Lena Jarbouni and Khalida Jarrar: Messages to the Palestinian People on Prisoners’ Day

19 April 2016

Palestinian prisoners Lena Jarbouni, the longest serving woman prisoner, who has entered her fifteenth year in Israeli prisons, and Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian parliamentarian feminist, leftist and prisoner advocate, issued messages to the Palestinian people on the occasion of Prisoners’ Day, 17 April.

Palestinian lawyer Hanan al-Khatib delivered the messages following her visits with Jarbouni and Jarrar in HaSharon prison:

Lena Jarbouni’s message:

On Prisoners’ Day, I greet the Palestinian people and all of the free people of the world. Through these fifteen years, I have seen the passage of many families and prisoners since the date of my arrest, which coincided with Prisoners’ Day on 17 April 2002. Hundreds of women prisoners held behind bars have stood firm in the struggle, along with the sons of our people, confirming that the Palestinian women are struggling against the occupation and fighting for social justice, emancipation and equality in all spheres of life.

On this day, we salute the longest-serving prisoner Karim Younis, and all of the prisoners throughout Palestine, the Palestinian prisoners’ national movement, and the Arab prisoners, and we salute the child prisoners, boys and girls, sick prisoners, and those in solitary confinement and all of our steadfast people. We assure you that we are held as captives behind bars, but we are free in our minds, and in our convictions. Our freedom remains in our hope and our conviction in the freedom of Palestine.

With all love and greetings. Every year we are free.

Khalida Jarrar’s statement:

Greetings to all brave prisoners. It is very important to work for the liberation of the prisoners, confronting the mass arrests, the goal of which is to break the backbone of the Palestinian people, especially targeting women, children, and the growing number of administrative detainees. The goal is to prevent and suppress any voices of resistance to the occupation and erase its existence, but it will only escalate the struggle. The prisoners are determined to continue their struggle, alongside their families, with the support of the Palestinian people, for the freedom of the prisoners, the freedom of our people, and the defeat of the occupation.

Every year, Palestine and our prisoners are free.

Palestinian youth and students among 11 raided and arrested by Israeli occupation forces

19 April 2016

Israeli occupation soldiers arrested 11 Palestinians in dawn raids on Tuesday, 19 April, focusing on students and youth. Three students at Al-Quds University’s Abu Dis campus – Noor al-Islam Darwish, Hala Beitar and Salam Abu Sharar, all women – were raided and arrested in Ramallah.

Majd Yousef Atwan, 22, from al-Khader near Bethlehem, a recent beauty school graduate, was arrested in a 2:00 am army raid on her home; her father said that she was being accused of “incitement for Facebook postings.”

Many students and youth have been arrested by Israeli occupation forces in the run-up to Palestinian campus elections; while many Palestinians are being persecuted for Facebook posts, including poetry.

Murad Mohammed Taqatqa and Walid Issa Taqatqa of Beit Fajar near Bethlehem were also arrested by occupation forces, as was Abdel-Rahim Mahmoud Awad from Beit Awwa near al-Khalil. Ahmed Nidal Awel, 20, and Ayman Farouk Barham, 35, were arrested by Israeli occupation forces in Kufr Qaddoum.

In Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem, the Israeli forces shot a 15-year-old boy in the leg at the entrance to the village as they invaded it; Palestinian Red Crescent medics reported they were prevented from accessing the boy to provide medical care and that he was then arrested by the occupation forces. Another al-Ram resident was also arrested.

Hunger strikes against administrative detention and isolation continue

19 April 2016

Several Palestinian prisoners are continuing their hunger strikes against administrative detention, denial of family visits and isolation. All are being held in solitary confinement – not in hospitals – and are experiencing significant weight loss, pains and health impacts.

In particular, Sami Janazrah has been on hunger strike for 48 days, since 3 March 2016. Held under Israeli administrative detention without charge or trial, he is held in isolation in the Negev desert prison, Ketziot. He is demanding an end to his detention without charge or trial and has been imprisoned since 15 November 2015.

Adib Mafarjah and Fuad Assi have been on hunger strike against their administrative detention without charge or trial for 16 days, since 4 April 2016. Mafarjah is held in isolation in Ela prison, while Assi is also held in isolation in Ketziot. All of their electrical appliances have been confiscated and they are denied family visits; they are consuming only water.

