Category: Press Releases - Page 28 - International Solidarity Movement

MAHMOUD NASSER IS FREE ! THANK YOU !

LAST UPDATE

30/09/2015

Thank you !

We have received the wonderful news that Mahmoud Nasser has been released from Ofer, the Israeli military occupation prison near Ramallah, yesterday night!
Together with his family they celebrated his release on bail and we are all very grateful to all supporters and donators for their contribute!!

Carry on the struggle for the liberation of palestinian political prisoners!

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Dear friends,

Due to technical problems the special Facebook event for the campaign in support of Mahmoud Nasser and all Palestinian political prisoners has been deleted.

We will continue to communicate updates on Mahmoud’s situation using the relevant hashtags.

So far we seem to have raised enough money and hope that Mahmoud Nasser will be released from prison soon!

#FreeMahmoud #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners #EndOccupation

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Free all political prisoners and end the military occupation of Palestine!
Mahmoud Nasser, a 24-year-old Palestinian from the village of Beitunia, was arrested after 150 soldiers raided his house in the night of 16 July 2015. He was charged with ‘posing a security threat to Israel.’ However, during the appeal hearing, the military judge ruled that there is not enough evidence that supports Mahmoud’s continuing detention or conviction.

Outrageously so, innocence does not equal immediate release under Israeli military law. Instead, an exorbitant bail of 15.000 New Israeli Shekels is impositioned (around €3430 / $3830). An amount that the family of Mahmoud is unable to pay.

Palestinians from the occupied territories are prosecuted under military law. This practice leads to grave violations of basic human rights inside prisons and allows Israel to control the daily life and movement of Palestinians en masse. Military law permits the imposition of exorbitant bails even when it has been ruled that there is not enough evidence to support the detainment or conviction.

Mahmoud Nasser is a clear victim of this illegal and unjust system.

Take action!
Take a stand against the occupation, the illegal application of military law in Palestine and in support of all Palestinian political prisoners.

Donate now to help pay the bail and free Mahmoud Nasser. Any amount will help and is greatly appreciated by his family!

How to donate
The easiest way to donate is via PayPal.
Please visit https://palsolidarity.org/donate/ and tick the box ‘Free Mahmoud Nasser’.

Should you not be able to use PayPal, it is possible to directly transfer your donation to the bank account of ISM. You will need the following details:

Account holder: ISMSVERIGE
Account number: 9746647313
IBAN: SE65 8000 0842 0297 4664 7313
BIC: SWEDSESS
Name of the bank: Swedbank

Please note that it is important to reference ‘Free Mahmoud Nasser’ with your transfer.

If you are based in Palestine or Israel, you may wish to transfer the donation directly to the account of the family to avoid losing money on transfer and conversion costs. Therefore it is possible to send your donation to Ahmad Nasser, the brother of Mahmoud. You will need the following details:

Account holder: Ahmad Sameer Ahmad Nasser
Name of the bank: Bank Of Palestine
Address: Rukab Street, Ramallah- Palestine
Account number: 2228092

Please note that we strongly recommend those based outside Palestine/Israel to donate to ISM via Paypal or a direct bank transfer to ISM. This allows us to collect the total amount of donations and subsequently make one single transfer to the family’s bank account. This minimises the costs caused by international transfers and currency conversion rates.

In case of further queries, please direct them to freemahmoudnow@gmail.com.

Updates:
8 September: The International Solidarity Movement has generously donated 2000 New Israeli Shekel in support of Mahmoud Nasser.
10 September: The second part of the extremely strict bail conditions has been met: to find two Israeli civilians who can guarantee 15.000 New Israeli Shekel each and demonstrate a monthly income of 5000 Shekel. This is amazing news!

This means we have 13.000 Shekel more to go before we can pay the bail. Not a small amount, but together we can go a long way!

19 September: Next to the generous donations of all of you, friends of Ahmad and Mahmoud in Palestine and beyond, ISM Sweden has now also donated an amazing amount of 3000 Shekel.YES, we reached the 10.000 Shekel!

We are not there yet, another 5000 to go. This should be doable, right?! This amount equals to £830 / €1140 / $1290. We need 100 persons to donate £8,30/ €11,40 / $12,90.

Please continue to spread the campaign and to consider making a small or large contribution. Together we can make this happen – lets make sure to go achieve our goal of 15.000 Shekel – it is within reach!

