In photos: Tree memorial to commemorate prisoners

MaanImages/Khaleel Reash

In Qalqiliya, friends, family and loved ones of those detained in Israeli prisons gather to plant trees. Each tree in the project represents one of the more than 7,000 Palestinians jailed by Israel.

The project began on 16 January 2011.

Palestinian Political Prisoners Punished for Organizing Hunger Strike in Israeli Prison

Monday January 17, 2011 12:15 by Ramona M. - IMEMC and Agencies

Ahmad Sa’adat, the general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Jamal Abu Al-Haija , a leader of Hamas in the West Bank, are being punished for organizing a prisoner hunger strike to protest Israeli prison conditions.

On Saturday, the two prisoners were placed in solitary confinement in Israel’s Nafha prison, where they are being held.

Israel kidnapped Sa'adat from a Palestinian prison in Jericho in 2006, and he is currently serving a 30-year sentence. Abu Al Haija, who was arrested in May 2007 for his role in the resistance in the Jenin refugee camp, is serving 9 life sentences and an additional 20 years.

The men are being held in Nafha, a maximum-security prison located 70 km south of Beersheba, which opened in 1980. In the past, there have been many hunger strikes in response to inhumane prison conditions. Prisoners are kept in cramped, hut-like buildings, and prison guards monitor activity from two watchtowers.

Israeli prisons and detention centers holding Palestinians have some of the lowest prison standards in the developed world. Many of the prisoners that were once held in facilities in the West Bank are now held inside Israel, across the Green Line. This is in fact violates provisions from the Fourth Geneva Convention, which holds that detained persons have the right to remain in occupied territory in all stages of detention, including the serving of sentences if convicted.

This is the second hunger strike in recent months. In August 2010, around 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, participated in another hunger strike. Prisoners being held in 26 Israeli jails and West Bank detention centers rejected food in response to abuse by Israeli guards, poor treatment, and the escalation of arbitrary procedures carried out by the Israeli prison administration.

Palestinian prisoners have been protesting poor treatment and living conditions through hunger strikes since Israel began its occupation in 1967.In 1970, Abdulqader Abu Al-Fahem became the first Palestinian prisoner to die after a 15-day hunger strike at the Ashkelon prison.

During a hunger strike at the Nafha prison in 1980, all 74 prisoners refused food. Some of the prisoners were force-fed because it is against the law in Israel to permit prisoners to die by their own doing. “A long tube was pushed down their throats into their stomachs while they sat on chairs. In three cases, the vitamin-and sugar-reinforced milk drink accidentally entered the lungs. As a result, two prisoners died of pneumonia, and a third became critically ill,” reported TIME magazine in 1980. As a result, prisoners Rasim Halaweh, Alial-Ja'fari and Ishaq Maragheh died in the Nafhah prison after 32 days of a hunger strike.

In 1998, there were nine hunger strikes conducted by Palestinian prisoners in different prisons in Israel, according to the Palestinian Yearbook of International Law 1998-1999.

On 1 May 2001, almost 1,000 of the 1,650 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons at the time participated in a month-long hunger strike, in protest against "arbitrary treatment by prison officials, substandard prison conditions, prohibitions on family visits, use of solitary confinement, poor medical care, and Israel's refusal to release all the categories of prisoners specified in its agreements with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)," according to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2001.

Israeli military court extends jail term for Palestinian anti-wall activist

Amnesty International 

11 January 2011

Amnesty International has condemned an Israeli military appeal court's decision to extend the prison sentence of a Palestinian non-violent activist, convicted over his involvement in organizing protests in the occupied West Bank.

Abdallah Abu Rahma, head of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in, had his sentence extended from 12 months to 16 months by the Israeli Military Court of Appeals at Ofer in the West Bank on Tuesday, after the prosecution argued that his initial sentence was too lenient.

Detained since December 2009, Abdallah Abu Rahma, a school teacher, was supposed to be released on 18 November 2010, but has been kept in detention at the military prosecution's request. He has now been in prison for 13 months.

"By extending Abdallah Abu Rahma's sentence the Israeli authorities appear to be seeking not only to punish him further in a case where the prosecution’s evidence was questionable to begin with, but to deter others from participating in legitimate protests," said
Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

"Amnesty International believes Abdallah Abu Rahma to be a prisoner of conscience, jailed solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression and assembly. As such we call for his immediate and unconditional release."

Abdallah Abu Rahma was found guilty of "organizing and participating in an illegal demonstration" and "incitement" by an Israeli military court on 24 August 2010. He was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment on 11 October 2010.

Following the extension of his sentence, he will now serve an additional three months in prison, with the possibility of an administrative release after two months, in which case he would be forbidden from participating in any demonstrations.

