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[Ramallah, 14 September 2009] – According to the latest figures compiled by DCI-Palestine from sources including the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) and temporary Israeli army detention, the number of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons and detention centres inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the end of August, was 339. Although there was a slight reduction in the number of children in detention compared with the previous month (3 children), the average number of Palestinian children held in Israeli detention in 2009 remains high, at 375 per month, compared with 319, in 2008. This represents an increase of 17.5%. Disturbingly, the number of young children between the ages of 12 and 15 being detained in August 2009 (39 children), was up 85% on the corresponding period in 2008 (21 children). Israel is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which provides that ‘the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child … shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.’ Number of Palestinian children in Israeli detention at the end of each month since January 2008
(note: these figures are not cumulative) If you wish to take action, then please consider lobbying your elected representatives and demand that pressure be applied on Israeli authorities to cease the practice of prosecuting Palestinian children as young as 12 in military courts, and detaining them inside Israel. For further information please see DCI-Palestine’s latest report on Palestinian child prisoners. |
Showing posts with label Prisoners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prisoners. Show all posts
Prisoners' center appeals for enabling Palestinian mother to see her kids
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GAZA, (PIC)-- The prisoners' center for studies appealed to all institutions concerned with the issue of prisoners to enable a Palestinian mother called Fatima Azzak imprisoned with her one-year child in the Israeli Telmond Hashron prison to see her husband and eight children living in Gaza. The center also called for pressuring Israel to release her and her little child and to lift restrictions imposed on visits and on sending and receiving letters to and from female prisoners' families Mohamed Azzak, the husband of the prisoner, told the prisoners' center that his wife was detained two years ago at the pretext of planning to carry out a human bombing operation inside Israel, pointing out that his wife gave birth to their son Yousuf in jail and he was not able to see him till this moment. The husband added that he and his eight children had not been allowed to see his wife and the new child Yousuf since she was sent to prison. The imprisoned wife and mother had expressed, during a visit made by the lawyer of the prisoner's club, a yearning to see her eight children and called for raising the issue of Gaza families' visits to their relatives imprisoned in Israeli jails. She also noted that Gaza female prisoners live in great suffering because of neglecting their issue in light of the prison administrations' refusal to provide the prisoners with their basic needs even if they were sent by their families. In another context, the Israeli military court on Saturday sentenced MP Mohamed Totah to three years and a half in addition to a two-year suspended sentence on a charge of participating in the Palestinian legislative elections as a Hamas candidate. The Red Cross office in Tulkarm reported that the Israeli prisons authority decided Saturday to ban family visits to the Palestinian prisoners in the Negev and Ofer prisons as of today until further notice. |
"95 detainees held by Israel for more than twenty years”
Farwana: “95 detainees held by Israel for more than twenty years”
Palestinian researcher, specializing in detainees’ affairs, Abdul-Nasser Farwna, stated that in March another four have joined the list of detainees who have been imprisoned by Israeli for more than twenty years. This brings the number of detainees imprisoned for more than twenty years to 95.
Farwana added that the four detainees are Ibrahim Lutfi Taqmouq, detained since 3/3/1989; Sami Nayif Al Na’neeshy, detained since 3/5/1989, both from Nablus; Eyad Ahmad Abu Hasna, detained since 15/3/1989; and Mohammad Abdul-Rahman Zaqqout, detained since 23/3/1989, both from Gaza.
Farwana added that there are six detainees who were kidnapped by the army in March 1986. He identified them as Mohammad Abdul-Hadi Al Hosni, from Gaza; Tawfiq Ibrahim Abdullah; Mustafa Mahmoud Qar’oush, from Nablus; Ibrahim Nayif Abu Mokh; Roshdy Hamdan Abu Mokh; and Ibrahim Bayadsa. Also, detainee Mahmoud Salem Abu Khreish, from Ramallah, was kidnapped by the army twenty-two years ago.