The illegal arrest and exorbitant bail of Mahmoud Nasser
On Thursday, 16th of July 2015 at around 4:00 am Israeli Occupation Forces raided the house of Mahmoud Nasser and his family in Beitunia, occupied Palestine. More than 150 soldiers, border police and intelligence service officers surrounded the neighbourhood and stormed into the house while the family was fast asleep. Mahmoud Nasser was subsequently arrested without being shown an official arrest order.

After being taken to the military prison in Ofer, Mahmoud was ordered to appear in court and charges were levelled against him stating he poses a security threat to Israel. However, the evidence presented by the military prosecution does not at all support the charges. Consequently the judge ruled that there is not enough evidence to continue Mahmoud’s detention nor will it support a future conviction.

Outrageously so, under military law, innocence does not equal immediate release. On the contrary, the military judge ruled that a bail amount of 15.000 New Israeli Shekel (around €3430 / $3830) should be paid before Mahmoud Nasser is to be released. This is an exorbitant bail amount which puts the family under increased financial and psychological pressure. If the bail is not paid, Mahmoud will stay imprisoned for a maximum of eighteen months – a period that would continue to be subject of discussion as the military judge may extend this period even after a specific time limit is set in the case of conviction.

The illegality of military law in occupied Palestine
Under international law it is illegal to acquire land by force, which is what happened during the 1948 and 1967 wars. These wars led to the creation of Israel and subsequently enabled it to annex more land. While the military occupation is internationally considered to be illegal, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are nevertheless prosecuted under Israeli military law.

Military prosecution occurs whenever a Palestinian is considered to pose a security threat to the Israeli state. However, what constitutes ‘a security threat’ is interpreted extremely broadly. A variety of actions is criminalized, including non-violent political and cultural expressions, such as putting up posters, writing political slogans, carrying a Palestinian flag or attending a demonstration. It then comes at no surprise that Amnesty International reported in 2002 that “in light of the large number of those arrested and detained for a short time with very little interrogation, and the consistent use of degrading treatment, Amnesty International is concerned that the aim of the large-scale arrests may have been to collectively punish and to degrade and humiliate Palestinians”.

The implementation of collective punishment through mass incarceration and detention continues until today. Addameer, the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, reports that as of July 2015 5700 Palestinians are inside Israeli prisons. This illustrates that the accusation of posing a security threat to Israel is applied to control everyday movement and enables mass detention of Palestinians.

To protest against this inhumane treatment and unjust and illegal system, Palestinian prisoners have taken the radical step to go on hunger strike. To resist the illegal military rule is a timely action as the Israeli Knesset passed a controversial bill to legalize force-feeding of Palestinian hunger strikers on 30 July 2015. Force-feeding is considered by international and medical organisations as a clear violation of prisoners’ human rights. Recently the cases of hunger strikers Khader Adnan and Mohammed Allan gained international attention. However, there are many more prisoners currently on hunger strike. They organise around concrete demands to improve the poor living standards inside the occupation prisons and are calling for an end to administrative detention.

Take action!
Donate now to free Mahmoud Nasser and support all political prisoners in their struggle for liberation!

Stay involved and receive updates!
Follow the campaign on Facebook and ISM on Twitter #FreeMahmoud #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners #EndOccupation

Useful resources:
http://www.addameer.org/ – Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
http://www.alhaq.org/ – Palestinian Human Rights Organisation
http://samidoun.net/ – Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, US-based
https://corporatewatch.org/sites/default/files/G4S_profile_Sep12.pdf – Corporate Watch, UK-based independent research group
http://www.btselem.org/ – Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/ – Alternative Information Centre, a joint Palestinian-Israeli organisation to promote justice, equality and peace for Palestinians and Israelis
http://visualizingpalestine.org/visuals/administrative-detention – a guide to administrative detention by Visualizing Palestine
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/074/2002/en/ – ‘Israel and the Occupied Territories: Mass detention in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions’, Amnesty International report, May 2002
Israel Apartheid. A beginners guide – accessible book by Ben White in which he explains the origins of Israel, the colonisation of Palestine since 1948 and examines the current structure of Israeli Apartheid. The book is rooted in White’s extensive on-the-ground experience in the region and includes short testimonies by Palestinians.

