As reported by SIRATYST, Seattle’s Voices of Palestine held an educational vigil on Palestinian prisoners on May 5, 2012.
Voices of Palestine holds educational vigils every 1st & 3rd Saturday, near Westlake Park, 4th & Pine, Seattle. Join them next Sunday, May 13, 2012, from noon-5 p.m. at Westlake Park for Nakba Commemoration, Palestine Stolen Homeland. For info, email: general@voicesofpalestine.org
As Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh enter their 70th day of hunger strike, the Israeli occupation courts have rejected their appeal, refusing to free them from administrative detention where they remain without charge or trial, subject to secret evidence and secret allegations. Today also marks the 20th day of the open hunger strike of now more than 2500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails continuing their resistance to injustice. Act now – send a letter to Israeli authorities expressing your outrage and demanding full implementation of the prisoners’ demands.
Addameer reported that:
Both Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab’s petitions to the Israeli High Court regarding their administrative detention orders were rejected today. They are on their 70th day of hunger strike and at immediate risk of death. In complete disregard to their critical medical condition, the Court stated in their decision that “hunger strikes are not relevant to decide on length of administrative detention as such”.
The Court recommended in Thaer’s case that since he has already spent nearly two years in administrative detention, the Israeli Security Service should investigate more in depth before extending his detention order to see if there are any possible alternatives to administrative detention. The Court further stated that if his detention order is extended, a more thorough interrogation should occur. The Court reiterated that these recommendations were irrespective of his hunger strike.
In Bilal’s case, the Court also suggested that if his administrative detention order is renewed, and his health permits extended detention, he should also be re-interrogated. The Court recommended that the Security Service shorten his order from 6 months to 3 or 4 months, to allow for a closer date of judicial review.
While Bilal and Thaer are in their hospital beds, on the longest hunger strikes recorded in the Israeli occupation prisons, the Israeli courts have once again revealed themselves to be primarily a mechanism and a tool in the hands of occupation. Indeed, the advising of “more thorough” interrogations against Bilal and Thaer is particularly appalling in light of Israel’s permission of “moderate physical pressure,” well-known as torture through the use of stress positions, sleep deprivation, hitting and beating, and noise abuse – inside its interrogation chambers, and far from being a remedy for Bilal and Thaer, is in fact a prescription for extended suffering.
It was also reported by Azzam Diab, Bilal’s imprisoned brother, that “The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has offered the release and deportation to Gaza for each of Thaer Halahle and Bilal Diab in return for ending their hunger strike.” The Palestine Information Centre reported that “Detainee Azzam Diab, the brother of Bilal, said that he was surprised at the presence of Askalan jail wardens in his cell on Sunday morning. He said that they asked him to go with them to Ramle prison hospital to convince his brother and Halahle to agree to end their strike in return for their deportation to Gaza. Azzam…refused, saying that he would not be used as a pressure tool on his brother.”
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel told CNN that there is no recorded case of prisoners surviving on hunger strike past 75 days without supplements or minerals; Amnesty International has issued a call for the release of Bilal and Thaer.
The prisoners are continuing to resist, making clear they will hold on until their demands are met and that prisoners are unified behind the strike’s leadership (despite Israeli attempts to undermine the leadership, imprisoned Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa’adat refused to meet separately with Israeli prison management.) It is critical that the voices of people around the world remain raised and clear, calling for freedom for Bilal, Thaer and all of the administrative detainees – and, for all Palestinian prisoners, voices of their national and international struggle for liberation; for an end to isolation; for prisoners’ contact with their families and their lawyers no matter where they are from; and for the prisoners’ rights and dignity.
Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike fighting for their most basic rights:
Bilal Diab- Day 70 of hunger strike
Thaer Halahleh- Day 70 of hunger strike
Hassan Safadi- Day 64 of hunger strike
Omar Abu Shalal- Day 62 of hunger strike
Mohammad Taj- Day 51 of hunger strike
Jaafar Azzedine- Day 47 of hunger strike
Mahmoud Sarsak- Day 46 of hunger strike
Abdullah Barghouti- Day 26 of hunger strike
Over 2,500 others are also on their 21st day of mass hunger strike.
TAKE ACTION!
1. Sign a letter demanding the Israeli state implement all of the demands of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners. Tell the Israeli Prison Services that the world is watching! Click here to sign.
