Category Archives: Nazi Israel

Protests, hunger strikes mark Palestinian Prisoner’s Day

Palestinians gather to commemorate Prisoners’ Day in Nablus on April 17, 2013. Palestinians across the territories are attending marches and rallies as a show of solidarity with prisoners from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza held in Israeli facilities, whose numbers according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem reach 4,713. (Photo: AFP – Jaafar Ashtiyeh)
 
 
Published Wednesday, April 17, 2013
 
Palestinians across the territories attended marches and rallies Wednesday as a show of solidarity with prisoners from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza held in Israeli facilities.

Some 3,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails on Wednesday refused breakfast as part of a one-day hunger strike to mark Prisoners’ Day, an Israeli prison official said.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem estimates some 4,713 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel.
Activists reached the Ofer prison perimeter on Wednesday morning, and tore down 50 meters of the prison fence, mounting a Palestinian flag on prison grounds.

“After around four minutes of being at the fence, Israeli soldiers showed up. They fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and sound bombs at the protesters,” Abdallah Abu Rahmeh, spokesman of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, told Al-Akhbar.

“It is necessary to pressure Israel to release the Palestinian prisoners and hunger strikers,” he added.
In the West Bank, around 600 relatives of prisoners gathered for a sit-in in the rain at Arafat Square in central Ramallah. Another rally was being held in the northern city of Nablus.

Meanwhile in Gaza, hundreds of people were taking part in a march from central Gaza City to the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, an AFP correspondent said.

Events to mark Prisoners’ Day began on Tuesday when youngsters in Gaza City released thousands of balloons into the air, each bearing the name of a prisoner, while there were also solidarity gatherings in Rafah in the south.

During the evening, demonstrators gathered in a village near the West Bank city of Hebron to light a “freedom torch” in front of the home of Arafat Jaradat, a prisoner who died in Israeli custody last month after several days of interrogation, prompting Palestinian allegations of torture.

“It was a symbolic event to deliver a clear message, firstly to the Israeli side and secondly to the international community, that it is intolerable for us to continue receiving our prisoners as corpses,” Amjad al-Najjar, head of the Hebron branch of the Prisoners’ Club, told Voice of Palestine radio.
On Tuesday evening, candle-lighting ceremonies took place in Gaza City as well as in Hebron, AFP correspondents said.

Of the Palestinians currently detained by Israel, some 320 are being held under administrative detention orders, whereby they are held without charge for renewable six-month periods, the prisoners’ ministry says.

Last year’s Prisoners’ Day saw the release of Khader Adnan from Israeli prison. The Islamic Jihad inmate went on hunger strike for a record 66 days to protest being held without charges.
(AFP, Al-Akhbar)
 

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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Issawi Might Die any Moment, Israel will not Release Him

Local Editor
 
Israel has rejected appeals to release a Palestinian prisoner on a life-endangering long-term hunger strike to the West Bank, AFP quoted Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Minister Issa Qaraqea as saying Saturday.
Samer IssawiQaraqea said that Israeli officials told him on Saturday that Samer Issawi, who has intermittently refused food for more than eight months, “is in critical condition and might die at any moment.”

Issawi, 33, was first arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 26 years for militant activity in the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

He was released by Israel under a prisoner swap in October 2011, but rearrested last July.

Qaraqea said that the Palestinians had requested that he be released temporarily to the West Bank.

“We proposed that they release him to Ramallah for a while and they refused,” he said, adding that “we agreed to send him to Europe for a few months to receive medical treatment and then come back again but they refused.”

Source: AFP
13-04-2013 – 14:34 Last updated 13-04-2013 – 14:34

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‘This hospital is like jail in fascist Germany during Holocaust’

Palestinian prisoner:

Riots over the death of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail rampaged across the West Bank and Gaza this week. One of the detainees RT managed to reach said 25 of his fellow inmates had cancer and were being denied treatment.

The prisoner, whose anonymity is preserved for security reasons, believes medical assistance in the Israeli jails is withheld on purpose, “to break the will of the detainees.” Speaking to RT, he described the negligence sick Palestinian detainees are faced with.

We suffer from an incredibly low standard of medical assistance. Among those detained here, there are at least 25 people who suffer from cancer – and they’re not getting the treatment they need. They are only given painkillers,” he said, adding that the prison hospital is “like a jail, like the ones in fascist Germany during the Holocaust. It only has a small infirmary, if you get placed there for 15 hours – you leave with sick kidneys or liver, or any other kind of disease.”

Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, a Palestinian inmate of an Israeli prison, whose death on Tuesday provoked a wave of clashes across West Bank and Gaza, had reportedly been refused release for treatment. According to Abu Hamdiyeh’s family, he had complained about his health since the summer of last year. But it was only in March, when he was already terminally ill, that prison authorities allowed him to be treated in hospital, where he died a week later.

Hamdiyeh’s funeral attracted thousands of mourners. The raging and rioting crowd blamed Israel for the 63-year-old prisoner’s death.

The accusations were dismissed at the highest level.

The Palestinian detainees imprisoned in Israel receive excellent medical attention and are visited by the Red Cross, whereas inmates in PA prisons receive nothing,” Ofir Gendelman, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said, accusing the Palestinian Authority of exploiting the prisoner’s death in order to escalate tensions in the West Bank, according to Haaretz.

The sisters of Arafat Jaradat (picture), a Palestinian inmate who died in an Israeli prison, mourn their brother's death. (AFP Photo / Hazem Bader)
The sisters of Arafat Jaradat (picture), a Palestinian inmate who died in an Israeli prison, mourn their brother’s death. (AFP Photo / Hazem Bader)

Hamdiyeh’s death is the second of a Palestinian in an Israeli jail this year – 30-year-old Arafat Jaradat died of a heart attack in February. Palestinian authorities claimed the he died after being tortured, citing autopsy findings revealed numerous injuries. Jaradat’s funeral also drew thousands of Palestinian demonstrators, who clashed with Israeli police.

The death of Abu Hamdiyeh had much stronger repercussions, showing increasing frustration of the Palestinians. Gaza broke the fragile four-month-long ceasefire, firing rockets into southern Israel, and eliciting an airstrike from Tel Aviv.

There is a state of wide-spread anger and indignation over what many people consider a premeditated murder by the Israelis. Palestinians think that the death of Maysara Hamdiyeh was a direct result of Israeli criminal negligence as well as moral callousness,” Khalid Amayreh, a Palestinian journalist, told RT.

More than 4,000 Palestinian inmates went on a hunger strike to show their anger at Hamdiyeh’s death. They want to draw the world’s attention to their plight.

We are demanding that the international community use the [UN] Security Council to free the sick detainees. We are talking of those who are mortally ill. I was just released from a hospital where I saw a young man suffering from kidney stones, who was only getting pain killers instead of treatment. There are people among us who have spent 35 years behind bars. We are demanding an International committee that would visit these prisons and prison hospitals. All of them,” the Palestinian prisoner told RT.

A stronger response from the international community to the situation with the Palestinian prisoners is something a Montreal based Center for Research on Globalization is calling for in its report issued April 6.

Israel is arguably exempt from strong condemnation over its treatment of the Palestinian people as a result of certain international human rights organizations’ ability to ignore Israeli violations against the Palestinians,” the report says.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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Deir Yassin Remembered – PLEASE CIRCULATE

 DateFriday, April 5, 2013 at 1:19PM AuthorGilad Atzmon

Introduction by GA: Once again Zionist join forces with their ideological twins, the Anti Zionist Zionists (AZZ). I have learned today that due to pressure, Deir Yassin Remembered’s (DYR) commemoration in Glasgow was cancelled. In spite of the difficulties Mr Abdallah Eid, a survivor of the Deir Yassin, will still commemorate Deir Yassin as planned and I urge you to join him at the event.


PLEASE CIRCULATE
As you will see, the event in Glasgow (see below) to mark the 25th anniversary of the consecration of the first ever Deir Yassin memorial outside Palestine has been cancelled.
Of course, this is a pity but Mr Abdallah Eid a survivor of the Deir Yassin massacre will still commemorate Deir Yassin as planned at the Deir Yassin memorial as below.
Anyone who wishes to join him will be most welcome.

12 noon Sunday 7 April 2013
@ the Commemorative Plaque,
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Glasgow

Dear Friend
The event to mark the anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre on Sunday 7 April 2013 has been cancelled.

We apologise for this and for any inconvenience it may cause.
Yours sincerely
Brian Filling

Dear Friend
25th anniversary of the laying of the Commemorative Plaque and 65th anniversary of the massacre


Deir Yassin Remembered
12 noon Sunday 7 April 2013
@ the Commemorative Plaque,
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Glasgow
Speakers include:
Abdallah Eid, Deir Yassin survivor
Lord Provost of Glasgow Cllr Sadie Docherty
Wael Shawish (Scottish Friends of Palestine)
Mike Kirby (Scottish Secretary UNISON)

Followed by a Reception at 1pm at the STUC, 333 Woodlands Rd., Glasgow.

