Israeli court rejects Al-Qeeq’s transfer to Palestinian hospital; imprisoned journalist on 85th day of hunger strike

17 February 2016

The Israeli Supreme Court rejected the appeal of Mohammed al-Qeeq, imprisoned Palestinian journalist on his 85th day of hunger strike, to be transferred to a Palestinian hospital in the West Bank on Tuesday evening, 16 February.

Al-Qeeq, held under administrative detention without charge or trial, has been on hunger strike since 25 November. His detention was “suspended” by the Court due to his precarious health situation, but he clearly remains a prisoner. Al-Qeeq has continued his hunger strike and rejection of medical treatment, demanding his freedom, despite symptoms of a heart attack, massive weight loss and escalating pains throughout his body. His lawyers have repeatedly warned that he is in danger of death at any time.

Issa Qaraqe of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission said that the HaEmek hospital “ethics committee” is once again considering forcibly treating al-Qeeq over his expressed and conscious objections. He was forcibly treated for four days last month before he was able to have an IV drip of vitamins removed.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network calls for EMERGENCY ACTION everywhere in the world to save Mohammed al-Qeeq and secure his freedom, in every city, on every campus, in every community. Events and actions have taken place in London, New York, Montreal, Berlin, Dublin, Brussels, Nicosia, Lebanon, and throughout Palestine. Now is the time for protests, sit-ins, flyering, tabling, and call-in actions to raise the voice and the profile of Mohammed al-Qeeq and create real popular pressure for his immediate release.

Take Action:

1. Contact government officials and demand that they break their silence on Al-Qeeq and support for Israeli violations of Palestinian rights. In the United States, call the Israel Foreign Service Desk
1-202-647-3672 and the White House – 202-456-1111. Demand action on al-Qeeq’s case and an end to aid to Israel. In the UK, call UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Philip Hammond, MP, +44 20 7008 1500. In Canada, call Foreign Minister Stephane Dion: 613-996-5789.

2. Protest at an Israeli consulate or embassy (or federal building, G4S office or public square) and demand freedom for Mohammed al-Qeeq. Raise the issue of this case publicly and distribute information – this flyer is available for you to distribute at protests in your community. Find your closest Israeli consulate: http://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of/israel. Please email us at samidoun@samidoun.netto inform us of your action – we will publicize and share news with the prisoners.

3. Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Palestinians have urged an international boycott of Israeli goods and institutions – and corporations that profit from occupation , like G4S, the world’s largest private security company, that sells security equipment to Israeli prisons, checkpoints and police training centers – directly profiting from the occupation that destroys Palestinian lives. At the same time G4S profits from occupation, institutions like the United Nations continue to do business with it. Go to addameer.org/UNdropG4S to take action!

Protests in Palestine demand freedom for al-Qeeq, justice for Omar Nayef Zayed

17 February 2016

Protests are escalating across Palestine for the freedom of imprisoned journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq and all Palestinian prisoners, as he enters his 85th day of hunger strike. Each day, protesters have gathered in major Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps.

Today, protests are planned at Bir Zeit, al-Quds University, Tulkarem, Ramallah, Nablus, Tubas, Shaghour, Sakhnin, Umm al-Fahm, Haifa and elsewhere; the Palestinian Bar Association has called for Palestinian lawyers to all visit al-Qeeq in HaEmek Hospital in Afula beginning at 11:00 am.

Several protests in Jenin, Nablus and elsewhere have brought together the call for the immediate freedom of al-Qeeq, held under administrative detention without charge or trial, and justice for Omar Nayef Zayed, the former Palestinian prisoner – and hunger striker – now sought for extradition by the Israeli state from Bulgaria, where he has lived for the past 22 years, with his Bulgarian wife and children. Participants included Khader Adnan, veteran hunger striker, political leader and former prisoner, who demanded justice and freedom for al-Qeeq and Zayed.

