Immediate Action needed for Palestinan political prisioners & 5 Broken Cameras showings

Wed Feb 20 10:28:22 PST 2013

► Please Take Action: (and ask others to do so)

Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer ( <http://www.addameer.org/> www.addameer.org) and now Stop FBI Repression ( <http://www.stopfbi.net/> www.stopfbi.net) are calling for support of Palestinians on hunger strike for being kept in administrative detention. See Press Release with more details at the bottom of this message.

Ask the Obama administration to demand that Israel release Palestinian political prisoners being held without charges including Samer Issawi who has been on a hunger strike for over 200 days. 

Call Office of Near East Affairs 1-202-647-7209. 

Call President Obama 202-456-1111 and email him at:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact.

► If you have not already done so:  
Boycott SodaStream and sign the petition: www.change.org/petitions/tell-stores-don-t-buy-or-sell-sodastream-3#share.  
Also please sign the Interfaith Boycott Campaign to Boycott SodaStream Petition:  http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=12341

► Upcoming events: (please attend and bring your friends, family, colleagues, and others)

Thursday, Feb 21, 6:30pm, Film: Oscar Nominee  <http://www.kinolorber.com/5brokencameras> 5 Broken Cameras. A deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a village in Palestine’s West Bank. Art Annex, U.C. Davis campus, Davis. FMI: rzfeldman at gmail.com 

Friday, Feb 22, 7pm, Oscar Nominee  <http://www.kinolorber.com/5brokencameras> 5 Broken Cameras. A deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a village in Palestine’s West Bank. Little Theater, Sacramento City College, 3835 Freeport Blvd, Sac.  <http://www.scc.losrios.edu/About_SCC/Parking_and_Transportation.htm> Parking free in lots; paid in parking structure. FMI: 916-558-2431; pattons at scc.losrios.edu 

Saturday, Feb 23, 11am - 1pm, Bannering & leafleting at Target & Bed Bath & Beyond, to boycott SodaStream, made in an illegal Israeli settlement on stolen Palestinian land. Meet at Target, 3601 N Freeway Blvd, Sacramento.  <http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-stores-don-t-buy-or-sell-sodastream-3#share> Sign the petition. FMI: SacramentoBDS at gmail.com 

Wednesday, Feb 27, 7pm, Film:  <http://roadmaptoapartheid.org/> Roadmap to Apartheid, exploring the striking parallels between South African and Israeli apartheid Sol Collective, 2574 21st St, Sacramento, FMI:  <mailto:sacramento at jewishvoiceforpeace.org> sacramento at jewishvoiceforpeace.org

Wednesday, Mar 6, 6:30pm, Film:  <http://roadmaptoapartheid.org> Roadmap to Apartheid, exploring the striking parallels between South African and Israeli apartheid. Blanchard Rm, Library, 315 East 14th St, Davis. FMI: fabersunne at sbcglobal.net; 530-747-0185. 

Sunday, Mar 10, 12:30pm, Marsha Carlton, of Friends of Sabeel Sacramento Region, speaks about her participation in the "Keep Hope Alive" fall 2012 olive harvest campaign in Palestine's West Bank and visit to Gaza. Westminster Peace and Justice Forum, Club Room, Westminster Presbyterian, 1300 N St, Sac. FMI: 916-444-7783. 

Tuesday, Apr 9, 7pm, Peace Begins with a Home: Faith and Human Rights in Israel and Palestine. Talk by Jeff Halper, Nobel prize nominee and founder of the  <http://www.icahd.org> Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD). First United Methodist Church, 2100 J Street, Sacramento. FMI: sabeelsacramento at gmail.com 

Sunday, Apr 28, 10am-2pm. Protest the “Walk for Israel”, details TBA.

Sunday, Apr 28, 7pm, Comedian and songster  <http://www.davelippman.com> Dave Lippman performs in Sacramento. Sol Collective, 2574 21st Street, Sacramento. FMI: SacramentoBDS at gmail.com. Listen to Lippman’s SodaStream medley:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsxx6RxqcwM <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsxx6RxqcwM&list=PL6YUqv3vrMsCnL_SX5nhL5Xu83CUBT9c3&index=5> &list=PL6YUqv3vrMsCnL_SX5nhL5Xu83CUBT9c3&index=5

Press Release on Alert for Palestinian Prisoners

From: "Addameer Association" < <mailto:info at addameer.ps> info at addameer.ps>
Date: February 20, 2013 7:07:18 AM PST
To: "Addameer Association" < <mailto:info at addameer.ps> info at addameer.ps>
Subject: Addameer, Al-Haq & PHR-I Joint Statement: Immediate action needed to ensure Israel respects hunger-strikers’ rights

 Ramallah-Jaffa, 20 February 2013 – Addameer, Al-Haq and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) express their grave concern for the health of four Palestinian hunger-strikers and outrage at the continued use by Israel of administrative detention as a widespread practice to punish and suppress Palestinian dissent against the Israeli occupation. In violation of international law, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has prohibited the hunger strikers from receiving family visits as well as denying them access to Addameer lawyers and independent physicians. Due to Israel’s use of administrative detention, and the lack of due process afforded to Palestinians in the military court system, a hunger strike represents the singlemost non-violent tool available to administrative detainees and other political prisoners to fight for their basic human rights.

