Palestinian political leader, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Sa’adat, was prohibited from family visits for three additional months in an order from an Israeli military court. The PFLP and Sa’adat’s family denounced the order on 27 December; the order came as a renewal of an initial order issued by an Israeli military court on 14 September, prohibiting family visits for three months.
Sa’adat, held in Gilboa prison, is a prominent Palestinian political leader and head of the PFLP, the second largest Palestinian faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization. He was kidnapped from a Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho on 16 March 2006, where he had been held for four years under US and British guard, by an Israeli military attack. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for political charges, including incitement, membership in a prohibited organization and holding a position in a prohibited organization, on 25 December 2008. He was held in solitary confinement for over three years, from March 2009 until May 2012, when he was released to general population with other Palestinian leaders whose isolation had sparked the Karameh Hunger Strike of thousands of political prisoners. The release of Sa’adat and others from isolation was part of the agreement that ended the strike.
The denial of family visits to Palestinian political prisoners is a weapon that has been repeatedly used by the Israeli occupation forces in an attempt to break the spirits of Palestinian prisoners and isolate them from their families and the broader community. Furthermore, it is collective punishment against the mothers, fathers, and children of Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails, targeting leaders among Palestinian prisoners.
1035 administrative detention orders – orders for imprisonment without charge or trial – were issued by Israeli military courts against Palestinians in 2014, reported the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies. There are currently over 570 Palestinian political prisoners held in administrative detention; 114 more administrative detention orders were issued in December, including renewals of these orders for arbitrary imprisonment against several prisoners who have been part of international campaigns:
Ayman Nasser, the director of Addameer’s legal unit, was subjected to a renewal of the administrative detention order against him for 3 months. Nasser arrested on 18 September 2014 and arbitrarily imprisoned without charge or trial. He was previously arrested on 15 October 2012 and released on 21 October 2013, imprisoned for his participation in prisoner advocacy activities. Click here to demand freedom for Ayman Nasser.
Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq, retired 73-year-old professor and lawyer in Nablus and director of the Tanweer (Enlightenment) center, had the order of arbitrary imprisonment against him renewed for two months. Arrested on 26 August 2014, he was ordered to administrative detention for four months 7 days later. He has been arrested 3 times and mostly held in administrative detention. Click here to take action for Yousef Abdul Haq.
Ayman al-Tabeesh, whose administrative detention was renewed for the fifth time, for three months, despite repeated commitments by occupation authorities that he would be released in order to end his hunger strikes. He ended a hunger strike waged for 123 days with a commitment that he would be released on 5 January 2015. He had previously been promised release in January 2014 after a lengthy hunger strike of 105 days in 2013. He has been detained since 9 May 2013 and has spent over 10 years in Israeli jails, mostly in administrative detention without charge or trial.
The U.S. government has waged a “War on Terror” since 9/11. Actually it’s a war on dissent — one that includes systematically trying to silence, intimidate and criminalize those who speak out for Palestinian rights. The latest target is Rasmea Odeh, a 67-year-old Palestinian-American and award-winning activist for women’s rights. In November she was convicted on a phony charge and faces a possible sentence of 10 years in prison, loss of citizenship and deportation.
Meet Rasmea Odeh. Born in Lifta, Palestine, Odeh was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the ’60s. Commenting on her work, Odeh said, “In Palestine, we helped women face a difficult political situation. We taught them how to deal [with challenges], how to live.”
Arrested in 1969 by the Israeli military, Odeh was beaten, tortured for 45 days, raped with sticks, denied food and sleep, and forced to watch her father tortured. Under these conditions, she “confessed” to the charge of bombing a supermarket. After a decade in prison, she was released in a prisoner exchange and eventually emigrated to the U.S.
In Chicago, Odeh became the associate director of the Arab American Action Network and founded the Arab Women’s Committee. She is proud of helping develop Arab women’s leadership and “empowering immigrant women to know their civil and human rights. Social work and political work are connected,” she says, “… we have to confront all the problems of inequality in this society.”
