Samidoun demands India free Dr GN Saibaba immediately and unconditionally

22 June 2014

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in solidarity with Indian political prisoner, Delhi University professor, and Revolutionary Democratic Front leader, Dr. GN Saibaba, and urges his immediate and unconditional release by Indian authorities.

Dr. Saibaba is well-known for his leading advocacy and activism in supporting the movements of the most oppressed: Dalit people, Adivasi people, women, and the poor. His organization, the Revolutionary Democratic Front, has been targeted by Indian police and officials using an “anti-terror” framework that has been a major weapon of the Indian state in suppressing dissent and organizing.

Dr. Saibaba has been suspended by Delhi University and held in solitary confinement; his bail was denied on June 13. Prior to his arrest, his home was raided four times since September 2013. He has been denied medical accommodations for his disability; he has used a wheelchair since he was a child.

He has been charged with being a member of a “prohibited ‘terrorist’ organization,” the Communist Party of India (Maoist). These types of laws and designations of political parties are one of the most common charges faced by Palestinian political prisoners, as the Zionist occupation has labelled every Palestinian political party (and the students’, women’s, labour and charity organizations associated with them) “hostile prohibited organizations,” and membership or support to such organizations can see Palestinians serving years in prison.

In the United States, Canada, the European Union and elsewhere, so-called “terror lists” have created lists of international organizations – many of which are progressive or revolutionary organizations or national liberation movements whose organizing challenges imperialism and corporate hegemony – and used those lists, and prohibitions of “material support” to target Palestinian, Lebanese, Filipino, Tamil and other communities, leaders and organizations for prosecution and suppress community organizing. Indigenous organizing against land grabs, displacement and colonization has long been branded as “terror,” while Black and Latino resistance organizations (like the Black Panther Party) have been hunted and criminalized.

In India, the Revolutionary Democratic Front has been known for its active organizing with the most oppressed forces in the country challenging mining corporations’ land grabs and displacement of Adivasi people. Indian activists have pointed out that the “anti-terror” law in India is a mechanism for suppressing exactly such resistance.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins the call from Indian and international organizations for the release of Dr. GN Saibaba, and his return to teaching at Delhi University!

Related statements:

Speakers at Vancouver rally call for freedom for Dr. Saibaba (Via Red Sparks Union):

Chinmoy Bannerjee, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy

Erie Maestro, Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights

Lakhbir, East Indian Defense Committee

Tom Warren, Alliance for People’s Health

Arrest raids throughout West Bank target over 80 Palestinians

14 June 2014

Israeli Occupation Forces have been carrying out arrest raids throughout the West Bank and in the Naqab since June 13, when it was reported that three West Bank settlers, a man and two youths, were captured by the Palestinian resistance while hitch-hiking from Gush Etzion (illegal settlement) to Modi’in (another illegal settlement) in the area of al-Khalil. The capture of occupation soldier Gilad Shalit by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza brought about the 2011 “Wafa al-Ahrar” exchange for 1,000 Palestinian political prisoners; noting occupation refusal to release Palestinian political prisoners without action by the resistance, the capture of soldiers and settlers has been stated by Palestinian resistance groups to be a priority. No Palestinian organization has claimed responsibility for the capture.

Occupation forces have responded with collective punishment on a mass scale – declaring the area a closed military zone, cancelling work permits for Palestinians from al-Khalil, invading and ransacking dozens of homes, conducting what they described as a “house to house” operation. They stopped and searched hundreds of Palestinian cars, Palestinians have been captured throughout the West Bank, and Palestinian Legislative Council members, former prisoners, and former ministers were particularly targeted in these raids. Most have been reportedly taken to settlement detention centers for interrogation. The Palestinians captured by occupation forces in these wide-ranging raids include:

