Take Action: Free Lina Khattab, imprisoned student and folkloric dancer

17 December 2014

UPDATE (16 February): Lina was sentenced to six months imprisonment, a 6000 NIS ($1500 USD) fine, and three years probation by the occupation military court today. Please continue to take action and demand Lina’s release!

UPDATE (14 February): Electronic Intifada report on Lina’s case: http://electronicintifada.net/content/young-dancer-jailed-israel-taking-part-protest/14269

UPDATE (6 February): Lina’s next hearing will be on 16 February. Please take action and escalate the pressure!

UPDATE (12 January): See this important report on Lina’s postponed court hearing by Palestinian activist and writer, Mariam Barghouti: http://ramallahbantustan.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/lina-khattab-and-5-court-dates-later/

UPDATE (29 December): Lina’s hearing on 22 December was postponed to 29 December. She is expected to be brought before Ofer military court today.

UPDATE (18 December): Lina Khattab was charged with “throwing stones” and “participating in an unauthorized demonstration” on 18 December by military prosecutors at Ofer Military Court, reported Mahmoud Hassan, director of Addameer’s Legal Unit. Her next hearing will be on Monday, 22 December, in the military court. Click here to take action and demand Lina’s freedom!

Lina Khattab, 18-year-old first-year media student at Bir Zeit University and dancer in the El-Funoun Palestinian cultural dance troupe, was arrested on 13 December during a march by Bir Zeit University students to Ofer military prison. Click here to take action now and demand freedom for Lina Khattab!

She is active in Palestinian national and political activities at the university, and is one of a number of active Palestinian students who have been arrested and imprisoned in an Israeli attempt to clamp down on Palestinian students’ activity and organizing through student unions and protest groups. Lina is being held without charges, and allegedly “investigated” on the bogus suspicion of “throwing stones,” an allegation used freely by Israeli military courts against all Palestinians who demand their rights through protest.

Her detention was extended until Thursday, 18 December at Ofer Military Court on suspicion of “throwing stones,” said Mahmoud Hassan, lawyer with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, reporting on the court hearing on Tuesday, 16 December.

Lina was held outside in the cold for hours at Ofer prison before being taken to interrogation, and then transferred to HaSharon prison late at night.

The other 17 women Palestinian political prisoners are also being held at HaSharon. Palestinian women in HaSharon prison report “constant harassment and violations, including soldiers repeatedly breaking into their rooms to ransack them.” 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.

Students at Bir Zeit University protested and marched demanding Lina’s freedom, and the freedom of all Palestinian students held as political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, at a demonstration organized by the Progressive Democratic Student Pole on Monday, 15 December.

The protest also addressed the case of Islam Badr, another Bir Zeit student, currently engaged in the hunger strike of Palestinian political prisoners protesting solitary confinement. He was previously on hunger strike for 45 days against the practice of administrative detention without charge or trial.

The following video by El-Funoun Popular Palestinian Dance Troupe shows Lina’s dancing and the moment of her arrest:

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Lina Khattab and denounces the clear-cut Israeli policy of targeting Palestinian students who actively defend the rights of the Palestinian people. Student organizing has been at the heart of the Palestinian movement for decades, and such arrests are a transparent attempt to undermine and destroy the student organizations at Palestinian universities that uphold those universities as spaces for national Palestinian education and activity for liberation and freedom.

Take action – demand the release of Lina Khattab!

1. Take action to demand the immediate release of Lina Khattab. Sign the letter here and send it to Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu.

2. Take action for Palestinian prisoners: protest at an Israeli consulate or embassy, or hold an educational event Palestinian prisoners. Demand the freedom of Lina Khattab and Palestinian political prisoners.

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.

Take Action: End Solitary Confinement and Isolation, Support Palestinian Hunger Strikers

16 December 2014

UPDATE: As of the evening of 17 December, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society announced that the strike is suspended and that an agreement will be announced shortly. This action is suspended until further details.

