Why P5+1 Ignores the Israeli Nuclear Threat

Diverting Attention to Iran Gives Israel Free Nuke Pass

 … by  Jim W. Dean, VT Editor          … with  Press TV

- first published,  April 6th,  2013 -

Why is Israel not considered the threat that it is?

The nuclear water-boarding of Iran continues by the Western powers despite its veiled politeness. It reminds me of going through fraternity hazing at college. When being paddled we were required to say, “Thank you sir, may I have another?”

We all hope that the P5+1 meetings bare ripe fruit. But I am convinced now more than ever that the focus on Iran is nothing more than a well planned diversion to keep attention away from who the real threats have been in the region.

Iran has shown tremendous restraint during the past ten years. The Israelis, along with the criminal Bush regime, were doing all that they could to trigger a war on Iran, including framing them for a false flag attack.

There have been numerous provocations against Iran, the biggest being the 17,000 Iranians murdered by terrorists. You can divide that by three and see how many 9-11 body counts you come up with.

The US supported MKO killed 12,000 of them, but Americans know nothing of it. One Israeli died in the last Gaza ‘war’, but Americans do know that. Do you see something a little out of balance here?

Yes, some of this mass killing was done while Saddam was using the MKO, but when the US took over it kept the MKO bases in operation under its protection. Mind you, this was back when Iran was turning over the ‘deck of cards’ Ba’athists who had crossed into Iran as a show of good faith, one not appreciated.

The Bush regime war criminals were openly bragging about how when we finished with Iraq we were going to ‘do’ Syria, Libya and Iran. Only chicken hawks use that kind of terminology.

The MKO was used as the only available ‘boots on the ground’ tool for getting human Intel and destabilizing Iran. It was…an act of war, without a vote being taken back here at home. Welcome to that world.

The voices proclaiming war on the Muslim world (not under US control) were not only the draft dodging NeoCon blowhards. They included American Jews who considered serving in the American military not only foolish, but an act of treason against Israel for not serving there.

The NeoCon Allstars

The NeoCons saw their job as infiltrating American politics and institutions like the Pentagon so they could use cannon fodder Americans to die for Israel, and they did. America Jews on the combat front lines were about as common to find as tooth fairies and Santa’s elves.

These NeoCon Israeli assets were the ‘experts’ who testified before Congress that the costs of the Iraq war would be recouped through just a few years of their oil sales. These were the experts who sent recent college grads over there to turn Iraq into a model American puppet democracy that would be a shining light to all.

Those insiders who were critical of this geopolitical fantasy were purged. But looking back now on it we can clearly see that those pushing what has become the biggest disaster in American history, they are the ones who should have been purged.

Never have so many Americans owed so little to so many in the Bush regime. It has caused me to rethink the whole concept of government immunity. Personally I feel that anyone that provides knowingly false information to further any military aggression should be prosecuted for war crimes under the Nuremberg precedent of ‘waging and offensive war.’

“Birds of a feather – Flock together”

The concept of the military oath to the commander in chief requires some rethinking, also.

Why should they not take an oath to the American people and the Constitution, and have the legal power to take any part of our political or military brass into court for treason due to violation of their own oaths?

The mechanics would be simple. A percentage of the war budget would be dedicated to an independent ongoing review of the truthfulness of all actions taken to initiate a war, conducting it, and its aftermath.

The enlisted troops would have their own investigation division with full prosecutorial authority. They would also have access to all classified intelligence so the regime could not hide crimes of treason that way.

Sure, some would say, “This is crazy!” My response would be, “Crazy compared to what?” We know now that those planning and running the War on Terror were clueless about what they were doing. The terrorists who they claimed were a threat were really the left over Jihadists we had trained and supported for years to fight the Soviets and then dumped them afterward.

Osama bin Laden was a highly decorated CIA colonel, with the cover name of Tim Osman. We have interviewed his handler and confirmed he was flown here for a quiet decoration ceremony for all that he had done in the Soviet/Afghan war.

bin Laden (aka Tim Osman) with Brzezinski

The Mujahadin should have all be pensioned out in appreciation for their struggles and had disability care provided for their wounded veterans. Their attitude toward America might have been a lot different. But no, our MBA accountants decided it was cheaper to just forget about them.

We know that the Madrassa schools that indoctrinated children into fighting the infidel Soviets were funded by the CIA and Saudi Arabia.

We had no problem in supporting Muslim extremism when America was using them, and still is. The Wahhabis are chopping off heads in Syria today, compliments of the you know who.

We know successive administrations have continued the folly of ‘Israeli Nuclear Threat Denial’ which has supported the biggest nuclear threat in the Mid East for decades now. It has been the corner stone of our failed Middle East foreign policy and the looting of American taxpayers.

And for a smokescreen Iran is framed as the nuclear bogeyman when our own intelligence agencies have refuted the threat. The Zionists have been caught year after year claiming that Iran is close to having a bomb which they will probably use, so “we have to attack them now to save ourselves.”

Why? Who is threatening them that would even have them consider such a thing that would kill huge numbers of innocent Muslims?

If America and the West really wanted to be safe we should invade Israel, take control of all its weapons of mass destruction and begin the ten years of crimes against humanity trials it will take to prosecute them all.

The folly of our foreign policy is so obvious that Americans who support it should be held accountable under the Bush doctrine that made it legal. Those threatening America should be hunted down wherever they are. The big mistake we made was not cleaning them out here first, so it was they got to give us the West Bank treatment.

In reality, the American people should be close allies to the Iranian people and others in the region. If America went over to a real defense policy like Iran, maybe we could re-industrialize our country like they have. If you take a good look at it you will see that we have sanctioned ourselves through the stupidity of our failed corrupt leadership.

Iran is building this hydro electric facility in Tajikstan – Coming on line in 2013

Iran, who has never invaded anyone, is accomplishing a Manhattan Project domestic industrialization program while under Western sanctions. It is rebuilding its former historical position as the cross roads of the Silk Road.

But instead of spices and silk, energy and advanced technology will flow along the road via oil and gas pipelines, high voltage electrical wires, and co-development projects.

Last time I looked, soldiers do not swear an oath to protect banksters and multinational thugs. Our far Eastern new ‘pivot’ policy is nothing more than that. No one there is any real threat to America. We have been hoaxed by elite hustlers using the classic fear manipulation, a treasonous attack upon their own people.


Our own Thomas Jefferson warned us of this fate with his famous quote, “Merchants have no country.”

During our colonial French and Indian War, French ships actually re-provisioned themselves at American ports.

King George was still running the show then, but we already had the bad seed of Americans willing to make a buck anyway they could, even if it involved supplying the enemy during war time.

Later, during the War of 1812, our New England states supplied beef and other food for the British Army in Canada, and British ships were welcome to provision themselves in their ports. So America has a long history of super traitors in our midst.

They are still with us today folks, killing us for any reason they choose, and will never stop until we give them the appropriate treatment.

With zero indictments for 9-11, the mortgage and derivatives crashes, and the phony War on Terror…they would have you believe that Iran is your threat?

If you buy that then you deserve to live under the boot…but not the rest of us, please.

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Farwana: 4500 Prisoners in Israeli Jails including Women and Minors

Friday 21st September, Abdul Nasser Farwana, a researcher in prisoners' affairs and a released prisoner, said that in Israeli prisons there are around 4500 prisoners in 17 prisons and detention centres such as: Nafha, Rimon , Shata, Jalbou', Eshel, Ashkalon, Hasharon, Hadarim, al-Ramlah, the Negev, Ofer and Majedu.

He also said that among the prisoners there are 198 minors inside prisons, who are subjected to all kinds of torture. There also seven female prisoners and on top of them the prisoner Lina al-Jarbouni who has been in prison for 10 years. Inside prisons, there are 215 administrative detainees who were detained without any trial or charge, 14 deputies, ex-ministers and a number of political, academic and professional leaders.