1. Hassan Yousef (El-Bireh)
2. Dr Mohammed Ghazzal (Nablus)
3. Wasfi Qabha (Former Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs)
4. Mohammed al-Sayyed (Jenin)
5. Tareq Qa’adan (former prisoner and long-term hunger striker)
6. Ja’afar Izzedine (former prisoner and long-term hunger striker)
7. AbdelRahman Zeidan – Palestinian Legislative Council member
8. Ibrahim Abu Salem – Palestinian Legislative Council member
9. Ahmed Totah – Palestinian Legislative Council member
10. Hosni al-Burini – Palestinian Legislative Council member
11. Nader Sawafteh – Tubas
12. Fazah Sawafteh – Tubas
13. Khaled Abu Arafah – Former Minister
14. Sheikh Ammar Naffaa – Tulkarem
15. Ahmad Saqr Nabhan – Askar camp
16. Hassan al-Safadi – Nablus (former prisoner and long-term hunger striker)
17. Osama Shahin (prisoner activist) – Khalil
18. al-Hajj Sobhi Kfeisheh – Khalil
19. Firas Jarrar – Nablus
20. Abdel-Jabbar Jarrar – Jenin
21. Anas Raddad – Tulkarem
22. Abdallah Bani Odeh – Tammoun
23. Talal Abu Asbeh – Qalqilya
24. Ahmad Awad – former prisoner – Nablus
25. Huzaifa Ziadeh – Madameh south of Nablus
26. Abdel-Hakim al-Qada’a – Nablus
27. Samir Abu Shaib – Awarta
28. Alaa Abu Qader – Jenin
29. Omar al-Barghouthi (former prisoner) – Qobar, Ramallah
30. Sheikh Zaid Sabhan – al-Farra camp
31. Amir al-Dabbour – Azzoun
32. Nael Anaya – Azzoun
33. Mohammed Bani Odeh – Tammoun
34. Mohammed Azmi al-Barbarawi – Halhoul
35. Mostafa Rabai’a – Jenin
36. Ahmad Salatneh – Jaba, Janin
37. Ahmad Malaisha – Jaba, Jenin
38. Sajid Khatatbeh – Beit Furik
39. Arafat Nasser
40. Tareq Shaaban – Khalil
41. Marwan Zahdeh – Khalil
42. Said Qasrawi – Ramallah
43. Abdallah Shbeita – Azzoun
44. Mosaab al-Ashqar – Tulkarem
45. Marwan Mughra – Salfit
46. Mahmoud Karim Ayyad – Dheisheh camp, Bethlem
47. Ashraf Shamasneh – Qataneh
48. Najib Mafarjeh – Beit Liqya
49. Diaa Sammour – El-Bireh
50. Fathi Yassin Abu Srour – Ramallah
51. Yousef al-Lahham – Bethlehem
52. Amro Diab – Bethlehem
53. Ahmed Zaid – Ramallah
54. Ahmad Hamadneh – Asira Shamaliya, Nablus
55. Nader Ribhi Takatkeh – Beit Fajar, Bethlehem
56. Said Abu Hussein – Khalil
57. Qasem Abu Hussein – Khalil
58. Mohammed Nidal Daghlas – Asira Shamaliya, Nablus
59. Adham al-Shouli – Asira
60. Alaa Za’aqiq – Beit Ommar
61. Mohammad Adib Mousa – Bethlehem
62. Ali Hannoun – Ramallah
63. Adib Wahdan – Ramallah

Internationals hold press conference in Gaza, express solidarity with Palestinian prisoners

14 June 2014

by Julie Webb-Pullman from Gaza Scoop

Internationals currently resident in Gaza held a press conference on Saturday evening outside the International Committee for the Red Cross to express support from groups in over ten countries for the hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners.

Organisers said it was important on the 52nd day of the mass hunger strike to show international solidarity with the prisoners, and to support their demands for an end to administrative detention, as well as to the abhorrent practices of torture, child abuse and military trials perpetrated against Palestinians by the Israeli authorities, all of which breach international law.

The countries represented were: New Zealand, Australia, The United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Venezuela, Chile, Cuba, Colombia, and the United States of America.

Also speaking was Tawfeeq Abu Naim, head of the National Committee for the Prisoners.

Each representative read a short statement, most of which are reproduced below.

IRELAND

1. The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign sends solidarity greetings to the Palestinian political prisoners, and in particular salute those prisoners on the mass hunger strike for over 50 days in protest against prison conditions and Israeli internment without charge or trial.

2. In Ireland we know only too well the pain and the tragedy of the hunger strike; dating back to Thomas Ashe, who died after being force fed by British occupation forces in 1917, Irish men and women have embarked on prison hunger strikes to secure their rights and freedom.

3. Sadly, many of these fasts ended in death and martyrdom.

4. We hope this will not be the case in Palestine today, we hope the mass hunger strike will be victorious and the internees will secure both their own freedom and an end to the occupation’s use of Administrative Detention, a practice illegal under international law.

