20 August, Berlin: Free Muhammed Allan, Ahmad Saadat, Samer Issawi and all 5442 Palestinian political prisoners

17 August 2015

Free Muhammed Allan, Ahmad Saadat, Samer Issawi and all 5442 Palestinian political prisoners

Protest @ Pariser Platz, Brandenburger Tor, Berlin
Thursday, August 20, 6:00 pm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/832314850221399/

– Rechtsanwalt Muhammad Allan, seit dem 14. Juni 2015 im Hungerstreik
– Ahmad Saadat, Generalsekretär der Volksfront für die Befreiung Palästinas (PFLP), seit dem 11. August 2015 im Hungerstreik
– Samer Issawi, Mitglied des Zentralkomitees der Demokratischen Front zur Befreiung Palästinas (DFLP), seit dem 16. August 2015 im Hungerstreik

– Attorney Muhammad Allan, hunger strike since June 14
– Ahmad Saadat, Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, hunger strike since Aug 11
– Samer Issawi, member of the central committee of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, hunger strike since Aug 16

Kundgebung für den palästinensischen politischen Gefangenen Rechtsanwalt Muhammad Allan, der seit dem 6. November 2014 ohne Anklage und ohne Prozess in israelischer Haft ist und sich seit dem 14. Juni 2015 im Hungerstreik befindet. Der Zustand des 31-jährigen Juristen ist kritisch. Allan macht seinen Hungerstreik für alle politischen Gefangenen in israelischer Haft.
Er opfert sich auf für alle politischen Gefangenen.
Wir sollen ihn in diesen schweren Stunden nicht allein lassen und für ihn und für alle politischen Gefangenen demonstrieren.
Ahmad Saadat, der Generalsekretär der Volksfront für die Befreiung Palästinas (PFLP), hat am Dienstag, den 11. August 2015 einen unbegrenzten Hungerstreik begonnen, nachdem es bei den Verhandlungen mit der Gefängnisverwaltung keinen Fortschritt gab auf
Grund ihrer Unnachgiebigkeit gegenüber den Forderungen der Gefangenen. Hinzu kam, daß gemäß einer Anordnung des Militärs das Besuchsverbot für Familienangehörige des Vorsitzenden Saadat für weitere drei Monate verlängert wurde.
Die PFLP-Gefängnissektion bestätigte, daß die von Saadat angeführten Gefangenen der Front beschlossen haben, eine lange und schwierige
Schlacht mit der Besatzungsmacht zu schlagen, bei der es keine Regeln oder Vereinbarungen gibt nachdem alle Optionen erschöpft sind die
Besatzer zu einem Eingehen auf die Forderungen der Gefangenen zu bewegen.
Die Gefangenen der PFLP riefen die Massen unseres Volkes, die arabischen und muslimischen Gemeinschaften und Länder und die Kräfte von Gerechtigkeit und Freiheit in der Welt auf sich mit dem Kampf der Gefangenen zu solidarisieren und sie weitestgehend zu unterstützen bei Konfrontation und Standhaftigkeit rund um die Uhr gegenüber den Verantwortlichen von Gefängnis und Besatzungsmacht. Der Geist und die Tiefe der Solidarität gibt den Gefangenen Kraft den Kampf bis zur Erreichung ihrer Rechte fortzusetzen.
Die gefangenen Genossen hungerstreiken für die Forderung eines Endes des Verbots von Familienbesuchen palästinensischer Gefangener einschließlich ihres Vorsitzenden Genossen Sa´adat; weiter fordern sie medizinische Versorgung für kranke Gefangene, ein Ende der Politik willkürlicher Verhaftungen, Verbesserung der Haftbedingungen und ein Verbots von Razzien durch zionistische Spezialeinheiten.

Mohammed Allan, 31, was arrested from his home in Einabus village, in the occupied West Bank, by Israeli security forces on 6 November 2014. He was handcuffed and taken to his office in the city of Nablus, in the West Bank, and ordered to show files of clients he had represented. He was handed a six-month administrative detention order on 11 November. The Israeli authorities have not given any reasons to Mohammed Allan or his lawyer for his arrest and detention. His administrative detention was renewed for another six months on 5 May. He began a hunger strike on 16 June to demand an end to his detention. According to Palestinian human rights NGO Addameer, since the beginning of his hunger strike he has only consumed water.

The Israeli Prison Service informed Mohammed Allan’s lawyer on 7 August of their intention to submit a request to the Israeli District Court to authorize his force-feeding under new legislation allowing force-feeding of hunger-striking detainees. However, statements made by Israeli politicians, including the one responsible for promoting the bill, indicate it is particularly aimed at Palestinian detainees.

On 10 August, he was transferred to the intensive care unit of Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva, Israel. Later that day, as medical staff refused to force-feed him, he was moved to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel. Mohammed Allan continued to refuse medical examination and was chained to his hospital bed by a hand and a foot, despite being too weak to stand. It was reported on 14 August that he had lost consciousness.