Over 100 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails are now participating in a collective hunger strike, as prisoners from Eshel and Ramon prisons joined the strike demanding an end to the policy of solitary confinement and in solidarity with Nahar al-Saadi, who has been held in solitary confinement since May 2013 and has been on hunger strike since 20 November. The collective strike was launched by 70 prisoners on 9 December. The strikers are demanding al-Saadi’s release from isolation; regular family visits for al-Saadi; and an end to the use of solitary confinement and isolation against Palestinian prisoners.

Al-Saadi, in isolation for a year and seven months, has been denied family visits and medical treatment, and was denied a lawyer visit just this week. Take Action today: Demand an end to solitary confinement and isolation!

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, and Israel’s use of administrative detention is contrary to international law and human rights standards. 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.

As Addameer and PHR report, “The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture details the severe psychological effects of solitary confinement, including that it causes ‘psychotic disturbances’… anxiety, depression, anger, cognitive disturbances, perceptual distortions, paranoia and psychosis and self-harm.’ Solitary confinement can also cause physiological damage. Prisoners often develop ‘gastroenterology, vascular, urinary and reproductive system illnesses as well as suffer from sleep disturbances and extreme fatigue. They also complain of tremors, recurrences of heart palpitations, recurrences of excessive perspiration.’

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society also reported that a meeting is being held between the leadership of the strike and the prison officials in Nafha prisons, as of the evening of 16 December.

Depending on the outcome of these discussions, it is expected that more prisoners will join the strike in coming days, in the event that the prison administration continues to reject the demands of striking prisoners. The Israeli prison administration has been imposing severe repression on the hunger strikers in an attempt to break the strike, transferring them from prison to prison, isolating 30 of them, threatening them and in some cases transferring them to Israeli “criminal” prison sections, away from other Palestinian political prisoners, as well as engaging in frequent violent raids and inspections in strikers’ rooms. Hussam Abed, one of the prisoners on hunger strike, said that he was denied salt and sugar, which he had been taking with water, by occupation prison officials.

IMEMC reported that “the detainees, held in solitary confinement, are currently in the prisons of Eshil, Nafha, Majeddo, Asqalan, Ramla and Ramon, facing very harsh living conditions and constant violations.

In addition, the Palestinian Prisoners Society has reported that the Prison Administration in the Negev Detention Camp has informed 45 striking detainees it intends to transfer them to other, unspecified prisons.”

Rafat Hamdouna, director of the Prisoners Center for Studies, said that the prisoners’ movement will not allow an open hunger strike to drag on for tens of days, urging international institutions to intervene and resolve this issue, and for broad actions in solidarity to ensure the success of the strike which aims, once more, to end the policy of isolation and solitary confinement.

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.

TAKE ACTION! Demand:

the release of Nahar al-Saadi from solitary confinement
restoration of family and legal visits to Nahar al-Saadi, and proper medical access and treatment
an end to the use of solitary confinement and isolation against Palestinian political prisoners

1. Take action and demand an end to the use of solitary confinement and isolation, and the release of Nahar al-Saadi from solitary confinement.

2. Take action for Palestinian prisoners: protest at an Israeli consulate or embassy, or hold an educational event Palestinian prisoners. Share this alert on solitary confinement and the hunger strike.

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 operates in Israeli prisons. Learn more at bdsmovement.net.

Palestinian academics, advocates targeted for imprisonment without charge or trial

16 December 2014

The Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition by Palestinian political detainee Dr. Ghassan Thuqan, 57, an academic lecturer in the Faculty of Education at An-Najah University, on Tuesday, 16 December.

Thuqan was arrested on 9 July as part of a wave of mass arrests by Israeli ocupation forces throughout the West Bank; he is held in administrative detention, imprisoned without charge or trial. His administrative detention term will expire on 9 January, but his lawyer informed his family that he expects the term to be renewed, particularly following this court decision. The petition was rejected on the basis of a “secret file” on his case; he has already had his three-month administrative detention order renewed twice. Thuqan, held in the Negev desert prison, suffers from asthma, dental pains and arthritis, and is not receiving appropriate treatment from the prison medical clinics.

