European parliamentarians urge release, EU action on case of Khalida Jarrar

12 April 2016

23 Members of European Parliament directed a letter today, 12 April, to Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, expressing their “great concern with the arrest, detention and sentencing of the Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalida Jarrar.” Jarrar, a prominent Palestinian leftist, feminist and advocate for political prisoners, is serving a 15-month term in Israeli prison; she was arrested on 2 April 2015.

The MEPs called on Mogherini to raise Jarrar’s case with the Israeli government and demand her immediate release, that the issue of Palestinian political prisoners is raised and investigated, and that the EU mission in Israel and future EU delegations visit Jarrar and fellow Palestinian prisoners.

Further, they raised the overall situation of Israeli military courts, which convict Palestinians at a rate of over 99%, the transfer of Palestinian prisoners inside Israel, and new legislation threating heavy sentences for children and stone-throwers, as well as the legislation allowing force-feeding of hunger strikers.

The letter, signed by members of the Socialists & Democrats (S&D), European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL), Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA), and Europe for Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) groups in the Parliament, highlighted the injustice of Israeli military courts and the nature of “prohibited organization” charges which deny Palestinian freedom of association and criminalize Palestinian politics. The letter discussed the nature of the charges against Jarrar, which focused on public political activity and speeches, and the use of alleged secret evidence to jail Jarrar and deny her bail.

Letter below or download here: Letter on Khalida Jarrar’s situation

Isolated Palestinian prisoner Shukri Khawaja launches hunger strike

11 April 2016

Palestinian prisoner Shukri al-Khawaja, held in solitary confinement for 16 months in Ramon prison, launched a hunger strike on Sunday, 10 April, demanding his return to general population.

Al-Khawaja’s isolation was extended on Thursday by an Israeli military court in Eshel prison for an additional three months, prompting his hunger strike. He has been held in solitary confinement sine 17 December 2014, and has received only one family visit since that time.

He joins fellow Palestinian prisoners striking against isolation and administrative detention. Sami Janazrah, 43, a Palestinian refugee from al-Fuwwar camp near al-Khalil, has been on hunger strike since 3 March. His brother, Mahmoud, said that his health is deteriorating significantly; his appeal of his administrative detention was rejected on Thursday. Mahmoud Janazrah told Prisoners Voice Radio that his brother is suffering from kidney and tooth pain and shortness of breath, and had been transferred to Ofer prison. Janazrah has been imprisoned without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention since 15 November 2015.

Janazrah and Khawaja are two of seven Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike against administrative detention and the use of solitary confinement. Their fellow strikers include Abdel-Rahim Sawayfeh, Abdul-Ghani Safadi, Fouad Assi, Adib Mafarjeh, and Mohammed Daoud. Like Janazrah, Sawayfeh, Safadi, Assi, and Mafarjeh are all imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention. Daoud is a re-arrested former prisoner, released in 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange with the Palestinian resistance, whose remaining five-year term was arbitrarily reimposed without charge or trial by the Israeli military in late 2015.

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. It must not take two and three months of starvation for the calls of Palestinian prisoners for freedom to be heard and heeded; it is necessary to mobilize now and build support for not only the hunger strikers, but for all over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, imprisoned in Israeli jails for seeking the freedom of their people.

Take Action

1. Protest at the Israeli consulate or embassy in your area. Bring posters and flyers about administrative detention and Palestinian hunger strikers and hold a protest, or join a protest with this important information. Hold a community event or discussion, or include this issue in your next event about Palestine and social justice. Please email us at samidoun@samidoun.net to inform us of your action – we will publicize and share news with the prisoners.

2. Contact political officials in your country – members of Parliament or Congress, or the Ministry/Department of Foreign Affairs or State – and demand that they cut aid and relations with Israel on the basis of its apartheid practices, its practice of colonialism, and its numerous violations of Palestinian rights including the systematic practice of administrative detention. Demand they pressure Israel to free the hunger strikers and end administrative detention.

3. Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. Don’t buy Israeli goods, and campaign to end investments in corporations that profit from the occupation. G4S, a global security corporation, is heavily involved in providing services to Israeli prisons that jail Palestinian political prisoners – there is a global call to boycott it. Palestinian political prisoners have issued a specific call urging action on G4S. Learn more about BDS at bdsmovement.net.

12 April, NYC: Press Conference and Vigil on Ahmed Ferhani case, NYPD entrapment and infiltration

10 April 2016

Targeted & Entrapped: Ahmed Ferhani fights for his life.