2. Join a protest or demonstration for Palestinian prisoners. Events are taking place throughout Palestine; students have announced solidarity strikes. Nakba day is coming up May 15 – raise the voices of the striking prisoners as you commemorate 64 years of occupation. Organizing an event, action or forum on Palestinian prisoners on your city or campus? Use this form to contact us and we will post the event widely. If you need suggestions, materials or speakers for your event, please contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net.
3. Contact your government officials and demand an end to international silence and complicity with the repression of Palestinian political prisoners. In Canada, Call the office of John Baird, Foreign Minister, and demand an end to Canadian support for Israel and justice for Palestinian prisoners, at : 613-990-7720; Email: bairdj@parl.gc.ca. In the US, 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.
4. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and demand they uphold their duties to protect the rights of Palestinian political prisoners. Click here to sign a one-minute letter and make your voice heard!
5. Distribute materials, including factsheets and videos, telling the story of Palestinian prisoners. Click here for videos and here for factsheets.
According to sources in the prisoners movement, a meeting was held in Ramon prison between the Prison Service and two members of the Higher committee of the Leadership of the Strike, Jamal al-Hur and Mohannad al-Shraim. The two leaders said that the hunger striking prisoners are holding to their demands at all costs, saying that the hunger strike has reached a point of no return unless the strikers’ demands are met.
Solidarity hunger strikes continue to take place throughout Palestine. Sumoud Karajeh, freed prisoner, is now on her 6th day of hunger strike. She said that she “is proud to be engaged in this strike for prisoners who have given their youth to the occupation prisons,” saying she would continue to strike until all of the demands of the prisoners were met, calling for the broadest solidarity with the prisoners.
The Palestine Information Centrereported that five solidarity strikers in Gaza, Amal Abu Sbeitan (40 years), striking for 16 days, Ahmed Shahwan (40 years), Fateh Khalf Allah (50 years), and Salah Abu Samaan (35 years) were taken to the Shifa state Hospital due to the deterioration of their health condition, and after fainting as a result of their participation in the open hunger strike since seven days, in solidarity with prisoners who have launched the strike 19 days ago. Former captive leader Rouhi Mushtaha was taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza on Saturday, for the second time in less than 12 hours.
Ahmad Sa’dat, isolated prisoner for over three years, and imprisoned general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, refused attempts by the Israel Prison Services to meet separately with him to negotiate regarding the hunger strike, reported Addameer Association and the Mandela Associaiton.
Sa’adat told Buthaina Duqmaq, President of the Mandela Foundation, that a delegation of security and intelligence officials had come to his prison hospital bed in Ramleh, asking about the strike. Sa’adat told them that there is a Higher Committee to speak on behalf of the strikers.
Sa’adat reported that “the delegation replied that they wanted to talk with me as human beings, and I said that this is not a dialogue, that there are demands presented by the prisoners which must be met, including ending the prohibition of visits for prisoners from Gaza, ending isolation, and ending collective punishment.” Sa’adat said that there have been prisoners held in isolation for over 10 years without any reason and stressed that the abolition of isolation is essential.
Sa’adat emphasized that there is a Higher Committee responsible for the prisoners’ demands, who is the appropriate party to meet with.
Duqmaq also reported that Ramleh prison hospital is now blocking lawyers until further notice by demanding prisoners in hospital stand to engage in lawyer meetings. She said that this was part of a mechanism to pressure Palestinian prisoners with their deteriorating health.
Duqmaq reported that Sa’adat has lost 9 kilograms of weight, and said that he confirmed that the prisoners are firmly committed to their demands and not to concede on them. He called on the Palestinian people, the Arab nation, and all democratic and progressive forces in the world, to “rally around the struggle of the Palestinian people,” also demanding that the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian leadership uphold their responsibility to the prisoners’ movement and to a political program based on resistance, not on futile negotiations..
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel told CNN that there is “no recorded case” of prisoners surviving on hunger strike past 75 days without supplements or minerals, urging that Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh be released on their 70th day of hunger strike. The last time PHR was able to visit Diab and Halahleh, they chronicled an increasingly desperate medical situation for the two. In the meantime, the other long-term hunger strikers:
Hassan Safadi- Day 64 of hunger strike
Omar Abu Shalal- Day 62 of hunger strike
Mohammad Taj- Day 51 of hunger strike
Jaafar Azzedine- Day 47 of hunger strike
Mahmoud Sarsak- Day 46 of hunger strike
Abdullah Barghouti- Day 26 of hunger strike
have been continually denied outside medical support. PHR reports that it is pursuing 3 cases today in court seeking access to hunger striking prisoners.
