Call for international action: Show your support on Palestinian Prisoners day

12 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement

This week International Solidarity Movement is calling for international solidarity in the run up to Palestinian Prisoners Day on the 17th April.  The Palestinian prisoners struggle needs immediate international attention as Israel’s treatment of prisoners under a military judicial system starkly violates international law and fundamental human rights.  According to Addammer there are currently 4,637 Palestinian political prisoners are kept in Israeli military jails and detention centers, including 320 administrative detainees.
Some of the primary objectives of the prisoners struggle are:

• To stop the system known as administrative detention, which allows the imprisonment of individuals without charge or trail
• To halt the practice of solitary confinement.
• To stop the use of torture and ill treatment. Palestinians are exposed to systematic ill and degrading treatment from the moment of arrest – both physiological and physical terrors are used as means of breaking the prisoners and getting details and information.
• To stop the illegal transference of prisoners from the occupied territories into Israeli borders. Every time Israel brings a prisoner from the West bank jails inside their borders – they are in clear violation with the 4th Geneva Convention.
• To stop the use of military courts for civilians.
• To stop arrest and imprisonment of vulnerable groups such as children, elder and disabled.

Besides the suffering of individual prisoners, Israel systematically uses collective punishment towards the relatives of prisoners. The journeys to visit your husband, wife, son, or daughter may take up to 15 hours as the prisoners are systematically placed as far from their home as possible. Furthermore, visitors will face degrading processes of strip search at the borders to Israel and at the entrance to the prisons. Sometimes they even get turned away.
“All people and governments of conscience in the world have an immediate responsibility to put pressure on Israel forcing them to respect International law and human rights!” says Faris Sabbah, from Addammer, the Prisoners support and Human Rights Association.
TAKE ACTION
You can:

• Organize a protest in front of the Israeli Embassy or consulate in our town
• Write letters to protest the violations of rights of Palestinian political prisoners and to call for an intervention to the International Committee of the Red Cross, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and your governoment or parliamentarians.
• Write letters to Palestinian prisoners expressing your support. Read more about thise here:

Submit your photos:
What ever action you choose to take – please submit photos from your action to ISM at palreports@gmail.com.
You can get inspired from similar ISM campaign carried out in accordance to “Open Shuhada Street Campaign.”
Please follow these guidelines:

1. In the subject line please write “ Campaign for international solidarity with Palestinian prisoners”
2. Photos should not be a maximum of 1 MB
3. A poster, sign, clothing or any other visual statement that expresses your solidarity with Palestinian prisoners should be visibel.
4. Include a location of the photo (example: Hollywood sign, Hollywood, California) in the email
5. Include the date when the photograph was taken in the email
6. If the visual is written in a language other than English, please write the statement in the body of the email in order to be translated.
7. Photos should be original and not edited or borrowed from another entity
8. Photos must be submitted by April 19th.

Updated on April 17, 2012

On Palestinian Prisoners Day, the Suffering of Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails Doubles

PCHR

Tuesday, 17 April 2012 07:00

Ref: 45/2012

Today, 17 April 2012, marks the Palestinian Prisoners Day, which has been devoted by the Palestinian people to support the cause of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails.  Since 1979, Palestinians have commemorated this day, which marks the anniversary of the release of Palestinian prisoners in the first prisoner swap deal of 17 April 1974.

This year, the Palestinian Prisoners Day comes at a time in which the suffering of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails doubles as a result of violations of their rights.  These violations have recently peaked by the forcible transfer and deportation of prisoners, the latest of which was the forcible transfer of a female prisoner, Hanaa Shalabi, to the Gaza Strip on 01 April 2012.

These violations are part of a systematic policy adopted by Israeli occupation authorities against Palestinian prisoners, subjecting them to cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions, denying them access to medical care, constituting medical negligence which has caused deaths; practicing methods of torture against them; placing some of them in solitary confinement; depriving them of family visitation; and banning them from receiving academic education, according to a decision issued by the Israeli Prison Service on 20 July 2011.[1]

According to the figures and statistics PCHR possesses, more than 4,700 Palestinian prisoners are still held in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, mostly inside Israel, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, particularly Article 76 which stipulates that “protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein.” The majority of the Palestinian prisoners are from the West Bank, and they include 9 women and 190 children, as well as 320 prisoners who have been placed under administrative detention; the latter category includes 27 Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and former ministers. 

