April 17: Rally and Speak-Out for Freedom for Palestinian Political Prisoners! – Vancouver

16 March 2012

Tuesday, April 17, 2012
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
CBC Building, 700 Hamilton St (Hamilton and Georgia), Vancouver

Nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners are held in jails in Israel, including 170 children and 6 women. 310 prisoners are held – without charge or trial – under administrative detention. Palestinian prisoners include over 20 lawmakers and national leaders, like Ahmad Sa’adat, Marwan Barghouthi and Aziz Dweik.

On April 17, 2012, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, people around the world will respond to the call to take action for Palestinian political prisoners. The courage of hunger striking prisoners Khader Adnan and Hana Shalabi drew the attention of the world as they protested their confinement in administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – by the Israeli occupation.

In Vancouver, Join us on April 17 to support Palestinian prisoners, demand their freedom, and call for justice. Rally and Speak-Out for Palestinian Prisoners; Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 5 PM – 7 PM, CBC Building, 700 Hamilton St (Hamilton and Georgia), Vancouver.

We demand the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Their imprisonment reflects Israel’s inherent system of injustice and racism. In addition, Israel must immediately halt its practices of:

Administrative detention.
Torture and ill-treatment of detainees.
Solitary confinement and isolation.
The use of military courts in the occupied Palestinian territory that illegally try civilians.
Undermining a fair trial by using secret evidence against the accused.
Arresting and targeting vulnerable groups including children, people with disabilities, elderly people and ill people.

Here in Canada, the Canadian government is deeply complicit and directly implicated in the ongoing occupation of Palestine and the crimes of the Israeli state – as well as responsible for political imprisonment and repression in indigenous communities, against migrants, refugees and other targeted communities.

The voices of Palestinian political prisoners remain silenced and unheard. Indeed, Jason Kenney’s Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration defunded Palestine House’s immigrant settlement programs in part because it held an event celebrating the release of Palestinian prisoners, in a clearly politically-motivated action. When the voices of Palestinian prisoners manage to break through on Radio-Canada (French-language CBC), they face immediate attack from Zionist groups and even rebukes from within the station while Palestinian prisoners’ struggles rarely make it at all to the English-language CBC airwaves.

Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of the Palestinian struggle for liberation on a daily basis. In the jails of occupation, Palestinian prisoners confront the oppressor and the occupier, and put their bodies and lives on the line to continue their people’s struggle to achieve justice and freedom for the land and people of Palestine. The Israeli occupation has criminalized all forms of Palestinian existence and Palestinian resistance – from peaceful mass demonstrations to armed struggle to simply refusing to be silent and invisible as a Palestinian. Palestinian prisoners are men and women – and children – from every part of Palestine, from every family. Their absence is keenly felt in the homes, communities, villages, towns, labour, women’s and student organizations from which they were taken by the occupation. They suffer torture, isolation, coercive interrogation, denial of family and lawyers’ visits, on a daily basis. And it is their hunger strikes, their calls to the world, their unity and solidarity, and their continued leadership in the Palestinian movement that must inspire us daily and remind us of our responsibility to take action.

Join us on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, to be part of the global movement for justice and freedom for Palestinian prisoners.

Called by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Alliance for People’s Health, Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – UBC, International League of People’s Struggle – Canada, Canada Palestine Association

April 15: It’s Right to Rebel: resisting criminalization of people’s struggles at home and abroad – Vancouver

16 March 2012

It’s Right to Rebel
resisting criminalization of people’s struggles at home and abroad

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/390814437596163/

Repression of people’s struggles has always been part of Canadian State policy, though the ideological cover has changed over time. In the 19th Century overt racism and white supremacy were mobilized to justify genocidal state violence and terrorism against Indigenous people, for example against the 1885 Northwest Rebellion and the state sanctioned lynching of it’s leaders. In the 20th Century while the racist colonial policies persisted, anti-communism became the cover for Canadian interventions – for example against the nascent Soviet Union and in Korea – and suppression of struggles of workers and oppressed people at home. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 the “war on terror”, labeling of people’s struggles as ‘terrorism’, has become a main propaganda tool of the Canadian State – used to justify occupation of Afghanistan; support for Israeli occupation and aggression; and surveillance, harassment and criminalization of Indigenous people’s movements, immigrant communities and activists inside Canadian borders.

Our challenge is to figure out how we can expose and oppose the particular ideological framework currently mobilized by the imperialist states – the ‘war on terror’ – while building our own positive position that not only do people have a right to rebel against imperialism but that in the context of the systemic structural violence of the system it is right to rebel!

Dr. Merry Mia Clamor is Director of Health Education and Training for the Council for Health and Development, which supports Community Based Health Programs throughout the Philippines, and is one of the Morong 43, progressive health workers imprisoned for 10 months in 2010 on trumped up charges.

Gord Hill is an Indigenous activist, organizer and artist based in occupied Coast Salish Territory, and author of the 500 Years of Resistance comic book.

Charlotte Kates is an activist with SAMIDOUN – Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign, and a member of the National Lawyers Guild International Committee.

Steve Da Silva is a contributor to BASICS community newspaper (Toronto), and Vice-Chairperson of the International League of People’s Struggles – Canada.

More speakers TBA

…with an opening poem from former political prisoner Angie Ipong, who spent 6 years in prison for her work in solidarity with peasants and Indigenous people in the Philippines.

SUNDAY, APRIL 15, 2PM
@ 601 KEEFER ST
(STRATHCONA COMMUNITY CENTRE)
Onsite childcare and light refreshments provided!

Organized by: Alliance for People`s Health, Canada Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights, International League of People`s Struggles – Canada.

Sixth Anniversary of the Raid on Jericho – One Month of Hana Shalabi’s Struggle: Take Action for Palestinian Prisoners!

15 March 2012

March 16, 2012 marks one month of Hana al-Shalabi’s hunger strike. Hana al-Shalabi has been held under administrative detention without charge or trial since her re-arrest on February 16, 2012 and has maintained a continuous hunger strike since that date, inspiring international solidarity and action.

March 14, 2012 also marks the sixth anniversary of the Israeli military raid on the Palestinian Authority’s Jericho prison, in which Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and renowned national leader, was abducted after a lengthy siege along with five of his comrades who had been held under PA, US and British guard at the prison. Click here to send a letter demanding freedom for Hana al-Shalabi and Ahmad Sa’adat.

Tweet now: Share this alert on Twitter.