Mohammed Allan told his lawyer on 12 August that he does not want to die, but to live a life of dignity.

The prison branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced their plan to launch a hunger strike on Tuesday, August 11, following the ongoing Zionist raids and attacks on Palestinian political prisoners, including imprisoned PFLP General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, and the renewed order denying family visits to Comrade Sa’adat.

PFLP prisoners in all Zionist prisons will launch their strike on Tuesday morning. They will launch their strike amid an atmosphere of confrontation and struggle in the prisons, where prisoners from fellow Palestinian factions and political forces are also waging hunger strikes to resist the Zionist attacks on the achievements and rights of the prisoners won through struggle and resistance over decades.

The PFLP Prison Branch statement:

The prison branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, headed by national leader Ahmad Sa’adat, will launch an open hunger strike on Tuesday [11 August], following a stalemate in the negotiations with the Prison administration, brought about by the Prison Service’s intransigence in response to the just demands of the prisoners. In addition, today a military order was issued extending the security prohibition against leader Sa’adat, denying him family visits for an additional three months.

The prison branch confirmed that the Front’s prisoners, led by Sa’adat, have decided to fight a long and difficult battle with the occupation which is not conditioned by any covenants or undertakings, after exhausting all options in order to impel the occupier to respond to the demands of the prisoners.

The PFLP prisoners called on the masses of our people, the Arab and Muslim communities and countries, and the forces of justice and freedom in the world to provide the widest support and solidarity to the struggle of the prisoners’ national movement in the battles of confrontation and steadfastness they are waging around the clock against the prison and intelligence officials of the occupation. The breadth and depth of solidarity gives prisoners inspiration to continue the struggle until their rights are achieved in full.

The imprisoned comrades will strike to demand an end to the prohibitions on family visits for Palestinian prisoners including the orders against Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat; and to demand medical care for sick prisoners, an end to the policy of administrative detention, improvements in conditions inside the prisons and a ban on invasions and raids by Zionist special units against the prisoners.

At the beginning of July, Israel was holding 5,442 Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, as well as nearly 1,000 Palestinians held for entering Israel “illegally,” according to statistics compiled by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Samidoun: Israeli Minister and U.S. Guantanamo commander urge torture of Muhammed Allan, Palestinian prisoners

16 August 2015

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the right-wing, racist, U.S. imperialist and Zionist attacks on the lives and rights of Palestinian political prisoners, and the threat and actual use of force-feeding torture to suppress prisoners’ hunger strikes for justice and freedom.

Israeli Minister of Immigration and Absorption, Zeev Elkin, told Channel 10 that “The State of Israel can’t allow itself to be held hostage to hunger strikes by prisoners because today it’s one prisoner and tomorrow it will be others,” Elkin said. “Today it’s a prisoner in administrative detention and tomorrow it will be someone who was sentenced to jail after a fair trial.”

Elkin clearly admits that there is nothing fair or just about being imprisoned without charge or trial in administrative detention – the condition of hunger striker Muhammed Allan, currently comatose and at risk of death after 62 days of hunger strike – and makes the ludicrous claim that Israeli military courts are any such alternative.

However, the positing of Allan, a comatose man, a lawyer with no recourse to legal mechanisms to achieve justice, held arbitrarily without charge or trial, shackled to a hospital bed in intensive care under armed guard, threatened with force-feeding and denied access to doctors as “holding Israel hostage” is a horrific reversal of facts. Allan is being held hostage by the Israeli state with all of its forces: the military, courts, political and medical apparatus, along with nearly 6,000 other Palestinian political prisoners.

And yet, this statement reveals the strength and power of Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike, that it exposes the injustice at the heart of the colonial project in Palestine and reveals a firm dedication to seeking justice that truly frightens those who seek to rule over the indigenous people of occupied Palestine through ethnic cleansing, apartheid, mass incarceration and genocide.

Elkin is all of the above – one of the primary authors of the law which prohibits Israelis from advocating the boycott of products produced in West Bank settlements and a proud advocate of the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza. “This is our land, and it’s our right to apply sovereignty over it. Regardless of the world’s opposition, it’s time to do in Judea and Samaria what we did in [East] Jerusalem and the Golan.” A settler himself, Elkin called for genocide in Gaza, “a thorough cleaning of Gaza.”

That Elkin holds such a position is no surprise, as the Israeli state was founded 67 years ago on the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian refugees, the indigenous people of the land and the imposition of a Zionist settler colonial project over the land and people of Palestine.

Elkin’s comments come hand in hand with that of another official representative of a settler colonial state based on the dispossession and genocide of indigenous people: U.S. Colonel Michael Bumgarner, former commander of the Guantanamo military base on U.S.-occupied Cuban territories, where 780 international captives, detained and abducted from around the world by U.S. forces, were held without charge or trial for years.

