Five Palestinian prisoners on open hunger strike to protest administrative detention and isolation

27 March 2016

Five Palestinian prisoners are currently engaged in an open hunger strike against Israeli policies of administrative detention without charge or trial and solitary confinement.

Sami Janazreh, 43, a Palestinian refugee living in al-Fuwwar refugee camp near al-Khalil, is on his 25th day of hunger strike, refusing food since 3 March in protest of his imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention. Janazreh has been imprisoned without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation since 15 November 2015.

Imad al-Batran, 41, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention, has been on hunger strike since 25 February in protest of his administrative detention, according to a letter received by Mohja Jerusalem Foundation. (The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reports that he has been striking since 15 March.) Batran has been held in Israeli prisons seven previous times and has served over seven years in Israeli jails. He previously waged a hunger strike for 105 days against his administrative detention without charge or trial in 2013. He was releaed following his strike but has been imprisoned again by the Israeli occupation since 27 April 2015.

Abdel Rahim Sawayfeh, 39, from Ithna near al-Khalil, launched a hunger strike on 24 March in protest of his administrative detention without charge or trial. He has been imprisoned by the Israeli occupation since 21 October 2015.

Joining the three administrative detainees are two Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in protest of the policy of isolation; their open hunger strike comes amid ongoing collective prisoner protests against the use of solitary confinement. Long-term solitary confinement is a form of torture, as affirmed by the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture. 30 Palestinian prisoners from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Islamic Jihad carried out a two-day hunger strike as one step in ongoing protests against the policy; 30 more prisoners affiliated with Hamas will also carry out a limited-term hunger strike starting on Monday against isolation.

Nahar Saadi, 33, from Jenin, and Zaid Bseisi, 39, from Ramin near Tulkarem, launched an open hunger strike on 25 March in protest of isolation and solitary confinement. Both are long-time prisoners, serving life sentences for their role in the Palestinian resistance. Bseisi has been imprisoned since 2001 and Saadi since 2003; Saadi has been held in isolation for three years and is protesting his solitary confinement and the policy as a whole. Bseisi, a leader of Islamic Jihad, is demanding an end to the policy for over 14 isolated Palestinian prisoners.

Take Action

1. Protest at the Israeli consulate or embassy, G4S office or headquarters, or public square 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.

New York protesters gather at G4S to support strikers, all Palestinian prisoners

26 March 2016

Activists in New York protested outside the offices of security corporation G4S on Friday, 25 March, in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike and calling for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and for G4S to get out of Palestine immediately.

G4S provides security systems, control rooms, and equipment to Israeli prisons, checkpoints, police training systems and even the Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing to Gaza, making them directly complicit in the Israeli siege on Gaza. A sustained international campaign, including calls from Palestinian prisoners and hundreds of Palestinian and international organizations, has caused G4S to lose contracts around the world and sparked escalating demands that public institutions like the Canadian Air Transport Security Agency, European Commission and United Nations cut their contracts with the security corporation. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organizes weekly protests outside the G4S office in New York City.

G4S announced earlier in the month that it plans within the next one to two years to sell its Israeli subsidiary entirely, and exit the market in occupied Palestine. However, Palestinians have urged continued pressure on the security corporation to ensure that it is held to its commitment – and acts immediately, because Palestinian prisoners continue to suffer daily under the security regime supplied by G4S.

Protesters expressed their support for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, including Sami Janazrah and Imad Batran, joining their call for an end to administrative detention without charge or trial. Many of the participants had traveled to Washington, DC the previous weekend for the anti-AIPAC, Palestine solidarity mass protest; several new participants joined the weekly action for the first time after participating in the DC march.

Participants promoted the upcoming 15 May mass rally in New York City marking the Nakba and demanding the right of return and the liberation of Palestine. People passing by frequently expressed their support for Palestinians under occupation; one French-Algerian couple living in France shared their concerns about the escalating repression of Palestine solidarity and BDS organizing in their home country. Another passerby, a Black flight attendant, shared her experiences with racism in the airline industry and its impact on Black, Arab, Muslim and South Asian workers and travelers.