5. We call on the international community, the politicians and the peoples of the world to mobilise in support of the hunger strikers and to pressure the occupier to accede to the demands of the strike, to bring about its end before anyone is martyred.

6. We call also for an end to the occupation’s use of the ‘conveyor-belt’ military court system, under which tens of thousands of Palestinians have been imprisoned since 1967. These are no more than kangaroo court trials, lasting on average less than three minutes and with a 99.97% conviction rate.

7. Finally, we note that the occupation renders Palestine into one big prison camp, with millions of people imprisoned with no control over their lives, dreams or destinies. It is a situation that conscience demands cannot continue to be allowed to exist.

8. The occupation must end. Apartheid must end. There must be freedom. There must be justice. There must be equality. Only then can there be a just peace.

9. Victory to the hunger strikers. Victory to the Palestinian people. Free Palestine.

UNITED KINGDOM

We, the students and young people in the United Kingdom will not wait until the death of another Palestinian prisoner to move in solidarity with all the detainees, who have been denied their freedom with sickening injustice and silence in Israeli jails.

The youth and young people are strongly involved in resistance against the illegal occupation, and are therefore arrested often, to stop the fight for the liberation of Palestine.

They are aware that students can expose them and their crimes to the world, especially now that so many are communicating directly to Western audiences .

We do not accept any method of torture that is used by Israel; the force feeding, the handcuffing, the placing of food in front of hunger strikers, the physical abuse – all illegal practices against humanity, many of which have resulted in the death of prisoners.

We are here to show our support for all the hunger strikers and all the political prisoners and will honour the courage of the prisoners and grow the movement in solidarity with them.

From the UK students and youth.

AUSTRALIA

At a time when Australia is wrongfully designating East Jerusalem as “disputed” instead of “occupied”, a term long recognised under international law, activists and advocates for Palestine in Australia are appalled at our government’s immoral stance, especially in the face of Israel’s incontrovertible human rights abuses.

We abhor Israel’s cruel and abusive policy of administrative detention often without charge, a proper trial and regardless of age.

We support the Palestinian prisoners’ right to engage in hunger strikes to highlight the inhuman conditions under which they are detained and which are contrary to international law.

We further abhor Israel’s resort to force-feeding, a form of torture and universally prohibited.

We condemn these unlawful practices and policies associated with Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine and support the hunger strikes as nonviolent resistance tactics in the overall Palestinian struggle for rights and justice.

Signatories:
Australians for Palestine
Women for Palestine

ITALY

Sit in Rome Friday 13th, June 2014

Addameer and the Prisoners Committee in Palestine demanded:
• the official intervention of the International Red Cross to form a special medical team to follow the situation of the prisoners on hunger strike.
• A clear and explicit international denunciation of the occupation policy practiced by Israel
• the condemnation by the United Nations of the practice of administrative detention against Palestinian civilians, which violates the provisions of the Geneva Convention and other international conventions and agreements

We, the undersigned, support these requests fully and add a strong appeal to the Italian government, as President of the European Parliament for this Semester, to take a Parliamentary stand against violations of international law by Israel and towards the respect of human rights.

We also ask them to put pressure on the Israeli government to respect international human rights.

Before it is too late, we need to express a strong solidarity with the struggle of Palestinian prisoners

Issued by
Association “Friends of Palestinian prisoners”
Palestinian community in Rome and Lazio
– General Union of Palestinian engineers and architects
– Un ponte per….
– Roma network for solidarity with the Palestinian People
– Forum Palestina
– Committee “Palestine in our hearths”
– Boycot, Disinvest, Sanction (BDS) Roma
– Committee No Mekorot
– PdCI
– Commitee “Do not forget Sabra e Chatila”
– Assopace Palestine, national
– Radio Città Aperta
– Network of communists
– Association Friends of Palestinian Red Crescent
– Network No War Roma
– Confederation Cobas Roma

Campaign Against Torture

As a doctor, I am also a member of the Campaign Against Torture, formed five years ago in UK. It is directed to the medical profession and its associations, national and international, to denounce the systematic collusion of doctors in torture, which also occurs in Israeli, and the lack of response to the denunciations of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA).

We have 725 signatories, and are widely reported in medical journals like the Lancet and the British Medical Journal, as well as the press. In Israel, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is a member of our organisation.

