July 25 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | Abu Dis, Occupied Palestine
On the morning of the 25th of July Huzaifa Bader, 27, was rushed to Ramleh Prison Hospital in the occupied West Bank after he had been on hunger strike for 25 days. With his health deteriorating and with no sign of progress in his legal battle, his family don’t know how much longer he can cope. It may be a matter of hours.
Huzaifa Bader, 27
Huzaifa began his hunger strike at the start of July having spent just over 13 months in administrative detention. Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have held him without charge, extended his detention arbitrarily and held him in solitary confinement.
Huzaifa, who became a father while in prison is still waiting to see his daughter, Majdal, who is now 6 months old. His family told us that with every extension of his detention he has become more and more desperate to hold her for the first time.
Bader’s six-month old daughter who has never met her father
The situation has only been made all the more unbearable for Huzaifa because of his medical condition. A childhood accident left him with burns on almost 90% of his body and he has required specialist medical treatment ever since. During the period of his detention, Israel has not only denied him any kind of justice (or even anything resembling due process) but has gone as far as to deny him the medical treatment he needs. His brother, Musaab, told ISM, ‘we wish to see him back with his family to enjoy a normal life and to come back and receive the medical treatment he needs’.
With the situation becoming more desperate for him and his family, Huzaifa took the decision to go on hunger strike at the beginning of the month and now 25 days in he is fighting for his life. His father appealed to all the human rights organisations to take notice of the appalling case of his son, saying ‘Huzaifa is strong and will keep fighting for his rights’.
The whole town of Abu Dis has been showing its support for his hunger strike and the 40 or so other prisoners from Abu Dis held by the Israeli Occupation. A protest tent was set up by his wife and his parents and has been visited by the people of Abu Dis every single night that the huger strike has gone on. Even his six month old daughter, who now faces the prospect of never meeting her father, has attended.
Demonstrators sit in the solidarity tent erected in Abu Dis
After hearing his news, his family, supporters and the people of Abu Dis have taken to the streets again while Huzaifa is fighting for justice, and his life. His family told this morning that IOF still have not let his lawyer see him.
Having spent the last 15 years in an Israeli prison, I have been both a witness to and a victim of Israel’s illegal system of mass arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners. After exhausting all other options, I decided there was no choice but to resist these abuses by going on a hunger strike.
Some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners have decided to take part in this hunger strike, which begins today, the day we observe here as Prisoners’ Day. Hunger striking is the most peaceful form of resistance available. It inflicts pain solely on those who participate and on their loved ones, in the hopes that their empty stomachs and their sacrifice will help the message resonate beyond the confines of their dark cells.
Decades of experience have proved that Israel’s inhumane system of colonial and military occupation aims to break the spirit of prisoners and the nation to which they belong, by inflicting suffering on their bodies, separating them from their families and communities, using humiliating measures to compel subjugation. In spite of such treatment, we will not surrender to it.
Israel, the occupying power, has violated international law in multiple ways for nearly 70 years, and yet has been granted impunity for its actions. It has committed grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions against the Palestinian people; the prisoners, including men, women and children, are no exception.
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I was only 15 when I was first imprisoned. I was barely 18 when an Israeli interrogator forced me to spread my legs while I stood naked in the interrogation room, before hitting my genitals. I passed out from the pain, and the resulting fall left an everlasting scar on my forehead. The interrogator mocked me afterward, saying that I would never procreate because people like me give birth only to terrorists and murderers.
A few years later, I was again in an Israeli prison, leading a hunger strike, when my first son was born. Instead of the sweets we usually distribute to celebrate such news, I handed out salt to the other prisoners. When he was barely 18, he in turn was arrested and spent four years in Israeli prisons.
The eldest of my four children is now a man of 31. Yet here I still am, pursuing this struggle for freedom along with thousands of prisoners, millions of Palestinians and the support of so many around the world. What is it with the arrogance of the occupier and the oppressor and their backers that makes them deaf to this simple truth: Our chains will be broken before we are, because it is human nature to heed the call for freedom regardless of the cost.
Israel has built nearly all of its prisons inside Israel rather than in the occupied territory. In doing so, it has unlawfully and forcibly transferred Palestinian civilians into captivity, and has used this situation to restrict family visits and to inflict suffering on prisoners through long transports under cruel conditions. It turned basic rights that should be guaranteed under international law — including some painfully secured through previous hunger strikes — into privileges its prison service decides to grant us or deprive us of.
Palestinian prisoners and detainees have suffered from torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, and medical negligence. Some have been killed while in detention. According to the latest count from the Palestinian Prisoners Club, about 200 Palestinian prisoners have died since 1967 because of such actions. Palestinian prisoners and their families also remain a primary target of Israel’s policy of imposing collective punishments.
Through our hunger strike, we seek an end to these abuses.
Over the past five decades, according to the human rights group Addameer, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or detained by Israel — equivalent to about 40 percent of the Palestinian territory’s male population. Today, about 6,500 are still imprisoned, among them some who have the dismal distinction of holding world records for the longest periods in detention of political prisoners. There is hardly a single family in Palestine that has not endured the suffering caused by the imprisonment of one or several of its members.