Sa’adat has now been in isolation and solitary confinement for three years, isolated in March 2009 following his public comments saluting Palestinian struggle and resistance in the face of Operation Cast Lead’s murderous assault on Gaza. Hana Shalabi has joined him in solitary confinement, alongside 30 other of the nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners confined to isolation cells.

Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur, has saluted Hana Shalabi’s courage and denounced the silence of official international institutions, including the United Nations. “To engage in an open ended hunger strike…requires a deep and abiding dedication to right a perceived wrong of the greatest gravity,” said Falk.

Sa’adat’s own resilience and steadfastness has been legendary; a veteran of prisoner organizing and hunger strikes within occupation prisons, Sa’adat both inspired and led the September-October 2011 prisoner hunger strikes demanding an end to isolation and abuse, which galvanized support for Palestinian prisoners throughout occupied Palestine and internationally, a support movement that has been strengthened by the courage of first Khader Adnan and now Hana Shalabi to challenge administrative detention with their bodies and their hunger.

Ahmad Sa’adat and Hana Shalabi stand together as symbols of Palestinian resistance, steadfastness, unity and strength – in the face of the occupier, continuing to resist despite all obstacles and means of oppression.

Four additional administrative detainees have declared hunger strikes, as reported by Addameer, and many others have refused to attend court. These struggles only expand as threats to Hana Shalabi’s health and life grow. As Physicians for Human Rights reported after their medical examination, “The second doctor’s second examination on 12 March indicated an additional deterioration in Ms. Shalabi’s condition, shown mainly in advanced muscle atrophy and wasting, additional weight loss, a significant reduction in blood sugar, severe dizziness and severe muscle pain, especially in her chest and back.”

This rejection of the courts builds on Sa’adat’s long-term rejection of participation in the occupation legal system, recognizing it as a constituent part of the occupation. “As for your judicial apparatus…: it is one of the instruments of the occupation whose function is to give the cover of legal legitimacy to the crimes of the occupation, in addition to consecrating its systems and allowing the imposition of these systems on our people through force. This judicial apparatus also supports the administration of this occupation – which is the worst form of state-organized terrorism -as if you were in a permanent state of self-defense. The legitimate resistance of our people is seen as if it were terrorism that must be combated and liquidated and judgment is placed upon those that practice or support it. And in the face of this contradiction between two logics, there would have to be a conviction,” said Sa’adat.

When Jericho prison was attacked by the Israeli military on March 14, 2012 in order to seize Sa’adat and his comrades, occupation forces killed two Palestinians, wounded twenty-three, and kidnapped Sa’adat and his comrades from their internationally-condemned four-year imprisonment in Palestinian Authority jails under US and British guard. The Israeli military attacked the prison because they would not allow the then-newly-elected Palestinian Authority legislature to meet its promises, obey Palestinian law, international law, and calls from Amnesty International and other concerned human rights organizations by freeing these prisoners of conscience.

Hana Shalabi was abducted only four months after her release from three prior years of administrative detention without charge or trial, a release secured in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Palestinian resistance.

The Israeli attacks on Sa’adat and Shalabi indicate the Israeli occupation’s ongoing attempts to silence and imprison the entire Palestinian movement, attempting to stifle any and all moves toward Palestinian freedom. Similarly, their confinement to isolation illustrates the recognition of the danger they pose – the ‘threat’ of prisoner steadfastness, leadership and courage inspiring their fellow prisoners to action.

But both Sa’adat and Shalabi also reveal Palestinian prisoners’ resilience and refusal to accept isolation or confinement. Sa’adat’s words are read by countless Palestinians and supporters of Palestine when they escape the walls of occupation. From isolation, denied contact with his fellow prisoners, Sa’adat has inspired and led multiple prison strikes and protests, echoing in the Palestinian and international movement. Similarly, Shalabi’s isolation has not weakened her resolve and has inspired international solidarity. The call of her parents for action on March 17: “Pressure on the Palestinian street is imperative in achieving Hana’s immediate release, as well as support for her open hunger strike…We as Hana’s family continue to support her hunger strike, and we want to let our daughter know that we are with her in every step of her hunger strike until she achieves her immediate release from the Israeli occupation jails,” has inspired both Palestinian and international action, from Palestine solidarity groups to Amnesty International.

On the anniversary of the raid on Jericho prison, join us to TAKE ACTION for Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades, Hana Shalabi, and the nearly 5,000 prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons:

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges the Palestine solidarity movement in North America and around the world to publicize the case of Ahmad Sa’adat, Hana al-Shalabi and all Palestinian political prisoners. Join in the call for an April 17 day of action for Palestinian prisoners’ day!
Contact Israeli occupation officials and demand Hana al-Shalabi’s and Ahmad Sa’adat’s release. Sign your letter here.
Join in the March 17 actions. Organize a picket or protest outside the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat, Hana Shalabi, and all Palestinian political prisoners. Make it clear that the eyes of the world are on the situation of Ahmad Sa’adat and Hana Shalabi and demand an end to the use of isolation, torture solitary confinement, and administrative detention against Palestinian political prisoners. Send us reports of your protests at Israeli embassies and consulates and other actions at samidoun@samidoun.ca.
Demand an end to international complicity in Israel’s prison machine.In Canada:
Call the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa at (613) 567-6450 OR your local Embassy (for a list, click here).Call the Office of the Foreign Minister, John Baird (Tel: 613-990-7720; Email: bairdj@parl.gc.ca)Just last month, Baird stated that “There is not a government on the planet today more supportive of Israel than Harper’s Canada.” Call Baird’s office and let him know that this shameful declaration implicates Canada in Israel’s crimes and human rights violations.In the US:Call the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC (1.202.364.5500) OR your local Embassy (for a list, click here).Call the office of Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs (1.202.647.7209)

Demand that Jeffrey Feltman bring this issue urgently to his counterparts in Israel and raise the question of Khader Adnan’s administrative detention.
Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to urge them to act swiftly to protect Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at jerusalem.jer@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Hana Shalabi, the ongoing imprisonment of Ahmad Sa’adat, and the repression of thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Make it clear that arbitrary detention without charge or trial is unacceptable, and that the ICRC must act to protect Palestinian prisoners from cruel and inhumane treatment.
Act on social media for Ahmad Sa’adat and Hana Shalabi. Share this information on Facebook, Twitter and your networks. Follow @KhaderAdnan on twitter for the latest Twitter campaigns. Tweet now: Share this alert on Twitter.

