Israeli forces took into their custody, early Thursday, 4 December, 21 Palestinians, including six minors, from the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, according to security sources and a human rights center. Further abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons has been documented.
According to Wadi Hilweh Information Center, police detained Mahmoud Abu Ghazaleh, 72, and his son, ‘Ali, 29, for several hours after breaking into their house in the as-Suwani neighborhood in order to force his second son, Majdi, to turn himself in. Both Mahmoud and ‘Ali were released after Majdi turned himself in to police and was taken into custody.
Police also abducted minors Mu‘ath and Muhammad As-Salayma, Ashraf and Fares ‘Uwaisat, Saber ‘Ubaid, Muhammad Saleh, Majed Abu Nijma, ‘Omar Shwaiki and Ibrahim Abu Mayyala, after raiding the ath-Thawri neighborhood in the city, WAFA further reports.
Meanwhile, forces raided Tuqu‘ town, southeast of Bethlehem city, where they kidnapped seven Palestinians; Akram, 18, Muhammad Habes, 18, Muhammad ‘Adel, 18, and ‘Abed al-‘Amur, 20, as well as Ahmad, 18, and Muhammad Abu Mifreh, 19, after breaking into and ransacking their families’ houses.
Israeli forces also raided Beit Fajjar town, to the south of the city, where they took 24-year-old Hasan Thawabta, after breaking into and ransacking his house.
In the Jenin district, forces raided Zabda village to the southwest of the city, where they arrested Yousef ‘Amarna, 38, after breaking into and ransacking his family’s house. Forces raided the refugee camp while firing acoustic bombs and abducting Fathi al-Sa‘di, 20, after breaking into and ransacking his family’s house.
Forces also arrested two Palestinian youth in the Ramallah town of Dura al-Qar’ after raiding their families’ homes in the early dawn hours, according to the head of the town’s council Jabir Bajis.
They were identified as Nasim Mokhtar and Hassan Yasin.
Meanwhile, in the Hebron district, forces raided Tarqumiya town, taking Tamer and Rouhi Qabaja with them after breaking into and wreaking havoc on their store.
Several Palestinians Thursday suffocated by Israeli tear gas and three others were arrested as Israeli forces raided a town in Hebron, while a youth from Jenin was also arrested , said witnesses and security sources.
Forces raided Idhna town, to the west of Hebron, where they broke into a mobile store belonging to Fadi Farajallah, seizing several mobile devices worth INS 20,000 ($ 5,000) and arresting two of his relatives; Ahmad Abu Jheisha and Baker Farajallah.
Roadblocks were set up at the northern entrance of Halhul, the entrance of Idhna, and Zif-Yatta junction, where forces stopped vehicles with Palestinian-registered plates and inspected passengers’ ID cards.
Forces also broke into a computer repair and maintenance store belonging to Husni Bashir, ransacking it and seizing several computers. They arrested Husni’s brother, Khaled, 25, triggering clashes with local Palestinians.
Forces fired tear gas canisters, and several locals suffered from excessive gas inhalation.
— —
In related news, at least 10 Palestinian political prisoners incarcerated in the Israeli Nafha prison have been put in solitary confinement since last June, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club (PPC) said, Thursday.
An attorney with the PPC said that he visited the prison to find that the 10 Palestinian political prisoners are isolated in foul-smelling, strictly sealed cells with no windows.
The cells are also aligned to others housing criminal inmates who frequently maltreat their political fellow inmates and verbally assault them.
PPC also reported on a severe shortage of sufficient warm winter clothes and blankets for the prisoners. Prison administration prohibits prisoners from bringing blankets and warm winter clothes from outside, but allows them to buy blankets from the prison’s canteen.
The blankets sold there are very expensive, very bad in quality and do not provide adequate warmth.
Israeli Prison Service (IPS) also restricts access to books and forces prisoners to remain handcuffed at the daily break time, PPC reported.
According to UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, solitary confinement “causes mental and physical suffering amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
“Prison isolation fits the definition of torture as stated in several international human rights treaties, and thus constitutes a violation of human rights law. For example, the U.N. Convention Against Torture defines torture as any state-sanctioned act ‘by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person’ for information, punishment, intimidation, or for a reason based on discrimination,” said American friends Service Committee.
According to the Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, illegal, immoral and degrading practices are committed by the Israeli Prison Service against Palestinian inmates in Etzion detention facility in the southern West Bank, as well.
Hussein Sheikh, an attorney with the committee, said that around 50 Palestinian inmates currently incarcerated in Etzion, near Bethlehem, are frequently subjected to immoral and humiliating practice, including being forced to strip off clothes in front of other inmates, which constitutes a blatant violation of international law.
Mr. Sheikh added that prisoners are also forced to completely strip before and after trial.
The attorney also reported on other forms of maltreatment against prisoners by IPS, including the use of foil language against them during the count time in the morning and the evening.
Cases of physical abuse, solitary confinement, stripping off clothes in chilly night air, deprivation of food and water for hours, and denial of breaks were also reported.
Sheikh said that prisoners live under bad conditions in their cells, including poor sanitation, infestation of insects, in addition to the severe shortage of sufficient warm winter blankets, further aggravating their health conditions.
