30 Palestinian prisoners launch their hunger strike to #EndAdministrativeDetention -- take action to support them!
Thirty Palestinian prisoners jailed without charge or trial under Israeli “administrative detention” have launched a hunger strike on Sunday, 25 September to demand an end to the policy, which is currently jailing over 740 Palestinian prisoners under “secret evidence.”
The Palestinian prisoners announced their hunger strike under the slogan “Our Decision is Freedom”, noting that they had rejected a request from the Zionist prison administration to postpone their action until Wednesday. The hunger strikers were met with swift solidarity from many around the world, including Tweets from celebrities like actor Mark Ruffalo and a solidarity strike from Palestinian political leader and resistance symbol Leila Khaled.
Palestinian prisoners’ institutions and family members of the hunger strikers, including the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, read out a message from the hunger strikers at a press conference outside the Ofer military prison, where many administrative detainees are held:
Our demand is: clean air, a sky without bars, a space of freedom, and a family gathering around the table. The demand of the occupation is to separate us from our social reality and our national and humanitarian role, and turn us into dry fragments. Between our demand and their demand, the occupying power carries out the abhorrent policy of administrative detention.
We are the sons of the land, the heirs of Abu Ammar, al-Hakim, al-Yassin, al-Shiqaqi and al-Qassim, and the heirs of all the martyrs. Wherever we find that space of struggle, we cut the path and raise the sword, realizing what awaits us: repression, abuse, isolation, confiscation of our clothes and photos of our children, being thrown into cement cells devoid of everything except for our bodies and our pain, constant searches, ongoing transfers, no cigarettes, no bottles of water, we can barely catch a breath of air. And yet, despite the slow killing, we announce our cry. Rejecting injustice and struggling against it is food for our souls flying in the sky of the homeland. Through this struggle, and with the support of our resisting people, we will create a bright tomorrow.
Leila Khaled, Palestinian resistance icon and member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, announced that she was on hunger strike in support of the strikers. In a statement, she saluted the prisoners: “You are on the front lines confronting this criminal fascist enemy. With your strike, you will grab your freedom and the freedom of your people. Glory to you!”
There are currently approximately 780 Palestinian prisoners jailed under administrative detention orders out of a total of approximately 4,650 total Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails. Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist project. Detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time on the basis of “secret evidence” denied to both the detainee and their lawyer. These orders are indefinitely renewable, with many Palestinians spending years at a time jailed under administrative detention, and neither they nor their families and communities are ever sure when they will be released, an additional form of collective punishment and psychological torture.
The first 30 administrative detainees who began the strike today are listed below, with additional prisoners scheduled to join in the battle as it continues. They include community leaders like Nidal Abu Aker and Ghassan Zawahreh, who have spent years in administrative detention; French-Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender Salah Hammouri, student organizers like Zaid Qaddoumi, and a number of others:
1. Nidal Abu Aker, 54, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 1 August 2022. 2. Ehab Masoud, 50, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 17 October 2021. 3. Asim Al Kaabi, 44, of Balata refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 24 August 2022. 4. Ahmed Hajjaj, 44, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 24 August 2022. 5. Thaer Taha, 43, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 1 May 2022. 6. Rami Fadayel, 43, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 5 September 2022. 7. Lotfi Salah, 43, of Bethlehem, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention 8. Salah Hammouri, 37, of Jerusalem, imprisoned without charge or trial since 7 March 2022. 9. Ghassan Zawahreh, 40, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial since 19 August 2022. 10. Kanaan Kanaan, 30, of Hizma, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 3 August 2022. 11. Ashraf Abu Aram, 36, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 7 June 2021. 12. Ghassan Karajah, 32, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 11 August 2022. 13. Saleh Abu Alia, 32, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 4 March 2022. 14. Awad Kanaan, 32, of Hizma, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 2 February 2022. 15. Leith Kassaberah, 31, of Beit Anan, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 1 February 2022 16. Saleh Al-Jaidi, 30, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 4 August 2022. 17. Basil Mezher, 29, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 12 November 2021. 18. Majd Al-Khawaja, 28, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 14 June 2022. 19. Jihad Shreiteh, 28, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 8 May 2022. 20. Haitham Siyaj, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 3 November 2021. 21. Mustafa Al-Hasanat, 29, of Bethlehem, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 3 February 2022. 22. Azmi Shreiteh al Barghouthi, 23, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 8 May 2022. 23. Muhammad Abu Ghazi, 22, of Arroub refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 13 March 2022. 24. Ahmed Al-Kharouf, 22 of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 13 June 2022. 25. Nasrallah Barghouti, 22 of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention. 26. Muhammad Fuqaha, 22, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 15 March 2022. 27. Tamer Al-Hajouj, 22, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 15 March 2022. 28. Raghad Shamroukh, of Dheisheh refugee camp, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 12 September 2022. 29. Zaid Qaddoumi, of Beit Jala, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 16 September 2022. 30. Senar Hamad, 20, of Ramallah, imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 18 April 2022.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine and the prisoners’ struggle to join the campaign to end administrative detention and to support these valiant prisoners putting their bodies and lives on the line to resist and struggle for a liberated Palestine, through their hunger strike for freedom.
Download these distributable flyers and posters to highlight the struggle to free Palestinian prisoners:
1. Mobilize actions, demonstrations and creative interventions – Take to the streets to defend the Palestinian people and their resistance! As was made clear during the Unity Intifada/Seif al-Quds in May 2021, there is a vast depth of support for the Palestinian people everywhere around the world, including inside the imperialist powers. It is our responsibility to act and make it impossible to continue their support for the crimes against the Palestinian people.