Vigil, Press Conference
Tuesday, April 12th
1 Police Plaza
3:00 pm

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1735738103322377/

NYPD Undercover Detective Ilter Ayturk & his CIA Trained Handler, Detective Steve Pinkall infiltrated our community organizations with the intent of entrapping those organizing for the human rights of Palestinians. They failed miserably.

They would instead target, Ahmed Ferhani, a young man, son, who escaped civil war and has been enduring life-long mental illness and poverty.

Ahmed attempted suicide in prison last week and remains in a coma.

Join us in vigil to support our brother Ahmed and to express our anger at the NYPD for their complicity.

Read: The Nation article on Ahmed Ferhani’s case and suicide attempt
_______________
Press Release:

A coalition of civil rights and human rights and community based groups across New York are hosting a rally and vigil for Ahmed Ferhani outside One Police Plaza on Tuesday April 12, 2016 at 3 p.m. to rally against the pervasive abuse of Ferhani, and other inmates by the Department of Corrections, and to pray Ferhani’s recovery.

Ahmed Ferhani, who was prosecuted by way of an embarrassing entrapment case run by the NYPD’s secret surveillance unit is in the Intensive Care Unit of the Eerie County Medical Center after attempting suicide while in the custody of the infamous Attica Prison in Buffalo New York. After months of complaining of abuse at the hands of Attica to the DOC’s Superintendent and to the Attorney General, Ferhani threatened to and did attempt to take his own life to end the abuse.

Ferhani had not been placed on suicide watch but had made prior attempts to harm himself, while he was in custody and before he was entrapped by the NYPD. Ferhani’s attorneys maintain that Ferhani was targeted specifically because he struggled with mental health issues since he was a child. “When the NYPD had so miserably failed to find any unlawful activity after years of pouring countless resources into an illegal surveillance project they sent an undercover to manipulate and essentially bribe the young Ferhani into parroting the words they needed to justify the sham and unconstitutional investigation.” The actions of the NYPD have come under heavy attack since AP leaked the details of the secret surveillance unit and the NYPPD now faces litigation brought by victims of the mass surveillance project post 9-11.

“If it were not enough that he was targeted and preyed upon by the NYPD, the Department of Corrections unleashed its worst predatory practices against Ferhani. Ferhani was repeatedly harassed, abused and beaten by his jailers who believed he was a terrorist without having the facts of his case. He was neither protected nor acknowledged by the Department, now he is dying at the tender age of 30, after a lifetime of hardship and abuse. It is an outrage and justice will be served. It may be late, but it will be had.” Said counsel for Ferhani’s family, Lamis Deek.

The Press Conference is expected to start at 3pm outside One Police Plaza and will be followed by a vigil.

Media Inquiries Contact: Lamis Deek, 917-607-0072, 212-226-3999; Fahd Ahmed 917-744-5526 and Gideon Oliver 1646-263-3495, Dima Abi Saab 646-920-7114

Palestinian students touring NYC discuss imprisonment of students, connected global struggles

10 April 2016

Palestinian students from An-Najah National and Bir Zeit Universities visiting New York City as part of the Right to Education tour currently taking place across the United States joined Samidoun and fellow International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) members Al-Awda NY, BAYAN USA, International Action Center and Palestinian Youth Movement for a discussion and gathering.

Hosted by New York City Students for Justice in Palestine, the visiting students spoke of various aspects of the Zionist occupation impeding and undermining Palestinian education and life. “Political activity isn’t a choice in Palestine. Our lives are political,” said one student. In particular, they highlighted the targeting of Palestinian students with arrests, detention and imprisonment based on allegations of political affiliation with “prohibited organizations,” and the use of administrative detention against students. As Palestinian student elections are nearing, there is once again an escalation in the repression and imprisonment of Palestinian student activists.

The students also discussed shared experiences of colonization and oppression with other liberation struggles, including the people’s movement in the Philippines and others. Said BAYAN USA, “We learned that our struggles are interconnected and that our oppressors are the same.”

This gathering took place in New York City while ILPS is convening its International Coordinating Committee meeting in the Netherlands, in which Samidoun ICC representative Mohammed Khatib participated.

