For the first time ever, post-9/11 Muslim prisoners’ artwork will be displayed, read, recited, and spoken aloud to the public.
The National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF) in collaboration with CUNY-CLEAR; CUNY- CUNY-Law Students for Arts (LSfA); and the Muslim Law Students Association (MLSA) invites you to join us on the opening night of Arts and Poetry From the Window of Prisons.
Families and friends of prisoners, former prisoners, advocates, and community members, who have been resisting human rights violations since 9/11, will gather to speak out for justice.
We invite you to join us in the discussion of how basic rights have eroded after 9/11. It’s an erosion that shows itself in War on Terror policies and practices – in our communities, courtrooms and prisons across the U.S. Through the exhibition, we hope to raise awareness about the prisoners and their conditions, to view the interconnectedness of their cases, political eras, and their lives.
Art reveals the person behind bars, it encourages the public to take a second look and raise awareness about the plight of political prisoners in the US. We will be joined collectively in the struggle for social justice, and this exhibition will create a space in which the voices and visions of the incarcerated political prisoners can be expressed.
The works will include Muslim prisoners, imprisoned environmental, and animal rights activists. The artworks include a range of mediums, styles, and themes.
Arts and poetry from the following prisoners will be included:
Mohamed Shnewer
Tarek Mehanna
Shahawar Matin Siraj
Shukri Abu Baker
Mohammad Hossain
Marius Mason
John Walker Lindh
Sami Al Arian
Zachary Chesser
Yassin Aref
Babar Ahmed
Talha Ahsan
Poetry will be recited by: Annam Choudhry, Hamdan Azhar, and Gareth Bryant
Speakers include families of prisoners:
Shahina Parvin, mother of Shahawar Matin Siraj
Khadija Mohammad, daughter of Mohammad Hossain
Inas Shnwer, sister of Mohamed Shnewer
Sahar Mirza, wife of Farooq Ahmed
Representatives from the following organizations will speak:
Marwa Elbialy, Esq. National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms
Willoughby Janet, CUNY-CLEAR and Law Students for Arts
Zahra Cheema, Muslim Law Students Association
Faisal Hashmi, Muslim Justice Initiative
Bina Ahmad, Esq., National Lawyers Guild
Bring YOUR community! Bring your ID!
RSVP on Facebook.
Refreshments will be served
For more information contact the curator Sharmin Sadequee @ 517-505-1697
During July 2014, nearly 2,000 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli occupation forces, reported the Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies, including all sectors of Palestinian society. There are now over 6,200 Palestinians in occupation prisons.
Over 1,930 people were arrested in July, including 800 from the West Bank, 300 from Jerusalem, 630 from Occupied Palestine ’48 and 200 from Gaza. This includes 15 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and around 240 children, dozens of women, 62 former prisoners released in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange, including Samer Issawi; many other former prisoners including former hunger striker Sheikh Khader Adnan; and journalists, activists and academics.
Over 630 Palestinians from Occupied Palestine ’48 were arrested in the mass demonstrations that swept the area following the murder of the teenage boy, Mohammed Abu Khudair, by settlers, as well as in arrest campaigns directed by the occupation in order to suppress protests and marches in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, following the launch of the occupation’s assault on Gaza at the beginning of July.
The 15 members of the PLC arrested in July followed the arrest of 12 more PLC members in June, following the occupation’s arrest campaign after the disappearance of three settlers near al-Khalil; and the escalation of arrests in Jerusalem also came in order to suppress the mass demonstrations and uprising emerging after the killing and burning of Abu Khdeir.
The 200 arrested from Gaza were forcibly rounded up by occupation ground troops invading the east of Gaza, taken to military camps and interrogated for hours or days by occupying forces as they continued their assault on Gaza. The Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies noted numerous reports that occupation forces executed many prisoners after arresting them, either by firing on them directly or refusing to allow them treatment and letting them bleed to death. Over 20 prisoners from Gaza have lost members of their family in the assault on Gaza and many more have seen their homes demolished.
There are now more than 445 prisoners held without charge or trial under administrative detention, an increase of 133% over the number of administrative detainees in June.
Furthermore, 26 aggressive raids and assaults on prisoners took place in July, taking advantage of the occupation attack on Gaza to continue their abuse of prisoners and impose further repression upon them.
