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Join the Social Media Storm to #EndAdministrativeDetention on Friday, 30 September

There are currently 30 Palestinian prisoners on an open hunger strike to bring an end to administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial. They are putting their bodies and lives on the line to take a stand for freedom and against this arbitrary form of detention used to routinely attack Palestinian community, student, farmer and labor leaders. Join us this Friday, 30 September for a social media storm in support of Palestinian prisoners under the hashtag #EndAdministrativeDetention.

Friday, 30 September
10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 5 pm UTC – 7 pm central Europe – 8 pm Palestine
Use the hashtag #EndAdministrativeDetention
Sample tweets and resources: https://bit.ly/ourdecisionisfreedom

Thirty Palestinian prisoners jailed without charge or trial under Israeli “administrative detention” have launched a hunger strike on Sunday, 25 September to demand an end to the policy. #EndAdministrativeDetention Share on X “The beings of this earth deserve life, and to the enemies of humanity, we say on this land that it is worth fighting so that we can live, and in the context of our continuous struggle, we embark today on an open hunger strike.” #EndAdministrativeDetention Share on X

Thirty Palestinian prisoners jailed without charge or trial under Israeli “administrative detention” have launched a hunger strike on Sunday, 25 September to demand an end to the policy, which is currently jailing over 740 Palestinian prisoners under “secret evidence.”

The Palestinian prisoners announced their hunger strike under the slogan “Our Decision is Freedom”, noting that they had rejected a request from the Zionist prison administration to postpone their action until Wednesday. They have now been moved into solitary confinement cells as a punishment for their brave stance for freedom. We will make clear: They are not alone! 

There are currently approximately 780 Palestinian prisoners jailed under administrative detention orders out of a total of approximately 4,650 total Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails. Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist project. Detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time on the basis of “secret evidence” denied to both the detainee and their lawyer. These orders are indefinitely renewable, with many Palestinians spending years at a time jailed under administrative detention, and neither they nor their families and communities are ever sure when they will be released, an additional form of collective punishment and psychological torture.

The first 30 administrative detainees who began the strike today are listed below, with additional prisoners scheduled to join in the battle as it continues. They include community leaders like Nidal Abu Aker and Ghassan Zawahreh, who have spent years in administrative detention; French-Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender Salah Hammouri, student organizers like Zaid Qaddoumi, and a number of others:

1. Nidal Abu Aker, 54, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 1 August 2022.
2. Ehab Masoud, 50, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 17 October 2021.
3. Asim Al Kaabi, 44, of Balata refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 24 August 2022.
4. Ahmed Hajjaj, 44, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 24 August 2022.
5. Thaer Taha, 43, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 1 May 2022.
6. Rami Fadayel, 43, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 5 September 2022.
7. Lotfi Salah, 43, of Bethlehem
8. Salah Hammouri, 37, of Jerusalem, imprisoned without charge or trial since 7 March 2022.
9. Ghassan Zawahreh, 40, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial since 19 August 2022.
10. Kanaan Kanaan, 30, of Hizma, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 3 August 2022.
11. Ashraf Abu Aram, 36, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 7 June 2021.
12. Ghassan Karajah, 32, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 11 August 2022.
13. Saleh Abu Alia, 32, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 4 March 2022.
14. Awad Kanaan, 32, of Hizma, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 2 February 2022.
15. Leith Kassaberah, 31, of Beit Anan, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 1 February 2022
16. Saleh Al-Jaidi, 30, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 4 August 2022.
17. Basil Mezher, 29, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 12 November 2021.
18. Majd Al-Khawaja, 28, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 14 June 2022.
19. Jihad Shreiteh, 28, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 8 May 2022.
20. Haitham Siyaj, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 3 November 2021.
21. Mustafa Al-Hasanat, 29, of Bethlehem, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 3 February 2022.
22. Azmi Shreiteh al Barghouthi, 23, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 8 May 2022.
23. Muhammad Abu Ghazi, 22, of Arroub refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 13 March 2022.
24. Ahmed Al-Kharouf, 22 of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 13 June 2022.
25. Nasrallah Barghouti, 22 of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention.
26. Muhammad Fuqaha, 22, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 15 March 2022.
27. Tamer Al-Hajouj, 22, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 15 March 2022.
28. Raghad Shamroukh, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 12 September 2022.
29. Zaid Qaddoumi, of Beit Jala, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 16 September 2022.
30. Senar Hamad, 20, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 18 April 2022.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine and the prisoners’ struggle to join the campaign to end administrative detention and to support these valiant prisoners putting their bodies and lives on the line to resist and struggle for a liberated Palestine, through their hunger strike for freedom.

 

 

30 Palestinian prisoners launch hunger strike to #EndAdministrativeDetention

Thirty Palestinian prisoners jailed without charge or trial under Israeli “administrative detention” have launched a hunger strike on Sunday, 25 September to demand an end to the policy, which is currently jailing over 740 Palestinian prisoners under “secret evidence.”