He called upon all human rights organizations for immediate intervention in stopping such crimes, as well as upholding their responsibility in this regard.
These statement came two weeks after a special report by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club (PPC) revealed that hundreds of Palestinian minor inmates were subjected to sexual abuse by Israeli Prison Service.
The report stated that at least 600 Palestinian children were arrested in Jerusalem since last June, of whom nearly 40% were exposed to sexual abuse during arrest or investigation by the Israeli authorities.
UPDATE: On 9 December, Daoud al-Ghoul was issued a second deportation order, this time from a military court in the West Bank – prohibiting him from entering the West Bank for five months, from 30 October 2014through to the beginning of April 2015. This was issued despite the existence of the order below which purports to deport him to the West Bank. Updates to follow about this extremely disturbing development of the repeated expulsion of a Palestinian from major areas of his homeland.
Daoud al-Ghoul, Majd Darwish, and Saleh Dirbas, three young Palestinian Jerusalemites, have been deported by the Israeli occupation from their home city of Jerusalem for five months, beginning on 30 November 2014 and ending 30 April 2015. Ghoul, 31, Darwish, 24, and Dirbas, 23, are all former political prisoners, and face imprisonment if any of them violate the order against visiting the city of their birth and their homes. No reason has been given for this arbitrary and unjust order.
Daoud al-Ghoul speaks in Brussels at Intal, 18 November
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association noted that this action “is part of the collective political, ethnic and spatial cleansing policy being implemented against the Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem, and a link in the chain of racist decisions, laws and procedures, particularly the policy of home demolitions and large-scale administrative detention against Jerusalemites, and the adoption of deportation orders that violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and multiple international agreements and its obligations under the United Nations charter.”
The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits individual or collective transfer of persons under occupation from one area of occupied territory to another. This forced expulsion comes following the stripping of Jerusalem ID’s of elected Palestinian Legislative Council members Mohammad Abu Tir, Ahmad Atoun, Mohammed Totah and Khaled Abu Arafah; as well as the stripping of the Jerusalem residency of Nadia Abu Jamal, the widow of Ghassan Abu Jamal. This comes also shortly following the statement of occupation prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it plans to seek powers to strip Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship and Palestinians with Jerusalem ID of their citizenship and residency rights if they or their relatives participate in resistance to the occupation.
It is clearly part of the ongoing Nakba directed against the Palestinian people from 1947 until today, and the systematic expulsion and dispossession of Palestinians at the hands of the occupying power. In particular, Palestinians in Jerusalem are being targeted for ethnic cleansing, expulsion and removal through home demolitions, settler violence and invasions, stripping of residency rights, mass arrests and imprisonment, and land confiscation in a clear bid to erase and negate the Palestinian character of the city and its place as the capital of the Palestinian people.
The expulsion of Daoud al-Ghoul, Majd Darwish, and Saleh Dirbas must be stopped! Take action to defend the rights of these three young community leaders, and the rights of Palestinians in Jerusalem: TAKE ACTION
3. Demand an end to the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Join over 300 civil society organizations and trade unions to demand “No Association with Occupation!”: http://freepalestine.eu/
4. Send the letter below to EU officials and call upon them to take action to ensure the revocation of the deportation order and impose sanctions on Israel, including the cancellation of the EU-Israel Association Agreement:
The 12th International Symposium against Isolation will be held from February 26th – March 2nd, 2015. Discussing The Middle East and The World’s Biggest Problems and our capabilities (what we can do ) in a City at The Center of The Attacks on The People of The Middle East: BEIRUT..
CALL AND INVITATION TO ALL PROGRESSIVE PEOPLE AND MOVEMENTS IN THE WORLD:
LET’S UNITE AND STRENGTHEN OUR SOLIDARITY!
For 12 years now, the International Platform against Isolation is organizing international symposiums in different countries of Europe, in order to bring together movements, solidarity campaign groups, NGO’s, intellectuals and people of all nationalities on the base of struggle against Isolation.
This project was brought to life in the long period of resistance against prison isolation, which had been continued by the political prisoners in Turkey over 7 years in total, defending their human rights with long term hunger strikes (death fasts).
Also hear an amazing song produced by Irish protest singer Pol Mac Adaim, dedicated to the resistance in F-type jails in Turkey:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2QB-7TF8HU
It was very obvious that isolation was not only a policy used behind the prison walls, but also as a means in the world outside to silence system critical voices.
Our symposiums therefore dealt with isolation in a larger context, from the prisons to the struggle of social and political movements, from media censorship to the occupations, blockades and war crimes in many parts of the world.
Our first aim is to create and coordinate the solidarity and unity among the peoples and organizations, to promote the efforts or common actions on international level and to built up thematically groups, as for instance exchange between progressive lawyers, the relatives of prisoners in different countries and also between political prisoners themselves.
We have organized already 11 symposiums, being joined by wonderful people from all continents, building a bridge between intellectuals, artists and political activists for a common goal: Struggle for human dignity, freedom and justice!
Please feel free to contact us , if you are interested to join our next symposium. Further details such as the program will be published soon.