Italian activist arrested and beaten up in occupied Palestine

31st August | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Update 31-08-2015 20:00: Vittorio Feras court this morning again did not take any final decisions. It was ruled to release him on a 3000 shekel bill under the condition that he stay in Jerusalem and not leave the country until yet another court date on September 8. Even though the bail has already been paid at noon, Israeli forces kept delaying Vittorios release under different pretences. Only at 8 pm was he finally released from prison.

Italian activist Vittorio Fera was violently arrested and beaten by soldiers at weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh in occupied Palestine. The Italian activist, 31-year old Vittorio Fera, is falsely accused of throwing stones and attacking soldiers. His case will be taken to court the second time Monday 31^st August between 9 and 11 am.

Vittorio Fera violently arrested. Photo credot> Haim Schwarczenberg

During a weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh Israeli soldiers randomly arrested two protesters: one 18-year old Palestinian youth and the Italian activist Vittorio Fera. Fera went to the protest to document human rights violations by the Israeli army against Palestinians and became a victim of military violence himself.

While documenting an Israeli soldier strangling a 12-year old boy, Vittorio and the other activists were ambushed by Israeli forces. Vittorio was separated from the group and violently shoved to the ground. “We were shocked to see the boy being choked by a soldier, when suddenly soldiers came running at us and attacked Vittorio”, Josephine from Denmark explains.

Vittorio Fera with clear marks of military assult.

Journalists witnessed soldiers kicking and beating him during the arrest, even though he did not resist or fight back. Vittorio, and the Palestinian youth, were forced into a military jeep where they were detained for almost nine hours by the Israeli army, before they were finally taken to a police station. Despite various demands of Feras lawyer to have him brought to a police station immediately, both him and the Palestinian were illegally kept in the military jeep until shortly before midnight.

The military accuses Vittorio Fera of throwing stones and attacking the soldiers – an unfounded accusation. A first sentencing in court late Saturday night only resulted in the postponing of the sentencing until Monday morning. The hearing will take place in in Jerusalem Monday the 31^st August 2015 between 9 and 11 am.

See the video of the arrest here

Two people violently arrested at peaceful demonstration in Nabi Saleh

28th August | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil | Hebron, occupied Palestine

UPDATE: A court just ruled to keep Vittorio Fera in prison until an actuall decision is taken on Monday. He was violently thrown to the ground and arrested by Israeli soldiers in Nabi Saleh yesterday. He is being accused of throwing stones and attacking the soldiers at the demo – a baseless claim without any evidence. At the demonstration he was filming the vicious assault of Israeli forces on a Palestinian boy, that was attacked and choked by a soldier. Still, the Israeli court ruled to keep him in prison till Monday.
Watch a video taken of the soldiers attacking Vittorio and arresting him: https://youtu.be/KoYEMHi2xbM

On Friday the 28^th of August 2015, two peaceful demonstrators were violently arrested and a child viciously attacked by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian village Nabi Saleh in occupied Palestine. Every Friday the people of Nabi Saleh protest against the illegal settlement build on the villages’ land.

Israili soldier threatning Palestinian women and children at non violent demonstration in Nabi Saleh. Photo credit: Karam — Israili soldier threatning Palestinian women and children at non violent demonstration in Nabi Saleh.
Photo credit: IssamRimawi

Today at around 3 pm one Palestinian male, Mahmoud Tamimi, and one international activist was arrested in the Palestinian village Nabi Saleh close to Ramallah. They were arrested during a Friday demonstration against the illegal settlements on the land belonging to the people of Nabi Saleh.

Only a few minutes after the protesters peacefully started their march towards the gate, which is regularly blocked by the military preventing any movement in- or outside of the village, the Israeli army began attacking the non-violent protesters with dozens of rounds of tear gas.

The soldiers then ambushed the demonstrators escaping the clouds of tear gas by surrounding them. They attacked and then arrested Mahmoud Tamimi, shoving him down the hill towards the illegal settlement, where he was forced to lie on the ground.

Israili soldier strangulationa Palestinian boy at non violent demonstration in Nabi Saleh. Photo credit: Karam — Israili soldier strangulating a Palestinian boy at non violent demonstration in Nabi Saleh.
Photo credit: Karam

Around the same time, a Palestinian boy was violently attacked by a soldier throwing him to the ground, choking and almost suffocating him in the process. “While the boy was screaming in pain his family came to rescue him from the soldiers’ vicious assault”, Josephine, a Danish activist explains.

