Activists in Seattle, with Voices of Palestine, organized a demonstration on April 21 in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike, calling for their freedom. Banners calling for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and the boycott of Israeli goods were carried on the streets of Seattle, raising awareness about Palestinian prisoners’ struggle.
Photos:
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The following report of the April 15 event in Vancouver, including a review of Palestinian political prisoners, is provided by ILPS Canada: http://ilpsrighttorebel.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/resisting-criminalization-a-report-from-vancouver/
“It’s Right to Rebel: resisting criminalization of people’s struggles at home and abroad” was held on Sunday, April 15, in East Vancouver. The forum was organized by the Alliance for People’s Health, Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights, Samidoun – Palestinian Prisoner Network, and the International League of People’s Struggles – Canada. It is a part of a cross country discussion, organized by the ILPS – Canada, to develop a campaign against terrorist designations and criminalization people’s struggles.
CLICK ON THE NAMES TO JUMP TO THEIR PRESENTATIONS
The forum was opened by Angie Ipong who read a powerful poem based on her experiences of more than 20 years working with peasant and Indigenous struggles in the Philippines including six years as a political prisoner.
The first speaker at the forum was Dr. Merry Mia-Clamor, one of the Morong 43 political prisoners held by the Philippine military for 10 months in 2010 on trumped up charges. She spoke about how activists in popular mass struggles in the Philippines have been targeted and criminalized in the Philippines, tagged as members of the New People’s Army, and subjected to torture, disappearance and extrajudicial killings.
Gord Hill, a Vancouver based activist and author of the 500 Years of Resistance comic book, talked about the use of criminalization as a strategy of the Canadian colonial state to delegitimize people’s struggles. He spoke about the Ipperwash, Oka and Gustafsen Lake land reclamations and the attempts of the RCMP to label these Indigenous land struggles as being carried out by ‘criminal elements’.
Jose Figueroa spoke about his experience of being targeted for deportation because of his involvement with FMLN anti-dictatorship activities in El Salvador. Jose talked about his own experience as an example how immigrants and refugees can be criminalized for their association with popular and mass based people’s struggles for social justice
Charlotte Kates, a member of the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Network, spoke next. Charlotte spoke to the Palestinian experience of mass incarceration by the Israeli Occupation of leaders, supporters and activists linked to all Palestinian resistance movements.
Steve da Silva, Vice-Chairperson of ILPS – Canada, introduced the motivation for the Right to Rebel campaign and gave an overview of the campaign document. Steve put the campaign in the context of Canada’s role as an imperialist power and presented a timeline for the development of the ILPS Right to Rebel campaign.
In the discussion following the presentations speakers and participants shared ideas for strategies to challenge the Canadian terrorist list and criminalization of people’s struggles.
Activists in Vancouver with the Alliance for People’s Health, the International League of People’s Struggle, the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign and Canada Palestine Association picketed the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, calling for freedom for Palestinian prisoners and support for their ongoing hunger strike.
Videos of picket:
Photos:
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Saturday 28th April 2012
Support Palestinian hunger strikers – End Administrative Detention! End the Occupation!
Opposite 10 Downing Street, London (nearest tube Westminster)
4pm to 5.30pm
Support the Hunger Strikers! Join us outside Downing Street on Saturday to protest against administrative detention!
https://www.facebook.com/events/297698113641508/
Around 1200 Palestinian prisoners started a mass hunger strike last week in protest against a range of issues including administrative detention. This has risen to an estimated 2,000 prisoners, according to Addameer.
The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has escalated its punishments of hunger striking prisoners including confiscation of personal belongings prison transfers and the use of solitary confinement and denial of family and lawyer visits. Addameer lawyers have been denied access to all hunger striking prisoners, who are also being denied salt for their water in Ashkelon and Nafha prisons, raising serious health concerns.
Female prisoner Lina Jarbouni also declared an open hunger strike on 19 April and was taken to solitary confinement on the same day.
The number of Palestinians held in administrative detention has risen steadily over the last eighteen months; the Palestinian prisoners group Addameer states that there are an estimated 322 prisoners held without charge.
The delegates to the Annual Conference of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), the umbrella group for every trade union in Scotland, today voted unanimously and repeatedly against Israeli apartheid. The 450 delegates voted to:
Congress delegates congratulated the students for their work organising Israeli Apartheid Week 2012 events, who initiated action in support of the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike and called for support for the Scottish demonstration this Saturday 28th April in Edinburgh.