How to account for this unbelievable state of affairs?
Israel has established a dual legal regime, a form of judicial apartheid, that provides virtual impunity for Israelis who commit crimes against Palestinians, while criminalizing Palestinian presence and resistance. Israel’s courts are a charade of justice, clearly instruments of colonial, military occupation. According to the State Department, the conviction rate for Palestinians in the military courts is nearly 90 percent.
Among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians whom Israel has taken captive are children, women, parliamentarians, activists, journalists, human rights defenders, academics, political figures, militants, bystanders, family members of prisoners. And all with one aim: to bury the legitimate aspirations of an entire nation.
Instead, though, Israel’s prisons have become the cradle of a lasting movement for Palestinian self-determination. This new hunger strike will demonstrate once more that the prisoners’ movement is the compass that guides our struggle, the struggle for Freedom and Dignity, the name we have chosen for this new step in our long walk to freedom.
Israel has tried to brand us all as terrorists to legitimize its violations, including mass arbitrary arrests, torture, punitive measures and severe restrictions. As part of Israel’s effort to undermine the Palestinian struggle for freedom, an Israeli court sentenced me to five life sentences and 40 years in prison in a political show trial that was denounced by international observers.
Israel is not the first occupying or colonial power to resort to such expedients. Every national liberation movement in history can recall similar practices. This is why so many people who have fought against oppression, colonialism and apartheid stand with us. The International Campaign to Free Marwan Barghouti and All Palestinian Prisoners that the anti-apartheid icon Ahmed Kathrada and my wife, Fadwa, inaugurated in 2013 from Nelson Mandela’s former cell on Robben Island has enjoyed the support of eight Nobel Peace Prize laureates, 120 governments and hundreds of leaders, parliamentarians, artists and academics around the world.
Their solidarity exposes Israel’s moral and political failure. Rights are not bestowed by an oppressor. Freedom and dignity are universal rights that are inherent in humanity, to be enjoyed by every nation and all human beings. Palestinians will not be an exception. Only ending occupation will end this injustice and mark the birth of peace.
13th June 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Bil’in, Occupied Palestine
Today, Bil’in held its weekly protest in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. As part of the protest, and in support of the current situation in Brazil, due to the football world cup, some of the protesters dressed as prisoners and decided to hold a game of football, using the apartheid wall as the goal. The Israeli army then shot large amounts of tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets, trying to prevent the “prisoners” from playing the game of football.
Three journalists were injured today, two by tear gas canisters and one by a rubber-coated steel bullet. Last week at the Bil’in demonstration, Israeli soldiers attacked one journalist and stole his camera, another journalist also had his camera confiscated by Israeli forces.
Protesters gather as demonstration begins (photo by ISM).Photo by ISMPhoto by ISMPhoto by ISMThe football match begins (photo by ISM).Photo by ISMPhoto by ISMPhoto by ISMPhoto by ISMPhotographer was injured after being shot with a tear gas grenade (photo by ISM).Photo by ISMPhoto by ISM
7th June 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Since the Palestinian prisoners began their hunger strike, there has been a protest each week in al-Khalil (Hebron). The majority of these demonstrations have been in the H1 area (under Palestinian Authority civil and security control), not directly against the Israeli military. However, On Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th this last week, there were two actions against the Israeli forces in al-Khalil.
On Wednesday at the entrance of al-Khalil, near the city of Halhul, an action was organised with the intention of marching down road 60. After approximately 100 meters, Israeli forces began to fire tear gas canisters, stun grenades, and spray the demonstrators with ‘skunk’ (chemical) water. The protest was pushed back, and when they tried to continue they were once again sprayed with skunk water. This happened several times before clashes broke out between the Israeli military and the local Palestinian youths. The military then sprayed the insides of local shops and homes with skunk water, as a form of collection punishment. During the action, many people were treated for tear gas inhalation by paramedics, and one protester was injured after being shot with a tear gas canister.
Photo by ISM
Photo by ISMPhoto by ISMPhoto by ISMPhoto by ISMPhoto by ISM
On Thursday the 5th, the demonstration was held in Bab al Baladia in the H2 area (under Israeli military civil and security control) of al-Khalil. Approximately 40 people gathered to demonstrate, though were stopped by the Israeli army after just 50 meters. Shaheed Fahme, a local activist, was arrested by the army, who thew many stun grenades towards the protesters. A spokesperson from both the demonstrations spoke to ISM activists and stateed that the belief is that direct action is one of the most effective ways for spreading the prisoner solidarity message to the rest of the world.
Baroness Catherine Ashton
High Representative of the European Union
for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Vice-President of the European Commission
242, rue de la Loi
B-1049 Brussels
Date: 01 June 2014
Re: Mass Hunger Strike of Palestinian ‘Administrative Detainees’
Dear High Representative,
We, the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the undersigned human rights organizations, wish to bring to your attention the on-going mass hunger strike involving approximately 125 Palestinian detainees and prisoners and request your urgent intervention on their behalf.