Israili soldier attacking Palestininan boy at non violent demonstration in Nabi Saleh. Photo credit: Karam — Israili soldier attacking Palestininan boy at non violent demonstration in Nabi Saleh.
Photo credit: Karam

A group of peaceful international demonstrators trying to document the attack on the boy, was ambushed by another group of soldiers, who violently pushed a 31-year old Italian man to the ground and proceeded to arrested him.

Both the Palestinian and the international were being held captive in a military jeep by the Israeli army for almost nine hours, before being brought to a police station.

Hundreds protest against Israeli seperation wall in Bait Jala

Sunday morning around 300 Palestinians and Internationals demonstrated side by side to block the uprooting of olive yards related to the construction of the apartheid-wall. The protesters where all non-violent and all stood up for the Palestinians rights and for a free Palestine.

t7T9ZRfdcoIInlOJsdvr9UskWj628mcRWRPlPGlztDE,Gr3Z_2YqF4j9kR-rJnMGrDKf-CwAXw8Wve2zExu3Wvw,Y9ucG48P2jKek8T5JuNVyqYbfoBFD50-cf7GSXeS0iI — Demonstrators carrying away the gate

Protesters successfully removed the illegal metal fence, which was put up by the Israeli occupation forces to prevent local Palestinians from reaching their land and harvesting their olives. The fence was carried away by internationals and Palestinians. This was a huge success for the the local Palestinians, whose land have had their land taken away.

_BuabG81meUARe6pxvWgwC5ke_JsgtsqG1vwJNyLtQg,9lFAe5UVwsO8Iby66GAfv1o-gSAp1fyklnD4vz7L0uE,uJ9Hrr4x6QPV4Wv79FV7iWaKLqYz1zm5ocUaOH2Y1IU — Border Police showering demonstrators with teargas

After the fence was taken down, Israeli forces brutally attacked the non-violent protesters, shooting rubber-coated steel bullets, sound-grenades and dozens of teargas canisters. Three persons had to go to the hospital for suffering of excessive tear gas inhalation.

9C7_56H-HHILCHVGGI4Yb1K-ETDtkoIpTNJBbt785y4,lc5yzLYf_LxvRIjJ7APhDjE7nJ_GSnqbVVGw8QE3HQY — The demonstrators trying to escape the clouds of teargas

The Israeli state confiscating land of Beit Jala people using the expansion of apartheid wall as an excuse to clear the way of land-grab and expanding illegal settlements near the village. This is a huge problem for the local Palestinians who can’t harvest their fields and live their live freely.

Watch the video of the demonstration here:

1,000 Black activists, artists, and scholars demand justice for Palestine

19th August 2015 | Black4Palestine | USA

Over 1,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, students, and organizations have launched a statement expressing their solidarity and commitment to ensuring justice for Palestinians. Signatories to the statement span a wide cross-section of Black activists and scholars, including Angela Davis, Boots Riley, Cornel West, dream hampton, Emory Douglas, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pam Africa, Patrisse Cullors, Phil Hutchings, Ramona Africa, Robin DG Kelley, Rosa Clemente, Talib Kweli, and Tef Poe. 38 organizations signed on, including The Dream Defenders, Hands Up United, Institute of the Black World 21st Century, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Organization for Black Struggle.

Picture of a Palestine2Ferguson sign at the main march during Ferguson October. (Photo by Christopher Hazou)

The statement is printed in full below:

“The past year has been one of high-profile growth for Black-Palestinian solidarity. Out of the terror directed against us—from numerous attacks on Black life to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and chokehold on the West Bank—strengthened resilience and joint-struggle have emerged between our movements. Palestinians on Twitter were among the first to provide international support for protesters in Ferguson, where St. Louis-based Palestinians gave support on the ground. Last November, a delegation of Palestinian students visited Black organizers in St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit and more, just months before the Dream Defenders took representatives of Black Lives Matter, Ferguson, and other racial justice groups to Palestine. Throughout the year, Palestinians sent multiple letters of solidarity to us throughout protests in Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore. We offer this statement to continue the conversation between our movements:

On the anniversary of last summer’s Gaza massacre, in the 48th year of Israeli occupation, the 67th year of Palestinians’ ongoing Nakba (the Arabic word for Israel’s ethnic cleansing)—and in the fourth century of Black oppression in the present-day United States—we, the undersigned Black activists, artists, scholars, writers, and political prisoners offer this letter of reaffirmed solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine’s land and people.