We are also campaigning against the force feeding of prisoners, and demand that Israeli medical professionals refrain from participating in this illegal, immoral and unprofessional practice.

NEW ZEALAND

NZ MANA MOVEMENT STATEMENT

Solidarity with the Palestinian struggle from Mana Movement

Kia ora koutou,

Mana stands squarely behind the Palestinian struggle for indigenous rights against Israel’s racist apartheid policies.

As a Maori-inspired movement fighting for tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) for Maori here in Aotearoa/New Zealand we support the Palestinian struggle against the brutal military occupation of their land and Israel’s medieval siege of Gaza.

We support the hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners. Using one’s own body as a vehicle of struggle sends a potent message of condemnation for Israeli policies of land theft, mass murder and unspeakable inhumanity.

And to the Palestinian prisoners – kia kaha, kia toa, kia manawanui (Be strong, be brave, be steadfast)

In solidarity,
John Minto
Co-vice President
Mana Movement
On behalf of the Mana Movement

NZ UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

We represent a variety of students in New Zealand that want to voice our support alongside the prisoners.

We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners petitioning against their inhumane treatment in Israeli prisons.

Being kept prisoner without due trial is a violation against international humanitarian law and cannot go unchallenged, the international community has not done enough to prevent such violations.

#Water_and_Salt

STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND

Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Auckland are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian detainees and their families.

We demand the state of Israel to put an end to the practice of administrative detention and stop the injustice and suffering caused by the imprisonment of innocent people.

We also want to take this chance to call on Israel to stop the violation of human rights and end the Apartheid system.

Our thoughts are with the Palestinian people for who we demand freedom, peace and justice.

NZ PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS

We abhor Israel’s cruel and abusive policy of administrative detention often without charge, a proper trial and regardless of age.

We support the Palestinian prisoners’ right to engage in hunger strikes to highlight the inhuman conditions under which they are detained and which are contrary to international law.

We further abhor Israel’s resort to force-feeding, a form of torture and universally prohibited.

We condemn these unlawful practices and policies associated with Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine, and support the hunger strikes as nonviolent resistance tactics in the overall Palestinian struggle for rights and justice.

Signatories
Fr Gerard Burns, Catholic priest, St Joseph’s parish, Mount Victoria, Wellington, NZ
Leslie and Marian Bravery, Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand
Billy Hania
Janfrie Wakem, Palestine Human Rights Campaign NZ
Martin and Lois Griffiths, Earthwatch
Alastair Thompson, Editor, SCOOP Media

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition and The Global Campaign for Palestinian Political Prisoners call on all people of conscience to take immediate action to help save the lives of all Palestinian political prisoners currently on hunger strike!

These Palestinian mass hunger strikers have been detained by Israeli authorities without any charge whatsoever and there are reports that some are already in critical condition with vision impairment, vomiting blood and lapsing in and out of consciousness.

The Israeli occupation authorities and courts continue to detain Palestinians under the “Emergency Law of 1945″, which was in force during the British Mandate of Palestine. This “law”, which violates international law, allows the Zionist authorities to detain Palestinians without trial or providing reason, and to repeatedly extend the term of detention. The Israeli authorities have also ratified the Unlawful Combatant Law of 2000, which allows the occupation state to detain Palestinians without charge or disclosure of the term of detention. There are currently approximately 200 Palestinian administrative detainees. The current mass hunger strikers are protesting prison conditions and administrative detention.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Please join the voices and support around the world to save the hunger strikers and demand their immediate release from prison!

Write to President Obama and voice your concern and demand that the US administration intervene to demand the immediate release of all the current hunger strikers, and all the administrative detainees and Palestinian political prisoners including children. You can use the online form.

Also please Call US Secretary of State John Kerry at 1-202-647-4000 or Office of Near East Affairs at 1-202-647-7209. Demand that the Secretary intervene for the immediate release of all the hunger strikers, all Palestinian administrative detainees and political prisoners including the children.

Organize rallies at Israeli embassies and consulates, and elsewhere. Help spread awareness through social media, and forward to all your contacts after you take action!

The transcripts of Manu’s and Tawfeeq Abu Naim’s speech were not available.