Discrediting dissent. Odeh is now being targeted by the U.S. government under the Obama administration. In October 2013 she was charged with falsifying immigration forms by omitting her jailing in Israel. The judge in her trial wouldn’t allow her torture history into the courtroom, but welcomed whatever the Israeli government had to say.
The prosecutor painted Odeh’s defense committee and the outpouring of support for her as “almost certainly criminal” and “hordes” engaged in “jury tampering.” What it really comes down to is a racist attack on civil liberties and an attempt to repress all dissidents. Odeh’s supporters have vigorously mobilized for her release — by organizing rallies, picket lines, educationals, phone calls and petitions.
Odeh’s case proves a pattern of harassment. It grew out of a 2010 FBI investigation of 23 Palestinian, leftist and anti-war activists in the Midwest (including one of Odeh’s coworkers) that violated First Amendment rights. No charges could be filed, so the FBI is determined to get Odeh.
On Nov. 10, 2014, Odeh was handed a guilty verdict of Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization, and immediately jailed! She told reporters, “It was a racist verdict.” Her sentencing is scheduled for March 2015.
The struggle is far from over. Odeh will undoubtedly file an appeal. As of this writing, her defense committee is mobilizing to win her release on bond, urging letters to the judge and protests at federal buildings.
What’s at stake? In fear of rising domestic and worldwide opposition to Israel’s genocidal policies against Palestinians, the U.S. government views Odeh’s struggle as a threat. Her work helps expose Zionist crimes against Palestinians, especially Palestinian women, as well as U.S. collusion with those crimes. As the political and financial lifeline to the criminal Zionist regime, the U.S. is bound to apply cruel Israeli policies against Palestinians in this country.
The lived experiences of Rasmea Odeh also draws attention to crucial struggles we all face today — sexual assault as political weaponry; the impact of war and militarization; increased criminalization of women of color; abuse of immigrants; anti-Arab and Muslim bigotry; police-state measures to quell opposition to U.S. domestic and foreign policies.
Odeh’s future is on the line. So is the political right of every U.S. resident to protest and organize. A victory for the government would endanger Odeh’s very life and be a terrible blow to all progressive forces in the USA. To help, contact Committee to Stop FBI Repression at stopfbi.net.
Robin Strauss is a social worker and activist in New York City. Send feedback to RadicalWomenUS@gmail.com.
As of 18 January 2015, there are 22 Palestinian women being held as political prisoners in Israeli jails, as reported by Palestinian Prisoners’ Society. They are from the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Palestinians from occupied Palestine ’48 (citizens of Israel.) Below is the full list at the present time of Palestinian women political prisoners.
There is a long history of the imprisonment and resistance of Palestinian women from the earliest days of Palestinian organizing and resistance. The film “Women in Struggle” by director Buthaina Canaan Khoury and “Une Vie Suspendue,” a photographic exhibition by Algerian-Belgian photographer Asmaa Seba are two of the artistic projects based on expressing the stories of Palestinian women political prisoners over the years.
Nahla Abdo, Arab feminist scholar, has released a new book, Captive Revolution, on the struggles of Palestinian women political prisoners in Israeli jails. Read an article by Abdo here.
Four of the women being held at HaSharon prison, are minors under the age of 18:
Dima Sawahreh, Hala Musallam, Malaak al-Khatib and Yathreb Rayyan. Palestinian women political prisoners are generally held at HaSharon prison, where Palestinian prisoners have repeatedly reported mistreatment.
Addameer reported that “they are held in overcrowded cells, with lack of access to basic human needs such as hygiene, nutritious food and proper clothing and blankets. Furthermore, female prisoners are subjected to harsh conditions during their interrogation, including beatings, insults, threats, sexual harassment and humiliation by Israeli interrogators. Often they must undergo degrading and intrusive body searches during transfers to court hearings and sometimes during the middle of the night as a punitive measure.”