The Palestinian prisoners announced their hunger strike under the slogan “Our Decision is Freedom”, noting that they had rejected a request from the Zionist prison administration to postpone their action until Wednesday. The hunger strikers were met with swift solidarity from many around the world, including Tweets from celebrities like actor Mark Ruffalo and a solidarity strike from Palestinian political leader and resistance symbol Leila Khaled. 

Palestinian prisoners’ institutions and family members of the hunger strikers, including the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, read out a message from the hunger strikers at a press conference outside the Ofer military prison, where many administrative detainees are held:

The beings of this earth deserve life, and to the enemies of humanity, we say on this land that it is worth fighting sot hat we can live, and in the context of our continuous struggle, we embark today on an open hunger strike. Our demand is: clean air, a sky without bars, a space of freedom, and a family gathering around the table. The demand of the occupation is to separate us from our social reality and our national and humanitarian role, and turn us into dry fragments. Between our demand and their demand, the occupying power carries out the abhorrent policy of administrative detention.

We are the sons of the land, the heirs of Abu Ammar, al-Hakim, al-Yassin, al-Shiqaqi and al-Qassim, and the heirs of all the martyrs. Wherever we find that space of struggle, we cut the path and raise the sword, realizing what awaits us: repression, abuse, isolation, confiscation of our clothes and photos of our children, being thrown into cement cells devoid of everything except for our bodies and our pain, constant searches, ongoing transfers, no cigarettes, no bottles of water, we can barely catch a breath of air. And yet, despite the slow killing, we announce our cry. Rejecting injustice and struggling against it is food for our souls flying in the sky of the homeland. Through this struggle, and with the support of our resisting people, we will create a bright tomorrow.

You, who are rooted in the land, as we leave the prison rooms for the cells and isolation wards, we offer our apologies and our thanks to you, our apologies to our mothers, fathers, wives, children and loved ones for the pain that accompanies you throughout the days of the strike. We say to you: Our victory lies in your smile, and our apologies to all who will be harmed for their solidarity by the brutality and barbarism of the occupation. We extend our thanks to all the forces that are working to support us and achieve our victory.

Free people everywhere, waging this battle against administrative detention, which we hope will continue with the joining of all administrative detainees, is an important link in the chain of struggle to end this heinous crime. This is being carried on the shoulders of a group of strugglers who have accepted to raise their voice against the injustice and crimes of the occupation, and on the road to ending this arbitrary policy is renewing our Palestinian revolutionary morals, which the forces of oppression have not been able to neutralize or confiscate. The will makes the impossible possible, and with the will of our people, we will win.

Leila Khaled, Palestinian resistance icon and member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, announced that she was on hunger strike in support of the strikers. In a statement, she saluted the prisoners: “You are on the front lines confronting this criminal fascist enemy. With your strike, you will grab your freedom and the freedom of your people. Glory to you!”

There are currently approximately 780 Palestinian prisoners jailed under administrative detention orders out of a total of approximately 4,650 total Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails. Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist project. Detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time on the basis of “secret evidence” denied to both the detainee and their lawyer. These orders are indefinitely renewable, with many Palestinians spending years at a time jailed under administrative detention, and neither they nor their families and communities are ever sure when they will be released, an additional form of collective punishment and psychological torture.

The first 30 administrative detainees who began the strike today are listed below, with additional prisoners scheduled to join in the battle as it continues. They include community leaders like Nidal Abu Aker and Ghassan Zawahreh, who have spent years in administrative detention; French-Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender Salah Hammouri, student organizers like Zaid Qaddoumi, and a number of others:

1. Nidal Abu Aker, 54, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 1 August 2022.
2. Ehab Masoud, 50, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 17 October 2021.
3. Asim Al Kaabi, 44, of Balata refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 24 August 2022.
4. Ahmed Hajjaj, 44, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 24 August 2022.
5. Thaer Taha, 43, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 1 May 2022.
6. Rami Fadayel, 43, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 5 September 2022.
7. Lotfi Salah, 43, of Bethlehem
8. Salah Hammouri, 37, of Jerusalem, imprisoned without charge or trial since 7 March 2022.
9. Ghassan Zawahreh, 40, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial since 19 August 2022.
10. Kanaan Kanaan, 30, of Hizma, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 3 August 2022.
11. Ashraf Abu Aram, 36, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 7 June 2021.
12. Ghassan Karajah, 32, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 11 August 2022.
13. Saleh Abu Alia, 32, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 4 March 2022.
14. Awad Kanaan, 32, of Hizma, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 2 February 2022.
15. Leith Kassaberah, 31, of Beit Anan, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 1 February 2022
16. Saleh Al-Jaidi, 30, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 4 August 2022.
17. Basil Mezher, 29, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 12 November 2021.
18. Majd Al-Khawaja, 28, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 14 June 2022.
19. Jihad Shreiteh, 28, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 8 May 2022.
20. Haitham Siyaj, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 3 November 2021.
21. Mustafa Al-Hasanat, 29, of Bethlehem, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 3 February 2022.
22. Azmi Shreiteh al Barghouthi, 23, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 8 May 2022.
23. Muhammad Abu Ghazi, 22, of Arroub refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 13 March 2022.
24. Ahmed Al-Kharouf, 22 of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 13 June 2022.
25. Nasrallah Barghouti, 22 of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention.
26. Muhammad Fuqaha, 22, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 15 March 2022.
27. Tamer Al-Hajouj, 22, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 15 March 2022.
28. Raghad Shamroukh, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 12 September 2022.
29. Zaid Qaddoumi, of Beit Jala, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 16 September 2022.
30. Senar Hamad, 20, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 18 April 2022.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine and the prisoners’ struggle to join the campaign to end administrative detention and to support these valiant prisoners putting their bodies and lives on the line to resist and struggle for a liberated Palestine, through their hunger strike for freedom.