Beirut (Lebanon) February 26 – March 2, 2015 – UNESCO Palace
Discussing The Middle East and The World’s Biggest Problems and our capabilities (what we can do ) in a City at The Center of The Attacks on The People of The Middle East: BEIRUT
As International Platform against Isolation, after the previous International Symposiums Against Isolation were held in Noordwijk, Florence, Paris, Vienna, Brussels, London, Athens, Berlin and Amsterdam, we decided to held the symposiums in a city at the core of the problems.
Hence, 12th International Symposium Against Isolation will be held in the Middle East, at Beirut. Again The Middle East was turned into Blood Bath. A war, which aims at destroying the Arab countries. Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon.. we are witnessing the massacre of the peoples there.
On one occasion you see beasts named ISIS are beheading, setting up slave markets.. On another you see a beast named Israel, that destroys, burn down, and slaughters the people in a country called Palestine, surrounded on all four sides, by stating “we have to ensure the safety of our citizens”.
Palestine, the target of lethal assaults under the isolation. While all these happen, what is the role and responsibility of imperialism, and how much it contributes? How effective are the puppet of imperialism on those?
Primarily the US imperialism and its most loyal ally is The Turkish Government denotes the torture, murder, exploitation, degeneration, and the collaboration.
In this year’s symposium, as in the earlier, we would like to reveal the world’s most pressing problems in all its nakedness. We invite the organizations from all over the world, to introduce those with the resistance groups in the region where the most bloodiest conflicts of classes of the world happen, to stop those attacks and break the isolation they are under, all together.
-In Syria, Iraq and their several neighboring countries, the civilians, ethnic and religious minorities, are under the attack and threat of imperialist mercenary soldiers, exploiters of belief and collaborators. While these attacks continue at one side, on the other side the facts are being censored and distorted by the West, through the imperialist press, to block every kind of solidarity. Argumentative voices are being suppressed and divested.
– The imperialist media propaganda and incitement to war, in the same way, shows itself in the disinformation campaign in Ukraine conflict. There, the fascist, nationalist gangs and oligarch rulers representing the United States and Western Europe, took power. They, along with anti-fascist and democratic forces, exert extreme violence against civilians in the eastern Ukraine.
– Inner we: Lets be the voice of Political Prisoners tried to be cornered.
It is a fact, that the Middle Eeast counts the highest number of political prisoners. An important issue to discuss might be also Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who is the oldest Lebanese prisoner in Europe, still held illegally in French prison for exactly 30 years.
Lets be the voice of Political prisoners and of the bleeding wounds of isolation prisons: Ill Prisoners…
We must break the isolation carried out against the people under the name and the threat of war. Let’s all unite in an anti-imperialist front.
Because who resists will win, who doesn’t will perish!
Where: Lebanon – Beirut, UNESCO Palace
When: February 26 – March 2, 2015
Organizer: International Platform against Isolation, in cooperation with the Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture
Demand that Sheriff Release Rasmea from Solitary Confinement
We just learned that Rasmea Odeh has been in solitary confinement for the past 12 days, arbitrarily punished by her jailers at the St. Clair County Jail in Port Huron, Michigan. She is not allowed any contact with other prisoners. Confined to her cell all day, except at midnight for a few short minutes, Rasmea can’t make phone calls and can’t receive visitors. This isolation punishment was initially set for 6 days, but when she had expected to go back to general population, it has been extended two days at a time, without explanation.
We have grave concerns about Rasmea’s well-being. She has not been eating well, due to ongoing dental pain as well as other health issues exacerbated by the conditions of solitary confinement.
1. Today, please Call the office of St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon (810) 987-1700 [choose option 0], (A few people have written back saying that pressing 0 isn’t working anymore. For now, try pressing “3” for inmate concerns and then “6” for jail administration.)
Tell him you are calling about Rasmieh [sic] Odeh (inmate #144979), and ask that he release her from solitary confinement immediately.
2. Send the following message on the county’s webform:
“I am writing out of concern for the health and well-being of Rasmieh Odeh, inmate #144979. I urge you to take immediate action to end her solitary confinement.”
In addition, we are still waiting for Judge Drain to rule on the motion to release Rasmea from jail. While she struggles in the horrible conditions described above, prosecutor Jonathan Tukel is maneuvering to delay the judge’s decision on her release. After the defense motion was filed, an amicus (or “friend-of-the-court”) brief was submitted by the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), supporting the defense and urging Rasmea’s release.
Typically, Judge Drain would simply decide on his own whether or not to accept an amicus brief, but in this case, he has agreed to a request by Tukel for time to submit a government motion to exclude the NLG brief. This government obstructionism is a callous and shameful tactic, and another example of Tukel and U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade’s disdain for fairness in Rasmea’s case.
Rasmea Odeh in prolonged solitary confinement in Michigan jail
by Ali Abunimah – Fri, 12/05/2014 – 17:53
Lawyers and friends of Rasmea Odeh are increasingly worried about the jailed Palestinian American community leader’s condition, as she has been held in solitary confinement for twelve consecutive days.
Odeh, 67, from Chicago, has been held in St. Clair County Jail in Port Huron, Michigan, since her 10 November conviction on immigration fraud charges.