Photos:

Irish MEP urges freedom for hunger striking Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq

17 February 2016

Member of European Parliament Martina Anderson, from Ireland’s Sinn Féin, urged European action yesterday to free hunger-striking Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq, shortly after returning from a delegation to Palestine:

Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson has reiterated calls for urgent action to be taken as hunger-striking Palestinian journalist Mohammad Al-Qeeq nears death.

Ms Anderson, speaking from the Basque country said,

“Al-Qeeq began his hunger strike 84 days ago in a protest against his arbitrary imprisonment by Israeli authorities without any charges or trial.

“His health has deteriorated severely, and his weight has fallen below 30kg. He is now suffering painful cramps as well as suspected heart attacks, and it is feared that he could die at any time.

“Yesterday, the Israeli high court refused Al-Qeeq’s request to be moved to Al-Makassed hospital in the West Bank, and he continues to be held against his will.

Ms Anderson, who chairs the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Palestine, said,

“I call upon the European Union to intervene and apply the utmost pressure on the Israeli Government to free Mohammed Al-Qeeq and to ensure that he receives urgent medical attention in the hospital of his choosing.

“The European Union should suspend its Association Agreement with Israel until it complies with international law and the international community must pressurise Israeli authorities to end their systematic use of what they call ‘administrative detention’.”

“Israel’s use of ‘administration detention’ against Palestinians is what we knew in Ireland as internment without trial, which many republican prisoners were subjected to during the conflict in the north.

“Protests have also been held around the world to call for Al-Qeeq’s freedom as Israel continues to use it as a form of collective punishment against the Palestinian people

16 February, Berlin: Protest against Netanyahu/Free Mohammed al-Qeeq

16 February 2016

Tuesday, 16 February
12:00 noon
International Film Festival Berlinale
Potsdamer Platz, Berlin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1742876465933475/

The German Government is proposing to increase its military funding for the Israeli Government, which will assist it in its illegal Blockade of the Gaza Strip, now entering its tenth year. 48 years into the Occupation of the Palestinian Territories and 68 years after the forced Palestinian exodus, the German Government maintains a policy of impunity for Israeli Government officials who are responsible for approximately 60,000 Palestinian casualties of war since Israel was established, as well as for more than five million Palestinian refugees who are denied their right to return home.

On 16 February the ministers of the German and Israeli Governments are meeting at the Chancellery and this week the ministers of the Israeli Government are staying at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

To protest against the complicity of the German Government in the War Crimes of the Israeli Government, I had planned to hold a vigil at one of these venues, but the entire areas around both have been declared closed areas, including the Kronprinzen and Moltke bridges that lead to the Chancellery. These are far-reaching attacks on the freedom of assembly.

I have notified the authorities that I will be holding a vigil at the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, the venue of the current International Film Festival Berlinale.

I am also protesting in solidarity with Muhammad al-Qiq, a 33-year-old journalist from Dura, who has reached the consecutive 85th day of an open hunger strike against his indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial by Israel. There are approximately 5,000 political prisoners in Israeli jails.

Ahead of the sixth German-Israeli Government consultations, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she wants to “look at the future together” with Israel. Germany plans to buy Israeli fighter drones and in exchange Germany will sell Israel nuclear-capable submarines. As justification Merkel has stated that there is “of course, always the responsibility for the Shoah”, which must be passed on from generation to generation. Merkel is right as because of the Shoah, Germany is culpable for the genocide and expulsion of the Palestinians as without the Shoah, Israel would not have been founded in 1948.

At present, Germany is complicit in Israel’s international crimes against the Palestinian people because Germany supports the Occupation militarily, financially, politically and culturally.

These two cabinets are due to meet on Tuesday 16 February, between 10am and 1.30pm and they have scheduled a media conference at the Chancellery at 1.30pm.

19 March, Paris: Unified Meeting for the Freedom of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

16 February 2016

Saturday, 19 March
7:00 pm
CICP, 21b Rue Voltaire
75011 Paris

Freedom for Georges Abdallah!
It is our struggle! We are in struggle!

