...أسرى الاحتلال إن حكوا: صبر وعناد

...أسرى الاحتلال إن حكوا: صبر وعناد

Hunger Strike- a film by Ashraf Mashharawi on Al Jazeera

Watch the full documentary on Palestinian prisoners who go on hunger strikes in Israeli jails to achieve their basic human rights, and sometimes their freedom . Ayman al Sharawna and Hana Shalabi whose stories are featured in the Arabic version of The Prisoners; Diaries reenact their experiences in this powerful documentary.
Thanks to Asmaa Seba the Belgian- Algerian photographer , for sharing this documentary with us , she said "From Ashraf Mashharawi, the english version , thank you for this powerful film dear Ashraf, our work to shed light on the prisoners issue is for me the most important topic because it defines the struggle for freedom and dignity, my exhibition " Une vie Suspendue" about Palestinian females former detainees is still a sensitive question in Europe because the international community don't see those Human beings as political prisoners, they consider them as terrorists, while resistants in Europe in 1944 were fighting Nazism and are depicted like heroes....."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u49jwfcLwuE

We have started a Facebook page to enable more up to date news of Palestinian prisoners and the book and to include photos . The book is now available in 4 languages , i.e. English, Turkish , Arabic and French.

Please visit our page at https://www.facebook.com/ThePrisonersDiaries

Protest against the Arrest of Khader Adnan

Sheikh Khader Adnan was abducted by the occupation forces two days ago on Tuesday 8th July 2014.

A former Palestinian political prisoner, Sheikh Khader Adnan is known as the father of the hunger strikers - the symbol of Palestinian resistance and steadfastness, In 2011 he was abducted and caged indefinitely without any charged or trial under Israeli illegal system of punitive administrative detention. To protest his illegal imprisonment he went on hunger strike and won his freedom. His successful 66 day hunger strike in 2012 - the longest in Palestinian history at the time, inspired over 1600 other Palestinian prisoners to hunger strike. Since his release Sheikh Khader Adnan has been the voice of the Palestinian political prisoners, ceaselessly defending their rights at every opportunity and thus is a thorn in the side of the occupation.

Over 6,000 Palestinians now in Israeli jails, with 830 arrested since June 12th.

Over 830 Palestinians from the West Bank, Jerusalem and Occupied Palestine ’48 have been imprisoned in mass arrests and raids since June 12, reported the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society on Monday, after 56 were arrested overnight in the West Bank. There are now over 6,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, noted researcher Abdel Nasser Ferwana.

This came amid ongoing attacks from occupation forces, who bombed Gaza in a series of airstrikes, killing nine people: Ibrahim al-Bal’aawy, 24; Abdul-Rahman al-Zamili, 22; Mustafa Abu Morr, 22; his twin brother Khaled Abu Morr, 22; Yousef Sharaf Ghannam, 22; Joma’a Abu Shallouf, 24; Ibrahim Abdeen; Mazen al-Jedya, 33; and Marwan Salim, 23.

An Israeli colonist ran over three Palestinian workers with his car near Haifa on July 6, killing two instantly: Zahi Abu Hamed of Qalqilya and Anwar al-Satel of Yafa.

Read more here
http://samidoun.ca/2014/07/over-6000-palestinian-prisoners-now-in-israeli-jails-830-arrested-since-june-12/

Israeli soldiers celebrate killing of Palestinian youth as “revenge”

Israeli soldiers celebrate killing of Palestinian youth as “revenge”

A 13 Year Wait for 30 Minutes: One Woman’s Struggle to Visit Her Imprisoned Husband | IMEU

Saadia Hourani is married to prisoner Imad Saftawi. She was forced to go 13 years without seeing her husband due to Israel’s draconian web of restrictions on family visits for Palestinian prisoners.

read more here

A 13 Year Wait for 30 Minutes: One Woman’s Struggle to Visit Her Imprisoned Husband | IMEU

Turkish pathologist: Palestinian detainee was beaten before dying in Israeli jail - Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz

A Palestinian who expired in Israeli detention was beaten before dying, a Turkish pathologist has claimed in an expert opinion submitted to an Israeli court.