Download these distributable flyers and posters to highlight the struggle to free Palestinian prisoners:

1. Mobilize actions, demonstrations and creative interventions – Take to the streets to defend the Palestinian people and their resistance! As was made clear during the Unity Intifada/Seif al-Quds in May 2021, there is a vast depth of support for the Palestinian people everywhere around the world, including inside the imperialist powers. It is our responsibility to act and make it impossible to continue their support for the crimes against the Palestinian people.

2. Build the boycott of Israel – This is a critical moment to escalate the campaign to isolate the Israeli regime at all levels, including through boycott campaigns that target the occupation’s economic exploitation of the Palestinian land, people and resources as well as those international corporations, like HP and G4S, that profit from the ongoing colonization of Palestine.

 

 

 

Our decision is freedom: Names of 30 Palestinian prisoners to launch hunger strike 25 September

Thirty Palestinian prisoners jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention have announced that they will launch an open hunger strike to bring an end to the practice on Sunday, 25 September. In a statement by the Prison Branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the prisoners going on hunger strike under the slogan, “Our Decision is Freedom,” listed their names.

The statement further noted that the Israeli occupation prison authorities are attempting to communicate or negotiate with the administrative detainees, and that they are committed to their demand to end their detention without charge or trial.

There are currently over 740 Palestinian prisoners jailed under administrative detention orders out of a total of approximately 4,650 total Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails. Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist project. Detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time on the basis of “secret evidence” denied to both the detainee and their lawyer. These orders are indefinitely renewable, with many Palestinians spending years at a time jailed under administrative detention, and neither they nor their families and communities are ever sure when they will be released, an additional form of collective punishment and psychological torture.

The first 30 administrative detainees scheduled to begin the strike tomorrow, 25 September, are listed below, with additional prisoners scheduled to join in the battle as it continues. They include community leaders like Nidal Abu Aker and Ghassan Zawahreh, who have spent years in administrative detention; French-Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender Salah Hammouri, student organizers like Zaid Qaddoumi, and a number of others:

1. Nidal Abu Aker.
2. Ehab Masoud.
3. Asim Al Kaabi.
4. Ahmed Hajjaj.
5. Thaer Taha.
6. Ramy Fadayel.
7. Lotfi Salah.
8. Salah Hammouri
9. Ghassan Zawahreh.
10. Kanaan Kanaan.
11. Ashraf Abu Aram.
12. Ghassan Karajah.
13. Saleh Abu Alia.
14. Awad Kanaan.
15. Leith Kassaberah.
16. Saleh Al-Jaidi.
17. Basil Mezher.
18. Majdi Al-Khawaja.
19. Jihad Shreiteh.
20. Haitham Siyaj.
21. Mustafa Al-Hasanat.
22. Azmi Shreiteh.
23. Muhammad Abu Ghazi.
24. Ahmed Al-Kharouf.
25. Nasrallah Barghouti.
26. Muhammad Fuqaha.
27. Tamer Al-Hajouj.
28. Raghad Shamroukh.
29. Zaid Qaddoumi.
30. Senar Hamad.

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society announced a press conference on the hunger strike on Sunday, 25 September at 12 pm Jerusalem time outside the Ofer military prison.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine and the prisoners’ struggle to join the campaign to end administrative detention and to support these valiant prisoners putting their bodies and lives on the line to resist and struggle for a liberated Palestine, through their hunger strike for freedom.

Download these distributable flyers and posters to highlight the struggle to free Palestinian prisoners:

1. Mobilize actions, demonstrations and creative interventions – Take to the streets to defend the Palestinian people and their resistance! As was made clear during the Unity Intifada/Seif al-Quds in May 2021, there is a vast depth of support for the Palestinian people everywhere around the world, including inside the imperialist powers. It is our responsibility to act and make it impossible to continue their support for the crimes against the Palestinian people.