Dr. Imad Barghouthi, a Palestinian astrophysicist and professor at Al-Quds University who formerly worked at NASA in the United States, is now being held in three months administrative detention (imprisonment without charge or trial.)

Barghouthi, 52, from Beit Rima, has been ordered held without charge or trial from 9 December until 5 March 2015 under a three-month, indefinitely renewable, military court order.

He was arrested on 6 December as he attempted to cross to Jordan at the Karama border crossing in order to attend a scientific conference in the United Arab Emirates. Barghouthi’s scientific work is widely published internationally in academic journals. This is the first time he was arrested by Israeli occupation forces. It was reported that he was investigated for participating in a mass march against the assault on Gaza over the summer.

Also held in administrative detention without charge or trial is Osama Hussein Shaheen, 32, the director of the Prisoners of Palestine Studies Center in al-Khalil. He was arrested on 11 December as he traveled through the Container checkpoint and was taken to Ofer military prison. Shaheen, a prominent activist on prisoners’ issues, was released only 3 months ago from administrative detention without charge or trial. He has spent 7 years total inside Israeli prisons and suffers from several health problems. The Center denounced the arrest of Shaheen, saying that “this action aims to obstruct the center’s work exposing occupation crimes against prisoners of war and documenting them on a daily basis.”

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reported that 54 administrative detention orders for imprisonment without charge or trial have been issued by Israeli military courts against Palestinians since the beginning of December 2014.

December 20, Milan: Fundraiser and Launch of Italian campaign to support Palestinian political prisoners

13 December 2014

“Historically the martyrs and the prisoners represent the seed of every revolution, of every fight for freedom. Their freedom is one of the key points on which the resistance forces unite. The duty of all must be to support them, without hesitation. Deprived of their freedom to make their bodies available to continue the fight ; we can and must exercise and advance our solidarity to support them.”

Fronte Palestina is launching a new campaign: http://www.palestinarossa.it/?q=it%2Fcampagna-prigionieri-palestinesi – to support Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. This national campaign will be working throughout Italy to fundraise for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and the Palestinian Women’s Developmental Studies Association in Palestine, both of which work on the issues and cause of freedom of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

The campaign has also launched a facebook page to share information about Palestinian political prisoners in Italian: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sostegno-alle-lotte-dei-Prigionieri-Palestinesi/734054266678507

A fundraiser and launch event for the campaign will be held, and dinner will be served:
Saturday, 20 December
8:30 PM
Panetteria Occupata
Via Conte Rosso, 20
(Lambrate) Milano
More info: coordinamento.palestina.milano@gmail.com

December 13, Amsterdam: Global Political Prisoners Day

13 December 2014

Mark Global Political Prisoners Day of Action in Amsterdam on 13 December. Gather for a protest and information sharing about Palestinian political prisoners – and other political prisoners around the world!

The event will call for freedom for imprisoned Palestinian lawyer Shireen Issawi and all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, displaying banners and distributing information.

Take Action:
Saturday, 13 December
4 PM – 6 PM
De Dam (at the Christmas tree), Amsterdam
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/370651576437011/

December 12: Protest in London demands freedom for Shireen Issawi

13 December 2014

On 12 December, as part of a global day of action for political prisoners, Inminds organized a protest at the office of the CEO of G4S, the multinational security corporation implicated in torture and political imprisonment in Israeli prisons, to which G4S provides security equipment and other services.

The protest focused on demanding freedom for Shireen Issawi, Palestinian lawyer and prisoners’ rights activist. Issawi received the Alkarama Human Rights Award in Switzerland on 11 December.

Video:

Photos:

All video and photos from Inminds.

Out of jail! Rasmea is with her family and returning home to Chicago

12 December 2014

Members of the Rasmea Defense Committee from Chicago and Detroit / Dearborn just welcomed Rasmea back from 5 weeks in a Port Huron, Michigan, jail. She arrived at the U.S. Marshal’s office in Detroit for processing at approximately noon today, Dec. 11, and was greeted shortly thereafter by friends and family, who are bringing her home to Chicago now.