10 prisoners from Negev prison have been taken to hospital, one reporting partial paralysis due to hunger strike and medical neglect. In addition, imprisoned member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Mohammed Jamal Natsheh, after being on an open hunger strike since 20 days, called urgently to be sent specialist doctors to see his deteriorating health condition. Natsheh’s family demanded all official, human rights and international bodies to intervene immediately in order to save the MP’s life endangered due to the strike.
RAMALLAH, (PIC)– Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strike in the Israeli Nafha jail said in a message that they would start on Monday the second stage of their hunger strike.
They said in a message on Sunday that after 20 days of “legendary steadfastness” they decided to start the second stage of their hunger strike, which, they said, would contain a lot of surprises for the “Zionist enemy”.
They said, “We started our battle of empty stomachs on 17 April to let the world know of our tragedy and to demand our humanitarian rights”.
The prisoners said that the Israeli responses to the strike did not meet the minimum of their demands, affirming that they would proceed in their battle till those demands were met.
For its part, the Palestinian ministry of planning and foreign affairs in Gaza charged the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) with exercising the most “brutal forms of repression” against the Palestinian prisoners.
The ministry said in a statement on Sunday that the IOA practices are in violation of the international law and international agreements.
It said that the IOA was banning lawyers from visiting hunger strikers, quelling more and more of them in isolation cells, and cracking down on the solidarity rallies in addition to spreading rumors and waging psychological warfare against them.
Pointing out that more than 3000 Palestinian prisoners were on hunger strike, the ministry asked the Arab League, the world community, and human rights groups to seriously act to stop the IOA violent quelling measures and to provide a dignified life for those prisoners and to seek their release the soonest.
Statement No. 4
by the Higher Committee of the Leadership of the Strike
We vow to live with dignity or die – to our steadfast Palestinian people…
We are in a dangerous and sensitive situation, and run the risk of losing our lives for our dignity. Nevertheless, we will not end our strike without achieving our demands, the most important being to end the policy of isolation and to permit the family visits from Gaza that have ben banned.
Therefore, it is absurd to think our demands, our strike, our empty stomachs and our hunger, which enter our twentieth day, could be used to achieve personal or partisan interests to this or that prisoner, regardless of their positions in their parties. Any attempt to use the strike in this way is a betrayal, a stab in our backs, and a conspiracy against this strike.
We read false and illegitimate stories in the press attributed to one or more individuals who are in different locations, claiming that the management of the Prison Service and some sort of committee has agreed to a certain percentage of our demands. These attempts to lie and deceive at this stage are attempts to evade the strike launched by more than 1600 Palestinian prisoners. We are committed to this struggle, our demands are fair, and we reject this kind of cheap begging.
To Free People…
We call upon news agencies to verify all news prior to publication, and call on our brothers in the Ma’an News Agency in particular to dismiss such false reports and inform the Palestinian people with coverage of our strike and the support for it.
Finally…
At this stage we note that if some insist on deception we will have to clarify things and set the record straight and expose any conspiracy to undermine our battle of empty stomachs and our destiny, and the dignity of our prisoners.
We will live with dignity or die
Higher Committee of the Leadership of the Strike
5/4/2012
More than 25 organisations around the world have combined to urge Israel to free imprisoned human rights defender Ameer Makhoul on the second anniversary of his arrest.
Ameer has been in prison since May 2010. On 1 May 2012, Ameer was transferred from Gilboa prison to another jail in Majido, allegedly as punishment for participating in a hunger strike to highlight the conditions of political prisoners in Israel. His family was not informed, and only found out about the move when they tried to visit him at Gilboa prison. The transfer of Ameer to Majido adds to the harassment being faced by his family by making it difficult for them to reach him.
Ameer has been Director of Ittijah: Union of Arab Community-Based Associations since it was established in 1995. He has also served as Chair of the Public Committee for the Defence of Political Freedoms of Arab Citizens in Israel, in addition to being a prolific writer on political, social and civil society issues in Israel.
