Week of action in Gaza planned in solidarity with prisoners

2 September 2012

The National and Islamic Forces in Gaza are holding a series of events, beginnng on Sunday September 2 at 11 am with a march leaving from the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross to Palestine Square. On Monday, September 3 at 10 am a mass march from the ICRC to the headquarters of the United Nations in Gaza will take place, and a letter submitted to the representative of the UN in Gaza and to the Director of the Red Cross. Tuesday, September 4 will be a media day, in which all local radio stations will broadcast information about prisoners. On Thursday, a solidarity fast will take place in front of the High Commissioner for Human Rights from 9 am until the evening.

Former prisoners, including released prisoner Samer Abu Seir called for official and popular participation to demand action to end the violations of the occupation prison administration against the prisoners, especially the hunger strikers and patients who are the victims of medical negligence.

Ofer prison steps up repression as prisoners plan campaign of resistance.

2 September 2012

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club reported on Sunday, Septembe 2 that Ofer prison is currently in a high state of alert afte the appointment of a new prison director, Shlomo Jacob.

In his first meeting with the prisoners, he demanded they stand in respect of him and his military rank, which prisoners refused to do. The prisoners refused to do so and made their refusal clear through their representatives. The prisoners’ representative was then transferred to another prison, and prison management is currently threatening the prisoners as a result, reported Ma’an.

This comes amid a report by the Waed prisoners society that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails have revealed a plan to escalate gradually protest steps against the prison administrations’ delay in implementing the “Dignity” agreement by which the prisoners ended their mass hunger strike in May 2012, as reported by the Palestine Information Centre.

The Waed society for prisoners and ex-prisoners quoted those prisoners as saying that a month long “saving the strike” campaign would kick off soon that would include returning meals, not cooperating with the prison administrations, and others.

They said that the protests would culminate with the start of a new hunger strike by 200 prisoners, adding that the number would then rise gradually.

Waed warned of the continued deterioration in the conditions of those prisoners, calling for massive solidarity rallies to back up those prisoners’ demands and to expose the Israeli oppressive policy against them.

Hussam Khader released from administrative detention

2 September 2012

Hussam Khader, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was released after 15 months of administrative detention without charge on Thursday, August 30, reported Ma’an. His family welcomed him at the al-Jamla checkpoint, his brother Ghassan told Ma’an.

A former member of Fatah’s legislative council, Hussam Khader was detained from his home in Balata refugee camp on June 2, 2011. Israel renewed his detention without charge order for a further six months in May.

Khader has been jailed by Israel 26 times and spent nine years in Israeli prisons.

Chairman of the parliamentary committee for the defense of refugees, Khader is a known champion of national reconciliation.

Ayman Sharawna refused medication while continuing his hunger strike

2 September 2012

The Palestinian Prisoners Society said on Saturday, September 1 that Israeli prison authorities refused to provide Ayman Sharawna, hunger striking Palestinian detainee with medication for his chronic back pain, unless he ended his hunger strike.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a report that Ayman Sharawna was taken to Ramla prison clinic hospital with severe back pain and required an injection from doctors. The Palestinian prisoner society said Sharawna affirmed he would not allow the prison administration to blackmail him despite his suffering from acute pains in his back and kidneys.

Israeli prison authorities would not allow doctors to administer the injection unless Sharawna agreed to end his hunger strike action, the prisoner group said. Sharawna had a hearing on his case scheduled for August 26, was postponed until next Thursday. Sharawna has been on hunger strike for 64 days.

Sharawna refused to end his strike action. Reported on Ma’an and Palestine Information Centre.

Report: August 18 protest in London for Palestinian hunger strikers

1 September 2012

Via Inminds. More photos and downloadable leaflets/posters at link:

Both Samer al-Barq and Hassan Safadi have been imprisoned indefinitely, without charge and without a trial as part of Israels infamous Administrative Detention system whereby Palestinians are picked up and locked up without any charge being brought forward let alone a trial.

