Prisoner rights leader Abdul Latif Ghaith banned from entering the West Bank or leaving Palestine

4 October 2014

Abdul Latif Ghaith, chairman of the board of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, was again subjected to a travel ban by Israeli occupation forces on September 28, 2014.

Occupation authorities issued two travel bans to Ghaith, who lives in Jerusalem. He is barred from entering the West Bank for a six month period, until March 15, 2015, and from traveling abroad until February 23, 2015.

They provided no substantive reasons for the travel bans, to which Ghaith has been subject for the past three years, since October 9, 2011. His ban on entering the West Bank has been renewed seven times. Ghaith was called for an interview by Israeli intelligence at the Moskobiya compound in Jerusalem, where he was presented with the renewed travel bans. The Israeli military claims in its order that “the ban is necessary and mandatory to protect the region’s security and public order.”

Ghaith, 72, is a respected Palestinian human rights advocate and well-known national figure. He co-founded Addameer in 1992, and spent several years in administrative detention without charge or trial, most recently in 2004-2005.

The travel ban on Ghaith comes in addition to other recent attacks on Addameer’s operations, including the arrest of legal unit coordinator Ayman Nasser and the attempt to expel board member Khalida Jarrar to Jericho.

Take Action: Free Palestinian prisoner advocate and human rights defender Ayman Nasser

4 October 2014

Ayman Nasser, legal unit coordinator of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, was once again arrested by Israeli occupation military forces at 1:30 am on September 18, following a raid by armed soldiers on his family home in Saffa, outside Ramallah, in the West Bank. Take action today to demand freedom for this Palestinian human rights defender under attack.

Nasser’s wife reported that “at 1:30AM, a large number of IOF raided our house while we were sleeping. We woke up to the sounds of heavy knocking on the front door and my husband, Ayman, rushed to open the door. Around 15 soldiers raided the house and started yelling at me and my children, demanding us to move to the living room. Six soldiers, including one female soldier, pointed their weapons at us while we waited in the living room. Half an hour later, a military officer identified Ayman and took him outside the house. Ayman returned with the officer after ten minutes, and said goodbye to us.”

Nasser has previously been imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces on two separate occasions. He was previously arrested on 15 October 2012 and spent 39 days under interrogation in Al-Moskobiyeh detention center in Jerusalem. He was blindfolded and shackled through much of this interrogation period for up to 10 hours at a time. He subsequently received a 13 months sentence and a 15 month suspended sentence for four years, in addition to 4000 NIS fine, convicted in military courts for his participation in prisoner advocacy activities, namely demonstrations in support of Palestinian prisoners and against Israel’s assassination policy. When addressing the military court, he said,“I believe that every human being has opinions and positions and if it’s not violating the law he can freely think and speak these opinions. I am a human rights defender who supports the Palestinian prisoners and I represent my opinions in the public media. My thoughts are not secret, they are public, and everyone knows them.” Nasser was released on 21 October 2013. Nasser was also arrested in 1992 and received a six year sentence. He was released on 27 October 1997.

In an interview with Electronic Intifada, Mourad Jadallah, Nasser’s colleague at Addameer, stated that he anticipates that the Israeli military courts will sentence Nasser to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial.

Nasser, 44, holds a masters degree in Social Psychology of Education and previously lectured at Al-Quds Open University. He is the founder of Handala educational center in his village of Saffa, which is an educational center established in 1999 and is focuses on arts, athletics and education. He was also elected as a member in the Municipal Council in Saffa village while he was still in prison. Human Rights Watch, the National Lawyers Guild and other organizations around the world condemned his detention. Nasser is married and has four children.

Addameer notes that “Nasser is a human rights defender and actively works on human rights issues and prisoners affairs. Nasser’s arrest is a clear violation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Human rights defenders are formally defined as persons who work peacefully for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Nasser clearly falls within the category, in that his activities are peaceful in nature and aimed at the promotion of human rights.”

