ckaihatsu
30th January 2012, 09:57
Solidarity with Khader Adnan on Hunger Strike + New Statements from Ahmad Sa'adat
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
www.freeahmadsaadat.org + [email protected]
Twitter:http://twitter.com/freeahmadsaadat
Please see below for three important updates from the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat - a call to action in solidarity with Khader Adnan, Palestinian prisoner on his 43rd day of hunger strike; Sumoud Sa'adat's statement that "negotiations will not free Palestinian prisoners"; and a new letter from Ahmad Sa'adat's isolation cell, demanding an end to Palestinian Authority political detention and security cooperation.
Solidarity with Khader Adnan!
Khader Adnan, an imprisoned Palestinian activist and a spokesperson for the Islamic Jihad party, has been on an ongoing hunger strike since December 17, 2011. He is facing severe health consequences for his 43-day hunger strike and needs international support and solidarity to publicize his case and that of his nearly 5,000 fellow Palestinian political prisoners inside the jails of the Israeli occupation. He was transferred today to a hospital and is continuing to refuse food, awaiting the arrival of two Palestinian doctors. He is currently in a wheelchair because he cannot walk, due to weakness from his hunger strike.
Addameer details the experience of Khader Adnan with the Israeli occupation. He is currently held under administrative detention (arbitrary detention without charge or trial, based on secret evidence, and renewable indefinitely for repeated periods of up to six months.) Khader Adnan was issued a four-month administrative detention order on January 8, and faces another military court hearing on January 30. This is the eighth time Adnan has been detained, and he has served a total of six years in Israeli prisons - mostly without charge or trial under the administrative detention scheme.
Addameer reports:
Khader was arrested on 17 December 2011, when Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) raided his home outside Jenin at 3:30 am. Before entering his house, soldiers used the driver that takes Khader’s father to the vegetable market, Mohammad Mustafa, as a human shield by forcing him to knock on the door of the house and call out Khader’s name while blindfolded. A huge force of soldiers then entered the house shouting. Recognizing Khader immediately, they grabbed him violently in front of his two young daughters and ailing mother.
The soldiers blindfolded him and tied his hands behind his back using plastic shackles before leading him out of his house and taking him to a military jeep. Khader was then thrown on his back and the soldiers began slapping him in the face and kicking his legs. They kept him lying on his back until they reached Dutan settlement, beating him on the head throughout the 10-minute drive. When they reached the settlement, Khader was pushed aggressively out of the jeep. Because of the blindfold, Khader did not see the wall right in front of him and smashed into it, causing injuries to his face.
Following his arrest, he was taken to interrogation, refused medical care and treatment, subject to physical abuse and mistreatment including being tied to a chair in a stressful position, causing extreme back pain, and pulling on his beard so hard that his hair was ripped out. Khader was subjected to abusive language about his family, and refused to speak any further to interrogators, as well as refusing food. In retaliation, he was placed into isolation and solitary confinement, denied family visits, awakened in the middle of the night and strip-searched. He has refused to end his strike, protesting the illegitimacy of his arbitrary detention by an illegal occupation authority as well as cruel and inhumane treatment and abuse.
This is not his first hunger strike - in 2005 he protested his isolation in Kfar Yuna with a 12-day hunger strike. Khader Adnan's hunger strike has sparked solidarity tents in Gaza, and a planned protest in Ramallah on January 30.
Ahmad Sa'adat and hundreds of other Palestinian prisoners participated in a 23-day hunger strike in October 2011, demanding an end to isolation, abuse, and denial of family visits; Israeli promises to end isolation, aimed to secure the end of the strike, proved to be false, as Sa'adat has now spent nearly three full years inside an isolation cell.
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat calls for solidarity with Khader Adnan and all of the steadfast prisoners inside the jails of the Israeli occupation who daily confront with their bodies and their lives the ongoing attacks of the occupation army and prison guards.
Addameer has issued a call to action - we encourage you to take up Addameer's call, linked here, and also:
Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Khader Adnan, Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners. Make it clear that you are watching the situation of Khader Adnan and that Israel is responsible for his health and life, and demand an end to the use of isolation, solitary confinement, and administrative detention. Send us reports of your protests at Israeli embassies and consulates at [email protected]
Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the prisoners' demands are implemented. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at [email protected], and inform them about the urgent situation of Khader Adnan. Make it clear that arbitrary detention without charge or trial is unacceptable, and that the ICRC must act to protect Palestinian prisoners from cruel and inhumane treatment.
