URGENT ACTION

Their Fate is in Our Hands


May 17th: 24 hours of hunger in solidarity
with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails

Thursday, May 17, will mark a month to the hunger strike, with over 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails participating in it. As Israel refuses to accept the prisoners' demands for their basic rights, including humane treatment, many of them face immediate risk of death as the world watches over in silence.
The prisoners have decided to live in dignity or starve to death in their isolation cells, and a global mobilization is urgently needed to break the deafening silence! A month into the hunger strike, join a
Global 24-hour hunger strike
In front of Israeli embassies, consulates and UN offices
May 17, 2012
Endorse the Palestinian civil society call for a boycott of G4S due to its complicity in Israel’s violations of Palestinian prisoners’ rights

Background
More than two weeks ago, some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have launched an open-ended hunger strike and their life is in danger. Their demands are simple and the strike's slogan, echoing through the prison walls, is just as plain- freedom or death. The lives of all prisoners on strike are currently under danger, but among them is a smaller group, which has been striking for a longer period and whose lives are under immediate threat.
Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab have not eaten for more than 70 days - since the 29th of February. Israeli courts have rejected their appeals and refused to free them from administrative detention where they remain without charge or trial, subject to secret evidence and secret allegations. They are in critical condition.
Hassan Safadi has been refusing food since the 2nd of March, Omar Abu Shalal, 54, since the 4th of March, Mahmoud Sarsak, the only Gazan to have been incarcerated under Israel's Illegal Combatants Law, since the 24th of March, Mohammed al-Taj, 40, also since the 24th of March and Ja'afar Ezzadeen, 41, since the 27th of march.
The Prisoners' key demands include:
• Ending the policy of solitary confinement and isolation;
• End to the use of administrative detentions;
• The restoration of visitation rights to families of prisoners from the Gaza Strip, a right that has been denied to all families for more than 6 years;
• Cancelling ‘Shalit’ law, which restricts prisoners' access to educational materials as punitive measure. The law remains intact despite a prisoner swap deal last October.
• Ending systematic humiliation, including arbitrary strip searches, nightly raids and collective punishment.
Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike have been hit hard with retaliation from Israel Prison Services, including beatings, transferring from one prison to another, confiscation of salt (an act that could have severe health consequences for hunger strikers), denial of family and lawyer visits, and isolation and solitary confinement of hunger strikers.
In response, Human Rights Watch issued a statement chiding Israel’s over its administrative detention policy; it said, “It shouldn’t take the self-starvation of Palestinian prisoners for Israel to realize it is violating their due process rights." Amnesty International also issued a call for urgent action from individuals around the world to contact Israeli authorities about Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh.
Emphasizing imprisonment as a critical component of Israel’s system of occupation, colonialism and apartheid practiced against the Palestinian people, Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations have called for intensifying the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to target corporations profiting directly from the Israeli prison system. In particular, we call for action to be taken to hold to account G4S, the world’s largest international security corporation, which helps to maintain and profit from Israel’s prison system, for its complicity with Israeli violations of international law.

Signed:
Popular Struggle Coordinating Committee
Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)

Joint Advocacy initiative

Joint Advocacy Initiative posted in Joint Advocacy Initiative (YMCA-YWCA) مبادرة الدفاع المشتركة

Joint Advocacy Initiative

10:50am May 5

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/take-action-now-amnesty-issues-urgent-alert-palestine-hunger-strikers-who-are

Take action now: Amnesty issues urgent alert for Palestine hunger strikers who are near death

electronicintifada.net

Amnesty International today issued a call for Urgent Action from individuals around the world to con...

Update re the Palestinians Olive Trees

Dear Friends

I sent you an urgent appeal last Friday to write letters to try to save the destruction of olive trees in the Wadi Qana valley, land belonging to farmers from the village of Deir Istiya in the Salfeet region of the West Bank. Here is an update:

We now learn from farmers of the village that it is not 1,400 trees but over 2,000 trees that are at risk.
The army went there yesterday, May 1st, the deadline date for the farmers to uproot their own trees. They came prepasred to start the job but they found a substantial number of Palestinians. Israelis and internationals waiting for them. About 100 armed settlers with their guns and their children also descended from the surrounding hill-top settlements. There was a tense confrontation but eventually the stand-off came to an end peacefully and everyone withdrew.

