There are over 150 Palestinian Prisoners on Hunger Strike. Come out to learn more about this heroic resistance and how we can support Palestine!
When: 5pm Sunday June 15 2014
Where: 304 Vassar Drive SE Apartment #4 (look for Irish Flag), Albuquerque, NM
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1441075872813657/
more info email: galluprising@gmail.com
The Palestinian Community of Belgium and Luxembourg is organizing a protest and demonstration on Wednesday, June 11 at 6:00 pm at the Place de la Bourse in Brussels, Belgium, expressing solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.
The hunger strike, which began on April 24 with 90 administrative detainees, has been joined by hundreds of Palestinian prisoners since that time. The strikers are demanding an end to the policy of administrative detention, the imprisonment without charge or trial of hundreds of Palestinians on secret evidence, indefinitely renewable. Some Palestinian political detainees have spent years in administrative detention without charge or trial.
Facebook event for protest: https://www.facebook.com/events/499432956857298/
100 people in Yafa (’48 occupied Palestine) protested on June 1 in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike inside the occupation prisons. Former political prisoners Mohammed Kana’aneh, member of the Political Bureau of Abna’a el-Balad and solidarity hunger striker; Mukhlas Burghal; and Hafiz Qundus participated in the demonstration.
Bahira Ablasi, one of the activists from Yafa, said “We will not rest until all of our brave prisoners are liberated, and we will continue to organize demonstrations and events until the achievement of their legitimate, humane demands. We call on everyone to come to the third demonstration of anger, next Thursday at 7 in front of Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where dozens of prisoners on hunger strikes have been sent.”
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/317698121718710/
On June 11, the Khiam Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and the International Campaign for the Release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah will hold a press conference at 11:00 am at the Lebanese Press Syndicate in Beirut.
The Press conference will announce the International Symposium on Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, which will take place on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 17, 2014, with the participation of Lebanese, Arab, French and international lawyers.
Georges Abdallah, a Lebanese Arab activist who struggled for Palestine and Arab liberation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and then the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction, has been held in French prisons for 30 years; he has been approved for parole on multiple occasions. He has remained imprisoned due to US pressure despite his approval for parole since 2003; his trial included his lawyer spying on him for French intelligence as well as dubious and fabricated evidence. An international and Arab campaign, widely supported by Leftists in France, has demanded his release since his initial imprisonment.
On Thursday 5th June, Inminds and the Palestinian Prisoners Campaign will be protesting outside the AGM of British security contractor G4S for its complicity in Israel’s crimes against Palestinian prisoners. Please join us.
DATE: 5th June 2014, 1:00 pm
LOCATION: Western Terrace, Excel Centre
Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway, E16 1XL, London
(public transport: Custom House DLR)
FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/
ARAFAT JARADAT
Over 15 months ago Palestinian father of 2 young children, Arafat Jaradat was tortured to death in an Israeli prison. His autopsy determined the cause of death as “nervous shock as a result of extreme pain from the intensity of the injuries which resulted from multiple direct and extensive acts of torture”. G4S provides the security systems that keeps that Israeli torture den, and many others, operational to this day. We have not heard one word of regret from G4S for their complicity in his murder. For G4S, Arafat Jaradat’s life is of no consequence as it does not register in their profit column. We will be there protesting outside their AGM to demand justice for Arafat Jaradat, to hold British company G4S accountable for its role in his murder.
ARAFAT JARADAT – BACKGROUND
Arafat Jaradat, 30 year old Palestinian father of 2 children aged 4 and 2 years old, married with a pregnant wife, died on Saturday 23rd Feb 2013 after being savagely tortured for 5 days by Israel’s secret police Shin Bet. He had been arrested on suspicion of just throwing a stone.. 5 days later he was dead.
At his last military hearing on 22nd Feb Arafat pleaded that he didn’t want to go back to his cell, because he was being brutally tortured. He had severe pain in his back and all over his body due to the beatings and being hung for many hours during interrogation. The judge was dismissive and the torture continued. Arafat died the next day.
Shin Bet claimed he had died of a heart attack but the autopsy carried out at the National Israeli Forensic Medicine Center showed no sign of heart failure or any other illness, but revealed broken bones and found his whole body was covered in “strong and excessive bruising”.. “under the skin inside the muscle and along the spine at the bottom of the neck deep inside the tissue”. The autopsy determined the cause of death : “nervous shock as a result of extreme pain from the intensity of the injuries, which resulted from multiple direct and extensive acts of torture”.
