Brussels protest demands an end to European contracts with G4S

2 July 2013

On June 27, 2013, European activists took to the streets of Brussels, Belgium, protesting the continued awarding of EU institution contracts to G4S for security services despite the company’s extensively documented involvement with the detention of Palestinian political prisoners, including numerous Palestinian children, often subject to torture and abuse, by providing security services for Israeli prisons holding Palestinian political prisoners.

The European Coordination Committee for Palestine issued the following report:

Dozens of activists took to the streets on June 26 to inform people in the area around the European institutions about G4S’ complicity in the detention of Palestinian children.

The activists denounced the fact that G4S is still being awarded contracts even when its complicity in the detention and torture of children by Israel has been documented extensively.

MEP’s came out in support of the demonstration at which Addameer, a renowned Palestinian human rights organisation was represented by Sahar Francis – to stress the urgency of the matter.

Paul Murphy – Irish MEP said: “I’m here to support the protest against an ongoing contracting services to group for security G4S in European Parliament and in Luxembourg in particular. G4S is involved in management and running of many prisons in Israel where Palestinian prisoners are held”

“G4S is involved actively in the oppression of Palestinians. We need to build a big movement within Europe opposing those who profits from the occupation” – he added

G4S is the world’s largest private military and security company. One of the issues receiving worldwide media attention is G4S’ provision of services to the Israeli police, Ministry of Defence, Prison Service, army, as well as to businesses in settlements.

G4S also provides security services to the detention and interrogation facilities of the “Russian Compound” in Jerusalem and the “al-Jalameh” detention centre next to Haifa where Palestinian teens are interrogated.

In their latest report UN Committee on the Rights of the Child confirms that “ Palestinian children arrested by (Israeli) military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture, are interrogated in Hebrew, a language they did not understand, and sign confessions in Hebrew in order to be released,”

In March 2013 the European Parliament issued a resolution condemning Israel for using torture and calling for a fact-finding mission to investigate Israeli prisons. But at the same time the EU is in fact condoning G4S’ policy to profit from human rights abuses against Palestinians by continuing to award contracts to G4S. G4S renewed its contract with the European Parliament for its Luxembourg properties, in a deal worth 48 million euros- 15.9 million euros more than the 2008-2012 tender.In January last year – just before the third armed hold-up in the parliament – the European Commission awarded its security work to G4S for 237.8 million euros, ending its previous arrangement with Securitas.

They therefore called the EU institutions to end their cooperation with G4S and actually start an independent investigation towards this corporation.

Rana Nazzal and Nariman Tamimi released from Ofer after 4-day detention

1 July 2013

Palestinian activists Nariman Tamimi and Rana Nazzal were released today, July 1, from Ofer Military Court, after 4 days in detention. They were seized at Nabi Saleh’s weekly march against settlements on Friday, June 28, and held, accused of entering a “closed military zone,” Palestinian land occupied by illegal settlers.

Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat launches new website to support imprisoned Palestinian leader

1 July 2013

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat announced the launch of its updated website on June 26. The new Campaign website has more interactive features, integration with Facebook and Twitter, and extensive news and resources on Ahmad Sa’adat and the movement of Palestinian prisoners for freedom, justice and liberation.

Ahmad Sa’adat is the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. One of nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners, he has been sentenced to thirty years in Israeli prisons for a range of “security-related” political offenses. These charges include membership in a prohibited organization (the PFLP, of which Sa’adat is General Secretary), holding a post in a prohibited organization, and incitement, for a speech Sa’adat made following the Israeli assassination of his predecessor, Abu Ali Mustafa, in August 2001.

The Campaign says, “Sa’adat is a prisoner of conscience, targeted for imprisonment because of his political activity and in his capacity as a Palestinian leader. The systematic assassination, imprisonment and detention of Palestinian political leaders has long been a policy of the Israeli state, as reflected in the imprisonment of Sa’adat and over a dozen other members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, including Marwan Barghouthi, as well as the nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners, targeted for their involvement in and commitment to the struggle for the liberation of their land and people.”