PCHR expresses its utmost concern for the continued deprivation of family visitation of at least 475 Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip, lasting more than five years now and causing deterioration to these prisoners’ psychological and health conditions in violation of international human rights law.  At least 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in a number of Israeli jails are expected to start an open ended hunger strike to pressurize the Israeli Prison Service to heed to their demands, including abolishing the policy of solitary confinement; ending the application of the Shalit Law; stopping attacks against prisoners, providing prisoners with adequate health care; and allowing family visitation to Gazan prisoners.  It is worth noting that at least 10 prisoners have been on hunger strike in protest against the policy of administrative detention. 

On the Palestinian Prisoners Day, PCHR draws the attention to escalated violations of the rights of Palestinian prisoners and the deterioration of their conditions because of Israel’s insistence to adopt a series of measures against them, which violate human rights principles and the international humanitarian law, which Israel, as a party to the relevant treaties, must respect.  PCHR also draws the attention to the international silence regarding such violations, which proves suspicions towards the international community’s disregard of international humanitarian law.   

Since its establishment, PCHR has systematically and continually followed up the cases of thousands of prisoners in Israeli jails.  PCHR has provided legal aid to prisoners and their families, and has documented and reported on violations of their rights.  In this context:

1. PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations under the Convention;

2. PCHR calls upon international human rights organizations to follow up cases of Palestinian prisoners and request their governments to exert pressure on Israel to stop its illegal practices against Palestinian prisoners and release them;

3. PCHR calls upon the European Union to activate Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which provides that both sides must respect human rights as a precondition for economic cooperation between the EU states and Israel. 

---------------

[1] See “PCHR Condemns Punitive Measures against Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails,” Press Release, Ref: 70/2011, PCHR, 21 July 2011.

"Sabr" blog is back

On the occasion of Palestinian Prisoners Day the "Sabr" blog is activated again.

It has been a long time since this blog about Palestinian prisoners was updated for the last time. Since then a lot of important incidents have occured such as the second phase of the prisoners exchange, the great hunger strike of Khader Adnan and Hanna Shalabi, and her deportation in Gaza Strip.
Now, in front of a new massive hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners, "Sabr" is activated again to compile information from various sources.

Palestinian female detainees tell horrific stories of abuse in Israeli prisons

Thursday, 08 March 2012

Women show their solidarity with Hanaa Shalabi, a Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike to protest her detention by Israel, at a rally in Palestine. (File photo)

 

 By Amjad Samhan
Al Arabiya Ramallah

Throughout the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, around 800,000 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli authorities, more than 10,000 of whom are women. Many of those female detainees were subjected to several forms of abuse, sexual in particular, but very few were willing to talk. On the eve of International Women’s Day, however, some decided to break their silence.

S.H., who refused to disclose her full name, was arrested for a few days to put pressure on her husband, also detained at the time, and extract confessions from him.

“They striped me and the officer who was interrogating me sat beside me and tried to molest me but I resisted,” she told Al Arabiya.

Hanaa Shalabi, the 30-year-old prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for 21 days in protest of the humiliation to which she was subjected in detention, said that an officer in civil clothes claimed he was a nurse at the prison and asked her to take off her clothes so he could search her.

“When I refused, he called other officers who tied me up and started beating me,” she said in a statement to the Palestinian Prisoner Society.

Shalabi’s lawyer Mahmoud Hassan said that one of the female officers wanted her to take off all her clothes in front of the other interrogators for the search.

“She kept refusing until the officer had to search her in the bathroom but threatened to retaliate against her,” he said in statement, of which Al Arabiya obtained a copy.

Hassan added that his client’s hands and legs were illegally tied during the trial.
Shalabi, who has so far lost 10 kilos, vowed to go on the hunger strike until she is released. She was sentenced to six months in jail and the sentence was reduced to four months, but no clear charges were leveled against her.

According to former detainee Iman Nafea, Israeli authorities abuse female prisoners all the time if not physically then at least verbally.

“In many cases, they search female prisoners after forcing them to take off their clothes. This is very humiliating even if it is done by a female officer because it shows there are bad intentions.”

Nafea argued that Israeli officers do not need to get prisoners naked to search them properly because they have advanced equipment that can reveal what is under the skin.