When convicting Abdallah Abu Rahma the military judge accepted the prosecution’s arguments that he had encouraged demonstrators in Bil’in to throw stones at Israeli soldiers.

The allegations were based on the statements of three children, who subsequently retracted them in court, claiming that they were made under duress.

Abdallah Abu Rahma is well known to Amnesty International as a political activist with a long-term public commitment to using peaceful means to raise international awareness of the human rights violations suffered by Palestinians because of Israel's fence/wall, much of which has been built in the occupied West Bank.

Since 2005, the villagers of Bil'in, together with Palestinian, Israeli and international supporters, have been holding weekly demonstrations in protest against the fence/wall and the confiscation of their land by the Israeli authorities for its construction.

In September 2007 the Israeli High Court of Justice issued a ruling instructing the Israeli military authorities to reroute the fence/wall in Bil’in to give the villagers access to more of their land, but this ruling has yet to be implemented.

The arrests of Abdallah Abu Rahma and other prominent activists against the fence/wall in 2010 have been part of a crackdown on those voicing their opposition to the construction of the fence/wall.

The Israeli 700-kilometre fence/wall runs through the West Bank, encircling Palestinian villages as well as whole neighbourhoods in and around East Jerusalem.

Palestinians in the West Bank are subjected to Israeli military laws including Order No. 101, “Order Regarding Prohibition of Incitement and Hostile Propaganda Actions”, which was issued shortly after the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967 and carries a maximum 10-year sentence.

The order enables sweeping restrictions to be placed on freedom of expression, requiring any proposed gathering of 10 or more persons “for a political purpose of for a matter that could be interpreted as political” or even to “to discuss such a topic” to obtain a permit in advance from the commander of the Israeli military forces in the area.

Since 2010 charges under Order No. 101 have been used increasingly by the Israeli authorities against Palestinians who organize demonstrations against Israel’s fence/wall.

IOA indicts two Silwan children for throwing stones

[ 13/01/2011 - 10:43 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli prosecution presented an indictment list against two Palestinian children from Silwan town, south of the Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, on Wednesday night. The indictment included the charge of throwing stones at Israeli police. The Magistrate court west of occupied Jerusalem decided to impose house arrest on both children until the case concludes. The Wadi Halawa media center said in a press release on Thursday that both children Mahmoud Al-Banna and Omar Siyam were held under house arrest for more than a year. It added that the minors threw stones in reaction to a Jewish settler's shooting at Palestinians, noting that the settler was immediately released.

Israel transfers Obeid to Jalama investigation center

[ 13/01/2011 - 10:08 AM ]

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Israeli authorities transferred Tuesday Majd Mahir Obeid from Al-Khalil, in the south West Bank, to the Jalama investigation center after his medical recovery. His four colleagues, Mohannad Nerokh, Wael al-Beitar, Wassam al-Qawasimi, and Ahmed al-Awiwi, remain in the Ramle hospital, Obeid's mother told the PIC on Wednesday. Obeid was questioned about his affiliation with Hamas, shootings, and "fabricated, untrue stories", Obeid's mother said. "The PA apparently gave Israel false information he never admitted to, leading to his arrest," she said. Israeli forces arrested Obeid and his colleagues just five hours after their release by PA security agencies in the West Bank. The prisoners earlier embarked on a 45-day hunger strike demanding PA implementation of their supreme court-ordained release. Obeid's mother said she held the PA security militias responsible for her son's arrest. She explained that his medical condition turned for the worse after the hunger strike. She believes Israel is exploiting his medical condition in order to draw out a confession.

IOF troops round up 11 Palestinians in past 24 hours including 2 minors

[ 13/01/2011 - 10:05 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up eight Palestinians in various West Bank areas at dawn Thursday and three others in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday including two boys. Radio Israel reported that the eight citizens were wanted for questioning. Local sources said that the IOF troops stormed the cities of Ramallah and Al-Khalil and villages in Bethlehem, Tulkarem, and Jericho where the civilians were detained. On Wednesday, Israeli occupation police arrested three Palestinians in Silwan town, south of the holy Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. Local sources said that the policemen took away two boys from their homes, 14 and 16 years old respectively, while the third, a 19-year-old, was detained while walking in a street in Silwan.

IOF Arrests Four Fishermen; including Two Children on Gaza Coast

11-1-2011

Al Mezan

Around midday on Tuesday 11 January 2011, Israeli naval vessels that patrol Gaza sea arrested four Palestinian fishermen and confiscated their boat. The fishermen were working about 2.5 kilometers off Gaza shore; i.e. inside the permitted fishing zone Israel had declared. The IOF arrested the fishermen opposite the Al Sheikh 'Ijleen area, west of Gaza city. Two of them are children. The IOF took them and their boat north, expectedly towards Ashdod harbor. The reasons behind the arrest have remained unknown. Al Mezan identified the names of fishermen as follows:

·         Usama Nasser Mohammed Abu Amira, 18;

·         Mohammed Khalid Mohammed Abu Amira, 19;

·         Mahmoud Khalid Mohammed Abu Amira, 17; and

·         Saher Khalid Juha, 15.

