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Palestinian prisoners hold one-day hunger strike to free Old Prisoners

Maan reported  that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are carrying out a one-day hunger strike in all prisons to demand the release of prisoners detained prior to the 1993 Oslo Accords – the “Old Prisoners” – of which 111 remain imprisoned, as well as to demand the implementation of the agreement ending the April-May 2012 hunger strike.

Issa Qaraqe said prisoners held in Israeli jails would launch strike action on Thursday to demand the release of prisoners detained before the 1993 Oslo Accord with Israel.

The hunger strike coincides with the anniversary of the signing of the agreement. The prisoner rights group Addameer says 111 prisoners detained before Oslo remain in jail.

Head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society Qadura Fares said Thursday that those prisoners remained in jail because of the failure of Palestinian negotiators during the Oslo Accords.

“The behavior of the Palestinian negotiator was impulsive and the issue of prisoners was not discussed or made a priority at the negotiating table,” Fares said.

Palestinian prisoners should be the most important issue “at any political meeting, convention or negotiations” with Israel, he added.

Since the signing of the accords, prisoners and their advocates have criticized Palestinian negotiators for failing to address their plight.

In October 1993, political prisoners in Juneib jail in Nablus wrote a letter “Where is our place in the Accords?” protesting their exclusion from the agreement.

In the October 1994 Gaza-Jericho agreement, minister Nabil Shaath insisted on a timetable for the release of all prisoners detained prior to the 1993 accord.

Some 4,450 prisoners were released by July 1995, but those who remained in detention “appeared to rank extremely low on the Palestinian negotiators’ agenda in the Oslo II Agreement, signed on 24 September 1995,” Addameer has said.

One page of that agreement was devoted to the release of detainees, compared to four pages detailing the special passage of Palestinian VIPs.

On Wednesday, a prisoners statement from Hadarim jail called on President Mahmoud Abbas and the countries which supported Oslo to secure the pre-Oslo detainees’ release.

Addameer: Health of Ayman Sharawna, Hassan Safadi, Samer al-Barq in immediate danger

Addameer: Only immediate intervention will save the lives of three Palestinian hunger strikers

Ramallah, 12 September 2012 – Addameer is deeply concerned that the lives of the three remaining Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli prison are in immediate danger as their prolonged hunger strikes have led to a rapid deterioration in their health. Of utmost concern is the health of administrative detainees Samer al-Barq, today on his 114th day of renewed hunger strike following his previous 30-day hunger strike, and Hassan Safadi, today on his 84th day of renewed hunger strike following his previous 71-day hunger strike. The life of prisoner Ayman Sharawna, today on his 74th day of hunger strike, is also in immediate danger as his health continues to deteriorate rapidly.
Addameer lawyer Fares Ziad visited Ramleh prison medical clinic yesterday, 11 September, but was again unable to meet with Samer Al-Barq as he was too weak to get out of bed. Mr. Fares did manage to meet with fellow hunger strikers Hassan Safadi and Ayman Sharawna, who informed him of Samer’s condition. According to Hassan and Ayman, Samer’s health has deteriorated so severely that he is now unable to walk and is permanently confined to bed.
The health of Hassan Safadi continues to worsen and even drinking water causes swelling in his hands and feet. His health has deteriorated so critically that on 10 September he was unable to drink any water at all. Other health conditions that Hassan is suffering from include: low immunity; contractions of the heart muscles; liver problems; kidney stones; chronic pain in his kidneys; low pulse; low blood pressure; chronic pain in his joints. On 9 September, Hassan was transferred to Assaf Harofeh hospital due to further deterioration in his health; in particular his inability to see clearly and continuous dizziness compounded by his other health problems. The subsequent results revealed a weakening of the nerves in his eyes and also that his is suffering from anemia and a shortage of protein. Despite the urgency of his condition, Hassan’s administrative detention order was confirmed for a reduced period of four months on 9 September, now due to expire on 29 October.
Ayman Sharawna is also in critical condition as his health continues to deteriorate. He has lost approximately 80 percent of the vision in his right eye and has lost all feeling in his left leg. He has been informed that his kidneys are not functioning properly and he also has extreme pain in his back, which sometimes prevents him from standing up. As reported previously, the prison authorities have attempted to pressure him by saying that they will only give him pain medication for his back if he ends his strike. For the last 10 days, Ayman has been vomiting blood as well as the water he drinks. Other problems Ayman is suffering from include low immunity; low heart beat; low fat content; low blood pressure; low sugar levels.
Ayman has requested that his left leg be examined but was told by prison doctors that this needs approval by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS). He has also refused to be transferred to a civilian hospital as this usually involves being shackled by both arms and legs to the bed. Ayman is examined one day each week by prison doctors and is currently only able to drink one glass of water per day.
The pressure that all three hunger strikers have been subjected to by Israeli authorities continues to escalate. Israel not only deprives all three to a fair trial but also continues to severely mistreat them in the forms of physical brutality and psychological torture, as exemplified by the bargain to give Ayman Sharawna pain medication for his back only if he ends his hunger strike.
Despite the severe health conditions of all three hunger strikers they continue to be denied family visits and regular access to independent physicians and independent medical care. For the first time in over a month, a Physicians for Human Rights-Israel doctor was able to visit the hunger strikers on 10 September. The doctor “determined that all the hunger strikers must be immediately transferred to a public hospital for comprehensive medical query of their severe conditions” and that “the advanced physical damage recorded […] raises grave concern for maltreatment and neglect by the IPS doctors.” Addameer is outraged by the continued Israeli policy of allowing visits of independent doctor’s only after court orders.
Israel is violating these courageous hunger strikers’ most basic rights on a daily basis, even as they come to the brink of death.  Addameer fears for the lives of all three hunger strikers and believes that only urgent intervention will be enough to save their lives. Addameer therefore calls on all those concerned with justice in Palestine to come together in support of all three hunger strikers.