Translation by Mohammed Abedallah
Photographs by Charlie Andreasson

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Berlin, June 14: Protest in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on Hunger Strike

14 June 2014

The Palestinian Student Forum in Berlin is organizing a protest in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have been consuming only salt and water for over 50 days, demanding an end to administrative detention without charge or trial.

The solidarity protest will take place from 3:30 to 5:30 pm at Brandenburg Gate/Pariser Platz in Berlin, Germany on Saturday, June 14:

Chicago – Photos and Report: Emergency Vigil for Palestinian Hunger Strikers

14 June 2014

Report and photos by Christine Geovanis. For high-res photos, go to bit.ly/cgphotos:

Community groups from across Chicago’s Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities came together Friday evening, June 13, with human rights supporters at an emergency candlelight vigil to support over 100 Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails.

The hunger strike — a number of whose members are hovering near death — has begun to spark a political firestorm that could parallel that of Irish hunger strikers in 1981, when Bobby Sands and nine other Irish political prisoners died in an effort to push back against British political repression. The Palestinian hunger strikers are demanding an end to the Israeli practice of administrative detention — holding prisoners without charge or trial indefinitely, and often including torture — plus an end to solitary confinement, an end to storming of cells, the lifting of all restrictions on family visits, improved medical care, and an end to relatives being humiliated at checkpoints while journeying to and from visits.

The hunger strike began on April 24, when 90 detainees began refusing food in protest of their continued imprisonment. The hunger strike has escalated as more prisoners have joined, including the youngest hunger striker, 19-year-old Ahmad Rimawi.

Take Action: Free hunger striking Palestinian land defender Abdul-Razeq Faraj!

12 June 2014

Abdul-Razeq Farraj is the administrative and financial director of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Palestinian land defense organization that supports Palestinian farmers and fishers to resist and remain steadfast on their land and sea, operating in the West Bank and Gaza. He is now on hunger strike, hospitalized, and imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention.

The UAWC has been, for over 28 years, in the forefront of supporting Palestinian agricultural workers and connecting with other land defenders around the world; it is a member of Via Campesina and has worked with the Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil. Its work recently won an Equator Prize for sustainable development.

For his commitment to supporting Palestinian farmers, land, and nature, Abdul-Razeq Farraj has spent over 92 months in administrative detention without charge or trial over multiple detention periods, and has currently been in administrative detention since February 25. He has spent over 15 years in Israeli prisons and is now on hunger strike with his fellow administrative detainees and other Palestinian prisoners, demanding an end to the use of administrative detention. He was taken from isolation in Ramleh prison on June 7 to Meir hospital as his health declines.

The attacks on Abdul-Razeq Farraj are part and parcel of a war on Palestinian land defenders and the Palestinian farmers, fishers, and land and people themselves, including massive settlement building, land confiscation, home demolitions, and the construction of the apartheid wall, as well as the siege and firing on farmers and agricultural workers in Gaza.

TAKE ACTION: Sign on to this petition from Jewish Voice for Peace to support Abdul-Razeq and all Palestinians in their demand to be free of administrative detention! http://org.salsalabs.com/o/301/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15834

Read this important article by Abdul-Razeq’s son, Basil Farraj: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/05/palestinian-resists-occupation.html

Video interview of Abdul-Razeq Farraj:

Attacks on Palestinian land defenders: http://samidoun.net/2012/08/take-action-palestinian-farmers-agricultural-workers-targeted-for-imprisonment-and-persecution/

Addameer’s profile of Abdul-Razeq Farraj: http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=687

June 13, Chicago: Emergency Candlelight Vigil for Palestinian Hunger Strikers

12 June 2014

Emergency Candlelight Vigil for Palestinian Hunger Strikers
Friday, June 13, 2014
7:00-9:00 PM
Water Tower Park – 806 N. Michigan Ave. (corner of Chicago & Michigan Ave.) – Chicago, IL

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/755658221151462/

Convened by the United States Palestinian Community Network (Chicago), Palestine American Council, Al Qasam Mosque along with American Muslims for Palestine, Palestine Solidarity Group.