Whereas, Israel is an occupying power in Palestine with responsibility in international law to protect civilians,
Whereas, it has imposed a siege and blockade on Gaza since 2006, subjecting its population, eighty percent of whom are refugees from lands occupied by Israel, to extreme deprivation and hardship,
Whereas, Israel has repeatedly subjected Palestinians to collective punishment in violation of international law, most notably in December 2008 when it killed more than 1300 civilians and destroyed thousands of homes as well as scores of schools, mosques, and hospitals,
Whereas, in its recent assault on Gaza beginning with the bombardment of July 8 and subsequent ground attack, Israel has killed more than 1000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, has bombed children playing on the beach and civilians sheltering in a UN-run school despite being given the coordinates of the school,
And whereas, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva has found Israel potentially guilty of war crimes and launched an international inquiry into it,
Therefore be it resolved that we demand that Israel immediately stop its attack on Gaza, allow relief efforts to reach the residents, and enable the UNHRC to carry on its investigation into war crimes,
We further demand that Israel lift the blockade on Gaza to ensure the free movement of Palestinians in and out of Gaza Strip as well as unlimited import and export of goods to enable its residents to rebuild their lives, and enter into negotiations in good faith to end the occupation of Palestinian lands.
Finally, be it resolved that SANSAD endorses the Palestinian call and global movement for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions against the state of Israel and its institutions until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights.
In addition, as SANSAD is an organization of South Asians living in Canada, be it resolved that we hold the Government of Canada complicit in Israel’s violations of international law and war crimes because of its unqualified support of Israel’s actions and demand that it change its policy and call on Israel to obey international law, respect human rights and the democratic right of Palestinian people to elect the government of their choice and seek the unity of their leadership.
The Landless Workers Movement (MST) of Brazil is a mass social movement, formed by rural workers and by all those who want to fight for land reform and against injustice and social inequality in rural areas. With an estimated 1.5 million members, the movement has led more than 2,500 land occupations, with about 370,000 families – families that today settled on 7.5 million hectares of land that they won as a result of the occupations. Through their organizing, these families continue to push for schools, credit for agricultural production and cooperatives, and access to health care. The MST issued the following statement in support of the Palestinian people on July 14:
Landless Workers Movement (MST) – Brazil: The Palestinian People have the right to Resist and Fight against the Israeli Occupation São Paulo, Brazil, July 14, 2014.
A new Israeli military offensive has resulted in hundreds of deaths and arrests in occupied Palestine. In the West Bank, in Gaza, in Jersualem and in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, what we see is more violence and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the Government of Israel. Thousands of civilians are killed, wounded and arrested during Israeli military operations. Now Israel is threatening to invade Gaza on the ground again. Every attack on Gaza has resulted in bombings of homes, schools, hospitals, offices of Palestinian political and social organizations and of humanitarian support, use of white phosphorus bombs, weapons with ammunition made from depleted uranium and incendiary bombs that resemble the napalm used by the USA in the Vietnam war.
In the face of this Zionist-colonialist aggression, what is left to the Palestinian people is to continue the struggle and popular resistance for peace, justice and national liberation. The origin of the conflict is the occupation of the Palestinian lands by Israeli colonialism. The end of the Israeli occupation is the only solution to ensure a just and lasting peace in the region. Today, the Palestinian people have the courage and defiance of those who live under the Israeli occupation, and with the international solidarity of people, organizations and Governments, together, form a powerful movement of rejection against the injustices practiced by Israel.
The Landless Workers Movement-MST is and will always be at the side of those who fight for justice and dignity. And in this struggle, we stand together with the Palestinian people and their legitimate organizations, that through their resistance confronting the oppressor, light the path that will result in the freedom of the people and the land. The MST will stand with various organizations of the Brazilian people in the struggle for a free, sovereign and independent Palestine. Also we call upon our sister organizations which are part of the Via Campesina to participate actively in struggling in solidarity with this heroic people who are for us an example of dignity, boldness and courage.
The Brazilian people are in the fight alongside the Palestinian people.
FREE PALESTINE NOW!!!
END THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION!!!
FREE THE PALESTINIAN HOMELAND, VENCEREMOS!!!
NATIONAL DIRECTION OF THE LANDLESS WORKERS MOVEMENT – MST BRAZIL
Cartoon by Carlos Latuff (part of a series of cartoons illustrating solidarity between Palestinian and other international social justice and liberation movements):
Occupation forces in Khalil area have once again seized 12 Palestinians, including 2 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
IMEMC reports that the Ahrar Center for Detainees’ Studies and Human Rights has reported that the soldiers invaded Bani Neim town, east of Hebron, and kidnapped ten Palestinians.