Furthermore, Farwana stated that three detainees entered their fifteenth year in detention last week. They were identified as Abdul-Rahman Hasan Al Awawda from Hebron; Atiyya Salem Abu Mousa; and Hazim Qassem Shbeir from Khan Younis. These three were kidnapped in March 1993.
334 detainees were kidnapped before the Oslo peace deals, and before the Palestinian Authority was established.
Farwana said that the detainees are hoping to be freed in a prisoner-swap deal between the resistance and Israel under Egyptian mediation.
This article is on a great blog run by Linda Richard about prisoners at Guantanamo.
The Israeli forces are targeting Palestinian women researchers of Prisoners files
Iqbal Tamimi The Israeli occupation forces arrested early this morning 31 March 2009 a researcher at the Centre of Studies of Prisoners. The arrested researcher is Rajaa Algul (39) is in charge of the file of Palestinian women prisoners who happens to be one of the freed ex prisoners at Israeli jails. Rajaa suffers a heart problem and her colleagues at the Centre are holding the Israeli authorities full responsibility should her health deteriorate.
Rajaa was arrested after the soldiers surrounded her home and her father’s home and her father in law’s house in the city of Jenin where they live in a refugee camp; the force was accompanied by the Israeli intelligence personnel’s.Israeli forces also seized a number of computers from an Internet cafe that belongs to Rajaa’s brother after raiding the cafe in the camp, in addition to seizing her own personal computer and the four cellular phones belonging to the family.
The ex prisoner Rajaa AlGhoul suffer from a problem in the arteries, and has been imprisoned in the Israeli occupation jails for four years before.
The Director of the Centre for Studies of prisoners Rrf’at Hamduna is holding Israeli authorities full responsibility for her life, especially that Al-Ghoul because of the difficult conditions and ill-treatment experienced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails which puts their lives at risk.
Hamduna called upon the international institutions and international bodies to put pressure on the Israeli government to stop the violations of human rights and its illegal practices against the Palestinian prisoners.
The Centre for Studies of prisoners sees that the arrest of Rajaa is a flagrant violation of human rights and international conventions, and condemned the occupation forces’ targeting human rights figures especially that they have already arrested a week ago, the freed prisoner Siham Alheeh from the city of Hebron who is also working as a prisoners’ researcher.
The Centre pleas to the media to raise the matter about targeting and arresting human rights activists and researchers, and requests of lawyers and, institutions, associations and all who are interested in human rights to support them.
Israel - Palestine Prisoner Swap Fails
Gaza Strip, 18 March 2009 - (The PT) Israeli Premier, Ehud Olmert, announced negotiations over captured solider Gilad shalit have failed. Olmert said in a press conference held in Tel-aviv that negotiations failed to release Shalit. He stressed Israel cannot give what he calls concessions in exchange for Shalit's release. He added that his government, soon to leave office, would push hard for Shalit's freedom. Israels' refusal came under the pretext 450 of the prisons Hamas requested be released, prisoners with long or life sentences, are unacceptable choices. Olmert said his government agreed on many choices before the swap failed. He blamed the breakdown in negotiation on Hamas, stating his government agreed on many names, but can't accept further dictation. The Hamas movement debunked Israeli allegations over the failure, commenting Olmert's government doesn't want successful negotiations. They are leaving office soon and are no longer interested in a swap. Remarkably Hamas is requesting the release of approximately 1000 people including women, children, and youth long held in Israeli detention. It's worth mentioning Israel currently detains over 12 thousands Palestinians, often in poorly maintained facilities. Families are frequently denied access, unable to visit their imprisoned sons. Without constant international pressure, this denial of basic rights will continue. |
Instead of Auschwitz
The committee coordinating the struggle to free Gilad Shalit went all
the way to Auschwitz where, it is reported, its members distributed
888 yellow flowers. That was in October, and we can only hope that
this media gimmick will not be repeated, either because an agreement
will be reached in the near future or because the organizers will
understand how lacking in taste that move was.The committee is continuing to put non-stop pressure on the government
despite warnings that this is hampering the negotiations. In this way,
the organizers and participants are showing a healthy lack of faith in
the politicians` promises. But the lack of faith stops when we talk
about the policy of repression employed by Israel against the
Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. Here the organizers
(including the kibbutz movement`s missions branch) accept the
government`s approach and merely demand `more!` - more blockading of
food, medicine, fuel and cash; more destruction of industry and
agriculture; more homes without water. That is the logic behind the
demonstrative obstruction of the border crossings initiated by the
organizing committee in October. Now the committee is aiming its
arrows at the families of the Palestinian prisoners. It tried to stop
family visits at the Ashkelon prison and pledges to do so at other jails.