The protection of human rights defenders is an individual and collective right and responsibility, as recognized by the United Nations and enshrined in such key international covenants as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. States have the responsibility to protect these rights, as well as to affirmatively implement human rights. In the case of Israel, not only is it maintaining an illegal military occupation, it has a long record of persecution of Palestinian human rights defenders, including arrests, detentions, travel bans and harassment. Front Line Defenders, an international organization dedicated to human rights defenders, has taken up Nasser’s case.

TAKE ACTION!

1. Take action and demand freedom for Ayman Nasser! Sign the letter here (text by Front Line Defenders) and send it to Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, demanding Ayman’s immediate release.

2. Take action for Palestinian prisoners: protest at an Israeli consulate or embassy, or hold an educational event as part of the October 17-25 days of action for Palestinian prisoners. Share this alert for Ayman Nasser.

3. Distribute and post this poster in solidarity with Ayman Nasser (PDF). Help spread awareness and raise the profile of Ayman Nasser and Palestinian political prisoners in your community.

4. 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.

Over 7000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including 1500 sick prisoners

4 October 2014

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society released new statistics on the number of Palestinian political prisoners as of October 1, 2014:

There are over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 17 Palestinian women prisoners.
Nearly 250 Palestinian children are being held in three prisons: Megiddo, Ofer and Hasharon.
There are approximately 500 administrative detainees held without charge or trial; over 350 have been sentenced to administrative detention since June 2014.
There are 32 members of Palestinian Legislative Council held in occupation prisons.
Over 60 former prisoners released in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange are currently imprisoned in a wave of mass arrests since mid-June.
Over 85,000 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces since September 28, 2000.
There are 1500 Palestinian prisoners who are sick and need medical care, including 25 with cancer, 65 with serious injuries and degenerative conditions, 20 in Ramle prison clinic with difficult conditions, and 18 with neurological and psychological symptoms.

Several prisoners are in very serious medical conditions and face extreme danger, including Yousry al-Masri, Mansour Mowqada, Khaled Shawish, Moatassem Raddad, Nahed al-Aqra, Salah al-Titi, Alaa al-Hams, and Riad Amour.

The Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs said that the situation of prisoners’ health requires urgent intervention at an international level, saying “the continued detention of a number of sick prisoners can be regarded as their execution and deliberate murder.”

The ministry emphasized eight key points around the medical neglect and abuse faced by Palestinian prisoners:
1) delays in surgical procedures and other necessary treatment, worsening prisoners’ conditions.
2) lack of access to specialists for prisoners’ conditions in prison clinics
3) lack of hospital facilities, as Ramle prison clinic is worse than non-medical prisons in terms of conditions of life
4) imposing the cost of treatment on prisoners as a personal expense
5) transfer of sick prisoners to the Ramle clinic in the “Bosta” transport, which is physically and mentally inhumane, rather than by ambulance, over long distances
6) sick prisoners and detainees suffering from unhygienic conditions in Ashkelon, Negev and Eshel prisons
7) denial of access to regular or periodic tests to monitor prisoners’ conditions
8) sick prisoners subjected alongside other prisoners to violent raids by prison guards, ransacking belongings and forcing them to stand for long periods of time

Press TV reported (with video) on the situation faced by Palestinian prisoners today

Social media campaign for Shireen Issawi and Bushra Taweel

4 October 2014

http://socialbombing.org/FreeShireenBushra

In response to the complaint made to the United Nations by Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights and Addameer in the case of Palestinian human rights defenders Shireen Issawi and Bushra Taweel, imprisoned by Israel, Libera Palestina 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.

Shireen Issawi is a Palestinian lawyer and Bushra Taweel a journalist, both of whom advocate for the rights of Palestinian political prisoners. These two Palestinian human rights defenders, among others, “are 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.”

To join the campaign, please see: http://socialbombing.org/FreeShireenBushra

Week of Action: October 17-25 – Free Ahmad Sa’adat, End Denial of Family Visits

3 October 2014

October 17-25, 2014: Days of Action
Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners!
End the denial of family visits! Freedom for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah!