Her opinion contradicts the view of an Israeli state pathologist, who concluded that Arafat Jaradat died of natural causes.

Turkish pathologist: Palestinian detainee was beaten before dying in Israeli jail - Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz

“Were you in a hurry to heaven?” Mother of teen killed by Israeli sniper speaks

Monday was the fortieth day since an Israeli sniper fatally shot 17-year-old Nadim Siam Nuwara near Ofer military prison in Beitunia in the occupied West Bank.

This brutal end to a young life was caught on security cameras and by CNN, along with the fatal shooting of Muhammad Abu al-Thahir, 16, and the serious wounding of 15-year-old Muhammad al-Azzeh. Human Rights Watch called the shootings an “apparent war crime.”

140527-daniel-nuwara.jpg



Daniel Nuwara holds a portrait of his slain brother, Nadim.

“Were you in a hurry to heaven?” Mother of teen killed by Israeli sniper speaks

The pain of almost a million arrests ( 2013 article by Gideon Levy)

Just keeping things in context, now that Israel is using the disappearance of 3 Israeli settlers as a basis for further arrests and intimidation of the Palestinians.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-pain-of-almost-a-million-arrests.premium-1.506216

French edition of The Prisoners' Diaries to be published by Erick Bonnier Editions, Paris.

The French edition entitled Journaux de Prisonniers ,was translated by Jean Marie Flemal, with an Introduction written by Dr Christophe Oberlin, a microsurgeon who volunteers with the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.

http://www.erickbonnier-editions.com/essais/le-voile-d%C3%A9masqu%C3%A9/journaux-de-prisonniers/

Palestinian administrative detainees tell Israel: We will not end our hunger strike

A senior official from the Israel Prison Service has met with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, the Ahrar Centre for Detainees Studies and Human Rights said. The prisoners told the official that they do not intend to end their hunger strike.

Palestinian administrative detainees tell Israel: We will not end our hunger strike

Children tortured and beaten by Palestinian Authority security forces

Ramallah, June 10, 2014—Ahmad was 15 when he was arrested during a 3 am raid by Palestinian security forces at El Far’a refugee camp in September 2013. He was accused of throwing stones, burning tires and insulting members of the Palestinian security service, and was dragged from his house blindfolded and with his hands bound by a plastic cord.

As he was placed into a waiting jeep, one of the men arresting him lit a lighter under his wrists to remove the cord. “I was screaming in pain. But he just kept doing it,” said Ahmad, recounting his ordeal to Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-Palestine), a children's rights organization based in the West Bank.
Read more at

http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/children-blindfolded-and-beaten-hands-palestinian-authority

Palestinian prisoners refuse settlement as they set record for longest mass hunger strike

Palestinian prisoners refuse settlement as hunger strike sets record#PeaceProcess


An estimated 300 prisoners are participating in the hunger strike that is now the longest in Palestinian history

Palestinians hold portraits of detainees during a demonstration in Jerusalem in June (AFP)

Joe Catron
Tuesday 10 June 2014 23:13 BST

Topics:
PeaceProcess
Tags:
Hunger strike, Administrative Detention, Protests
0 comments


Palestinian prisoners participating in the longest mass hunger strike in Palestinian history have rejected a settlement proposed by the Israeli prison and intelligence services, incarcerated members of a Palestinian party tell MEE.

An estimated 300 prisoners are participating in the strike which started on 24 April to protest against administrative detentions by Israeli forces. On Tuesday, the strikers entered their 48th day, passing a record set in a 1976 strike, according to human rights associations.



- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinian-prisoners-refuse-settlement-hunger-strike-sets-record/855621504#sthash.ptDi7deR.dpuf
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinian-prisoners-refuse-settlement-hunger-strike-sets-record/855621504

G4S finally announces it will end all Israeli contracts within 3 years ( Inminds report)

Cautious Victory - G4S finally announces it will end all Israeli prison contracts within 3 years

7th June 2014, www.inminds.com

Yesterday the Financial Times reported that G4S has announced for the first time that it will end all its contacts with Israeli prisons within 3 years:


"G4S has confirmed that it will end all its Israeli prison contracts within the next three years after an annual general meeting that was severely disrupted by human rights protesters.. Mr Almanza said for the first time that the move would also include prison service contracts all over Israel."*



This follows last years announcement that due to "reputational dangers" to their business, mentioning the protests outside their London Headquarters, G4S would exit the contracts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories when they terminate in 2015. However, at the time they still maintained that they would continue their prison contracts in Israel.

We have held regular protests outside G4S HQ in London for nearly two years, since August 2012 when the Palestinian Prisoners Campaign was launched at Al Quds Day, with a protest at least every fortnight. Congratulations to all the dedicated activists who kept the pressure on G4S to finally force them to change their stated position and announce they will abandon all prison contracts in Israel.

Of course our campaign against G4S continues, this announcement on its own will not change anything other that ensure we go forward with extra vigour so that they follow-through on their promise. Our next protest will be next friday 13th June 2014 outside G4S HQ, the focus will be the Palestinian mass hunger strike against Israel's illegal practice of administrative detention where more than 2,000** Palestinians are caged every year without charge or trial for an indefinite period of time. This is another crime which G4S is inextricably complicit in, with 86% of administrative detainees caged in prisons they secure. Details for the protest will follow shortly.

Gates Foundation sells stake in G4S

Gates Foundation Sells Stake in U.K. Prison Operator G4S
By Tom Metcalf
June 06, 2014 12:46 PM EDT






The Gates Foundation Asset Trust, the entity that manages the investments for the $40.2 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has liquidated its entire stake in G4S Plc (GFS), the world’s biggest security-services provider.

“Like other large foundations, the foundation trust evaluates its holdings regularly, both for performance and fit,” John Pinette, a spokesman for the Gates family, said in a statement. “As a result of this, the foundation trust no longer holds an investment in G4S.”

The Crawley, England-based company has attracted criticism for its contracts with the Israel prison system. The U.K.’s Guardian newspaper said in an editorial on June 4 that G4S should “end the corporation’s participation in Israel’s brutal occupation” in the West Bank.

Since 2011, G4S has conducted a series of reviews in relation to its business in Israel, according to the company’s website. Its latest investigation concluded there was “no plausible case against G4S on the ground of alleged war crimes commited by Israel.”

A regulatory filing on May 28 showed that the stake, held by the trust and Bill Gates’s investment company, Cascade Investment LLC, had fallen below three percent. The billionaire’s stake was first disclosed last June, when Cascade’s holding crossed the 3 percent threshold for the first time.

Adam Mynott, a spokesman for G4S, declined to comment.

Gates oversees an $81.7 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He is almost $14 billion richer than Mexico’s Carlos Slim, the world’s second richest person.

Report from

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-06/gates-foundation-sells-stake-in-u-k-security-company-g4s.html

Salt and Water

With Palestinian political prisoners now more than one month into an ongoing hunger strike, daily solidarity events and direct actions are being held across Palestine. The hunger strike began in April against Israel's continued use of Administrative Detention - a system of imprisonment without charge, trial or access to legal defence. A previous hunger strike in 2012 was ended after Israel agreed to limit its use of Administrative Detention, a false promise that never translated to action on the Occupation's part.

- See more at: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/11792-salt-and-water#sthash.qbXFkXdv.dpuf

Salt and Water

1,500 Palestinian detainees on hunger strike

RAMALLAH: The number of Palestinian detainees on hunger strike in Israeli jails reached 1,500 Sunday, a Palestinian NGO said.