Odeh has been in total segregation, locked up for twenty-three and a half hours a day. She is not allowed to receive visitors or mail, speak to other prisoners, or use the commissary.
Most worryingly, she is suffering from back and dental pain, which makes it difficult for her to eat, as well as other health problems exacerbated by a lack of ability to care for herself with adequate exercise.
Total isolation
Michael Deutsch, Odeh’s lead attorney, said that no reason has been given for this prolonged, punitive isolation.
“Originally she was put in isolation due to some dispute with an officer,” Deutsch told The Electronic Intifada. “I don’t know the nature of that argument. I’ve seen no paperwork.”
Odeh was given six days of solitary confinement, “but when the six days were up, she was told she’d have to stay for another three days and we’ve had no explanation,” Deutsch added. After those three days were up, the period was extended again for three days.
Deutsch said that a Michigan lawyer who has been working with the legal team visited Odeh yesterday and that she was still in segregation.
A letter from Odeh’s lawyers is being sent today to St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon, who is in charge of the jail, demanding that Odeh be released from segregation and that she be provided with immediate medical care.
Deutsch suspects that the US Attorney’s Office and the Department of Homeland Security could be instigating the harsh treatment Odeh is receiving.
“I can’t say for sure, but it seems to me that they are targeting her because of who she is and what she stands for,” Deutsch said.
The immigration fraud charge against Odeh stems from her failure to disclose in an immigration form a 1969 Israeli military court conviction for alleged involvement in two bombings in Jerusalem.
The trial judge himself said he found Odeh’s account of her torture “credible,” but forbade her from mentioning it in front of the jury. At the same time, government prosecutors were allowed to repeatedly refer to the Israeli accusations against her.
Government delay
Odeh’s immediate detention after her conviction surprised her legal team, who had not expected the judge to revoke the bond that had allowed her to stay free since she was charged in October 2013. Odeh’s sentencing is scheduled for 10 March.
Odeh’s lawyers have filed a motion urging US District Judge Gerswhin Drain to reconsider his decision and allow Odeh to return home to Chicago until sentencing.
The filing includes letters of support from community leaders refuting government claims that Odeh is a flight risk. Some community members have offered to put up their homes, valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, as a guarantee. One of her attorneys, Jim Fennerty, has offered to host Odeh in his home until she is sentenced.
But Deutsch now sees the government trying to delay the judge’s ruling. All the motions were filed by 24 November, including an amicus or “friend of the court” brief supporting Odeh from the National Lawyer’s Guild (NLG).
“Now, the government is asking for more time to respond to the NLG amicus brief, which is unheard of,” Deutsch said. Typically, as an intervention from an outside entity, an amicus brief may be something a judge takes into account, but would not delay a case over, Deutsch explained.
“But the government is using this to delay [the judge’s] ruling, which is going to be delayed at least until Monday.”
In the meantime, Deutsch says, “We’re just waiting, and as we wait and they delay, she suffers, in particular in a county jail, which doesn’t have proper facilities.”
Odeh’s supporters have issued an urgent action alert urging members of the public to contact Sheriff Donnellon to demand that Odeh be let out of solitary confinement.
“Prisoners of Injustice,” released today, is a new report that summarizes the findings and experiences of the May 2014 National Lawyers Guild delegation to Palestine examining the conditions and situation of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
The report reviews the experiences and findings of the delegation, who observed Israeli military trials and met with human rights organizations, families of Palestinian prisoners, and former prisoners, among others.
The report also details the delegation’s observations on the construction of the oppressive “separation Wall,” the expansion of Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank, and Palestinian popular protest.
Over 500 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in administrative detention, without charge or trial; the report looks at the role of administrative detention in suppressing Palestinian dissent. In addition, the report examines the targeting of children and youth for arrest and imprisonment.
The delegation also observes the connections and similarities between “war on terror” prosecutions, mass incarceration, and militarized, racialized policing in the United States, and the situation of Palestinians under occupation.
The delegation worked closely with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, as well as with Defence for Children International Palestine Section, throughout its time in the West Bank.
The delegation urges the widest possible distribution of the report to decision-makers, lawyers, legal workers, law students, organizations and activists.
The National Lawyers Guild was formed in 1937 as the nation’s first racially integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.
The following statement was released on 29 November by the Prison Branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and reflects the organizing of prisoners from all Palestinian political parties inside Israeli occupation prisons, including the organizing of PFLP prisoners. The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat distributed the statement below. Samidoun will announce and participate participate in international solidarity actions with the prisoners’ struggle as news and actions develop:
At the time when the occupation is continuing its onslaught against our people everywhere, escalating the attack and violations and racist hatred in everywhere, this attack is becoming more violent and ugly against the prisoners’ movement. Here, there are not even the barest elements of parity in the balance of power, which falls decisively in favor of the enemy, as conditions become more difficult and cruel and the occupier escalates its policies that aim to undermine our determination, will and revolutionary humanity through a series of measures impacting all aspects of prisoners’ lives inside the occupation prisons. These policies include denial of family visits, limitations and prohibitions on deposits of money to the prison “canteen” (commissary) accounts, eliminating almost all television stations except two Hebrew channels and 1 Arabic channel, as well as arbitrary transfer and a recent increased escalation of solitary confinement and isolation. This comes on top of restrictions on movement within prison sections and continuation of the deliberate policy of medical neglect, denying sick prisoners visits with specialist physicians under various pretexts, and the violent night raids and invasions of prisoners rooms under the pretext of inspection and searches for contraband. These so-called searches aim to uproot all stability in the lives of prisoners and make it clear to prisoners that they are being targeted on a daily basis. All of these raids only emphasize the steadfastness of the prisoners and their insistence on their will for life and freedom, which is truly what these raids are attempting to confiscate.