The Campaign is an effort of concerned people from around the world, coming together to address the travesty of justice taking place, and calling for justice and freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners. Ahmad Sa’adat is a prisoner of conscience, subject to the illegitimate military courts of an illegal military occupation.

Hundreds of organizations and activists around the world have signed on to the campaign’s calls for freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian prisoners here. Learn more about the campaign and its supporters at its website.

Palestinian prisoner Eyad Abu Khudair on hunger strike for release home to Gaza

1 July 2013

Palestinian prisoner Eyad Abu Khudair, 38, from Rafah in Gaza, is engaged in an open hunger strike for the past 14 days, demanding his release to Gaza after the completion of his sentence, reported prisoners inside Negev prison, where he is held.

Abu Khudair’s 8-year sentence expired on April 12, 2013; he was arrested on April 12, 2005. He is a Palestinian who carried Jordanian nationality, who came to the Gaza Strip in 1999, where he married and he and his wife had three children. At the time he entered Gaza, he applied for his status to be recognized there – but it was never recognized before his capture in 2005.

However, at the time of his arrest, Jordan stripped Jordanian nationality from him, alleging that he is a member of Islamic Jihad in Palestine, thus rendering him stateless. Jordan refuses to accept Abu Khudair’s return. He is on hunger strike demanding his release to Gaza and his family. The occupation has extended his detention by 30 days several times, saying that the issue of his release is unresolved. Abu Khudair launched his hunger strike in order to force action on the issue.

The Mohja Foundation reported that Abu Khudair has faced harsh retaliation from prison authorities for his hunger strike, saying that he was forced to stay outside in the sun in the heat of the day from 7 am to 1 pm in order to pressure him to stop the strike. He lost consciousness at the time as a result of excessive sun exposure; the prison is located in the desert.

Mohja Foundation appealed to human rights organizations and international bodies to take action to support prisoners on hunger strike to end racist abuses against them and pressure the occupation for their release.

Palestinian prisoners’ families rally in Gaza at ICRC headquarters

1 July 2013

GAZA, PALESTINE, July 1 – Families and supporters of Palestinian political prisoners detained by Israel held a sit-in in the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s Gaza Strip headquarters on Monday, July 1, calling for the ICRC to fulfill its responsibilities to protect Palestinian prisoners.

All photos by Joe Catron:

Martyr Arafat Jaradat’s wife Dalal gives birth to baby Arafat

1 July 2013

arafat-jaradat-baby Dalal Jaradat, the widow of Arafat Jaradat, 30, the Palestinian political prisoner held in occupation jails who died under torture on February 23, 2013, 6 days after his arrest, gave birth to their child on June 30, 2013.

Dalal and Arafat had two children, Yara, 4 years old, and Mohammad, 2 years old, and Dalal was pregnant when Arafat was arrested. She named the new baby boy Arafat, after his martyred father. Ma’an reported that mother and child are well.

Jaradat was from the town of Sair north of al-Khalil, and was killed in Megiddo prison as a result of torture, according to his autopsy report. Dalal Jaradat was interviewed at the time about her experience of his arrest and murder:

Report: Imprisoned PLC member Al-Tal denied medicine by occupation prisons

1 July 2013

al-tal The Palestinian Information Centre reported that the Ofer prison administration deprived detained MP Mohammed Al-Tal of his medicine as punishment for refusing to go to the prison clinic.

The detainee’s wife said that her husband refused to go to the clinic for medical tests to protest the renewal of his administrative detention for the second time.

She said that Mohammed suffers from diabetes and hypertension and should take medication for both diseases on daily basis.

The wife said that Mohammed was deprived of his medication for eight days which puts his life at great risk.

The Israeli occupation authorities arrested the MP, from Al-Khalil, on 4/2/2013 and held him in administrative detention for four months then renewed his custody recently for the second time.

