Sa’adat, an elected PLC member and general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was captured by Israeli forces on 3 March 2006.
During his trial by an Israeli military court, Sa’adat refused to recognize its authority, cooperate with it or answer its questions. On 25 December 2008, it sentenced him to 30 years in prison for leading an organization banned by the Israeli occupation.
The Israeli prison service held Sa’adat in isolation for over three years, from March 2009 – May 2012, releasing him into its general population only to end a a mass hunger strike of more than 2,500 Palestinian detainees from 17 April – 14 May 2012.
An earlier mass hunger strike against isolation, led by Sa’adat from 25 September – 18 October 2011, ended with the prisoner swap that freed 1,047 Palestinian political prisoners in exchange for an Israeli prisoner of war.
Protests and other events demanding his release, coordinated worldwide by the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat, will continue through 26 October.
18th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Ibrahim Baroud joined his mother, Ghalia Baroud, or Um Ibrahim, at Gaza’s weekly sit-in for Palestinian prisoners, which she co-founded, on Monday morning.
Ghalia, or Um Ibrahim (right), and Ibrahim Baroud. (Photo by Gal·la López)
Baroud, a former Palestinian detainee, was captured by Israeli forces on 9 April 1986, at the age of 23. He was held for 27 years, including seven in solitary confinement.
Um Ibrahim launched the vigil in the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) courtyard in 1995 with Handoumeh Wishah, or Um Jaber, the mother of four detainees, including Jaber Wishah, who was held for over 14 years.
Wishah, a physics lecturer and a political and military leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was captured by Israeli forces on 5 June 1985. They released him on 9 September 1999, along with 198 other detainees, in partial implementation of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization five days earlier.
“I had this idea to hold a vigil with photographs of the prisoners, to make sure they were not forgotten,” Um Jaber told the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in 2008.
“It was just the two of us standing outside the ICRC the first time – but we knew the next week there would be three or four of us, and then, slowly, more mothers would come.”
Um Ibrahim celebrated her son’s freedom on 8 April 2013 after his completion of an Israeli military court’s sentence for membership in Palestinian Islamic Jihad and participation in its armed resistance.
The timing of his release, on a Monday morning, was convenient, as Baroud made his first stop in the Gaza Strip, before his home in the Jabalia refugee camp, at the ICRC.
The ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said that “the absolute prohibition on family visits is designed to demoralize and punish prisoners’ families, and by extension the general population in Gaza, for their political choices in 2006 and for the June 2006 capture of Gilad Shalit, making the policy a clear case of collective punishment, a war crime for which Israel should be held responsible.”
In 2007, prior to the ban, Um Ibrahim received approval for one visit, but turned back after Israeli forces demanded she submit to a strip search.
“I finally got permission to visit him in jail in Israel last year, and the ICRC escorted me to Erez Crossing,” she told the PCHR. “But the Israelis ordered me to strip down to my underwear, and I refused. So they sent me back to Gaza.”
“They [the Israelis] had seen everything, even my bones,” she added. “They claimed it was for security – but I am entitled to protect my dignity and my rights.”
“All Palestinians are dangerous for them [Israelis],” Um Ibrahim told Le Monde before her son’s release, which she called “a national wedding and a popular happiness.”
At the beginning of September, Israeli forces held 5,007 Palestinian political prisoners, according to ADDAMEER. 400 were from the Gaza Strip.
Yesterday, 11th October, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters at a Palestinian family while they were attempting to harvest their olives. This coincided with the weekly Bil’in demonstration against the Apartheid Wall where Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at protesters.
The Rafeeq Al Khateeb family suffered from tear gas inhalation, fired by Israeli soldiers, while they were attempting to pick olives from their land. Tear gas canisters are often used by Israeli forces in the weekly Friday demonstrations, and yesterday was no exception with many protesters struggling with the large amounts of tear gas fired.
The Friday protest began after afternoon prayers, with Palestinian, Israeli and international activists marching from the village towards the Apartheid Wall. Israeli soldiers met the activists and fired stun grenades, tear gas and plastic-coated steel bullets. Israeli military vehicles then attempted to break up the demonstration and chase protesters away from the Apartheid Wall back towards the village. Bil’in has been demonstrating since 2005 and despite the violence and aggression of the Israeli army, the people of Bil’lin will continue their struggle against the Occupation.