Bumgarner, who presided over the torturous force-feeding of dozens of prisoners in the military camp via nasogastric tube, labels the torture of hunger striking detainees as “a matter of discipline within your facility.” He specifically warns against prisoners “[thinking] they were influencing national decisions by their behavior.” Bumgarner’s statement comes at the same time that the U.S. is attempting to prevent the release of a cleared, innocent man in Guantanamo – Tariq Ba Odah – on hunger strike since February 2007 and tortured by force-feeding since that time.

It must be noted that force-feeding for U.S. prisoners in California on hunger strike in 2013 – disproportionately Black and other men of color, pushed into the prison system in a manifestation of systematic racism and oppression – was also “legitimized” by a U.S. court, despite the clear international consensus that force-feeding is cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment amounting to torture. As U.S. empire kills and destroys in Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria, it also kills and destroys in Ferguson, New York, Waller County, Cleveland and Baltimore, targeting Black life and sparking resurgent resistance.

The reality is that Palestinian hunger strikers are using the only tool they have to push back against their colonizer and occupier, their bodies, to not only influence “national” decisions, but the international political scene. Palestinian hunger strikers are, like the Irish hunger strikers who put their bodies on the line against British colonialism (the creator of administrative detention in Palestine), a voice of conscience to the world, freedom fighters for justice. As Khader Adnan said, addressing Muhammed Allan, “Today you are representing not only our people, you are representing all human beings in the world who love freedom and dignity. You are now an advocate not only for Palestinians, you are for everyone.”

Elkin, Bumgarner and their ilk, on the other hand, are the voices of repression, racism, colonialism and dehumanization. Torture, force feeding and mass imprisonment are tools of Zionism and U.S. imperialism to preserve colonial rule and attempt to destroy the resistance of the people. Muhammed Allan – and the Palestinian liberation struggle he represents now – stands against these forces. His struggle is indeed “for everyone,” in the words of Ghassan Kanafani, “for every revolutionary… as a cause of the exploited and oppressed masses in our era.”

Palestine marches for freedom for Muhammad Allan

16 August 2015

Protests throughout Palestine on 15 and 16 August took to the streets, demanding freedom for imprisoned Palestinian lawyer Muhammad Allan, 31, held under administrative detention without charge or trial. He is currently comatose in Barzilai Hospital facing extreme risk to his life after 62 days of hunger strike.

Protests were organized in cities, villages and refugee camps in all areas of Palestine – Occupied Palestine ’48, the West Bank and Gaza – including Nablus, Tulkarem, Saffa, Al-Khalil, Huwwarra, Kufr Qaddoum, Wadi ‘Ara, Dheisheh camp, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Rafah, Gaza City and more.

In Kufr Qaddoum and Huwwarra, Palestinian protests were repressed by Israeli occupation forces; in Kufr Qaddoum, occupation forces shot live ammunition at protesters. Murad Shteiwi, former political prisoner and coordinator of the Popular Struggle Committee in the village, said that hundreds of Palestinians marched for the freedom of Palestinian prisoners and were fired upon with live ammunition, tear gas canisters, and “skunk” – wastewater mixed with noxious chemicals. A military bulldozer broke the town’s water pipeline, cutting water to the village.

Below is a small selection of the photos from protests throughout Palestine:

Samer Issawi launches hunger strike in solidarity with Muhammad Allan

16 August 2015

Samer Issawi, Palestinian prisoner and long-term hunger striker, launched a hunger strike in solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian lawyer Muhammad Allan on Sunday, 16 August, demanding his immediate release from administrative detention. Allan has been on hunger strike for over two months demanding his freedom; he is currently comatose and facing a medical crisis in Barzilai Hospital, where he is held under armed guard.

Issawi, of Issawiyeh village in Jerusalem, was released in 2011 as part of the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange; in 2012 he was arrested and threatened with the reimposition of his entire sentence, accused of leaving the municipal borders of Jerusalem. He refused food for 266 days, striking until he achieved his release after 17 months of detention. Issawi’s release in December 2013, was, like the earlier release of Khader Adnan, a major victory for the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strikes against injustice.

It should be noted that Issawi’s grueling 266-day strike included the intake of intravenous salts, vitamins and minerals; Allan has consumed only water, and thus he faces a life-threatening health crisis 62 days in to his strike.

Issawi was re-arrested in June 2014, joining sister Shireen and brother Medhat, who had been arrested in March 2014. In May of this year his original 30-year sentence was reimposed on the basis of secret evidence by a secret military tribunal. Released Palestinian prisoners’ sentences can be reimposed under Military Order 1651, accused of nothing more than contact with Palestinians in political parties – or even more mysterious charges, as the entire process is secret.

Issawi’s case has received support from solidarity activists around the world. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes his action today and all of the brave prisoners who struggle with their bodies to resist occupation and achieve their freedom, and urges the immediate release of Muhammad Allan, Samer Issawi, the re-arrested released prisoners, and all Palestinian political prisoners, as well as the abolition of administrative detention and secret evidence tribunals.