Palestinian hunger strikers suffering medical crises, pledge to continue strike

1 July 2013

hungerdignity (1) The four long-term hunger strikers protesting their administrative detention – Ayman al-Tabeesh, Adel Hareebat, Ayman Hamdan and Imad Batran, said on July 1 that they will not stop their hunger strike until their administrative detention orders are cancelled.

Palestinian lawyer Hanan al-Khatib reported that Adel Hareebat, who has been on hunger strike for 40 days, suffers from lung problems, high blood pressure and now uses a wheelchair to move. Hareebat began his strike on May 23, 2013; he is a former prisoner who was arrested 4 times and served a total of 9 years in prison. He is currently held without charge under administrative detention.

Ayman al-Tabeesh, who has also been on hunger strike for 40 days, is suffering from heart problems.

Both al-Tabeesh and Hareebat are currently held in the Ramle prison clinic.

Ayman Hamdan, who has been striking for 65 days, and Imad Batran, who has been striking for 56 days, are currently held at Assaf Soroka Hospital. They are denied any access to news or media. They have 6 guards with them inside their room and are handcuffed to their hospital beds by their right hands and left feet.

Palestinian cartoonist Mohammed Saba’aneh released after 5 month sentence

1 July 2013

Palestinian cartoonist Mohammed Saba’aneh was released from occupation prisons today, July 1, after a five-month sentence for “contact with a hostile organization,” taken to refer to his advocacy to support Palestinian political prisoners and his communication with a Jordanian book publisher to publish a book of his cartoons.

Saba’aneh was detained on February 16 while crossing the Allenby Bridge checkpoint from Jordan after returning from a conference for his work at the Arab American University.

Saba’aneh’s work has been widely published and shared on facebook, twitter, blogs and websites. (See his work at Mondoweiss: http://mondoweiss.net/2013/04/palestinian-cartoonist-sentenced.html)

ACTIONS: Free Palestinian activist Sireen Khudiri, imprisoned and accused of Facebook activism

1 July 2013

Palestinian activist and schoolteacher Sireen Khudiri Sawafteh, 24, was seized by occupation forces on May 14 as she drove home. She has been active for over 3 years in the campaign to support the popular, grassroots organizing in the Jordan Valley against occupation and writes actively on websites and Facebook. She was seized as she drove to her hometown, Tubas; this was followed by a raid on her family home as 25 army jeeps entered Tubas, 20 occupation military personnel entered her home and 100 remained on the street.

All of the computers in the home were seized. Sireen has been widely in contact with international solidarity activists – she engaged in a university twinning project between the Open University in Tubas and the University of Sussex, England, and joined a delegation of students from Palestine to the UK.

Sireen was accused by the occupation of creating a facebook page that would harm the security of the state of Israel. Although it is illegal to transfer people from the occupied territories to the country of the occupying power according to the Geneva Convention, Sireen is in the Eichel prison in north Israel. Her detention has been extended, and court hearings postponed, repeatedly – her next hearing is scheduled for July 17, 2013.

TAKE ACTION on Sireen’s case: sign the international petition to free Sireen: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/united-nations-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-demand-that-the-israeli-occupation-immediately-release-sirien-khudiri-2

Join the Facebook campaign for Sireen’s release: https://www.facebook.com/FreeSireenKhudiri

Share the video from the campaign to release Sireen:

The Palestine Monitor published the following important story on the detention of Sireen Khudiri Sawafteh (visit the original article for excellent photos):

Activist Sireen Khudiri Sawafteh detained and prosecuted for a Facebook page

By Fatima Masri – June 30, 2013

The 24 year-old human rights activist, Sireen Khudiri Sawafteh, is being detained in the Israeli prison of Eichel for having created a Facebook page that allegedly threatens the security of the State of Israel. On the afternoon of Tuesday 14 May, her car was stopped at a temporary checkpoint on the road between Nablus and her hometown, Tubas. Sireen and the other passenger, Abed al-Majid Sawafteh, were questioned for four hours and then taken into custody by the Israeli forces.