5th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
On Thursday afternoon, Activists for Prisoners organized a human chain outside the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza City office to support Palestinians detained by Israel.
13th September 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qaddum, Occupied West Bank
Protesters marching along the road (Photo by ISM)
The residents of Kufr Qaddum held their weekly Friday demonstration despite increased repression by the Israeli army in the last two weeks.
At approximately 10:00, more than 80 soldiers in nine military jeeps arrived in the village and positioned themselves on the top of the hill overlooking Kafr Qaddum and on the closed road that leads to the illegal Israeli settlement, Qedumim. The soldiers shot both tear gas canisters and sound bombs before the demonstration even began. Twenty-five year-old Nisfat Mahmoud Ishtawi was struck in the head with a tear gas canister and received medical attention.
During the midday call to prayers, soldiers overlooking Kafr Qaddum repeatedly shot tear gas in the direction of the mosque and many canisters fell into the yard and surrounding houses, despite the fact that there were no clashes with demonstrators at that time. Four weeks ago, Israeli forces fired tear gas directly into the mosque and many people attending the Friday prayer suffered from tear gas inhalation and had to receive medical treatment.
When the demonstration began, protesters from Kafr Qaddum and international and Israeli activists marched toward the closed road where they met extreme army repression. Israeli forces excessively fired tear gas, at times shooting tens of canisters at once toward the protest. Many protesters suffered from tear gas inhalation. As the army surrounded the protest, Israeli soldiers stationed themselves at the entrances of several houses and the residents were unable to leave or return to their homes due to the army presence. Moreover, Israeli forces continuously fired tear gas canisters inside and onto the roofs of several houses which border the road. Paramedics from Palestinian Medical Relief Society repeatedly came to the aid of residents suffering from tear gas inhalation in their own homes, including children and the elderly.
As protesters attempted to reach the area of the road closure on the eastern edge of the village, Israeli forces brought a bulldozer and several army jeeps to prevent the demonstration from continuing. When the demonstration ended, no protesters were arrested and the injured were expected to make a full recovery.
Last week, Israeli forces shot large amounts of tear gas canisters at protesters (Photo by www.facebook.com/gcaballerophoto)
The army has been stepping up attacks on Kafr Qaddum in recent weeks. Last week the army were very aggressive on the demonstration gathering on the hill and firing teargas canisters at a low level so demonstrators would not be able to see them when fired, increasing the chance of being hit and seriously injured. In that same demonstration, the army drove jeeps down the road firing multiple teargas canisters at people, injuring demonstrators and journalists. One man was hit on the head by a teargas canister and a journalist was shot in the foot. Activist Murad Ishtawi was also shot in the leg and had to be taken to hospital and is still recovering from his injury. The jeeps were driven far into the village where the soldiers shot indiscriminately. One teargas canister broke through the window of a house and the inhabitants, who were the sick, elderly, women and children, had to be helped to evacuate, suffering from suffocation from the gas.
On the 11th September the Israeli occupation forces invaded Kafr Qaddum at 3.30am where they arrested three people, 21 year-old Maen Taha Amer Qdoumi, 24 year-old Fadi Basim Jomaa Qadoumi and 16 year-old Ahmed Mohammed Barham Qadoumi as collective punishment for the ongoing demonstrations. The arrests show an escalation in aggression since the last arrest of three people on the 14th August including a 17 year-old child , Omran. Significant is the arrest of Ahmed, a minor, as children arrested are treated similarly to adults in the military court system and are disproportionately targeted for arrest by the Israelis.
One man was hit on the head by a teargas canister (Photo from www.facebook.com/gcaballerophoto)
Arrests and repression continually target the inhabitants of Kafr Qaddum who continue to resist the theft of their land. Demonstrations started in July 2011 after the road that connected the village to the main city of Nablus was made settler-only. Residents of Kafr Qaddum have to make a longer journey to the city which resulted in the deaths of two residents due to the delay of reaching the hospital in Nablus, showing the need and determination of demonstrators, for the historical road to be returned.