We can neither forgive nor forget last summer’s violence. We remain outraged at the brutality Israel unleashed on Gaza through its siege by land, sea and air, and three military offensives in six years. We remain sickened by Israel’s targeting of homes, schools, UN shelters, mosques, ambulances, and hospitals. We remain heartbroken and repulsed by the number of children Israel killed in an operation it called “defensive.” We reject Israel’s framing of itself as a victim. Anyone who takes an honest look at the destruction to life and property in Gaza can see Israel committed a one-sided slaughter. With 100,000 people still homeless in Gaza, the massacre’s effects continue to devastate Gaza today and will for years to come.

Israel’s injustice and cruelty toward Palestinians is not limited to Gaza and its problem is not with any particular Palestinian party. The oppression of Palestinians extends throughout the occupied territories, within Israel’s 1948 borders, and into neighboring countries. The Israeli Occupation Forces continue to kill protesters—including children—conduct night raids on civilians, hold hundreds of people under indefinite detention, and demolish homes while expanding illegal Jewish-only settlements. Israeli politicians, including Benjamin Netanyahu, incite against Palestinian citizens within Israel’s recognized borders, where over 50 laws discriminate against non-Jewish people.

Our support extends to those living under occupation and siege, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the 7 million Palestinian refugees exiled in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. The refugees’ right to return to their homeland in present-day Israel is the most important aspect of justice for Palestinians.

Palestinian liberation represents an inherent threat to Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid, an apparatus built and sustained on ethnic cleansing, land theft, and the denial of Palestinian humanity and sovereignty. While we acknowledge that the apartheid configuration in Israel/Palestine is unique from the United States (and South Africa), we continue to see connections between the situation of Palestinians and Black people.

Israel’s widespread use of detention and imprisonment against Palestinians evokes the mass incarceration of Black people in the US, including the political imprisonment of our own revolutionaries. Soldiers, police, and courts justify lethal force against us and our children who pose no imminent threat. And while the US and Israel would continue to oppress us without collaborating with each other, we have witnessed police and soldiers from the two countries train side-by-side.

US and Israeli officials and media criminalize our existence, portray violence against us as “isolated incidents,” and call our resistance “illegitimate” or “terrorism.” These narratives ignore decades and centuries of anti-Palestinian and anti-Black violence that have always been at the core of Israel and the US. We recognize the racism that characterizes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is also directed against others in the region, including intolerance, police brutality, and violence against Israel’s African population. Israeli officials call asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea “infiltrators” and detain them in the desert, while the state has sterilized Ethiopian Israelis without their knowledge or consent. These issues call for unified action against anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and Zionism.

We know Israel’s violence toward Palestinians would be impossible without the US defending Israel on the world stage and funding its violence with over $3 billion annually. We call on the US government to end economic and diplomatic aid to Israel. We wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil society’s 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and call on Black and US institutions and organizations to do the same. We urge people of conscience to recognize the struggle for Palestinian liberation as a key matter of our time.

As the BDS movement grows, we offer G4S, the world’s largest private security company, as a target for further joint struggle. G4S harms thousands of Palestinian political prisoners illegally held in Israel and hundreds of Black and brown youth held in its privatized juvenile prisons in the US. The corporation profits from incarceration and deportation from the US and Palestine, to the UK, South Africa, and Australia. We reject notions of “security” that make any of our groups unsafe and insist no one is free until all of us are.

We offer this statement first and foremost to Palestinians, whose suffering does not go unnoticed and whose resistance and resilience under racism and colonialism inspires us. It is to Palestinians, as well as the Israeli and US governments, that we declare our commitment to working through cultural, economic, and political means to ensure Palestinian liberation at the same time as we work towards our own. We encourage activists to use this statement to advance solidarity with Palestine and we also pressure our own Black political figures to finally take action on this issue. As we continue these transnational conversations and interactions, we aim to sharpen our practice of joint struggle against capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and the various racisms embedded in and around our societies.”

Visit www.blackforpalestine.com for the full list of signatories and more information. You can also follow the statement on Facebook and Twitter. Kristian Bailey is a co-author of the statement along with Khury Petersen-Smith.

Source: http://www.blackforpalestine.com/