Thank you for taking action. This campaign is now closed.

BACKGROUND ON HANA SHALABI (from Addameer)

On 23 February 2012 Ms. Hana Shalabi was given an administrative detention order for six months. On 29 February there was a discussion regarding her detention in Ofer military court. On 4 March the military court decided to reduce the detention period from six to four months, but without promising not to extend or renew it. As a result, Ms. Hana Shalabi announced she would continue to hunger strike until her release. On 7 March, an appeal hearing regarding the court’s decision was held at Ofer, and the military judge ordered the parties to try and reach a compromise by Sunday 11 March, but an agreement has not yet been reached.

Administrative detainees’ protests are growing. Two additional administrative detainees, Bilal Diab and Thair Halahleh declared hunger strikes on 1 March, which they claim will continue until their release from administrative detention. On 3 March, two other administrative detainees declared hunger strikes until their release. Since the beginning of March, a number of administrative detainees have refused to acknowledge the military court and refused to participate in legal discussions of their cases. Due to Israel’s use of administrative detention, and the unwillingness of the military court to interfere in this practice, a hunger strike serves as a non-violent and sole tool available to administrative detainees to protest and fight for their basic human rights.

Approximately 310 Palestinians are currently held in administrative detention in Israeli prisons. Administrative detention allows Israel to hold detainees for indefinitely renewable six-month periods. The arrest is granted on the basis of “secret information” and without a public indictment. Therefore, administrative detainees and their lawyers cannot defend against these allegations in court.

BACKGROUND ON AHMAD SA’ADAT AND THE JERICHO RAID (from the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat)
Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was elected to his position in 2001 following the assassination of the previous General Secretary, Abu Ali Mustafa, on August 27, 2001 by a U.S.-made Apache missile shot from an Israeli military helicopter as he sat in his office in Ramallah. PFLP fighters retaliated by assassinating Rehavam Ze’evi, the racist extremist Israeli tourism minister and head of the Moledet party, notorious for his political platform based on the “transfer” or ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, on October 17, 2001.

Sa’adat was abducted by Palestinian Authority security forces after engaging in a meeting with PA officials under false pretenses in February 2002, and was held in the Muqata’ PA presidential building in Ramallah until April 2002, when in an agreement with Israel, the U.S. and Britain, he and four of his comrades were held in the Palestinian Authority’s Jericho prison, under U.S. and British guard.

He remained in the PA jails, without trial or charge, an imprisonment that was internationally condemned, until March 14, 2006, when the prison itself was besieged by the occupation army and he and his comrades were kidnapped. While imprisoned in the PA jail in Jericho, he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Since that time, he has been held in the prisons of the occupation and continually refused to recognize the illegitimate military courts of the Israeli occupation. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison on December 25, 2008 solely for his political activity, and has spent three years in isolation at the present time.

Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat: Six Years of Sa’adat’s Abduction, One Month of Hana Shalabi Hunger Strike

15 March 2012

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat issued the following statement on the anniversary of the abduction of Ahmad Sa’adat from Jericho Prison:

Starving for Freedom: Six Years on the Abduction of Ahmad Sa’adat – One Month on the Hunger Strike of Hana Shalabi

March 14-15, 2012 marks the sixth anniversary of the attack on Jericho prison and the Israeli abduction of Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades, who had been held under U.S. and British guard in a Palestinian Authority prison.

For the past three years, since March 18, 2009, Ahmad Sa’adat has been in isolation in an Israeli occupation prison, subject to solitary confinement, poor health care and intense repression. Similarly, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, one of his comrades also abducted from Jericho in 2006, has been in isolation for many months. The demand to end the isolation of Ahmad Sa’adat – and his fellow prisoners in solitary confinement – sparked the September-October 2011 hunger strikes that swept through the occupation’s prisons.

As we mark this anniversary, a Palestinian prisoner’s hunger strike has once again captured the attention of the world, very soon after the heroic 66-day hunger strike of Khader Adnan. Hana al-Shalabi, released in the October 2011 prisoner exchange, was re-abducted on February 16, 2012, and is held under administrative detention without charge or trial. She has now been on hunger strike for 28 days.

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat echoes the call of Hana al-Shalabi’s parents for a day of action this Saturday, March 17:

“We call upon…all Palestinians to go to the streets and participate in the support action planned on Saturday March 17 in solidarity with our daughter Hana Al-Shalabi and all administrative detainees. We will continue supporting our daughter’s hunger strike and we want to let our daughter Hana know: we are with you in your hunger strike until you achieve your demand; your immediate release from the unjust Israeli jails.

Your support to Hana is necessary to achieve Hana’s immediate release; it is also needed to support our daughter in her open hunger strike which she has started on February 16, 2012.

Finally, we call upon all administrative detainees to join Hana’s hunger strike until you achieve your own immediate release and put an end to the unjust Israeli policy of administrative detention which violates human rights and International law.”

Similarly, we join in the call for people around the world to take action on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, for Ahmad Sa’adat, Hana Shalabi, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Khader Adnan, and all of the nearly 5,000 Palestinian prisoners held within the jails of the occupation:

“On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, Tuesday, April 17, we ask that all supporters of the Palestinian political prisoners’ movement bring Khader Adnan’s spirit of resistance to the doorsteps of his captors and would-be killers…Let Khader Adnan’s hunger strike mark the beginning of a revitalized global movement for Palestinian prisoners, their rights, their families, and their struggle. Together, we can make it so.”

Ahmad Sa’adat, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Khader Adnan and Hana al-Shalabi – alongside their nearly 5,000 sisters and brothers – are paradigmatic examples of the steadfastness of Palestinian prisoners. Despite the abuse and isolation they have suffered, Palestinian prisoners – and the Palestinian people as a whole – will continue to resist occupation, racism, and settlement in order to obtain their rights to freedom, self-determination and return.

On this, the sixth anniversary of the storming of Jericho prison and the abduction of Ahmad Sa’adat, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat reiterates that it is long past time to end the dangerous and damaging policy of Palestinian Authority security coordination with the Israeli occupation. This policy is responsible for ongoing political repression and for the imprisonment of Palestinians in both PA and Israeli jails. It must be noted that Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades were abducted not from their homes but from the Palestinian Authority jail that had held them – contrary to Palestinian law – for over four years at the time of the military siege.