We can be certain however that they will be back at some point with the bulldozers and it is therefore very important to write again to the authorities you have sent appeals to. Please send another now with this update and I will send through any further significant updates so that we can, together with many others, keep up the pressure and let the Israeli authorities know that the outside world is watching them. Please get more people involved if you can - this is the beginning - not the end.

In case people are not sure how to contact MPs there is a useful website at http://www.writetothem.com/ It asks you to enter your postcode and will bring up a form you can fill in which will post as an email to the relevant MP.

For those of us in constituencies with Zionist MPs and those who are Friends of Israel I think it is also important to keep nibbling away at them too.

In addition, there is a petition about this that you can sign and send to others. The advantage of this is that with every signature an automatic message of protest goes to the 3 Israeli ministers on the original appeal plus some Israeli embassies. Personally, I prefer individual letters but every little helps. Just click onto the link below.

http://www.change.org/petitions/israeli-government-to-stop-uprooting-1400-trees-on-privately-owned-palestinian-land?share_id=GdxuTizONy&pe=pce

This is international solidarity at work!

Gwen

Israeli demands that Palestinians uproot their own Olive trees.

This is an urgent appeal from our member Gwen Backwell who is a volunteer with the International Women's Peace Service concerning the West Bank village she volunteers in, which right now is under severe threat. PLEASE WILL YOU WRITE LETTERS TO THE ISRAELI AND BRITISH POLITICIANS NAMED BELOW ABOUT THIS OUTRAGEOUS DEMAND THAT THE PALESTINIAN FARMERS UPROOT THEIR OWN OLIVE TREES. Gwen's letters from the threatened village written last year appear elsewhere on this website. She is due to return this September.
April 26, 2012
Israeli Occupation Forces demand evacuation of 1400 Olive Trees in Wadi Qana, Salfit
On April 25, 2012 nine farmers of Deir Istiya, Salfit were given orders to uproot 1400 olive trees in the Wadi Qana agricultural area by May 1, 2012. This is the largest order for uprooting trees that the farmers of Wadi Qana have ever been given. Most of the trees were planted approximately 5 years ago on privately owned Palestinian property. The orders, placed on retaining terraces, rocks and fences in the vicinity of the trees, state that if the farmers do not uproot their trees they will face punishment which could, according to Deir Istiya mayor Nazmi Salman include large fines and imprisonment.
On Friday, April 27, villagers and international activists will proceed from the village of Deir Istyia to the Wadi Qana agricultural area for Friday prayers and an educational walk through the valley. Internationals and Israeli activists are encouraged to show solidarity with their presence
For more information contact:
International Women's Peace Service 09 251-4644; 0597317193
Rezeq Abu Nasser: 0599116416
Nazmi Salman: 0599788273

Today, 27th April, I received a further report from IWPS volunteers of the gathering of opposition to these outrageous demands:
The action today at Wadi Qana was phenomenal. Around 200 people showed up, from all over... ISM, AATW, other Israeli activists, EAPPI, and about 150 villagers. Mostly men from the village, but Naima went and we went along with her. Made contact with an awesome woman from Nablus who said she can get women to join the encampment on critical days. 30th-2nd or 3rd.

The men had their midday prayer in Wadi Qana and it was announced last night from the mosque that they were to come to Wadi Qana for prayers, and that was very powerful. Then we went on a long walk and saw some of the olive groves that are under threat. We met up with settlers, but there were no incidents.

Tonight Jenny and I are sleeping in Wadi Qana with Naima!


To respond to this impending outrage please write brief but strong appeals to some names on the list below in support of the villagers of Deir Istiya with copies to the two leaders of the village mentioned above: Nazmi Salman (the mayor) at nazmialsalman@yahoo.com and Rezeq Abu Nasser at riziq60@gmail.com
Prime Minister's Office: Benjamin Netanyahu
02-6705512, 02-5664838
Ministry of Defense Ehud Barak (Ehud Shani)
03-6976663, 03-6976218
Ministry of the Environment Gilad Erdan (Yossi Anbar)
02-6553701, 02-6535958
Department for nature preservation and national parks at the civil administration is Asaf Goldfeld
02-9977001 (Fax: 02-9977337)
Also write to Alistair Burt, Minister responsible for the Middle East, with a copy to your MP, to ask him to make a strong objection to the Israeli authorities: burta@parliament.uk
The signs are very ominous and action needs to be taken quickly.
Thankyou very much.
Gwen Backwell
Merseyside