Sumoud Sa'adat: Negotiations will not free Palestinian prisoners
From Al-Masry Al-Youm, January 27, 2012
Sumoud Sa’adat, speaking on behalf of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the daughter of imprisoned Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat, spoke to Al-Masry al-Youm on January 27, 2012, saying that she had no information about the alleged inclusion of the name of her father on a list of prisoners presented by the Palestinian Authority to Israel, calling for their release, in preparations for negotiations.
Sa’adat said that “we reject this approach to negotiations; it is the wrong approach and does not free the prisoners. Negotiations based on the conditions and dictates of Israel and the U.S. cannot achieve any of the Palestinian people’s rights, including the rights of prisoners…we have tried this approach for 28 years and it does not offer anything for our rights or our cause.”
Sumoud Sa’adat said further that “The priority at the present time is implementing internal national unity and reformulating a national program to organize our struggle against the occupation….as long as there is occupation, there will be arrests. Arrests continued after the Shalit deal and are increasing; children are being arrested and threatened with land confiscation; members of the Palestinian Legislative Council are being arrested; all in an attempt to undercut Palestinian national unity.” She also noted that this has extended to the violation of buildings under international protection, including the storming of Red Cross headquarters in Jerusalem and the kidnapping of two PLC deputies from inside the building.
Sa'adat from Isolation: Security Cooperation and PA Political Detention Must End
A new statement was released by Ahmad Sa'adat on January 29, 2012, written in Sa'adat's Israeli prison cell on January 19, marking the tenth anniversary of his abduction. It was taken from the jail by a lawyer for broad distribution to the public. In the statement, in full below, Sa'adat holds the Palestinian Authority accountable for the crimes of security cooperation and political imprisonment, and demands an end to these policies in order to rebuild Palestinian struggle:
To our steadfast people, inside and outside Palestine, I salute you. I salute the martyrs of our people to the national struggle, one by one, who have paid with their lives and their blood, sacrificing for the land, the people and the national cause. I salute the prisoners of freedom in the Zionist prisons and detention centers, and everywhere in the world where the struggle for human freedom confronts injustice, abuse and tyranny. I salute all of you together, and pledge to remain on the path of struggle until the achievements of the objectives of those who have sacrificed, been captured or killed, in the struggle.
Today, I write to commemorate an event directly linked with the policy of political detention and security cooperation, obwing to the dictates of Israeli and U.S. policy, that have degraded and broken all of the rules of the national struggle and attacked the legitimacy of the resistance. Dozens are paying the price for this with their liberty in long years in the prisons of the occupation. Accordingly, this is a call and a cry to stop political arrests on the basis of membership in a political organization, or engaging in resistance to the occupation, and especially, that this policy must not continue or, worse, expand its scope under the auspices of the division to take on new names and dimensions. This is a call for an end to all violations of the freedom and rights of Palestinian citizens, and for democracy in all of its expressions. It is a call to end the division, implement internal agreements, and build consensus to achieve reconcilaiation and move away from fragmentation and conflict, splits and lack of democracy. National unity opens the door and lays the foundation for rebuilding the Palestinian house on a national and democratic basis, using the mechanism of direct elections and a system of proportional representation for all institutions, particularly the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO must be a mechanism for the unity of our people and national struggle, and represent all shades and expression of our political and social polity. National unity will result in re-building and the formulation of a national program to organize our movement and conflict with the occupation, setting as a priority our central and main struggle – confronting the occupation.
Such a program must remove us from the cycle of futile negotiations under any excuse or name (such as “exploratory meetings.”) It is an indisputable reality that these negotiations are entirely outside any reference to international law or United Nations resolutions, as it is a reality that they have failed, gone entirely to a dead end, and even served as a cover for the crimes of the occupation against the people, land and holy sites. What is needed is a program based on the resistance and confidence in our people’s ability to achieve victory, and based in political and diplomatic struggle to implement United Nations resolutions and move our cause there. The international community must be held accountable for its responsibility to make the occupation comply with international law, and to make it clear that the occupation is not above the law, and to force it to implement the international resolutions that protect our people’s national rights, foremost the right of return, self determination, and the establishment of a sovereign state with its capital in Jerusalem.
Finally, this is a call to prioritize the struggle of the prisoners, in order to preserve the achievements of their struggle, support their just and humanitarian demands, and mobilize efforts to build their struggle on an international level, in particular emphasizing their political and legal status as prisoners of war under international law and the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, and to provide protection for them in the context of demanding protection for all of our people.
In conclusion, I salute you and assure you that the road is full of challenges, but I am confident that we will be able to achieve victory, not only by achieving our national unity, but with Arab revolutions and regional and international change.
Glory to the martyrs, freedom for the prisoners, and dignity for our people.
Victory is ours!