These decisions of the Scottish TUC in support of the Palestinian freedom struggle, by a union confederation representing half a million organised workers in every sector of the economy, will be widely seen as a continuation of the international solidarity the STUC also provided to the liberation struggle in South Africa. Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city, named a city centre street after Mandela in 1986 while he was still on Robben Island. How long till there is a Palestine Square or Palestine Street in our major cities?
The full text of the resolutions – all passed unanimously – is given below.
The Jewish National Fund
That this Congress notes that the Jewish National Fund acquisition and control of land in Israel and the occupied territories actively discriminates against Palestinians.
Congress calls on the General Council to:
(Mover: Midlothian TUC)
Emergency Motion – Palestine
Congress:
(Mover: Dundee Trades Union Council)
Emergency Motion – ‘Welcome to Palestine 2012’
This Congress notes that there is no way into the Occupied Palestinian territories except through Israeli controlled airports or checkpoints.
Congress applauds the ‘Welcome to Palestine 2012’ initiative which highlighted Israel’s oppressive and abhorrent policy of restricting free and unopposed movement to, from and within the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Congress condemns:
(Mover: Midlothian TUC)
Palestine
That this Congress applauds the successful delivery of humanitarian aid by the Scottish FBU to the Nablus Municipality Fire Department. Congress calls for continued trade union support for Palestinian projects, and for the exploration of a Scottish Trade Union Palestinian Support Group, and report back to Congress in 2013 any progress on this matter.
(Mover: Fire Brigades Union)
President’s Address to Congress (Mike Kirby, UNISON):
“There is a growing apartheid elsewhere, in Palestine. There have been many changes since my first official visit with Bill Speirs, Eddie Reilly and Malcolm Burns in 2001, during the Second Intifada. We were challenged by different militia, as we were escorted throughout the Occupied Lands by PGFTU, our hosts. On leaving, at the last stop at Jerusalem, we met members of the British Press Corps, who challenged us that we had only visited one place, met with one people. Eddie Reilly’s reply still pertains “We met many Israelis on our travels in Palestine. They were all armed and wearing uniforms.” Order may have been restored in many parts under the control of democratically elected representation of Fatah, democratically elected Hamas, and other political organisations. But that order is still enforced by a circle of unlawful Occupation, and the Apartheid Wall divides communities from their lands and work, and families are split apart.” Read full President’s address
Saturday, 28 April 2012 12:00 until 14:00
Assemble at Charlotte Square, Edinburgh
*Please invite friends and share*ASSEMBLE 12 Noon at Charlotte Square to March to the Scottish Parliament.
Attend on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/116226951845034/
Solidarity with the Palestinian Hunger Strikers! Free Palestine! Boycott Israel!
Last week on Palestinian prisoners day, over 1350 Palestinians prisoners embarked on a mass indefinite hunger strike to protest the horrific conditions they face in Israeli jails. They have followed the lead of 10 other Palestinians detainees who are currently on indefinite hunger strike against their internment without charge.
Two of them, Bilal Diab, 27, and Thaer Halahla, 34, have now been refusing food for over 55 days, and are in imminent danger of death with prisoner rights group Addameer describing their condition as “rapidly deteriorating”
In Glasgow, hundreds of people have demonstrated at the BBC Scotland HQ protesting the media blackout on the continuing situation with the prisoners. The building was also occupied by protesters as mainstream media institutions are highlighting their complicity in Israel’s crimes through their silence on the issue.As the resistance of the prisoners escalates, our actions in turn must escalate. Initiated by the ‘We are all Hana Shalabi network’, various groups who work for Palestine in Scotland have come together to organise a national demonstration to the Scottish Parliament to demand that the Scottish Government stands on the side of human rights and justice.
We are calling for them to:
1) Issue a statement supporting the mass hunger strike, calling for the immediate release of Palestinians held in detention without charge and condemning Israel’s inhumane treatment of Palestinian political prisoners.
2) Support the principles of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement and divest from companies profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
The intifada that is stirring in Israeli jails must resonate beyond the prison walls. Join the demonstration and support Palestine!
Demonstration co-sponsored/supported by:
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Scottish Friends of Palestine
Stop the War Coalition (Scotland)
Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign
Glasgow Lebanese Community
Friends of Al-Aqsa
Scottish Jews for a Just Peace
Glasgow Central Mosque
Edinburgh University Students for Justice in Palestine
Glasgow University Palestine Society
Glasgow Caledonian University Palestine Society
Dundee University Action Palestine
Strathclyde University Students for Justice in Palestine
General Union of Palestinian Students (UK)
(more to follow)
There is a bus going from George Square at 10am on Saturday 28th April going to Edinburgh.