The policy of security coordination is the policy that kept Ahmad Sa’adat, a Palestinian national leader, behind bars for four years before the Israeli attack and abduction. It poses a deep danger to the Palestinian cause, and represents the inverse of the unity and national solidarity displayed overwhelmingly by Palestinian prisoners standing together across all lines to confront occupation. It endangers the accomplishments of the Palestinian revolution and dishonors the struggles of the Palestinian people over its decades.

In addition, it must also be emphasized that United States and British guards maintained the prisons that held Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades in Jericho, and that they were warned and exited the prison in a coordinated fashion prior to the Israeli occupation attack – when their presence there had been repeatedly, and falsely, justified as “protection.” The actions of the US and British guards and monitors in Jericho prison are yet one more example of the active complicity and responsibility for occupation by these states. Further, we call upon international authorities, including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to take up their responsibility to address the ongoing suffering and abuse of Palestinian political prisoners by occupation forces.

Six years after the abduction of Ahmad Sa’adat from Jericho prison, the Palestinian people and Palestinian prisoners are steadfast as ever, unbowed by repression, confronting the occupier from behind its own bars. They are a living beacon of steadfastness and inspire our struggle for the liberation of each prisoner – and the liberation of all of Palestine, its land and its people.

Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

Take Action!

1. Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat, Hana al-Shalabi, and all Palestinian political prisoners.

2. Distribute the free downloadable Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat flyer in your community at local events.

3. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that prisoners’ rights are recognized. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at JER_jerusalem@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situations of Hana Shalabi and Ahmad Sa’adat. Make it clear that isolation is a human rights violation and a form of torture, and that the ICRC must stand up and play its role to defend prisoners’ rights.

4. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat at campaign@freeahmadsaadat.org with announcements, reports and information about your local events, activities and flyer distributions.

WHO IS AHMAD SA’ADAT?

Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was elected to his position in 2001 following the assassination of the previous General Secretary, Abu Ali Mustafa, on August 27, 2001 by a U.S.-made Apache missile shot from an Israeli military helicopter as he sat in his office in Ramallah. PFLP fighters retaliated by assassinating Rehavam Ze’evi, the racist extremist Israeli tourism minister and head of the Moledet party, notorious for his political platform based on the “transfer” or ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, on October 17, 2001.

Sa’adat was abducted by Palestinian Authority security forces after engaging in a meeting with PA officials under false pretenses in February 2002, and was held in the Muqata’ PA presidential building in Ramallah until April 2002, when in an agreement with Israel, the U.S. and Britain, he and four of his comrades were held in the Palestinian Authority’s Jericho prison, under U.S. and British guard.

He remained in the PA jails, without trial or charge, an imprisonment that was internationally condemned, until March 14, 2006, when the prison itself was besieged by the occupation army and he and his comrades were kidnapped. While imprisoned in the PA jail in Jericho, he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Since that time, he has been held in the prisons of the occupation and continually refused to recognize the illegitimate military courts of the Israeli occupation. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison on December 25, 2008 solely for his political activity, and has spent three years in isolation at the present time.

Richard Falk:Hana Shalabi: A Brave Act of Palestinian Nonviolence

10 March 2012

The following piece, by UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk, was first published on his blog:

(photo by Joe Catron)

No sooner had Khader Adnan ended his 66 day life threatening hunger strike than new urgent concerns are being voiced for Hana Shalabi, another West Bank hunger striker now without food for more than 24 days. Both strikes were directed by Palestinian activists against the abusive use of administrative detention by Israeli West Bank occupying military forces, protesting both the practice of internment without charges or trial and the degrading and physically harsh treatment administered during the arrest, interrogation, and detention process.

The case of Hana Shalabi should move even the most hardhearted. She seems a young tender and normal woman who is a member of Islamic Jihad, and is dedicated to her family, hopes for marriage, and simple pleasures of shopping.

She had previously been held in administrative detention at the HaSharon prison in Israel for a 30 month period between 2009 and 2011, being released in the prisoner exchange of four months ago that freed 1027 Palestinians and the lone Israeli soldier captive,Gilad Shalit. Since her release she has been trying to recover from the deep sense of estrangement she experienced in prison, and rarely left her home or the company of her family. As she was returning to normalcy she was re-arrested in an abusive manner, which allegedly included a strip-search by a male soldier. On February 16, 2012, the day of this renewal of her administrative detention, Hana Shalabi indicated her resolve to start a hunger strike to protest her own treatment and to demand an end of administrative detention now relied upon by Israel to hold at least 309 Palestinian in prison. Her parents have been denied visitation rights, Hana Shalabi has been placed in solitary confinement, and her health has deteriorated to the point of concern for her life. Impressively, her parents have committed themselves to a hunger strike for as long as their daughter remains under administrative detention. Her mother, Badia Shalabi, has made a video in which she says that even to see food makes her cry considering the suffering of her daughter.

Despite the calls to Palestinian from liberals in the West these extraordinary hunger strikes have met with silence or indifference in both Israel and the West. Israeli authorities declare that such a posture is a voluntary action for which they have no responsibility. The UN has not raised its voice, as well. I share the view of Khitam Saafin, Chairwoman of Union of Palestinian Woman’s Committee: “The UN must be responsible for the whole violation that are going on against our people. These prisoners are war prisoners, not security prisoners, not criminals. They are freedom fighters for their rights.” The plight of Hana Shalabi is also well expressed by Yael Maron, a spokesperson for the Israeli NGO,Physicians for Human Rights- Israel: “The story of Hana Shalabi, like that of Khader Adnan, before is in my opinion a remarkable example of a struggle that’s completely nonviolent towards one’s surroundings..It is the last protest a prisoner can make, and I find it brave and inspiring.”

To engage in an open ended hunger strike, especially for a person who is not in a leadership role, requires a deep and abiding dedication to right a perceived wrong of the greatest gravity. It is physically painful and dangerous to bodily health, as well as being psychologically demanding in the extreme. It presupposes the strongest of wills, and usually arises, as in these instances, from a sense that any lesser form of resistance is futile, and has a long record of failure. In the end, it is an appeal to the conscience and humanity of the other, and a desperate call to all of us, to understand better the cartography of abuse that abusive imprisonment entails, which I would imagine is pervasively humiliating for a religiously oriented young Islamic woman. To risk life this way without harming or even threatening the oppressor is to turn terrorism against the innocent on its head. It is potentially to sacrifice one’s life to make an appeal of last resort, an appeal that transcends normal law and politics.