Both men are on renewed hunger strikes after Israel broke its deal to release them. Samer al-Barq has been on hunger strike 139 days in total whilst Hassan Safadi a 128 days. They are in critical condition, barely able to stand and use wheelchairs for their daily needs. Amnesty has reported that even at the Medical Centre of the Israel Prison Service they are being repeatedly beaten and abused. The latest news received on 16th August is that the prison guards have once again attacked Hassan and Samer smashing Hassans head on the iron doors of the cell repeatedly until he was unconscious on the floor, they then dragged both prisoners as punishment to an isolation cell without any mattresses. To protest this inhuman and degrading treatment Hassan Safadi has announced that he will no longer be drinking water.

Around a dozen people braved the 31°C scorching heat on the last days of Ramadan to stand outside the Israeli Embassy giving out leaflets informing people of the plight of Palestinian hunger strikers Hassan Safadi and Samer al-Barq. The leaflets were very well received with around 400 leaflets being distributed in 2 hours. We were on the pavement opposite the Israeli Embassy for most of the time, with our main banner facing the embassy, it was interesting to see people leave the path and walk on to the street just to read what our banner had to way. Others stopped to talk to us despite the heat. It seems the subject of prisoners and their detention by Israel without charge or trial and their systematic abuse was something that was close to the hearts of Londoners. Some people having seen the banner actually came to us asking for the leaflet rather than wait for it to be offered – they genuinely wanted to know more.

The Palestinian prisoners campaign group was inaugurated at this years Al Quds Day (17 August 2012), as their first act they called for this emergency protest in solidarity with Hassan Safadi and Samer al-Barq.

Photos:

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Hunger striker Hassan Safadi’s head violently slammed against cell door by prison guards

17 August 2012

Joint Press Release, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel

http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=508

Ramallah, 16 August 2012 – Palestinian hunger strikers Hassan Safadi and Samer Al-Barq continue to be severely mistreated by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), in the forms of physical brutality and psychological torture. Addameer, Al-Haq and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) express their utmost outrage at recent violent incidents that have left these already-weakened detainees on protracted hunger strikes with trauma and injury. Mr. Al-Barq is today on his 87^th day of hunger strike, which he began only one week after his previous 30-day hunger strike ended; Mr. Safadi is today on his 57^th day of hunger strike, which he also began shortly after the end of his previous 71-day hunger strike.

In a visit with Addameer lawyer Fares Ziad on 14 August, Mr. Safadi recounted the most recent violent incident, which had occurred the previous day. At approximately 9:00 am on 13 August, IPS guards entered the isolation room that Mr. Safadi shares with fellow administrative detainee Mr. Al-Barq in Ramleh prison medical clinic and announced their intentions to move the two hunger strikers to a room with other prisoners in the medical clinic who are not on hunger strike. Mr. Safadi and Mr. Al-Barq refused the transfer, as they considered it an attempt to further pressure them to break their hunger strikes by surrounding them with individuals who would be regularly eating in front of them.

After refusing to be moved, the Israeli prison guards attacked both Mr. Safadi and Mr. Al-Barq. During the attack, Mr. Safadi’s head was slammed against the iron door of the cell two times, causing him to fall to the ground, unconscious. Prison guards then dragged him through the hall to be seen by all the other prisoners. Later that night, at around 10:00 pm, Mr. Safadi and Mr. Al-Barq were taken to a new isolation room with no mattresses.

As a result of this cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, Mr. Safadi subsequently announced that he would no longer be drinking water, which had so far been his only sustenance throughout his hunger strike. To protest the IPS’s brutality, the other prisoners in Ramleh also began to return their meals.

Mr. Safadi and Mr. Al-Barq both remain on hunger strike in protest against their administrative detention orders being renewed following the conclusion of Palestinian prisoners’ mass hunger strike in May. Mr. Safadi had been explicitly included in the agreement ending the hunger strike and had been guaranteed his release following the expiration of his order at the time – a promise that was not kept. A final decision regarding Mr. Safadi’s extension has been consistently postponed by an Israeli military judge and has not been reached to date.