G4S, a British-Danish security company – the largest in the world – and the target of a massive international boycott campaign for its involvement in human rights violations, provides the security system at HaSharon prison.
Ihsan Dababseh with a representative of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (left)
Four are from Hebron: 1. Ihsan Dababseh, 28, a former Palestinian prisoner who was arrested on 15 October after she refused to report for interrogation. Her computer was seized.
During her prior arrest from 2007 to 2009, the Israeli occupation soldiers who had arrested and blindfolded her made this video of themselves dancing around her as she was blindfolded and against the wall:
Nahil Abu Aisha
2. Nahil Abu Aisha, 33, arrested in March 2013 in a raid on her home in Hebron. She was sentenced on 12 November to a 33-month sentence after her trial had been postponed more than seven times by the military courts. She has been chained hand and foot during family visits and has been arrested on multiple occasions. She works in Qabatiya School in Tal Rumeida area near Ibrahimi Mosque and has been arrested on multiple occasions for her activism to protect the Old City and Ibrahimi Mosque from settler attacks.
3. Hala Musallam, 17, from Al-Arroub refugee camp near Hebron, was arrested on 28 November because she refused to be searched at a military checkpoint set up in Hebron’s Old City. When she was forcibly searched after being threatened with guns, she was accused of possessing a small knife. It should be noted that illegal Israeli settlers regularly walk around Hebron, where they have occupied and expelled Palestinians, carrying large guns and other weapons.
4. Rawan Samhan, 20, from ad-Dhariya, southwest of Hebron, was arrested on 9 December while visiting her brother Abdullah in Israeli prisons.
Three are from Nablus:
5. Wiam Aseeda, 22, a student from Tel village near Nablus, was beaten to the ground by Israeli soldiers at Zaatara checkpoint ouside Nablus on 8 December 2013, then handcuffed and taken away in a police car. She is now held in HaSharon prison.
6. Samaher Suleiman Othman Zein el-Deen, 34, was arrested on 28 May 2014 in her home in Majdal Bani Fadel, a village south of Nablus, after an early-morning invasion by Israeli occupation forces. Her husband, Nader Zein el-Deen, is also held in Israeli jails and was arrested two months before Samaher. She is the mother of six children. She has not been permitted to see her husband since her arrest.
7. Filastin Najm, 28, from Nablus, was arrested on 27 November 2013. A former prisoner who served 16 months in Israeli prisons, she was again arrested by Israeli occupation soldiers at a checkpoint under charges of possessing a small knife.
Five are from Ramallah:
8. Fidaa Suleiman, 22, was arrested on 28 August 2014 at Modiin military checkpoit west of Ramallah; two of her brothers, Khader and Ahmad Suleiman, are political prisoners in Israeli jails.
9. Bushra al-Tawil, 21, is a Palestinian journalist and prisoners’ rights advocate. A former prisoner released in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011, her former sentence was reimposed upon her on 8 December on the basis of secret evidence, with the Israeli military court stating she is a security threat. She is the spokesperson of Aneen Al-Qaid Media Network; her father, Jamal al-Tawil is also a political prisoner. He is the former mayor of El-Bireh. There is an international campaign protesting her imprisonment.
10. Lina Khattab, 18, is a first-year media student at Bir Zeit University and a folkloric dancer with the renowned El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe. She was arrested on 13 December at a march by Bir Zeit students in Beitunia near Ofer prison, protesting the imprisonment of Palestinian political prisoners. Click here to take action on Lina’s case.
11. Thuriyya Taha, 21, is a student in media and technology at Al-Quds Open University. From Beit Ilu in Ramallah area, she was arrested on 26 July 2014 in the Old City of Jerusalem; she has not been sentenced.