Top photo: BAYAN USA, all other photos: Joe Catron

16 April, Paris: Rally in support of Palestinian Prisoners

10 April 2016

Saturday, 16 April
3:00 pm
Place du Chatelet
Paris, France
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/229128724111169/

March via the Boulevard Sebastopol to the Place de la Republique, where we will hold a mass rally to support the 7000 Palestinian political prisoners. We will not forget Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the great defender of the Palestinian cause, held for 32 years in French prisons at the demand of Israel and the US!

Organizers: CAPJPO-EuroPalestine, Droits Devant, Children of Palestine, Palestine Nanterre, Saint-Ouen Palestine, Friends of Nablus, Collective for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

A L’OCCASION DE LA JOURNÉE INTERNATIONALE DE SOUTIEN AUX PRISONNIERS PALESTINIENS, NOUS VOUS APPELONS A VENIR TRÈS NOMBREUX VOUS JOINDRE À NOTRE MANIFESTATION

SAMEDI 16 AVRIL :

A PARTIR DE 15 H

PLACE DU CHATELET À PARIS (M° Chatelet)

NOUS DEFILERONS VIA LE BOULEVARD SEBASTOPOL JUSQU’À LA PLACE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE OÙ NOUS TIENDRONS UN GRAND RASSEMBLEMENT EN SOUTIEN AUX 7000 PRISONNIERS ET PRISONNIERES POLITIQUES PALESTINIENS.

SANS OUBLIER GEORGES IBRAHIM ABDALLAH, grand défenseur de la cause palestinienne, qui croupit depuis 32 ans dans les prisons françaises, à la demande d’Israël et des USA !

Premiers signataires : CAPJPO-EuroPalestine, Droits Devant, Enfants de Palestine, Nanterre Palestine, Saint-Ouen Palestine, Les Amis de Naplouse, le Collectif pour la Libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

14 April, Toulouse: Demonstration – Free all Palestinian Prisoners!

10 April 2016

Thursday, 14 April
5:30 pm
Square Charles de Gaulle (Metro Capitole)
Toulouse, France

As of March 2016, there are over 7,000 Palestinians, including more than 100 children, in Israeli prisons, in violation of international law which prohibits an occupying power to imprison in its territory the people of occupied territories.

Since 1967, over 750,000 Palestinians (20% of the total population and 40% of the male population) have been imprisoned by the occupation army. There is no Palestinian family that has been untouched by imprisonment.

99.74% of Palestinians are convicted by Israeli military courts, the majority of these resulting from forced “plea bargains” (the accused must plead guilty or face a much higher sentence, in a context that they will certainly be found guilty)

Nearly 700 Palestinian prisoners are held under administrative detention, an arbitrary and illegal procedure that allows the Israeli army to detain Palestinians for a period of six months, indefinitely renewable, without charge or trial.

Among the detainees are Palestinian parliamentarians, including Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Marwan Barghouti, Fateh leader; and several Hamas lawmakers. In April 2015, Khalida Jarrar, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and advocate for prisoners’ rights, was arrested and sentenced to 15 months in prison. Lawyer and activist Shireen Issawi was convicted along with her brother Medhat Issawi, and sentenced to 4 and 8 years in prison respectively. Medhat Issawi was previosly imprisoned for 20 years!

Palestinian prisoners are subject to torture, sleep deprivation, lack of hygiene and medical care, confinement in tiny cells and sordid, humiliating treatment. A growing number are held in prolonged solitary confinement. Threats, intimidation and denial of family visits are all means of the Israeli occupation to silence the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people for land and freedom.

Many prisoners went on hunger strike, risking their lives to confront inhumane treatment; for example, Mohammed al-Qeeq ordered to administrative detention in November 2015 and after 94 days of hunger strike, securing his release in May 2016.

As part of the International Day of Solidarity for Palestinian Prisoners, we salute the thousands of Palestinians imprisoned for struggling against the apartheid and ethnic cleansing of their people. We also salute Georges Abdallah, communist activist for the Palestinian cause, imprisoned in France since 1984 for resisting the Israeli invasion of his country, Lebanon.

Let us unite for their release, to end the oldest military occupation in the world, to develop the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against the criminal regime of Israel, to demonstrate and popularize the struggle of the Palestinian people.

We demand:
The release of all Palestinian prisoners
The immediate end of the blockade and siege of Gaza
The end of occupation, colonization, and ethnic cleansing of Palestine
The Right of return of all Palestinian refugees
The immediate release of Georges Abdallah

Palestine lives, Palestine will be victorious!