Farwana revealed that there are hundreds of sick prisoners who suffer from physical and psychological diseases, dozens suffer chronic diseases and their health condition deteriorated in light of medical negligence policy by the Israeli prison Service (IPS). These prisoners are in need for an immediate intervention to save their lives.

Farwana also revealed that there are 20 Arab prisoners from different nationalities including Jordan, Syria and Egypt, some of them are detained for more than 10 years.

Farwana added that 530 prisoners spent life sentences in prison, and there are 21 prisoners who spent in jails more than 25 years.

Farwana condemned the Israeli authority for the huge violations and crimes committed against prisoners, and he called on institutions to activate the case of prisoners on all levels and support them.

 Source

Three Striking Palestinian Prisoners at Immediate Risk of Death

On Thursday 13th September, Minister of Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, Issa Qaraqe, sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling him to immediately intervene to save the lives of the striking prisoners who are now at immediate risk of death due to serious deterioration in their health condition.

Qaraqe also said that crime against humanity and human rights is practiced in Israeli jails against the striking prisoners; Hassan al-Safadi, Samir al-Barq, Ayman Sharawna, and Samir al-Issawi.

Qaraqe said in the letter: We as Palestinian people, ask you as the sponsor of the largest international and human rights organization in the world to intervene to stop a humanitarian tragedy and catastrophe which may occur against the strikers who are exposed to the neglect and disregard of the Israeli government for their legitimate and humanitarian demands, and the need to international and official intervention to compel the Israeli government to release them immediately.

The letter also said that all the principles and UN resolutions have condemned the administrative detention and described it as a violation of the international and human rights laws. The arrest without a trial is considered an illegal, but Israeli government and its security services is still neglecting those principles, which called for a private session for the UN General Assembly to held and seek the deteriorated conditions of the prisoners, especially the striker prisoners and call on Israel to release them and cease its policy that violates the international laws and conventions.

The letter included that the striking prisoners Hassan al-Safadi who has been on hunger strike since 21/6/2012 and Samir al-Barq since 22/5/2012 and Samir al-Issawi who has been on hunger strike since 1/8/2012, are in very serious health condition and are at risk of death.

Qaraqe Continued that It's time to take the international society seriously and compel Israel to respect the humanitarian and political rights of prisoners and to treat them as war prisoners according to the third and fourth Geneva agreements and to put an end for its military laws and brutal procedures in dealing with prisoners.

On Thursday 13th September, The prisoners have executed a one- day strike in solidarity with the old prisoners and as protest against the raids by the prisons' administration to the prisons' cells and attacks on prisoners.

Qaraqe concluded in his letter that prisoners called on our nation, not to give the occupation a chance to take advantage of what's happening in the Palestinian territories and to protest against the Occupation.

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Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails: The Case of Ahmad Saadat

Ahmed Saadat (C), leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), is escorted by Israeli police as he arrives to attend a hearing in his trial at the Magistrate's Court in Jerusalem on 9 September 2012. (Photo: AFP - Ahmad Gharabli)

The last time that 26 year old Sumoud Saadat saw her father, the Secretary-General for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Ahmad Saadat, was during a court session in 2008.

Sumoud and two of her three siblings are banned from visiting their father as they constitute, according to the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), a “security threat.” Her mother Abla and oldest brother Ghassan are able to visit Saadat as they are both holders of the blue Jerusalem ID card, which grants them more privileges and enables relative freedom of movement within the West Bank and the 1948 occupied territories.

The agreement, signed on 14 May 2012 between the IPS and the Higher Committee of Prisoners which signaled the end of the 28 day mass hunger strike of approximately 2,500 Palestinian prisoners, contained five provisions that Israel has systematically violated.

One of the conditions, according to prisoner rights group Addameer’s Quarterly Update, is the reinstatement of family visits for first degree relatives of prisoners from the Gaza Strip (who have been banned from visitation rights for five years) and for families from the West Bank who have been denied visits based on vague “security” reasons.

“There are 700 families from the West Bank who, prior to the agreement, were prevented from visiting their loved ones in Israeli jails based on security reasons, as well as the accusation of having no familial ties to the prisoner,” said Saadat’s lawyer, Mahmoud Hassan.

The families who are still banned from visiting their relatives behind bars have directed their anger at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the body responsible for facilitating the family visits to prisoners inside Israeli prisons. However, director of the ICRC branch in Ramallah Suha Musleh criticized the agreement for not taking into consideration the role of the ICRC in its conditions.

During the hunger strike in Israeli prisons, or the Battle of Empty Stomachs as it is popularly referred to, the Red Cross’ team of doctors would visit the hunger strikers whenever the IPS allowed them to do so.

“Every day, permits are issued by Israel to family members to visit the prisoners,” Musleh commented. “Yet, we were not a part of or even asked to be a part of the agreement. As far as I know, no one has a copy of the agreement,” she added.

“The fault is on the Palestinian side for not taking concrete guarantees for ensuring the conditions of the agreement to be upheld,” Hassan emphasized, “and on the Egyptian mediator for not taking any official guarantees and instead relied on the good intentions of Israel. The supposition that Israel has good intentions is completely flawed, because it bases its decisions purely on politics, not security.”

In 2002, Ahmad Saadat was arrested by Palestinian Authority (PA) Special Forces, after the PA succumbed to pressure from Israel who accused Saadat of organizing the assassination of the far-right Israeli Minister of Tourism, Rehavam Zeevi in October 2001. Zeevi was a known proponent of targeted assassinations of Palestinians and forced expulsion, and his murder was seen as a response to the targeted killing of Abu Ali Mustafa, the previous secretary-general of the PFLP, in his office in Ramallah.

A month later, four members from the PFLP’s armed wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade were arrested in Nablus by the PA’s General Intelligence Services and together with Saadat, were held in the Muqata compound in Ramallah.

 

The PA, contrary to the popular reaction from Palestinians, condemned the assassination and Jamil Rjoub, the former head of the West Bank Preventative Security Forces was the one who issued an ultimatum against Saadat to turn himself in or face arrest.

On 1 May 2002, Saadat and five other PFLP members were moved from Muqata to Jericho prison in a deal between Israel and the late president of the PA Yasser Arafat that ended the 33 day siege on Muqata.

Four years later, on 3 March 2006, the Israeli occupation army raided Jericho Prison, which under the façade of PA control was actually guarded by US and UK observers. The time between Israel’s arrest and sentencing of Saadat, a total of two years, involved more than 30 court sessions, mostly held in Ofer prison on the outskirts of Ramallah.

These sessions allowed for only two members of the Saadat family to attend at a time, and Sumoud had to alternate with her two brothers, sister and mother to ensure that everyone got to see him. Sumoud got to visit her father four times.

“Inside the court room,” Sumoud recalls, “we weren’t allowed to speak to my father. We weren’t allowed to physically touch him, even for a handshake. We tried to communicate with facial expressions, that was it.”

Defining herself as the closest to her father, Sumoud attributes that to the fact that her father was missing from her life for her first two years, as he was behind bars. “He made an extra effort to get closer to me, since I kept rejecting him and referred to my uncle as my father.”

Saadat was sentenced on Christmas Day in 2008 to a life sentence of 30 years in prison. A few months later, there was an order of six months of solitary confinement against Saadat that was renewed every six months for three years before the May 14 agreement was signed.

Saadat refused to recognize the military court, which couldn’t charge him with anything concrete and relied only on circumstantial evidence. He was charged with being the head of the party that carried out the assassination of Zeevi as well as being responsible for actions that were carried out by various members of the PFLP, dating back to the 1980s.

Sumoud affirmed that her father would refuse to be released based on the “good intentions” of Israel, a provision that Israel uses to reward the PA for resuming negotiations, a term that has been synonymous with PA concessions. Saadat is adamant that the only way he will be released is through a prisoner exchange or an end to the occupation.

 

On 23 September 2011, Saadat went on a hunger strike for 23 days to protest against his solitary confinement. The hunger strike ended as a result of the brokered deal between Hamas and Israel that saw captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit of five years exchanged for 1027 Palestinian prisoners. Saadat remained in solitary confinement.