12. Palestinian girl, Malaak Ali al-Khatib, 14, was arrested on 31 December near her school in Bittin village, near Ramallah. Her detention was extended on Monday, 5 January for one week, until Sunday, 11 January, under the pretext of requiring a “conduct report” on the girl before releasing her. The 14-year-old girl is accused of “throwing stones” at Israeli occupation soldiers at the settler bypass road closed to Palestinians near her school.
Three are from East Jerusalem:
13. Shireen Issawi, 32, is a Palestinian lawyer who has been imprisoned since 6 March 2014, along with her brother Medhat. Her other brother, Samer Issawi, is also imprisoned and was previously freed due to a 260+ day hunger strike. Shireen and Medhat are being accused of providing extra funds to imprisoned Palestinians to spend at the canteen (prison commissary) from their friends and supporters. There is an international campaign for the release of Shireen, who was awarded the Al-Karama Human Rights Award in Geneva, Switzerland on 10 December.
14. Dima Sawahreh, 16, is an 11th-grader from Jabal Mukabber neighbourhood in Jerusalem, Dima was imprisoned on 3 January and sentenced to 18 months in Israeli prisons. She was 15 when arrested and placed in a “community home” in Akka for six months due to her young age. She was isolated in solitary confinement in Ramleh prison for 19 days. Her brother died during her confinement and she was not permitted to make even a telephone call to her family during that time.
15. Yathreb Rayyan, 16, was arrested on 4 December at Qalandiya checkpoint. From Beit Duqqu village north of Jerusalem, she walked into a bus lane at the checkpoint and was over 30 meters from the checkpoint when soldiers fired tear gas at her and a large group of soldiers forced her to the ground. Israeli reports stated that she was “attempting to stab a soldier” but the video below of her being attacked and arrested by soldiers shows clearly how far she was. (Please note, in some places her age has been reported as 15 or even 14.)
Three are from Jenin:
16. Mona Qa’adan, 42, has been imprisoned by Israel since 23 November 2012. Her trial has never been completed and court hearings have been postponed or extended over 20 times. She has been denied all family visits since her arrest. This is her third arrest and imprisonment, and the longest time that she has spent in detained. She is engaged to fellow political prisoner Ibrahim Eghbariyya, and is not allowed to see him.
17. Yasmin Shaaban, 32, of Jenin, was arrested on 3 November; her arrest and that of four men from a village near Tulkarem is being highly touted by the Israeli secret services. She and four others are being accused of a “conspiracy” to engage in armed operations and with membership in Palestinian political parties, labelled “illegal organizations.”
18. Fidaa al-Shaibani, 36, is the wife of Palestinian poliical prisoner Ahmad al-Shaibani, who has been imprisoned since 2003. She is a mother of two, from Arabeh, Jenin district, and was arrested at her house on 11 May 2014. She was brought to Kishon Detention Center (Jalame) where she underwent interrogation during a period of three weeks. On 2 June 2014 she was transferred to Hasharon Prison.
Two are from Tulkarem:
19. Dunia Waked, 36, from Tulkarem refugee camp, was arrested from her home in a night-time raid by Israeli occupation forces on 27 May 2013. She was denied lawyer visits until 16 June 2013. She is engaged to Palestinian political prisoner Mohammed Waked, who has served 11 years of a 29 year sentence. She has been sentenced to 42 months in prison, accused of attempting to provide imprisoned Palestinians additional funds in their canteen accounts on behalf of their political organization, Hamas. The Palestine Prisoners Center for Studies denounced the sentence as arbitrary and based on little evidence. She has developed diabetes only since her arrest and suffers from asthma.
20. Asmaa Balhawi of Tulkarem city was arrested on 14 December 2014 as she visited her imprisoned husband in an Israeli jail.
One is from Occupied Palestine ’48, and the longest-serving woman prisoner:
21. Lina Jarbouni, 40, from Akka, is a Palestinian citizen of Israel who worked in sewing workshops and was arrested in 2002. She is ill and suffers from a number of diseases. Lina is often the spokesperson and representative of women prisoners in HaSharon; sentenced to 17 years, she has five years remaining in her sentence. She received this lengthy sentence for “aiding the enemy” – Palestinian resistance.