"More non-administrative detainees have joined the hunger strike in solidarity with administrative detainees, bringing the total number of striking detainees to 1,500," the Prisoners' Club said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Jun-01/258417-1500-palestinian-detainees-on-hunger-strike-ngo.ashx#ixzz33OOglZ2x
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

Palestinian inmates’ situation, desperate: Analyst

Interview on Press TV with Paul Larudee of Free Palestine movement in Berkeley
 http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/25/360043/palestinian-inmates-situation-terrible/

Tortured as a child in the Israeli prison system: One man's personal account

Tortured as a Child in the Israeli Prison System: One Man's Personal Account
VIVIEN SANSOUR, IMEU, MAY 14, 2014






"Before I went to prison I was not afraid of anything, but after - I feel like something in me has died." These are the words of Muayad, who was taken from his home in the Azeh refugee camp in Bethlehem by Israeli soldiers just a few days after he turned 16 years old in 2008. Muayad, who is now 22, spent more than a year and a half in an Israeli prison. 

Read the rest  of the article here:

http://imeu.net/news/article0025153.shtml

The mass hunger strike returns: Palestinian prisoners refuse food to protest detention without trial

Over 100 prisoners on hunger strike in an attempt to pressure Israel to end its policy of holding prisoners on secret evidence with no recourse to challenge their detention in court.

read more at http://mondoweiss.net/2014/05/palestinian-prisoners-detention.html

Palestinian prisoners intensify new hunger strike protest

Palestinian prisoners intensify new hunger strike protest

Boosted by unity deal, Palestinian prisoner hunger strike hits third week

On Monday, as representatives of their parties spoke in Gaza, veteran prisoners Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah PLC member, and Abbas al-Sayed, a senior Hamas leader, both recipients of multiple life sentences by Israeli military courts, announced they would join the strike in solidarity with administrative detainees, former Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs Wasfi Qabha said.

Their participation is likely to spur their movements to greater support for the strike, as well as boosting the reconciliation bid, according to al-Wuhaidi.

"Because of the dispute between the factions before, even the issue of detainees was affected," he said. "Our efforts weren't at their maximum, and didn't meet the expectations of the prisoners."

Unity between factions, he thinks, will help them coordinate their efforts to support the prisoners, whether through the diplomacy and negotiations of Fatah or the armed resistance favoured by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others. "Reconciliation is necessary to pressure the Israelis by uniting our strategies," said al-Wuhaidi.



- See more at:http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/boosted-unity-deal-palestinian-prisoner-hunger-strike-hits-third-weekBoosted by unity deal, Palestinian prisoner hunger strike hits third week

Israeli journalist slams occupation's treatment of detained Palestinian children

Israel's daily newspaper Haaretz has published an article strongly criticising the Israeli occupation army's treatment of detained Palestinian children. "What kind of country throws a teen out of an army jeep?" the newspaper titled the article by Israeli journalist Gideon Levy.


Levy goes on to explain the whole story: "Without money, a phone or identity papers, Fadel Tamimi's 14 year old son was thrown out of an Israeli army jeep, in the dead of night, 15 kilometres away from home, after being interrogated."


Read more here.


https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/11286-israeli-journalist-slams-occupations-treatment-of-detained-palestinian-children

When palestinian prisoners slip through the net

When Palestinians get arrested by the Israeli authorities, their first stop is an interrogation centre. Sometime later, as little as a few hours or as much as three months - during which time they are regularly denied access to lawyers and medical care – they are moved to a detention facility for their trial. Only then do they enter the prison system proper.

Along the way, some disappear from the records.

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-when-palestinian-prisoners-slip-through-net

Palestinian prisoners ready for mass hunger strike

Nearly two hundred Palestinian administrative detainees, held indefinitely without charge or trial on Israeli military court orders, have announced plans to launch a masshunger strike for their freedom this Thursday.

