Palestinian hunger striking prisoner and national leader Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said in a letter smuggled from isolation that “all prisoners in the occupation jails have high morale despite their loss of weight and are determined to continue their hunger strike, confident of victory and the importance of their demands and their cause. He called for the masses of the Palestinian people, the Arab nation and all progressive forces, individuals, and institutions around the world to do their utmost to support the prisoners’ struggle.”
Sa’adat’s letter said that the demands of the prisoners are for their legitimate rights, chief among them abolition of solitary confinement as a cruel form of torture, utterly unjustified and contrary to international conventions against torture, ending the policy of preventing family visits to prisoners from Gaza, as well as the need to expand family visits to all relatives.
Sa’adat noted that the occupation forces had confiscated all electrical appliances, additional clothing and access to the canteen, as well as repeatedly inspecting prisoners’ cells, with the goals of provoking exhausted prisoners and putting pressure on thm to end the strike.
He noted that the strike involves all Palestinian factions, parties and political forces and reflected true national unity on the ground.
Palestinian prisoners reported that fellow prisoners in Mejiddo prison have been beaten violently by Israeli occupation prison guards in retaliation for their hunger strike, including Hassan Fatafteh, Thabet Nassar, and Fadah Zogheibi of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. This was reported by the Palestinian Prisoners Committee. This is another example of the ongoing repression against hunger striking prisoners, who have been placed in isolation and solitary confinment and repeatedly transferred.
This report comes just 2 days after another prisoner, Palestinian detainee Mohammed Ermaila survived an assassination attempt at the hands of Israeli prison guards in Megiddo jail, the Palestinian prisoner’s association said.
It said that Ermaila, 40, was suffering from severe pain in the head and blurred vision in addition to dizziness and fainting after the assault on him inside his cell in Megiddo before transferring him to Ofer jail.
A lawyer for the association met Ermaila, who hails from Jenin, in his Ofer jail and quoted him as saying that the Israeli guards woke him up and beat him on his head and tried to suffocate him and only left him when he lost consciousness as they believed he was dead.
He said that Ermaila was carried to a hospital in Afula where he remained unconscious for 48 hours. He was returned to jail as soon as he regained consciousness. A CT scan of his head showed that his skull was broken in the assault. Ermaila has been in administrative custody since October last year.
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.
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?
KA: True, a secret service officer came to me and told me, “Say hello to your father.” He had said the same thing when they came to arrest me once. They threatened to arrest all my family and friends and actually arrested four of my friends from my town, Arrabeh, a few days before my release.
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.
“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 Ipongwho 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.
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:
campaign to expose the role of the racist JNF (Jewish National Fund) in the Israeli apartheid system
support the participants in the Welcome to Palestine initiative who tried to travel peacefully to Palestine via Tel Aviv Airport
fully support the Palestinian-Brazilian call for the World Social Forum-Free Palestine in Brazil in November
support the Palestinian hunger strikers and the work of Addameer, the Palestinian prisoner support organisation.
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:
endorse the international call for action against the Jewish National Fund;
campaign to expose the role of the Jewish National Fund in the oppression of Palestinians; and
campaign to have the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund revoked.
(Mover: Midlothian TUC)
Emergency Motion – Palestine
Congress:
notes that despite prisoner releases, over 4,600 Palestinian political prisoners remain in detention, including 203 children.
applauds the steadfastness of 1,200 Palestinian political prisoners who began an open-ended hunger strike on 17 April to protest against ‘administrative detention’, where detainees are held without charge or trial for up to six months and which can be renewed repeatedly.
congratulates the student Palestine solidarity network for organising the biggest ever ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ of educational and solidarity events and for their mobilisation across Scotland in support of Palestinian political prisoners.
believes that the engagement of students, trade unionists and others with Palestinian civil society can only strengthen the current human-rights based approach to Palestinian self-determination and is essential to building a future of peace and democracy in the Middle East.
therefore welcomes the January call by the Palestinian National Committee and the Brazilian National preparatory committee for the 2012 ‘World Social Forum: Free Palestine’ to be held at Porto Alegre, Brazil in November. Conference believes that this “Global Meeting of Solidarity with Palestine” will underline the strength and diversity of the support for the Palestinian call for justice.
therefore instructs the General Council to:
Support the work of Addameer, Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, by distributing information and updates to affiliates and by supporting appeals for action where appropriate;
Endorse the Scottish demonstration, called by students in support Palestinian political prisoners and the hunger strikers, taking place in Edinburgh on Saturday 28th April;
Endorse the WSF Free Palestine as part of the internationalist activities promoted by the STUC and fully support the appeal from the Secretariat of the Palestinian National Committee for the World Social Forum “Free Palestine” to mobilise the Scottish trade union movement towards WSF Free Palestine.
(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:
the actions of the Israeli government in blacklisting activists from around the world and denying them access to the Palestinian territories.
the detention of those activists who reached Tel Aviv wishing to visit Bethlehem at the invitation of the Mayor in order to attend the launch of an educational project to build new schools.
Congress asks the General Council to call upon the Israeli government:
to allow unrestricted passage to and from the Occupied Palestinian Territories for those wishing to visit.
to end the continued, illegal siege by air, land and sea of the Palestinian Territories.
(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
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.
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:
Palestinian hunger striking prisoner and national leader Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said in a letter smuggled from isolation that “all prisoners in the occupation jails have high morale despite their loss of weight and are determined to continue their hunger strike, confident of victory and the importance of their demands and their cause. He called for the masses of the Palestinian people, the Arab nation and all progressive forces, individuals, and institutions around the world to do their utmost to support the prisoners’ struggle.”
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.