BDS France Toulouse, Coup Pour Coup 31, NPA31, Collectif Palestine Libre

Rassemblement jeudi 14 avril 2016 à 17h30 Square Charles De Gaulle (Métro Capitole).

En mars 2016, plus de 7 000 Palestiniens, dont plus d’une centaine d’enfants, croupissent dans les prisons israéliennes, en violation du droit international qui interdit à une puissance occupante d’incarcérer sur son territoire les habitants des territoires occupés.
Depuis 1967, plus de 750 000 Palestiniens (20% de la population totale et 40% de la population masculine) ont été emprisonnés par l’armée d’occupation. Il n’est pas une famille palestinienne dont l’un des membres n’ait connu les geôles de l’occupant israélien.

99,74% des Palestiniens inculpés par la justice militaire israélienne sont condamnés, la grande majorité de ces condamnations résultant du «plaider coupable» (l’accusé doit plaider coupable pour que la peine demandée par le procureur soit réduite).

Près de 700 prisonniers subissent le système dit de «détention administrative», procédé arbitraire et illégal qui permet à l’armée israélienne de détenir des Palestiniens pendant une durée de 6 mois renouvelable indéfiniment, sans charge ni procès.

Parmi les détenus, on compte plusieurs dizaines de députés, dont Ahmad Sa’adat, Secrétaire Général du Front Populaire de Libération de la Palestine (FPLP), Marwan al-Barghouthi, dirigeant du Fatah et de nombreux députés du Hamas. En avril 2015, Khalida Jarrar, membre du Conseil Législatif Palestinien et avocate des prisonniers, a été arrêtée et condamnée à 15 mois de prison. L’avocate et résistante Shireen Issawi vient d’être condamnée avec son frère Medhat Issawi, respectivement à 4 ans et 8 ans de prison. Rappelons que Medhat Issawi a été emprisonné une première fois pendant 20 ans !

Les prisonniers palestiniens sont soumis à des tortures, privations de sommeil prolongées, manque d’hygiène et de soins médicaux, enfermement dans des cellules minuscules et sordides, traitements humiliants. Un nombre croissant d’entre eux est placé en isolement total prolongé. Menaces, intimidations, interdiction de visites des familles sont autant de moyens pour l’occupant israélien de faire taire la lutte légitime du peuple palestinien pour sa terre et sa liberté.

De nombreux prisonniers se mettent en grève de la faim au péril de leur vie contre ces traitements inhumains, comme Mohammed Al-Qeek, placé en «détention administrative» en novembre 2015 et qui, au bout de 94 jours de grève de la faim, a pu obtenir sa prochaine libération en mai 2016.

Dans le cadre de la journée internationale de soutien aux Prisonniers Palestiniens, nous rendons hommage aux milliers d’hommes et de femmes palestiniennes enfermés pour avoir combattu l’apartheid et le nettoyage ethnique de leur peuple. Sans oublier Georges Abdallah, militant communiste de la cause palestinienne, maintenu en détention en France depuis 1984 pour avoir osé résister à l’invasion de son pays, le Liban, par Israël.

Pour leur libération, pour mettre fin à la plus ancienne occupation militaire du monde, mobilisons-nous, en développant le mouvement de Boycott, Désinvestissement et Sanctions contre le régime criminel d’Israël, en manifestant et en popularisant la lutte du peuple Palestinien, avec pour objectifs:

– La libération de tous les prisonniers palestiniens
-La levée immédiate du blocus de Gaza
-La fin de l’occupation, de la colonisation et du nettoyage ethnique de la Palestine
-Le respect du droit au retour de tous les réfugiés palestiniens
-La libération immédiate de Georges Abdallah

Palestine vivra, Palestine vaincra !

Premiers signataires : BDS France Toulouse, Collectif Coup Pour Coup 31, Collectif Palestine Libre, NPA31…

Omar Nayef Zayed: New York demonstration demands justice in Palestinian former prisoner’s death

9 April 2016

Demonstrators in New York City called for justice for Omar Nayef Zayed on Friday, 8 April, as part of an international call for action for justice in the case of the former Palestinian prisoner who was found dead in the Palestinian embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria on 26 February.

Part of the ongoing weekly protests for freedom and justice for Palestinian political prisoners organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in New York City, the demonstration began outside the Bulgarian consulate. Participants carried Palestinian flags and signs demanding justice and accountability in the death of Nayef Zayed, and an immediate transparent and independent investigation into the case.