The bus will leave Edinburgh at 4.30 and return to Glasgow. Tickets cost £7 waged or £5 for unwaged/student.
Call or text Sarah on 07964581414 to book tickets.
Email: weareallhanashalabi@gmail.com
Attend on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/116226951845034/
www.weareallhanashalabi.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/weareallhanashalabi
The Palestinian Forum of Britain held a protest in Manchester today, April 27, 2012, in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, as reported by the Electronic Intifada. The protest brought together activists – some of whom dressed as prisoners, blindfolded and chained – carrying banners and Palestinian flags. See photos below:
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IMEMC – In an illegal attempt to force an end to her hunger-strike, the Israeli Prison Administration has placed detainee Lina al-Jarbouni, 37 years old, into solitary confinement at the Ramla Israeli prison.
Al-Jarbouni’s hunger-strike began on Tuesday, joining thousands of other Palestinian detainees on hunger strike. Her decision made her subject to constant harassment and abuse by her Israeli jailers in an attempt to force her break her strike.
Sources close to her family stated that soldiers of the “Nachshon” brigade, operating in Israeli prisons and detention camps, forced Lina into solitary confinement at the Ramla Prison after transferring her from the Ha-Sharon prison.
Lina al-Jarbouni is from Arabba al-Batouf village, near the Palestinian City of Akka (Akko – Acre), in the north of the country. She was born to a Palestinian family on January 11, 1974.
On April 18, 2002, al-Jarbouni was arrested and interrogated for more than 30 days at the al-Jalama interrogation facility where she was tortured and abused.
She was subsequently sentenced by an Israeli court to 17 years imprisonment for what Israel calls “contacting an enemy”, and “aiding a suicide bombing”. Israel refused to release al-Jarbouni during the Shalit Prison-Swap deal with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
There are more than 4,600 Arab political prisoners held by Israel according to the Ad-Dameer Prisoner Support Association who issued the latest figures on April 17; Palestinian Prisoners Day. The vast majority are from the West Bank, while approximately 475 are from the Gaza Strip, and 360 are from Israeli controlled East Jerusalem and the 1948 territories.
Israel is still holding captive six women, 183 children, and 27 democratically-elected Palestinian legislators, including Marwan Barghouthi who was sentenced to more than five life-terms, legislator Jamal Terawi, who was sentenced to 30 years, and Ahmad Sa’adat who was sentenced to 30 years. In addition, 24 legislators are currently being held under Administrative Detention orders without charges.
120 Palestinian detainees have been imprisoned since before the first Oslo peace agreement was signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1993, 23 of them have been imprisoned for more than 25 years.
Palestinian political prisoner, Tha’er Halahla, entered his 58th days of hunger-strike at the Ramla Prison Hospital, and is still determined to continue his strike while prison doctors warned that his body is losing its immunity system and his organs might be failing.
Lawyer of the Mandela Institute, Anwar Abu Lafy, visited Halahla and stated that a recent CT-Scan for his liver and kidneys revealed that his body is unable to function and that his life is in grave danger.
Abu Lafy stated that Halahla, 34, is unable to walk or stand, suffering from sharp chest pain, stomach ache, and can barely see with his right eye.
Halahla also lost 24 kilograms and is suffering from law blood pressure, very law sugar levels, escalating heart beats, hair loss, bleeding from his mouth and gums, and weakening muscles.
Despite his deteriorating health condition, Halahla told his lawyer that he is determined to continue his strike until Israeli voids the administrative detention order against him, and called on human rights groups to pay attention to the miserable conditions sick detainees are subject to at the Ramla Prison Hospital.
Halahla is from Kharas village, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron; he was kidnapped by the army in June 2010, and has been held under administrative detention that was repeatedly renewed without charges.
On Monday, April 23, Israel prevented a lawyer of the Mandela Institute from visiting hunger-striking Palestinian detainees held at the Gabloa’ Prison.
Head of the Mandela Institute, Botheina Doqmaq, stated that the administration at the Galboa’ prison even prevented the lawyer from visiting detainee Jamal Abu Al-Haija, despite the fact that the visit was approved beforehand.
There are more than 4,600 Arab political prisoners held by Israel according to latest figures published by the Ad-Dameer Prisoner Support Association on April 17; Palestinian Prisoners Day.