There is no doubt about it, Shalit`s confinement is cruel - the lack
of certainty, lack of information and lack of continuous contact, as
well as the fact that there is no external body that can visit him and
inspect the conditions of his captivity. The committee is demanding
`mutuality,` but it seems more like revenge. And in our naivete we
thought they wanted to see Shalit freed. To that end, the committee
should have done its homework, and not with Defense Minister Ehud
Barak as teacher.
If it is a lack of legality we are referring to, the committee could
have reminded itself and the government that it is forbidden for an
occupying power to imprison in its sovereign territory people from an
occupied territory. The committee heads could have checked and known
that the right to regular prison visits is being withheld from tens of
thousands of Palestinians (including some 1,000 Gaza families). A
perusal of the information which the (Israeli) Association for the
Palestinian Prisoners has would reveal to the committee`s activists
that the Palestinian security prisoners do not have the right to speak
regularly on the telephone with their families, even when they do not
visit them for months or years.
Is this what the committee`s members think - that a little more
cruelty is needed so the population of prisoners and their families
will enlist in the struggle to free Gilad Shalit? Instead of that, why
not listen to the Palestinians?
For the Palestinians, Shalit is not a boy who wrote a touching story.
For them he is a soldier in the Armored Corps, and he and his
colleagues were partners to the shelling of the civilian population.
For the Palestinians, Shalit and the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners have
the same status — prisoners of war.
Instead of going to Poland and Ashkelon, the heads of the committee
can go to Lod and meet with Leila Bourghal, the mother of Mukhlas, one
of the prisoners. His mother is almost 80 and can teach them a lot
about what life is like when your rights have been constantly denied.
They can learn from her about courage and maintaining human dignity
and hope, even though no one in the world knows about her son.
Instead of demanding that the prison service stop visits to the jail,
they can ask for a meeting with Walid Daqqa, who was born in Baqa
al-Gharbiyah and is being held in the Gilboa prison. And as
preparation for the visit, they are invited to read his impressions
which he has put down on paper in recent years. If they are loath to
try the adventure of driving to the village of Qalandiyah (behind the
Qalandiyah checkpoint but inside territory annexed to Jerusalem) they
can meet outside the checkpoint with the parents of the prisoner Ahmed
Amira. If these people had been Jews, they would all have been
released a long time ago, even if their indictments were much more
serious. But because they are Arab citizens and residents of Israel,
the authorities adamantly refuse to discuss releasing them, not even
in exchange for Shalit. Instead of demanding more cruelty, why do you
not demand that the state lift its opposition to freeing them?