We can only fervently hope and pray that Hana Shalabi’s heroic path of resistance will end with her release and the restoration of her health. For Israel’s own moral wellbeing it is time, really long past time, to renounce reliance on administrative detention and to do more than this, to end forthwith its varied crimes of occupation. At this point the only possible way to do this is to withdraw unconditionally behind the 1967 borders, and to start peace negotiations from that altered position. It is politically unimaginable that Israeli leaders will heed such a call, but it is morally unimaginable that Israel will survive its impending spiritual collapse if it does not do so.

(photo by Joe Catron)

In the meantime, we who are beyond these zones of occupation, abuse, and imprisonment must not only stand and watch as this tragic drama plays itself out. Wherever we are, whatever we can do, we need to act, to appeal, to shout, and to denounce the inhumanity of allowing such cruelty to be enacted before our watching eyes.

Addameer: Calling for the Release of All Palestinian Female Political Prisoners on International Women’s Day: Free Lina Jarbuni, Wurud Qassem, Salwa Hassan, Alaa Jubeh, Hana Shalabi, Yusra Qaadan and Manal Suwan!

8 March 2012

Ramallah, 7 March 2012 – Join Addameer and call for the immediate release of all female political prisoners and detainees from Israeli prisons on Women’s Day, 8 March 2012. As of March 2012, seven Palestinian women remain in Israel’s prisons and detention centers, including one woman, Hana Shalabi, currently held in administrative detention and on hunger strike for 21 days.

Over 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained since 1967 under Israeli military orders, which govern nearly every aspect of life in the occupied Palestinian territory. There were 36 Palestinian female prisoners in Israeli prisons prior to theexchange deal concluded by the Israeli government and Hamas in October 2011. Hamas reported that Israel agreed to include all female political prisoners in the exchange deal. However, two women, Lina Jarbuni and Wurud Qassem, who have been in prison since before the first phase of releases on 18 October 2011, and an additional two women, Salwa Hassan and Alaa Jubeh, who were arrested before the second phase of releases on 18 December 2011, are still in Israeli detention.

Addameer aims to raise awareness about each of the seven women currently detained by Israel, two of whom were arrested just this week, in the hopes that continued international pressure will secure their release:

Lina Jarbuni was arrested on 18 April 2002 and sentenced to 17 years in Israeli prison. She is currently held in Hasharon Prison. She is from Arrabet al-Batoof, in the Galilee region. Lina is 36 years old.

Wurud Qassem was 20 years old when she was arrested on 4 October 2006. She was sentenced to 6 years in prison and is currently held in Damon Prison. Wurud is from Al-Tira, in the Triangle region, and is now 25 years old.

Salwa Hassan was arrested on 19 October 2011, and is currently in Hasharon prison awaiting trial. She is 53 years old and lives in Hebron. Salwa is married and has six children.

Alaa Jubeh was only 17 years old when she was arrested from her home in Hebron on 7 December 2011. She is currently detained in Hasharon prison and has not yet been sentenced. Under Israeli military orders, a Palestinian child’s sentence is decided on the basis of the child’s age at the time of sentencing, and not at the time when the alleged offense was committed. Therefore, because Alaa turned 18 on 29 January 2012, she will now be sentenced as an adult.

Hana Shalabi was re-arrested on 16 February 2012, less than four months after being released as part of the prisoner exchange deal on 18 October 2011. Hana had previously spent over two years in administrative detention. She received a six-month administrative detention order on 23 February 2012, which was reduced to four months on 4 March. Hana began an open hunger strike immediately after her arrest, and will enter her 22^nd day without food on Women’s Day. She is currently detained in Hasharon Prison. Hana is from Burqin village, near Jenin, and is 30 years old.

Yusra Qaadan was arrested on 4 March 2012, while visiting a family member in prison. She is currently detained for interrogation in Beersheva. Yusra, 30 years old, is from Qalqilya. She is married and has four children.

Manal Suwan was arrested on 6 March 2012 and is currently under interrogation in Hasharon Prison. Manal, married and a mother of two, is 31 years old. She is from a village near Qalqilya.

Addameer reiterates its concern about the general conditions Palestinian female prisoners and detainees face while in Israeli prisons, which has been carefully documented. Addameer condemns the cruel and discriminatory treatment that Palestinian women prisoners and detainees are subjected to in prison, including sexual harassment, psychological and physical punishment and humiliation, and a lack of gender-sensitive healthcare. These practices are in contravention to international law and must stop immediately.

There are crucial steps that can be taken by the Israeli authorities, particularly the Israeli military and the Israeli Prison Service, to fulfill their obligations under international law in respect to the detention conditions of Palestinian women and in protection of their human rights:

End the systematic abuse of administrative detention and provide every female detainee and prisoner with access to the legal support she is entitled to under international humanitarian law;
Provide female prisoners with detailed information on the length of their detention and the date of their release without undue delay;
Ensure that prison and detention cells meet basic requirements of hygiene and health as required by the UN Minimum Standard Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners;
Immediately bring to an end practices of sexual violence, including strip searches and invasive body searches and use of threats and/or other forms of sexual assault;
Conduct proper independent and serious investigations into complaints of assault, and provide safeguards until proper investigation outcomes are reached;
Allow visits of specialized doctors adequately trained to deliver health care in a prison environment, including mental health doctors, and ensure that hospital/doctor visits are allowed when requested;
Allow open family visits and communication with family members via phone.

****

ACT NOW!

Here is how you can help these seven Palestinian women prisoners:

Attend an event supporting Palestinian female prisoners on Women’s Day. Addameer would like to draw attention to various local actions supporting Hana Shalabi and women’s rights, including a demonstration at Qalandia checkpoint at 12:30pm, a march starting at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem at 2:00pm, and a protest in Haifa.

Send a letter with the above statement and recommendations to:

Israeli Prison Service

Ministry of Public Security
P.O. Box 18182
Jerusalem 91181

Brigadier General Danny Efroni

Military Advocate General

6 David Elazar Street

Harkiya, Tel Aviv

Fax: +972 3 608 0366; +972 3 569 4526

Email: arbel@mail.idf.il; avimn@idf.gov.il

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak

Ministry of Defense

37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya

Tel Aviv 61909

Fax: +972 3 691 6940 / 696 2757

Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi

OC Central Command Nehemia Base, Central Command

Neveh Yaacov, Jerusalam

Fax: +972 2 530 5741

Col. Eli Bar On

Legal Advisor of Judea and Samaria

PO Box 5

Beit El 90631

Fax: +972 2 9977326

Write to your own elected representatives urging them to pressure Israel to release all Palestinian women prisoners.