She looks strong, and is upbeat and excited to see more of her friends, family, and supporters soon. The defense committee wants to again thank everyone for their phone calls, letters, rallies, protests, and all the other activism that helped us get Rasmea released. She sends her love and appreciation to all, and graciously asks us to be ready for the next stage–winning the appeal and exonerating her fully.

Rasmea will be meeting with her attorneys in the next few days, and they will begin establishing strategies for the sentencing on March 10th and the appeal, respectively. We will reach out to everyone soon, and call on defense committees and supporters across the country to gear up for another intense #Justice4Rasmea campaign.

But for now, let’s celebrate knowing that Rasmea will be back home safe, and ready to get back to her work with the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) and its Arab Women’s Committee.

We will be welcoming her home publicly for the first time next Wednesday, December 17th, at the AAAN’s event showcasing the Wishah popular dance troupe directly from Ramallah in Palestine. Join us to celebrate her, and Palestinian culture and resilience, by purchasing your tickets here!

Stay updated at uspcn.org and stopfbi.net.

Rasmea Defense Committee

Despite prosecution’s ploys, Rasmea to be freed

10 December 2014

Statement from the Rasmea Defense Committee:

After close to an hour-long deposition, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel withdrew his motion to challenge the bond to be posted for Rasmea’s release. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Jebson led the questioning, asking whether the anonymous donor of the bond is actually a friend or only a political supporter, as well as challenging the donor’s views on Israeli military courts, the decisions of Judge Drain in the case, and the treatment of Palestinians by U.S. federal courts.

William Goodman, one of Rasmea’s defense attorneys, objected to all of these political questions as irrelevant to the proceedings. In addition, Jebson asked repeated questions implying that the Rasmea Defense Committee was raising money to be used to reimburse the donor.

At the end of the deposition, Tukel and Jebson retired to another room and returned 10 minutes later to report to Goodman that they would no longer be objecting to the bond, which will be posted tomorrow morning in the same courthouse where Rasmea was convicted a little over a month ago.

We are hopeful that Rasmea will be released a few hours after the bond is paid, and immediately return to her family and friends in Chicago.

We described Tukel’s legal maneuvering earlier today, and are pleased that Rasmea will be released, but also angered at the continued injustices of the U.S. Attorney’s motions. “Tukel and Jebson forced Rasmea to stay in jail for over a month, including the past two weeks in solitary confinement,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the defense committee. “Their actions are nothing but punitive in nature, and their questioning of the donor clearly affirms that their politics and ideology, not the law, govern their work.”

Keep updated at uspcn.org and stopfbi.net.

Addameer Statement on Human Rights Day and killing of Ziad Abu Ein

10 December 2014

The following statement was issued by Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association on 10 December, Human Rights Day, and on the occasion of the killing of Ziad Abu Ein:

Statement on International Human Rights Day: Addameer sends its condolences to Ziad Abu Ein’s family and demands the formation of an international investigative committee to hold the Occupation accountable for its continuous violations.

10 December 2014 – Ramallah

With sadness, Addameer sends condolences to the family of martyr Ziad Abu Ein, the head of the Palestinian Authority committee regarding the settlements, who was killed by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) after being beaten and tear gassed in Turmosayya today during a demonstration.

The cold-blooded murder of Ziad Abu Ein on International Human Rights Day is representative of the occupation’s continuous and rampant destruction of Palestinian life and land since the establishment of Israel in 1948, which ironically coincides with the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On this International Human Rights Day, the international community must realize that it is complicit with Israeli’s continued suppression, murder and displacement of the Palestinian people until Israel is held accountable for its crimes.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights serves as an inspiration for Palestinian resistance against the Zionist, racist project to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its indigenous inhabitants. Simultaneously, Palestinians continue to suffer due to the United Nation’s failure to uphold and respect the rights and principles enshrined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, allowing the Occupying power to continue its crimes with impunity.

The Israeli state was established as a result of war crimes implemented by Zionist gangs in 1948 by murdering and displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and pilfering of the land. Sixty-six years later, they continue to commit these war crimes to slowly ethnically cleanse the indigenous Palestinian people and deny them the right to self determination.