There is no more time to wait, there is no more time to spare, NOW is the time for action!
In support of the prisoners’ demands:
Basic demands for Palestinian prisoners
• To live with dignity and:
• An end to the arbitrary practice of administrative detention
• An end to solitary confinement
• An end to the storming of cells
• The lifting of all restrictions on family visits
• The improvement of medical care
• An end to relatives being humiliated at checkpoints while journeying to and from visits

June 12, Dublin: Protest in Solidarity with Palestinian prisoners Mass Hunger Strike

11 June 2014

Thu, 12 June 2014, 13:00 Dail Eireann, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1441319962785425/

There will be a protest in support of the Palestinian detainees on hunger strike in Israeli prisons on Thursday 12th June 2014 from 1pm-2pm outside Dail Eireann (the Irish Parliament), Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Thursday 12th June will mark the 50th day of the mass hunger strike of Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli jails, protesting against their ill treatment and their internment without trial or charge. Their conditions are deteriorating daily and around 80 hunger strikers have been hospitalised and are in great danger. The Israeli state is now trying to pass legislation that will allow force-feeding of the strikers, which prisoners have labelled a form of torture.

This is the longest mass hunger strike among prisoners in Palestinian history and the hunger strikers remain steadfast in their demand to end the policy of administrative detention.

The Protest will ask the Irish government to condemn Israel’s widespread use of administrative detention, which is in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states that interment can be used “only if the security of the Detaining Power makes it absolutely necessary.” Amnesty International has called Israeli administrative detention “arbitrary detention that fails to fulfil the international criteria for a just trial”, ”inhumane and degrading”, and notes that Israel uses it to “suppress the legitimate and peaceful activities of activists.” Administrative detention, particularly of children, is in violation of other international laws as well.

It is very important to show your solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strikers, please come and join us this Thursday between 1pm – 2pm at the Dail.

Organised by the Campaign for the Freedom of Marwan Barghouthi & All Palestinian Political Prisoners – Ireland and theIreland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Urgent call from administrative detainees on hunger strike: Our will as we await martyrdom

11 June 2014

The following statement was released on June 11 from Palestinian administrative detainees on hunger strike for 48 days inside occupation prisons. It was read in a press conference in Gaza by former Palestinian prisoner Allam al-Kaabi, and will be read on June 12 in Beirut by Anwar Yassin, former Lebanese prisoner in occupation prisons during the occupation of Lebanon.

A message from the Administrative Prisoners on Hunger Strike

Urgent Appeal

(Despite the oppression and bars and prison walls…we will struggle until death to defend our homeland)

After leaving the cells that no longer hold our pain, our diseases and our corroded bodies…taken to hospital beds held with chains, and guard dogs…Among the jailers who monitor our pulse ready to announce the news of our death…from the brink of death we draw our call, which may be the last for some of us…perhaps it is time to have a declaration by the victors, of the martyrs of our people, our dignity…our call…our voice…our heartbeats…our will and testament, we, the administrative detainees, our voice for eternity..marching to hold the sun of dignity as an end to the battle of dignity..we raise our voice to reach our people:

First, we call upon you to intensify your support to the prisoners who are not yet martyred; the soldiers who are confronting with their bodies with the fascist enemy deserve a faithful stand that will end the shedding of our blood which will not end until the achievement of our just demands.

Second, despite the pain of hunger, which has destroyed some of the parts of our bodies, but the reast of our bodies remain vital despite the death that awaits us, and in a continuation of sacrificies that will not end with death, we donate our useful organs for all those in need, the strugglers, the poor and the oppressed, and we are waiting to visit the Red Cross to sign off on these donations.

Third, we call upon you to be faithful to our blood and the blood of the martyrs who have fallen before, faithful not by passing words but by revolutionary actions that do not know hesitation or weakness;

Fourth, we adhere to our historical rights, our rights to the soil of Palestine from the river to the sea; our rights are just and historical and the right of return is the historical and necessary bridge to our rights, and these rights cannot be recovered without the language of force as our enemy does not understand any other;

Fifth, do not fail the living prisoners who we are leaving behind. Those who have sacrificed their freedom for the freedom of their people deserve freedom and not death

Our great people, in the homeland and in diaspora, free people of the world and strugglers will hear our cry, despite the darkness of the graves of death, we pledge to the world that our people remain committed and we bid you farewell and victory, smiling…martyrs, until further notice.