Palestinian doctor denied access to Muhammad Allan as he faces life-threatening infection

16 August 2015

Palestinian doctor Hani Abdeen was prohibited from visiting comatose hunger-striking prisoner Muhammed Allan on 16 August, violating an earlier agreement that would allow him to examine Allan today and report on his medical condition after over two months of hunger strike.

Issa Qaraqe, Minister of Prisoners Affairs, said that Allan is currently also suffering from a gallbladder problem – he has gallstones and fluid is leaking into his intestines and liver, threatening Allan’s life again through infection, noting that Allan may need urgent treatment.

Allan, 31, a lawyer from Einabous village near Nablus, was arrested by Israeli occupation forces in November 2014; he was forcibly taken to his law office and made to show the soldiers his client files. He was ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial; the order was renewed for an additional six months in May, prompting Allan’s strike.

Fellow Palestinian prisoner and administrative detainee waged a 55-day hunger strike that won his release from Israeli jails on 11 July, his second lengthy strike in three years. Adnan spoke to Gideon Levy of Ha’aretz in its 16 August issue; he had a message of support for Allan: “Today you are representing not only our people, you are representing all human beings in the world who love freedom and dignity. You are now an advocate not only for Palestinians, you are for everyone. I love life and so do you. To be released healthy or to be released as a martyr – that is freedom.”

Levy also penned his own piece in Ha’aretz, “Muhammad Allan’s Blood is on our hands,” holding the Israeli state responsible for Allan’s life. “He and his friends have called upon their private, non-violent, doomsday weapon – the hunger strike, because justice is on their side. Because there is no other justice that can excuse their detention, except the justice of the Ashkelon thugs and their ilk: freedom or death, and Israel should have bowed its head in admiration for their determination, their justness and their courage.”

Hussein Shabaneh, the chair of the Palestinian Bar Association, did visit Allan today, as Palestinian lawyers from Jerusalem or who hold Israeli citizenship protested outside Barzilai Hospital, where Allan is held in intensive care under armed guard.

Ahmad Tibi and Osama al-Saadi, Palestinian members of Knesset, were also denied access to visit Allan today along with Dr. Abdeen. Allan’s lawyer, Jamal al-Khatib, noted that before falling into a coma on Friday, 14 August, Allan rejected an offer to imprison him for two years under administrative detention without charge or trial, pledging to continue his strike for freedom.

**

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates its call for the broadest international action to free Muhammed Allan and his fellow Palestinian prisoners and prevent his torture through force-feeding. Events are upcoming in New York, Berlin, Vancouver and other cities and it is critical that people around the world make their voices heard to hold the Israeli state accountable for the life of Muhammed Allan and release him instantly.

The imprisonment and torture of Allan is part and parcel of the Israeli colonial policy of the mass imprisonment of Palestinians, the attack on the rights of Palestinian prisoners won by long struggle of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, and the attack on Palestinian existence everywhere in Palestine: the denial of Palestinian refugees’ right to return, land confiscation, home demolitions, ethnic cleansing, siege, apartheid, occupation and settler-colonialism.

Muhammed Allan’s situation is an emergency that requires mobilization and action by all, including the escalation of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel on all levels: economic, military, cultural, academic, as urged by the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

Take Action: Demand freedom – not force feeding – for Muhammad Allan!

1. Sign on: Send a letter demanding Allan’s freedom, and that he not be force-fed. Israeli officials must hear the voice of the world demanding that this threat of torture be stopped, and that Allan, imprisoned without charge or trial, be freed.

2. 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.

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.

Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat urges action to free Muhammad Allan

16 August 2015

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat urges all of its friends and supporters around the world, and all global movements for justice, freedom and liberation, to take action, protest and demand freedom for Muhammad Allan, Palestinian lawyer held in Israeli administrative detention without charge or trial, now in a coma and struggling for both his freedom and his life after 60 days of hunger strike. We urge all to take to the streets, to escalate the movement for the boycott and isolation of Israel, to defend the life of Allan and demand his freedom – and that of his fellow nearly 6,000 Palestinian political prisoners.

“We hold Israel fully accountable for the life of Muhammad Allan, the heroic imprisoned Palestinian struggler,” said Khaled Barakat, coordinator of the international Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat. “Israel is responsible for his life and must bear the consequences if he dies.”

“Muhammad Allan, if he dies, will not be the first Palestinian executed by Israel within its dungeons, through torture, denial of medical care or forced feeding. Four Palestinian prisoners – Abdul Qader Abul Fahem, Ali al-Jaabari, Rasim Halawa, and Ishaq Maragha – were killed by force-feeding – with which Allan is threatened today, even as he lies in a coma,” Barakat said.

“Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and had their lives taken inside Israeli prisons over decades of occupation, but he would be the first Palestinian prisoner to die on hunger strike. The liberation martyrs whose lives have ben taken by colonizers as they hunger strike for justice and freedom – like Bobby Sands and his 9 Irish comrades in British prison – are immortal symbols of struggle that belong to global movements for justice and liberation,” said Barakat.