2. Build the boycott of Israel – This is a critical moment to escalate the campaign to isolate the Israeli regime at all levels, including through boycott campaigns that target the occupation’s economic exploitation of the Palestinian land, people and resources as well as those international corporations, like HP and G4S, that profit from the ongoing colonization of Palestine.

21 September, Ottawa: Film Screening – 1948 – Creation and Catastrophe

Join Samidoun Ottawa, together with the Palestinian Youth Movement and OPIRG Carleton for a screening of “1948: Creation and Catastrophe.”

This film reveals the shocking events of a pivotal year to the Palestinian struggle, 1948. For the eyewitnesses featured, this documentary was a last chance to narrate their first-hand accounts of the violence that ensued during the transition from British to Zionist occupation in 1948.

We hope to see you there!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
6:30 PM
SAW GALLERY, 67 NICHOLAS ST, OTTAWA

Thirty Palestinian prisoners announce plans for hunger strike to #EndAdministrativeDetention

Thirty Palestinian prisoners jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention have announced they will launch a hunger strike on 25 September 2022. The strike, under the slogan, “Our decision is freedom…our strike is freedom,” will demand an end to imprisonment without charge or trial.

There are currently over 740 Palestinian prisoners jailed under administrative detention orders out of a total of approximately 4,650 total Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails. Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist project. Detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable, with many Palestinians spending years at a time jailed under administrative detention, and neither they nor their families and communities are ever sure when they will be released, an additional form of collective punishment and psychological torture.

The Prison Branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a statement saying that “These 30 prisoners have spent nearly 200 years in administrative detention taken together. Two hundred years of captivity without charge or trial at the whim of the occupation intelligence officers….hundreds of years, during which the occupation prevented us from embracing our families or seeing our children as they were born or growing up. We never celebrated their birthdays, we did not accompany them on their first school day. We did not share the memories of their graduation celebration, and the intelligence officers then come to tell us, ‘We will deprive you of the joy of the marriage of your sons and daughters.’ Two hundred years in which we lost fathers, mothers and brothers, and our wives learned that they had married a ghost living in the darkness of the cells at the request of a fascist jailer.”

The administrative detainees further drew attention to the repeated imposition of administrative detention on prisoners who had been released, noting that many are released for only a few months before once again being thrown into arbitrary detention without charge or trial. Indeed, on Wednesday, 21 September, former administrative detainee Hisham Abu Hawash, who won his freedom in February 2022 after a lengthy hunger strike, was seized once again by occupation forces, as well as two other former long-term hunger strikers who won their freedom from administrative detention, Ayman al-Tabeesh and Adel Hreibat.

The detainees’ statement noted “It is in fact a life sentence, intersperssed with periods of freedom at a rate of two months or perhaps a bit more between two arrests of two years each, i.e., between four years of detention and four months of freedom and perhaps less, so we have a month of freedom for each year of detention.”

“We will give up our crumbs of bread and tighten our belts against our stomachs. We are nourished by dignity, and the tools of oppression cannot take this away. We breathe freedom in the face of injustice, racism and the policy of slow killing. We raise our voices and our fists, and declare: ‘Take our flesh and clench your brutal fist, torture us, bind us and spread the smell of death around us, kill us and seize the bodies of our martyrs, steal everything…but know that our struggle continues, and we will sow joy, life and hope, and our struggle for freedom and humanity free of torment will not stop.'”

They urged Palestinians, Arabs and international forces to come together to build support for the battle of the administrative detainees and the prisoners’ movement. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine and the prisoners’ struggle to join the campaign to end administrative detention and to support these valiant prisoners putting their bodies and lives on the line to resist and struggle for a liberated Palestine, through their hunger strike for freedom.

Download these distributable flyers and posters to highlight the struggle to free Palestinian prisoners:

1. Mobilize actions, demonstrations and creative interventions – Take to the streets to defend the Palestinian people and their resistance! As was made clear during the Unity Intifada/Seif al-Quds in May 2021, there is a vast depth of support for the Palestinian people everywhere around the world, including inside the imperialist powers. It is our responsibility to act and make it impossible to continue their support for the crimes against the Palestinian people.

2. Build the boycott of Israel – This is a critical moment to escalate the campaign to isolate the Israeli regime at all levels, including through boycott campaigns that target the occupation’s economic exploitation of the Palestinian land, people and resources as well as those international corporations, like HP and G4S, that profit from the ongoing colonization of Palestine.

 

26 September, Vancouver: Turtle Island to Palestine – Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Liberation

Monday, 26 September
7 pm
1803 E 1st Ave
Vancouver
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/639249320892472/

From Turtle Island to Palestine! Join us for an in-depth panel discussion on settler colonialism and indigenous liberation.