In 2015, the civilian population in France suffered massacres and attacks. The French government has used this situation to enhance its repressive system domestically and wage war externally.

Our response to this extraordinary situation must be unified resistance, involving the struggle against imperialism and state terror (including that of the Zionist state), against state violence (military, police, administrative), racism, repression and fascism of the state in general, directed against the people and the working class in particular areas; the struggle for the just and legitimate right to revolt and to liberation; the liberation struggle of the revolutionary political prisoners.

Georges Abdallah, Lebanese Communist struggler for the Palestinian national liberation movement, has been imprisoned in French jails for over 31 years – brings together these political struggles. That is why we say that this is our struggle, and we are in the struggle, and if a state of emergency must be declared, it should be for the release of Abdallah!

First organizers: : le CRI Rouge – le Comité pour un S.R.I de Baiona – Rouge vif 13 – Comité de Solidarité Tunisien pour la Libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Comité de défense populaire aux luttes du peuple Tunisien – CLGIA (Collectif pour la Libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah) – Parti Communiste Maoïste -FUIQP (Front Uni des Immigrations et des Quartiers Populaires) – Camarades du soutien de Bagnolet – Groupe d’associations de Bagnolet (GAB) – Comité Anti-impérialiste – Le Comité d’action et de soutien aux luttes du peuple Marocain – UPOTUDAK (comité international de solidarité avec les prisonniers politiques) – Plateforme des prisonniers politiques du Kurdistan et de la Turquie – La Voie Révolutionnaire du 17 décembre – OCML Voie Prolétarienne – Parti des Indigènes de la République (P.I.R) – Confédération Nationale des Travailleurs (CNT) – CAPJPO Euro Palestine – Libérons Georges 33 – Action Antifasciste NP2C – Comité solidarité Georges Abdallah Lille – Collectif de soutien à la Résistance Palestinienne 59 – Comité « Libérez-Les » de soutien aux prisonniers et réfugiés politiques 59/62 – Collectif « bassin minier » pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Secours Rouge Arabe – Rassemblement organisé des communistes Marxistes Léninistes (ROCML) -Association Nationale des Communistes (ANC)

16 February, International: Call-In Day of Action for Mohammed al-Qeeq

16 February 2016

The following call to action is being organized by American Muslims for Palestine to support Mohammed al-Qeeq. Please join the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/571919482956503/

Palestinian journalist Mohammed Al-Qeeq, 33, has spent more than 80 days on a hunger strike to protest being held by Israeli prison authorities under administrative detention. He is near death. We must take action to demand the US State Department pressure Israel to end Mr. Al-Qeeq’s administrative detention immediately and allow him to be treated in a Palestinian hospital.

TAKE ACTION
TUESDAY, FEB. 16, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST (10 a.m. – 2 p.m. CST)
CALL the Israel-Palestine bureau at the US State Department
202.647.3930

TALKING POINTS
* Please pressure Israel to release Mohammed Al-Qeeq from administrative detention immediately and allow him to seek medical treatment in a Palestinian hospital.

* Mr. Al-Qeeq is a journalist and as such should enjoy special protections.

* A free press is vital to democracy and detaining journalists is not the sign of a democratic society.

* Israel currently is holding 6,800 Palestinians, mostly as political prisoners, and 660 of them are being held in administrative detention.

* Israel’s use of administrative detention violates the Fourth Geneva Conventions and the US Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

* The United States has a moral obligation to ensure recipients of our aid uphold human rights and to turn a blind eye to Israel’s imprisonment of nearly 7,000 Palestinians and its use of administrative detention weakens our moral stance throughout the world.

* The US must demand Israel release all Palestinian political prisoners immediately and end its use of administrative detention.

TWEET
Please Tweet at US Secretary of State John Kerry, the State Department, President Barack Obama and the White House with the hashtag #FreeAlQiq

@ John Kerry
@ StateDept
@ POTUS
@ WhiteHouse

Please post to this page after you’ve placed your call so we can follow up.