Photos: Joe Catron

Seven Palestinian prisoners have been imprisoned for over 30 years in Israeli jails

26 March 2016

Seven Palestinian prisoners have now spent over thirty years in Israeli prisons, with four marking the beginning of their 31st imprisoned year this weekend.

Rushdi Hamdah Mohammed Abu Mukh, 55, and his cousin, Ibrahim Nayef Hamdan Abu Mukh, 56, are both serving life sentences, imprisoned since 24 March 1986. Walid Nimer As’ad Daqqa, 56, has been imprisoned since 25 March 1986, while Ibrahim Ahmad Bayadseh, 55, has been imprisoned since 26 March 1986. All four were members of the same Palestinian resistance group, who captured and killed an Israeli occupation soldier in Netanya in 1985, demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They were also accused of receiving military training from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Syria.

All of them were scheduled for release in 2014, but the last group, including 26 prisoners, were suddenly refused release by the Israeli state. As Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association noted at the time:

However, historically speaking, this policy of prisoners releases has proven that it is not truly a “goodwill gesture” to build trust during negotiations, but rather is used as a tool by the Israeli government to manipulate the prisoners issues and distract from their core issues and demands. These 104 pre-Oslo prisoners were slated to be released as a pre-condition in previous negotiations that Israel has reneged on. Now, many of them serving more than 25 years in prison, and some of them with their sentences almost completed, as expected to be released in phases over the next year. However, this decision, will be determined by the Israeli government, who will decide the “condition, criteria, dates and phases” of the release, thereby controlling the entire process.

The refusal to release the 26 prisoners confirmed the accuracy of the analysis. Three other Palestinian prisoners have spent over 30 years in prison: Karim Younis, 56, imprisoned since 6 January 1983; Maher Younis, imprisoned since 18 January 1983; and Mohammed Al-Tus, imprisoned since 10 June 1985.

Riyad al-Ashqar of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies said that the Abu Mukhs, Daqqa and Bayadseh are considered leaders of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and elders within the prisons. Daqqa has authored a number of books and studies inside prison, and along with Bayadseh, achieved a masters’ degree in political science. The demand for the release of all pre-Oslo prisoners is a unified call of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement; their release has been blocked multiple times by political maneuvers of the Israeli state.

Palestinian prisoners announce limited agreement to reduce repressive sanctions

26 March 2016

Palestinian prisoners affiliated with Hamas have formed a new agreement to lessen the sanctions they have faced for two years at the hands of the Israeli prison administration, reported the Palestine information center.

These prisoners, as well as fellow Palestinian prisoners associated with multiple Palestinian factions and political parties, have engaged in a series of escalatory actions including partial hunger strikes and protests within the prison, in protest of the sanctions, which have denied prisoners access to the “canteen” in which most necessary items are sold, limited or denied family visits, and prohibited access to most TV channels, especially non-Israeli channels.

Reports indicate that the family visits of prisoners from Gaza, which require special trips coordinated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, will be extended from 45 minutes in length to 75 minutes in length; five TV channels, rather than three, will be accessible; and prisoners will be able to receive 800 NIS (approximately $250) monthly rather than 600 NIS. In addition, Bassem Sayeh, who is suffering from cancer of the spinal cord, will be transferred from Megiddo to Eshel prison, where his brother is held. Sayeh was arrested on 8 October 2015 while attending the trial of his wife, Mona, and previously spent one and a half years in administrative detention without charge or trial. There is a campaign for Sayeh’s release due to his urgent health condition.

Marseille mural for Palestine and imprisoned Georges Abdallah censored

26 March 2016

A mural in Marseille has been painted over with “censure” (censored) after the police in the French city declared it a danger to “public order.” The mural featured a large Palestinian flag and the image of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese communist struggler for Palestine who has been imprisoned in French jails for 32 years.