In addition, the Palestinian Prisoners Society reported that Mahmoud Abdelaziz Suweita, 40, from Beit Awwa near al-Khalil has been on hunger strike for 8 days in protest of the denial of family visits. He refused treatment or examination at Soroka hospital, according to his lawyer. His wife also reported that she and their oldest son, Mutasim, 18, have been denied permission to visit Suweita on the grounds of “security.”

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society also reported that Mansour Moqtada has launched a partial hunger strike for 7 days in protest of the medical negligence and mistreatment he expereiences. He is permanently held in the Ramle prison clinic and is coonducting a partial hunger strike due to his health situation; he is consuming liquids and essential medicines. Moqtada, 47, from Salfit, has one of the most difficult health situations in Israeli jails; he has an artificial stomach and intestines and uses a wheelchair due to severe injuries inflicted by Israeli soldiers.

Saleh Khawaja is also continuing his hunger strike in protest of isolation and solitary confinement, reported Quds News.

3000 Palestinian prisoners conduct one day hunger strike in support of Nafha; prisoners continue struggle

19 April 2016

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.

Free detained labor rights defenders in the Philippines!

19 April 2016

Republished from the International League of Peoples’ Struggles. In solidarity with imprisoned labor rights defenders in the Philippines!

By ILPS Commission 5

Please join us in our call to free detained labor rights defenders in the Philippines.

Since Noynoy Aquino became president in 2010, 11 unionists and labor advocates have been illegally arrested and detained on the basis of trumped-up charges. Two labor leaders have standing arrest warrants because of the same trumped-up charges.

The unionists, labor advocates and labor leaders are accused of participating in actions carried out by rebel group New People’s Army. The Philippine government and military have not presented clear evidence linking the unionists, labor advocates and labor leaders to the NPA’s actions. And they can’t because the unionists, labor advocates and labor leaders are nowhere near the actions. They have been involved in educating workers on their rights, helping workers form militant and genuinely pro-worker unions, and helping poor Filipinos fight for their rights.

Unionists, labor advocates and labor leaders are targets of trumped-up charges under the Aquino government’s counter-insurgency plan Oplan Bayanihan. They are accused of recruiting workers and other poor Filipinos to join the NPA and being members of front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The intention of the government is to disrupt their activities aimed at educating and organizing workers.

Detained activists

Adelberto Silva is a long-timelaboractivist and organizer, and a consultant of the nationallaborcenter on matters related to the peace talks, national industrialization, and pro-workerlaborlaws. He was president of the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino (National Movement of Filipino Workers) or PAKMAP before Martial Law. He acted as a staff member and speechwriter for the late Rolando “Ka Lando” Olalia when the latter became chairperson of the KMU. Adelberto also assisted the strike of the workers of Solid Mills and other companies in 1983 which became pivotal in the defense of workers’ right to strike during the Marcos dictatorship.

Randy Vegas and Raul Camposano are organizers of government employees’ unions, and they have been languishing in jail since Dec. 3, 2012.

Renante Gamara was a labor leader at General Motors Philippines in the late 1970’s. He organized many other factories.

Sharon Cabusao, who was arrested with her husband Adelberto Silva, was a former member of the KMU’s Public Information Department.

Isidro de Lima is a staff of Adelberto Silva, and was arrested with him. He was organized by KMU from the workers’ communities, and he served the workers as a labor activist.

Gil Corpuz is from the transport group Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Nationwide or PISTON in Cagayan Valley, and Rene Boy Abiva is from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers in Cagayan Valley.

The other labor rights defenders are consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in peace talks with the Aquino government and are long-time organizers in the labor movement: Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, and Ernesto Lorenzo. They were imprisoned on the basis of trumped-up charges and planted evidence.

Benito and Wilma Tiamzon are part of the Labor Committee of Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan (Association of Democratic Youth). They organized in Gelmart, a garments factory with many women workers. They also organized in Syntex, Litex, Gentex, Solid Mills. Benito also organized workers in Atlas Cebu. Both Wilma and Benito organized workers before and after the Martial Law declared by the dictator President Marcos, and were key organizers of the first strike during those years of exteme political repression.

Stand

We vow to continue fighting for the rights and interests of workers despite the repression being unleashed by the Aquino government. We vow to strengthen the labor movement and defeat Aquino’s martial law against workers and unions. These labor rights defenders are all unarmed activists who were arrested on the basis of trumped-up charges. All of them are being imprisoned to prevent them from helping to organize workers.

Recommended actions

Send letters, emails or fax messages calling for the:

immediate release of detained labor rights defenders
Philippine Government to be reminded that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of these instruments’ provisions

Proposed letter

Dear _______________:

We would like to express our concern over the detention of labor rights defenders in the Philippines.