Ahmad Sa’adat
January 19, 2012
From isolation in Nafha prison
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/
[email protected]
Twitter: @FreeAhmadSaadat
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
www.freeahmadsaadat.org + [email protected]
Twitter:http://twitter.com/freeahmadsaadat
Please see below for three important updates from the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat - a call to action in solidarity with Khader Adnan, Palestinian prisoner on his 43rd day of hunger strike; Sumoud Sa'adat's statement that "negotiations will not free Palestinian prisoners"; and a new letter from Ahmad Sa'adat's isolation cell, demanding an end to Palestinian Authority political detention and security cooperation.
Solidarity with Khader Adnan!
Khader Adnan, an imprisoned Palestinian activist and a spokesperson for the Islamic Jihad party, has been on an ongoing hunger strike since December 17, 2011. He is facing severe health consequences for his 43-day hunger strike and needs international support and solidarity to publicize his case and that of his nearly 5,000 fellow Palestinian political prisoners inside the jails of the Israeli occupation. He was transferred today to a hospital and is continuing to refuse food, awaiting the arrival of two Palestinian doctors. He is currently in a wheelchair because he cannot walk, due to weakness from his hunger strike.
Addameer details the experience of Khader Adnan with the Israeli occupation. He is currently held under administrative detention (arbitrary detention without charge or trial, based on secret evidence, and renewable indefinitely for repeated periods of up to six months.) Khader Adnan was issued a four-month administrative detention order on January 8, and faces another military court hearing on January 30. This is the eighth time Adnan has been detained, and he has served a total of six years in Israeli prisons - mostly without charge or trial under the administrative detention scheme.
Addameer reports:
Khader was arrested on 17 December 2011, when Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) raided his home outside Jenin at 3:30 am. Before entering his house, soldiers used the driver that takes Khader’s father to the vegetable market, Mohammad Mustafa, as a human shield by forcing him to knock on the door of the house and call out Khader’s name while blindfolded. A huge force of soldiers then entered the house shouting. Recognizing Khader immediately, they grabbed him violently in front of his two young daughters and ailing mother.
The soldiers blindfolded him and tied his hands behind his back using plastic shackles before leading him out of his house and taking him to a military jeep. Khader was then thrown on his back and the soldiers began slapping him in the face and kicking his legs. They kept him lying on his back until they reached Dutan settlement, beating him on the head throughout the 10-minute drive. When they reached the settlement, Khader was pushed aggressively out of the jeep. Because of the blindfold, Khader did not see the wall right in front of him and smashed into it, causing injuries to his face.
Following his arrest, he was taken to interrogation, refused medical care and treatment, subject to physical abuse and mistreatment including being tied to a chair in a stressful position, causing extreme back pain, and pulling on his beard so hard that his hair was ripped out. Khader was subjected to abusive language about his family, and refused to speak any further to interrogators, as well as refusing food. In retaliation, he was placed into isolation and solitary confinement, denied family visits, awakened in the middle of the night and strip-searched. He has refused to end his strike, protesting the illegitimacy of his arbitrary detention by an illegal occupation authority as well as cruel and inhumane treatment and abuse.
This is not his first hunger strike - in 2005 he protested his isolation in Kfar Yuna with a 12-day hunger strike. Khader Adnan's hunger strike has sparked solidarity tents in Gaza, and a planned protest in Ramallah on January 30.
Ahmad Sa'adat and hundreds of other Palestinian prisoners participated in a 23-day hunger strike in October 2011, demanding an end to isolation, abuse, and denial of family visits; Israeli promises to end isolation, aimed to secure the end of the strike, proved to be false, as Sa'adat has now spent nearly three full years inside an isolation cell.
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat calls for solidarity with Khader Adnan and all of the steadfast prisoners inside the jails of the Israeli occupation who daily confront with their bodies and their lives the ongoing attacks of the occupation army and prison guards.
Addameer has issued a call to action - we encourage you to take up Addameer's call, linked here, and also:
Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Khader Adnan, Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners. Make it clear that you are watching the situation of Khader Adnan and that Israel is responsible for his health and life, and demand an end to the use of isolation, solitary confinement, and administrative detention. Send us reports of your protests at Israeli embassies and consulates at [email protected]
Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the prisoners' demands are implemented. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at [email protected], and inform them about the urgent situation of Khader Adnan. Make it clear that arbitrary detention without charge or trial is unacceptable, and that the ICRC must act to protect Palestinian prisoners from cruel and inhumane treatment.
Sumoud Sa'adat: Negotiations will not free Palestinian prisoners
From Al-Masry Al-Youm, January 27, 2012
Sumoud Sa’adat, speaking on behalf of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the daughter of imprisoned Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat, spoke to Al-Masry al-Youm on January 27, 2012, saying that she had no information about the alleged inclusion of the name of her father on a list of prisoners presented by the Palestinian Authority to Israel, calling for their release, in preparations for negotiations.