Painted by the DIP Social Klub as part of a week against racism and a series of events on 23 and 24 March in Marseille’s La Savine neighborhood to unite anti-colonial struggles, struggles for migrant justice, and the struggle to free political prisoners, the mural’s placement had been approved by the housing complex where it was located. Films and discussions included art and cultural events, talks by residents of the neighborhood, and films and events discussing the cases of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Salah Hamouri, Ahmad Sa’adat and other Palestinian prisoners.

However, within 24 hours, police intervened and demanded the mural’s removal; organizers indicate they received heavy political pressure to force the removal of the mural. In addition, activists are also being pressured to remove graffiti against the militarization of their neighborhoods, for example, the slogan “No to the army in our neighborhoods! War on precarity instead.”

The censorship of the mural comes as part of an ongoing attack on Palestinian and solidarity activism in France, including an administrative tribunal to force the city of Stains to remove a banner in support of Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, and the accusation, trial and conviction of BDS activists calling for the boycott of Israeli goods due to the violation of Palestinian human rights on charges of “discrimination,” despite the fact that their actions target products. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls – who previously, as Interior Minister, intervened to reject Abdallah’s parole that had been approved by the French justice system – has repeatedly denounced Palestine solidarity and BDS organizing and threatened the power of the state to criminalize and suppress organizing.

On 8 March, at an International Women’s Day march, an activist was arrested and accused of promoting “hatred” for wearing a t-shirt calling for BDS.

These acts come simultaneously with the imposition of the “state of emergency” that has seen thousands of warrantless house searches, the militarization of communities, the imposition of house arrests on activists planning demonstrations, and closures of mosques and businesses, and the mass protests that have erupted following the proposal of a new labor law by the government of Valls and French president Francois Hollande that would roll back workers’ rights and impose a new regime of precarity on youth and students entering the workforce.

Photos: Facebook

Vancouver protesters demand Canadian security agency #DropG4S

25 March 2016

With chants of “G4S: You can’t hide! You support apartheid!” and “Boycott, Divest, Drop G4S” a group of Palestine solidarity activists in Vancouver announced their campaign calling for the Canadian Air Transportation Security Authority (CATSA) to drop its contract with British security company and occupation profiteer G4S. The activists converged on the Aviation Office of G4S Canada near the Vancouver International Airport, accompanied by songs of struggle from Solidarity Notes Choir, where they held a short program. Aiyanas Ormond said that “the G4S business model is fundamentally about protecting the interests of the rich and the powerful against the poor and oppressed, in Palestine and around the world” and Khalil Mansour highlighted that these actions of solidarity “give hope to the ones back home, and help them sustain their resistance to occupation”. Spokespeople then attempted to deliver a letter to the office, but were met with a locked door and silence. The statement was therefor attached to the door.

The Drop G4$ Campaign is initiated by Canada Palestine Association, Independent Jewish Voices, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network and International League of Peoples Struggle.

Learn more about and join the campaign on the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/stopG4SinCanada

French mayor defends freedom of expression, refuses to remove banner calling for liberation of Barghouti

25 March 2016

The Administrative Court of Montreuil, France held a hearing on Monday, 21 March on the posting of a banner calling for freedom for Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti on the city hall of Stains, by the elected officials of Stains. The Prefect (an official appointed by the central French state) demanded the removal of the banner, which was refused by the mayor, Azzedine Taibi.

Taibi, elected as a member of the Communist Party of France as mayor of Stains, has refused to remove the banner where it has been posted since 2009 by his predecessor, Michel Beaumale. Taibi’s lawyer, Roland Weyl, noted that despite the charges of the Prefect – representing the Manuel Valls government – the banner has been hanging for seven years and has caused no “disturbance of public order.”
The Valls government has escalated its attempts to suppress the Palestine solidarity movement, including working to criminalize the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and putting BDS activists on trial for calling on the French public not to purchase Israeli goods in protest of Israeli occupation, apartheid and settler colonialism.