Panelists will discuss questions like the relationship between settler colonialism and imperialism, the Canadian state’s support for colonialism in Palestine, and future directions for indigenous liberation movements on this land and in Palestine.

This event is taking place on the unceded and occupied territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples. The organizers stand in full solidarity and support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination and with the ongoing movements to defend land, water and Indigenous peoples from plunder and settler colonialism.

Questions? Contact us at vancouver@samidoun.net!

Video: “Exposing Israel’s Assassination Policy” event in Vancouver

On Sunday, 28 August, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Vancouver organized an event on the Israeli assassination policy in Palestine historically and at present. From the August assassinations of Tayseer al-Jabari and Khaled Mansour in the Unity of the Fields battle in Gaza to the historical assassinations of Abu Ali Mustafa and Naji al-Ali (on 27 August 2001 and 29 August 1987), this assassination policy has aimed to undermine the Palestinian resistance and revolutionary movement by targeting its political, artistic, civil and military leadership.

The event included presentations by Javid of Samidoun Vancouver, who spoke about the constellation of forces that the Palestinian resistance confronts, including the Zionist project, imperialist powers and Arab reactionary forces, including the Palestinian Authority, and their relation to the assassination project targeting Palestinian revolutionaries.

Nelli of BAYAN Canada spoke about the policy of extrajudicial killings and assassinations targeting the Filipino national democratic movement, including lawyers, health workers and student organizers. She underlined the connections between imperialism and the policy of extrajudicial killing in the Philippines, connecting it to the Palestinian struggle.

Khaled Barakat of the Masar Badil, Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, gave the main presentation of the evening, providing a historical look at the assassination policy as well as a political analysis of its goals and the ongoing responses and evolution of the Palestinian resistance to confront this policy. He discussed the contributions and role of many Palestinian leaders who had been targeted by the occupation, from Ghassan Kanafani and Wadie’ Haddad to Fathi Shiqaqi and Ahmad al-Jabari, and stressed that in order to bring this policy to an end once and for all, it must be made costly for the occupier.

Posters of martyrs of the Palestinian struggle who had been targeted for assassination were hung around the room, while participants received buttons honouring the martyrs. Participants discussed the importance of taking action to hold the occupation accountable as well as challenging the criminalization of resistance, such as demanding the Canadian government scrap its so-called “terrorist entities” list, which designates Palestinian resistance organizations as “terrorist” for defending their land and people.

Samidoun Vancouver will organize its next event on Monday, 26 September, a panel discussion on settler colonialism, indigenous resistance and liberation struggle, from Turtle Island to Palestine, with Palestinian and Indigenous strugglers and solidarity activists. The event will take place at 7 pm at 1803 E. 1st Ave in Vancouver, and all are welcome to attend.

Watch the full video of the event, above and on YouTube.

Free Hafez Huraini! Call on Canadian diplomats to demand release of imprisoned Palestinian land defender

On 12 September 2022, Hafez Huraini, along with one other local resident of the small Palestinian village of Atuwani and one international, were attacked by armed Israeli settlers while working in the community garden. During the attack, Hafez sustained multiple fractures to his arms and hands. Despite his severe injuries, he was seized and detained by occupation forces and accused of injuring one of the settlers who had been physically attacking him, by defending himself. Hafez Huraini is scheduled to be brought back before an occupation military court on Wednesday, 21 September.

Join Just Peace Advocates, the Canadian BDS Coalition, Samidoun, the Good Shepherd Collective and Palestinian and Jewish Unity to demand newly appointed Canadian diplomat in Ramallah, David Da Silva, take action to free Hafez Huraini. 

Click here to write a letter directly to Da Silva (one minute action!) 

Atuwani, and the larger area of Masafer Yatta, have long been the target of Israel’s settler-colonial movement. On May 4th, 2022, the Israeli High Court gave its approval for the ethnic cleansing of 8 villages across Masafer Yatta, consisting of 1,200 people — the majority of which are children.

Hafez is currently in Ofer, Military Detention Center, Ramallah district, under interrogation. On Thursday, September 15, the Israeli Ofer Military Court extended his detention for five more days in interrogation. On September 19 his detention was extended for three days with a court date tomorrow, September 21.

Huraini is one of the most prominent land defenders fighting to protect Masafer Yatta, and he and his fellow villagers are regularly attacked by settlers and soldiers. The arrest of Hafez Huraini is not only an attempt to imprison one of the leaders of the land defense movement in Masafer Yatta but to further the confiscation of Palestinian land.

Click here to write a letter directly to Da Silva (one minute action!) to demand justice and freedom for Hafez Huraini!

Ask him to take all actions at his disposal to ensure Israel’s immediate and unconditional release of Palestinian human rights defender Hafez Huraini.

Ask him to take part as observer at the hearings of Hafez Huraini’s trial by the military courts.