They are all unarmed activists, and they were arrested on the basis of trumped-up charges. All of them are being imprisoned to prevent them from helping organize and actually organizing workers.

As we put the demand their immediate release, we also would like to remind you that the Philippine Government is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of these instruments’ provisions.

We are hoping for your favorable action in this regard.

Sincerely,

Organization’s Name

Send letters to:

President	Defense Secretary	Justice Secretary	Human Rights Commission
H.E. Benigno C. Aquino III President of the Republic Malacañang Palace, JP Laurel St., San Miguel Manila Philippines Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80 Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968 E-mail:corres@op.gov.ph>corres@op.gov.ph/opnet@ops.gov.ph>opnet@ops.gov.ph	Ret. Lt. Gen. Voltaire T. Gazmin Secretary, Department of National Defense Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo, E. de los Santos Avenue, Quezon City Voice:+63(2) 911-9281 / 911-0488 Fax:+63(2) 911 6213 Email:osnd@philonline.com>osnd@philonline.com	Atty. Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa Secretary, Department of Justice Padre Faura St., Manila Direct Line 521-8344; 5213721 Trunkline 523-84-81 loc.214 Fax: (+632) 521-1614 Email: soj@doj.gov.ph>soj@doj.gov.ph	Jose Luis Martin Gascon Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights SAAC Bldg., UP Complex, Commonwealth Avenue Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines Voice: (+632) 928-5655, 926-6188 Fax: (+632) 929 0102

Send copy to: kmu.intl@gmail.com

– See more at: http://www.ilps.info/index.php/en/statements/2037-free-detained-labor-rights-defenders-in-the-philippines#sthash.v7vxTV6W.dpuf

New Yorkers call for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, divestment from prison profiteers

19 April 2016

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, New York City Students for Justice in Palestine and CUNY Prison Divest organized a speakout on mass incarceration and prison divestment marking Palestinian Prisoners’ Day and the beginning of the National Prison Divestment Week of Action on Sunday, 17 April at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn, New York.

Several dozen participants from a number of endorsing groups, including HDK New York, the International Action Center, Al-Awda New York, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, CCNY Students without Borders and the National Lawyers Guild at NYU participated in the event, as did participants from Queens Neighborhoods United and Copwatch groups based in Queens and the Progressive Youth Organization of Kansas City.

Participants denounced the massive public investments and subsidies for private prison companies that profit from social repression and mass incarceration from New York to Palestine. They called for boycotts and divestments against G4S and other prison contractors, and fight the tax breaks that help some of these companies, like the Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group, buy elections and own politicians through tax-free Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) status for their private prisons, and called for participation in Samidoun’s Friday protests, every week at 4:00 pm outside the New York City office of G4S on 19 W. 44th St. G4S is involved in profiting from incarceration in Palestine, the US, the UK and around the world; it has pledged to exit “reputationally damaging” businesses such as its entire Israeli subsidiary and youth incarceration in the US and UK, but remains subject to a global call for boycott so long as it is profiting from imprisonment.

Speakers addressed the criminalization and incarceration of Black and other oppressed community youth in the United States, of Palestinians in occupied Palestine, and in international struggles for justice and liberation. HDK New York presented their statement for Prisoners Day, saying that “the Kurdish and Palestinian liberation movements have been comrades in arms during the Lebanese civil war, and their organizations there continue to act in common struggle and solidarity to this day…Free all political prisoners, whether they are Kurds imprisoned for the struggle for Kurdish liberation, Afro-Americans imprisoned for the struggle for Black liberation in the US, whether they are revolutionaries in Turkey, or whether they are patriots and revolutionaries of Palestine fighting against the US-backed Zionist occupation.”

In its statement for Prisoners Day, NYC Students for Justice in Palestine said, “We cannot call for a liberated Palestine without the defeat of US imperialism. We, as solidarity organizers for the Palestinian cause in the United States, must connect the struggles of all oppressed peoples here in the States and around the world. We must call out the US’ mass incarceration for what it is: genocide. Like Zionism, national oppression in the United States against Black people, Chicanos, First Nations and others is not something that can be voted away or changed by shifting the political narrative in popular media. Only by revolutionary struggle can these systems of oppression not only be managed, but they can be ended.”

Marchers then proceeded to a march against US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has repeatedly expressed her support for Israeli occupation and wars and rejection of justice for Palestine, appearing in New York prior to the Democratic primary elections on 19 April.