Nafea added that Israeli officers do not necessarily harass Palestinian detainees through direct physical contact with them, but they use other forms of sexual abuse.

“I know of a Palestinian woman who was assaulted with a club and several others who were constantly threatened with rape.”

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, which is an official holiday in Palestine, Palestinian Minister of Social Affairs Magda al-Masry stated that women have always been an integral part of the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

“This struggle is manifested in the plight of female detainees like Hanaa Shalabi,” she told Al Arabiya.

Masry added that the Palestinian government should take a firm stance on the naked search of Palestinian female detainees.

“This violates all human rights laws and the world has to break its silence.”
All Palestinian women, stressed Masry, will mark International Women’s Day by declaring solidarity with Shalabi.

“We will all support her until Israeli occupation forces release her.”

Several Israeli human rights organizations filed 17 complaints on behalf of Palestinian female detainees who accused Israeli officers of sexual harassment.

According to the organizations, the Israeli military prosecution is currently looking into the complaints.

(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)

Release of 3 prisoners delayed by Israeli authorities

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli prison authorities are delaying the release of three prisoners from Gaza who have completed their sentences.

The director of a prisoner's assembly, Muhammad Badr, on Friday named Abdullah Tawfiq al-Kurd, Wael Mousa Sharbaji and Wade Khamis Tamman as the prisoners who have had their release postponed.

Both al-Kurd and Sharbaji have finished their sentences of 9 and 7 years, respectively, and should have been released a month ago, Badr said.

Tamman, 30, has spent 10 years in jail and suffers from epilepsy.

Badr called on human rights organizations to help work for the release of all sick prisoners and put an end to violations by Israel.

It is not known why the release of the prisoners has been delayed.

Israeli forces raid home of freed female prisoner

A Palestinian woman, with her hands chained, flashes victory signs as
she takes part in a protest calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners
from Israeli jails, near the International Committee of Red Cross offices in
Beirut, October 14, 2011. (REUTERS/Sharif Karim)

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces raided the house of a female former prisoner near Ramallah on Sunday, less than a month after she was released under Hamas' prisoner exchange deal with Israel.

Forces issued summons for Sumud Karaja, 23, to report to Israeli intelligence in the Ofer military base near her village of Saffa, locals told Ma'an.

Her identity card was also confiscated, they added.

An Israeli military spokesman said it was not an Israeli army-related incident.

Karaja among 27 female and 250 male prisoners released from Israeli jail on Oct. 18 in exchange for Hamas' return of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

She had served three years of a 20-year sentence on charges of stabbing an Israeli soldier at the military checkpoint in Qalandiya, near Ramallah.