Call on him to publicly condemn Israel for its policy of persecution and arbitrary arrest of human rights defenders, like Hafez Huraini, and to condemn the May 4th, 2022 ruling from the Israeli High Court for the ethnic cleansing of 8 villages across Masafer Yatta, consisting of 1,200 people — the majority of which are children.

Two Palestinian student leaders jailed without charge or trial #FreePalestinianStudents

On Friday, September 16, Israeli occupation forces seized 23 Palestinian students — part of the Progressive Democratic Student Pole, the leftist student organization at Bir Zeit University, while they were on a group trip to Aboud village west of Ramallah. Occupation forces then kept 11 jailed and under interrogation for several days until Monday, 19 September, when eight of the remaining students were released, while two leaders of the Progressive Democratic Student Pole, Muath Botmeh, the Coordinator of the Student Pole, and Zaid Qaddoumi , the Secretary of the Student Pole, were ordered jailed without trial under “administrative detention.”

Meanwhile, fellow Palestinian student Ibrahim al-Nabali remains detained and will be brought before an occupation military court on Wednesday, 21 September.

Botmeh and Qaddoumi are now among over 740 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of a total of 4,650 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons. Currently, 30 administrative detainees have announced that they plan to launch a collective hunger strike in the coming days to bring an end to this policy of detention without charge or trial.

Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist project. Detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable, with many Palestinians spending years at a time jailed under administrative detention, and neither they nor their families and communities are ever sure when they will be released, an additional form of collective punishment and psychological torture.

Botmeh and Qaddoumi are among hundreds of Palestinian students, including dozens from Bir Zeit University alone, jailed by the Israeli occupation.

On Tuesday, 20 September, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra — a member organization of the Samidoun Network — held a Palestine stand at the campus of Jean Jaurès University in Toulouse, France, to welcome students back to school.

The stand included a large banner calling for the release of all imprisoned Palestinian students as well as a sign calling for the release of Botmeh and Qaddoumi. Organizers distributed hundreds of flyers and stickers to students, receiving an enthusiastic welcome.

Almost 40 students came to the stand to write cards of support to be sent to the imprisoned students, their families and fellow students. One young Algerian woman wrote, “Militant greetings and love to our heroes, you are the symbols of sumoud and strength. You will soon be victorious inshAllah, may God make my children heroes like you.”

Another student wrote, “Continue your fight to obtain your freedom with all courage and with all of our support from the University of Toulouse.” A young Syrian student wrote: “We are with Palestine, even if we do not have Palestinian blood: Palestine is our homeland.”

As noted in the Free Palestinian Students campaign supported by hundreds of Palestinian, Arab and international organizations,

“The work of student organizing, from holding book fairs to organizing events and participating in student elections, is criminalized by the Israeli occupation. Still more students are detained for joining demonstrations or posting on their social media profiles.

Palestinian students have been seized by Israeli occupation forces and abducted for their participation in the student movement in their homes, at their workplaces and on their campuses.

Once arrested, Palestinian students are routinely subjected to torture under interrogation — subjected to stress positions and stretched out over chairs, suspended from walls and forced to stand on tiptoe, deprived of sleep, cuffed and pressured on injured limbs, and beaten.

Palestinian students may be sent to administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial, indefinitely renewable in six-month periods. Palestinians routinely spend years jailed with no charges, no trial and no real challenge to the deprivation of their rights. They may be brought before Israeli military courts, which convict over 99% of the Palestinians charged there.

One of the most common charges is “membership in a prohibited organization,” typically referring to the student blocs. These represent the full spectrum of Palestinian politics. They organize lectures, book fairs, rallies and other campus events and participate in student elections. The charge sheets often refer to these standard activities of campus life, which are widely interpreted as a barometer for broader Palestinian political opinion.

The targeting Palestinian students is an attack on Palestinian futures. It is a systematic attempt to undermine the capacity of young Palestinians to organize with one another for a liberated future for their people: One free of colonization, apartheid and occupation.”

Take action to support imprisoned Palestinian students:

Writing Solidarity Letters

Palestinian prisoners and detainees repeatedly report that receiving letters from supporters around the world boosts morale and provides them with support. Israel wants to isolate Palestinian student leaders by keeping them behind bars, and letters help to break their isolation. This is a simple activity that can be done with physical distancing or combined with other prisoner support efforts. Contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net for a physical mailing address, or send us your letters — Samidoun in Occupied Palestine will share directly with the families and lawyers of detained students. 

Adopt a Prisoner

Share the stories of Palestinian student detainees with your community by “adopting” a prisoner. Share their stories, write letters to them and include their name and photo in your activities. Above, we’ve presented 25 student prisoners, and we’ll be continuing to share their stories and photos throughout this campaign. Please contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net for even more info on your organization’s adopted prisoner. 