Sa’adat said that “we reject this approach to negotiations; it is the wrong approach and does not free the prisoners. Negotiations based on the conditions and dictates of Israel and the U.S. cannot achieve any of the Palestinian people’s rights, including the rights of prisoners…we have tried this approach for 28 years and it does not offer anything for our rights or our cause.”
Sumoud Sa’adat said further that “The priority at the present time is implementing internal national unity and reformulating a national program to organize our struggle against the occupation….as long as there is occupation, there will be arrests. Arrests continued after the Shalit deal and are increasing; children are being arrested and threatened with land confiscation; members of the Palestinian Legislative Council are being arrested; all in an attempt to undercut Palestinian national unity.” She also noted that this has extended to the violation of buildings under international protection, including the storming of Red Cross headquarters in Jerusalem and the kidnapping of two PLC deputies from inside the building.
Sa'adat from Isolation: Security Cooperation and PA Political Detention Must End
A new statement was released by Ahmad Sa'adat on January 29, 2012, written in Sa'adat's Israeli prison cell on January 19, marking the tenth anniversary of his abduction. It was taken from the jail by a lawyer for broad distribution to the public. In the statement, in full below, Sa'adat holds the Palestinian Authority accountable for the crimes of security cooperation and political imprisonment, and demands an end to these policies in order to rebuild Palestinian struggle:
To our steadfast people, inside and outside Palestine, I salute you. I salute the martyrs of our people to the national struggle, one by one, who have paid with their lives and their blood, sacrificing for the land, the people and the national cause. I salute the prisoners of freedom in the Zionist prisons and detention centers, and everywhere in the world where the struggle for human freedom confronts injustice, abuse and tyranny. I salute all of you together, and pledge to remain on the path of struggle until the achievements of the objectives of those who have sacrificed, been captured or killed, in the struggle.
Today, I write to commemorate an event directly linked with the policy of political detention and security cooperation, obwing to the dictates of Israeli and U.S. policy, that have degraded and broken all of the rules of the national struggle and attacked the legitimacy of the resistance. Dozens are paying the price for this with their liberty in long years in the prisons of the occupation. Accordingly, this is a call and a cry to stop political arrests on the basis of membership in a political organization, or engaging in resistance to the occupation, and especially, that this policy must not continue or, worse, expand its scope under the auspices of the division to take on new names and dimensions. This is a call for an end to all violations of the freedom and rights of Palestinian citizens, and for democracy in all of its expressions. It is a call to end the division, implement internal agreements, and build consensus to achieve reconcilaiation and move away from fragmentation and conflict, splits and lack of democracy. National unity opens the door and lays the foundation for rebuilding the Palestinian house on a national and democratic basis, using the mechanism of direct elections and a system of proportional representation for all institutions, particularly the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO must be a mechanism for the unity of our people and national struggle, and represent all shades and expression of our political and social polity. National unity will result in re-building and the formulation of a national program to organize our movement and conflict with the occupation, setting as a priority our central and main struggle – confronting the occupation.
Such a program must remove us from the cycle of futile negotiations under any excuse or name (such as “exploratory meetings.”) It is an indisputable reality that these negotiations are entirely outside any reference to international law or United Nations resolutions, as it is a reality that they have failed, gone entirely to a dead end, and even served as a cover for the crimes of the occupation against the people, land and holy sites. What is needed is a program based on the resistance and confidence in our people’s ability to achieve victory, and based in political and diplomatic struggle to implement United Nations resolutions and move our cause there. The international community must be held accountable for its responsibility to make the occupation comply with international law, and to make it clear that the occupation is not above the law, and to force it to implement the international resolutions that protect our people’s national rights, foremost the right of return, self determination, and the establishment of a sovereign state with its capital in Jerusalem.
Finally, this is a call to prioritize the struggle of the prisoners, in order to preserve the achievements of their struggle, support their just and humanitarian demands, and mobilize efforts to build their struggle on an international level, in particular emphasizing their political and legal status as prisoners of war under international law and the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, and to provide protection for them in the context of demanding protection for all of our people.
In conclusion, I salute you and assure you that the road is full of challenges, but I am confident that we will be able to achieve victory, not only by achieving our national unity, but with Arab revolutions and regional and international change.
Glory to the martyrs, freedom for the prisoners, and dignity for our people.
Victory is ours!
Ahmad Sa’adat
January 19, 2012
From isolation in Nafha prison
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/
[email protected]
Twitter: @FreeAhmadSaadat