It was revealed that an Israeli doctor was involved in Arafat’s torture who had given the green light for further torture. Shin Bet routinely tortures Palestinians with impunity, some 700 cases of torture have been lodged against them yet not a single one has lead to a criminal investigation. Since 2008 the Shin Bet has been exempt from having to videotape interrogations of “security detainees” – ie the 5,000+ Palestinian political prisoners it holds, with the official excuse being ‘budgetary limitations’. In the meantime 71 Palestinian prisoners have been murdered by torture in Israeli prisons since 1967.
Arafat died in Megiddo Prison following interrogation at the notorious al-Jalame interrogation centre infamous for its abuse of child prisoners. The British-Danish security firm G4S is complicit in Israel’s torture and murder of Palestinian prisoners by helping Israel secure both these prisons. At Megiddo the whole central command room is provided by G4S as are the security systems at Al Jalame. The transfer of Palestinians from the West Bank to these prisons in Israel is in contravention of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
MASS HUNGER STRIKE
We will also be protesting in solidarity with the mass hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners demanding an end to Israels’s illegal policy of punitive Administrative Detention. The hunger strike which began on 24th April will be their 65th day on Thursday. The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs says 1,500 inmates have joined the hunger strike and more than 100 prisoners are in life-threatening condition with dozens of hunger strikers being hospitalized. The youngest prisoner on hunger strike is Ahmad Rimawi, he was a child at the time when the soldiers abducted him when we was on his way to school, they snatched him at the checkpoint and caged him without charge, trial or reason for 6 months under administrative detention. And when the 6 months were up they added another 6 months, and then another 6 months.. under administrative detention Israel can hold prisoners for an indefinite period of time on rolling 6 month orders.
86% of administrative detainees are held in G4S secured Israeli prisons. And during Samer Issawi’s heroic 266 day hunger strike, in January 2013, his family sent a message for our protest which specifically named G4S for its complicity in Israel’s crime. The message was written by Samer Issawi’s sister who is today herself languishing in a G4S secured Israeli dungeon. She wrote:
“..
We greet the demonstrators against G4S
that provides equipment for the prison administration.
G4S realizes that they are used in non-humanitarian ways
against Palestinian prisoners.Deliver the voice of the oppressed prisoners
and hold this company G4S accountable
for its responsibility towards these prisoners
and its partnership to the occupation in its inhumane practices.
It must stop providing these supplies to the occupation…Freedom for our prisoners; for our heroes”
Shireen Issawi
MESSAGE FROM FAMILY OF HUNGER STRIKER YASSER PEDERSAWI
For our last protest on Fri 23rd May 2014, we received a message from the family of one of the Palestinian administrative detainees on hunger strike, Yasser Pedersawi.
Yasser Pedersawi is from Balata refugee camp and works as the director of the Center for Right of Return – something the illegal Israeli occupation directly opposes.
He is 49 years old, and like most Palestinian males he has spent a large portion of his life – 9 years – in Israel dungeons starting as a child prisoner. Most of his imprisonment – 6 of his 9 years – has been under Administration detention orders – caged illegally for an indefinite period of time without any charge or trial.
He is the father of 4 daughters aged between 12 and 24 years old. His oldest daughter recalls losing her father at age two..
“When I was in the second year of my life my father was taken away to an Israeli prison, and here I am today in my 24th year. I did not share my joy of success in high school with my father, I dreamed he would be next to me when I graduated college, but administrative detention deprived me of all that. After graduating I married young, and this was the only occasion that my father shared with me the joy. I gave birth to his eldest grandson, and now here I am on the verge of having a second child, and I have lost him again to administrative detention. I ask myself when will I get my father to myself without having to share him with the occupation?”
His latest administrative detention came just over a year ago on 28th May 2013 when the Israeli occupation forced attacked his home destroying much of his family’s belongings before abducting him with no charge.
Thirty days ago on April 24th 2014 he began a hunger strike along with 130 other administrative detainees to protest their illegal administrative detention. Israel immediately punished the hunger strikers by cutting of their supply of salt, which is essential for survival, and moved them in to squalid solitary confinement and subjecting them to violent strip searches and assaults. As a result Yasser’s health deteriorated very seriously and recently he has had to be moved to Soroka hospital. He loses consciousness intermittently and is vomiting blood and has intestinal pain due to being given contaminated water whilst in solitary confinement.
Yasser was illegally caged at the G4S secured Ketziot prison under administrative detention when he began his hunger strike before being moved to Eshel prison for solitary confinement.
In her message to this protest in London his wife asks for
“international solidarity to expose the practices of the occupation and its crimes against us, especially administrative detention, in your Parliament and human rights institutions and help us put an end to administrative detention”.