Since the capture of Shalit, Saadat’s name was among those put forward. As news of a possible prisoner exchange began to leak out, high profile members of Hamas, including Aziz Duweik and politburo Khaled Meshaal, personally assured the Saadat family that he was without a doubt among the prisoners returning home and not one of those sent to exile.

Rumors oscillated between the release of Saadat along with popular Fatah man Marwan Barghouti to their continued imprisonment. Nevertheless, when final confirmation of the list of prisoners due to be released in October was out, Sumoud and her siblings were shocked that their father’s name was not one of them.

“My father always told us to never get our hopes up so high, since the Israeli Prison Service are so unpredictable,” Sumoud said. “But it was still a huge shock for the family, especially after Hamas guaranteed us that he would be released.”

On April 17 this year, Saadat joined a mass hunger strike, which grew to involve approximately 2,500 prisoners out of the total 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. His health deteriorated rapidly, and he was transferred to the Ramleh prison hospital, where he was still kept in total isolation.

Former hunger striker Thaer Halahleh, who went 77 days without food and was also in the Ramleh prison hospital, relayed to Sumoud how even on the brink of death, Saadat was kept in a small cell all by himself, padded with some sort of nylon sheets that prevented him from catching any snippets of conversations from the other prisoners. The only time he saw the prisoners was during the night the agreement was signed on May 14, where he was brought out in a wheelchair.

After three years in isolation, Sadaat secured a major triumph and is now in Shatta prison, sharing a cell with other prisoners. Although his wife Abla and oldest son Ghassan were able to visit him after the hunger strike ended, his other children are still banned from doing so, on the pretext of being considered as “security threats” by the IPS.

 

Saleh Hammouri, the French Palestinian former prisoner who spent seven years in jail before being released in the second half of the deal’s implementation in December 2011, was in Hadarim prison with Saadat back in 2007.

“Once, the prison warden, who used to show up barely once a month, came in the morning and informed Saadat that he had a private visit from someone,” Hammouri recalls. “A private visit is a big deal, because it means that the visit is conducted without any physical barrier, and usually they are granted only in the most urgent cases or after dozens and dozens of applications.”

Saadat had asked the warden if the private visit was for all the prisoners. The warden replied that it was just for him.

“Saadat refused to go unless all the other prisoners got the same privilege,” Hammouri smiles. “The prison warden took that as a personal insult against him, and treated him, let’s say, less favorably from that day on.”

Lawyer Mahmoud Hassan acknowledges that the end of Saadat’s isolation is a victory, and is adamant that the release of all Palestinian prisoners is not an unattainable dream, as it is presented in international law.

The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids the forced transfer of persons from occupied land to the territory of the occupier. Therefore Israel using the excuse that it does not give permits to family members because they do not hold Israeli IDs is fallacious because it is primarily based on violating international law by transferring the prisoners in the first place.

“Israel from the very first day intended to use the prisoners as a pressure card for negotiations,” Hassan stated.

The most recent example is Netanyahu promising to release 125 prisoners incarcerated before the signing of the Oslo Accords and the establishment of the PA in 1993 if Abbas returns to the negotiating table, or conversely vowing not to release prisoners if the PA was to go the UN.

“If there was significant pressure from the Arab countries and the world in general,” Hassan continued, “the prisoners’ cause will end with the release of all prisoners, precisely because it is an international cause, as Israel is contravening the Geneva Conventions.”

 Source

UFree Network: Israeli Occupation Intentionally Causes Physical and Psychological Hurt to Hunger Strikers

Hamdan: Medical ignorance of Shirwana is flagrant violation against humanity

UFree Network called in a press release, both International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and World Health Organisation (WHO) upon undertaking their responsibility in exerting more pressure on the Israeli occupation authority to provide medical treatment to Palestinian hunger strikers, especially after the acute deterioration that affected their health, where three of them are at hospitals.

UFree Network condemned the Israel's actions as the rejection of providing medications to the Palestinian prisoner Ayman Shirwana, a 63-day hunger striker, in addition to blackmail and haggle policies practiced to stop his strike in return for an injection for his back pains. However, Shirwana did not succumb and he is still in strike until release.

UFree stated that Israeli occupation authority never stopped torturing Palestinian prisoners highlighting the intentional physical and psychological hurts practiced against hunger strikers.

Mohammed Hamdan, UFree chairman, said "What was done by occupation to Shirwana in terms of refusal of medical treatment is a crime against humanity". He added, "Providing Palestinian political prisoners and detainees with medications is a constant right in all international conventions, but occupation does not respect that and it hurts prisoners on purpose".

It is worth mentioning that Al Ramla jail clinic refused to provide Ayman Shirwana with an injection for his back pains unless he ended his hunger strike. Shirwana is one of the prisoners that were released in Shalit prisoner swap deal, but he was arrested again and Israeli military court demands reactivating his previous sentence. He suffers from back pains and he lost 25 kg of weight, besides he does not take any vitamins or sugar since the end of Eid Fiter, he only drinks water.

UFree said that four Palestinian prisoners are still in hunger strike whom are;
·Samer Al Barq – 104 days

· Hasan Safadi – 74 days

· Ayman Shirwana – 64 days

·Samer Al Essawi – 33 days, another released prisoner in the swap deal but he was arrested again.

Israeli occupation transferred Al Barq and Safadi from Al Ramla Jail clinic to Assaf Harofeh hospital due to their serious health deteriorations.

Source

Hunger striker Sarsak dying in Israeli hospital

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The administration of Assaf Harofeh hospital told the Israeli prison authority that prisoner Mahmoud Sarsak, a Palestinian soccer player on hunger strike for 88 days, is dying and that it cannot be responsible for his death in the coming hours.

Human rights lawyers visited Sarsak on Monday in hospital and affirmed that his health status is more serious than some people think and has become hopeless.

Prisoner Sarsak was transferred on Sunday evening to Assaf Harofeh hospital after a serious decline in his health condition and last Thursday, he was transferred from the hospital of Ramla jail to Meir hospital.

Mahmoud Sarsak was born on January 20, 1987 in Rafah city south of Gaza and is still unmarried. He is a professional national soccer player and a university student majoring in computer programming at the third level.

88 days ago, he decided to go on huger strike in protest at his administrative detention without any guilt or charge, and refused once an Israel offer to exile him to Norway.

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Thaer Halahleh: Making His Own Palestinian Destiny

Thaer Halahleh narrowly skirted death when Israel agreed to a deal that ended his 78-day hunger strike (photo: AFP -Gali Tibbon)

 

By: Antoun Issa, Pascale Menassa

 

Published Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Thaer Halahleh narrowly skirted death when Israel agreed to a deal that ended his 78-day hunger strike, returning home on Tuesday night after languishing behind Israeli bars without charge for over two years.

“I had been in detention for 25 months, and in solitary confinement for 78 days, which is the hunger strike period,” Halahleh, his speech frail after the ordeal, told Al-Akhbar.

There was concern Israel would renege on its promise – as it has so often done in 64 years of its occupation of Palestine – and renew Halahleh's detention once again.

“I threatened the authorities with going on a silent hunger strike in case they didn't release me,” he said.

Israel has already renewed dozens of administrative detention sentences despite having made a deal with 2,000 Palestinian hunger strikers, pledging their release at the end of their current terms.

The Jewish state has also maintained a prohibition on family visits to a number of detainees, again in violation of the deal.

Halahleh's hunger strike has left him weak and thin, but is on the road to recovery.
“I am at al-Khalil hospital and staying there to take the necessary tests. Although I still feel pain when I eat sometimes, I am getting better,” he said.

Thaer, whose name means “rebel”, expressed deep joy at seeing his family, including his two-year-old daughter, Lamar, whom he barely knows thanks to Israel's stringent restrictions on family visits.

