The world must heed Khader Adnan’s call
Press Release: Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
The world must heed Khader Adnan’s call: Make Palestinian Political Prisoners’ Day, 17 April 2012, A Day of International Action
The world must heed Khader Adnan’s
call:
Make Palestinian Political Prisoners’ Day, 17 April 2012, A Day of International Action
Organizational endorsements are welcome for this statement. Please click here or email april17@palestinianprisoners.org to endorse.
“I hereby assert that I am confronting the occupiers not for my own sake as an individual, but for the sake of thousands of prisoners who are being deprived of their simplest human rights while the world and international community look on,” Sheikh Khader Adnan wrote from the bed that Israeli soldiers chained him to in the Ramleh prison hospital on 11 February.
“It is time the international community and the UN support prisoners and force the State of Israel to respect international human rights and stop treating prisoners as if they were not humans.” (Ma’an News Agency, “Hunger-striking prisoner not backing down,” 11 February 2012)
Sheikh Khader Adnan’s hunger strike has inspired millions and infused the Palestinian national and solidarity movements with new energy, and we must reflect on his call to the world and prepare a meaningful international strategy to support Palestinian prisoners’ struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.
Khader Adnan is fighting for rights that should be guaranteed to all prisoners, including due process, fair and equal treatment, and freedom from torture and other coercive methods. Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank face a military justice system that is entirely separate from that for Jewish Israelis, including settlers, who are instead part of the Israeli civil justice system; this military justice system for Palestinian political prisoners includes systematic and arbitrary detention without charge, the acceptance of torture, an almost complete lack of due process, vague charges, very low standards of evidence including the use of secret evidence, and widely disparate and harsher sentencing than the civil justice system.In Israel’s domestic criminal justice system exists a system of apartheid Palestinian citizens of Israel charged with political offenses are deemed ‘security prisoners’ and treated very differently from Jewish citizens. Palestinians are subject to unjust and unequal trials using secret evidence, gag orders, and evidence obtained through torture. (Please see this comprehensive analysis by Addameer for further details.)
As of January 2012, 4,417 Palestinian political prisoners are held in jails in Israel, including 170 children and 6 women. Just like Khader, 310 prisoners are held – without charge or trial – under administrative detention including over 20 lawmakers. In solidarity with them, and to broaden Khader’s struggle, we will actively oppose their imprisonment and any detentions without fair trials.
We demand the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. They have been targeted by an unfair and unequal legal system. Their imprisonment reflects Israel’s inherent system of injustice and racism. In addition, Israel must immediately halt its practices of:
• Administrative detention.
• Torture and ill-treatment of detainees.
• Solitary confinement and isolation.
• The use of military courts in the occupied Palestinian territory that illegally try civilians.
• Undermining a fair trial by using secret evidence against the accused.
• Arresting vulnerable groups, such as children, disabled, elderly and ill people.
On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, Tuesday, April 17, we ask that all supporters of the Palestinian political prisoners’ movement bring Khader Adnan’s spirit of resistance to the doorsteps of his captors and would-be killers:
• Organize a protest in front of your local
Israeli embassy, consulate or mission.
•
• 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 government or
parliamentarians.
•
• Raise awareness on your
University campus or in your community about Palestinian
political prisoners
•
• Picket and protest G4S,
Motorola, the Volvo Group, and the Israeli Medical
Association – all providing services to Israel’s prisons
– as well as other targets of the Palestinian-led Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which challenges
the Israeli policies of occupation, colonization and
apartheid these repressive institutions
maintain.
•
• Write letters to Palestinian
prisoners expressing your support.
•
Let Khader
Adnan’s hunger strike mark the beginning of a revitalized
global movement for Palestinian prisoners, their rights,
their families, and their struggle. Together, we can make it
so.
Initiating Signatories:
Addameer
Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
Defence for
Children International – Palestine Section
UFree
Network
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity
Network
Free Ameer Makhoul Campaign
Campaign
to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
Friends of Detainees and
Prisoners Association, Nazareth
One Democratic
State Group-Palestine
14
Friends of Palestine
AberPSC
Al-Awda New
York, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Arab
Organization for Human Rights
BDS Belgium et Bienvenue en
Palestine (Bruxelles)
Brigate
di solidarietà e per la Pace-Solidarity and peace
brigades
Camden Abu Dis Friendship
Association
CCIPPP (Campagne Civile Internationale pour
la Protection du Peuple Palestinien)
Canada
Palestine Association
CAPPJPO-EuroPalestine
Coalition for a Free Palestine – South
Africa
Collectif 69 de Soutien au Peuple
Palestinien
Comité de lutte contre la barbarie et
‘larbitraire
Comité Saintonge Palestine
Educators for
Peace and Justice
ÉGALITÉ / Bruxelles / Belgique
Existence is Resistance
Frantz Fanon Foundation, France
Freedom Road
Socialist Organization
French Jewish Union for Peace
Grupo Acção Palestina
Intal
International
Solidarity Movement – France
Ireland Palestine
Solidarity Campaign
Jews for Justice for Palestinians
Justice for
Palestine Centre – Scotland
Labor
for Palestine
Lawyers for Palestinian Human
Rights
Leeds Palestinian Solidarity
Campaign
Miranda Alliance
Mouvement Citoyen Palestine
National
Lawyers Guild International Committee/Free Palestine
Subcommittee
Nederlands Instituut Palestina-Israel
(NIPI)
Netherlands Palestine Committee
New
York City Labor Against the War
“Palestina nel cuore”
Committee
Palestine Solidarity Alliance–South
Africa
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK)
Palestinian Youth Movement-USA
PennBDS
Plataforma de Solidaridad con Palestina,
Sevilla, Spain
Prisoners’ Family & Friends Association
(PFFA)
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Siegebusters
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights –
UBC
Soutien Palestine
Students for
Justice in Palestine National
“Tanweer” Palestinian Cultural
Enlightenment Forum
Tlaxcala, the international network of
translators for linguistic diversity ,
Tower Hamlets Jenin Friendship
Association
United 4 Palestine
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural
Boycott of Israel
US Palestinian Community Network
Vermonters for a Just Peace
Vrede VZW
Women in Black San Luis Obispo
Yousef Alsedeeq
Institute for Prisoners’
Protection
Individuals:
Richard A. Falk –
Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of California,
Santa Barbara, UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human
rights*
Barbara Hogan — South African, former Political
prisoner under apartheid
Ahmed Kathrada – South
African, former political prisoner who spent 27 years in
prison under apartheid
Siphiewe Thusi–Soweto
anti-apartheid activist and ex-prisoner
Mireille Fanon
Mendès-France, expert, member of the UN Working Group on
People of African Descent
Jan J. Wijenberg – Former
Ambassador, Kingdom of The Netherlands
TO ENDORSE THE CALL, GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE HERE
http://palestinianprisoners.org/palestinian-prisoners-day/
ENDS