Ahmad Sa’adat moved to collective isolation in Hadarim prison

Ahmad Sa’adat, imprisoned Palestinian national leader, was transferred from Shata prison to Hadarim prison, where he was placed in collective isolation in retaliation for his comments in court on Sunday, said former prisoner Allam Kaabi said on Tuesday, September 11. Kaabi was deported to Gaza in the October 2011 prisoner exchange.

Kaabi said that this movement came in retaliation for Sa’adat’s comments in court on Sunday, September 9 in Jerusalem, when he rejected as illegitimate the occupation courts and called for occupation officials to be put on trial for their crimes against the Palestinian people. Sa’adat is the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

When Sa’adat was transferred to Hadarim, fellow imprisoned PFLP leader Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh who was held in Hadarim prison, was then transfered to Shata prison. The “collective isolation” in Hadarim prison is a small group of prisoners held together and separate from the larger Palestinian prisoner population. Sa’adat was in isolation for over three years, from March 2009 through May 2012, and was released from isolation as part of the agreement ending the April-May 2012 hunger strike.

Kaabi said that the Israeli Prison Services were determined that Sa’adat and Abu Ghoulmeh would not meet in the same prison. He said that “all of the Zionist practices against leaders like Sa’adat and Abu Ghoulmeh, and all prisonrs in Israeli jails, will fail because the will, determination and steadfastness of the prisoners is much greater than those of the jailer.”

Acción Urgente: ¡Actúen ahora para salvar las vidas de Samer al-Barq, Hassan Safadi y Ayman Sharawna!

Thank you to Scott Campbell of Angry White Kid for this translation, also available at his blog:

[Original en inglés]

Samer al-Barq ya ha estado en huelga de hambre durante 111 días, además de los de 30 días que pasó anteriormente en la huelga de hambre masiva del abril-mayo 2012. Ahora es el preso que más tiempo ha pasado en huelga de hambre en cualquier parte del mundo, asumiendo este título de su compatriota, el preso Akram Rikhawi. 

Está en huelga junto con Hassan Safadi, quien ha resistido durante 81 días, sumados a los 71 días de su previa huelga de hambre, y con Ayman Sharawna, quien ha estado rechazando comido durante 71días. Los tres están sufriendo complicaciones médicas muy graves, incluyendo problemas de riñón, de perdido de conocimiento, y de sistemas inmunes suprimidos, confirmado por Addameer, Médicos para Derechos Humanos – Israel y al-Haq. Actuén ahora para llamar a su libertad inmediata y salvar las vidas de Samer al-Barq, Hassan Safadi y AymanSharawna!

Tuitea Ahora: Act now for #PalHunger strikers #SamerAlBarq #HassanSafadi #AymanSharawna Lives on the Line for Palestine! Act: http://samidoun.ca/?p=1456

Los tres hombres se están manifestando contra el incumplimiento israelí con el acuerdo del 14 de mayo (y acuerdos previos) entre el movimiento de los presos y el Servicio de Prisiones Israelí. Una de las provisiones de este acuerdo era que el castigo de detención administrativa no seria renovado. Sin embargo, el 21 de mayo – solo una semana después del acuerdo – la detención administrativa de al-Barq fue renovada y él empezó de nuevo su huelga de hambre. Safadi se unió a la huelga el 21 de junio, cuando su orden de detención administrativa fue renovada.

Por otro lado, dejaron en libertad a Ayman Sharawna en octubre de 2011 como parte del acuerdo de intercambio de los presos. Sin embargo, le detuvieron de nuevo en enero de 2012 y desde entonces él ha estado detenido sin cargo. Ayman inició su huelga de hambre el 1 de julio, seis meses después de su detención.

Acción urgente es necesario para proteger las vidas de estos presos palestinos. Han sido encarcelados juntos en una celda de aislamiento que mide 1.8 metros por 1.5 metros, sin espacio por una silla de ruedas, y actualmente están encadenados de manos y pies a sus camas de hospital, a pesar de que sus doctores informan de las graves amenazas médicas ocasionadas por estas condiciones. Es urgente que actuemos ahora para liberar a Samer, Hassan y Ayman y asegurar la atención medica que necesitan.

¡TOMA ACCION!

  1. Firma una carta exigiendo que el estado israelí traslade inmediatamente a Samer al-Barq, Hassan Safadi y AymanSharawna a un hospital y que les dejan en libertad.Haz un click aquí para firmar.
  2. Firma una carta a la Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja para exigir que se cumple con sus obligaciones a los presos palestinos y que se actúe para salvar las vidas de Samer al-Barq, Hassan Safadi y AymanSharawna. Haz un click aquí para firmar.

Families of Palestinian detainees call for urgent actions to support hunger strikers

Press release from the Ministry of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs:

GAZA, PALESTINE, September 11 – The families of Palestinians detained by Israel called for a week of urgent actions to support a mass hunger strike on 13 September, as well as ongoing hunger strikes by individual detainees.

Thousands of detainees will participate in a mass one-day hunger strike on Thursday, 13 September, beginning a “Saving the Strike” campaign to demand that Israel fully implement the agreement that ended the “Dignity” hunger strike on 14 May, 2012.

“The agreement was to allow all prisoners from Gaza to receive visits from family members,” said Sadeya Saftawi, the wife of detainee Emad El Deen Saftawi. “But four months later, I still haven’t been able to see my husband.”

Israel also continues to hold detainees in isolation, despite agreeing to release them into its prisons’ general population, and to renew administrative detention orders in violation of the 14 May deal. Two administrative detainees with extended orders, Samer Al-Barq and Hassan Safadi, remain on their 113th and 83rd days of extended hunger strikes.

“We ask supporters around the world to undertake more activities to pressure Israel to stop its daily violations against our sons, brothers, and husbands, and to help them get back their rights that are violated daily by Israel,” said Mona Abu Salah, the mother of two detainees, Fahmi and Salah Abu Salah.

The families asked supporters to demonstrate outside Israeli embassies, consulates, and missions, international organizations, Israeli prison contractors like G4S, and in other public places from Thursday, 13 September through Wednesday, 19 September.

Palestinian prisoner Mohammad Rimawi transferred to hospital

The Palestinian Information Centre reported on Tuesday September 11 that the occupation authorities transferred the prisoner Mohammad Rimawi to Hadassah hospital following deterioration in his health condition.

Wa’ed association for prisoners and ex-prisoners pointed in a press statement that the prisoner Mohammad Rimawi, who was held in Nafha prison, was transferred to Hadassah hospital after his health deteriorated.

Rimawi has been serving a life sentence on charge of participating in the assassination of Israeli minister Rehavam Zeevi.

The association added that he was taken to the hospital in a critical condition, as he was suffering serious shortness of breath and accused the occupation authorities of deliberately neglecting his treatment causing him serious deterioration in his health, as Wa’ed said.

It demanded the World Health Organization and the humanitarian and human rights organizations to intervene “to stop the criminal occupation practices against the patient prisoners and to put pressure on Israel to force it to provide the appropriate medical care for them.”

On August 31, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine “warned…that the occupation government is fully responsible for the life of Comrade Mohammad Rimawi, imprisoned in the Nafha occupation prison….The PFLP warned of consequences for concealing the worsening of his health as a result of medical negligence practiced against him and the inhumane conditions suffered in the prisons of the occupation. The Front called for a wider movement of solidarity on popular and official levels with the imprisoned leader, to save his life under threat at every moment.”

Call for Action: Zakaria Zubeidi of Freedom Theatre on hunger strike in PA prison

CALL FOR ACTION

From The Freedom Theatre
Jenin, West Bank, Occupied Palestine
September 10, 2012

On the 9th of September Zakaria Zubeidi announced that he will embark on a death fast, a complete food and fluid strike, in response to the continuous postponement of his release from Palestinian Authority prison. This effectively means that unless the Palestinian Authority releases Zakaria he will most probably not make it through the week.

Zubeidi, co-founder of The Freedom Theatre and former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, has been imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority for close to four months. No charges have been made against him, no evidence presented and throughout his imprisonment his rights have been severely violated, as described by among others Human Rights Watch (link to www.hrw.org07/27/israelpalestinian-authority-theater-group-hit-both-sides). 