Sireen has been active in denouncing Israeli abuses in the Jordan Valley through Facebook and other tools of communication. However, the accusation raised by Israeli army is of having informed “external enemies” in Syria and Gaza of the prices of weapons in the West Bank. A picture of Sireen holding a gun is claimed to be a proof of her affiliation with armed resistance movements. “I don’t know if the picture is true”, says Rashid, one of her three brothers, “but Sireen has been an activist in the international campaign of the Jordan Valley against violence since 2009 and works in a school where she teaches the principles of nonviolence to children. Maybe she took it for fun, but she is not involved in any kind of violent struggle.”

The court hearings have been repeatedly postponed, as part of a commonly used strategy by the Israeli authorities to gain time with the prisoner. Sireen’s lawyer, Adel Samara, is trying to arrange for Sireen’s transfer to the Ofer Prison−in the West Bank district of Ramallah−in order to begin preparation for her court hearing scheduled for mid-July.

Israel’s detention of West Bank Palestinians across the Green Line and within Israel proper –as in Sireen’s case− contravenes Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva convention. Movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians often make it impossible for both defence councils and family members to reach a prisoner in Israel. Sireen’s brother, Rashid, is the only family member who has been granted a permit to visit her. “The Israeli soldier who brought Sireen into the room pushed her violently, as if she was an animal”, he recalls from his visit to Eichel Prison on 24 June. “For half an hour I could not think of anything else but that scene.”

Sireen will be judged by a military court, in which military orders take precedence over both Israeli domestic and international law. The prosecutors are Israeli soldiers and the defendants are never Israeli citizens, but Palestinians accused of “security violations”—a term that can be applied to a wide range of activities, including nonviolent protests.

Sireen has not been physically harmed, but has been subjected to constant psychological harassment and humiliation. When forced to undergo strip and body searches, Sireen’s request to close the door so that male soldiers outside the room would not see her undress was refused. Male officers may burst into her cell at any time without warning, laughing if she is found without the veil or with few clothes on. Even when using the toilet, Sireen has to bear the attentive look of an Israeli female soldier.

Such living conditions would strain anyone, but they hit even harder on the psychology of Muslim women, for whom modesty is a matter of moral integrity and honor. According to the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Addameer, humiliation is a common practice in Israeli jails designed to mentally break the prisoners and coerce them into giving confessions.

Following Sireen’s detention, around twenty-five jeeps entered the town of Tubas during the night and broke into the house where the Sawafteh family was sleeping. They were kept into one room for several hours without food, water and blankets, despite the presence of two children. Three computers—Sireen’s and two other—were sequestered by the Israeli soldiers. “They checked the walls with their guns, they broke a cupboard, then they called me for an interrogation”, Rashid recounts. “They told me to say hi to the PA, and to bring Hamas because ‘we need action’. Then they questioned me on the economical situation of my family, and when I told them that we don’t have a lot of money the soldier asked me to work with them. Obviously I told him I would never work with those who harm the Palestinians”.

The incursion gave spark to a protest among the inhabitants of Tubas, a town located in area A and therefore under total Palestinian military and civil control. Despite this administrative division, established during the Oslo Accords, Israeli forces constantly violate the Palestinian Authority’s sovereignty over the area. During the clashes, tear-gas and sound grenades were fired, leaving 20 years old Omar Abed al-Razaq in serious condition. According to Rashid, who visited his family, when Omar was at the hospital “his brother covered him while he was still unconscious, so when he woke up he did not realize immediately that he had lost one hand and some fingers of the other one. When the family finally gathered the courage to tell him the truth, he started screaming and could not be calmed down. He wanted to see with his own eyes what had happened to his body”.

Since 1967, over 650,000 Palestinians have been detained in Israeli jails, which makes up approximately 20% of the total population of the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). Women are subject to especially harsh condition in Israeli jails, even when ill or pregnant. A study conducted by Addameer in 2008 demonstrates that approximately 38% of female Palestinian prisoner suffer from diseases that go untreated.

A video portraying Sireen with her students has been posted on You Tube, and a petition to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to demand Sireen’s release is currently being subscribed from all over the world.

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