“I want to spend time with my only daughter who still doesn't know me and refused to acknowledge my presence until now,” he said bitterly, demonstrating deep resentment at the Israeli occupiers that robbed him of two years of his daughter's life.

But despite winning his own freedom, Halahleh could not contain the sadness at the thought of the many friends he left behind.

“I am overwhelmed with happiness and I am so glad to see my family again with their warm welcome. At the same time, I feel sad to have left my fellow detained brothers who hold the same mission,” he said.

Israel's draconian administrative detention policy dates back to the British mandate era of historic Palestine.

The policy enables Israel to detain Palestinians indefinitely without charge, and without disclosing the evidence supposedly gathered against them.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have slammed the policy as a violation of international humanitarian law.

Hundreds of Palestinians languish in Israeli prisons under the policy, which is just one of the many injustices Palestinian people suffer from under Israeli rule.

Halahleh described the inhumane conditions of the Israeli prison.

“The conditions in the jail were extremely harsh. They aren't fit for a human to live in. I was under the grip of the [Israeli] occupation which has all the means to provoke and pressure me.”

Halahleh has spent much of the past 15 years behind Israeli bars. The first time the 33-year-old was arrested by the Israeli occupation army was just before his senior year in high school.

Due to his frequent arrests and time spent in prison, Halahleh only managed to study for one year at Hebron University. He later managed to open a used furniture store.

He expressed hope in returning to his studies and continuing his furniture store business.

“I still haven't graduated from university. I think I will pursue my Quran and Islamic Sharia studies which I had started before I was detained. I will also handle the management of the furniture store I own,” he said.

Halahleh wrote the following to his daughter on the final days of his hunger strike, concerned that his non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation would take his life.

”My Beloved Lamar, forgive me because the occupation took me away from you, and took away from me the pleasure of witnessing my firstborn child that I have always prayed to God to see, to kiss, to be happy with. It is not your fault; this is our destiny as Palestinian people to have our lives and the lives of our children taken away from us, to be apart from each other and to have a miserable life.”

 

The letter describes the pain that Palestinian people must endure, and the misery Israel is bent on imposing upon them. But in Halahleh's case, his strength won him his freedom.


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Palestine: Finding the Will to Resist

Palestinian fans hold the sign "Freedom for prisoners" during the opening match of the "Palestine Championship" between the local national team and Vietnam in the West Bank town of Al-Ram, between Ramallah and Jerusalem, on 14 May 2012 (photo: AFP - AHMAD GHARABLI)

 

By: Abir Kopty

 

During the latest wave of hunger strikes, many Palestinian movements occurred in support of the strikers’ struggle. It is clear that there is persistent action on the ground, but it is still limited to the active circles connected to the families of the prisoners. At the peak of the strike, when it was crucial to have massive support, many voiced frustration with continued Palestinian apathy, especially when in Scotland and Spain, for instance, thousands marched for the prisoners. Meanwhile, in Ramallah and Nablus, only hundreds bothered to demonstrate.

Despite the long history of Palestinian resistance, current popular action remains limited to small-scale participation. One has to ask, what went wrong?

 

Before discussing the major factor influencing every single aspect of Palestinians’ lives - the Israeli occupation, one needs to look at the process Palestinians went through since the Oslo Accord of 1993 and the subsequent creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) that contributed in many ways to Palestinian apathy. Although those who signed Oslo thought they were heading in a positive direction, it is clear today that what they received was a lie. In lieu of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state, Oslo has given the PA glorified local governance over disconnected city centers. In hindsight, Oslo has been a disaster for the Palestinian cause. The agreement gave much to the Israelis – the colonizers – with minimum concessions, while giving little to the Palestinians – the colonized – while extracting maximum concessions.

One cannot examine the absence of a massive movement on the ground without also taking into consideration the context of separation and division. At present, Palestinians are a separated and divided people. Half of the Palestinian population live in the diaspora and exile, the vast majority in squalid refugee camps in neighboring countries, denied their right of return to their homes and villages. Gaza, ruled by Hamas, and the West Bank, ruled by Fatah, are separated by the occupation. Within the occupied West Bank, divisions also exist. Jerusalem is isolated from the surrounding Palestinian population due to Israeli settlement expansion and occupation. Palestinians with Israeli citizenship were also ignored by Oslo and live in continued isolation from their brethren while suffering daily discrimination in the Jewish “democracy.” Accomplishing the physical unity of Palestinians as a nation to fight apartheid is, thus, difficult. And it’s difficult not only as a result of Israeli policies, and internal division, but also due to Arab countries that host Palestinian refugees, but do not allow them to resist from their borders.

Oslo’s implications pertain not only to geography, demography and land. There were also implications for Palestinian civil society in the occupied territories. Civil society began to be transformed from being part of the liberation movement to “development.” The phenomenon of “NGOzation” has infiltrated Palestinian society. International funders too often dictate to Palestinians their agendas and priorities, killing the spirit of the freedom fighters and resistance in the process.

The Oslo agenda was designed in a way that those trapped in it would have little or no interest in challenging it. Oslo has created the illusion of a “state,” a state for people with no rights and no sovereignty over their borders, resources or fate.

Any decision to dissolve the PA or change its mandate, especially to put an end to the security coordination with Israel, should be made outside the framework of the Palestinian leaders who have vested interests and are terrified at the prospect of losing them. The sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people as a whole, the PLO, is the body to make such decisions. The PNC (Palestinian National Council), the legislative body of the PLO, had its last meeting in 1996, where its members were appointed, not elected as they should have been according to the PLO constitution. Since Oslo, the PLO has lost its mandate and rebellious identity to the “quasi-state” of the PA. We should not expect that the same heads of the PLO, who also run the PA, would want to voluntarily surrender their power. The PLO is occupied by the same faces who have sat there for decades, stifling all sense of change, snuffing out the resistance element of the Palestinian cause. We should not expect such an ossified institution to bring a new vision.

 

Apathy, therefore, became a natural result of the frustration at the unchanged leadership. This leadership lacks any strategy or comprehensive vision, except the ultimate soap opera of “negotiations.” Furthermore, the security coordination with Israel is designed to ensure Israelis’ “security” not Palestinians’. In many cases, it also impedes the people from challenging the occupation with its security forces that sometimes block protesters from reaching checkpoints and have no tolerance toward anyone who dares to criticize Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas). It creates confusion; where do we start our fight? Against the PA leaders who failed the people but still hold on to power? Or the Israeli occupation forces that have trapped the PA in such a role and still control Palestinian lives? In order to fight, you need to set your target with clear eyes.

That is relevant to the West Bank under the PA and Fatah, however, Palestinians under Hamas in Gaza face similar challenges, and a regime even more oppressive toward critical voices that might challenge its rule.

Some also have concerns based on their experiences of the second intifada, where an unorganized armed resistance led to armed militias and security chaos. Many Palestinians are afraid an uprising will spiral out of control, and the same chaos will return.

Yet, the main reason for the Palestinian apathy and fatigue remains the occupation and colonization that has not relented since the creation of the PA in Oslo.

Israel attempts to crush peaceful resistance with no regard for Palestinian lives. And that, naturally, deters people from participation. When people go to participate in a protest against the occupation, they take the risk of getting shot, beaten, or arrested. Two-hundred and seventy-five Palestinian martyrs have been killed by the Israeli army since 2000 in popular resistance rallies. (Information taken from the Popular Resistance Coordination Committee).

Arrest means a verdict in a military court. Imprisonment is a near certainty and is far more of a persecution than prosecution. The system is heavily stacked against a fair day in court for Palestinians. According to Haaretz, in 2010, 99.74 percent of the trials of Palestinians in Israeli military courts ended in convictions. Arrest and then charges means a “security file” will accompany any attempt to travel, whether for leisure or studies. It kills the already near-impossible chance of getting a permit, either for work in Israel or to visit family or friends. Arrest means one becomes a target – and in many cases one’s family does as well.