Being one of the last survivors of Arna’s Children(1), Zakaria joined the armed resistance during the second Intifada and became one of its leading figures. After co-founding The Freedom Theatre in 2006 Zakaria decided to lay down his weapons in order to join a cultural resistance, which he deemed a more powerful tool against the Israeli occupation. Surviving numerous assassination attempts by the Israeli army and vowing to never again enter an Israeli prison, Zakaria is now instead facing death in a Palestinian prison unless immediate action is taken.

The Freedom Theatre urges all its friends and supporters to:

  • Contact the local representative office of the Palestinian Authority(2) and demand Zakaria Zubeidi’s release. Since the situation is urgent we also ask you to take more direct actions such as organising protests at PA representative offices.
  • Contact local or regional human rights offices and organisations such as Amnesty International and urge them to take action.
  • Contact your local MP and MEP and urge them to take action.
  • Contact your country’s representative office in the occupied Palestinian territory and urge them to take action(3).
  • Call these numbers to demand Zakaria’s release:  +972 (0)599000011 Abo Mohammad Shadeh, Head of the Palestinian Authority President’s Security Office, +972 (0)2000011 Said Abualheja, Ministry of Interior ,  +972 (0)-597778887 Majd Faraj, Head of Palestinian IntelligenceSOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
  • Twitter: #Freezakaria
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefreedomtheatre, https://www.facebook.com/FreedomForNabilAndZakaria

Loay Ashqar, tortured detainee, rearrested in occupation raid

Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, reported that at dawn on Monday, September 10, occupation military forces raided the home of Loay Ashqar in Saida, Tulkarem, arresting him and abducting him from his home.

Loay Ashqar has been imprisoned 5 times in the past as an administrative detainee, without charge or trial. He was paralyzed in his lower leg and foot under torture in interrogation in Jalame interrogation centre in 2005, and his brother Muhammad al-Ashqar was murdered in 2007 in Negev desert prison in a so-called “training exercise” of the Israeli army (reported here by Ali Abunimah.)

Loay has been one of the leading activists in solidarity with the prisoners’ hunger strike in his area, and is married and the father of two children.

This image, provided by Addameer, is of Loay’s visit with Khader Adnan upon his release from the occupation prisons.

Addameer: Lawyer blocked from accessing al-Barq and Safadi

The following report is from Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association:

Ramallah, 10 September 2012 — Immediately after receiving confirmation from the Israeli Prison Service that he would be able to meet with all three hunger strikers in Ramleh prison medical clinic yesterday afternoon, Addameer lawyer Fares Ziad entered to find prison authorities telling him he would only be able to meet with Ayman Sharawna, as Samer Al-Barq and Hassan Safadi had just been taken to Assaf Harofeh hospital for unknown reasons. This is not the first time that Mr. Ziad has been told he would be able to meet with them and subsequently told they were no longer present, contributing to the horrific prevention of access to information about these two hunger strikers in most urgent conditions.

Samer Al-Barq is now on his 112th day of renewed hunger strike, while Hassan Safadi is on his 82nd day of renewed hunger strike. Both are at immediate risk of death. Ayman Sharawna is on his 72nd day of hunger strike, and Mr. Ziad noted after seeing him that his condition has become incredibly dire. He is now unable to see out of his right eye, cannot move his right leg, and is throwing up blood.

Urgent intervention is needed to save the lives of these courageous hunger strikers.

***

Click here to take action for Samer al-Barq, Hassan Safadi and Ayman Sharawna.

“Old Prisoners” plan to launch hunger strike on Oslo anniversary

The “Old Prisoners,” Palestinian prisoners held in occupation prisons since before the Oslo accords in 1993, have announced that they intend to launch an open-ended hunger strike on September 13, 2012, the nineteenth anniversary of the Oslo accords, demanding their release.

They pointed out, in a statement, that they will go on an open hunger strike under the slogan “freedom or martyrdom” on the nineteenth anniversary of the Oslo agreement, demanding their release, reported the Palestinian Information Centre.

Oslo agreement was a big shock especially that it did not mention the prisoners’ liberation at all, but it left them as a prey to the Israeli occupation, forgetting the prisoners’ role in struggling for the freedom and independence of their country and their people, the statement said.

PLO leaders had stated at the time that our release would be soon, 19 years have passed since the signing of that fateful agreement, and nothing was achieved, they said in the statement, stressing that they suffer a state of neglect and disregard.

There are 121 Old Prisoners, who have collectively served over 3500 years in occupation prisons. Demands for their release have been raised from time to time as potential conditions for negotiations by the Palestinian Authority.

The prisoners held PLO leaders, the PA, and the national and Islamic factions, particularly Fatah and the PA president Mahmoud Abbas responsible for their release and their lives.

@Palhunger on Twitter will provide regular updates and calls to action on the strike of the Old Prisoners.

 

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