Nayef Zayed’s family in Bulgaria have been pushing for the release of the forensic report and the results of the criminal investigation in the case, which remain unknown. Nayef Zayed, a former Palestinian prisoner and struggler with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who had escaped Israeli jails in 1990 and fled to Bulgaria, had taken refuge in the embassy since December 2015, after the Israeli state requested his extradition from Bulgaria.

Previous protests in New York while Nayef Zayed was alive and seeking refuge highlighted the case, demanding that Bulgaria reject the extradition request and protect him as a former political prisoner sought for persecution by the occupier and colonizer of Palestinian land and people. This protest in New York, marking the 40th day after his death, was joined by actions in Hamburg, Sofia, Berlin, Wuppertal, Copenhagen and elsewhere.

When protesters arrived at the Bulgarian consulate they were met by two New York police officers, who observed the demonstration. When one participant rang the doorbell of the Bulgarian consulate in order to deliver a message from the demonstrators to the consular officials calling for action on the case, the police present attempted to stop her before lawyers participating in the protest affirmed her rights.

The demonstrators then marched from the Bulgarian consulate to the Palestinian mission to the United Nations, located only blocks away.

Nayef Zayed’s family and comrades have highlighted the role of the Palestinian Authority in his case. While he sought refuge in the embassy, the Palestinian ambassador in Sofia, Ahmad al-Madhbouh, regularly pressured Nayef Zayed to leave the embassy and denied him visits from lawyers and solidarity delegations.

When arriving at the Palestinian mission, the demonstrators were met by a police car filled with NYPD “counter-terrorism” officers; the NYPD had seemingly been alerted to the demonstration by the mission. In addition, a representative of the U.S. State Department was present outside the mission, who identified himself as a State Department liaison to mediate between demonstrators, the mission and the police.

The NYPD’s role in infiltrating Palestinian and solidarity organizations, as well as surveilling Arab and Muslim communities and pursuing members of the community for repression and entrapment, has been well-documented. Of course, the NYPD’s repression of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian communities and activism comes alongside its long, violent history in Black and other oppressed communities in the city; the recent police killings of Eric Garner, Kimani Gray, Ramarley Graham and Akai Gurley are only the latest prominent examples of the killings and police violence against the community.

The U.S. State Department liaison, regularly engaged in telephone conversations with staff inside the Palestinian Authority mission, first asked protesters to stay away from the doors of the mission and then to go across the street from the mission; the whole time, participants chanted only “Free Free Palestine,” “Long Live Palestine,” and “Justice for Omar,” carrying Palestinian flags. No one from the mission came to speak with the participants or to express concern or support for Nayef Zayed’s case.

While the demonstrators called for justice for Nayef Zayed outside the Palestinian mission, they were joined by two Palestinian teens who, while walking by, discovered and joined the demonstration, raising their voices for justice.

Samidoun in New York City will protest next Friday, 15 April at 4 pm at its regular location for a pre-Palestinian Prisoners Day protest outside the offices of G4S, the multinational security conglomerate that provides equipment, security services and control rooms for Israeli prisons, police training centers and checkpoints, demanding that G4S leave Palestine immediately and freedom for all Palestinian prisoners. On Sunday, 17 April, Samidoun will join CUNY Prison Divest and New York City Students for Justice in Palestine for a prison divestment protest on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, demanding an end to the massive public investments and subsidies for private corporations that profit from repression and mass incarceration from the US to Palestine.

Photos: Joe Catron

12 April, Sofia: Protest for Justice for Omar Nayef Zayed

9 April 2016

Tuesday, 12 April
2:30 PM
Sofia central courthouse
Vidosha Blvd No. 2
Sofia, Bulgaria

The family and friends of the martyr Omar Nayef Zayed call upon the Palestinian people and those in solidarity with Palestine to join a demonstration outside the Sofia central courthouse on Tuesday, 12 April, to urge the speedy release of the forensic report in the case of Omar Nayef Zayed and the release of the results of the investigation into his death. We want the whole truth about the crime and will accept nothing less.