She has been subjected to medical neglect and mistreatment and was denied essential surgery until women prisoners launched a hunger strike for her medical treatment. She has applied for compassionate release due to her medical situation, which has been denied. In 2011, when the other women Palestinian political prisoners were released in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange, the Israeli state refused to release her, saying that as an Israeli citizen, she wss not eligible to be released in the exchange.
And one is from Bethlehem:
22. Amal Taqatqa, 23, of Beit Fajjar near Bethlehem, was shot and arrested on 1 December near Gush Etzion illegal settlement south of Bethlehem after a settler approached Israeli occupation soldiers in the area and accused her of attempting to stab him. Despite sensationalistic media reporting, the settler in question was in fact uninjured and required no medical treatment, and Amal denies even touching the settler. She was shot with live ammunition and seriously injured and hospitalized. She was charged on 19 December with “attempted murder” despite the clear lack of evidence. Amal’s family was harrassed, interrogated and abused by Israeli soldiers following her shooting, with testimony provided to Al-Haq.
**
Released in 2015:
23. Rasmiya Balawna, 54, from Tulkarem refugee camp, was arrested on 24 February after an Israeli military dawn raid on her home. The Israeli forces confiscated 24,000 NIS (approximately $6120 USD) from her home when she was arrested, which was then imposed on her as a fine along with a 12-month sentence on 19 September. Rasmiya is the mother of Shadi Balawna, a Palestinian former prisoner who is exiled to Gaza after his release from Israeli prisons in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011. She was accused of “contacting and transferring funds to hostile parties;” the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center denounced the sentence as “arbitrary, groundless and issued under a flimsy pretext.” Rasmiya Balawna was released on 14 January 2015.
An agreement to end the hunger strike of Palestinian political prisoners protesting solitary confinement, between the striking prisoners’ leadership committee and the Israeli prison administration, was released on 18 December 2014. The strike, which began on 9 December, ended at 8 pm on 17 December.
According to the Prisoners Center for Studies and the Detainees Affairs Department, the terms of the agreement, which was launched in protest of the solitary confinement of Nahar al-Saadi, who has been held in isolation since May 2013, are as follows:
1. Nahar al-Saadi will be transferred from where he is currently held, in isolation in an Israeli criminal prison, to a “special location” in Palestinian political prisoners’ sections in Ramon prison with treatment equivalent to that of other Palestinian political prisoners, including access to the canteen (prison commissary), return of his television, access to telephone calls to his parents until they receive a permit for visits, and the entry of clothing provided to him by his family.
2. The return of those put into isolation or solitary confinement during the strike to their original places in the prisons.
3. Ending the isolation and solitary confinement over a six month period for 12 Palestinian political prisoners accused of attempting to dig a tunnel in Gilboa prison: four to be returned to general population immediately, four more at the end of this month, and four more over a period of six months.
4. The transfer of the Palestinian political prisoner Moatassam Raddad, suffering from colon cancer, from Hadarim prison to Ramle prison hospital for treatment and full access to chemotherapy and medical support, as his health condition is very severe.
5. Ending the use of isolation and solitary confinement without cause by the Israeli prison management.
6. Return the monthly amount each prisoner can receive in his or her canteen fund to 600 NIS from 400 NIS, a restricted amount imposed after June 2014, and the return of Arabic-language satellite channels to prison televisions, which were removed after June 2014.
7. Continuation of regular meetings between the prison management and prisoners’ representatives.
Rafat Hamdouna of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies saluted the striking prisoners, saying that the strike was “an honorable step in the history of the Palestinian national prisoners’ movement, and a successful experience of struggle under difficult conditions, reflecting the unprecedented will and determination of Palestinian prisoners.”