The news came as demonstrations across Palestine and events worldwide commemorated the 40th annual Palestinian Prisoners’ Day

Thousands marched from an exhibition at Saraya square, the former site of Israel’s Gaza central prison, to rally outside the International Committee of the Red Cross’Gaza office.

Palestinian prisoners ready for mass hunger strike

Israel furious at UN report detailing torture of Palestinian children Israel’s security forces have been accused by a United Nations monitoring group of torturing and tormenting Palestinian children.

The Committee on the Rights of Children, a body of independent legal experts charged by the UN with the task of monitoring the protection of children’s rights in signatory states, has urged Israel to honour its responsibility to prevent the torture and ill-treatment of children.


“The Committee expresses its deepest concern about the reported practice of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children arrested, prosecuted and detained by the military and the police, and about the State party’s failure to end these practices in spite of repeated concerns expressed by treaty bodies,” the investigative body stated in its periodic review of Israel’s child rights record, released on Thursday.


It continued: “[Palestinian children are] systematically subject to physical and verbal violence, humiliation, painful restraints, hooding of the head and face in a sack, threatened with death, physical violence, and sexual assault against themselves or members of their family, restricted access to toilet, food and water.


“These crimes are perpetrated from the time of arrest, during transfer and interrogation, to obtain a confession but also on an arbitrary basis as testified by several Israeli soldiers as well as during pretrial detention.”


The report prompted a furious response from Israel, countering that the findings are “not based on any direct investigation on the ground, only on documents gathered from secondary sources.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10135157/Israel-furious-at-UN-report-detailing-torture-of-Palestinian-children.html

In Pictures: Prisoner Day protests in West Bank and Gaza

In Pictures: Prisoner Day protests in West Bank and Gaza

Palestinian teen goes on hunger strike to protest being placed in criminal prison

Ramallah, April 16, 2014—A Palestinian teen prisoner put in solitary confinement after going on hunger strike has won his fight to be transferred to another prison.

Authorities at Ofek Juvenile Prison in central Israel punished Obaida S, 15, from East Jerusalem with 25 consecutive days in solitary confinement after he went on hunger strike.

The teenager was protesting the Israeli Prison Service’s refusal to move him from a criminal prison and detain him with other political prisoners.

“(The prison) was dangerous … (the prisoners) assault each other physically. Some of the children were beaten up badly in front of me,” Obaida told DCI-Palestine in a sworn affidavit.

Palestinian prisoners' Day April 17th, 2014

Thursday 17th April is Palestinian Prisoners Day, a day of solidarity with the 5000+ Palestinian men, women and children who are languishing in Israeli dungeons.

We will be holding two events on the day, one following the other, and both from Victoria Street (near Victoria Station):

Date: Thurday 17th April 2014, 3pm - 6pm

3pm Mystery Action

We will meet on Victoria Street in front of Westminster Cathedral (3mins from Victoria station) for a mystery action jointly with our friends from London Palestine Action
Please note that punctuality is essential as we will leave for the action within a few minutes of 3pm.

4pm Protest outside G4S HQ, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/770480126304031
There will be several themes for this years Prisoners Day. They will centre around our continued campaign against G4S. British multinational G4S is the worlds largest security contractor and provides security for many prisoners in Israel where Palestinian men, women and children are tortured and caged.

If you are in London, please support this:

Friday 28th Mar - PROTEST IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINIAN WOMEN PRISONERS & G4S COMPLICITY IN THEIR TORTURE & CAGING # FreeLenaJarboni Date: Friday 28th March 2014, half past three pm - half past five pm Location: G4S HQ, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT (Closest public transport: Victoria Tube / Rail station)