On September 14, Ahmad Sa’adat, imprisoned Palestinian leader and General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was denied family visits for a period of three months by occupation prison authorities. This action comes amid the denial of family visits to hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners at the whim of Israeli occupation officials since June of this year. The denial of family visits is not only intended to isolate Palestinian prisoners from all connections to their families, communities and the world outside prison, but also to collectively punish Palestinian families by denying them access to their imprisoned loved ones.

40% of Palestinian men in the West Bank and Gaza have been held in occupation prisons. Today, there are over 7000 Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, nearly 2000 of them imprisoned in mass arrests since June. 500 Palestinians are held under administrative detention, without charge or trial, while 1500 Palestinian prisoners are sick and denied adequate medical care – and over 100 of them are critically ill with cancer and other serious disease.

Since June of this year, the Israeli state has escalated its attacks on Palestinian prisoners: in addition to the denial of hundreds of family visits, both by orders banning visits directed at prisoners and ‘security’ exclusion orders directed at family members. Some prisoners have not seen their family members in years. This comes in addition to violent raids on prisoners’ rooms and sections, confiscation of belongings, denial of access to the canteen, and frequent transfers of prisoners from one prison to another.

These attacks are aimed at isolating Palestinian prisoners from the Palestinian people – and from the eyes and the conscience of the world. The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat urges those who stand in solidarity with Palestine around the world to take action to highlight the struggle of Palestinian prisoners for justice and freedom, and demand an end to the practice of denial of family visits during October 17-25.

These days also include October 24, the 30th anniversary of the imprisonment of Arab struggler for Palestine, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, in French prisons. Abdallah, a Lebanese Communist whose trial was ridden with irregularities, has been granted parole on multiple occasions, each time denied at the highest levels of the French government under US and Israeli pressure. Events and actions are being organized in France and elsewhere to demand Abdallah’s release.

On October 17-25, please take action for Ahmad Sa’adat, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, and all of the Palestinian and Arab political prisoners in occupation jails – and under oppression and behind bars around the world.

TAKE ACTION:

1. Hold a protest at Israeli consulates and embassies demanding justice for Palestinian prisoners and an end to the denial of family visits. Find Israeli consulates in your city here.

2. Download and distribute this leaflet on the case of Ahmad Sa’adat and Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.

3. Protest at French embassies and consulates on October 24-25 and demand the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. Find French consulates in your area here.

4. Join an online action demanding an end to the denial of family visits to Palestinian prisoners. Via Samidoun.

5. Email us about your actions for Ahmad Sa’adat, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, and Palestinian prisoners! Contact us at campaign@freeahmadsaadat.org or use the form below.

6. Boycott, Divest and Sanction! Palestinians have called for an international boycott of Israel until it ends its apartheid policies and violation of Palestinian rights. Boycott products like Hewlett-Packard, Ahava and SodaStream, and demand divestment from companies like G4S, who provide security services to Israeli prisons. Learn more about the campaign at bdsmovement.net.

October 24 & 25: Free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah! Toulouse, France

3 October 2014

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network will be joining events calling for the freedom of Arab political prisoner for Palestine, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been held in French prisons for over 30 years. Despite multiple approvals of his parole, the dubious evidence in the case, spying by Abdallah’s lawyer, and violations of what are held up to be the regular standards of the French justice system, he has remained in prison after interference from the highest political levels of the French government and US and Israeli interference.

Abdallah, a 63-year-old Lebanese communist, was arrested in Lyon in 1984 and sentenced to life imprisonment for actions claimed by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Fraction (FARL). October 24, 2014 marks exactly 30 years since his imprisonment began in France. He has just applied, for the ninth time, for parole and release; he would welcome a return to Lebanon, which has repeatedly expressed its welcome for Abdallah to return to his home.

Anti-imperialist organization Coup Pour Coup 31 is organizing an event on October 24 in Toulouse, France, to be followed by a national demonstration calling for Abdallah’s freedom outside Lannemezan prison, where he is held.