On Thursday, 18 December, military prosecutors at Ofer Military Court charged Lina Khattab, 18, Bir Zeit University first-year student in media studies, student activist, and folkloric dancer with El-Funoun Popular Palestinian Dance Troupe, with “throwing stones” and “participating in an unlawful demonstration,” reported Mahmoud Hassan, Director of the Legal Unit at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
Her next hearing will be on Monday, 22 December, at Ofer Military Court. These two allegations, “throwing stones” and participating in an “illegal demonstration,” are charges widely used against all Palestinians who protest the military occupation of their land in an attempt to stop popular protest against military occupation and apartheid.
3. Join the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions. Isolate Israel for its mass political imprisonment of Palestinians. Boycott products like HP and SodaStream, and demand an end to security contracts with G4S, which provides the security system at HaSharon that imprisons Lina and other Palestinian women. Learn more at bdsmovement.net.
Over 100 Palestinian political prisoners being held in Israeli jails suspended their open hunger strike late Wednesday, following negotiations and an as-yet unreleased agreement with prison administration, reported the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.
The prisoners’ committee responsible for the strike advised Jawad Boulous of the Legal Unit of PPS that they reached an agreement over three days of negotiations, that will be released soon.
The strike, demanding the release into general population and family visits for Nahar al-Saadi, who has been held in solitary confinement since May 2013, began on 9 December. Al-Saadi has been on hunger strike since 20 November; he has suspended his strike as well in light of the agreement and has spoken via telephone with his mother.
In May 2012, in order to end the collective hunger strike of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, the Israeli prison administration agreed to end the use of solitary confinement and isolation, releasing the 19 then held in isolation into general population. Since that time, the use of isolation and solitary confinement by Israeli prisons has been escalating, sparking this renewed hunger strike demanding an end once more to isolation and solitary confinement in Israeli jails.
Addameer and Physicians for Human Rights issued an urgent call regarding the situation of Nahar al-Saadi, calling for an immediate end to solitary confinement. Isolation and solitary confinement are forms of torture; Isolation is recognized by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture as a form of torture when used for extended periods, as it is in Israeli prisons.
Thirty activists occupied the Franco-American Institute of Rennes, the cultural center of the United States Consulate in Bretagne (Brittany), on Wednesday, 17 December, in solidarity with Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Arab political prisoner for Palestine in French jails. The activists also urged all to join a demonstration on 18 December against the visit of Manuel Valls to Rennes.
Valls, the Prime Minister of France, was formerly the Interior Minister who refused to sign the deportation order to allow Abdallah to be paroled to Lebanon, after his parole was approved by the courts. He has been eligible for parole since 1999 and yet has remained in French jails.
The activists distributed the leaflet below at the event (translation from French):
“In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. The organization of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction (FARL), decided to lead the fight against the aggressor and its supporters in Europe: the assistant military attaché at the Embassy of the United States of America in Paris and the head of Mossad in France were executed. Accused of these acts, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 after many politico-judicial manipulations and with the approval of the US government of Reagan.
While Georges Ibrahim Abdallah has been releasable for years and was approved for parole first in 2007, he has remained detained solely because he has not repented his loyalty to his communist views or his commitment to resisting the Zionist occupation and Palestine, and because, according to the prosecutor, his release would be seen as a victory by the anti-imperialist resistance in this region. On November 6, a new request for parole was deemed “inadmissible”. The appeal hearing on his request for parole was to be held tomorrow in Paris, and has just been postponed to a later date.
When we stand with Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, it is not only that it is “high time to release him,” but that we can not claim to support the Palestinian people without denouncing the endless vengeance to which they are subjected by those who support the Israeli state, namely Hollande, Valls and PS.
Represented by its ambassador, the United States stood as a plaintiff at Abdallah’s trial and continues today to pressure against the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. We see clearly the solidarity of the U.S. in oppression. When at this time, and sometimes in very different contexts, the struggles against various forms of repression are strengthening in Palestine, the United States, and France, we recall that the Israeli, American, and French governments have a common desire to neutralize those considered “enemies within.”