2. Build the boycott of Israel – This is a critical moment to escalate the campaign to isolate the Israeli regime at all levels, including through boycott campaigns that target the occupation’s economic exploitation of the Palestinian land, people and resources as well as those international corporations, like HP and G4S, that profit from the ongoing colonization of Palestine.
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Join Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Brussels between 24 and 29 October 2022 as we join the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, for the International Week of Action for Palestinian Liberation, leading up to the March for Return and Liberation on Saturday, 29 October.
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The Palestinian liberation movement is a Palestinian, Arab and international movement, with a history of a century of struggle fighting back against imperialism, Zionism and reactionary forces. Today, as the Palestinian people and their resistance continue to struggle for return and liberation, the colonial occupation is continuing its extrajudicial killings and massacres, siege on Gaza, mass imprisonment, home demolition, settlement construction and overall assaults on Palestine.
Join Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Brussels between 24 and 29 October 2022 as we join the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, for the International Week of Action for Palestinian Liberation, leading up to the March for Return and Liberation on Saturday, 29 October.
The Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of struggle, confronting the jailers on a daily basis. We will be carrying banners, speaking about and centering the prisoners’ movement throughout these activities and urging the liberation of all Palestinians.
Together, we will organize and march:
- For the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea and the right to return of all Palestinians
- To support the Palestinian people, their resistance and their liberation movement
- For the release of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli, PA, Arab reactionary and imperialist prisons, including the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Lebanese struggler for Palestine jailed in France for 38 years.
- To end the blockade and siege on Gaza
- To demand and implement the total boycott of the Israeli occupation, including kicking Israel out of the United Nations and bringing an end to the “EU-Israel Association Agreement”
- To denounce the responsibility of imperialist powers in forming, funding and arming the Zionist colonial regime in Palestine
- To demand an end to the listing of resistance organizations and rights defenders as “terrorists” and the repression of Palestinian organizing by the US, EU and others
- To confront the collaborationist role of the Palestinian Authority and the so-called “peace process” and the normalization projects being pursued by reactionary Arab regimes under imperialist auspices.
- To honour the activists, leaders, strugglers and organizers assassinated by the occupation forces, especially those in Europe
We invite all who agree with these demands to sign on to endorse the March for Return and Liberation on 29 October and join us in this week of action:
Program of the International Week for Palestinian Liberation (24-29 Oct. Brussels)
The demands of the March are the basis for this week of mobilization organized in Brussels by Classe Contre Class in cooperation with Masar Badil.
We invite you to get involved in the week! Organize artistic, cultural and political events, conferences, art exhibits and direct actions, and join us for the great march on 29 October!
Classe Contre Classe and Masar Badil would like to thank the collectives and structures which have already responded positively to this call and which have made it possible to establish this first program:
Monday 24/10: Presentation by Luk Vervaet of the anthology, Sumud: Words of resistance from Palestinian prisoners . This book includes Lena Meari’s study on the resistance of Palestinians under interrogation. At the Novembre bookstore, 38 rue du Fort, 1060 Brussels.
Tuesday 25/10: Presentation of the Works of Mohamed Boudia. Mohamed Boudia was a fighter for the independence of Algeria and playwright who directed the National Theater of Algiers at independence. Exiled because of his opposition to the military coup of 1965, he joined the Palestinian revolution and was assassinated by the Israeli secret services in Paris in 1975. At the Météores bookshop, 207 rue Blaes, 1000 Brussels.
Wednesday 26/10: “Return from Palestine” evening organized by La Grue collective. Two young activists report back on their experiences in Palestine and their meetings, visits, participation in demonstrations, amid the daily life of Palestinians under occupation in cities, villages and in refugee camps. Location yet to be determined.
Thursday 27/10: International forum on solidarity with Palestinian prisoners organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Banned and criminalized by the Israeli authorities, it has several sections in Europe and around the world. At the Salle Aurore, 9 rue Rouppe, 1000 Brussels.
Friday 28/10: Secours Rouge International conference on the history of the links between the revolutionary movements of Palestine, Europe, the Arab region and elsewhere. In the 1970s, the struggle of the Palestinian people took center stage for internationalism, following Vietnam as the new main front line of struggle. With the participation of activists from Europe and the region who witnessed this period. At DK, 70B rue du Denmark, 1060 Brussels.
During this week: Exhibition of posters by Marc Rudin. In 1977, the Swiss graphic designer Marc Rudin joined the Palestinian revolution in Lebanon and then in Syria. During this period, he produced dozens of posters for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In 1994, he was arrested in Turkey and detained for five years. Exhibition organized by the Revolutionäre Jugend Zürich. Location yet to be determined.
The major event of the week: Saturday 29/10: March for return and liberation. At the call of Masar Badil with the support of the Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine and the Classe Contre Classe organization, with the participation of many collectives and associations, including the CAPJPO-EuroPalestine bloc to challenge the siege of Gaza. Departure 2 p.m. Square Lumumba, Porte de Namur, 1050 Brussels; Marching to the European Parliament.
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Samidoun chapters, affiliates and links around the world:
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has chapters and affiliates in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Spain, Palestine and Lebanon and we work with groups around the world. Would you like to form a local chapter or become an affiliate? Contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net.
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AFGJ/Samidoun 225 E. 26th St., Ste. 1 Tucson, A.Z. 85713-2925 U.S.A.
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