(Photo credit: Wisam Hashlamoun / APA images and Electronic Intifada)

20 February, Brussels: The Third Intifada: Rising Resistance in Palestine

16 February 2016

Saturday, 20 February
14h
Pianofabriek Culturencentrum
Rue du Fort 35
Brussels, Belgium
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/874694882651668/

Since October 2015, the growing popular rebellion in Palestine has been termed a “third intifada.” While Palestinians are taking to the streets, rising up and resisting the Israeli occupation, they are facing ever-increasing repression: settlement construction, settler violence, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Jerusalem, extrajudicial executions – especially of Palestinian children and youth, mass imprisonment, the escalating use of administrative detention without charge or trial.

For over 67 years, Palestinians have been struggling against colonization, occupation and dispossession. Colonization, land theft, massive dispossession, invasions and mass arrests and occupation have sparked repeated Palestinian uprisings. Join this discussion to learn more about what is happening on the ground in Palestine today, and what we can do to build a movement to defend Palestinian rights and the Palestinian people, including organizing for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

With speakers:

Khaled Barakat is a Palestinian leftist writer. He will speak about the current situation in Palestine, the political developments in Palestine today, and Palestinian resistance.

Charlotte Kates is the international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. She will speak on Palestinian prisoners and the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

More info TBA

Event will be in English

17 February, Namur: What road for the Palestinian prisoners?

16 February 2016

Wednesday, 17 February
8:00 pm
Pierre Maon auditorium
Faculty of Law
Namur, Belgium

40% of Palestinian men have been detained in Israeli prisons. These arbitrary arrests arrest all, including women, children and youth. Torture is practices t present in Israel. At this time when we are discussing a “third intifada,” we demand the Israeli state respect international conventions as an essential step on any road to peace.

With Hassan Albalawi, representative of Palestine in Belgium

This event is organized by the Coordination namuroise belgo-palestinienne (CNBP), the students of Democrakot and the International Humanitarian Law Group, with Amnesty and with the support of the University Forum for Cooperation (FUCID)
Free entry for students, 3 euro for others (drinks available)

Al-Qeeq faces new hearing in Israeli supreme court as Palestinian prisoners launch hunger strikes in support

16 February 2016

Mohammed al-Qeeq, imprisoned Palestiian journalist now on his 84th day of hunger strike, will face another hearing in the Israeli Supreme Court today, Tuesday 16 February, on the issue of being transferred to receive treatment in a Palestinian hospital, specifically in Ramallah. This comes as a video has been widely circulated showing al-Qeeq’s severe pain and physical symptoms as a result of his prolonged hunger strike, demanding his release from administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial.

The Israeli Supreme Court proposed yesterday that al-Qeeq be transferred to Makassed hospital in Jerusalem, which al-Qeeq rejected and continued his hunger strike, as his treatment there would remain under military guard and control rather than an exercise of freedom. The hearing today will address al-Qeeq’s demand to choose his hospital for treatment. Makassed hospital management issued a statement saying they would refuse to receive al-Qeeq so long as he refuses transfer there, saying they would welcome him if he accepts transfer there, in accordance with his demand for freedom and without Israeli conditions. They expressed their support for al-Qeeq’s right to choose the place where he will be treated.

Palestinian lawyer Hanan al-Khatib said that al-Qeeq was screaming loudly and calling to hear his son’s voice. “Throughout his strike I did not see him in this situation. The situation is painful, sad and extremely dangerous,” said al-Khatib, who reported that doctors went to al-Qeeq’s room where he refused treatment. Al-Qeeq, 33, is held in HaEmek hospital in Afula. While his administrative detention was “suspended” by the Israeli supreme court, he cannot leave the hospital and the Israeli military denied his transfer to a Palestinian hospital in the West Bank. He has maintained his strike and says he will accept treatment only under conditions of freedom in a Palestinian hospital.