In light of the escalation of these attacks, backed by the political decision of the right-wing extremist Zionist government, and after all efforts have failed to end these attacks, which have been escalating since 12 June 2014, the prisoners’ movement has held a series of meetings in various prisons about the current situation, which have issued several specific demands and which have decided to begin the implementation of a program of steps of protest with increasing escalation and rejection of the policy and procedures of the prison administration, in order to pressure the prison authority to implement these demands. These protest steps will begin on 1 December 2014 and will continue until the desired goals are accomplished.
Prisoners’ specific demands:
Restore the situation to what it was prior to 15 June 2014
Cancel all denials of family visits, restore the removed television channels, cancel all prohibitions on canteen deposits, and restore conditions of life in general. Resume visits to prisoners from the Gaza Strip with equality with prisoners from the West Bank
End all of the recent punitive practices, including lengthy delays between family visits, prohibitions on assembly and movement within sections, the escalation of isolation and solitary confinement, frequent transfers by “Bosta” and address all matters relating to this issue, which inflicts significant suffering on prisoners while being transferred between prisons or taken to court
Improve the treatment of prisoners suffering from medical conditions and provide the necessary medications to prisoners suffering from disease
End administrative detention without charge or trial
Announced schedule of protests to achieve these demands:
1 December 2014, Monday – Sending a message to the director of the prison to discuss this issue
2 December 2014, Tuesday – One-day hunger strike in all prisons
9 December 2014, Tuesday – One-day hunger strike in all prisons
10 December 2014, Wednesday – Afternoon protest in the prisons
16 December 2014, Tuesday – One day hunger strike in all prisons
18 December 2014, Thursday – Boycotting the prison administration and striking by sections
23 December 2014, Tuesday – One day hunger strike in all prisons
25 December 2014, Thursday – Boycotting the prison administration and striking and protesting in sections
26 December 2014, Friday – Strikes and protests in all prisons, announcing the beginning of mass civil disobedience
This program will escalate in protest steps in order to build up pressure on the prison administration to support our struggle and achieve our just demands. The jailer, sooner or later, will be subject to the will and the victory of the prisoners!
Glory to the martyrs and victory to the revolution.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine branch in Israeli jails
UPDATE: As of 7 December 2014, Abdel-Alim Da’na was ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial for a three-month period.
20 Palestinians were arrested throughout the West Bank on Thursday, 27 November, in a series of night-time raids in Al-Khalil (Hebron), Jenin and elsewhere by the Israeli occupation military. Among those arrested was Abdel-Alim Da’na, 65, a prominent long-time leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a professor at Palestine Polytechnic University in al-Khalil, who had previously served nearly 17 years in occupation prisons. Take action now and demand the immediate release of Abdel-Alim Da’na and an end to the raids and imprisonment of Palestinian political leaders.
His home was attacked and raided in early dawn hours by occupation forces; his son, Bashar Abdel-Alim Da’na, has been detained in administrative detention without charge or trial since April 20 of this year. Da’na suffers from several diseases, including high blood pressure and diabetes.
He has been politically visible denouncing recent Israeli attacks on Jerusalem, as well as challenging the role of the Palestinian Authority, saying that the PA was derelict in its duty to the Palestinian people for pursuing negotiations while Israeli soldiers and settlers were attacking the Palestinian people of Jerusalem.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network notes that Da’na is clearly being targeted for his political activity and views and is being held as a prisoner of conscience. He has a long legacy of struggle for the Palestinian people and is being targeted because, despite age and illness, he continues to speak out for the full rights of the Palestinian people.
Bashar Abdel-Alim Da’na, Abdel-Alim Da’na’s son, held in administrative detention without charge or trial
In 2011, Da’na was interviewed by the Electronic Intifada about his time in occupation prisons. He is also well-known for his role in the 1970s in involving Israeli citizens, particularly Arab Jews, in joining the Palestinian resistance. The full interview with Abdel-Alim Da’na is below, on the history of Palestinian prisoners’ resistance. During his 17 years in prison, he spent 4 years held together with Ahmad Sa’adat, today the imprisoned General Secretary of the PFLP.
Ben Lorber, contributor to The Electronic Intifada, interviewed Abdel-Alim Da’na in his Hebron home on 8 November 2011.
Ben Lorber: How long were you in prison?
Abdel-Alim Da’na: I spent 17 years in Israeli prisons. In 1972 I spent more than one year, and in 1975, they gave me 17 and a half years. I was released by an exchange of prisoners between PLO and Israel in 1985. I spent ten years and two months in jail. Then they arrested me in the first intifada, the first uprising, and I spent four years without a trial, as an administrative detainee. Then I spent about one year or more, and then in 2004 I spent one and a half years.