Two other Palestinian detainees in Israeli prison are also currently on hunger strike: Ayman Sharawna and Samer Al-Issawi, on days 47 and 16, respectively. Both detainees were former prisoners who were released in last October’s prisoner exchange deal and subsequently re-arrested. They are being held based on secret information and view their hunger strikes as their only tool to protest against their re-arrest.

Addameer, Al-Haq and PHR-I insist that the international community intervene with the relevant Israeli authorities and demand an immediate investigation into these and other condemnable acts taken against prisoners on hunger strike in attempts to break them.

Addameer, Al-Haq and PHR-I specifically call on:

the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union to take action in the strongest manner possible to save the lives of the hunger strikers and prevent any future mistreatment;
European Parliament members to bring these cases to the attention of relevant Israeli authorities without delay and to send a fact-finding mission to examine the conditions of detention of Palestinians arbitrarily held in Israeli prisons;
High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention and all UN Member States to put immediate pressure on Israel to abide by international humanitarian and human rights law and end its policy of arbitrary detention, and to abide by the standard rules for the treatment of prisoners adopted in 1955, which set out what is generally accepted as being decent principle and practice in the treatment of prisoners.

August 28 – Vancouver: The Palestinian Struggle Today: Political Developments and New Challenges

17 August 2012

Palestinian Struggle Today: Political Developments and New Challenges
A presentation and open discussion with Khaled Barakat
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
7:00 pm
Room 1315, SFU Harbour Centre
515 W. Hastings St, Vancouver

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/453033221394898/

Among Palestinians and their allies, there is much discussion of division and disunity in the Palestinian liberation struggle, and even questions of how to understand that struggle: toward liberation, toward statehood? At this critical time for the Palestinian movement, join Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network for a discussion of the Palestinian political situation today, the challenges facing the Palestinian movement, and the path forward toward the liberation of Palestine, the end of apartheid and occupation, and the return of Palestinian refugees displaced from their land.

The Palestinian prisoners’ movement has always been at the centre of the Palestinian peoples’ resistance: a clear voice for justice and liberation, rejecting compromise of Palestinian national rights, holding fast to resistance, defying occupation and apartheid. The recent prisoners’ hunger strikes – and the ongoing hunger strikes of Palestinian political prisoners such as Hassan Safadi, Samer al-Barq, Ayman Sharawna and Samer al-Issawi – have provided new hope and inspiration for Palestinians inside and outside Palestine, from longtime activists to new youth voices in the community.

Imprisoned Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa’adat recently called for Palestinians to mobilize to end internal division, “expose the crimes of the occupation and build resistance through all and varied forms of struggle” and to reject the “absurd” path of negotiations and a “peace process” that has done so much to undermine Palestinian rights to self-determination, return, and liberation. This conversation is a step toward such a much-needed mobilization of the Palestinian and Arab community and their allies and supporters here.

Presentation by Palestinian writer and community activist KHALED BARAKAT, followed by an open and participatory discussion.

Khaled Barakat is a Palestinian writer and journalist. He is a longtime community organizer in the Palestinian and Arab communities in Vancouver and across North America. His writings have been widely published in a variety of Arabic-language media outlets, including Al-Quds al-Arabi, el-Badeel daily newspaper of Egypt, as-Safir of Lebanon, and Arabs48. He is active with Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and has co-founded various Palestinian and solidarity organizations in Canada and the US. He recently coordinated Resistance, Refugees, Rights and Return, a Vancouver to Gaza solidarity delegation.

Contact: Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
www.samidoun.ca
samidoun@samidoun.ca

Samidoun statement on Prisoners’ Justice Day

10 August 2012

August 10, Prisoners’ Justice Day, was initiated by prisoners at Millhaven Maximum Security Penitentiary in 1976 as a day to remember all of the men, women and youth who have died inside Canadian prisons, and to draw attention to the conditions that contribute to prisoner deaths. Thousands of prisoners across Canada went on a one day hunger strike to protest the deaths of prisoners and, in particular, the use of solitary confinement, and supporters outside held vigils and fasts outside prisons across the country. In the ensuing years, prisoners in the US and Europe also joined in 24 hour fasts on August 10 for justice, dignity and against solitary confinement and repression.