She says
“Administrative detention is a heavy burden for my family, it has taken the taste of life from us. Throughout the period of detention of my husband, we keep hoping for his release, and when he is released we live each day waiting for the next arrest and the next administrative detention to start. Sometimes I wish they had just sentenced my husband to 10 years, then we could at least have adapted to that reality and been patient, but the occupations administrative detention is designed to punishes both the prisoner and his family.”
CHILD PRISONERS & WOMEN PRISONERS – THE HARES BOYS & 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 Lena Jarboni who has endured 11 years locked up and abused in Israel’s G4S secured HaSharon prison.
We will, inshAllah, be tweeting live (hash tags #StopG4S #Justice4ArafatJaradat) 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/
https://twitter.com/InmindsCom
JazakAllah
Abbas Ali
Palestinian Prisoners Campaign
www.inminds.com/caged
The Palestinian Prisoners Campaign aims to raise awareness for the plight of Palestinian prisoners and build solidarity for their struggle and work towards their freedom. The campaign was launched by Innovative Minds (inminds.com) and the Islamic Human Rights Commission (ihrc.org) on the occasion of Al Quds Day 2012 (on 17th August 2012), since then we have held actions every fortnight in support of Palestinian prisoners, if you can spare two hours twice a month then please join the campaign by coming to the next action.
Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned Palestinian leader and General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a press statement on May 27, urging “effective action” to save the hunger striking prisoners in Israeli jails.
In the statement from Hadarim prison, Sa’adat warned that hunger striking prisoners, now on strike for over 34 days, were at risk of death as they entered the second month of open hunger strike.
He said that the level of action and solidarity with the strike so far “does not live up to the level required in this battle,” calling on each person to support the prisoners’ cause in whatever way possible. “Even if it is not possible to organize collectively, this is an individual responsibility, until the elimination of this racist regime of law used exclusively by the Israeli state,” administrative detention.
The hundreds of striking prisoners are demanding the end of administrative detention, the Israeli policy and practice of arbitrary detention of Palestinians without trial or charge, on secret files, for indefinitely renewable periods. Nearly 200 Palestinians are currently held in administrative detention.
Sa’adat called for all popular and official bodies, and all international human rights organizations to take a stand against the occupation’s violations of Palestinian rights and its international obligations. He noted that the occupation had agreed in 2012 to reduce and curtail its use of administrative detention following a mass prisoners’ hunger strike, but violated the agreement as the use of administrative detention has risen at that time.
“The strike is a critical step taken after the occupation authorities reneged on all of the agreements and conventions on administrative detention. The strikers’ demand is justice and freedom, through the abolition of the racist administrative detention law.”
A group of Palestinian youth in Ramallah has closed down the International Committee of the Red Cross office in Ramallah on Wednesday morning, May 28, protesting the ICRC’s silence on Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for over 35 days. Their action can be followed on #ICRCClosed on Twitter, and their images may be found here: http://ow.ly/user/StopAdMedia
Our prisoners will not become martyrs
Thirty-five days have passed since the Palestinian prisoners and administrative detainees launched their battle of the empty stomachs from the Zionist colonial entity’s prisons.
Thirty-five days have passed as the hunger strikers continue to suffer from beatings, cell raids, and solitary confinement, and forcible transfer, threats of force-feeding and deliberate medical neglect at the hand of the oppressor as a punishment for protesting the colonial policy of administrative detention.
Thirty-five days have passed with silence from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other international organizations who are responsible for ensuring human dignity and rights of Palestinian prisoners as prescribed by their mandate.
Silence is complicity.
We, as Palestinian youth, refuse complicity as our brothers and sisters cling to life in the illegal Zionist entity’s prisons, and we refuse to remain silent as the ICRC evades its responsibility to the Palestinian prisoners.
We hold the ICRC fully and directly responsible for the lives of the prisoners, especially the hunger strikers and demand the following:
We, as Palestinian youth, express our deep concern about the lives of our fellow countrymen, who are fighting in their battle of empty stomachs for our collective freedom as a dispossessed and displaced nation. This is the first of an escalating series of direct actions against those who continue to be complicit in the Zionist entity’s war crimes until the recognition of the prisoners’ rights and demands.
Occupied Ramallah
28 May 2014
Demand an end to administrative detention!
For the past 34 days, an increasing number of Palestinian political prisoners – beginning with 90 administrative detainees, held without charge or trial – have been on hunger strike, consuming only water and salt. There are now well over 200 striking political prisoners. One hunger striker, Daoud Hamdan, held under administrative detention for over a year, has suffered a heart attack; increasing numbers have been taken to hospital.
Their lives are on the line and face a growing threat daily. Why are they putting their bodies and lives on the line? They are demanding an end to the practice and policy of administrative detention, in which Palestinians are held without charge or trial, on secret evidence to which even their lawyers are denied access.
We need international attention to raise the profile of this hunger strike! Palestinian prisoner support and grassroots organizations are calling for a day of action on May 30 and 31 throughout Palestine and internationally in support of the prisoners. Click here to download this new leaflet from Samidoun to use at your actions!
Administrative detention as used by Israel violates international law, namely the Fourth Geneva Convention. It is used as a standard policy and practice, and administrative detention orders can be renewed repeatedly – and regularly are. People are held without charge or trial for years at a time.
The hunger strikers have faced punitive measures and serious repression: they have been denied family visits for four months after previous protests. All strikers were denied salt for the first fifteen days of the strike. Clothing, hygiene products, soap and personal belongings have been confiscated. Legal visits have been postponed, denied and obstructed.
They have repeatedly expressed their commitment to remain on strike until the policy of administrative detention ends. An increasing number of Palestinian prisoners are joining the strike – dozens more prisoners are expected to do so this week. 40 prisoners held in Ramon prison joined on Monday, May 26. All of this is taking place as over 5,200 Palestinians are unjustly held as political prisoners in Israeli prisons – including Palestinian political leaders like Ahmad Sa’adat and Marwan Barghouthi – under military orders and as Israeli home demolitions, land confiscation, settlement-building and the denial of Palestinian refugees’ right to return continues.
The strikers are facing serious and long-term damage to their health if the strike continues.
Please join this important day of action, Friday May 30 and Saturday May 31!
What You Can Do:
1. Sign the online petition demanding that Israel accept the hunger strikers’ demands and end administrative detention.
2. Protest at the Israeli consulate or embassy in your city. Sit-in, bring signs, leaflets and a Palestinian flag – demand an end to administrative detention.
3. Protest a complicit corporation in your city – such as G4S, the global security company that provides surveillance and control systems to the very prisons where hunger strikers are being abused.
4. Distribute information – use this new flyer – to support the prisoners and raise awareness.
5. Demand your government officials take a position and stop their complicity with Israeli violations of Palestinian rights and arbitrary and unlawful detention.
Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net and let us know what you are doing for May 30-31! Any action can help to make a difference. Please join in this important action!
Palestinian detainee Ayman Al-Tabeesh, now on open hunger strike for 84 days, is facing serious threats to his health, al-Tabeesh’s family reported.
The International Committee of the Red Cross met with his mother and brothers in their Ramallah office and informed them of his deteriorating health, expressing deep concern for his life, following their visit with him in Assaf Harofe Hospital.
Al-Tabeesh’s mother reported that her son was experiencing weakness in his heart and breathing troubles and had been connected to a ventilator. He also is suffering dizziness, severe headaches, and bodily pain. He has been warned by doctors that he is at risk of a heart attack if he continues his strike. Al-Tabeesh has been on strike for 84 days since February 28, 2014 in protest of his renewed administrative detention.
The Muhja Jerusalem Foundation released his mother’s comments, calling upon human rights organizations to take up his cause and expose the racist practices of the occupation towards Palestinian prisoners.
Al-Tabeesh, 34, has been arrested repeatedly and spent over 10 years in Israeli prisons. He was arrested last on May 9, 2013 and transferred to administrative detention. He engaged in a 105-day hunger strike which was suspended following an agreement with the prison administration to not renew his administrative detention.
Contrary to the agreement, his detention was again renewed without charge or trial, prompting his resumed hunger strike.
Palestinian administrative detainees and political prisoners on hunger strike are boycotting the prison clinc, reported Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association following a legal visit to Ramle prison on May 21.
Prisoners and detainees reported that the prison clinic pressures detainees to end their hunger strike. Some are also boycotting vitamins and salt and consuming only water. Approximately 47 administrative detainees are taking part in the open hunger strike which began on April 27 in Ramle prison, including 3 who were taken to the prison hospital. Detainees have lost between 12-16 kilograms of weight each since the beginning of the strike.
They reported that they were prohibited from taking daily exercise in the yard and that their personal property had been confiscated by the prison administration in retaliation for their strike.
Mahmoud Shabana, 45, a representative of the striking prisoners, reported to Addameer that their morale is high and the strike continues and that he had demanded of the prsion administration to stop interfering with and blocking lawyers’ visits with striking detaines. “Our battle is not really with the administration but with the Shin Bet security service. We are prepared for another 28 days of strike to achieve our demands to abolish administrative detention. We are ready for the worst case and the harshest results, and death with dignity and pride,” said Shabana.