BL: How were you treated inside prison?
AD: The Israeli management inside the prisons is very difficult, and they mistreated us inside the prisons. Dozens of people inside the prisons were absolutely crazy, I saw many go crazy because of the very bad conditions inside the prison. More than two hundred detainees died inside the prisons. I have written many books and essays about the prisoners inside the prison. I wrote a book about the 94 prisoners who died inside the prisons, and I am going to continue to speak about the other men who died inside the prisons because some of them were killed because of interrogations, and some of them were not given suitable treatment. In interrogations I spent more than a hundred days inside isolated cell without anybody, and they used all kinds of torture to take information from me. Not only me, but many persons, many detainees.
And you must believe me that the situation is very difficult, very hard. Because we are inside the prisons, everything is confiscated, including our freedom, and we haven’t enough food, our family can’t visit us inside the prison freely, and they mistreat our families when they visit us.
BL: How did prisoners resist the occupation from within the prison?
AD: We had many hunger strikes, and were used to struggling inside the prison to make our life possible. For example, the first hunger strike was in 1970 — this strike was to put an end to Israeli mistreatment of our prisoners. The guard or the policemen said “Issa, come in!” He beat him. Why? “Because I don’t like him!” And when you speak to the guard, you had to say “please sir, ok sir” and you had to bend your head. We saw that they are treating us in a very ugly, very inhumane way. This was the first hunger strike. And we succeeded in this hunger strike in 1970, to put an end to the guards’ mistreatment of prisoners.
And then we called to bring us newspapers. They at first brought us a newspaper called which was [written and published] by Israel intelligence, by Shabak [Shin Bet]. We wanted to change this. So Ashkelon prison had a big strike, they continued with this strike for forty eight days, so as to bring freely Arab magazines and Arab newspapers and Arab books inside the prisons. And the Israelis consented to bring in the books! We called this very important for the prisoners — it changed our lives.
We did not have radio transmitters. We were smuggling transistor radios, but the Israeli authority considered it very dangerous. In September 1985 we had an important hunger strike, we continued it for 13 days. The police minister discussed with us about this hunger strike. We had six representatives among the prisoners — I was one of them — and we discussed our demands and we forced them to permit us to bring a radio. And this made a revolution inside the prisons!
Abdel-Alim’s granddaughter with a poster of Bashar, demanding his freedom
BL: How did you organize and educate yourselves inside the prison?
AD: Every political organization makes their systems and law. There were Fatah, PFLP,DFLP, and these were the three main organizations [in the 1980s]. All the organizations did their best to find books. At first, we hadn’t books, we hadn’t newspapers, we hadn’t papers or pens [with which] to write, but we smuggled many things like these. Also, once we smuggled books into prisons, we smuggled papers and pencils and we copied the books by hand to give to our friends.
Everyone, when they enter the prison, must learn to read and to study. When some people enter the prison, they cannot read or write, and we put an end to their illiteracy. Some of them are very famous journalists now, some are poets, some are writing in the newspapers and writing research. I have many names of these people who couldn’t read or write, and now they are very respectable members of Palestinian culture, men in the Palestinian Authority and writers of all sorts.
BL: What did you teach the prisoners?
AD: We had many educational programs inside the prison; for example, the leftist organizations like PFLP or DFLP had programs in philosophy, political economy, Lenin’s books, and all of the Marxist-Leninist texts. It is a part of our culture.
The education rate inside the prisons is very high. This is true for all the Palestinian people. We are a highly-educated people, and for this we are proud, and we do our efforts to put an end to illiteracy. Now, as the United Nations reports, Palestinian people are one of the highest-educated people. The rate of Palestinian people who are educated is 90 percent, which is more than any Arab country and many countries in Asia and Africa. This makes us proud of our people.
BL: What Marxist-Leninist books did PFLP teach the prisoners?
AD: Dialectical philosophy. All the Lenin books. Das Kapital.
BL: All of Das Kapital?
AD: Yes! It was large, and very difficult, but we studied it. Because we studied political economy, we were dependent on it. Engels’ The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: I explained this book more than ten times, I admire this book. It is very important. Also Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. And we read [Che] Guevara, and many Marxist-Leninist theoreticians.
We also had [internal] prison magazines we wrote by hand. For example, Fatah had one or two magazines inside the prison, and also PFLP had a magazine, al-Hadaf [The Goal]. We wrote these magazines by hand, with pencils, and some people put drawings in the magazines, and some prisoners wrote poems, some wrote tales and short stories.
BL: Did you also write about political theory and philosophy inside the magazines?
AD: Yes of course, we wrote about political theory and philosophy inside the magazines, and political economy, many Marxist-Leninist essays inside these magazines. And we also had essays where we discussed our situations inside the prisons, and news, and our relationship with other organizations.
BL: Israel’s policy of mass imprisonment and torture attempts to break the political resistance and will of the Palestinian people, but prison life only increases political resistance and revolutionary will …
AD: Israel can arrest hundreds of people, thousands of people, but in spite of that Israel cannot put an end to the revolution and Palestinian resistance. Since 1967, Israel has been arresting people, but it cannot end the resistance. Israel has mistreated all the prisoners and detainees, but we have a soul. We do not enter prison because we rob or rape or anything, but because we resist the occupation authority, because we resist Israel’s procedures against our people.