Instead of treating them and their families like enemies, it would be
worth the while of the committee organizers who want to free Shalit to
meet with the families and consult with them on how to act logically
and justly to free both Shalit and the Palestinian prisoners, all
prisoners of war.
the way to Auschwitz where, it is reported, its members distributed
888 yellow flowers. That was in October, and we can only hope that
this media gimmick will not be repeated, either because an agreement
will be reached in the near future or because the organizers will
understand how lacking in taste that move was.The committee is continuing to put non-stop pressure on the government
despite warnings that this is hampering the negotiations. In this way,
the organizers and participants are showing a healthy lack of faith in
the politicians` promises. But the lack of faith stops when we talk
about the policy of repression employed by Israel against the
Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. Here the organizers
(including the kibbutz movement`s missions branch) accept the
government`s approach and merely demand `more!` - more blockading of
food, medicine, fuel and cash; more destruction of industry and
agriculture; more homes without water. That is the logic behind the
demonstrative obstruction of the border crossings initiated by the
organizing committee in October. Now the committee is aiming its
arrows at the families of the Palestinian prisoners. It tried to stop
family visits at the Ashkelon prison and pledges to do so at other jails.
There is no doubt about it, Shalit`s confinement is cruel - the lack
of certainty, lack of information and lack of continuous contact, as
well as the fact that there is no external body that can visit him and
inspect the conditions of his captivity. The committee is demanding
`mutuality,` but it seems more like revenge. And in our naivete we
thought they wanted to see Shalit freed. To that end, the committee
should have done its homework, and not with Defense Minister Ehud
Barak as teacher.
If it is a lack of legality we are referring to, the committee could
have reminded itself and the government that it is forbidden for an
occupying power to imprison in its sovereign territory people from an
occupied territory. The committee heads could have checked and known
that the right to regular prison visits is being withheld from tens of
thousands of Palestinians (including some 1,000 Gaza families). A
perusal of the information which the (Israeli) Association for the
Palestinian Prisoners has would reveal to the committee`s activists
that the Palestinian security prisoners do not have the right to speak
regularly on the telephone with their families, even when they do not
visit them for months or years.
Is this what the committee`s members think - that a little more
cruelty is needed so the population of prisoners and their families
will enlist in the struggle to free Gilad Shalit? Instead of that, why
not listen to the Palestinians?
For the Palestinians, Shalit is not a boy who wrote a touching story.
For them he is a soldier in the Armored Corps, and he and his
colleagues were partners to the shelling of the civilian population.
For the Palestinians, Shalit and the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners have
the same status — prisoners of war.
Instead of going to Poland and Ashkelon, the heads of the committee
can go to Lod and meet with Leila Bourghal, the mother of Mukhlas, one
of the prisoners. His mother is almost 80 and can teach them a lot
about what life is like when your rights have been constantly denied.
They can learn from her about courage and maintaining human dignity
and hope, even though no one in the world knows about her son.
Instead of demanding that the prison service stop visits to the jail,
they can ask for a meeting with Walid Daqqa, who was born in Baqa
al-Gharbiyah and is being held in the Gilboa prison. And as
preparation for the visit, they are invited to read his impressions
which he has put down on paper in recent years. If they are loath to
try the adventure of driving to the village of Qalandiyah (behind the
Qalandiyah checkpoint but inside territory annexed to Jerusalem) they
can meet outside the checkpoint with the parents of the prisoner Ahmed
Amira. If these people had been Jews, they would all have been
released a long time ago, even if their indictments were much more
serious. But because they are Arab citizens and residents of Israel,
the authorities adamantly refuse to discuss releasing them, not even
in exchange for Shalit. Instead of demanding more cruelty, why do you
not demand that the state lift its opposition to freeing them?
Instead of treating them and their families like enemies, it would be
worth the while of the committee organizers who want to free Shalit to
meet with the families and consult with them on how to act logically
and justly to free both Shalit and the Palestinian prisoners, all
prisoners of war.
Turtle Island to Palestine: Free Political Prisoners Fundraiser
***Please distribute widely***
TURTLE ISLAND TO PALESTINE – FREE ALL POLITICAL
PRISONERS!!