The majority of the hunger strikers are protesting the continued administrative detention, which is detention without trial or charge. Administrative detention orders are issued by the Israeli Military Commander in the West Bank for periods of one to six months and can be renewed indefinitely. Administrative detainees or their lawyers are not informed of the reasons for their detention and are only informed that there is ‘secret evidence’ against them.
While administrative detention is legal under the Fourth Geneva Convention it must be used on an individual case by case basis without discrimination of any kind. However Israel has used administrative detention on a systematic basis against tens of thousands of Palestinians and is an ever present threat in the daily lives of all Palestinians. Instead of being used on an individual case by case basis it is used as punishment against the Palestinian people, as well a means of disrupting the political process given the continuous targeting of Palestinian Legislative Council members. We firmly believe that Israel’s use of administrative detention should cease immediately.
As you are aware Palestinian political prisoners have undertaken a number of hunger strikes since 2011, both on an individual and mass basis. The current strike was launched on 24 April when approximately 90 detainees began refusing food in protest of their continued administrative detention. The strike has since escalated as more detainees and prisoners have joined and the numbers continue to rise.
As of 1 June the majority of the hunger strikers have gone without food for 38 days. We have reached a critical stage and unless there is immediate intervention there will be dire consequences for the health of all those on strike. Many of the hunger strikers have recently stopped taking vitamins and are now consuming only water, which drastically increases the risk of death.
Following the launch of the strike the Israeli authorities immediately began taking punitive measures against the hunger strikers. These included the immediate isolation of all hunger strikers away from the rest of the prison population. Many of hunger strikers have also been transferred to different prisons, while the leaders of the hunger strike have also been placed in isolation. All hunger strikers have been denied salt for the first fifteen days of their strike.
The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) and Israeli Special Forces have also been conducting violent raids on the prisoner’s cells and intrusive searches the prisoners on a daily basis. In many cases the hunger strikers have been beaten and injured during these raids and were subsequently denied medical treatment.
Family visits were also immediately banned for a period of four months, with the leaders of the strike being banned visits for six months. The Israeli authorities are also attempting to limit access to the hunger strikers by restricting lawyer visits, making it extremely difficult to get a clear picture of what is actually happening inside the prisons.
The hunger strikers have also boycotted the prison clinic as they accuse the prison physicians of conspiring with the IPS to beak the strike, in violation of the World Medical Association’s Malta Declaration on Hunger Strikers. It is worth noting that many of these same tactics have been used by the Israeli authorities in an attempt to break previous strikes.
We would also like to inform you that there are currently six members of the Palestinian Legislative Council on hunger strike, all of whom are being held under administrative detention.
Another issue to major concern is the possibility that the force-feeding of prisoners will be legalized by the Israeli Knesset. The proposal for such force-feeding has recently been approved and, if voted into legislation, would have serious consequences for all those currently on hunger strike and those who wish to undertake hunger strikes in the future. According to the World Medical Association Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers, “Forcible feeding is never ethically acceptable”.
As you are aware the mass hunger strike of 2012 ended on 14 May 2012 after an agreement was reached between representatives of the prisoners and the IPS. At this time it was agreed that Israel would limit the use of administrative to only ‘exceptional circumstances’, as is required under international law. However, it is quite clear that Israel has reneged on the agreement as it has continued to use administrative detention on a systematic basis which has compelled the prisoners to launch a fresh strike.
Other elements of the May 2012 agreement which Israel has failed to honor are improvements in prison conditions; ending isolation as a policy; the reintroduction of education which was taking away in 2007; and the resumption of have family visits for Gaza prisoners. However, although visits for Gaza prisoners have resumed they are only taking place every two months as opposed to every two weeks for prisoners from the West Bank and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Finally we would like to highlight the important role that Palestinian political prisoners can play as actors and agents for political change, as was shown in the 2006 National Conciliation Document of the Prisoners, which formed the basis for the recent reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas. While Israel has continually attempted to sideline the prisoners for its own political and strategic purposes we feel that the prisoners must and can play a central role in bringing about a genuine and lasting peace.
We call on you in your capacity as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to immediately:
Publicly voice concern for the hunger strikers and inform the Israeli authorities that hunger strikers are a legitimate form of protest which should not be met with punitive measures.
Publicly voice concern over Israel’s continued systematic use of administrative detention.
Pressure Israel to honor its 14 May 2012 agreement by improving prison conditions; ending the use of isolation as a policy; reintroduce access education for all prisoners; resume of bi-weekly visits for Gaza prisoners; and end the use of administrative detention; all of which are in accordance with internationally accepted norms regarding the rights of prisoners.
Signed,
Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association
Aldameer Association for Human Rights
Al-Haq
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Defence for Children International – Palestine Section
Ensan Center for Human Rights and Democracy
Hurryyat –Centre for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights
Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights
Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies
Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
The Public Committee against Torture in Israel
Adalah – The Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel
Arab Association for Human Rights
Palestinian Prisoners Society
Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs
