Montreal protest for Palestinian prisoners takes to the streets

27 February 2013

montreal-prisoners — Photo by Ehab Lotayef

SPHR Concordia, the Syrian Student Association, and Tadamon! called for an emergency demonstration outside Concordia University’s Hall Building to show solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners and to call on the Canadian government to end complicity with Israel’s apartheid policies and international law violations.

1, 027 prisoners were released in the prisoner exchange deal for sole Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit between October and December of 2011. Since then, these same prisoners have been targeted and re-arrested under administrative detention.

According to Addameer, a prisoner support and human rights association founded in Jerusalem in 1992, administrative detention is:

“… a decrepit policy that Israel uses to hold Palestinians on secret information indefinitely without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.

Not only are these prisoners held arbitrarily, but Israel’s use of administrative detention violates several international standards, such as deporting Palestinians from the occupied territory to Israel, denying regular family visits and failing to take into account the best interests of child detainees as required under international law .”

Names of current hunger strikers:
Ayman Sharawna
Tareq Kaadan
Samer Issawi
Jafar Izedine
Hazem Jawil

Current situation in numbers:
Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails: 4743
Of those prisoners:
178 are in administrative detention
193 are child prisoners
23 are under the age of 16
12 are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council

For more information on the Palestinian prisoner situation:
www.addameer.org
www.samidoun.ca

Palestinian cartoonist Mohammed Saba’aneh detained as his family appeals for help

27 February 2013

Samidoun received the following important report about the urgent situation of Palestinian detainee, cartoonist Mohammad Saba’aneh:

Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Saba’aneh was detained on February 16 by Israeli occupation forces at the border crossing as he returned to the West Bank from a conference in Jordan. He is a 34-year-old artist.

He has been held since that time at Al Jalama detention facility; he has not been charged and has been denied access to a lawyer or family visits. This is the first time Mohammad is arrested; he is not affiliated with any of the political parties and, according to his family, his arrest came as a surprise to them because his work is more directed to arts and culture, for which he won many local and international awards. Mohammad is a popular editorial cartoonist of Al Haya Al Jadida daily, an artist and cultural worker with one book published and work published in various Arab newspapers including Jordanian Daily Al Ghad and Al Etihad in the United Arab Emirates. He is active in a number of community based organization and syndicates, and works at the Public Relations Department of the Arab American University of the West Bank city of Jenin.

After the death of 30 year old Palestinian detainee Arafat Jaradat, Mohammad’s family issued an appeal expressing their concern over his life and the conditions he might be held in, especially as he was held in the same detention facility where Jaradat was held and interrogated before his death.

We are the family of Mohammed Abdel Ghani Saba’na, who has been arrested by the Israeli Occupation Army as he was coming back home from Jordan through Al-Karama crossing. And since that day his lawyers was unable to meet him and all their requests were rejected.

We – Family of Sabaaneh – and after the death of “ARAFAT JARADAT” during investigation by Israeli army, at Aljalameh compound or after that in Majeddo prison, We appeal to all parties especially humanitarian organizations all around the world to interfere fast to help us visiting our son to check on him and his safety we appeal to them to work hard to save our Son and all prisoners from the Occupation prisons to end their suffering by lifting their case up to international forums to assure their safety and their legal rights.

Family of Sabaaneh

On February 25, Mohammad was transferred to Asqalan (Ashkelon) prison and his family still has no updates about his condition, another court hearing is scheduled Thursday. Until now Mohammad is held with no charges and his lawyer is denied access to any information about the motives behind his arrest.

His arrest has been condemned by a number of local Palestinian bodies like the Journalists Syndicate and some international bodies and is viewed as part of the continued systematic attack on Palestinian young activists and journalists who are exposing the ugliness of Israeli occupation and who have been also quite critical of the role and policies of the Palestinian Authority.

More info:
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/02/palestinian-cartoonist-international.html
https://www.facebook.com/pages/الحريه-للفنان-الفلسطيني-محمد-سباعنه/397722083575137
http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/israeli-forces-arrests-palestinian-cartoonist-rsf_rwb-pressfreedom-fightcensors_en/

Reports: Samer Issawi transferred to hospital

27 February 2013

Samer_Tariq_Issawi Ma’an reported that Samer Issawi was transferred to hospital on February 27, namely the Kaplan Medical Centre in Rehovot.

Sivan Weizman, a spokeswoman for the Israel Prison Service, told Ma’an that Issawi was taken to Kaplan medical center in Rahavot, but she said his condition was stable and the move was unrelated to any specific decline.

“He’s been on hunger strike for a long time, and medical staff at the IPS decided to move him,” Weissman said. “It’s better that he be in a hospital.”

Palestinian Authority prisoners minister Issa Qaraqe confirmed that Issawi had been hospitalized.

It was previously unclear to which hospital he has been transferred; he has been hospitalized several times at Assaf Harofeh, after being moved from the Ramleh prison clinic. Earlier reports had said he was being transferred to Rambam hospital in Haifa.

Report: Qa’adan, Ezzedine suspend hunger strikes following pledge to not renew their detention

27 February 2013

qaadan-azzedine Ma’an reported on February 27 that Tareq Qa’adan and Jafar Ezzedine suspended their hunger strike after their hearing on that morning, at which the military prosecutor said that their detention orders will not be renewed after their current orders expire on May 21, but they may resume their strikes depending on the outcome of their next hearing, March 6:

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Tareq Qaadan and Jafar Azzidine on Wednesday suspended their 93-day hunger strike after a hearing held at a hospital near Tel Aviv, the Palestinian Prisoners Society said.

Qaadan and Azzidine suspended their strike after an Israeli military prosecutor said their administrative detention order would not be renewed, the PPS said in a statement. Their current detention order expires on May 21.

They will consider renewing the strike depending on the outcome of the next hearing on March 6.

In Assaf Harofeh Hospital, where the prisoners are being treated, a military judge said she would reveal the secret charges and evidence against the men and issue a final decision at their next hearing, said lawyer Jawad Bulous.

Qaadan and Azzidine have been held in administrative detention on secret charges and evidence that even their lawyers have not been allowed to review.

Both men attended Wednesday’s hearing in wheelchairs. They were due to appear at Ofer military court near Ramallah on Tuesday but the hearing was postponed as the detainees were too sick to attend.

Vancouver, Feb. 28: UBC Goes Hungry in Support of Palestinian Political Prisoners and Samer Issawi

27 February 2013

Thursday, February 28
10 am – all day
Student Union Building, University of British Columbia
Vancouver
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/424142921007889/

Samer Issawi’s struggle against the oppression of the Apartheid Israeli state is not a personal struggle only, it is a struggle on behalf all the oppressed people on earth. He’s the brother, father and son of every single person who was arrested for making his or her voice, tortured or killed for the sake of freedom, dignity and humanity. With his empty stomach he jailed his jailer and brought to the forefront the plight of thousands of political prisoners – women, men and children – who have been tortured, oppressed, intimidated and often killed by the criminal security apparatus of the Apartheid state.

Samer Issawi is one of 4,812 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli occupation prisons. Nearly every Palestinian family is affected by political imprisonment – for example, in the West Bank and Gaza, 1 out of every 4 Palestinians has spent time in an Israeli prison. Some of these prisoners are held under administrative detention, without charge or trial, while others are placed before military courts with a 99.74% conviction rate. Issawi is a former Palestinian prisoner who was freed on October 18, 2011, only to be re-arrested on July 7, 2012 under a military order allowing former prisoners to be arbitrarily re-arrested on the basis of secret evidence. He has been on hunger strike for over 200 days in protest of his detention. Tareq Qa’adan and Jaafar Ezzedine, two prisoners held under administrative detention, and Ayman Sharawna, a re-arrested former prisoner in a similar situation to Issawi, are also engaged in lengthy hunger strikes. Their efforts come on the heels of hunger strikes by dozens of prisoners – and a mass hunger strike in April 2011 that involved thousands of prisoners – demanding dignity, freedom and justice.

It should be noted that on February 23, Arafat Jaradat, a newly detained Palestinian prisoner held under interrogation, was killed in prison, his autopsy pointing to torture as the reason for his death. Palestinians have taken to the streets – and eight more prisoners have joined in hunger strike – in response to Jaradat’s death.

Here at UBC, Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students, professors and people of conscience are saying enough is enough and that Samer’s voice, and the voice of his fellow Palestinian political prisoners, will not pass unheard. This year, Israeli Apartheid Week at UBC is dedicated to the heroism and perseverance of Samer in exposing the criminal treatment of Palestinian under the hands of Israel. The Battle of the Empty Stomachs inside the Palestinian prisons will be symbolically represented by members and supporters of Palestine and Palestinian freedom and justice with a one-day hunger strike.

Join SPHR in the Student Union Building at UBC in a collective hunger strike organized in support of Samer Issawi and his fellow prisoners. The strike will begin Thursday morning. There will be posters, placards and signs and all you are required to bring is your empty stomach and your dedication to support a just cause.

Los Angeles, March 1: Emergency Demonstration in Support of Palestinian Prisoner Rights

27 February 2013

Friday, March 1
4 pm – 7 pm
Where: In front of the Israeli Consulate in West LA, 11766 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 1600, Los Angeles, CA
Why: To show support to all of the Palestinian prisoners currently on hunger strike and to protest Arafat Jaradat’s death by torture.
https://www.facebook.com/events/539789252728441/

On Friday, February 22, 2013, over 1,000 internationals joined in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners with a 24-hour hunger strike in support of Samer Issawi, Ayman Sharawna, Tareq Qa’adan, and Ja’far Izzidine, along with other Palestinian prisoners who have heeded the call for the hunger strike to protest their inhumane and illegal detainment.

Friday’s international hunger strike signaled the beginning of weekly Friday actions demanding the immediate release of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners, including a rolling 24-hour hunger strike every Friday-Saturday night. These actions are also intended to highlight the ongoing plight of Palestinian prisoners and their deplorable detentions in Israel’s occupation jails.

On Sunday, February 24, 2013, a mass Palestinian prisoner hunger strike took place in response to the death of 30-year old Arafat Jaradat. Palestinian Prisoner Society Chairman Qadura Fares confirmed after autopsy that Jaradat’s death was indeed the result of Israeli torture. Jaradat’s death has set off a wave of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli Occupation Forces in Palestine.

As the Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer recently reported, “Since 1967, over 200 prisoners have died in captivity, fifty-one of them from medical negligence. Alarmingly, there is a recent trend of prisoners who have died shortly after they are released from medical complications that went untreated during their detention.”

In the wake of all of these events, join us to remind Zionists that we refuse to allow Israel’s continued dismissal of Palestinian prisoner rights to go unchecked.

Video: Dalal Jaradat speaks about the arrest of her husband Arafat

27 February 2013

Dalal Jaradat, the wife of Arafat Jaradat, the Palestinian prisoner killed through torture on February 23, speaks on video about the arrest of her husband:

Palestinian Jordanian activist held incommunicado in Saudi Arabia

27 February 2013

Jordanian activist Khalid al-Natour has been held incommunicado in Saudi Arabia since January 6, when he arrived on a work visa with colleagues. His friends and family have not been informed of any reason for his detention and he has been unable to contact the outside world. Please call the Saudi embassy in your country – in Washington, DC the number is 202-342-3800 and in Ottawa, the number is 613-237-4100. Please inform the Saudi embassy that people around the world are deeply concerned about Khalid al-Natour.

Amnesty International issued the following statement:

DOCUMENT – SAUDI ARABIA: JORDANIAN HELD INCOMMUNICADO IN SAUDI ARABIA

UA: 52/13 Index: MDE 23/007/2013 Saudi Arabia Date: 26 February 2013

URGENT ACTION

A Jordanian man has been held incommunicado in an undisclosed location in Saudi Arabia since 6 January. He was last seen being arrested by Saudi Arabian security forces, and has since been denied access to his family and to the outside would. The conditions of his detention may amount to enforced disappearance if the Saudi Arabian authorities continue to refuse disclosing his fate.

Jordanian web developer Khalid al-Natour, 27 years old, was arrested upon arrival at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on 6 January 2013. He had arrived from Jordan with four of his colleagues on a business trip (all five men work for the same internet holding company). Khalid al-Natour was detained by the Saudi Arabian authorities; his colleagues were told they would risk a similar fate if they did not leave the airport immediately.

Khalid al-Natour is a member of Herak, a Jordanian pro-reform movement that has called for political and economic change in Jordan as well as increased political freedoms. In September 2011, he was arrested near the Saudi Arabian consulate in ‘Amman, Jordan, for insulting a Jordanian security officer during a demonstration protesting against Saudi Arabia’s involvement in Bahrain. He was subsequently released on bail a day later; his case remains pending before a Jordanian court.

On 23 December 2012, he was granted a single-entry visa to Saudi Arabia while his four colleagues were granted multiple-entry visas by the Saudi Arabian embassy in Jordan. Neither the Jordanian authorities nor Khalid al-Natour’s family, who have sought information about his case, have been provided with an official response regarding his detention, including his whereabouts and the reason for his detention.

Please write immediately in Arabic, English or your own language:

Calling on the Saudi Arabian authorities to immediately disclose Khalid al-Natour’s whereabouts;

Urging them to ensure that he is protected from torture or other ill-treatment and given, without delay, regular access to his family, lawyers of his own choosing, consular assistance and any adequate medical treatment he may require;

Urging them to release Khalid al-Natour unless he is promptly charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and tried in proceedings that conform fully to international fair trial standards.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 9 APRIL 2013 TO:

�

Minister of the Interior

His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud

Ministry of the Interior, P.O. Box 2933, Airport Road, Riyadh 11134

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Fax: +966 1 403 3125 (please keep trying)

Salutation: Your Royal Highness

King and Prime Minister

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud

The Custodian of the two Holy Mosques

Office of His Majesty the King

Royal Court, Riyadh

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Fax: (via Ministry of the Interior)

+966 1 403 3125 (please keep trying)

Salutation: Your Majesty

And copies to:

Minister of Foreign Affairs

His Excellency Nasser Judeh

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

P.O. Box 35217

Amman, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Fax: +962 6 573 5163

Email: mofa@fm.gov.jo�

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

�

URGENT ACTION

jordanian held incommunicado in saudi arabia

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Critics of the Saudi Arabian government face gross human rights violations. They are often held incommunicado without charge, sometimes in solitary confinement, and denied access to lawyers or the courts to challenge the lawfulness of their detention. Torture or other ill-treatment is frequently used to extract “confessions” from detainees, to punish them for refusing to “repent”, or to force them to sign pledges promising not to criticize the government. Incommunicado detention in Saudi Arabia often lasts until a “confession” is obtained, which can take months and occasionally years.

Saudi Arabia has systematically violated international human rights standards that irrevocably prohibit prolonged incommunicado detention of detainees. The UN General Assembly has stated that “prolonged incommunicado detention or detention in secret places can facilitate the perpetration of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and can in itself constitute a form of such treatment” (UN General Assembly resolutions 62/148 paragraph 15, and 63/166 paragraph 20, 17 December 2007 and 12 December 2008 respectively). Similarly, the UN Human Rights Committee has stated that provisions should be made against incommunicado detention (General Comment 20, Article 7, forty-fourth session, 1992), and the UN Committee against Torture has consistently called for its elimination. The UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, recognizing that “torture is most frequently practised during incommunicado detention”, has also called for such detention to be made illegal.

Amnesty International has detailed such abuses as well as the crackdown on freedom of expression and protests in the name of security in a report entitled Saudi Arabia: Repression in the name of security (MDE 23/016/2011), issued on 1 December 2011 (http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE23/016/2011/en).

Name: Khalid al-Natour

Gender m/f: m

In light of findings of Arafat Jaradat autopsy, PCHR calls for independent International investigation

27 February 2013

The autopsy report prepared by Dr Saber al-‘Aloul, Director of the Palestinian Medico-legal Institute on Arafat Jaradat, a Palestinian detainee who died in an Israeli prison, has concluded that Jaradat’s death was caused by nervous shock resulting from severe pain, which was caused by multiple injuries inflicted through direct and extreme torture.

Arafaf Shalish Shaheen Jaradat, 30, from Sa’ir village northeast of Hebron in the southern West Bank, died in Megiddo Prison inside Israel on Saturday, 23 February 2013. Israeli authorities claimed that he died due to an apparent heart attack, but the Palestinian Authority and numerous human rights organisations raised doubts concerning the Israeli narrative, and are calling for an independent investigation into Jaradat’s death.

An autopsy of Jardat’s body was performed in the Israeli National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir in the presence of Dr Saber al-‘Aloul and two Israeli physicians on the day after his death. Contrary to Israeli claims that Jaradat died due to an apparent heart attack, the autopsy showed, according to the Palestinian physician’s report, that “the heart muscle is perfectly healthy; no signs of harm or signs of a recent or previous myocardial infarction […]” The report indicated that there were multiple injuries on Jaradat’s body. For example, the report stated: There are recent excoriations and bruising on the inside of the lower lip; there is severe bruising on the upper right back; there are circle-shaped bruises on the bottom of the front right side of the chest; there is bruising on the facis lateralis brachii of the left elbow; there is bruising on the back of the right arm; there are deep bruises, 4×9 centimetre in diameter, on the muscle of the upper left shoulder, adjacent to the spine, below the neck; the bruises damaged the tissue of the muscle; there are 4×10 centimetre bruises on the right side of the chest; the bruises penetrated the skin and caused damage to the muscle tissue; they were located 27 centimetres from the spine, 53 centimetres below the top of the head; there is a fracture in the second and third ribs on the front left side with bruises around the fracture; and there is a fracture in the second rib on the front right side of the chest. The report emphasised that all fractures or wounds were recent, that the injuries were severe, and had resulted from direct and extreme torture.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) stresses that torture is an international crime that amounts to a crime against humanity and it constitutes a blatant violation of human rights, which can never be justified under any circumstance. It is prohibited under several international instruments, including the Convention against Torture of 1984, which was ratified by Israel in 1991, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

According to PCHR’s documentation, this case is part of a phenomenon in which thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and detention facilities are subjected to torture by Israeli security services.

In light of the above, PCHR:

1- Calls for establishing an international inquiry to investigate the circumstances of Jaradat’s death in Megiddo prison;

2- Calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to refer this case to the UN Committee against Torture;

3- Calls upon the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to investigate this incident, which highlights a pervasive phenomenon in Israeli prisons and detention facilities;

4- Calls upon the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967 to follow up this case and report on it to the United Nations; and

5- Calls on the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the international community to put pressure on Israel to put an end to the use of torture and to open prisons and detention facilities for monitoring.

San Francisco, March 1: Protest Israeli Torture, Killing and Illegal Detention

27 February 2013

please circulate widely

PROTEST ISRAELI TORTURE, KILLING AND ILLEGAL DETENTION OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

END US AID TO ISRAEL AND DIPLOMATIC COVER UP

FRIDAY MARCH 1ST, 4-6 PM

ISRAELI CONSULATE, 456 MONTGOMERY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Endorsed: AROC, PYM, USPCN,

PAN- Palestine Action Network

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/492099190854979/

for endorsements, please call: 415-861-7444

—————————————————————————————————-

The Palestinian people were informed of the murder of Palestinian political prisoner Arafat Jaradat. Zionist spin doctors and their supporters quickly denied the overwhelming evidence of his torture under interrogation, which he described shortly prior to his death. The Zionists are claiming that Jaradat died of natural causes. Jaradat was in his thirties and a father of two.

ARAFAT JARADAT

SAMER ISSAWI

This occurred in the context of the popular uprising inspired by the historic hunger strike of Samer Issawi who now weighs less than 110 lbs and has been striking for 218 days. Issawi is protesting his detention without due process in the most honorable tradition of non-violence. The people of Palestine, in solidarity with Samer and other political prisoners, are rising up against all forms of oppression and clashing with the occupying Zionist army by hurling rocks against their guns and armor.

Peaceful protesters pelted with gas

Palestine is rising up

It is the people in the US can be responsible for changing the course of these events. Please participate in any actions that will follow

DOCUMENT – SAUDI ARABIA: JORDANIAN HELD INCOMMUNICADO IN SAUDI ARABIA

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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