Video:

Photos by Joe Catron and NYC Students for Justice in Palestine

US Political Prisoners on Palestine: New Booklet and Letter from Herman Bell

19 April 2016

The U.S. Prisoner, Labor and Academic Solidarity Delegation to Palestine gathered letters and statements from political prisoners in U.S. jails – including Herman Bell, Oso Blanco, the MOVE 9, Jalil Muntaqim and Mumia Abu-Jamal – to share with the Palestinian movement in Palestine.

These testimonies, translated into Arabic by the Bir Zeit University Institute for Women’s Studies, were compiled into an Arabic/English booklet (available for download), which features a portrait of Rasmea Odeh by political prisoner Marius Mason.

Herman Bell’s statement, “For Palestine,” is featured on the Free Herman Bell website. We republish the statement below with deep appreciation for his solidarity from behind bars and through the walls, and join in the call and campaign to immediately free Herman Bell and all U.S. political prisoners:

To the Palestinian people – Greetings and solidarity!

You don’t fight alone!

I have followed, supported, and I continue to follow and support your heroic struggle to rid Israeli occupation of your homeland. Almost daily we hear of israeli tank shells and missiles firing into your homes, your hospitals, and school buildings; we see pictures of broken bodies being dug from the rubble. Whole neighborhoods and vital resources: food, water, electricity are decimated. So much death, bloodshed, and destruction when seizing and occupying other people’s land, an old narrative that Indigenous people the world over know so well.

The international community does nothing throughout this occupation of your land; it sits on its hands, laments the destruction and loss of life and does nothing. I feel the beat of your seething heart. And during periodic lulls throughout this decades-long occupation, when even the occupiers seem sated from their bloodlust, you rise up from your magnificently dug tunnels firing off salvos of your own bootleg missiles into the towns and hamlets of the occupiers. Your creative resistance to this occupation is so reminiscent of the Vietnamese people’s spirited resistance to u.s. occupation during their war of national liberation. When having shot-down a heavy u.s. B-52 bomber, they built iron bars around it with a sign saying: “We caged this beast!”

Freedom loving people the world over support your struggle, support your courage and fortitude in resisting this occupation. For we know that while heads of governments in the international community posture, gesture, and pronounce empathetic words, they speak but one language, the language of the occupier, which is why they will neither condemn nor prevent this ongoing carnage and continued israeli occupation of your land. For that, the Palestinian people have to look to themselves.

But you don’t fight alone.

Afrikan-American people here in North America support you and know occupation well. Here the local and national police force are our occupiers. Throughout some three-hundred years of tyrannizing the soul and body of the Black community, america’s pervasive racism and cultural domination has overworked itself, yet our spirit remains unbowed. And we’ve been enslaved longer than we’ve been free. We suffer mass-incarceration, racial profiling and unrelenting, police violence. We endure; we bide our time. For we know nothing lasts forever. Thus we affirm that no daylight exist between the Afrikan-American and Palestinian struggle in resisting the racist, oppressive violence that occupies, that kills, that imprisons us here and you over there. Our struggle is one.

Accordingly, as we go forward, as you speak comparatively of israeli social policies that resemble the racist South African apartheid regime’s social policies, I would urge that you speak also of the similarity between the Afrikan-America and Palestinian struggle. The comparison is effective; it resonates. Both our hardship and casualties originate from the same source; our communities are stressed; our men and women have been captured, tortured, imprisoned, or killed. Our families suffer; our children experience uncertain tomorrows. You don’t fight alone; our struggle is one, and we build to win.

Solidarity forever,
Herman Bell

Download Booklet: Arabic and English Letters of US Political Prisoners

Brussels protest demands freedom for Palestinian prisoners, highlights creative calls for justice

19 April 2016

Palestinians and solidarity activists gathered at Place de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium on Sunday, 17 April to mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day and urge freedom for the 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and for the Palestinian people.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network participated in the protest alongside representatives of the Palestinian Community of Belgium and Luxembourg, the Association Belgo-Palestinienne, Palestina Solidariteit, the European Alliance in Defence of Palestinian Detainees, Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine, Intal, the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine, and others, including members of the Tunisian community.

The event included a speech by federal Belgian parliamentarian Gwenaëlle Grovonius
of the Parti Socialiste (PS) expressing her concern for Palestinian prisoners, especially the over 700 in administrative detention without charge or trial. Grovonius, who has visited Palestine and met with current administrative detainee, Bisan Center executive director Eteraf Rimawi, has introduced a parliamentary resolution on administrative detention.