Weyl also noted that the Prefect’s other charge, that the banner had a “lack of local interest,” was also false as the City of Stains is twinned with Al-Amari Palestinian refugee camp and works on multiple projects on Palestine with local associations. Stains is also a part of the network of French communities urging the release of Palestinian elected officials, which includes 15 French cities such as La Courneuve, Gennevilliers, Ivry-sur-Seine, La Verriere, Haveluy and Allones. All of these cities have named Marwan Barghouti an honorary citizen; the mayors of Gennevilliers, Montreuil, Aubervilliers, and La Courneuve expressed their support for Taibi and rejection of the demand that the banner be removed.

The hearing lasted only a half-hour; the judges ordered Taibi to remove the banner pending the results of the hearing, to be released in five to six months. Taibi, supported by nearly 150 residents of Stains, solidarity activists and elected officials in attendance to both defend freedom of expression and call for the release of Palestinian prisoners, refused to remove the banner, stating that it would remain in place. The banner is currently posted at Stains’ City Hall.

Taibi said following the hearing, “We will not take down the banner. We are defending a just cause: respect for international law, promoting the values of peace and the right of the Palestinian people, like all peoples, to self-determination. We are proud to display these values, and I do not understand why the Prefect is continuing to pursue our city for this banner that has been hanging since 2009 at our City Hall. Daily, with my municipal team, we have so many issues to deal with in order to defend the dignity and respect of the people of Stains. On the issues of the rights to work, to housing, to security, to education, we need the State to play its proper role, and not to prevent us from freely expressing the values of the people of our town, the values of which we are proud. Administering a city, is also taking a position to defend the values of liberty, equality and fraternity, in our country and in the world. Fortunately, in the past, many mayors including those in Stains, and citizens around the world, acted to call for the release of Nelson Mandela, who was long considered like a terrorist by part of the French political class. As a mayor and as a citizen, it is also my duty to defend just international causes, including denouncing the apartheid suffered by the Palestinian people for over half a century. As we express our support for the Kurdish people, for Syrian refugees, and all oppressed peoples in the world.”

Photos: Azzedine Taibi Facebook/EuroPalestine

Palestinian prisoners escalating protests against solitary confinement in Israeli prisons

25 March 2016

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reported on 24 March that prisoners in Gilboa prison returned two meals that day in protest of the isolation of 14 Palestinians in solitary confinement, under the pretext of a “threat to state security.”

The PPS noted that Abdul Rahman Osman and Nahar al-Saadi are the longest-isolated prisoners, held in solitary confinement since 2013, and that there are dedicated isolation sections in Megiddo, Asqelan, Eshel, Nafha, Ramon, Ayalon and Nitzan prisons.

Physicians for Human Rights published a new report earlier in the week on the escalating use of solitary confinement in Israeli prisons generally, both against Palestinian political prisoners and Israeli “criminal” prisoners. In the case of Palestinian prisoners, isolation is typically used under the pretext of state security, by an order of the Shin Bet, which is generally renewed by military court judges often for months and even years at a time.

In 2011 and 2012, Palestinian prisoners launched collective hunger strikes against the use of solitary confinement, in which multiple prominent Palestinian leaders, including Ahmad Sa’adat and Jamal Abu al-Hija, were held. The 2011 strike, which involved hundreds of prisoners and was led by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in prison, ended after the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange agreement between the Israeli state and the Palestinian resistance. The 2012 Karameh hunger strike, which lasted from April-May 2012, involved thousands of prisoners and ended with an agreement to return the 19 isolated leaders to general prison population and an agreement to end the use of solitary confinement. However, Israeli officials soon began to resume its use.

On Friday, 24 March, 30 prisoners in Megiddo prison – 15 associated with Islamic Jihad and 15 associated with the Popular Front – will launch a two-day hunger strike demanding an end to the use of isolation. If there is no response in these two days, Al-Muhja Al-Quds Foundation reported, the prisoners will begin a series of escalating protest steps in all prisons to end solitary confinement.