Prisoners on hunger strike since 48 days

June 13, London: Protest in Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners Mass Hunger Strike

10 June 2014

The following protest is being organized by Inminds Palestinian Prisoners Campaign:

13th June – Protest in Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners Mass Hunger Strike

Date: Friday 13th June 2014, 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Location: G4S HQ, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT (Closest public transport: Victoria Tube/Rail station)
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/665837290132242

www.inminds.com, 9th June 2014

As the mass hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners demanding an end to Israels illegal practice of administrative detention enters its 46th day, Israel is getting more and more ruthless towards the hunger strikers. Human rights group Addameer report that “The Israeli prison guards and special units beat and insult the hunger strikers on a daily basis.. their clothes and basic possessions have been confiscated; and they are only allowed to keep cups to drink water. In some prisons they are forced to drink dirty water from taps or to walk 40 meters in order to get water.. nurses are using urine sample containers to give hunger striker their essential salt and wate and guards delay taking the hunger strikers to restrooms.. hunger strikes being fined up to 475 NIS..” Even basic Hygiene products like toothbrushes and shampoo have been taken away. 80 hunger strikers have now been hospitalized in critical health, with two already having to undergo surgery. Many are being shackled to their hospitals beds 24 hours a day.

Israel understands the real strength of those starving men, the power they yield through their resistance over the occupation that it feels threatened. Threatened so much that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to implement a bill that would allow the force-feeding of hunger strikers. His spokesman Mark Regev explained “People go on a hunger strike for political reasons … and the consequence could be political damage to the state. The state also has the right to stop the strike.” The UN Human Rights Commission has declared that forced feeding of prisoners is a a form of torture and prohibited even the threat of force feeding, and the World Medical Association specifically prohibited forced feeding in its Declaration of Tokyo regarding torture.

But Israeli doctors in the past haven’t shied away from assisting in the systematic torture of Palestinian prisoners by giving medical evaluations to interrogator as to the ability of the prisoner to survive forms of torture. Often these ‘doctors’ get it wrong as in the case of Palestinian father Arafat Jaradat who was tortured to death in Feb 2013 after Israeli doctors gave the green light to interrogators to continue their barbarism.

At this critical time its imperative that activists around the world show their solidarity with the hunger strikers through protests and other actions. With this in mind we are bringing our next protest in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners forward a week to this friday, 13th June 2014.

Please join us this friday outside G4S HQ on Victoria Street at 3pm.

AYMAN AL-TABEESH – 102 DAYS ON HUNGER STRIKE

On 17th Feb 2013 Israeli soldiers abducted 33 years old Ayman Al-Tabeesh from his home in Dura, near al-Khalil, and caged him at the G4S secured Ofer prison – indefinitely on an illegal rolling administrative detention order with no charge, and no trial.

To protest he went on a 105 day hunger strike, only stopping once Israel had agreed in writing that they would not renew his administrative detention. Yet in Jan 2014 Israel reneged on its written agreement and issued a new administrative detention order. As a result Ayman started a second hunger strike on 28th Feb 2014.

After 70 days he lost over 25kg in weight and his condition is so critical that he has been moved twice to different hospitals. He eye sight is now suffering and he was developed kidney and stomach problems. He can no longer feel his limbs as numbness overtakes them. Today Ayman Al-Tabeesh completes his 102 days on hunger strike.

For our protest of 9th May we received a short message from the Muhammed Al-Tabeesh the brother of hunger striker Ayman Al-Tabeesh. Muhammed himself was a hunger striker and was released from the occupations prison just 4 months ago. The message was written especially for the protest, it reads:

“Thank you for standing besides us in supporting the steadfastness of my brother Ayman Al-Tabeesh in his hunger strike.

Thank you for your humanity in supporting the Palestinian prisoners, especially the hunger strikers.

We need you to tell the international community of Israel’s criminal brutality against our prisoners, the violation of their rights. The occupations illegal never ending administrative detention orders is nothing less than a slow death for Palestinian prisoners.”

LETTER WRITTEN BY HUNGER STRIKING ADMINISTRATIVE DETAINEES ON DAY 36 OF THEIR HUNGER STRIKE

We have no guns, no rifles, no cannons; we are armed with the weapon of hunger. This is how we resist this sword pointed at our necks, the sword of administrative detention, holding us without charges or trial.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

All praise be to Allah and prayers and peace be upon his Messenger, who bore much patience and hardship for the sake of right and truth.

From the heart of our cells, from our pain and suffering, our hunger that weakened us, and our fragile bodies, our legs that cannot hold us anymore, and our weak arms, we remain steadfast and continue our strike.