“The case of Muhammad Allan illustrates that Palestinians will continue to struggle by all means until they defeat administrative detention. We know that this is a long and brutal battle, as it is a system that serves the interests of the occupation and that they are not willing to relinquish. It is a system that was inherited from the era of British colonialism in Palestine, which means that we hold Britain responsible for Muhammad Allan and for every Palestinian who is and has been held in administrative detention,” Barakat said.

“However,” he noted, “The popular forces of freedom, justice and liberation around the world, marching side by side with the Palestinian people, will be victorious and will bring down administrative detention. And they will be victorious in winning the liberation of Palestinian prisoners and of Palestine itself.”

“Brother Muhammad Allan demonstrates true Palestinian heroism and courage,” Barakat said. “He follows in the steps of many other Palestinian prisoners, using his last resource to confront the occupation, even through hunger. We are witnessing the birth of new young Palestinian leaders in the arena of confrontation with the occupation: Lina Khattab, Khader Adnan, Muhammad Allan. This is the case and experience of every colonized and oppressed people who rise up for their liberation.”

“Finally, Israel must bear the consequences and pay for its crimes. Israel has enjoyed global impunity thanks to the support of the United States and fellow imperial powers. This must come to an end through the efforts of Palestinian resistance and revolution, supported by the people of the world,” Barakat said. “Otherwise, the occupation,killing and torture will continue as business as usual.”

“There is a need to build the international campaign against administrative detention. This should be a priority and part of the efforts of the international movement to boycott Israel, as the prisoners emphasized in their latest statement,” Barakat said. “We need to hear the voices of the world demanding freedom for Muhammad Allan, demanding freedom for our imprisoned leaders.”

Protest in Cologne, Germany demands end to administrative detention, freedom for Allan

16 August 2015

The Palestinian community and their supporters and friends in Cologne and Bonn, Germany organized a protest in the main square in Cologne, working with the European Alliance in Defense of Palestinian Detainees, on 15 August 2015, demanding freedom for imprisoned Palestinian lawyer Muhammed Allan. Allan is now in a coma and in critical condition after over 60 days of open hunger strike.

The protest also denounced Israeli terror against the Palestinian people, including the burning of the Dawabsheh family in Dura village near Nablus. The protesters raised banners calling for the immediate end of the use of administrative detention without charge or trial, under which Allan has been imprisoned since November 2014.

The protesters distributed information in German and Arabic about the occupation policies of killing, intimidation and mass incarceration, demanding international action, including by European states, to pressure the occupation to release Allan and save the lives of Palestinian prisoners. Protesters also urged building the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Events are taking place in Berlin and Essen, Germany as well as in Oslo, Norway.

The European Alliance for the Defense of Palestinian Detainees also issued a statement (below) in support of Muhammed Allan and Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike, urging action:

In light of the increasing Zionist onslaught of colonial settlement against the Palestinian people, and in parallel with the increasing attacks by settlers on civilian families, as in the case of the burning of the Dawabsheh home and the killing of the child Ali and his father Saad, we see the increasing violence and torture of the brave prisoners.

The prison administration has retreated from many concessions won by Palestinian prisoners through long years of struggle in prisons, and Israel has reneged on many agreements, including through the re-arrest of numerous prisoners released in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit, as well as the recent re-arrest of former hunger striker Samer Issawi.

The only means before the prisoners to achieve their demands from the prison administration is to struggle with their bodies – with the empty stomachs and salt and water, the prisoners resist the occupiers, struggling to achieve the most basic human rights and humane treatment guaranteed them by the Geneva Conventions….

Instead of improving the conditions of detention and releasing administrative detainees held without trial for months and years, the occupation authorities approved a force-feeding law to counter the strength of this type of strike.

The European Alliance for the Defense of Palestinian Detainees demanded that European governments, civil society institutions and human rights associations and organizations act quickly to save the lives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and not to abandon them to become victims of the policies of repression and physical liquidation practiced by the Israeli Prison Authority directly and under cover of the occupation government.

The Coalition calls on the Arab and Palestinian communities and the friends of the Palestinian people to build broad movements to support the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails waging a heroic battle to extract their legitimate rights and win their demands, guaranteed by human rights conventions and the rights of prisoners of war.