It said the ten kidnapped Palestinians have been identified as;
1. Qosai Ahmad Manasra, 17.
2. Issa Shihda Suleiman at-Tarayra, 24.
3. Suleiman Shihda at-Tarayra.
4. Ma’moun Diab al-Hjouj, 28.
5. Mohammad Raed al-Manasra, 17.
6. Mohammad Samir Manasra, 21.
7. Othman Atiyya Ballout, 24.
8. Mujahid Ali Ballout, 22.
9. Ibrahim Manasra, 17.
10. Jad Hmeidat, 16.
Soldiers also invaded Yatta town, near Hebron, and kidnapped a Palestinian legislator identified as
11. Khalil Reb’ey.
In addition, soldiers invaded Surif town, near Hebron, and kidnapped a Palestinian legislator identified as
12. Samir Al-Qadi.
Head of the Ahrar Center Fuad al-Khuffash stated that Israel recently kidnapped eleven Palestinian legislators in the West Bank, since June 16 until the morning of July 16, 27 Palestinian legislators in different parts of the occupied West Bank.
Eleven more legislators, and three government ministers, have already been kidnapped before the abovementioned period, and are all currently imprisoned by Israel.
On Tuesday at dawn, soldiers legislator Mahmoud al-Khatib, 42, in Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, and three Palestinians in the nearby town of al-Khader.
Over 1,000 Palestinians have been rounded up in mass raids since June 12 in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Occupied Palestine ’48. These arrests continue today amid the occupation forces’ ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed 208 Palestinians and injured well over 1400.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a statement that Israel ordered 238 administrative detentions sentences since the beginning of the military campaign in the West Bank on June 12. Administrative detention is the imprisonment of Palestinians without trial or charge, on secret evidence, for up to six month periods which are indefinitely renewable. Palestinians have spent years at a time in administrative detention.
These orders more than double the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention. Administrative detainees had previously engaged in a 62-day hunger strike, demanding an end to the practice which dates from the era of British mandate colonial control of Palestine. These 20 administrative detainees include Khader Adnan, whose lengthy hunger strike secured his release from administrative detention in 2012.
Palestinian artist and activist Husam Zakharia created the following image, on administrative detention and the role of the occupation courts for Palestinians:
Lawmakers, ex-ministers and ex-prisoners are among the 238 administrative detainees since June 12.
1. Hussein Mrdawi, three months.
2. Khalid Masaid, four months.
3. Fathi Joulani, three months.
4. Bakr Said Bilal, six months.
5. Hussam Abu Labda, three months.
6. Muhannad Zaarour, three months.
7. Mutasem Stiteh, four months.
8. Imad Nofel, three months, parliamentarian.
9. Imad Abu Rihan, four months.
10. Ahmad al-Khatib, four months.
11. Zuheir Hussein, six months.
12. Muaz Obayyat, four months.
13. Youssef Walweil, four months.
14. Bashir Ziyada, three months.
15. Walid Bustanji, two months.
16. Ahmad Khairi Ibrahim, two months.
17. Muhammad Awwad Ibrahim, four months.
18. Muhannad Rabi, three months.
19. Ghassan Thawqan, three months.
20. Khader Adnan, six months.
The six Palestinians whose sentences were re-imposed. Via Wattan TV
An occupation military court re-sentenced six former prisoners, released in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange, re-imposing their original life sentences, in a hearing on July 15. These six Palestinian political prisoners are Adnan Maragha, Ismail Hijazi, Alaa Bazian, Nasser Abed Rabbo, Jamal Abu Saleh, Rajab al-Tahan. All six are from occupied Jerusalem.
They were released in 2011 following an exchange agreement between Hamas and the Israeli state which saw captured occupation soldier Gilad Shalit released in exchange for 1024 Palestinian prisoners. As part of its campaign of arrests and persecution since June 12, occupation forces have seized many former prisoners, including 60 released in the Wafa al-Ahrar agreement. Three of the men, Adnan Maragha, Alaa Bazian and Nasser Abed Rabbo are pre-Oslo prisoners, meaning they were arrested and have been held before the implementation of the Oslo accords in 1994. Release of all pre-Oslo prisoners has been a Palestinian demand for over 20 years.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society that four former prisoners re-arrested following June 12 will have hearings today: Ahmad Al-Awawdeh, Khaled Makhamra, Mahdi Al-Assi, and Samer Issawi, whose 270-day hunger strike drew massive Palestinian, Arab and international attention – helping to secure his 2013 release – the last time occupation forces attempted to re-impose his sentence, claiming he had left the boundaries of Jerusalem without permission.