36 years later, on Prison Justice Day 2012, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in solidarity with prisoners in Canada and around the world struggling for justice on this day. We note in particular that the prison system disproportionately affects Indigenous people and communities, and has been a weapon of colonialism and destruction further uprooting Indigenous nations from their land. Prisons continue to reflect the horrors of the residential schools, as people, families and communities affected by residential schools continue to be frequently criminalized today.

Refugee claimants, migrants, asylum seekers, racialized and oppressed communities are subject to detention and imprisonment, and heavily criminalized physically in prisons and through government rhetoric in Canada. The creation of security certificate regimes and other forms of “anti-terror” imprisonment particularly target Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities, and highlight the ways in which political imprisonment, criminalization and racism go hand in hand for all prisoners. And while the government denies refugees access to health care, defunds programs and supports for migrants, refugees and communities, it pursues the building of ever more prisons across the country.

Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons struggle daily against solitary confinement, racism, and a mass imprisonment system that targets Palestinians as a whole for criminalization and subjugation. Yet Palestinian prisoners have been a beacon of resistance and steadfastness, leaders of the Palestinian movement for liberation. Today, at least 4 Palestinian prisoners are on hunger strike – Samer al-Barq (81 days), Hassan Safadi (51 days), Ayman Sharawna (41 days), and Samer al-Issawi (10 days) – demanding freedom and an end to their unjust imprisonment without charge or trial.

Samidoun expresses its solidarity with all those in prisons struggling against solitary confinement, racism and oppression, and longs for a day of freedom, justice and liberation for all.

Resources:

Statement on Prisoners Justice Day: http://alexhundert.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/prisoners-statement-on-prisoners-justice-day/
Prison Justice: http://prisonjustice.ca
Prisoners Justice Day events across Canada: http://g20.torontomobilize.org/node/783/

Woroud Qasem and Bilal Diab released today

9 August 2012

Palestinian prisoners Woroud Qasem and Bilal Diab were released today from Israeli occupation prisons.

Woroud Qasem, from al-Tira in occupied Palestine ’48 was released today, August 9, 2012 after serving nearly six years in prison. She was welcomed back to her village by hundreds of people who came to greet her; she was one of a few women political prisoners who were not released in the October 2011 prisoner exchange. She delivered a speech upon her return, calling upon all institutions to highlight the struggle and suffering of Palestinian political prisoners.

See video of her release:

Also released today is former hunger striker Bilal Diab, whose 78-day hunger strike alongside fellow administrative detainee Thaer Halahleh lasted throughout the April-May 2012 mass prisoner hunger strike. Diab was also welcomed by hundreds who greeted him as a hero, as he returned to his village Kufr al-Rai, outside Nablus. Among others, his fellow former hunger strikers and heroes of the “battle of the empty stomachs,” Halahleh and Khader Adnan, were among the first to greet him.

Long term hunger striker Hassan Safadi, who was in administrative detention as well, and who Israel refused to release in June in violation of the agreement ending the April-May 2012 hunger strike, remains on hunger strike, demanding his release, alongside fellow prisoners Samer al-Barq, Ayman Sharawna and Samer al-Issawi.

Linah Alsaafin interviewed his family for the Electronic Intifada, as well as covering the releases of Qasem and Diab.

Addameer Chairperson Abdullatif Ghaith banned from leaving Palestine

9 August 2012

9 August 2012

http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=507

Joint Statement
As organizations dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organizations (PCHRO), expresses its utmost dismay at the recent Israeli decision to ban Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association Chairperson Abdullatif Ghaith from travelling abroad. Mr. Ghaith, a 71-year-old East Jerusalem resident, is one of the founders of Addameer and has been serving on its Board for the past 20 years. He is also a well-known public figure resulting from his long history of human rights activism in Jerusalem and the rest of the OPT, in addition to his prominent political activism including his run for Palestinian Legislative Council elections in 2006.