The fishermen are residents of Al Shati' refugee camp west of Gaza city. In the evening hours on the same day, the IOF released three fishermen and kept Mohammed Khalid Mohammed Abu Amira in detention.

Gaza officials, families sit in at Red Cross to promote prisoners cause

[ 12/01/2011 - 03:39 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Government representatives and families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails joined forces Wednesday morning and sat in outside of the Red Cross offices in Gaza to show solidarity with two chief Palestinian prisoners who are continuing a hunger strike amid demands for their release from isolation. Staged by Gaza's ministry of prisoner affairs cooperating with the Wa'ed prisoner association in Gaza, demonstrators called on the Red Cross and other rights groups to treat Jamal Abu al-Haija and Ahmed Saadat and other Palestinians jailed by the Israelis as war prisoners and not criminals, and to aid them as they are slowly being killed by solitary confinement. Jamal Abu al-Haija has been isolated since he was first arrested by the Israelis and sentenced to nine life terms alongside 20 years in prison. He has also been denied family visits. Saadat has made several reappearances to solitary confinement throughout his term. The Israelis are trying to break the will of prisoners by isolating their leaders, said Palestinian MP Mohammed Shihab. He called the prison administration's stripping them of their rights and slowly killing them through solitary confinement a war crime. Wa'ed association director Sabir Abu Karesh said solitary confinement has made the captives' health conditions a source of concern for officials and families, as some of them suffer from permanent disabilities, like Abu al-Haija who has an amputated hand.

Dweik: Israel's renewed kidnapping of MPs aimed at silencing them

[ 12/01/2011 - 10:35 AM ]

WEST BANK, (PIC)-- Dr. Aziz Dweik, the speaker of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC), said that Israel returned to the detention of lawmakers in order to silence any voice defending the Palestinian people's rights and constants in the West Bank. Dr. Dweik stated on Tuesday that the Israeli occupation wants to re-emphasize the message it had sent before to the Palestinian people when it locked up in its jails most of Hamas lawmakers and former ministers. For his part, Hamas lawmaker in Salfit city Nasser Abdeljawwad strongly denounced the Israeli occupation forces for raiding and ransacking the office of Salfit lawmakers, and stealing computer sets, official seals and some files. MP Abdeljawwad stressed that the kidnapping of MP Omar Abdelrazeq and the raid on the office of Salfit lawmakers is part of the renewed Israeli policy that is aimed at thwarting the obligations laid over the shoulders of Hamas lawmakers toward their people. Israel re-kidnapped lately many Palestinian lawmakers from the Hamas parliamentary bloc, the latest of them was MP Omar Abdelrazeq who was taken from his home at dawn Tuesday. Political analysts and human rights activists believe that Israel wants again to keep the lawmakers away from the Palestinian arena and prevent a parliamentary quorum. Political analyst Wisam Afifa told the Palestinian information center (PIC) on Tuesday that Israel's persistence in kidnapping lawmakers is aimed at weakening Hamas and making up for the mistake it had done when it allowed the movement to win the legislative elections. Afifa underlined that after Hamas won the elections, Israel and regional parties agreed upon the need to stop this new change through kidnapping its lawmakers, expressing his belief that the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority is absolutely satisfied with this situation.

Bil'in demonstrations coordinator sentenced to 16 months in prison

[ 12/01/2011 - 10:33 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the Bil'in anti-separation wall committee, was sentenced on Tuesday to 16 months in prison other than a three-year suspended sentence and was forced to pay NIS 5,000 in fines. The Israeli Ofer Court charged Abu Rahma with incitement and participation in throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, as well as participation in allegedly "illegal demonstrations". Abu Rahma was previously sentenced to a year in jail but was kept prisoner by the military prosecutor after his scheduled mid-November, 2010 release because of continued weekly protests in the Bil'in village. 24 European diplomats attended the court hearing. In a separate development, prisoner Hamza Mahmoud Ali al-Khumoor of the Bethlehem refugee camp of Al-Duhaisha has gone on his 11th day of hunger strike, prison sources said. Khumoor, arrested in April 2002 and serving an 18-year sentence, went on strike after he was placed in solitary confinement after striking a prison guard in self-defense during a heated prison search.