The vast majority are from the West Bank, while approximately 475 are from the Gaza Strip, and 360 are from Israeli controlled East Jerusalem and the 1948 territories.
Israel is still holding captive six women, 183 children, and 27 democratically-elected Palestinian legislators, including Marwan Barghouthi who was sentenced to more than five life-terms, legislator Jamal Terawi, who was sentenced to 30 years, and Ahmad Sa’adat who was sentenced to 30 years.
In addition, 24 legislators are currently being held under Administrative Detention orders without charges.
120 Palestinian detainees have been imprisoned since before the first Oslo peace agreement was signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1993, 23 of them have been imprisoned for more than 25 years.
Khader Adnan to Hunger Strikers: Go Forth and Be Victorious
Published in Al-Akhbar Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Ramallah – Khader Adnan defied everything related to the Israeli occupation, its prisons, and jailers. He rose up against interrogators and informants, and against all kinds of intimidation and humiliation. He put his body on the line with a 66-day hunger strike until the occupation relented. Adnan spoke to Al-Akhbar about the details of his historic hunger strike.
Fadi Abu Saada: Why did you decide to go on the hunger strike the day of your arrest?
Khader Adnan: I decided to go on a hunger strike based on four main reasons. The first reason concerns the period before I was detained. There were several failed attempts to arrest me through requests by the Israeli secret service calling for a meeting. But I refused. Being humiliated and having to see Israel flexing its muscles does not disturb me at all.
The second reason concerned being abused during my arrest, including when the jailers assaulted me physically.
The third is the type and methods of interrogation.
The fourth and last reason is my repeated administrative detention without reason. My rejection of administrative detention complements my rejection of the occupation itself and my search for dignity which was stolen from us by the Israelis.
FAS:What is administrative detention?
KA: I believe Britain is responsible for this type of detention and its idea. It comes from the British mandate in Palestine. They used to call it the “emergency regulations.”
This type of detention starts with a letter from the intelligence officer in a particular region. He would send it to the region’s military commander requesting the arrest of a particular person based on “secret information” that cannot be divulged. In other words, it is “information received from a collaborator with the occupation.”
This type of detention can be renewed several times. In the case of brothers Mohammad Jaradat, Usama Barham, and martyr Ayman Daraghmeh, it was up to five or six years. Renewal is like a hammer hanging over the heads of the detainee and his family. The psychological torture has no equivalent and the worst thing is that the detainee and his family know that there will be no specific date for his release.
FAS: How did you spend your day during the hunger strike?
KA: I did not just stop eating. I also took a vow of silence for more than 20 days and refused to bathe for 65 days.
I prayed a lot and read the Koran when I was able to get a copy. I never slept during the day. People thought that was strange, but I preferred to sleep at night and wake up for morning prayers.
The daily search was always “amusing” because I used to confront the jailers who conducted the search.
FAS: How did they try to break your will and pressure you to end the hunger strike?
KA: They basically tried this by transferring me from one Israeli hospital to another for tests. First they took me to Ramleh hospital, then to “Tal al-Rabi” in Tel Aviv, then to occupied Jerusalem, then Safad, then the isolation in Ramleh again. It was very exhausting.
Then they turned the hospitals where they took me into courts for my case.
The main method they used was isolating me from the outside world and assigning three or four jailers in my room to pressure me.
They deliberately tied one of my hands and one of my feet for hours, even when I had to use the bathroom. They said it was so I would not escape, even though there is no window or exit anywhere.
The occupation soldiers tried to provoke me by turning my confinement cell into a “restaurant” full of all kinds of food that one might crave.
They tried to break my will but I was stronger, thank God.
FAS: What about threats to your family and friends?
The best example is what happened with the Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Hussein who mentioned me in his Friday sermon at al-Aqsa mosque.
The Israeli government responded by starting a felony case against him, as if he was a criminal, just because he spoke about me.
FAS: What do you say to the 2,000 detainees who followed your path and are now in their second week of a hunger strike?
KA: I tell them, go forth under the grace of God for you shall be victorious. You named it the “battle of dignity,” so do not fail your families or the remaining prisoners. Continue until you are granted your demands.
A hunger strike is a matter of destiny and it is of utmost importance. We ask God to grant us victory.
I conclude my message by saying, do not drop the banner of the eight knights, especially Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla. They have been on a hunger strike in detention for 58 days, continuing the battle of Sheikh Khader, Hana Shalabi, and the others.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.