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/

Hanani suspends hunger strike; fellow hunger striker Janazrah transferred

23 March 2016

Sami Janazrah, Palestinian political prisoner on hunger strike for 21 days, was transferred on 23 March to the Negev desert prison from the Ofer prison, where he had earlier been transferred. Janazrah has been held without charge or trial under administrative detention under Israeli military orders since 15 November 2015; he is one of approximately 700 Palestinians under administrative detention.

He will have an appeal hearing on his detention – again, in Israeli military courts – on 7 April.

Reports indicated also that Yazan Hanani, on hunger strike for 35 days, suspended his hunger strike on Wednesday, 23 March; Hanani’s brother reported that Yazan had been permitted to phone his family from the Salem interrogation center, and said that he had suspended his strike under assurances that his administrative detention would be ended at a military court hearing this coming Sunday, 27 March. Hanani was transferred to Megiddo prison from the Naqab desert prison.

Rome, March 24: Stand with the Palestinian Resistance

23 March 2016

Thursday, 24 March
3:00 pm
Palestinian National Authority Representation
Viale Guido Baccelli 10
Rome, Italy

Against the Repression of the Intifada!
Justice and Truth for Comrade Omar Nayef Zayed!
End PA-Israel Security Coordination!

Certain Days call for art and article submissions: Sustaining movements

23 March 2016

What: A call for art and article submissions on sustaining movements for the 2017 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar

Deadline: May 15, 2016

The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar collective (www.certaindays.org) is releasing its 16th calendar in the Fall of 2016. Over the years, we’ve turned our attention to various themes: grassroots organizing, resisting repression, and visions of justice. The theme for 2017 is focused on what it takes to sustain our movements.

We are looking for 12 works of art and 12 short articles to feature in the calendar, which hangs in more than 2,000 homes, workplaces, prison cells, and community spaces around the world.

We encourage contributors to submit both new and existing work.

THEME GUIDELINES

Social justice movements face formidable challenges, from state repression to internal conflict to organizer burnout. Yet there are movements that manage to thrive and grow over time, welcoming new participants and contributing to ongoing struggles.

What do these sustained movements have in common? What does it take to keep on keepin’ on, over many years and hurdles? What groups can we look to and learn from as we try to find ways to strengthen our work? What lessons can we draw from liberation movement history? How can we envision our work spanning several generations?

Artists – is there a visual way to represent sustained struggles over time? What visual images from movement history prompt us to engage with these questions? (Both new and archival works are welcome).

As one of our editors Herman Bell writes, “[We need to] review the way we, the progressive community, do our business: In other words, review how we organize, how we elicit support from other groups in support of our particular issue(s); what do we say to them, how do we foster stronger support from them and they from us.”

We welcome both artwork and articles that explore this theme.

We encourage submissions from prisoners – please forward to any prison-based artists and writers.

FORMAT GUIDELINES

ARTICLES:

1. 500-600 words max. If you submit a longer piece, we will have to edit for length.

2. Please include a suggested title.

ART:

1. The calendar is 11” tall by 8.5” wide, so art with a ‘portrait’ orientation is preferred. Some pieces may be printed with a border, so it need not fit those dimensions exactly.

2. We are interested in a diversity of media (paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, computer-designed graphics, collage, etc).

3. The calendar is printed in colour and we prefer colour images.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

1. Send your submissions by May 15, 2016 to info@certaindays.org.

2. ARTISTS: Please send images smaller than 10 MB. You can send a low-res file as a submission, but if your piece is chosen, we will need a high-res version of it to print (at least 300 dpi preferably 600).

3. You may send as many submissions as you like.

Chosen artists and authors will receive a free copy of the calendar and promotional postcards.

Because the calendar is a fundraiser, we cannot offer money to contributors.

ABOUT THE CALENDAR

The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal, Toronto, and New York, in partnership with three political prisoners being held in maximum-security prisons in New York State: David Gilbert, Robert Seth Hayes and Herman Bell. We are committed to doing work grounded in an anti-imperialist and anti-racist perspective. We work in solidarity with anti-colonial struggles, Political Prisoners and the rights of undocumented citizens and migrants. We are queer- and trans- liberationist. We raise awareness of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the United States and abroad, many of whom are now in their fourth decade of imprisonment. People on the streets should understand the history of today’s social justice movements and how that history is linked to solidarity for PPs/POWs. In addition to building that historical awareness, we emphasize the ongoing involvement and continued commitment of PPs/POWs in these same movements.

Proceeds from the calendar will be used for direct support work for Political Prisoners and anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist struggles in the U.S. and Canada.

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