Claire Geraets, a deputy of the Workers Party of Belgium in the Brussels-Capital Region Parliament and a physician with Medicine for the People in Schaerbeek, spoke at the event, expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and Palestinian prisoners.

Hamdan al-Damiri of the Palestinian Community in Belgium and Luxembourg spoke about the current situation of Palestinian prisoners and their struggle for freedom. Charlotte Kates of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network spoke of the outpouring of international solidarity and the events across the world happening on 17 April, even as thousands of Palestinian prisoners were engaged in a one-day hunger strike. She urged the boycott of G4S for its continued complicity in Israeli prisons, checkpoints, detention centers and police training centers, and building the BDS movement to boycott Israel to free the Palestinian prisoners and the people and land of Palestine.

Khaled Hamad of the European Alliance in Defence of Palestinian Detainees spoke about the Palestinian prisoners and their struggle inside the jails, highlighting the call to end administrative detention without charge or trial. Hassan Balawi, of the Palestinian Embassy in Belgium, urged international support to free Palestinian prisoners.

The event also highlighted the launch of a new photo exhibition and project developed by Palestina Solidariteit. Titled “If I were a Palestinian,” hundreds of photos of Belgian and European parliamentarians, politicians, scholars, writers, artists, lawyers, journalists, and more highlight the imprisonment by Israel of a vast array of Palestinians. Each Belgian or European figure was photographed “behind bars,” emphasizing their likely fate if they were Palestinians living under occupation. The exhibition will be touring in multiple places in the future.

Palestina Solidariteit also launched a new video for Palestinian Prisoners Day, “700,” looking at the experiences and trauma of the over 700 Palestinian children arrested each year by Israel.

Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine collected dozens of photos at the event for their campaign, “I boycott Israel.” In response to the repression of BDS activists in France and calls to prosecute organizers for the boycott of Israel in Belgium, activists are collecting 1,000 photos of individuals across Belgium from all walks of life proclaiming their support for the boycott of Israel and the BDS movement to struggle for Palestinian rights.

Hundreds in Toulouse express solidarity with Palestinian prisoners and refugees

18 April 2016

Nearly 300 people gathered in Toulouse, France for a Palestinian Prisoners’ Day afternoon organized by anti-imperialist collective Coup Pour Coup 31 on 17 April.

Part of the 10 Days of Popular Self-Defense with activities throughout the city, the afternoon included food and music by Chaabi Kabyle, letter-writing to Palestinian prisoners and prisoners for Palestine, including Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese communist struggler imprisoned for 32 years in French prisons; Khalida Jarrar; Ahmad Sa’adat; Shireen Issawi, and more. The event also followed a protest for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on Thursday, 14 April in Toulouse.

The event featured a massive graffiti-art banner with the slogan, “Free Palestine” and calls to free Abdallah, Sa’adat and Jarrar. Participants also focused on the struggles and lives of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, denied their right to return to Palestine generation after generation for over 68 years. A film was screened on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and nearly 1200 EUR were raised to support the Palestinian Youth Center in Ain el-Helweh Camp in Lebanon.

Photos via Coup Pour Coup 31. Full report in French: http://www.couppourcoup31.com/2016/04/pres-de-300-personnes-a-l-aprem-palestine-a-toulouse.html

Toronto protest demands freedom for Irish, Palestinian, Indigenous prisoners; expresses solidarity with #OccupyINAC

18 April 2016

On Sunday, 17 April, Sunday Poetry and the Anti-Colonial Working Group protested and flyered for International Political Prisoners’ Day in Toronto, focusing on Palestinian, Irish and Indigenous prisoners, including Leonard Peltier.

The event included a 32CSM message in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners and prisoners of reaction around the world.

Participants then marched to the INAC (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada) office in Toronto, where there is an ongoing occupation by Indigenous activists and allies, including Black Lives Matter, in protest of a lack of needed services and supports for Indigenous communities by the colonial Canadian state and to demand support for Attawapiskat, an Indigenous community where youth have put forward demands after a state of emergency as a result of 11 attempted youth suicides last Saturday. “It’s about 400 years of history. This is a long, ongoing colonization on our soil,” said Carrie Lester of the Mohawk Six Nations Grand River. “That’s what led to today…the suicides of these kids is not recent, it has been going on for decades.”

Occupations are taking place at INAC offices in Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Vancouver and elsewhere across the country in support of Attawapiskat.