator, and insect repellants; restoring satellite channels that had been blocked; and other quality of life issues.

This agreement came following a sharp increase in protest and tension following a new attack on Palestinian prisoners in Nafha prison’s section 4 by Israeli forces invading the prison on Wednesday morning, 20 April. The attack follows one a week before on Nafha’s section 14, when heavily armed forces stormed the section, using tear gas and pepper spray against Palestinian prisoners.

48 prisoners were injured in the section, where Palestinian prisoners affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Islamic Jihad and Fateh are imprisoned by Israel. Attacks on neighboring sections 13 and 11 followed, and on 17 April, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, 3,000 prisoners in Eshel, Nafha, Ofer and Ketziot prisons engaged in a one-day hunger strike against the sanctions imposed on prisoners in Nafha. They were then sanctioned with a one-month ban on family visits.

Negotiations over the punishment of prisoners and the impunity of Israeli forces between elected prisoner representatives and representatives of the prison administration broke down, followed shortly by the attack.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s prison section issued a call for a “day of anger” on Thursday, 21 April, in response to the Israeli attacks in Nafha; other Palestinian political groups, including Hamas, joined calls for popular action regarding the prison situation.

22 April, NYC: Protest to end Israeli prison repression and stop G4S

21 April 2016

Friday, 22 April
4:00 pm
G4S Office – NYC (19 W 44th St)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1705940676342190/

3,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Ketziot, Ramon, Nafha, and Eshel prisons conducted a one-day hunger strike on 17 April to support prisoners in Nafha facing violent raids and repression by occupation special forces last Wednesday.

As of 19 April, prisoners in Nafha issued a statement that representatives of the imprisoned Palestinians from various factions had conducted a meeting with the Israeli prison representatives, and that prisoners remain on standby to escalate their struggle if their demands are not met. Their demands include removing the sanctions on prisoners in Nafha, accountability for the occupation guards who sprayed pepper spray inside Nafha sections and injured prisoners, and the return of all prisoners to their original sections.

Reports also indicated that sanctions had been imposed on prisoners in Ofer, Eshel, Ketziot, and Ramon prisons including prohibition of family visits for one month and prohibiting prisoners from recreation, the canteen (prison store) and library, in response to their one-day hunger strike.

Demand an end to Israel’s repressive measures against Palestinian political prisoners, to stand in solidarity with the hunger strikers and protest British-Danish security conglomerate G4S.

G4S, the world’s largest security company and second-biggest private employer, equips Israeli prisons and detention centers where 7,00 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 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.

Solidarity in the face of Adversity: Jalil Muntaqim’s message to Palestine

19 April 2016

This is a new letter by longtime Political Prisoner, Jalil Muntaqim published in a pamphlet of US political prisoner writings for a recent delegation to Palestine.

Solidarity was forged as former political prisoners in Palestine and former US-held political prisoners in our delegation discussed parallel experiences. Palestinian audiences at both conferences were moved by the messages brought by delegates in a collection of letters from currently incarcerated US political prisoners some of whom have already served 40 years and more to their Palestinian sisters and brothers. (downloadable at this link) and the voice of US political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal. Mumia was calling from Pennsylvania to express solidarity with and love for the people of Palestine.

Samidoun expresses its salutes and solidarity to all prisoners struggling for freedom, and joins the call for the freedom of all political prisoners, from the U.S. to Palestine.

To the Palestinian Independence Movement
From Jalil Abdul Muntaqim – BPP/BLA Political Prisoner

Solidarity in the Face of Adversity
http://www.freejalil.com/blog37.html – April 2016

As Salaam Alaikum

It gives me great pleasure to be able to share a few words of solidarity based on our mutual struggle opposing racism and colonial oppression.

I have been in U.S. prisons for 44 years, one of the longest held political prisoners in the world, for activities and involvement in the former Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. Since my imprisonment in 1971, I continue to be active in terms of educating prisoners, writing books, essays and articles, and finding innovative ways to contribute in exposing U.S. imperialism and its insidious support of Zionism. Naturally, I support the movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions challenging Israel’s occupation of Palestine that should be equated as Apartheid.

I was captured at the age of 19 years old, an expectant father, and am now a 64 year old great grandfather. I have been before the parole board 8 times, and each time denied release because of “the nature of the crime” – the death of two police officers, a situation that time will never alter. While I was sentenced to 25 years to Life in 1975, the continued denials are tantamount to life without parole. Obviously, the prison and parole system operates with impunity, and in violation of its own mandates. Hence, it is the political nature of the conviction that is the principle reason for these denials. I share these insights in my case in order to let you know my life struggle in many ways parallels the struggles of your own political prisoners.

Furthermore, as a revolutionary Muslim (note: I oppose the indiscriminate killing by ISIS and Al-Qaeda, et al.), the foundation of our solidarity bridges ideological and national boundaries of our struggles. We are mutual allies. Therefore, it is only natural for me to express solidarity, as we forge our common humanity to oppose racist and colonial oppression wherever it may be found.

May Allah (SWT) grant you mercy and success from your tormentors, strengthening your resolve to build a future of peace and love for the next generations.

Mas Salaam – Revolutionary Love and Unity,

Jalil Abdul Muntaqim