These developments came as Palestinian prisoners announced hunger strikes in solidarity with al-Qeeq. 17 leaders of the Hamas movement in Israeli prisons announced an open hunger strike demanding al-Qeeq’s freedom, which they began on Sunday, 14 February, including prisoners in Eshel, Nafha, Negev and Ramon prisons. The strikers are: Hassan Salameh, Mohammed al-Qadruh, Mustafa al-Astal, Ashraf Zughayyar, Omar Jaber, Raed Kana’an, Thamer Saba’aneh, Ala’a Shuraitah, Othman Bilal, Ma’ath Bilal, Jamal Abu al-Heija, Muammar Shahruri, Ishaq Arafa, Muayyad Hamad, Ma’ath Abu Taymeh, Malik Hamed, Awad al-Sa’ida.

Former long-term hunger striker Samer Issawi, who was released following his lengthy strike and then re-arrested in June 2014, also announced that he was beginning a hunger strike in solidarity with al-Qeeq.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network calls for EMERGENCY ACTION everywhere in the world to save Mohammed al-Qeeq and secure his freedom, in every city, on every campus, in every community. Events and actions have taken place in London, New York, Montreal, Berlin, Dublin, Brussels, Nicosia, Lebanon, and throughout Palestine. Now is the time for protests, sit-ins, flyering, tabling, and call-in actions to raise the voice and the profile of Mohammed al-Qeeq and create real popular pressure for his immediate release.

Take Action:

1. Contact government officials and demand that they break their silence on Al-Qeeq and support for Israeli violations of Palestinian rights. In the United States, call the Israel Foreign Service Desk
1-202-647-3672 and the White House – 202-456-1111. Demand action on al-Qeeq’s case and an end to aid to Israel. In the UK, call UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Philip Hammond, MP, +44 20 7008 1500. In Canada, call Foreign Minister Stephane Dion: 613-996-5789.

2. Protest at an Israeli consulate or embassy (or federal building, G4S office or public square) and demand freedom for Mohammed al-Qeeq. Raise the issue of this case publicly and distribute information – this flyer is available for you to distribute at protests in your community. Find your closest Israeli consulate: http://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of/israel. Please email us at samidoun@samidoun.netto inform us of your action – we will publicize and share news with the prisoners.

3. Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Palestinians have urged an international boycott of Israeli goods and institutions – and corporations that profit from occupation , like G4S, the world’s largest private security company, that sells security equipment to Israeli prisons, checkpoints and police training centers – directly profiting from the occupation that destroys Palestinian lives. At the same time G4S profits from occupation, institutions like the United Nations continue to do business with it. Go to addameer.org/UNdropG4S to take action!

17 February, Brussels: Stand in Solidarity with Hunger-Striking Palestinian Journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq

15 February 2016

Wednesday, 17 February
3:30 pm
Schuman Roundabout
Brussels, Belgium
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/189690661391266/

Join us in Solidarity with the Palestinian Journalist Mohamed Al Qeeq, who is on hunger strike since 82 days to protest against his illegal detention in Israeli Prison.

This wednesday 17 february at 15h30 to 17h in Brussels, Schuman Roundabout

We need to make some noise to make pressure on Israel to respect human rights as is calls itself the ” only democracy in the middle east”.

Soyons solidaires avec le journaliste palestinien Mohammad Al-Qiq

en grève de la faim dans les geôles israéliennes depuis 82 jours .un rassemblement de solidarité est organisé Ce mercredi 17 février de 15h30 à 17h
Lieu: Rond-point Schuman (Bruxelles 1000 )

Actie in solidariteit met de Palestijnse journalist Al-Qiq die reeds 82 dagenin hongerstaking is

Deze woensdag 17/2 om 3u30 op het rond punt van Shuman
Please Share as much as you can!

Organisation : La Communauté Palestinienne en Belgique et au Luxembourg – asbl

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