16 August, Berlin: Emergency Protest for Muhammad Allan, Ahmad Sa’adat and Palestinian Prisoners

16 August 2015

Sunday, 16 August
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Pariser Platz, Berlin, Germany
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/400944453434485/

DEMO für den palästinensischen politischen Gefangenen Rechtsanwalt Muhammad Allan, der seit dem 6. November 2014 ohne Anklage und ohne Prozess in israelischer Haft ist und sich seit dem 14. Juni 2015 im Hungerstreik befindet. Der Zustand des 31-jährigen Juristen ist kritisch. Allan macht seinen Hungerstreik für alle politischen Gefangenen in israelischer Haft.
Er opfert sich auf für alle politischen Gefangenen.
Wir sollen ihn in diesen schweren Stunden nicht allein lassen und für ihn und für alle politischen Gefangenen demonstrieren.
Ahmad Saadat, der Generalsekretär der Volksfront für die Befreiung Palästinas (PFLP), hat am Dienstag, den 11. August 2015 einen unbegrenzten Hungerstreik begonnen, nachdem es bei den Verhandlungen mit der Gefängnisverwaltung keinen Fortschritt gab auf
Grund ihrer Unnachgiebigkeit gegenüber den Forderungen der Gefangenen. Hinzu kam, daß gemäß einer Anordnung des Militärs das Besuchsverbot für Familienangehörige des Vorsitzenden Saadat für weitere drei Monate verlängert wurde.
Die PFLP-Gefängnissektion bestätigte, daß die von Saadat angeführten Gefangenen der Front beschlossen haben, eine lange und schwierige
Schlacht mit der Besatzungsmacht zu schlagen, bei der es keine Regeln oder Vereinbarungen gibt nachdem alle Optionen erschöpft sind die
Besatzer zu einem Eingehen auf die Forderungen der Gefangenen zu bewegen.
Die Gefangenen der PFLP riefen die Massen unseres Volkes, die arabischen und muslimischen Gemeinschaften und Länder und die Kräfte von Gerechtigkeit und Freiheit in der Welt auf sich mit dem Kampf der Gefangenen zu solidarisieren und sie weitestgehend zu unterstützen bei Konfrontation und Standhaftigkeit rund um die Uhr gegenüber den Verantwortlichen von Gefängnis und Besatzungsmacht. Der Geist und die Tiefe der Solidarität gibt den Gefangenen Kraft den Kampf bis zur Erreichung ihrer Rechte fortzusetzen.
Die gefangenen Genossen hungerstreiken für die Forderung eines Endes des Verbots von Familienbesuchen palästinensischer Gefangener einschließlich ihres Vorsitzenden Genossen Sa´adat; weiter fordern sie medizinische Versorgung für kranke Gefangene, ein Ende der Politik willkürlicher Verhaftungen, Verbesserung der Haftbedingungen und ein Verbots von Razzien durch zionistische Spezialeinheiten.

Mohammed Allan, 31, was arrested from his home in Einabus village, in the occupied West Bank, by Israeli security forces on 6 November 2014. He was handcuffed and taken to his office in the city of Nablus, in the West Bank, and ordered to show files of clients he had represented. He was handed a six-month administrative detention order on 11 November. The Israeli authorities have not given any reasons to Mohammed Allan or his lawyer for his arrest and detention. His administrative detention was renewed for another six months on 5 May. He began a hunger strike on 16 June to demand an end to his detention. According to Palestinian human rights NGO Addameer, since the beginning of his hunger strike he has only consumed water.

The Israeli Prison Service informed Mohammed Allan’s lawyer on 7 August of their intention to submit a request to the Israeli District Court to authorize his force-feeding under new legislation allowing force-feeding of hunger-striking detainees. However, statements made by Israeli politicians, including the one responsible for promoting the bill, indicate it is particularly aimed at Palestinian detainees.

On 10 August, he was transferred to the intensive care unit of Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva, Israel. Later that day, as medical staff refused to force-feed him, he was moved to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel. Mohammed Allan continued to refuse medical examination and was chained to his hospital bed by a hand and a foot, despite being too weak to stand. It was reported on 14 August that he had lost consciousness.

Mohammed Allan told his lawyer on 12 August that he does not want to die, but to live a life of dignity.

The prison branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced their plan to launch a hunger strike on Tuesday, August 11, following the ongoing Zionist raids and attacks on Palestinian political prisoners, including imprisoned PFLP General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, and the renewed order denying family visits to Comrade Sa’adat.

PFLP prisoners in all Zionist prisons will launch their strike on Tuesday morning. They will launch their strike amid an atmosphere of confrontation and struggle in the prisons, where prisoners from fellow Palestinian factions and political forces are also waging hunger strikes to resist the Zionist attacks on the achievements and rights of the prisoners won through struggle and resistance over decades.

The PFLP Prison Branch statement:

The prison branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, headed by national leader Ahmad Sa’adat, will launch an open hunger strike on Tuesday [11 August], following a stalemate in the negotiations with the Prison administration, brought about by the Prison Service’s intransigence in response to the just demands of the prisoners. In addition, today a military order was issued extending the security prohibition against leader Sa’adat, denying him family visits for an additional three months.

The prison branch confirmed that the Front’s prisoners, led by Sa’adat, have decided to fight a long and difficult battle with the occupation which is not conditioned by any covenants or undertakings, after exhausting all options in order to impel the occupier to respond to the demands of the prisoners.