Send letters of support to the women in prison. If you wish to write letters to a detainee – please contact Addameer at info@addameer.ps and we will provide you with details.

Women’s Day is a day of solidarity with the administrative detainee Hana Al-Shalabi by Janan Abdu

5 March 2012

A call for women’s and feminist organizations to announce Women’s Day to be a day of solidarity with the administrative detainee Hana Al-Shalabi and all female prisoners and women in the families of Palestinian prisoners .

Women’s Day, which marks the eighth of March, is a symbolic day to remind us of the struggle that women of the world go through to break the chains of sexism because they are women. However, there are different categories of women, whilst some women struggled for liberation and equality – for example against discrimination in terms of the right to vote and be elected, women were sexist towards women of other ethnic groups or on the basis of gender and race. There are debates and fundamental differences in how to deal with certain issues between the masses of women by the intellectual and ideological affiliation to different streams and sometimes contradictory or conflicting.

In Palestine, Women’s Day is a day of struggle. Despite the achievements of some significant things, were achieved as a result of long paths of struggle, we shouldn’t celebrate yet, we are still Palestinian women, whether in Palestine 1948 or in the West Bank and Gaza or the Diaspora suffering from colonialism, occupation, discrimination and racism. Women of the West Bank and Gaza Strip suffer from the consequences of the occupation, and in Palestine 1948, we suffer from racism institutionalized in the laws and the fact that the state is the state of Israel, the state is built on our land and tore our families apart.

Palestinian women suffered the most from the occupation and the establishment of the Jewish state. They experienced the migration, separation, and non-settlement in neighbouring countries, they continue to live in risk of institutionalized discrimination, the risk of local displacement and uprooting, as in Negev, and continue to live at risk of having their families torn apart by the law of racial citizenship…

Our women have suffered of captivity in the past during the Mandate period, and have suffered from emergency laws used by the British Mandate also from and administrative detention.

For example, the arrest of Palestinian activist Sathej Nassar, the Editor of “Carmel” magazine, and wife of Najib Nassar the activist, she was arrested under administrative detention for a year without providing an indictment against her; she was called a “very dangerous woman.” She was arrested on 23/03/1939, according to Emergency Law No. 15 B, which permits administrative detention, and was imprisoned in Bethlehem until 23/02/1940, and this was the first arrest and imprisonment of a Political Palestinian woman.

The Mandate government arrested many women and put them in prison for years up to seven to ten years for hiding or smuggling arms, and this happened during the general strike and the great revolution in 1936. In 1937, the feminist activist Maseel Maghanam wrote a book in English titled: “The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem”: “do not talk about women’s rights as long as we under occupation.” She meant that they needed complete liberation of the entire system of occupation that suppress freedoms and initiate violence.

In the case of Palestinian women, the Jewish state helped in the continuing violence and the killing of women and even the failure to provide awareness and prevention, and even have the upper hand in the harsh living conditions experienced by Palestinian families (e.g. unemployment, poverty, displacement and home demolition, which can be one of the factors that cause some types of violence against women). Palestinian women still pay the price, and suffer from the occupation and its consequences; the Separation Barrier dismembered families and hindered human family communication.

Our women pay the price in captivity, detention, investigation and insults, and pay the price of the longest-lived Israeli occupation and colonialism, after the end of the apartheid system in South Africa.

Women and young girls pay the price of their family members’ captivity, and suffer discrimination in prison against them and their families because of the policies of prison administration, which prevent any contact between the political prisoners and their family, which isn’t the case for the political Jewish prisoners or for Arab or Jewish criminals. They don’t allow the Palestinian captive to hug his family, even in the most difficult moments, as cases of death.

Palestinian detainee Hana Al-Shalabi announced that she is on hunger strike to protest against her administrative arrest again after she was released in “Wafaa Al-Ahrar” deal in October 2011.

Administrative detention is arresting the person without being presented for any trial and without providing an indictment. There are 307 administrative detainees in Israeli prisons, including 3 women, and the total number of women detainees is 6 to date after the majority were released in the latest deal.

Let’s announce the eighth of March, a day of solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, to unite frameworks and women’s movements behind this cause.

Take action today for Hana al-Shalabi – administrative detainee and hunger striker!

25 February 2012

Hana al-Shalabi, an imprisoned Palestinian held under administrative detention without charge or trial, has been engaged in an open-ended hunger strike since her re-arrest on February 16, 2012. Now that Khader Adnan’s heroism has opened the eyes of the world to the struggles of Palestinian prisoners, it is imperative to keep the pressure on for Hana al-Shalabi.

TWEET NOW to share this action alert by clicking here.

Hana al-Shalabi – like Khader Adnan – needs international solidarity and support for her case to amplify her voice and that of her nearly 5,000 fellow Palestinian prisoners, and to make it clear that the people of the world will not accept the abuse and arbitrary detention of Palestinians by the Israeli occupation. Send a letter now to Israeli officials demanding her freedom.

Hana al-Shalabi was released from an Israeli prison in October 2011 in a prisoner exchange agreement; prior to her release, she had been held for more than 30 months. During that time, she was never charged with any crime nor tried; she spent nearly three years in arbitrary administrative detention.

Hana has been on hunger strike since February 16. On February 23, Hana’s parents both joined in her open-ended hunger strike. Hana’s brother, Samir, was killed by Israeli occupation military forces invading their village of Burqin in September 2009, and her sister, Huda, was also previously held without charge or trial under administrative detention.

After only four months released, Hana was once again arrested – and again, not accused of any crime. Once again, she has been sentenced to six additional months of administrative detention – renewable indefinitely, held arbitrarily. The targeting of Palestinian former prisoners for re-arrest and continued arbitrary administrative detention is not uncommon – Khader Adnan himself spent eight terms in administrative detention.

It is clear that Hana al-Shalabi was targeted for continuing imprisonment so quickly after her apparent release, and once again accused of nothing, except for unreviewable, unaccountable “secret evidence.”