Boycott Israel! Build the Academic Boycott

The academic boycott of Israel is a global call from Palestinian organizations, including student and faculty unions. As noted by the American Studies Association, “Israeli academic institutions function as a central part of a system that has denied Palestinians their basic rights.  Palestinian students face ongoing discrimination, including the suppression of Palestinian cultural events, and there is sanctioning and ongoing surveillance of Palestinian students and faculty who protest Israeli policies. Israeli universities have been a direct party to the annexation of Palestinian land. Armed soldiers patrol Israeli university campuses, and some have been trained at Israeli universities in techniques to suppress protestors.”

As noted by the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, “The academic boycott calls for an end to collaboration with and normalization of Israeli academic institutions, which are mostly state-controlled as well as complicit with Israeli occupation and apartheid. The overwhelming majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence. No Israeli academic institution or organization has ever taken an official collective stance in opposition to the Israeli state’s occupation and wars.

Students and faculty can play an important role in supporting the academic boycott and standing in solidarity with Palestinian students and academics whose right to education and academic freedom is denied by Israel. They can do so by organizing a range of activities and campaigns; for example:

  • Opposing Study Abroad in Israel programs that are based in Israeli academic institutions  and in doing so, exposing the complicity of Israeli universities with occupation and apartheid. Palestinian students in Israeli universities are also routinely subjected to racial harassment, surveillance, censorship,and disciplining .Such campaigns can highlight the restrictions on the freedom of travel and violations of academic freedom of Palestinian scholars and students as well as the lack of freedom experienced by Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim international students and scholars, who face restrictions when attempting to travel through Israeli borders for study, research, or academic exchange.
  • Passing a resolution in your academic association or student government society or faculty or graduate student union in support of the academic boycott.
  • Challenging the collaboration between academic programs at UScampuses and Israeli academic institutions and research institutes as a violation of the academic boycott.
  • Asking your university to support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
  • Protesting talks by Israeli state officials or official representatives of Israeli academic institutions such as presidents, rectors or deans.
  • Opposing programs on campus to address the “Middle East conflict” that contract with anti-Palestinian organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) or the Simon Wiesenthal Center (Museum of Tolerance).Such organizations are also often involved in diversity and dialogue programs on campus and partner with student affairs offices.
  • Asking your administration or President/Chancellor to issue a public statement censuring Israeli destruction of Palestinian schools and universities and interference with Palestinian education, archives and re-search centers, for example, during the many wars on Gaza, and on an ongoing basis throughout occupied Palestine.
  • Organizing teach-ins or events with campus and community organizations at which the campaign for the economic, cultural and academic boy–cott of Israel can be fully and openly discussed, in addition to divestment.”

Protest, Rally and Organize

Organize a protest or direct action! The United States, Canada, EU states, Australia and Britain, among others, provide ongoing military, economic, diplomatic and political support to Israel to continue the repression of Palestinian students. Protest on your campus or in your city, highlighting government and media complicity, or act and organize at Israeli embassies, corporations and institutions in your area. Bring our materials to highlight the student prisoners’ situation while rallying for Palestinian liberation. We will be producing stickers and postcards for this campaign – email samidoun@samidoun.net to order some for your organization!

Join the Social Media March to #FreePalestinianStudents

You can support Palestinian students on social media as well. Use our materials and student prisoner photos on your individual or group social media pages, on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Take a selfie or a group photo with our posters or just post these images with a message of your own. Use the hashtag #FreePalestinianStudents.

Pass a Resolution

Academic associations, labor unions and student governments have  passed resolutions  calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, including divestment from complicit corporations and the academic boycott of Israel. Large student coalitions have been built to oppose racist police and investment in arms dealers and environmental destruction. Include the student prisoners in your resolution or pass a resolution specifically calling for freedom for imprisoned Palestinian students. Use the information in the  call  and  resources  to build your resolution!  For further support, email  samidoun@samidoun.net.

Palestinian Authority abducts resistance strugglers in Nablus: Rising confrontation challenges security coordination

Image: Quds News

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, 20 September, Palestinian Authority “security” forces — working in line with the policy of “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation – abducted two Palestinian strugglers, both labeled as “wanted” by the occupation forces, Musab Shtayyeh and Amid Tabileh, in occupied Nablus. As the Palestinian people rose up to confront these attacks, the same PA “security” forces shot dead Firas Fares Yaish, 53. Now, Musab Shtayyeh has been transferred to the PA’s infamous Jericho Prison (where numerous political detainees and resistance fighters targeted by security coordination have been and currently are held), passing through occupation checkpoints and indicating that Shtayyeh’s detention has clearly been coordinated by the occupation. In response, Shtayyeh has already launched an open hunger strike.