COME OUT TO THE CAIA FUNDRAISER IN SUPPORT OF THE
ARDOCH ALGONQUIN FIRST NATION
******************************************************
Date: Saturday April 12
Time: 7 pm - Door opens at 6:30
Place: Cervejaria – 842 College St. (W of Ossington)
Toronto Ontario Canada
******************************************************
To coincide with Palestine Political Prisoners Day,
the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid ( CAIA), is
organising a fundraiser in support of the struggle of
the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFN ) against
uranium mining on their land. All proceeds will go to
the AAFN.
On February 15 2008, in a travesty of justice, AAFN
Spokesperson Robert Lovelace was sentenced in the
Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kingston to 6
months incarceration and crippling fines amounting to
$25,000 for refusing to comply with an injunction that
would prevent him from protesting against uranium
mining on land that is part of a 25-year-old Algonquin
land claim.
In addition, the community was fined $10,000 and Chief
Paula Sherman $15,000. The AAFN and the Shabot
Obaadjiwan First Nation started their blockade of the
uranium exploration in the area in June 2007.
The highly politicized nature of these sentences
further underscores the on-going criminalization of
indigenous people's basic rights to self-determination
and the free use of their lands and resources. Just as
Israel refuses to fulfill its obligations under
international law with respect to the basic rights of
the Palestinian people (including the incarceration of
over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners), the
Canadian government has decisively rejected its
obligations under the 'UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples' and continues to incarcerate
indigenous leaders who defend the basic rights of
their peoples to self-determination. Such a right
includes the right of indigenous peoples to: "freely
determine their political status and freely pursue
their economic, social and cultural development"
(Article 3, UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples).
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) is a
grassroots Palestine-solidarity organization which
understands Israeli apartheid as one element of a
system of global apartheid and therefore stands in
solidarity with all oppressed groups around the world,
in particular, the indigenous peoples of North
America.
For more information on this fundraiser or to find out
more about CAIA please email endapartheid@riseup.net
or go to www.caiaweb.org
TURTLE ISLAND TO PALESTINE – FREE ALL POLITICAL
PRISONERS!!
COME OUT TO THE CAIA FUNDRAISER IN SUPPORT OF THE
ARDOCH ALGONQUIN FIRST NATION
******************************************************
Date: Saturday April 12
Time: 7 pm - Door opens at 6:30
Place: Cervejaria – 842 College St. (W of Ossington)
Toronto Ontario Canada
******************************************************
To coincide with Palestine Political Prisoners Day,
the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid ( CAIA), is
organising a fundraiser in support of the struggle of
the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFN ) against
uranium mining on their land. All proceeds will go to
the AAFN.
On February 15 2008, in a travesty of justice, AAFN
Spokesperson Robert Lovelace was sentenced in the
Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kingston to 6
months incarceration and crippling fines amounting to
$25,000 for refusing to comply with an injunction that
would prevent him from protesting against uranium
mining on land that is part of a 25-year-old Algonquin
land claim.
In addition, the community was fined $10,000 and Chief
Paula Sherman $15,000. The AAFN and the Shabot
Obaadjiwan First Nation started their blockade of the
uranium exploration in the area in June 2007.
The highly politicized nature of these sentences
further underscores the on-going criminalization of
indigenous people's basic rights to self-determination
and the free use of their lands and resources. Just as
Israel refuses to fulfill its obligations under
international law with respect to the basic rights of
the Palestinian people (including the incarceration of
over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners), the
Canadian government has decisively rejected its
obligations under the 'UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples' and continues to incarcerate
indigenous leaders who defend the basic rights of
their peoples to self-determination. Such a right
includes the right of indigenous peoples to: "freely
determine their political status and freely pursue
their economic, social and cultural development"
(Article 3, UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples).
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) is a
grassroots Palestine-solidarity organization which
understands Israeli apartheid as one element of a
system of global apartheid and therefore stands in
solidarity with all oppressed groups around the world,
in particular, the indigenous peoples of North
America.
For more information on this fundraiser or to find out
more about CAIA please email endapartheid@riseup.net
or go to www.caiaweb.org