PALESTINIAN WOMEN POLITICAL PRISONERS - FREE LENA JARBONI We will highlight the plight of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons and in Particular Lena Jarboni, and G4S Specifically complicity in their torture and suffering.Currently there are 21 Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli Political prisons. Most of them are in HaSharon prison in Israel. The British private security contractor G4S provides the full security system at HaSharon including the central command room for the entire prison. The transfer of Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank and Gaza into Israel to (to HaSharon Prison) is illegal under international law and a war crime Constitutes, G4S is Complicit in this by the services it Provides to HaSharon Prison. Before being brought to prison the women have to endure weeks, sometimes months, of torture at one of Israel's interrogation centres to extract confessions from them - usually the infamous 'Russian Compound' in Jerusalem or the notorious Al-Jalame torture den - both these facilities are also secured by G4S . The Occupation has again extended the detention of Palestinian prisoners lawyer Shireen Issawi (and her brothers Shadi and Medhat), she

183 Palestinian children arrested by army, facing Israeli military courts in January

183 Palestinian children arrested by army, facing Israeli military courts in January


Submitted by Nora Barrows-Fr... on Mon, 03/03/2014 - 20:17

140303-child-detainee.jpg





Israeli soldiers and police routinely detain and arrest Palestinian children.

(Saeed Qaq / APA images)

A new report indicates that as of the end of January, 183 Palestinian children were arrested and detained by Israeli occupation soldiers and occupation police, and imprisoned and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system. Of the 183 children, 20 are between the ages of 14 and 15 years old.

Read the whole article here http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/183-palestinian-children-arrested-army-facing-israeli-military-courts

20 Palestinian political prisoners and detainees are currently held in solitary confinement inside Israeli jails:

20 Palestinian political prisoners and detainees are currently held in solitary confinement inside Israeli jails:
#UFreeNetwork_MediaCentre
20 Palestinian political prisoners and detainees are currently held in solitary confinement in different Israeli jails mainly in Ramle and Eshel prisons for different time periods.
Solitary confinement is the toughest punishment measure imposed by Israeli prison administration in which a Palestinian detainees denied contact with any other political prisoners and detainees for unidentified and prolonged period of time.
Palestinian isolated detainees have been held in solitary confinement amid very difficult and unbearable detention conditions, deprived from their basic human rights. They have been subjected to inhuman treatment and abuses in grave-like prison cells.
Dozens of Palestinian detainees have spent whole years in Israeli solitary confinement, where they have got psychological and serious diseases.
20 Palestinian detainees are still held in Israel's solitary confinement as an additional punitive measure to their imprisonment sentences as part of Israeli revenge policy that aims toto undermine the detainees' wills and spirits.
Israeli solitary confinement came in total violation to international convention and laws. Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provides that all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person

0% Conviction rate for Israeli interrogators who use torture

Conviction rate for Israeli interrogators who use torture: 0%
Allison Deger on February 20, 2014





Israeli actor demonstrates the “shabach” position for the human rights group B’tselem. (Photo: AP)

In Israel torturing Palestinian prisoners is against the law, but since 2001 there has not been a single conviction—even when the state admits its use. Over the past 13 years Palestinian detainees have filed over 800 petitions to criminally prosecute and in 15 percent of those trials, the state admitted to the abuse. That’s right, zero.

Read more here from Mondoweiss

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/02/conviction-interrogators-torture.html

Released Palestinian detainees struggle with life outside prison

Released Palestinian detainees struggle with life outside prison

Liberated prisoner Oweida Kalab, 50, closed all the windows and turned on the radio to listen to Hebrew-language stations. He locked himself inside his room and refused to see visitors or go outside, except for the rarest of occasions, as he relived his 25 years in prison. For 18 of these years he was in solitary confinement, unable to hear anything but the voices of his Israeli jailers.

His brother’s wife, Ferial Kalab, who takes care of him with her family, told Al-Monitor, “The [Israeli] occupation forces arrested him in 1988. We used to go visit him when he was still a young man. But in 1992 he began refusing to come out and meet with us, so we stopped going to see him. We got word from other prisoners that his mental state was deteriorating.” She explained that his comrades attributed this deterioration to the solitary confinement and interrogation methods used inside the prison.

Oweida is not the only detainee who has continued suffering after his release pursuant to the Shalit deal. Liberated prisoner Mohammad Karim, 31, who was incarcerated for nine years and released in the same deal, expressed his frustration to Al-Monitor. He said, “I feel that everyone is better than me. They all can plan for their futures, but I cannot. Despite my smile, this freedom pains me. I would rather remain alone and away from people.”


Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/01/palestine-released-prisoners-challenges.html#

Children in Chains - Documentary Trailer by Jonathan Pullman

Israel's Military Prosecution Denies parents Rights to accompany Children to Court

Israel’s Military Prosecution Denies Parents Right to Accompany Children






Israeli soldiers severely beat Hendi S, 17, after arresting him on Sept. 19 on suspicion of stone throwing, according to his affidavit, and one of them burned his arm with a cigarette.

Ramallah, January 16, 2014—Israel’s military prosecution denied last week the parents of a Palestinian child called upon to testify in an investigation over his alleged abuse by Israeli soldiers from accompanying their son. The decision contradicts a previous precedent set by the prosecution in summer 2012, allowing “a close relative (father or mother) who is not a lawyer” to be present during a child’s deposition.

Read the full report at
http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/israel%E2%80%99s-military-prosecution-denies-parents-right-accompany-children

Protest against G4S for their complicity in the torture of Palestinian women prisoners

PROTEST G4S COMPLICITY IN TORTURE OF PALESTINIAN WOMEN - FREE LENA AL-JARBONI

DATE: Friday 17th January 2014, 2pm - 4pm
LOCATION: G4S HQ, 105 Victoria Street (Closest public transport: Victoria Tube/Rail station)
FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/691875460844559/

PALESTINIAN WOMEN POLITICAL PRISONERS

We are launching a campaign to highlight the plight of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons, and specifically G4S complicity in their torture and suffering.

Currently there are 17 Palestinian women political prisoners in Israeli prisons. All but one is in HaSharon prison in Israel. The British private security contractor G4S provides the full security system at HaSharon including the central command room for the entire prison. The transfer of Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank and Gaza to into Israel (to HaSharon Prison) is illegal under international law and constitutes a war crime, G4S is complicit in this by the services it provides to HaSharon Prison.

Before being brought to prison the women have to endure weeks, sometimes months, of torture at one of Israel's interrogation centres to extract confessions from them - usually the infamous 'Russian Compound' in Jerusalem or the notorious Al-Jalame torture den - both these facilities are also secured by G4S.

The longest serving Palestinian women prisoner is Lena Al-Jarboni who has endured 11 years in HaSharon. The campaign will centre around her as an example of what Palestinian women have to endure and their resilience and steadfastness in the face of the occupation prisons.

LENA Al-JARBONI

Lena was born in 1974 to a Palestinian family near Acre in 1948 Palestine. Due to financial difficulty she could not complete her studies and worked in sewing workshops to help her family. In 2002 she was picked up by Israeli security. After 30 days of severe torture at Israels notorious G4S secured Al-Jalame torture den they charged her with "collaborating with the enemy" - she unlike her Palestinian friends has an Israeli citizenship. They sentenced her to 17 years in HaSharon women's prison.

At HaSharon prison Palestinian women prisoners have to endure beatings, insults, threats, sexually explicit harassment and sexual violence, and humiliation at the hands of Israeli guards. Often they are forced to undergo degrading and intrusive body searches during the middle of the night for no reason other an as a punitive measure. Women have been beaten and left tied to their bed for a day and a half and not allowed to go to the toilet as punishment for spilling water. The cells at HaSharon prison are overcrowded, dirty and infected with rodents and cockroaches. There is a total absence of basic hygiene, women have even been denied sanitary pads when menstruating. The heat is unbearable, The windows are closed and covered so that hardly any air or daylight can enter. The food is insufficient, and of inferior quality & dirty, often containing insects & worms, at times there are not enough portions for all the women.