Long-term solitary confinement is a form of torture, denounced as such by Juan Mendez, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Torture.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society reports that the “security prisoners” currently held in isolation are:

Shukri al-Khawaja
Hamid Al-Ja’abi
Muhammed Abu Rabie
Hussam Omar
Faris Al-Saedat
Alex Mans
Hosni Khaizaran
Abdul Rahman Othman
Nour Amer
Abdul Azim Abdul Haq
Musa Soufan
Nahar Saadi
Issam Zinedine
Muhammad al-Bal
Majed al Jabari

Photo: Holly/Flickr

Mohammed al-Qeeq suddenly transferred to Ramle Prison Clinic from hospital

25 March 2016

Mohammed al-Qeeq, Palestinian journalist and former long-term hunger striker scheduled to be released on 21 May after a 94-day hunger strike in protest of his Israeli administrative detention without charge or trial, was suddenly removed from Afula Hospital to Ramle Prison Clinic on Thursday, 24 March.

Fayha Shalash, al-Qeeq’s wife, said that the transfer came without prior notice and that he was forbidden to bring his personal belongings, as reported by the Palestinian Information Center.

Al-Qeeq, 33, suffered serious impacts to his health in his unprecedented 94-day hunger strike. The Prisoners Affairs Commission reported that al-Qeeq is still receiving necessary medical treatment and that there was no reason for him to be removed in this way.

#Deported2Death: DHS and State Department prepare mass deportation of hundreds of Muslims

24 March 2016

After Years of Prolonged Detention and Abuse, Bangladeshi Detainees Would Return to Imminent Danger of Imprisonment, Disappearances, and Death

March 24, 2016 – New York, NY

Immigration authorities have begun transporting South Asian detainees to Florence, Arizona, as a staging ground for impending mass deportation. Many of the Muslim migrants from Bangladesh being transported were participants in the #Freedomgiving hunger strikes at the end of 2015 that roiled a dozen detention centers across the country and brought attention to the prolonged, unjustified, and discriminatory detention of Muslim and South Asian migrants.

One of the detainees, who gave a name of Manik and is scheduled to be deported as well, said that “they are gathering all of us here from across the different jails, but none of the men here want to be sent back. Most are terrified and crying about what will happen to them if they are sent back.”

As Candidates Trump and Cruz stir anti-Muslim sentiment calling for the surveillance, ban, and deportation of Muslims — the Department of Homeland Security under the Obama Administration is already racially profiling and discriminating against Muslim migrants, by holding detainees for indefinite and extended periods of time, setting unusually high bond amounts, and now preparing to deport Muslim detainees en masse to their potential deaths.

“It is alarming that the State Department is getting involved in matters of immigration, detention, and deportation, and so recklessly jeopardizing the lives of asylum-seeking migrants who are escaping repressive and dangerous conditions,” said Fahd Ahmed, Executive Director of DRUM (Desis Rising Up & Moving). DRUM has coordinated hunger strikes and advocacy efforts for the detainees over the last 6 months. He added that “their lives have been further endangered by the mishandling of their cases and confidential information by the U.S. government.”

In violation of international law, the names and personal information of the detainees were given to the Bangladeshi government by the U.S. Embassy in Bangladesh, and their names were then leaked and published by the Bangladeshi media. And in violation of their own protocols, the detainees may be expelled despite being witnesses and victims to civil rights violations that are under open investigation by the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties within DHS.

“While many have rightfully condemned the anti-Muslim rhetoric spewed during ongoing presidential campaigns, our current policies are just as terrifying. We call on the State Department and DHS to immediately halt these deportations and for administration officials to end these policies that single out Muslim migrants,” adds Linda Sarsour, Director of MPower Change.

Activists raise grave concerns for the men’s safety and have begun using the hashtag #Deported2Death to highlight the consequence of their potential removals and are calling on the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to cancel their removals and allow them to pursue their asylum claims.

The petition is hosted by the #Not1More Campaign at:

http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/portfolio/state-dept-bangladesh/

1...511512513...692 Page 512 of 692

Follow us on Instagram @samidounnetwork