The arrest of Shtayyeh (a former prisoner of the Israeli occupation) and Tabileh and the killing of Yaish has sparked tremendous outrage among Palestinians, who have taken to the streets against the PA and its policies of security coordination — essentially, collaboration with the Zionist occupation. Palestinian Authority security forces receive various forms of funding and training from the United States, the European Union and Canada precisely because of their role in suppressing and undermining Palestinian resistance in the interests of the occupation. The Palestinian resistance organizations throughout occupied Palestine and in diaspora have demanded the immediate release of Shtayyeh and Tabileh. The national and Islamic forces in Jenin announced a general strike on Wednesday to bring an end to the PA’s collaboration with the Zionist regime, and resistance mobilizations and grassroots actions stretched from Qalandiya camp to Gaza to Silwad to Tulkarem.

Shtayyeh’s family issued a statement holding the PA security forces fully accountable for his life and safety, making it clear that the PA forces set up an ambush to seize him near Al-Rawda College and firmly rejecting any insinuations that his family had handed him over or allowed the PA to arrest him as some sort of “protection” from the occupation. (The PA has previously made this claim about its political detainees in the past, including Zakaria Zubaidi and PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades in the early 2000s). Shtayyeh’s family further told Palestinian media that he had been beaten upon his arrest.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins the broad call of Palestinian parties, resistance organizations and grassroots movements in mourning for Firas Yaish and in demanding the immediate release of Shtayyeh and Tabileh and a complete end to “security coordination” with the occupation, which is a stab in the back of the Palestinian resistance movement. The policy of “security coordination” is part and parcel of the nature of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which was established through the Oslo Accords in order to serve as a mechanism to repress the Palestinian struggle on behalf of the Israeli occupation and its imperialist backers.

The Palestinian Authority is based on the institutionalization of collaboration and normalization with the occupier and the replacement of Palestinian popular and resistance institutions with the agencies of the Authority. National unity is necessary for a national liberation movement, but it must and can only be achieved through the unity of forces engaged in resisting the occupation, not in collaborating with it. The persecution of Palestinian strugglers is the very reason for the existence of the “Authority,” in order to dismantle and weaken the Palestinian cause rather than to sustain and support the Palestinian people and their resistance. We demand the immediate release of all the Palestinian political detainees who continue to be jailed by the Authority, which operates hand in hand as a subordinate force to the systemic Zionist incarceration and targeting of the Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

Further, this attack comes as Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas prepares to address the United Nations General Assembly in the coming days, sending a clear message that, for the PA, the path of Oslo, capitulation and criminalization of the resistance is the one it wishes to pursue. As the resistance has clearly become stronger throughout the occupied West Bank and throughout Palestine, the PA’s response is clear: criminalization and repression on behalf of the occupier. This is a message to the imperialist powers and backers of the PA that rather than turning toward unity with resistance forces, the PA is committed to its role as a collaborator with the Israeli occupation regime.

This is not an isolated incident. It follows upon the imprisonment by the PA of Basil al-Araj and his comrades; Al-Araj was later assassinated by the occupation as he fought back until the last moment. Even though the PA originally claimed to be “protecting” Al-Araj and his comrades — even as they launched a hunger strike for their release — it pursued criminal charges against them which continued even after Al-Araj’s assassination.

Palestinian activist and struggler against corruption Nizar Banat was assassinated by Palestinian Authority security forces on 24 June 2021 as they invaded his home in al-Khalil. Banat was a tireless advocate of the Palestinian and Arab resistance who was targeted by PA security forces after demanding the PA’s accountability for its ongoing collaboration with the Israeli occupation.

Palestinian liberated prisoner Omar Nayef Zayed, who escaped from occupation prisons in 1990 and made his way to Bulgaria, where he lived for 22 years. The Israeli occupation sought to extradite him from Bulgaria in 2016 and he took refuge in the Palestinian Authority’s embassy, where rather than being given security, he was repeatedly subjected to pressure about his situation. On 26 February 2016, he was suddenly found dead outside the embassy, having plunged to the ground from a great height.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Majdi Rimawi, Hamdi Qur’an and Basil al-Asmar, along with longtime Fateh struggler Fuad Shobaki, were imprisoned by the PA in Jericho prison — where they were held under foreign guard that included U.S., British, Canadian and Turkish forces — from 2002 until 2006, when occupation forces invaded Jericho prison and abducted all of them. Today, all six remain political prisoners of the Israeli occupation, a crime in which the PA was and remains fully complicit.

The situation in Nablus and beyond continues to develop on an ongoing and moment-by-moment basis. For months, the families of political detainees have been taking to the streets to expose the escalated repression by the PA and the “revolving door” policy of imprisonment by the PA and the Israeli occupation. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority for the lives and safety of Shtayyeh and Tabileh, and that these crimes have taken place in full collaboration with the Israeli occupation. Freeing all of the Palestinian political prisoners in Palestinian Authority jails is part and parcel of the demand to liberate all Palestinian political prisoners in Zionist, imperialist and reactionary jails — on the road to the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

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Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
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