IOA extends detention of Jihad leader for 9th time

[ 12/01/2011 - 10:26 AM ]

JENIN, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) extended the administrative detention of Sheikh Bassam Al-Saadi, an Islamic Jihad leader, for the 9th consecutive time. Sheikh Saadi had completed a 5-year military imprisonment sentence in 2008, but the Israeli intelligence refused his release enforcing his detention without trial or charge since then. The Islamic Jihad described the decision as "racist", and falls in line with the IOA policy of isolating national leaderships in a failed attempt to limit their ability to influence the people. It said that the "enemy's attempts" would never succeed in breaking the will of Sheikh Saadi.

Detainees ask rights orgs for warm blankets

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Palestinians held in Israel's Negev prison sent word last week to the Detainees Center in Gaza City, asking for the center to help them secure warm cells for the remaining winter months.

In a letter smuggled out of the prison, detainees said the tents in the desert compound were cold and drafty, and that prisoners neither had warm clothes nor heavy blankets to keep them warm.

Head of the center and former detainee Abdul Naser Farawneh said he personally receive the smuggled letter, and issued a statement of appeal.

Israel releases 4 detainees

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Sunday released four Palestinian detainees who had served seven year sentences, the Gaza Prisoners' Affairs Ministry said.

The ministry identified the detainees as Muneer Shabear and Hasan Al-Kahlut from northern Gaza, Ahmad Al-Gazawy from Gaza City and Fahed Abu Hasanein from Rafah.

They were detained in April 2004, the ministry said.

Palestinians welcomed the men at the Erez crossing.

Israeli navy kidnaps Palestinian fishermen off Gaza port

[ 04/01/2011 - 07:17 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli navy gunboats kidnapped a yet unspecified number of Palestinian fishermen who were fishing off the Gaza port on Tuesday morning, the Palestinian agriculture ministry said. The ministry's fisheries department said in a press release that the gunboats attacked the fishing boat and took away those on board, whose number could not be certified yet. It added that the fishing boat capsized. The ministry held the Israeli occupation authority fully responsible for the lives of those fishermen, and called on human rights groups and the Red Cross to immediately intervene to secure their release. Around 3,500 fishermen in Gaza Strip work on 700 fishing boats to provide sustenance for almost 70,000 people. They are systematically harassed by Israeli navy vessels. ------- Gaza fishermen detained from local waters GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- An unknown number of Gaza fishermen were detained Tuesday morning after being apprehended by Israeli warships off the coast of Gaza City. Gaza's Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement that fellow fishermen reported the detention, after seeing the boat of the men approached by Israeli vessels maintaining the sea blockade on Gaza. The boat was approached and the men were detained and taken to an unknown location, officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said that the boat had "deviated from the fishing area" and refused to halt when a naval ship called out ordering them to turn around. The craft was towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod and the men were taken for questioning, she said. The ministry said the lives of the fishermen were in the hands of Israel, and condemned their detention from Gaza waters, demanding their immediate release. Israel maintains a three nautical mile fishing limit, enforced unilaterally since 2008 when the country launched its war on the coastal enclave. Prior to the war, a unilaterally-declared six nautical mile limit was imposed following the election of the Hamas government in 2006. The last agreed upon fishing limit for Gaza was 20 nautical miles, signed off on during the Oslo accords in the 1990s.

Comrade Taghreed Abu Ghoulmeh released from Israeli prison after 6 months

PFLP website 

Comrade Taghreed Abu Ghoulmeh, sister of imprisoned comrades Linan and Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, was released after 6 months "administrative detention" in Israeli prison on January 2, 2011.

She had been arrested six months ago at her home in Beit Furik along with her sister Linan (who had been previously imprisoned and released as part of an agreement with the Palestinian resistance), and comrades Laith Abu Ghoulmeh, Mohammed Hanani, Hani Abu Soud and Musab Mlitat, who still await trial. 

Comrade Linan engaged in a hunger strike for over 20 days seeking contact with her sister; prison authorities rejected her request and released Taghreed without ever allowing her sister to see her. 

Earlier, on December 26, the Palestinian Prisoners Committee and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees in Nablus held an event in solidarity with Comrade Linan at the UPWC office, marking her hunger strike, which began on December 8, 2010. Comrade Maher Harb saluted the prisoners on the occasion of Christmas, and reviewed Linan's history, noting she had already spent six years in occupation jails and continued to confront the jailers, facing isolation, solitary confinement and constant threats to make the simplest of demands: to see her sister. He noted that other prisoners, particularly in Nafha, had undertaken actions and meetings in solidarity with Linan, and that prisoners have been recently been subject to frequent attacks and transfers from prison to prison, and emphasized the need for support of the prisoners and their families. 

Comrade Dr. Esmat Shakhshir of the UPWC emphasized the need to activate a popular solidarity movement with the prisoners to meet the prisoners' level of struggle and national commitment.