“Together, comrades, we will win and it is only together that we shall overcome.” – Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

Event: Freedom for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah!
8:00 PM
Salle OSETE, 6 rue du Lt Colonel Pelissier
Metro Capitole – Toulouse

Speakers: Khaled Barakat, Palestinian activist and writer, coordinator of the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
Charlotte Kates, Canadian lawyer, with Samidoun, Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/526996224102684/

Saturday, October 25
Demonstration: Freedom for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah!
2:00 PM
Lannemezan (De la Gare a la Prison)
(Free bus from Toulouse, email couppourcoup31@gmail.com for more information)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1643866499172986/

Free Raed Abubadawia: Solidarity Campaign for Palestinian-French law professor

3 October 2014

Raed Abubadawia, a Palestinian-French law professor at Al-Najah University in Nablus, was abducted from his home at 2:00 AM by Israeli military forces. He was taken to Petah Tikva for interrogation, and his detention has been extended until Monday, October 6.

The Consulate General of France in Jerusalem, which has been denied permission to visit Abubadawia, received notice that he was detained for “political activity,” and the Israeli occupation military accuses him in a comment to Agence France-Presse of “disseminating the ideas of Hamas to his students.”

Patrick Le Hyaric, French Member of European Parliament, is advocating for the release of Abubadawia, and has called upon the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, to intervene in the case. Abubadawia, 41, is a graduate of the Centre for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies in Paris.

He has been denied lawyer visits and consular assistance, and solidarity activists and Palestinians in France are mobilizing in support of his case. The Facebook page: Soutien à Raed has the latest news and updates on this important case.

The interrogation and detention center in which Abubadawia is being held is notorious for torture and abuse, as noted by the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine.

Salah Hamouri, former Palestinian political prisoner, is also a Palestinian-French citizen. His family and solidarity advocates struggled for years for his release, which finally came with the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange, while the French government ignored numerous mobilizations and demands for their assistance in freeing Salah. Many French activists worry that Abubadawia’s case has the potential to become another lengthy miscarriage of justice, with the victim losing years of his life, as happened to Salah Hamouri.

Nasrin Akhres, Abubadawia’s ex-wife and the mother of his three daughters, has been actively speaking to independent and mainstream media, advocating for immediate involvement of the French government to release her ex-husband from Israeli military detention.

Take Action:

1. Join the Facebook campaign to support Raed: https://www.facebook.com/soutienaraed

2. Sign the online petition demanding action from French authorities: http://www.change.org/p/monsieur-laurent-fabius-lib%C3%A9rez-mrs-raed-abubadawia-professeur-de-droit-franco-palestinien-retenu-prisonnier-ill%C3%A8galement-en-israel

Take Action: Stop the Denial of Family Visits to Palestinian Prisoners

3 October 2014

Since June of this year, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have been denied family visits after orders banning them from family visits have been issued arbitrarily by prison authorities.

On September 14, Palestinian Legislative Council member and political leader Ahmad Sa’adat was banned from family visits for three months. But Sa’adat’s case is far from isolated – large numbers of Palestinian prisoners have been segregated on political grounds and denied access to their families. Many other Palestinian prisoners, such as Mona Qa’adan, have been denied family visits for years as their family members are arbitrarily deemed ‘security threats’ and denied visiting permits.

The denial of family visits to imprisoned Palestinians is a form of collective punishment against Palestinian families by denying them access to their loved ones. It should be noted that 40% of Palestinian men in the West Bank and Gaza have been detained or imprisoned in Israeli jails. 7000 Palestinians are currently imprisoned in occupation prisons. As Israeli authorities escalate this policy, it will impact thousands upon thousands of Palestinians – and is already impacting hundreds of families.

This policy is also an attempt to isolate Palestinian prisoners from their families, communities and outside world. Take action to demand an end to the attacks on Palestinian families:

165 Palestinians taken from Hebron by occupation forces in September

3 October 2014

The Hebron office of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported that the Israeli army kidnapped 165 Palestinians, including 40 children and 25 patients, in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, in September, and imposed high fines on many detainees, reported the International Middle East Media Center.

The PPS in Hebron said 70 of the kidnapped Palestinians have been moved into Administrative Detention, without charges, and that the soldiers kidnapped 40 children, 25 Palestinians who suffer from chronic diseases, 20 school and college students, and imposed fines mounting to 50.000 NIS on several detainees.