Administrative detention violates the right to a fair trial as recognized in the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. It is a practice that is used to silence Palestinians without ever exposing the reality of such actions to the light of day – even in the rigged military court systems. Amnesty International has joined Palestinians and prison rights activists in demanding an end to administrative detention. Administrative detainees have vowed to boycott their hearings, demanding an end to the injustice.

Hana al-Shalabi’s hunger strike is a demand for dignity, for justice and freedom, building on the sixty-six day hunger strike of Khader Adnan, which drew the eyes of the world to the bitter reality of administration through his courage and sacrifice. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners participated in a 23-day hunger strike in October 2011, demanding an end to isolation, abuse, denial of family visits, and the long-term isolation of Palestinian leaders such as Ahmad Sa’adat; Israeli promises to end isolation, aimed to secure the end of the strike, proved to be false.

Hana al-Shalabi must be released immediately, and international action is urgent.

TAKE ACTION!

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges the Palestine solidarity movement in North America and around the world to publicize the case of Hana al-Shalabi and all Palestinian political prisoners. Join in the call for an April 17 day of action for Palestinian prisoners’ day!
Contact Israeli occupation officials and demand Hana al-Shalabi’s release. Sign your letter here.
Organize a picket or protest outside the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Khader Adnan and all Palestinian political prisoners. Make it clear that the eyes of the world are on the situation of Khader Adnan and demand an end to the use of isolation, torture solitary confinement, and administrative detention against Palestinian political prisoners. Send us reports of your protests at Israeli embassies and consulates at samidoun@samidoun.ca.
Send a fax as called for by FreeHana.org to occupation officials: Minister of Justice, Yaakov Neeman, fax: + 972 2 670 6357; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Ehud Barak, fax: + 972 3 691 6940; Commander of the IOF in the West Bank, Major-General Avi Mizrahi, fax: + 972 2 530 5724. Click here for free fax service.
Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to urge them to act swiftly to protect Khader Adnan and all Palestinian political prisoners. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at jerusalem.jer@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Khader Adnan. Make it clear that arbitrary detention without charge or trial is unacceptable, and that the ICRC must act to protect Palestinian prisoners from cruel and inhumane treatment.
Keep sharing Hana’s story on social media.

Thank you for taking action. This campaign is now closed.

Khader Adnan’s Unpublicized Hunger Strike: Vigil called on CBC to end the silence

25 February 2012

VANCOUVER—Khader Adnan, a Palestinian political prisoner, ended his 66-day hunger strike on February 21, after reaching an agreement with the Israeli government in which he will be released on April 17, four months after he was first detained. During his strike, Adnan lost about one-third of his body weight and put his life in danger, according to a doctor who examined him last week on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights.

There was next to no mention of Adnan’s strike in Canadian media, though, according to Vancouver Palestine activists who held a vigil and picket at the CBC building in downtown Vancouver on February 16. The activists were calling for CBC to end its silence about his case.

“Khader Adnan is invisible in Canadian media. We see [Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister] John Baird saying that Israel has no greater friend than Canada, at a time when Khader Adnan is protesting his arbitrary detention without charge, settlements are expanding and the illegal occupation continues,” said Khaled Barakat, a Palestinian community activist. “We think it is very important to say that Baird does not speak for all Canadians.”

Activists from a number of Vancouver-based organizations, including the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign, Canada Palestine Association, Canadian Boat to Gaza, Independent Jewish Voices, Seriously Free Speech, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, and others joined the picket, where protesters distributed flyers informing the public about Khader Adnan’s case, held signs with his image and candles honoring his struggle and sacrifice.

Khader Adnan is a Palestinian political activist, baker, husband and father, and was put into administrative detention by the Israeli occupation military forces. His hunger strike was undertaken to demand the end of administrative detention in Palestine.

Administrative detention is detention without charge, based only on secret evidence, indefinitely renewable by Israeli military judges.

“My husband is dying inside an Israeli jail. The world should make sure I am able to see him,” said Randa Adnan, Khader’s wife, before Tuesday’s announcement was made. “And it should pressure the Israeli government to release him before it’s too late…Israel denied Khader any fairness or decency…But maybe the rest of humanity will show more mercy.”

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had also called for Khader Adnan to be charged or released. Thousands of people around the world called for his release. In Palestine, dozens were injured at protests calling for his release, where they were attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Despite those calls, domestically and internationally, an Israeli military court of appeal upheld Khader’s administrative detention as late as Monday, Feb. 20. That was before Khader struck the agreement for his release in April. He has still not been charged with any crime.

Charlotte Kates is a Palestine solidarity activist with the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territories. This article was originally published by the VMC.

Charge or Release? Israeli military courts as an enforcement mechanism of occupation by Charlotte Kates

25 February 2012

The following article was published on Mondoweiss:

Khader Adnan’s 66 days of hunger strike under administrative detention, without charge or trial, sparked global discussion, outrage, and movement – perhaps the largest ever seen in the long history of the Palestinian prisoners’ struggle – as Adnan’s courage, steadfastness and strength inspired solidarity the world over. During that time, it was on many occasions expressed that Khader Adnan should be charged, or released. Administrative detention is a particularly appalling mechanism of political detention – based on secret evidence, with no cognizable charges and no opportunity to confront said ‘evidence’ – used arbitrarily by Israel to hold Palestinian organizers for six-month renewable periods.

The abolition of administrative detention (a call which has been taken up by Amnesty International) is a long-term demand of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement – and Israel’s use of this system violates international law. However, it must be noted that “being charged” in the Israeli military courts, the justice system that governs Palestinians in the occupied West Bank of Palestine, is in no way a solution for Palestinian political prisoners. Any trial provided to a Palestinian political prisoner under such a system is fundamentally unjust and a mechanism of perpetuation of occupation. The military courts are not an alternative to administrative detention; instead, administrative detention is one piece of the structure of mass imprisonment and military rule constructed by the occupation. Given the prominence of the “charge or release” conversation in Khader Adnan’s case, it is important to explore what being “charged” in Israel’s military courts means for Palestinians under occupation and apartheid.

Out of 4,489 Palestinian political prisoners currently held in Israeli jails, 309, including Khader Adnan, are held under administrative detention. Imprisonment is a fact of life for Palestinians;over 40% of Palestinian men in the West Bank have spent time in Israeli detention or prisons. There are no Palestinian families that have not been touched by the scourge of mass imprisonment as a mechanism of suppression.

Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails come from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and Israel. All – including the Palestinians of ’48, who hold Israeli citizenship – face deeply unjust structures throughout the process of arrest, charge, trial and sentencing. Far from being an objective, neutral or beneficent system for Palestinians, the Israeli court system is part and parcel of the mechanism of occupation, bolstering and serving as a direct arm of military/state power in enforcing occupation control over Palestinian lives and land.

Over 2,500 military orders govern the West Bank. The “Order Regarding Security Provisions [Consolidated Version] (Judea and Samaria)” grants the Israeli military “the authority to arrest and prosecute Palestinians from the West Bank for so-called ‘security’ offenses,” notes Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. Another military order, issued in August 1967 and still in place today, criminalizes organizing protests, assemblies or vigils, waving flags and political symbols, and printing political material, and “also deems any acts of influencing public opinion as prohibited ‘political incitement’, and under the heading of ‘support to a hostile organization,’ prohibits any activity that demonstrates sympathy for an organization deemed illegal under military orders.”

The Israeli military retains for itself the right to declare any Palestinian organization ‘illegal’ and thus prosecute membership or association with that organization. Most Palestinian political parties, including Islamic Jihad (which is one of the four largest political parties in Palestine), as well as countless labour unions, student groups, women’s organizations, and other sectoral groups, fall squarely into the category of ‘illegal organizations’ and a large number of Palestinian political prisoners who have been “charged and tried,” are serving sentences for ‘membership in an illegal organization,’ ‘support for a hostile organization’ and similar charges.

In the Israeli military courts, the charge of ‘membership in an illegal organization’ carries no maximum sentence, although “a military court decision instead set… a precedent that the minimum penalty is 24 months’ imprisonment. In fact some Palestinians, such as Ahmad Sa’adat, have been sentenced to as much as 30 years’ imprisonment on such charges. Under Israeli criminal law, the maximum penalty is one year…”

Palestinians facing military courts are often confronted with secret evidence; can be denied access to lawyers for up to 90 days; can be held for up to 2 years “until the end of legal proceedings;” and confront vague and non-specific charge sheets. It should be noted that settlers in the West Bank do not face this system of military courts; they, instead are directed into the Israeli criminal justice system, with much higher protections for the accused and much lower sentencing ranges. Addameer notes one particularly egregious example of this disparity: “On 21 January 2011, Israeli settler Nahum Korman who beat an 11-year-old Palestinian child, Helmi Shusha, to death, was sentenced to 6 months of community service. On the same day, Suad Ghazal, a 15-year-old Palestinian girl accused of attempting to stab an Israeli settler was sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison.”

Israeli military trial judges are active members of the Israeli military; many are former military-court prosecutors, and not all military judges are required to hold completed legal training.

It must be noted that the net effect of “trying” a Palestinian for membership in Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas, or for that matter, Fateh, all of which remain illegal organizations under the arbitrary Israeli military orders governing the West Bank, is to place that person in prison for a minimum of two years for membership in a political party. Rather than encouraging such a structure as an alternative to administrative detention, it is incumbent upon those of us who would stand in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners to recognize that administrative detention is one piece of an entire system that exists in order to buttress occupation and undermine Palestinian existence, resistance, and organization. In order to build solidarity, we must refuse to accept as normal or legitimate the criminalization of Palestinian resistance and politics by the Israeli occupation.

Palestinians from Jerusalem, in particular those from East Jerusalem occupied in 1967, face a dual system of law, usually being held for interrogation under the military system before transfer to the Israeli civil system for trial, but under the category of ‘security prisoner.’ Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, prior to 2005, were subject to the same military orders as prevail in the West Bank. Following the 2005 “disengagement,” Palestinians from Gaza abducted by the Israeli military are now held as ‘unlawful combatants,’ and subject to an administrative detention scheme with no six-month limits. Palestinian political prisoners who are citizens of Israel are charged as ‘security’ offenders in the Israeli civil system, depriving them of rights afforded to criminal defendants. ‘Security offenders’ may be held for 60 days without being charged and denied access to a lawyer for three weeks. They are subject to the same interrogators from the Israeli Security Agency as are prisoners from the West Bank and Gaza – and thus the same tactics of abuse and inhumane treatment amounting to torture.

The Israeli court systems – certainly the military system, but also the civil ‘security’ system – are no solution for Palestinian prisoners. Instead, those systems are mandated to enforce the rule (and the illegitimate “law”) of occupation and apartheid.

Khader Adnan is the latest in a long line of heroes and heroines of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. Over the years, many of them have used the hunger strike – Adnan the longest – as a powerful weapon of dissent and resistance, placing their bodies on the line to confront the occupation within its own prisons. Most recently, in October 2011, hundreds of prisoners engaged in a hunger strike for over twenty days demanding the end of isolation and solitary confinement. Many of those prisoners have been held under administrative detention; many thousands more through the ‘trials’ and ‘convictions’ of the Israeli security regime. All of those prisoners need continuing support and solidarity, and the growth of such solidarity is one way in which Khader Adnan’s hunger strike, and his courage, will continue to challenge and confront the occupation.

An international coalition of prisoners’ rights and Palestine solidarity organizations have called for global mobilization for April 17, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day (and what will be the day of Adnan’s release.) Such a global mobilization is also an opportunity to link the struggle of Palestinian prisoners in mutual solidarity with political prisoners elsewhere, from Leonard Peltier to Ricardo Palmera to countless others in the jails of the U.S., Canada, and the world. This includes Palestinian political prisoners in international jails; the 65th day of Khader Adnan’s hunger strike was also the 9th anniversary of Dr. Sami al-Arian’s arrest. Al-Arian remains under house arrest in Virginia today, years after he was acquitted on the majority of charges – and convicted of nothing – by a jury, because he refuses to be forced into becoming an informant on the Palestinian community.

The call to action for April 17 states:

“We must not allow Khader’s struggle to pass, like so many before his, as one more brave stand crushed by the armed might of the Israeli apartheid regime, unremarkable and inconsequential. Rather let this historic moment mark the beginning of a revitalized global movement for Palestinian prisoners, their rights, their families, and their struggle. Together, we can make it so.”

Charlotte Kates is a Palestine solidarity activist with the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (http://boycottisraeliapartheid.org) and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (http://samidoun.ca )in Vancouver, on unceded Coast Salish Territories. She is a member of the Organizing Committee of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (http://www.usacbi.org) and is active with the National Lawyers Guild and its International Committee(http://www.nlginternational.org).

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