Покана
Ние Семейството И Приятелите are on the Мъченика Найеф Заиед Омар, Ви Каним Да Участвате В Митинга Пред Съдебната Палата За Незабавно Разкриване are on the Истината От Доклада are on theСъдебната Медицина И Разледващите Органи.
Ние Искаме Истината, Само Истината И Цялата Истина Около Гибелта are on the Бореца За Свобода.
В ВТОРНИК 04.12.2016 – 14 : 30 Ч пред Съдебната Палата

Justice and accountability for death of Omar Nayef Zayed, demand Palestinians in Bulgaria

9 April 2016

As part of an international call for action, the Palestinian Community in Bulgaria protested outside the Palestinian embassy in Sofia on Friday 8 April, demanding the dismissal of Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, and Palestinian ambassador Ahmad al-Madhbouh, as well as the summoning of Madhbouh and other security staff at the embassy for direct questioning and investigation in their role in the death of Palestinian martyr Omar Nayef Zayed.

The demonstration on 8 April followed one three days prior, outside the office of the Bulgarian President in Sofia calling for justice and accountability in the death of Omar Nayef Zayed in the Palestinian embassy in Sofia on 26 February. Community members delivered two letters, to the President and Prime Minister of Bulgaria, calling for intensified investigations and the release of the forensic report and autopsy results in martyr Nayef Zayed’s case.

Protesters burned an image of the Israeli flag as well as images of Malki and Madhbouh, who appeared on posters with the slogan “Resign!”.

Nayef Zayed was found dead at the Palestinian Embassy in Sofia, where the former Palestinian prisoner had taken refuge since December 2015 following an Israeli extradition request and a Bulgarian police raid on his home. Nayef Zayed had escaped Israeli imprisonment in 1990 following a 40-day hunger strike and had made his home in Bulgaria for the past 22 years, where he married and had three children. His wife, Rania, and children have been leaders in the near-weekly protests in Sofia outside Bulgarian and Palestinian offices demanding accountability.

Palestinians and advocacy groups in Bulgaria and internationally have highlighted the role of the Israeli state, the Bulgarian government and the Palestinian Authority in the case. Charlotte Kates of Samidoun said, “When we look at the role of the Palestinian Authority in the death of Omar Nayef Zayed, what we see is that it is fully responsible as part of the triangle of responsibility that killed Omar: the Israeli secret services and extradition attempt; the Bulgarian government and security services that sought to deliver Omar to the Israeli state; and the Palestinian Authority, that was charged with protecting Omar within the embassy, but instead subjected him to constant pressure to leave the embassy rather than protect him or provide him with the security that he required and deserved.”

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the leftist Palestinian political party with which Nayef Zayed was affiliated, has urged the dismissal of Malki and Madhbouh and the investigation of Madhbouh and other security staff.

The event in Sofia comes alongside protests and events in New York City, Copenhagen, Berlin, Hamburg, Wuppertal and elsewhere, marking the 40th day after Nayef Zayed’s death and demanding justice and accountability for those responsible.

Photos: Palestinian Community in Bulgaria

Video:

Hamburg protest of Bulgarian consulate demands justice for former Palestinian prisoner Omar Nayef Zayed

9 April 2016

The Democratic Palestine Committee and supporters of Palestine in Hamburg, Germany demonstrated on Friday, 8 April outside the Bulgarian consulate in Hamburg, demanding justice and accountability in the case of Omar Nayef Zayed, who was found dead at the Palestinian embassy in Sofia on 26 February.

Nayef Zayed, a former Palestinian prisoner and struggler with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who had escaped Israeli jails in 1990 and fled to Bulgaria, had taken refuge in the embassy since December 2015, after the Israeli state requested his extradition from Bulgaria. An international campaign was organized to oppose the extradition of Nayef Zayed and defend him in Bulgaria against further Israeli torture and imprisonment.

He was found dead in the embassy on 26 February, having fallen from a high story. Palestinian political organizations and comrades of Nayef Zayed have warned of the likelihood of his assassination by Israeli agents, while the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority and the embassy have also been highlighted: Palestinian ambassador Ahmad al-Madhbouh regularly pressured Nayef Zayed to leave the embassy, blocked visits with him from lawyers and solidarity delegations and pressured him during his time there.

International events are being organized marking the 40th day of Nayef Zayed’s death, and demanding justice and accountability in the ongoing investigation; no forensic report has been released by Bulgarian officials, and a new Palestinian investigation committee has just arrived in Bulgaria after a previous committee disbanded amid reports that its members were subject to political pressure from the PA leadership.

The protest in Hamburg is joined by actions and events in Berlin, Wuppertal, New York City, Copenhagen, Sofia and others around the world.