Each of the prisoners in question has been placed in isolation as a punitive measure at some point during their hunger strike as well as being subjected to other forms of ill-treatment and intimidation. These include beatings, almost-daily cell and body searches and shackling to hospital beds. In addition, the IPS has confiscated all personal material belonging to the prisoners.

·         At a hearing yesterday, Samer Issawi, who is in a life-threatening condition and weighs less than 48 kilograms after being on intermittent hunger strike for more than 200 days, was denied release on bail by the Jerusalem Magistrate Court. Samer is protesting his arbitrary re-arrest after his release in a prisoner exchange on 18 October 2011. Using Military Order 1651, Article 186, the military prosecution is requesting that he serve the twenty years that remain from his previous sentence. Samer is suffering from various health conditions including low blood pressure and irregular heart rate, severe pain in the kidney region, muscle pain and constant headaches.
·         Tarek Qa’adan and Jafar Azzidine have been on hunger strike for 86 days in protest against their detention without charge or trial. Neither man has access to the information upon which his detention is based, therefore undermining their ability to effectively challenge the administrative detention order. On 12 February, Tarek and Jafar told PHR-Israel’s lawyer that they were no longer taking any supplements or vitamins, adding further threat to their lives. Tarek and Jafar were informed by the prison doctor that due to their rapidly deteriorating health, they were at risk of imminent heart attack unless they received adequate medical treatment. Both men have expressed their wish to be monitored by and receive impartial medical consultation from physicians of PHR-Israel, however, this request has been ignored by the IPS. Tarek and Jafar are both being held under administrative detention orders, which are due to expire on 22 February 2013.
·         Ayman Sharawna has been on hunger strike since 1 July 2012, except for a brief reprieve in January 2013 when he believed that his case was moving in a positive direction. He is protesting the Israeli prosecution’s attempt to have him serve the remaining 28 years of his previous sentence. Ayman was released in the 18 October 2011 prisoner exchange but was re-arrested on 31 January 2012. Since then, he has been held without charge or trial, based on a “secret administrative file” which alleges that he breached the terms of the exchange deal. Ayman and his lawyer have not been granted access to this secret file or allowed to know the nature of his alleged breach of contract. At a Supreme Court hearing today to contest the legitimacy of his detention under Military Order 1651, Article 186, Ayman’s case was referred back to the Military Court, which will hear his case at a later date. While in court, Ayman told Addameer’s lawyer that as of 16 January he had only been drinking water. Ayman has also been under continuous pressure from the Israeli General Security Service to end his hunger strike.
Israel’s widespread practice of administrative detention constitutes a serious breach of international humanitarian and human rights law. While administrative detention is allowed under international humanitarian law, it must be used only under exceptional circumstances as it infringes upon basic human rights, including right to a fair trial. There are currently 178 Palestinians being held under administrative detention orders, including five democratically elected Palestinian Legislative Council members. Administrative detainees should at all times be entitled to habeas corpus remedy, be informed of the reasons for detention and be allowed regular family visits. This form of arbitrary arrest also contravenes Articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In March of last year the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination urged Israel to end its current practice of administrative detention, which it referred to as discriminatory and constituting arbitrary detention under international human rights law. Similarly, Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union, this week called upon Israel to allow for the immediate restoration to the hunger strikers of family visiting rights and called upon Israel to bring formal charges against the hunger-strikers with a view to providing them with a fair trial without delay. Also this week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated the call to Israel for administrative detainees to be charged and granted a fair trial, or be promptly released.

Such calls for Israel to abide by its international law obligations echo countless others that have been issued by the international community over decades. We are concerned that, like those before them, they will be ignored by Israel until the Member States of the UN begin to support their rhetoric with concrete action and ensure that Israel can no longer violate international law with impunity.

Addameer, Al-Haq and PHR-Israel demand that all hunger-striking prisoners are transferred to civilian hospitals immediately, where they should receive adequate medical care without being shackled. The shackling of hunger-striking prisoners in civilian hospitals is in violation of medical ethics as well as the guidelines of the Israeli Ministry of Health, the Israeli Medical Association, and the IPS.  In addition, family visits, along with regular access to independent medical care and lawyers should be fully reinstated.
In the absence of any formal charges against the hunger-strikers and administrative detainees in general, and bearing in mind that the Israeli court system does not offer a fair and transparent judicial process for Palestinians - a point that was reiterated by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Settlements - Addameer, Al-Haq and PHR-Israel also demand that all four prisoners and the remaining administrative detainees be released without delay.

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