The PFLP prisoners called on the masses of our people, the Arab and Muslim communities and countries, and the forces of justice and freedom in the world to provide the widest support and solidarity to the struggle of the prisoners’ national movement in the battles of confrontation and steadfastness they are waging around the clock against the prison and intelligence officials of the occupation. The breadth and depth of solidarity gives prisoners inspiration to continue the struggle until their rights are achieved in full.

The imprisoned comrades will strike to demand an end to the prohibitions on family visits for Palestinian prisoners including the orders against Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat; and to demand medical care for sick prisoners, an end to the policy of administrative detention, improvements in conditions inside the prisons and a ban on invasions and raids by Zionist special units against the prisoners.

At the beginning of July, Israel was holding 5,442 Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, as well as nearly 1,000 Palestinians held for entering Israel “illegally,” according to statistics compiled by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

18 August, New York City: Emergency Protest for Muhammad Allan

15 August 2015

EMERGENCY PROTEST FOR MUHAMMAD ALLAN
Tuesday, August 18
4:00 – 7:30 PM
United Nations
1 United Nations Plz, New York, New York 10017
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1098084223554755/

Join us in solidarity with Muhammad Allan, a 31 year old Palestinian Lawyer who is being detained by israel without charge or trial. Allan has been hunger striking for his release as of June 14th, 2015. This hunger strike has went on for 60+ days and despite his loss of eyesight, hearing and all strength in his body- israel has made certain to keep his ankle and wrist cuffed to his hospital bed, as well as refuse his release.

The israeli parliament passed a bill at the end of July that allows the force-feeding of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners. Since then, Allan has been transferred to two different hospitals in effort by israel to have doctors force-feed him. Both hospitals refused to partake in this practice because it is widely acknowledged to be medically unethical, life threatening, as well as a form of torture.

Protest for his IMMEDIATE release and against the inhumane practice of force-feeding in front of the United Nations on Tuesday, August 18th, from 4:00PM-7:30PM.

Please share widely!

Organized by NYC Students for Justice in Palestine

National Lawyers Guild urges immediate release of hunger striking Palestinian lawyer Muhammed Allan

15 August 2015

The following statement and action alert was issued by the National Lawyers Guild in the United States. The National Lawyers Guild was formed in 1937 as the nation’s first racially integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.

The National Lawyers Guild urges the immediate release of hunger-striking Palestinian lawyer and administrative detainee, Muhammed Allan, as he nears death in his third month on open hunger strike. Allan is now in a coma and attached to a ventilator. He is threatened with force-feeding at any moment under the new Israeli “Law to Prevent Harm Caused by Hunger Strikers,” passed last month, which legalizes its use against hunger striking prisoners.

Force-feeding is cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment amounting to torture; this Israeli law – like the U.S. practice at Guantanamo Bay – has been subject to widespread international criticism and condemnation. Several Palestinian prisoners died after being force-fed in the 1980s.

Allan is currently in a critical medical condition. He lost consciousness late on Thursday night and is attached to a ventilator for artificial respiration; he previously suffered blurred vision, hearing loss, and was unable to walk. He has been engaged in a full hunger strike, consuming only water, rejecting vitamins, minerals and other supplements. Nonetheless, Allan remains shackled hand and foot to his hospital bed in Israel’s Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. To date, doctors have refused to force-feed Allan. The Israeli Medical Association has denounced the recently passed legislation and pledged that doctors will not implement the practice. “Forced-feeding is equivalent to torture and every physician has the right to refuse to force-feed a hunger striker against his or her will,” the IMA states in its Physician’s Guide to Treating the Detainee/ Prisoner on a Hunger Strike.

Allan, 31, is a lawyer from Einabous village near Nablus. He is held under administrative detention, without charge or trial, on the basis of secret evidence. Administrative detention orders result in imprisonment for a period of one to six months, and are indefinitely renewable. When Allan was arrested in November 2014, he was handcuffed, forcibly taken to his office in Nablus, and ordered to show files of clients he had represented, interfering with his attorney-client relationships and violating their confidentiality. He was ordered to a six-month period of detention; the renewal of the order against him prompted his current strike.

Under international human rights law, administrative detention can only be used on a case-by-case basis for “imperative reasons of security.” Israel’s systematic use of administrative detention, in which approximately 400 Palestinians are currently held, violates the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Force feeding is opposed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which stresses the importance of respecting the choices and preserving the dignity of detainees. The World Medical Association (WMA) adopts a similar position, as expressed in the 2006 revision of the Tokyo and Malta Declarations. The Malta Declaration of the World Health Organization states that “Any decisions lack moral force if made involuntarily by use of threats, peer pressure or coercion. Hunger strikers should not be forcibly given treatment they refuse. Forced feeding contrary to an informed and voluntary refusal is unjustifiable…Forcible feeding is never ethically acceptable. Even if intended to benefit, feeding accompanied by threats, coercion, force or use of physical restraints is a form of inhuman and degrading treatment. Equally unacceptable is the forced feeding of some detainees in order to intimidate or coerce other hunger strikers to stop fasting.”