Palestinians have sacrificed much for their steadfastness and resistance, with tens of thousands killed, hundreds of thousands jailed, arrested or tortured, and many others losing their homes or lands or source of income. Their sacrifice is met with non-stop Israeli colonization, their resistance is met with brutal Israeli repression, and their screams met with international silence. Combined, it has made Palestinians question the worth of their sacrifice.

Israel has “architectured” the Oslo agreement to make the occupation more efficient. To Palestinians in city centers, the occupation has become slightly less direct. There, you will hardly feel the occupation, unless you have to go through checkpoints every day or you see the Israeli army raiding your neighborhood at night to arrest your neighbor. Many people abandoned the option of filing for a permit to enter "Israel" to visit friends or family or simply Palestine. Many people gave up the idea of traveling abroad because they would need permission from Israel and they would need to cross Israeli "border" points. Most Palestinians have a “security file” in Israel and, if not them, a family member surely does. People just continue to live their lives, adapting to the reality, with the Israeli occupation sapping their will to resist. They fear losing the little they have left if they challenge the status quo.

Understanding this complexity under which Palestinians live post-Oslo explains the current situation where the will to resist has been drained from the people of resistance. In order to break down Palestinian apathy and fatigue, one will have to break down the many reasons that led to it, starting with Oslo.

Abir Kopty is a Palestinian blogger. Follow her on Twitter @abirkopty

 

 Source

US lawyers express concern to Clinton over conditions of Palestinian prisoners

One of the largest lawyers' representative bodies in America has written an open letter to the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, urging her to apply pressure on her Israeli counterparts to end the illegal practice of administrative detention against Palestinian prisoners. 

 

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has expressed its grave concern over the recent Palestinian hunger strike, highlighting the causes as "the widespread and illegal practice of administrative detention... horrendous living conditions and ill-treatment to which [Palestinian prisoners] are subjected to in Israeli prisons".

 

 The NLG highlighted further the use of long-term isolation and secret evidence in a military court system, and warns that hunger strikes will continue unless the prisoners' fundamental human rights are respected. The letter ends with a call for the immediate cessation of all US military aid to Israel, which amounts to $3.1 billion per annum. Read the full letter below:

Letter to Sec. Clinton Re: Palestinian Hunger Strikes

 

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary Clinton,

Although the imminent threat of death for Palestinian hunger strikers has apparently been averted as the strikers have won concessions from Israeli authorities to improve their conditions, the National Lawyers Guild continues to express its grave concern over the issues that caused those approximately 2000 Palestinian prisoners to put their lives on the line. Those prisoners were protesting against the widespread and illegal practice of administrative detention, as well as the horrendous living conditions and ill-treatment to which they are subjected in Israeli prisons. It is regrettable that it has taken the mass near-starvation of Palestinian political prisoners to call attention to their plight.

The last minute concessions allowed Israel to avoid a volatile situation, both in its prisons and in the land it occupies. We call on you to insist that the Israeli authorities abide by their international obligations, respect international humanitarian and human rights laws, and implement the concessions they agreed to in good faith—and to do so publicly.

The written agreement apparently contains five main provisions:

* The prisoners would end their hunger strike following the signing of the agreement.

* Israel will end the use of long-term isolation of prisoners for “security” reasons, and the 19 prisoners currently in isolation will be moved out within 72 hours.

* Family visits for first degree relatives of prisoners from the Gaza Strip and for families from the West Bank who have been denied visit based on vague “security reasons” will be reinstated within one month.

* A committee will be formed to facilitate meetings between the Israeli Prison Service and prisoners in order to improve their daily conditions.

* There will be no new administrative detention orders or renewals of administrative detention orders for the 308 Palestinians currently in administrative detention, unless the secret files, upon which administrative detention is based, contains “very serious” information.

Unfortunately, Israeli authorities have not agreed to end their widespread use of indefinitely renewable administrative detention by military courts, based on secret evidence, without charge or trial. This practice is in violation of international humanitarian law, which permits the limited use of administrative detention but nevertheless requires a fair hearing at which the detainee can hear the evidence against him/her and challenge the bases for continued detention. This is also a fundamental tenet of due process rights and is required by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), in particular Article 14 paragraph 3 (a), which provides that everyone be entitled to “be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the nature and cause of the charge against him.” The policy of administrative detention contravenes these basic international human rights standards as the evidence against these detainees is submitted in secret to the military court and neither the detainees nor their lawyers are given access to it. Since the detainees do not know the evidence against them, they are unable to refute it or otherwise defend themselves.

Administrative detainees have in the past included, and will likely continue to include many Palestinians involved in organizing non-violent political activity. They have also included elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Currently 24 Palestinian MPs are in administrative detention, effectively disabling the governing body.

According to data in the military courts’ annual report, obtained several months ago by Haaretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, 98.77 percent of requests for administrative detention have been approved by military courts over the past few years. One third of the 308 currently held detainees have been held between one and two years, 13 have been held between two and four and a half years, and two have been held for even longer. Several individuals have been subjected to administrative detention several times, with aggregate time served in detention sometimes exceeding 10 years.

According to Human Rights Watch: “The idea that you can lock up 100s of people at any given time—and over the years 100s and 1000s of people—without any due process rights, really turns human rights law on its head.” The UN Human Rights Committee has consistently said that administrative detention is practiced by Israel in an unlawful way. In response to the mass hunger strike, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon demanded that all the administrative detainees “must be charged and face trial with judicial guarantees, or be released without delay.” We urge the US government to make this same demand concerning present and future administrative detainees.

Israel has consistently failed in the past to respect the agreements it has entered into with Palestinians regarding prisoners’ issues, including the use of long-term isolation. The release of Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa’adat, held in isolation since March 18, 2009, and the return of all isolated prisoners to the general population were the primary demands of the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike of October 2011. That strike ended with Israeli concessions that were not kept. Long-term isolation, up to 10 years in one case, continued. Ahmad Sa’adat remained isolated. Solitary confinement also continued to be systematically used pre-trial as a means of isolating detainees and coercing them to confess.

As we are sure you are aware, on October 18, 2011, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez, speaking before the UN General Assembly, called for all use of isolation longer than 15 days to be banned, saying that isolation can cause “severe mental pain or suffering” and “can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pre-trial detention, indefinitely or for a prolonged period… solitary confinement should be banned by states as a punishment or extortion technique.” We therefore urge you to insist that Israel respect the obligations it has just entered into concerning putting an end to its illegal use of isolation.

This is not the first mass Palestinian prisoner hunger strike. Nor is it likely to be the last time that prisoners put their lives and health at stake in an effort to defend their dignity and human rights within a military justice system that is rife with physical and psychological torture, abuse, and deprivation.

Hunger strikes are virtually the only way that their voices can be heard. It is imperative that the US government hears the voices of Palestinian prisoners and takes action to secure and protect their fundamental rights. Their lives depend on it.

Given the likelihood that human rights and humanitarian law violations will continue to be committed and condoned by the Israeli military courts, in particular the widespread use of administrative detention, it is unconscionable that the United States continues its military aid of over $3.1 billion a year to Israel—and even discusses adding an additional $1 billion. In light of the violations we have outlined above, the National Lawyers Guild calls for the immediate cessation of all military aid to Israel.

Sincerely,
Heidi Boghosian
Executive Director
National Lawyers Guild

Empty Stomach Warriors: A History Lesson

Hunger strikes like the one that ended Monday have long been the only way for Palestinians held captive by Israel to secure improvements to harsh prison conditions.

More than 15 major indefinite hunger strikes have been organized by the Palestinian captive movement in Israeli jails in the 45 years since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip began.

Decisions to stage “strategic” hunger strikes – as the prisoners refer to them, to distinguish them from the smaller-scale strikes they hold regularly - are taken in full knowledge of the suffering and danger they entail for the participants. But they have proven to be the prisoners’ sole means of partially alleviating the suffering of a different order which is inflicted on them on a daily and growing basis.