The circumstances surrounding Ameers arrest by Israels Shin Bet security agency, and the consequent failure by the Israeli government to follow the due process of law immediately after his arrest, smack of harassment and political interference.
On 6 May 2010, 16 agents from Shin Bet burst into Ameers home in the middle of the night, searched it and confiscated laptops, hard drives, cell phones and a camera belonging to his family. Following his arrest, Ameer was detained incommunicado for 12 days, given no explanation of the charges against him and denied access to a lawyer. His detention was later extended by a court order and he was granted access to his legal team only after they threatened not to attend his detention extension hearing in court.
Ameer was subjected to intense interrogation sessions and charged with assisting an enemy in time of war, and contact with a foreign agent, which he denied. Under severe pressure from Israeli agents, in October 2010, Ameer entered a plea bargain stating that he contacted a foreign agent and conspired to assist an enemy [Hezbollah] in a time of war. As a result of the plea bargain, the more serious charge of assisting an enemy in war which carried a life sentence was withdrawn by the prosecution. He was sentenced to nine years in prison with an additional years suspended sentence.
We believe that Ameer Makhoul is a prisoner of conscience whose work to defend human rights in Israel has been wrongly curtailed. As such he should be immediately and unconditionally released to prevent the continuation of this travesty of justice.
Issued on behalf of:
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is a global movement dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society across the world.
Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine will be holding a solidarity fast from May 7 to May 11. This action is intended to raise awareness of the two thousand plus Palestinian prisoners who are currently on hunger strike in Israeli administered prisons.
Palestinian hunger strikers are refusing food in order to protest the Israeli government’s ongoing unjust practices and to focus international attention on these violations, including violent arrests, imprisonment outside of the occupied territories, solitary confinement, denial of access to medical care, torture, and the policy of administrative detention which enables Israel to hold prisoners indefinitely without a charge and without any access to a trial.
In particular two individuals have emerged as leaders of this movement, Khader Adnan and Hana Shalabi, both of whom have spent years of their lives in and out of Israeli prisons under the administrative detention policy. Neither were ever charged with committing a crime, yet they were both forcibly separated from their families and communities. Although they have both been released in recent weeks, hundreds of their fellow prisoners remain on hunger strike and even more remain in administrative detention, including two hundred and three children.
These hunger strikes are a part of a deeper history of Palestinian non-violent resistance to Israel’s occupation and appropriation of Palestinian land. This tactic was used widely during the first Intifada in concert with consumer boycotts, labor strikes, and popular demonstrations.
These hunger strikes are also part of a wider history of liberation struggles throughout the world. Many people are familiar with those carried out by Northern Ireland in the 1980s by IRA prisoners such as Bobby Sands, but hunger strikes have also been used in situations around the world, including detainees at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, prisoners in solitary confinement in Pelican Bay, California, La Mujer Obrera from El Paso, in addition to many other activists and prisoners whose efforts are less widely recognized. Currently this tactic is being used by political protesters in the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, such as Abdulhadi al-Khawaja in Bahrain who has been on hunger strike since February 8.
In solidarity with these prisoners, members of Students for a Free Palestine and other organizations, including Student Labor Action Commission, Filipino American Students Association, the Middle East Peace Forum of Northeast Ohio, Al-Awda of Cleveland, the Greater Cleveland Arab Americans Association, and many individuals have chosen to undertake fasts where they will not eat any food for a day. In an effort to educate and engage students in dialogue about this action, SFP will set up tables around campus to be available for conversation. We hope this initiative will give Oberlin students a greater awareness of the many instruments of repression Israel employs to suppress Palestinian freedom and to perpetuate the illegal occupation. We also hope to make people aware of some of the creative, resourceful and nonviolent ways that Palestinians have adopted in order to resist this oppression and demand their freedoms.
We would like to stress that in our position as student activists we do not claim to speak for Palestinians or share their struggle. Instead we aim to make their voices heard. Unlike the hundreds of prisoners who remain confined to Israeli jails, we have chosen to fast without facing any potential consequences to our health or freedom, and we would therefore like to acknowledge our privileged position. We also wish to emphasize that Palestinian hunger strikers are not victims; we fast in order to honor their act of resistance and steadfastness, an act which demonstrates their continued agency in the face of ongoing challenges to their basic freedom and dignity.