On 2 August 2012, Mr. Ghaith received a phone call from Israeli intelligence representatives requesting that he present himself immediately to Moskobiyyeh interrogation center in Jerusalem. Upon presenting himself the following day, Mr. Ghaith was ordered to sign an order banning him from travelling abroad. The ban, which is signed by Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, will remain in place until 31 January 2013. The order claims that Mr. Ghaith constitutes a threat to “state security”, although no evidence is given to support such claim.

This is not the first time Mr. Ghaith has been targeted by Israel for his human rights activism. The current order banning him from travelling abroad is in addition to an existing ban that prevents him from entering the West Bank (as defined by Israel). This West Bank ban originally came into effect on 10 October 2011 for a duration of six months, although it was subsequently extended for an additional six months in April 2012 and is now due to expire in September 2012. Furthermore, since becoming Chairperson ofAddameer, Mr. Ghaith has been held without charge or trial in Israeli prison under administrative detention on three separate occasions, lasting for six months on each occasion. His most recent administrative detention lasted from June 2004 to January 2005.

The continued targeting of Mr. Ghaith cannot be viewed in isolation but must rather be viewed within a much broader context of a systematic attempt by Israel to suppress Palestinian civil society and stifle Palestinian development, while strengthening Israel’s occupation. Evidence of this repression can be seen in the increasing number of Palestinian civil society organizations that have been ordered to close, particularly in East Jerusalem, and the targeting of human rights defenders throughout the OPT. Other prominent members of Palestinian civil society have also been targeted in the same manner by Israel, such as the director of human rights organization Al-Haq, Shawan Jabarin, who has been banned from travelling abroad since 2006, with two exceptions this year in which his travel was highly restricted.

Human rights defenders are formally defined as persons who work, peacefully, for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mr. Ghaith’s life’s work on behalf of political prisoners—inspired by his own experience as a prisoner—clearly falls within the category of a human rights defender, in that his activities are peaceful in nature and aimed at the promotion of human rights. According to Mr. Ghaith, “Israel considers every activity that tackles Israeli violations of human rights as a threat to state security. Israel wants its occupation to proceed without any accountability. This is not an issue of an individual; it involves all Palestinians.”

The PCHRO strongly condemns the travel ban imposed on Mr. Ghaith and continued Israeli attempts to silence Palestinian civil society. The ban on Mr. Ghaith not only violates his fundamental human rights, namely his right to freedom of movement, but also disregards the special protections afforded to him as a human rights defender according to the United Nations General Assembly Declaration on human rights defenders.

The PCHRO therefore calls on the international community to intervene immediately with the Israeli authorities to lift all bans restricting Mr. Ghaith’s freedom of movement so that he may continue to carry out his human rights work unimpeded. In particular, the PCHRO calls on the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders to intervene with Israel and raise the case of Mr. Ghaith and other Palestinian human rights defenders, such as Mr. Jabarin. The PCHRO also urges the European Union, especially the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, to act in accordance with its decision to “throw its full weight behind advocates of liberty, democracy and human rights throughout the world” by consistently bringing up with Israel its continued infringements of the special protections afforded to Palestinian human rights defenders, as well as calling for the lifting of the travel bans imposed on Mr. Ghaith and Mr. Jabarin.

The Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organizations:

	Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association Sahar Francis General Director		Aldameer Association for Human Rights Khalil Abu Shammala General Director
	Al-Haq Shawan Jabarin General Director		Al Mezan Center for Human Rights Issam Younis General Director
	Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights Najwa Darwish General Director		Defence for Children International Palestine Section Rifat Kassis General Director
	Ensan Center for Human Rights and Democracy Shawqi Issa General Director		Hurryyat – Centre for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights Helmi Al-araj General Director
	Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights Issam Aruri General Director		Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies Iyad Barghouti General Director
	Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling Maha Abu Dayyeh General Director

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