The National Lawyers Guild urges the immediate release of Muhammed Allan from administrative detention and an end to the use of administrative detention by the Israeli state. Furthermore, the NLG calls for the overturn of the “Law to Prevent Harm Caused by Hunger Strikers,” legalizing force-feeding, and also reiterates its demand that the U.S. government end its use of force-feeding and hold those responsible for the torture of detainees accountable.

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Take Action:

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council, the Arab Association for Human Rights, Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel have called for urgent action on Allan’s case. The National Lawyers Guild joins their call (below) and also urges members and supporters to contact the White House and demand Allan’s freedom, and contact your member of Congress and urge them to cut off U.S. aid to Israel because of its practices of administrative detention and torture.

Please call the White House (001-202-456-1111) now and tell Barack Obama to demand that Israel immediately free Mohammed Allan.

You can find the telephone, fax and web contact information for your member of Congress at contactingthecongress.org. When calling your member of Congress, please keep the following points in mind:

Muhammed Allan is held without charge or trial. He is one of approximately 400 Palestinians facing this violation of his rights today.
Force feeding, when practiced by the US or by Israel, is a form of inhumane and degrading treatment amounting to torture.
US aid to Israel directly funds the Israeli military responsible for the imprisonment of Allan and the use of administrative detention.
The US should end its aid to Israel, because Israel is responsible for gross and systematic violations of Palestinian human rights, in this case through the policy of administrative detention.

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Excerpted Statement from the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council, the Arab Association for Human Rights, Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel

Call for Urgent Action

Palestinian Administrative Detainee on Hunger Strike in Critical Condition

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council, the Arab Association for Human Rights, Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel call for urgent action to save the life of Palestinian administrative detainee and attorney Mohammad Allan, who has been on hunger strike for 57 days in protest of his administrative detention without charge or trial since 6 November 2014. Mohammad Allan is currently detained in Barzilai hospital in Askalan. The Israeli Prison Services transferred Allan from Soroka hospital on 10 August after informing Allan’s lawyer of their intention to seek authorization to force-feed him, which was met by the refusal of the medical staff at Soroka hospital to carry out any forced examinations or treatment or Mr. Allan. Mahmoud Allan is currently in a dire physical state and in a very critical condition.

Adv. Samer Sama’an from Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association visited Mr. Allan in Barizlai hospital on 12 August 2015. Mr. Allan confirmed that he seeks to live, but a life of dignity and freedom…Despite his very fragile and critical situation [of], the Israeli Prison Service still insists to keep Mr. Allan shackled by foot and arm to what could potentially become his deathbed in a very inhumane treatment and gesture….

The undersigned organizations warn that Mohammad Allan has reached a critically advanced medical condition and now may be nearing death. The continued arbitrary detention of Mohammad Allan under administrative detention violates international norms and standards as enshrined under the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits the systematic use of administrative detention by the occupying power against protected persons and limits its use for imperative security reasons and according to legal procedures which guarantee the right of a fair trial. The continued detention of Mohammad Allan endangers his life and violates his most basic rights to fair trial and human dignity.

The undersigned organizations further stress that any forced treatment, coercion or feeding of hunger striker Mohammad Allan while he is conscious and mentally competent constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Any medical coercion on Allan despite his refusal may cause the opposite effect and result in severe health problems and even potentially jeopardize Allan’s life, as evident in Israel’s previous attempts to force-feed Palestinian hunger strikers during the 1980s, which resulted in several deaths. Force-feeding violates medical ethics as it administers forceful treatment to a patient against his will, and is considered a form of torture. The World Medical Association addressed the Prime Minister of Israel, stating the following: “Force-feeding is violent, very painful and absolutely in opposition to the principle of individual autonomy. It is a degrading, inhumane treatment, amounting to torture. But worse, it can be dangerous and is the most unsuitable approach to save lives.” Article 7 of the 1975 World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo explicitly states that doctors are not allowed to force-feed hunger strikers.

The undersigned organizations condemn Israel’s policy to allow the deterioration in the health condition of Mohammad Allan and refusing to negotiate his release in an attempt to escalate the current situation so as to proceed with force-feeding Mr. Allan and to undermine the use of hunger strikes as a non-violent form of protest by Palestinian prisoners and detainees who have no other means to protest and bring attention to the flagrant human rights violations they face in Israeli prisons. Depriving Palestinian detainees and prisoners from their fundamental right to peaceful protest by the means of hunger strikes is a major setback to the just demands of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons who are demanding justice, dignity and basic rights.

We hereby urge immediate action including writing to relevant authorities, decision-makers, international bodies, diplomatic missions, and United Nations representative offices and agencies to pressure Israeli authorities to stop the use of administrative detention, to dismiss their plans to force-feed Mr. Allan and to put an end to his arbitrary detention in blatant violation of international human rights and humanitarian law guarantees and standards– in order to save his life.

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