And the Palestinian people support the prisoners in demonstrations, in protesting, and support them by money, and by visiting the families of prisoners — these prisoners are the heroes of our people. And the prisoners who enter these prisons live in a nationalist atmosphere and a resistance atmosphere.
BL: When prisoners learn about resistance and revolution in the past and in other countries, does this help them understand how the Palestinian resistance is part of the revolution all over the world?
AD: Yes, we consider ourselves a part of the international revolution. We did not have relations with the world revolution because we were inside the prison, but we are with any movement that struggles for its freedom, for its liberty, and we support all the movements all over the world who want to determine themselves and their own people.
BL: Speaking of world revolution, how does the Arab Spring relate to the Palestinian struggle?
AD: I say it is a very good revolution and a very civilized revolution, and this reflects that the Arab people want to live in a democracy like other people all over the world, to elect their governors and dismiss them! We are proving ourselves as Arabs.
In one sense, I do not [see] us as Palestinians, I [see] us as Arabs. We are all speaking Arabic, from Morocco to Amman, and Islam is our culture, and we have cooperated with each other on many many things. We have the same culture, the same happiness. Imperialism divided us, because when we are divided it can exploit us, and exploit our wealth. All of the Arabs are with us as Palestinians, because they know we are under occupation … all their revolutions call to dismiss Israeli occupation from the occupied territories, and the uprising people believe in Palestine.
And they know that Israel was not established against Palestinians, it was established to weaken the Arab world, so that imperialism and capitalism can exploit all the wealth in the Arab world. The Arabs who are torn and not united will see that their interest is to make a union between them.
BL: But in the struggle against imperialism, religion has become very influential since the 1990s. In the Palestinian resistance now you have many people turning to Hamas’s fundamentalism instead of PFLP’s secular leftism. Why?
AD: You see, the Marxist-Leninist theory failed. Not because it is wrong, but because its applications failed. For example, the Soviet Union failed to apply this theory, and this affected many leftist organizations. The people want to search for other ideologies to explain the world and to struggle against imperialism and colonialism, and of course Israel. And for them, the religious ideology serves to explain all the difficulties that they face.
BL: How does the PFLP feel about Hamas?
AD: It considers Hamas as a nationalist organization that struggles against occupation. But we have many differences with it, because it explains the world and situations not like us, you see. And it is not considered a historical resistance organization. It began in 1987, but we have leftist national organizations that began a half century ago.
BL: But the PFLP was holding a large hunger strike at the same time.
AD: When we began the hunger strike we did not know that there would be a bargain between Hamas and the Israel authority, and it is not in the interest [of the hunger strikers]. If they knew there was going to be an agreement, they would not have begun the strike. But in spite of this the strike was not bad, it ended solitary confinement.
BL: Why were you arrested?
AD: Because I resisted the occupation, and in 1972 I organized the students in the West Bank to resist the occupation. And I made contact between an Arabic and Israeli organization to resist the occupation authority, and some of them have been arrested from the Israeli side, and some escaped outside the country.
BL: Do you mean the socialist anti-Zionist political organization Matzpen?
AD: Not Matzpen, with the Israeli Black Panthers. We helped each other organize and cooperate with many things against the occupation. Also with some Haredim, some very religious men who believe that establishing a Jewish state is against God’s will. They consider Zionism as against Judaism and against God’s will — Neturei Karta and other organizations. To prove they were with us, for example, they brought weapons for us! I did not use it, but they smuggled weapons to us to prove they were with us to resist against the Israeli occupation. We cooperated with them in many branches of struggle. Also, they brought us instruments to press magazines.
The Black Panthers sang many songs — one of their songs went “I went to the labor office, so as to work. They asked me, ‘where are you from?’ I said, ‘From Morocco!’ They said ‘get out!’ I went to the labor office, so as to work. They asked me ‘where are you from?’ I said ‘From Poland!’ They said ‘Ah yes! Bring him a cold drink!’”
2. Join an action or start an action in your city to defend Jerusalem, Palestine and Palestinian political prisoners. Protests are taking place in cities around the world for Jerusalem and Palestine. Join a protest at an Israeli consulate or embassy, or hold an educational event.
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 activists, including the Human Rights Defenders Group and the Free Shireen Issawi Campaign, have joined with global activists to call for a Global Political Prisoners Day on December 12-13.
Message from the organisers of the Global Political Prisoner’s Day:
The people’s uprising is not a crime, it is universal justice
The unions, human rights activists, academics and students of Argentina have united with various groups worldwide, including Palestinian human rights organisations, (such as the Free Shireen Issawi Campaign) to call for a day of action for Global Political Prisoner’s Day, on 12 December 2014.
On this day in 2013 ten Argentinian oil workers were convicted to prison sentences in a case, their supporters affirm, was a grave violation of human rights, including torture. The oil workers stood up for all workers to have better working conditions, setting up assemblies to decide how to fight.
Today Palestinians are imprisoned for challenging Israel’s apartheid state. They are imprisoned because they fight for the return of their stolen land which continues to be illegal annexed.