Head of the Hebron office of the PPS Amjad Najjar said most of the kidnapped Palestinians, and many family members, have been beaten and assaulted by the soldiers, who searched and ransacked their homes and properties.

Najjar added that the army issued arbitrary Administrative Detention orders against 70 detainees, forcing them behind bars without charges or trial for different periods.

He added that the Hebron district witnessed the largest number of kidnappings in the occupied West Bank in September, similar to several previous months.

Najjar further stated the soldiers are ongoing with their abuse and violations against the children, adding that the soldiers kidnapped 40 children (below the age of 17).

Some of the kidnapped children have been identified as Wasim ‘Adel Abu Hussein, Yazan Yousef Lafy, Fares at-Teety, Malek Salayma, and Mohammad Yacoub an-Natsha, 14.

The PPS said the soldiers also kidnapped 25 Palestinians, who suffer from several chronic diseases and illnesses, and require constant medical attention and treatment.

Detainee Ibrahim Mahmoud al-Hammal, 40, suffers from meningitis (a bacterial infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord), and detainee Faisal Talal al-Qawasma suffers from a heart disease, Hepatitis and Rheumatism.

Najjar said Israel uses the issue of the ailing detainees in an attempt to blackmail them and their families, in direct violation of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions that grants all prisoners the right to adequate medical care and attention.

Israel also stepped-up its illegal policies of imposing high fines, by imposing at least 50.000 New Israeli Shekels in fines against detainees from Hebron, in September alone.

Najjar stated that policy of imposing high fines is theft practiced by Israel against the detainees, and their families, especially amidst the very difficult economic conditions they face.

He demanded legal and international human rights groups to act on ending the escalating Israeli violations of International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and every Human Rights treaty, and to oblige Tel Aviv to stop its violent arrest campaigns, and ongoing invasions, destruction of property and assassinations.

In related news, Israeli soldiers of the Nahshon Battalion Brigade, operating in prisons and detention camps, invaded on Wednesday various rooms of Palestinian detainees in different sections of the Ramon Israeli Prison, and attacked several them.

The PPS said the attack is the second this week, after the soldiers invaded Section 3 of the prison, attacked a number of detainees, and moved two Palestinians, sentenced to high terms, into interrogation. The two have been identified as Omar Kharwat and Osama Sallal.

Imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa’adat denied family visits for 3 months

2 October 2014

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat reported that as of September 14, 2014, Ahmad Sa’adat, imprisoned Palestinian national leader, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been denied family visits for a three-month period. This order was given without reasons or justifications, and was presented to Sa’adat, who refused to sign the order. Sa’adat’s refusal to sign the order is part of a long history of his refusal to legitimize or recognize the structures of Israeli oppression, including the military courts who sentenced him to 30 years in prison on political charges.

This escalation in repression against Sa’adat, who has in the past spent over three years in isolation denied any access to his family, comes as part of an ongoing campaign of repression and harassment directed against Palestinian political prisoners since June 2014. Thousands of Palestinians were arrested in this period, raising the number of political prisoners from 5,200 to nearly 7,000 over this period, while hundreds of Palestinians were sentenced to administrative detention without charge or trial, more than doubling the number of people held in administrative detention. A series of politically motivated repressive conditions have been imposed on prisoners, including denial of family visits, frequent transfers from one prison to another, removal of electronic devices, denial of access to the canteen, denial of access to Arabic-language media, and frequent incursions and violent attacks on prisoners’ sections, ransacking rooms and damaging belongings. These attacks were arbitrarily imposed first on prisoners affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and then on prisoners affiliated with the Popular Front. Hundreds of prisoners are now being denied family visits by occupation prison authorities.

In a statement, the PFLP said that “This is a desperate and futile attempt to break the will and resolve of Palestinian leaders and symbols of the Palestinian national prisoners’ movement, which is a part of the systematic campaign of persecution waged by the prison administration against prisoners throughout the occupation prisons.”

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