School Children Organize Solidarity Protest with Detainee Shalabi

Free Hana Ash-Shalabi Poster

by Ghassan Bannoura

 As Palestinian Political Detainee Hana Ash-Shalabi entered her twelfth day of open-ended hunger strike on Monday, school children and teachers organized a solidarity protest.

 Israeli authorities moved Ash-Shalabi on Sunday to solitary confinement at the Ha-Sharon Israeli prison. The Palestinian political detainee announced Sunday that she will continue her strike until she is released.

Ash-Shalabi is following the footsteps of detainee Adnan Khader who carried out a 66-day hunger strike. Khader, who reached a near death condition and organ failure, ended his strike last week when Israel pledged to release him in April.

Protesters today marched from the local school carrying Ash-Shalabi photos and demanded her immediate release. The march ended at the protest tent outside Ash-Shalabi’s home in the northern west Bank village of Borqeen near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Ash-Shalabi, 28, is the first female detainee who was release under the Shalit prisoner-swap deal to be re-arrested by the army. She was taken prisoner on February 16, 2012, and was ordered under Administrative Detention for six months.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/63064