Free at Last: Profiles of Courage

Ufree

On 18 October 2011, the first 477 of an eventual 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails were released in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured five years previously. Of the Palestinians who have or will be freed, 280 were serving life sentences and 27 were women. Most had been deprived of family visits for years, and had suffered repeated torture, sentences to solitary confinement and refused access to education. The release came as more than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners staged a hunger strike to protest the harsh conditions. While the release is good news welcomed throughout the occupied territories, some families will still be separated. Of the first 477 prisoners released, 110 were returned to their homes in the West Bank and 203 were deported to Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and Syria, which agreed to take prisoners who Israel insisted, must not be allowed to return home. The rest (131) were freed in Gaza -- even if they were not originally from there. The agreement is the highest “price” Israel has ever paid for a single soldier. Israel places a high value on Israeli life and freedom, and assigns little worth to Palestinians. Thus, captures and exchanges are the only way to win their release. Approximately 5,300 Palestinian prisoners remain in Israeli jails, waiting to be freed. Here are the stories of just two of the released Palestinians: Ayman Kafishah; jailed since April 1997: On April 5, 1997, Ayman was arrested by Israeli security forces and immediately transported to Ha Shikmah Prison in Israel. According to testimony he later delivered to the UN Commission on Human Rights and publicized by B’tselem, an Israeli human rights agency, Ayman was then interrogated nonstop for 36 hours. Tactics used to coerce him to talk included: Violent shaking. Forced squatting and sitting in painful, contorted positions for prolonged periods. Wrist cuffs tightened until blood flow was cut off. Sleep deprivation. Refusal of permission to use the toilet. Threats to arrest and torture his family members. Ayman was denied the right to consult with his lawyer for a full month, and was not allowed any family visits for the entire 14 years he was jailed. His daughter, Sarah, knew of her father only through photographs. Although Ayman was freed in the prisoner exchange for Shalit, his forced separation from his wife and daughter continues. He was immediately exiled to the Gaza Strip, and his family was denied permission to travel there to see him from the West Bank. They have seen him only on TV, waving to the crowds in Gaza. “I was awakened (on Oct. 18, 2011) to the sound of my mother calling me,” recalls Sarah Kafishah. “I got up and rushed towards my mother, who was sitting in front of the TV. My mother knelt on the ground and thanked God.” Sarah and her mother said in a statement that they thank the Palestinian negotiators and the Egyptian mediators for making the exchange happen. They also called on the international community to put pressure on Israel to allow Ayman’s family to leave the West Bank to visit him in Gaza. A 14-year separation is long enough. Obada Saeed Bilal; jailed since April 2002: A native of Nablus in the West Bank, Obada is the son of Saeed Bilal. Obada was studying journalism at Najah University when he was seized, during the Israeli military campaign on the West Bank codenamed "Defensive Shield." He was charged with being a supporter military activities, It was just two weeks after his marriage to Nelly AlSafadi. Obada was sentenced to 11 years in jail and subjected to intensive torture, along with a number of stays in solitary confinement -- one time longer than six months. Says Obada: “I endured many rounds of continuous interrogation, during which the physical and psychological torture was so harsh my body became exhausted and I lost consciousness many times.” Obada had always struggled with poor eyesight, but he went totally blind by the time he was released from prison. His family has paid a heavy price to the Israeli occupying force. Obada’s wife, Nelly and three brothers also served time in Israeli prisons. Nelly, who was released several months before Obada, was arrested at a roadblock while trying to enter Ramallah. Although Obada was later moved to the same prison in which she was being held, they were never allowed to be together.  Although Obada was freed in the prisoner exchange for Shalit, he was immediately exiled to the Gaza Strip and his wife Nelly was denied permission to travel there to see him. Both families are urging the international community and all human rights groups to put pressure on Israel to strop its daily integration to Palestinians on check points and crossing borders and it must immediately allow those families access through crossing borders.

18 Palestinian MPs out of 21 in Israeli jails are administratively detained

[ 10/11/2011 - 12:34 PM ] 

PIC

The Palestinian centre for the defence of captives said that the Israeli occupation still holds 21 Palestinian lawmakers, 18 of them under administrative detention, without charge or trial.
Thamer Sabaena, a researcher in captives affairs, said that the number of detained lawmakers rose to 21 after the detention of MP Hasan Yousuf, 18 of them are affiliated with the Change and Reform Party.

Motion in UK Parliament calls for release of 164 Palestinian child detainees

DCI-Palestine

 

Posted on: 10 Nov 2011 | Filed under:

• Public Statements
• Detention

On 18 October 2011, an Early Day Motion was tabled in the UK House of Commons in support of UNICEF's appeal to the Israeli government to release all 164 Palestinian child detainees from Israeli military detention. The motion was signed by 25 members of the House of Commons. The full statement of the motion is presented below:

“That this House welcomes the prisoner exchange which has led to the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and 477 Palestinian prisoners with a further 550 to be released in the next two months; notes, however, that the list of prisoners released in the first stage on 18 October 2011 does not include any children; further notes that according to figures released by the Israeli Prison Service and Defence of Children International-Palestine, at the end of September 2011 there were 164 Palestinian children (12 to 17 years) detained by Israel, including 35 between the ages of 12and 15 years; and that Israel's treatment of Palestinian child prisoners has raised serious concerns under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; and therefore calls on the Government and the international community to support the appeal by UNICEF for the Israeli government to release all Palestinian child detainees so that they can be reunited with their families.”