During 2014, Palestinians saw this impunity reinforced in a 51-day assault on Gaza, large scale military operations throughout the West Bank, mass hunger strikes amongst Palestinian administrative detainees met with brutal force, and targeted assassinations of at least 20 Palestinians. In the war on Gaza, the occupation killed more than 2,000 civilians, including 450 children, injured over 10,000 Palestinians and displaced 300,000 Gazans. At least 10,000 homes were demolished and 190 civilians arbitrarily arrested and tortured.

According to Addameer’s statistics, the number of arrests has increased dramatically this year, pointing to an increased use of arrest and detention in an attempt to control and suppress Palestinian resistance. At least 1,500 children were arrested since the beginning of 2014, the majority of them in Jerusalem, as well as 35 women. In June alone, over 3,000 Palestinians were arrested from the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and the 1948 territories. Now, there are over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the occupation’s prisons, the highest number in over five years. Over 530 of them are administrative detainees, held without charge or trial based on secret evidence that the detainee and their lawyer are denied access to. One of the administrative detainees is Addameer’s Legal Unit Coordinator, Ayman Nasser, who has been repeatedly targeted by the IOF. Palestinian Legislative Council members also continue to be targeted, with 25 currently in prison, of which 16 are under administrative detention.

The treatment of Palestinian detainees has degraded considerably in 2014. The detainees continue to be denied their right to a fair trial in the Israeli military court system, in direct violation of the 4^thGeneva Convention. This year, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) imposed greater punishments on Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including denial of family visits, exorbitant fines, solitary confinement and denial of educational, cultural, religious and athletic activities. The detainees also suffer from beatings, attacks and arbitrary transfers at the hand of the Special Units of the IPS. Their demands for basic medical treatment and care are systematically ignored, exacerbating the number of ill detainees due to medical negligence and inhumane conditions.

Today, on International Human Rights Day, seventy Palestinian prisoners and detainees have declared an open hunger strike to demand an end to the severe punitive measures imposed on them, especially the policies of solitary confinement and denial of proper medical treatment. Having been abandoned by the international community, Palestinian detainees must go on hunger strike at great cost to their lives and health in order to realize basic human rights. This year, the administrative detainees engaged in a 63-day hunger strike, the longest in Palestinian history, to demand an end to the arbitrary detention policy. They were met with severe punitive measures, beatings, isolation and threats of force-feeding, all punishments that continue to this day.

On this 66^th commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Addameer calls on the United Nations to exercise its mandate by holding the occupation’s leaders and ministers accountable in the international courts as war criminals. The continued impunity of the occupying power is a threat to security and peace across the world.

Addameer also demands that the Palestinian Authority join the International Criminal Court immediately to hold Israel accountable for its crimes. Addameer also demands that the Palestinian Authority respect its responsibilities as according to signed international conventions, especially regarding public freedom and the end of political detention.

***

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

O. Box: 17338, Jerusalem

Tel:+972 (0)2 296 0446 / 297 0136

Fax: +972 (0)2 296 0447

Email: info@addameer.ps

Website: www.addameer.org

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Update on Rasmea’s bond: Prosecution maneuvers to keep Rasmea locked up

10 December 2014

Today, the Rasmea Defense Committee was prepared to announce that Rasmea was on her way home to Chicago. Instead, we learned this morning that legal maneuvering by the government will further delay her homecoming.

The prosecution in Rasmea’s case moved to challenge the bond money that was raised for her release. In its motion, the government demands that the judge grant them a hearing in regards to the source of the money. Citing the Rasmea Defense Committee call for donations in their motion, the government alleges money raised by supporters and Rasmea’s community doesn’t create enough of an “incentive” for her to appear at her sentencing March 10^th.

Members of the defense committee are on their way to Detroit now to provide testimony as to the money posted by a friend that has known Rasmea for years at a hearing tomorrow morning at 11:00am in Detroit. We ask Rasmea’s supporters to stay vigilant and to follow the defense committee updates at www.uspcn.org or www.stopfbi.net for the latest information on the effort to #FreeRasmeaNow.

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