Palestinians, including children, are tried in military courts. The conviction rate, according to a 2013 US State Department Human Rights Report, is over 99%. Since 1967 700,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned; 42% of all Palestinian men have been jailed. Israel also practices Administrative Detention, imprisoning Palestinians without charge or trial in violation of international law. Many prisoners suffer from medical neglect.
On Wednesday 5 November a French Court rejected the ninth appeal of George Abdhala, who after 30 years imprisonment is the longest serving Political prisoner in Europe. The decision was not issued by the court but was announced by the Federation of Jewish organisations in France. Governmental political convenience also allows cleared prisoners to languish in Guantanamo Bay.
In Egypt thousands of political opponents have been imprisoned, some have been tortured to death. Three Al Jazeera journalists have also been detained. China is thought to have the most political prisoners in the world. In Tibet and East Turkestan people are arrested for peaceful protests. Worldwide people, too numerous to mention, risk their lives for the ideal of freedom, democracy and social and political justice.
People exercising their legal right to resist occupation, or who resort to democratic violence having exhausted all peaceful means, are political prisoners. They should therefore be treated with all the conventions and rights applicable to prisoners of war. There have always been some brave men and women who are prepared to risk their lives and liberty for their people’s freedom. It is unacceptable that those people should be detained without trail, kept in inhumane conditions and face torture or medical neglect.
We start this campaign for the independence and freedom of all oppressed people against those who disregard human value, rights and liberty. We call upon all who reject injustice in the world to participate on the 12 December, making it a day for political prisoners. We are aware that each country or organisation will have particular causes to which they are dedicated. They will bring their energies and resources to that cause but ideally will remain aware that an injury to one is an injury to all. We intend that this day will become an annual event until all prisoners are freedom.
Our message is:
Global Political Prisoners Day must become an annual tradition to call for the release of all political prisoners until freedom.
The international struggle for oppressed peoples everywhere should be enhanced. The people’s uprising is not a crime, it is universal justice
People resisting the occupation of their land should be treated according to International conventions concerning prisoners of war when they are detained.
DETROIT–The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has filed a motion to be admitted as amicus curiae in the case of Rasmea Odeh, to support the request by Rasmea Odeh’s attorneys that the Court reconsider its decision to deny her bond pending sentencing on March 12, 2015. On November 10, 2014 the prominent 67-year-old Palestinian Chicago community leader was found guilty of an immigration violation for failing to disclose having been convicted of bombing charges by the Israeli military in occupied Palestine more than 40 years ago – her confession of which had been coerced through 45 days of brutal torture and rape during incarceration. The Court had gutted Odeh’s defense – represented by a team of NLG attorneys – when it prohibited testimony about her torture, rape, and subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder from trial. Deeming Odeh a “flight risk,” the Court has denied her bond. The NLG urges the Court to reconsider this decision so that Odeh may continue her award-winning community work in Chicago until sentencing.
Since her arrest one year ago, the NLG has been working to free Odeh as part of the Rasmea Defense Committee, which provides community grassroots support for Odeh.
Longtime NLG attorney Barbara Harvey, who filed the November 20 motion on behalf of the Guild, stated: “The amicus brief brings together Palestinians and Jews, Christians and Arabs, lawyers and non-lawyers, from six major human rights groups in this country to express their sorrow and ask the Court to show compassion for a 67-year-old Palestinian American woman who has helped hundreds of Arab women immigrants assimilate into US life and culture; 261 of these women also ask the Court to release Rasmea Odeh from prison pending sentencing.”
The NLG, Jewish Voice for Peace, Center for Constitutional Rights, Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, National Students for Justice in Palestine, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee attached a joint letter to Judge Drain to the amicus papers, supporting Ms. Odeh’s request for reconsideration of bond. NLG President Azadeh Shahshahani said, “Rasmea Odeh belongs with her friends and community, especially the Arab-American women she has been supporting and serving for the past decade. Based on her deep bonds to Chicago and her exemplary character, she should be set free immediately.”
Odeh faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and immediate deportation upon release, which could not only threaten her safety, but also deprive the Chicago community of her outstanding leadership and support.
As Harvey asks, “Is our legal system dedicated to justice or is it so vengeful that we cannot show mercy to a person such as Rasmea Odeh, who has been a law-abiding resident of this country for 20 years and peacefully transformed her personal suffering into the energy to serve others?”
The National Lawyers Guild was formed in 1937 as the nation’s first racially integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.
The Palestinian American Women’s Association of Southern California (PAWA) presents:
WE SUPPORT RASMEA ODEH Join PAWA for a discussion presented by Marjorie Cohn, JD.
Sunday, December 7 2:00 PM 907 S. Beach Blvd, Anaheim, CA 92804
Join us as we host Marjorie Cohn, Professor of Law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former President of the National Lawyers Guild and current Deputy Secretary of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers as she discusses the implications of the US’s targeting of our comrade and sister, Rasmea Odeh. Ms. Cohn recently authored an article titled, “US leaders Aid and Abet Israeli War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity,” and a book titled, Drones and Targeted Killing: Moral and Geopolitical Issues.
The following news is reprinted from the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC):