The fact that Ferguson police department that killed Michael Brown was trained by the Israeli army is one of the signs of the continuity of these policing structures, and the Palestinians who used twitter to support protesters in different cities in the United States, advising on how to protect themselves from tear gas recognize this connection.
We demand that Georges Ibrahim Abdallah’s application for parole be granted, and that his release is effectuated without delay. In support of the Palestinian resistance, we also demand the release of the 7000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Tomorrow, Thursday, 18 December, the demonstration against the arrival of Manuel Valls in Rennes, starting at 18:30 in the Town Hall Square will be an opportunity for us to oppose police and judicial repression by the French state. We call on all people of Rennes to attend and participate in the demonstration, as well as other initiatives against the visit of Valls to Rennes.”
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network sends its hearty congratulations to the people of Cuba, and to Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, and Antonio Guerrero and their families on the occasion of the release of the final three of the five Cuban political prisoners held in U.S. jails for sixteen years.
The Cuban political prisoners were freed today in a prisoner exchange with the Cuban government for USAID agent Alan Gross. Two other Cuban political prisoners – who together with Gerardo, Ramon and Antonio together made up the Cuban Five – Fernando González and René González, were earlier released from U.S. jails.
The Cuban Five came to the United States in order to protect Cubans from violent attacks by private right-wing militant groups based in the United States and supported by U.S. imperialism. Their case, of five people imprisoned in the heart of U.S. imperialist jails for seeking to defend their country from attacks from U.S. soil, inspired fighters for justice around the world, including many activists, advocates and lawyers within the United States, who took the streets, protested, struggled in the courtrooms, marched, rallied and built a movement to demand freedom for the five Cuban political prisoners in U.S. jails.
Today, and the release of the Five, is a true victory for the Cuban people and all who struggled for justice in the case of the Five. Just as we celebrate when every Palestinian political prisoner is freed, we celebrate today with the Cuban people that their own prisoners of freedom today will join their compatriots in their homeland as free people.
We celebrate and welcome today Antonio, Gerardo and Ramon! We also join in the call to free all of the political prisoners held in US jails, including Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Oscar Lopez Rivera, Norberto Gonzalez Claudio, Ricardo Palmera, the political prisoners of the Black Liberation Movement, and the Palestinian political prisoners in US jails, including the Holy Land 5 – and to free the prisoners around the world who are held in the interests of U.S. imperialism, domination and hegemony and those of its allies, including every Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails.
Libera Palestina has launched the following online action campaign in support of Shireen Issawi and Bushra Tawil:
“Shireen Issawi has been declared the 2014 Human Rights Defender. Sister of Samer, himself again in an Israeli prison, she has been jailed for the second time by the Israeli Governor of the Occupied Palestinian Territories through Article 10 of the Miltary Order 1651 for the same no-crime: being a lawyer, advocate for the rights of Palestinian political prisoners. This human rights defender, among others, “is being targeted by the Israeli authorities, with arbitrary arrests and detention, for peacefully and lawfully exercising their fundamental right to freedom of expression on significant human rights and the conditions of Palestinian prisoners.”.
Now she is from march in segregation, declared in punishment, locked in a cold unhealthy infested cell.
In response to the joint complaints (also concerning the similar case of Bushra Taweel) made to the United Nations by Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights and Addameer in the case of Palestinian human rights defenders, Libera Palestina Italy launched a “social bombing” campaign to build attention, support and awareness of the case.
“Socialbombing” organizes participants to send messages on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ highlighting the issue and raising awareness and communication to key recipients, in this case, Michael Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders.
Professor John Dugart has declared: “I am so pleased that you are conducting this campaign for Shireen. It is essential. She must not be forgotten. The Israelis will treat her better if there is international attention. So please keep it up”.
To join the campaign, please see: http://socialbombing.org/FreeShireenBushra