Conditions for Palestinians in the jails of “the only democracy in the Middle East” have never been determined by considerations of human rights. They have largely been the outcome of a constant struggle pitting the defenseless inmates, determined to continue their struggle for freedom and dignity behind bars, against an occupation authority for which brutal incarceration is an integral part of the broader system of repression.

In a world which tacitly colludes with the occupation by disregarding its crimes, it is unsurprising that this struggle goes largely unreported by the media. It only makes the news at major junctures, when the prisoners force themselves on the domestic and regional agenda by declaring a war of wills, with only their empty stomachs as weapons.

"Conditions for Palestinians in the jails of “the only democracy in the Middle East” have never been determined by considerations of human rights."

 

This weapon was first employed effectively in 1969, in a hunger strike in Ramleh prison which lasted 11 days and set a precedent. Large-scale hunger strikes have been held around once every three years since. They have invariably focused on variants of the same demand: the improvement of worsening prison conditions to a level consistent with the prisoners’ human dignity.

Veteran former inmates recall how prisoners in the 1970s were subject to forced labor – at times being made to do work for the Israeli military such as sewing tarpaulins – forbidden from speaking to each other in prison yards, and routinely meted out brutal and humiliating treatment from guards. They are acutely conscious that it was only the hunger and pain they suffered in successive strikes which brought about incremental gains – from the right to have spoons to eat their meals with, to the demands raised by the prisoners in their latest hunger strike.
At times they have paid with their lives, as in the 32-day hunger strike at Nafha prison in 1980. Three inmates – Rasem Halaweh, Ali al-Jaafari, and Ishaq Maragheh – died during attempts by prison administration to force-feed them with fluid injected through tubes inserted into their nostrils.

Veterans consider this to have been one of the hardest-fought and toughest of all Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strikes because of the draconian measures the Israeli prison service took in an attempt to break it, apparently fearing the precedent it would set if it succeeded. But the prisoners’ determination proved stronger, and a number of gains were achieved. These included improved conditions such as being provided with beds to sleep on (they had previously had to sleep on cell floors), and also recognition of the prisoners’ organizational structures, and by extension their right to deal with the prison authorities via representatives of their own choosing.

"Hunger Strikes have invariably focused on variants of the same demand: the improvement of worsening prison conditions to a level consistent with the prisoners’ human dignity."

 

The most high-profile hunger strike after Nafha was at Juneid prison in 1987, which also extended to other detention centers. It resulted in prisoners establishing their right to longer outdoors-time and access to radio and television.

The “mother of battles” waged by Palestinian prisoners was the rolling hunger strike they launched in September 1992. It took months to plan and coordinate, and was taken up in succession by captives in all the main prisons, numbering around 7,000 in total. Street protests in support of the prisoners rapidly gained momentum, sparking what the media dubbed at the time as the “prisoners’ intifada.” During the 17 days of the hunger strike, Israeli occupation forces killed 17 Palestinian protesters in clashes in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. One of the striking prisoners, Hussein Obeidat, also lost his life due to health complications.

Among the notable gains achieved was the right for prisoners to embrace their young children for five minutes during family visits, and also to continue their academic studies by correspondence, and to use fans to alleviate the summer heat in their cells.

It was clear to the captive movement at the time that it would be a struggle to hold on to these important gains. Having been forced to yield in the face of the prisoners’ resolve, the Israeli prison service proceeded to gradually but systematically renege on its undertakings. It withdrew, or effectively cancelled, many of the entitlements prisoners had achieved, taking advantage of the conducive political climate and conditions over the years that followed.

Thus, by the time of the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000, prison conditions had worsened steadily, and they have continued to deteriorate. The Israeli government itself ordered harsh measures against prisoners as a means of applying pressure and extortion during the course of the protracted prisoner exchange negotiations conducted after the Palestinian resistance captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Whenever a decision is taken to go on hunger strike, the leaders of the various political groups to which the inmates belong appoint a special committee to prepare for and organize the protest, and define and prioritize demands and tactics. Known as the “struggle committee,” it determines the parameters of the protest and the minimum terms for ending it. Once the strike is announced, the committee takes charge of leading it and negotiating with the prison authorities on behalf of the prisoners, and it alone can call an end to the strike.

"The “mother of battles” waged by Palestinian prisoners was the rolling hunger strike they launched in September 1992."

 

Former prisoners who have been on open hunger strike say they always knew their lives were on the line, despite the measures they learnt to take to maintain their health for as long as possible. Captives who join hunger strikes are, for example, told to take regular doses of salt to keep up their blood pressure and drink plenty of water to maintain body fluid levels. It is also important to keep movement minimal to preserve calories and avoid sudden exertions which could cause vertigo.

Yet these measures do not spare hunger strikers from intense suffering. This is compounded by the foul smell which begins to be emitted from the gut around the fifth day, accompanied by severe pains in the joints and a growing sense of weakness. The feeling of actual hunger diminishes as the stomach atrophies. With time, other symptoms start to appear, with severe weight loss setting in after the first week. After the second week the body starts tapping energy from the liver and muscles.

According to medical observations, hunger strikers enter a critical phase in their fifth week, as muscle paralysis sets in, also affecting the eyesight, and it becomes difficult even to swallow water. Subsequently, the senses dull and weaken before being almost completely lost. Then, internal bleeding begins, along with the struggle against death.

There is no precise medical prognosis for how long someone can survive without food. But observations of hunger strikers suggest that a young, healthy adult of medium weight would expect to start losing consciousness on day 55 of a hunger strike, and be in a critically life-threatening condition from day 60. Statistics suggest it would be highly unlikely for a hunger striker to survive 75 days.

---

Prior to the latest Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike, one of the longest in modern times was the 1981 protest by Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoners jailed by Britain, led by the militant and poet Bobby Sands. They began a rolling hunger strike in March that year to demand recognition as political prisoners rather than common criminals. Sands died after 66 days, and his comrades continued the protest. Nine of them lost their lives before the hunger strike was called off in October after the British government acceded to the prisoners’ demands. Sands became an icon of the Irish republican movement, his funeral attended by more than 100,000 people. Palestinian detainees Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Thiab were on the 77th day of their hunger strike when Monday’s deal was announced.

 Source

Jailed Palestinians end Israel hunger strike

About 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails had been on hunger strike to protest conditions and policies [EPA]

Deal reached to end hunger strike of about 2,000 Palestinians protesting against living conditions in Israeli jails.


The Palestinian Minister for Prisoner Affairs has said a deal has been reached with Israel to end a weeks-long hunger strike by hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Issa Qaraqe said the Palestinian prisoners signed the deal on Monday afternoon at an Israeli prison in Ashkelon.

He did not have details of the deal, and Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

About 2,000 prisoners held by Israel have been on a hunger strike since mid-April, demanding better conditions.

A handful of prisoners have been refusing food for as long as 77 days, and are said to be in a critical condition.

Source

Palestinian Prisoners – Kidnapped and Neglected

by Sami  Jamil Jadallah

In contrast to Gilad Shalit, the French-Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas on June 2006, who became a cause celebrate by heads of states, international organizations, kidnapped Palestinian civilians are ignored by Israel, by the Palestinian leadership, certainly by the world community.

Gilad Shalit was not an ordinary Israeli civilian citizen. He was a soldier, a member of the IDF, carrying a gun, ready to shoot and kill. He was a prisoner of war. In contrast, the Palestinian prisoners held under administrative detention are kidnapped civilians, not soldiers, not carrying guns, did not shoot or kill any one. They are simply kidnapped and held without cause and without trial by a criminal Israel and every one that count remains silent.

The interesting thing about Israel’s administrative detention is that it is inherited from the former British Mandate in Palestine and used to detain and applied more to Palestinians and much less to Jews, even though Jewish settlers were actively engaged in terrorist activities.

It is also interesting to note until Israel formally adopted the “administrative detention” in 1979, the Knesset and for a long time since the founding of the state refused to formally adopt it, as it was ashamed to use it. The state simply “borrowed” it to detain Palestinians, first those who remained in Palestine of 48 and then later widely used to detain hundreds of thousands since 67. Over 600,000 Palestinians were processed through Israeli jails. That is one third of the population.