EDM 2274: Prisoner exchange and Palestinian child prisoners

Related links: 

Urgent Appeal - (UA - 5/11) - Prisoner exchange – Release of Palestinian children

UNICEF appeals for release of Palestinian child detainees

MEP De Rossa calls for release of Palestinian child detainees

Detention Bulletin - Issue 21 - September 2011

Urgent Appeal - (UA - 5/11) - Prisoner exchange – Release of Palestinian children

 DCI-Palestine

 

Posted on: 9 Nov 2011 | Filed under:

• Urgent Appeals
• Detention

As part of the prisoner exchange deal, the Israeli authorities published a list of 477 prisoners, including 27 women, to be released in the first stage on 18 October. The list does not include any children. Please send appeals urging the Israeli authorities to release all Palestinian children currently held in detention.
Urgent Appeal - (UA - 5/11) - Prisoner exchange – Release of Palestinian children

Related links: 

UNICEF appeals for release of Palestinian child detainees

Motion in UK Parliament calls for release of 164 Palestinian child detainees

UK’s largest teachers’ union appeals for release of Palestinian child detainees

MEP De Rossa calls for release of Palestinian child detainees

Submission: The situation facing Palestinian children detained in the Israeli military detention system (July 2011)

Gaza official: Israel prison hospital ward closure 'punishment'

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The spokesman for the Gaza government's health ministry slammed Israel's closure of a hospital section in its Ramle jail on Saturday, stressing Israeli authorities' responsibility for the lives of Palestinians in Israeli jail.

Ashraf al-Qedra said the authorities were strangling detainees by closing the medical facility, and called on human rights organizations to protect ill prisoners from neglect.

On Thursday the Fatah information department said the prison administration closed the section and moved 22 sick prisoners who were being treated to four small rooms with no kitchens or other facilities. Israel's prison administration placed two detainees in isolation cells for demonstrating, they said.

A spokesman for Israel's prisons authority said he was not aware of the closure.

Al-Qedra urged the press to continue to cover the situation of Palestinian prisoners in Israel after a deal between the government in Gaza and Israel to free 1,000 detainees over 2 months in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Israel is punishing those detainees still in jail for the deal, he said.

Prison administration 'closes medical section'

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – The Israeli prison administration closed Thursday a section for sick detainees in Ramle prison hospital and isolated two representatives of the prisoners for demonstrating against the decision.

The Fatah information department said the prison administration closed the section and moved 22 sick prisoners who were being treated to four small rooms with no kitchens or other facilities.

The prison administration placed two detainees in isolation cells for demonstrating.

Researcher: 23 lawmakers in Israeli custody

AZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israel holds 23 Palestinian lawmakers in its prisoners, a researcher in prisoners affairs said Wednesday.

Riyad al-Ashqar said the arrest of Hassan Yousef on Tuesday brought the total up to 23, in addition to two former ministers. Yousef spent six years in Israeli prison, and was released months ago before soldiers seized him again for belonging to Hamas.

Israeli authorities have also sentenced lawmaker Jamal Tirawi to 30 years in prison. All but three of the MPs have been placed in administrative detention, al-Ashqar says.

Freed prisoner hospitalized after release

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Freed prisoner Amal Jumaah, 41, has been transferred to hospital days after her release from Israeli prison, says her brother Jameel Jumaah.

Amal was hospitalized in Nablus for complications due to bleeding in her stomach. She suffers cancer of the uterus and other serious health issues complicated by her time in jail, he says.

Jameel says his sister's case was taken on by the office of the president. Her family is also asking officials to intervene and if possible send her to a hospital abroad.

The head of the prisoners society in Nablus, Imad Ishtawi, told Ma'an that he too was urging officials to examine options for helping all prisoners who require medical attention.

Amal belonged to Fatah's armed wing, and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. She served nine.

Occupation transfers Sheikh Hasan Yousef and his son to administrative detention

[ 08/11/2011 - 09:55 PM ] 

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation authorities on Tuesday morning transferred Sheikh Hasan Yousef and his son Owais to administrative detention for six months at Ofer prison near Ramallah.
The family of Sheikh Yousef said that the occupation authorities informed him and his son, who arrested eight days ago, that the Israeli occupation intelligence decided to transfer them to administrative detention for six months based on “secret evidence".
The family further said that Sheikh Youssef underwent a few rounds of interrogation on the pretext that he organised a number of activities for Hamas in Ramallah, threatening to kidnap occupation soldiers to exchange with Palestinian captives, supporting the resistance on the Shalit exchange deal and organising functions in support of the freed captives.

They further said that when they could not charge him and try him, they decided to transfer him to administrative detention, based on secret evidence, that neither Sheikh Yousef, nor his lawyer are allowed to see.
His son Owais, who only got married ten days before his arrest, was also transferred to administrative detention after dropping an indictment list prepared by the occupation police in which he was accused of participating in the legislative elections, only to discover that he was in detention at Negev desert prison at the time of elections.