The “hearings” conducted in these cases involved lengthy closed sessions with prosecutors and the Shin Bet presenting “secret evidence” to the court before short public hearings at which the defense can present. The six were accused of having “contact” with organizations the Israeli state deems to be prohibited and “hostile,” including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, four major Palestinian political parties with members and supporters in nearly every Palestinian town and family.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network notes that these arrests are entirely political and an attempt to dictate that no Palestinian shall ever be truly free and that the prison bars are never taken away for any Palestinian prisoner; it is also an attempt to undermine the Palestinian resistance and the successes it has achieved in freeing prisoners. As Israeli occupation forces have killed over 200 people in Gaza with their bombing raids in the past week, the occupation is seeking to kill prisoners with the slow death of re-imposed life sentences for “violation of release conditions.” This also makes clear once again that the courts are part and parcel of the structure of occupation and oppression that Palestinians confront and not a mechanism for justice.
Khader Adnan, with his children after his release in 2012
The occupation issued a new administrative detention order against Khader Adnan. Adnan was released from administrative detention in 2012 after a 66-day hunger strike against his imprisonment without charge or trial drew international support and attention and wide engagement from Palestinian movements.
Adnan’s administrative detention order is for 6 months; it is indefinitely renewable, and issued without charge or trial. 19 other administrative detention orders were issued alongside Adnan’s.
The administrative detention of Adnan came as occupation forces resumed their mass arrest campaign in the West Bank and Gaza in the early hours of July 14, arresting 57 Palestinians from Jerusalem and the West Bank, including noted academic Abdul-Sattar Qassem and 11 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, bringing the number of imprisoned PLC members to 35, 33 from the Hamas legislative bloc (Change and Reform) and Ahmad Sa’adat of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Marwan Barghouti of Fateh.
The funeral of Munir Badarin on July 14.
Occupation forces killed a young man in al-Khalil while engaging in these arrest raid, Munir Ahmad Hamdan al-Badarin, 21, shooting him with live ammunition as residents resisted the army’s invasion, and prohibiting access to emergency vehicles and personnel for over 40 minutes until he bled to death, as reported by IMEMC.
These mass arrests, now numbering over 1000 since mid-June including numerous former prisoners and prominent hunger strikers like Khader Adnan and Samer Issawi (whose next hearing was postponed until July 16), are taking place while occupation forces are launching massive assaults on Palestinians in Gaza, and have killed 181 Palestinians and wounded well over a thousand, destroying numerous homes and infrastructure. See below for IMEMC’s continually updated list of the victims of Israel’s assault.
Paris takes to the streets against occupation assault on Gaza.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network notes that the assault on Gaza and the mass raids on Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Occupied Palestine ’48 are part and parcel of one program of siege, isolation and assassination either through outright murder at the hands of largely US-made missiles, bombs, F-16s, guns and tanks, or through the slow death of isolation in the prisons of the occupation. This stage of siege and isolation is extended and exemplified for the over seven million Palestinian refugees in exile and diaspora around the world denied their right to return for over 66 years. This situation is at a point of crisis, and the voices of people of the world must be heard to demand an end to the killing, bombing, mass arrests, occupation, persecution, home demolitions, racism and settler colonialism that is at the heart of the occupation state.
There is an urgent need for action and people have been responding around the world. Join one of the numerous actions taking place in hundreds of cities around the world – escalate resistance around the world to support resistance in Palestine and confront the killing machine facing Palestinians today. The governments of the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and other imperial and colonial powers are lining up to support this assault – it is imperative that the people are lined up to confront it.
Via IMEMC: These are the names that have been confirmed by medical sources in Gaza. Approximately 1260 have been injured, with some losing limbs and others disabled for life. The majority of the wounded are children, according to the Ministry of Health. All of the casualties listed below are victims of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza since Tuesday July 8th.
A statement issued by the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC)
Life for Palestine and Freedom for our People
The Zionist occupation, led by a government of settlers, continues to commit war crimes against our people. They commit crime after crime, massacre after massacre. The rights of women and children, the elderly and families, are violated and their right to their land and to enjoy the sea lapping at their feet stripped from them: They use the most powerful means of killing: aircraft, tanks and advanced missiles.
The number of martyrs is approaching 200, half of them women and children; and more than a thousand have been injured. And still the Occupation Army continues to kill, attacking the besieged Gaza Strip and destroying the homes of families making them homeless while they are mourning their dead. They destroy their homes over their heads and destroy institutions providing care for those with disabilities.