Israel uses “administrative detention” to punish, intimidate even force detainees to become “informers” of Shin Beth, the Israeli internal security agency.

Under Israeli laws, the Defense Minister has the authority and power to detain any one for renewable periods of 6 months based on recommendations of the various security agencies. Of course no need for any detainee to have committed any crimes. Simply if the security agencies think a detainee is a person of interest it can detain them.

Moreover the law does not require the state to bring or file formal charges, and the detainee has no right of council, and has no right to see or cross examine the order, neither the defense lawyer. So-called “evidence” is presented to a presiding judge normally in a military court and the state does not even have to present evidence. A simple letter from the Defense Ministry claiming there is “evidence” is sufficient to send someone to jail for yearns without trial. Now my friends this is the only democracy in the Middle East and this is America’s best ally, certainly the most expensive ally in the history of the world.

Of course we all need to keep in mind that the US like its ally Israel did and does exercise the powers of “administrative detention”. In fact over 110,000 Japanese American were also held in administrative detention called “internment camps”.

Now these people were never charged with any crime, nor there were any evidence they collaborated with the Japanese. Yet the President of the United States saw it fit to detain these American people simply because they were Japanese.

While the US detained and “interned” these US citizens because they were of Japanese origin, the US did not detain or create internment camps for Americans of German origin living on the East Coast.

The US Supreme Court in Karamtsu vs. the US, 323 US 214, sided with the government and ruled President Roosevelt Executive Order 9066 was constitutional. I was surprised back in 76 when I did a research paper on the subject

that the most liberal justice on the court justice William Douglas ruled with the majority of 6-3. That case stand, it was never overruled.

While every Tom, Dick and Harry from Obama to Blair, to Merkel to Sarkozy to too many to mention traveled to Jerusalem and Ramallah in support of the release of Gilad Shalit, even the G8, the Catholic Church, Russian leadership all demanded his release. He became an “honorary” citizen” of many countries in Europe. Yet hardly any one, not even the UN ever gave a damn about the thousand Palestinians kidnapped and detained by Israel.

More tragic is the fact that the Ramallah leadership never made the issue of kidnapped prisoners a priority or an issue in international meetings, only giving a lip service. Only when these detainees went on hunger strike did the Ramallah leadership paid any attention. Its priority always was to seek funds to operate and serve the Jewish Occupation.

Unlike the movie Fiddler on the Roof when the lead character Tevye sang his song “If I was a rich man,” the Palestinians prisoners should be singing the song “ If I was Jew”. Only then will the world give them any attention.

Updates on the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike: AIC (ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER)

 Source

Halahleh on Death Bed, ’’Israel’’ Seeking Deal with Prisoners

The Palestinian Thaer Halahleh who has been on hunger strike for 73 days in protest at his detention by the Zionist entity has been told he "could die any moment" by a prison doctor.

Halahleh, who was recently transferred to a hospital after refusing to drink water, is reportedly on his deathbed.

A lawyer from al-Quds-based charity Addameer described Halahleh's deteriorating condition.

"Halahleh has lost significant weight, and now weighs 55kg," said the NGO.
It further warned that "he has exceedingly low blood pressure and his temperature is fluctuating at dangerous levels. In addition to vomiting blood, Halahleh is also bleeding from his gums and lips."

"Israel's" supreme court rejected a request by Halahleh and fellow hunger striker Bilal Diab to be freed.
This came as "Israel" still refuses to transfer Diab and Halahleh to hospital after 73 days on hunger strike, the Prisoners Society said Friday.

Diab, 27, and Halahleh, 33, are being held in the "Israeli" prison clinic, Prisoners' Minister Qaddura Fares said, adding that the "Israeli" authorities refused to allow the society's lawyer to visit them on Thursday.

However, it seems that "Israel" started to surrender.

According to news agencies, "Israel's" prison service has offered to ease restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in a bid to end a mass hunger strike that has left several detainees close to death.

An official with Addameer told AFP on Thursday that negotiations between prisoners and the "Israel" Prison Service (IPS) appeared to be making progress.

"According to what we have learned from the prisoners, there was a meeting last night in Nafha prison between the IPS and leaders of the hunger strike," she said.

 Source

Palestinian prisoners' strike enters a serious stage

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian PM Ismail Haneyya called, in a solidarity tent in Gaza city on Monday, to use all means and ways including resistance options to free the prisoners and support them in their hunger strike that continues for the 14th day running. 

Haniyeh called on the Arab and Islamic people and governments to rise up in all revolution squares in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners who represent "a part of this Umma”.

He stressed on the need for a concerted effort at the Palestinian, Arab, Islamic, and international levels to support the prisoners' steadfastness and to work by all means for their freedom and dignity. "All the world was moving for releasing the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit whereas 5 thousand Palestinian prisoners are being ignored," he said.

He stressed that the prisoners' determination needs more support from the Palestinian people, promising the prisoners to stand behind them till their freedom and to keep fighting and resisting till attaining their safe return to their homes.

Haneyya confirmed that resistance will never accept negotiating on prisoners' freedom and dignity and they will work to enforce prisoners' rights that are guaranteed by international law and principles.

He appreciated the Palestinian factions’ unity around this issue that is more superior to all differences.

Meanwhile, minister for Detainee Affairs Dr Attallah Abu al-Subah, stated that the two coming days of the strike will be critical, either the prison service respond to the prisoners' demands, else the prisoners are entering  a serious stage where hunger striking prisoners might start dying.

Abu al-Subah stressed, in an exclusive statement to the PIC, that the coming days will witness an escalation in the strike where many prisoners will join the open-ended hunger strike and will launch a mass civil disobedience campaign disrupting all facilities and workers within the prison. 

He revealed that many meetings were held last week between the captives’ movement leadership and prison service discussing ways to end the strike.
The prison service tried in these meetings to get around the prisoners’ real demands but the prisoners refused to cede their fair demands.

Abu al-Sabuh confirmed that solidarity activities will expand more inside and outside Palestine, stressing on the need to unite all efforts to support the prisoners' fight for their usurped rights.

The Tadamun International for Human Rights stated that the isolated detainee Abdullah Barghouti suffers from low body temperature and low blood sugar and severe weight loss.

Ahmad Bitawi,a researcher for the organization, affirmed that in his meeting with Barghouthi, 19 days into his hunger strike, he noticed that he suffers from a low body temperature about 36° and a sharp decline in sugar reaching 65, causing his dizziness while moving, as he has lost 16 kilograms of his weight, pointing out that at the same time he shows a great steadfastness and determination, insisting to continue his strike. 

He added that the prison service of Aylon offered the detainee vitamins and minerals but he refused to drink but water.

For his part Barghouti sent a message from his isolation cell saying that he and his fellow captives are gain to extract their rights and not beg for them from the occupation, praising the Palestinian people solidarity asking them for more support. He also thanked the Jordanian people and the Jordanian engineers Association that has given so much to serve and support the prisoners' issue.

Barghouti stressed that his demands are to allow his family to visit him and to go out with his brothers from isolation, which prisoners call the “graves of the living”, and he expected to be transferred to hospital during the next few days because of his serious health deterioration.

A court hearing to look into his isolation is slated for 2 May 2012 o decide whether to extend or end his isolation.

The Engineer Abdullah Barghouthi, who is serving 67 life sentences, the highest sentence in the history of the Arab-Zionist conflict, is married and a father of 3 children and holds Jordanian citizenship. He was detained since 5 March 2003.

Barghouthi is one of 18 isolated prisoners in occupation prisons and their release from isolation is one of the demands of the captives’ movement and a condition to stop the hunger strike, which entered the 14th day.