Our bodies are collapsing, we can barely move our eyes, our heartbeats slowly fading away, and even writing this letter required hard work. We are writing this letter to express our suffering, the abuse carried out against us every single day. Our battle today entered its 36 day, and we are continuing with this strike.

We are sending a scream, a shout, from behind the walls of our dark cells, between the jaws of death and our jailers, while death stands in front of us, inhabits our cells.. We don’t know who will be taken by death first, but the jailor is just waiting, betting on our defeat.

Our great beloved Palestinian people, will you allow us to become easy prey for the fangs of our merciless jailers? We are behind bars, spending years of our lives for Palestine, for its liberation and the freedom of its people.

The Palestinian people are steadfast on their land; as any other nation, they have the right to freedom, independence and dignity. Our battle, as administrative detainees, is open-ended. We started our hunger strike 36 days ago, while this battle is just one of countless battles for freedom, it is a battle against injustice wherever its exists.

We have no guns, no rifles, no cannons; we are armed with the weapon of hunger. This is how we resist this sword pointed at our necks, the sword of administrative detention, holding us without charges or trial.

Our great Palestinian nation, defenders of justice all over the world, organizations struggling for Palestinian rights, all governments and free media outlets; you are our only hope. You are the hope of solidarity and support while we hold this lengthy battle, the battle of every Palestinian, for liberation, and dignity. And for the end of this illegitimate administrative detention, indefinitely holding us prisoner without charges or trial.

Peace and Allah’s blessing and mercy be upon you – your hunger striking brothers in the Zionist jails of darkness and oppression.

Representing the detainees;
detainee Khalil Mousa Zawahra,
and detainee Mousa Yacoub Ma’marjy.
Thursday, May 29, 2014

G4S ANNOUNCEMENT OF ENDING ISRAEL CONTRACTS & OUR CAMPAIGN

On 6th June 2014 the Financial Times reported that G4S has announced for the first time that it will end all its contacts with Israeli prisons within 3 years:

“G4S has confirmed that it will end all its Israeli prison contracts within the next three years after an annual general meeting that was severely disrupted by human rights protesters.. Mr Almanza said for the first time that the move would also include prison service contracts all over Israel.”*

This follows last years announcement that due to “reputational dangers” to their business, mentioning the protests outside their London Headquarters, G4S would exit the contracts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories when they terminate in 2015. However, at the time they still maintained that they would continue their prison contracts in Israel.

Having held regular protests outside G4S HQ in London for nearly two years, since August 2012 when the Palestinian Prisoners Campaign was launched at Al Quds Day, we are pleased but cautious about G4S’s announcement. Whilst we congratulate all the dedicated activists who kept the pressure on G4S to finally force them to announce they will abandon all prison contracts in Israel, we understand that these are just empty words and until the day they actually pull out of Israel our campaign against G4S continues. In fact, in order to push G4S into following through with concrete action our campaign actually needs to step up a gear.

With regards to the Palestinian mass hunger strike against Israel’s illegal practice of administrative detention where more than 2,000 Palestinians are caged every year without charge or trial for an indefinite period of time, it must be remembered that this is another crime which G4S is inextricably complicit in. 86% of administrative detainees are caged in prisons secured by G4S.

Who says a few activists are powerless against the worlds largest multinational security company?

CHILD PRISONERS & WOMEN PRISONERS – THE HARES BOYS & SHIREEN ISSAWI & LENA JARBONI

We will of course be continuing our campaigns for the Hares Boys – 5 Palestinian boys tortured at the notorious G4S secured Israeli children’s dungeon at Al Jalame and then caged at Israel’s G4S secured Megiddo prison, and are facing 25 years for a crime that didn’t even take place. And we will continue our campaign for women prisoners, in particular Shireen Issawi, and Lena Jarboni who has endured 11 years locked up and abused in Israel’s G4S secured HaSharon prison.

LIVE UPDATES DURING PROTEST

We will, inshAllah, be tweeting live (hash tags #Salt_and_Water #StopG4S #StopAD ) from the protest with live photos being uploaded to our twitter and facebook page. So if you can’t join us on the day, please help us by sharing the photos as they get uploaded.

https://www.facebook.com/inmindscom

https://twitter.com/InmindsCom

LIVE UPDATES DURING PROTEST

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