In the West Bank, and in the heart of Jerusalem, they are continuing their campaign of oppression, murder and torture against our people. Invading their homes, institutions and arresting. Now they have taken their Zionist crimes to a new level by kidnapping the a child, Mohammed Abu Khudair, burning him alive. And still the number of martyrs, wounded, prisoners and displaced persons is on the rise.
All this is happening with the support of the Governments of Western imperialism. These Governments see freedom, independence and liberation of our people and our land as a threat to their interests in the region. The crimes of the Occupation are allowed to continue, all with the suspicious silence of the Arab regimes.
We in the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC) are engaged in a battle of steadfastness and confrontation. We continue to denounce the crimes committed against our people and our land, and condemn Western support and political cover that is provided for the crimes of the occupation, whether that support is clear and direct or veiled. We affirm the right of our people’s resistance to settler colonialism in Palestine and insist on the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the homes from which they were displaced. In addition, the right of self-determination and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with full sovereignty with Jerusalem as its capital.
We are the reality of pain and suffering, and the manifestation of steadfastness and determination. As our inevitable victory approaches we call the international community to assume its responsibilities towards our people, through the mechanisms of a clear vindication of our rights to our land. We also demand a provisional international protection force for our people and the accountability of the Zionist war criminals.
It is time for the international community to stop falsely claiming there is a “peace process,” which has in reality only benefited the Occupation, allowing it to strengthen its control over our land and institute racist policies through a system of apartheid, which is the ugliest in the history of mankind.
We applaud the resistance of our people in all its forms and spectra, and we salute the young men and women rebelling in the fields in all parts of Palestine. We also salute the Arab peoples and all people around the world that have shown solidarity with us.
We also call for the implementation of the following:
We demand that the Palestinian leadership to tackle the task of unity of our people, protecting our cause. A leadership that is working to develop a national strategy for the struggle, and thus ending the negotiations and security coordination with the occupation, which is a dagger in the side of our people and their struggle.
We call on the masses of our people for increased participation in the struggle and direct confrontation with the Occupation. We call upon it to achieve victory for our people and our cause and to fulfill the wishes of our martyrs, our wounded, our prisoners, our bereaved, our orphans and the homeless of our people.
We call upon Palestinian women to provide more even more initiative and direction for national events and to increase their militancy, as positive role models for women and people around the world.
To the people of the free world and to the Arab people we ask you all to show even greater solidarity through events, and apply more pressure on your Governments to provide real support to the struggle of our people and for the accountability of the Zionist war criminals.
We call for the expansion of the campaign to boycott the state of the Zionist entity “Israel” and the imposition of sanctions and divestment at the global, Arab and national levels. We call for a mass campaign to boycott “Israel.”
Life for our people, in spite of all the crimes committed against them;
Glory, eternity and loyalty to our martyrs; and
Healing of our wounded and freedom for our prisoners.
Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees
13/07/2014
Occupation forces continued their arrest raids late Tuesday, July 8 and early morning Wednesday, July 9, rounding up over 38 Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied Palestine ’48. 936 Palestinians from all areas of Palestine have been targeted in these raids. These raids continue as occupation military forces have killed 34 Palestinians and wounded hundreds in airstrikes across Gaza.
These arrests focused specifically on targeting former prisoners and cadres of Hamas movement, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front dor the Liberation of Palestine.
Those abducted by occupation forces include noted Hamas leaders Dr. Ghassan Thuqan, a lecturer at An-Najah University who had previously spent years in administrative detention; Nazih Abu Aoun, who spent over 16 years in occupation prisons, and Wael Hashash, among those arrested in Nablus. In Nablus, occupation forces arrested Walid Hamdan and Maher Abdel Rahim, activists with the PFLP. Occupation forces also invaded Kobar in Ramallah district, arresting the freed prisoners Ibrahim al-Abed and Rashid Dweikat, as well as Saher and Omar Sabah from Bethelehem area.
Simultaneously, occupation courts continued the imprisonment of those rounded up in these mass arrest raids: the detention of 29 Palestinians from Jerusalem was extended by the Magistrate’s Court was extended on Wednesday following the extention of detention for 88 Palestinians from the West Bank on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, occupation authorities issued 31 new administrative detention orders, for imprisonment without charge or trial, against Palestinians seized in mass arrest raids since June 12. 218 administrative detention orders, based on secret evidence and with no charges, have been issued since the launch of the occupation;s arrest campaign.
For the first time ever, post-9/11 Muslim prisoners’ artwork will be displayed, read, recited, and spoken aloud to the public. 