 Source

Surviving Israeli jail: Torture, humiliation and giving birth

Hamas militants stage a mock prison break during a rally,

calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli

jails, in Jabalya, in the northern Gaza Strip, April 13, 2012

(Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

Thousands of Palestinians are on hunger strike in Israeli prisons - for over a week, they have been protesting against indefinite detention without charge and alleged ill-treatment. Some of those who got out, told RT about their life behind bars.

Human rights groups in the West Bank say 2,000 Palestinians have been on hunger strike for more than a week, and others are ready to join next week. At the moment there are an estimated 5,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. Each year, 700-800 minors are arrested, and in all, 20 per cent of Palestinians have experienced Israeli prison.

Yahya as-Sinwar was arrested in 1988 and sentenced to 462 years in prison. He served 23 years and is now 50. He is one of the founders of Hamas and the Islamic University of Gaza.

Israel accused him of organizing and leading Hamas internal security unit MAJD and killing Palestinian traitors who spied for Israel. As-Sinwar says that they had no choice, because these people put the resistance movement in jeopardy.

Speaking about his years spent in an Israeli jail, as-Sinwar says different kinds of torture were routine practice.

“They kept me awake for 10 days in a row. Whenever I dozed off, they would pour ice-cold or boiling water on me – depending on their personal preferences. They would tie my arms behind my back, throw me on the floor, a prison guard would sit on my stomach or chest, apply pressure to the groin – the pain was excruciating,” Yahya as-Sinwar recollects.

According to as-Sinwar, the Shabak [Israeli General Security Service] handles torture during the investigation, and the Shabas [Israeli Prison Service] tortures sentenced prisoners. “They have two departments – Nahshon and Metzada – which are responsible for the total psychological destruction of a person. These methods are not used anywhere else in the world.”

He says Israeli prison guards could tie a prisoner to a child’s chair and make him balance on it for days; put a person in an ice box (after this the person’s limbs are usually amputated).

“They have this form of torture when they tie a prisoner’s hands and leave him hanging for 24 hours. Or they suffocate the prisoner, watch him turn blue, let him breathe for a bit, and then repeat this several times,” as-Sinwar told RT.  “When they tortured my close friend, they beat him on the back of the head with tightly rolled newspapers. A person has terrible headaches afterwards, becomes hysterical, all the internal organs get damaged.”

According to as-Sinwar, these kinds of torture leave no marks and even a very keen doctor would find it very difficult to discover any signs of abuse.

“They study the prisoners and come up with something especially humiliating for this particular convict. For a Palestinian it is easier to die than suffer humiliation – they know it very well and humiliate our people in a very cruel way.”

As-Sinwar says the prisoners could not get proper medical treatment in custody: “After long hours of waiting in pain, all you get is not a doctor but a nurse without any experience who gives you one cure for all conditions – a painkiller. They don’t care if a prisoner lives or suffers terrible pain.”

As-Sinwar believes hunger strikes are the only way for Palestinian prisoners to express their protest.

“Prisoners in Israel get 10 per cent of the amount of food served in the prisons of other countries. After many days of hunger strikes convicts look like the walking dead. Prison guards have to carry them to interrogation sessions on stretchers, and throw them on the stone floor in their prison cells.”
­

Cells space of 1.2 by 0.8 m

All the fences in the neighborhood around Ayman Hatem Afif al-Shakhshir’s house in Gaza are covered with citizens’ wishes of health and well-being to him.  He spent 19 years in an Israeli prison out of the 550-year term he was sentenced to, and was released in exchange for Corporal Shalit. Ayman Hatem Afif al-Shakhshir stems from a well-known Palestinian family. He was arrested at the age of 28. His three daughters grew up, and two of them got married and had children without him around.

Ayman was the head of one of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He was arrested on charges of taking part in assaults on Israeli military personnel deployed in Gaza.

“None of the detainees had a single visitor for five years since 2006. My father died without seeing me once in the last 10 years of his life. It was only through the Red Cross that I occasionally received letters – it was the only way to keep in touch with the family, while my children were growing up without me,” says Ayman.

He says his cell was not fit to hold people.

“It was a tiny cell measuring 1.2 by 0.8 m where one person could not lie down, or stand up or stretch his legs, it had no furniture, and food was given once a day, and it’s so bad you couldn’t eat it. I know three prisoners who spent 25 years each in such cells.”

“Israeli propaganda is advertising their prisons to the world as if they were five-star hotels – but this is all lies. And what they say about prisoners having the opportunity to complete their education in Israeli schools is also a lie.”

Ayman himself got his Bachelor’s degree in Social Defense through the remote education program from Gaza University. “Now prisoners are denied any education opportunities whatsoever. A whole system to break the prisoners’ will is in place, they get denied everything a person needs to feel connected with the outside world,” he says.

Ayman is convinced that meaningless imprisonment terms of many times a lifetime are given with the sole purpose of breaking the prisoner’s will.

“They want a person to sit in this stone well and know that this is where he is to die. But they are hugely mistaken. Each Palestinian has a hope for help from God, and there is no taking this away.”

Yahya as-Sinwar with his wife (Photo: Nadezhda Kevorkova, RT)

Giving birth with hands and feet tied

Samar Isbeh was arrested when she was 22 following a student protest. She was sentenced to 2.5-year term in prison. She is now 28, and lives in Gaza, while her own and her husband’s families live in the West Bank.

“I was arrested three months after my wedding. I was the head of the student council at the Islamic University. We organized a protest against occupation. I was arrested in my husband’s home in Tulkarm. Two days later my husband was arrested too and sentenced to 9 months in prison, although they had nothing to charge him with whatsoever,” says Samar.

Samar Isbeh (Photo: Nadezhda Kevorkova, RT)

She has now been deported to the Gaza Strip and is denied entry to Tulkarm, so she can see neither her husband nor her children.

“I was in my fist weeks of pregnancy when I got arrested. I went through every kind of torture. They tortured me in an underground cell for 66 days. They made me balance on a children’s chair, they kept me in a freezing cold disciplinary cell,” says Samar.

“My hands and feet were tied when I was going through labor. They C-sectioned me, not because I required it but simply out of hatred. They let me have the child but treated him as a prisoner, too. They gave us no milk or diapers, or only expired ones. I was kept in terrible conditions during and after I gave birth. I wasn’t allowed to go out for fresh air. The only medicine they ever gave me and my child for any condition was Paracetamol.”
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Pregnant on Hunger Strike

Patima Zakka is 42. She was released from an Israeli prison in exchange for a video tape featuring Gilad Shalit during his captivity. The video was passed by Shalit’s captors just before Patima was due to stand trial, and she was released one day short of the hearing. That is why she never received a sentence.

Patima Zakka with her son (Photo: Nadezhda Kevorkova, RT)

Patima had been charged with conspiring to suicide-bomb a bus full of Israeli military personnel. The prosecution had demanded a 12-year prison sentence for the mother of eight.

“I did not know I was pregnant before I got arrested,” says Patima. “A nurse found that out while I was in detention. My eight children were left without me at home. No one had instructed me to blow up anybody. It is true that they [Israelis] had killed my brother and a number of relatives – but that is the case with most people in Palestine.”

Patima says she was put through the full sequence of interrogation techniques.
“They tortured me while I was pregnant,” she says. “They kept me in an ice-cold cell, relocating me from one cell to another time and again. They wanted me to have a miscarriage. This mistreatment got me to the point of bleeding.”

This prompted Patima to go on hunger strike. She lasted 21 days.
“They did not leave me a choice,” she explains. “Allah be praised, I did not have a miscarriage. My son was born in jail. His name is Yusef.”

“The obstetrician yelled at me and treated me like I was an animal,” says Patima. “She refused to put me on an IV, and she denied me anesthesia. She was calling down terrible curses upon me. But you know, a punishment ensued for her right away: she hit her head real bad right in my cell. Allah helped me. She told me, “You are a terrorist, and your child will be a terrorist.” But I delivered my beautiful Yusef. And the real terrorists are those medics in Israeli prisons.”

­Nadezhda Kevorkova, RT

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