You are invited to join the Memorial Gathering at the plaque at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (west side) to commemorate the massacre of Palestinians which took place at Deir Yassin, Jerusalem, on 9 April 1948.

The murder of over 100 Palestinians by the Urgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and Stern gangs with the assistance of an elite unit from the Haganah, led to the flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, an event known as al-Nakba, “the Catastrophe”. The aim of the “Deir Yassin Remembered” campaign is to erect a memorial on the site of the massacre and at the same time raise the plight of the Palestinian people. For more information about the campaign visit http://www.deiryassinremembered.org/

In 1988, on the fortieth anniversary of the massacre, a plaque was laid and a tree planted in the grounds of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum by the then Lord Provost of Glasgow, Robert Gray. This year is the 25th anniversary of the laying of the plaque
We hope you will be able to join us at the Memorial Gatherin
g and thereafter at the Reception.
Yours sincerely

Brian Filling
DYR Coordinator (Scotland)

RSVP (for catering purposes): b.filling@btintern
 

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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Palestinian Amer Nassar, aged seventeen: A last poem

 

Amer Nassar
 

Last night and overnight, two unarmed teenagers, cousins Amer Nassar (17) and Naji Abdul-Karim Balbeisi (18) were shot dead by Israeli Defence Force troops.

The two were from the village of Anabta, near the town of Tulkarm, in Palestine’s West Bank. Tulkarm was founded in the 13th century, its name derived from the Aramaic “Toor Karma” meaning “mount of vineyards.”

Amer died from a bullet in his chest at 22.30 on Wednesday night, according to eye witnesses. Hearing shots, three boys from the village went out and found Amer lying on the ground, with soldiers standing over him. When they tried to reach him, the soldiers opened fire, injuring one, Fadi Abu-A’sr, in the arm, and subsequently hospitalized.

The three say that ambulance crews were prevented from reaching Amer for thirty vital minutes, with threats to shoot anyone attempting to intervene. Deiyaa’ Nasser, who did attempt to reach Amer:“was arrested by the Israeli Army and taken to an unknown location.”

Naji Abdul-Karim Balbisi, was found as dawn broke this morning, lying in a field. He was reported to have been shot from behind.

Tensions have been high in Gaza and the West Bank since the death of Maysara Abu Hamidya in Israel’s Soroko prison on 2nd April. Sixty five year old Abu Hamidya was a former high ranking officer in the Palestinian Authority (PA) prior to his arrest, which took place when the IDA invaded the West Bank, destroying PA Headquarter buildings, in May 2002.

Palestinian authorities have claimed that the prison was withholding treatment for his cancer. On Monday released prisoner Ayman Sharawna alleged that Hamdiya was in a life threatening condition in the prison infirmary – with his hands and feet shackled.

The Director of the Palestinian Prisoner Society has held the Israeli regime fully responsible for his death.

So, as Palestinians mark another onslaught, the massacre in the Jenin refugee camp (April 1st-11th 2002) the mourning, heartbreak, lost lives and lost youth grind on. But so does the spirit, in young and old.

Seventeen year old Amer Nassar left a poem. When others of his age write on Facebook of their dreams, aspirations, exams, plans, dates, travels, on 15th March, his last entry, he wrote (translated):

“Point your bullet where ever you like in my body
I will die today, but my homeland will live tomorrow
Be careful, Palestine is a red line.”


He did not die on March 15th, but just two weeks and three days later, at the hands of “the most moral army” and the “only democracy in the Middle East.”

(The writer is indebted to the resident of Palestine who drew attention to and translated Amer’s poem and to the International Solidarity Movement, for their careful details of another tragedy.)
- Felicity Arbuthnot is a freelance journalist specializing in social and environmental issues with a special knowledge of Iraq.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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Gaza fighters launch retaliatory strikes over prisoner’s death

Palestinian demonstrators take cover behind a makeshift barricade during clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Hebron following the death of a Palestinian prisoner on April 2, 2013. (Photo: AFP – Marco Longari)
 
Published Tuesday, April 2, 2013
 
Updated at 5:54 pm: Gaza fighters fired retaliatory strikes on Tuesday, hours after the death in custody of a Palestinian who was denied appropriate cancer treatment, witnesses and the Israeli military said.

Witnesses told AFP that militants in Gaza City had fired three mortar rounds, but the army said only one projectile had landed, without causing any casualties.

Meanwhile, over 40 Palestinians angered by the death of Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh, 64, were injured in clashes with Israeli police and prison guards. Riots are believed to have swept through Israeli prisons, while guards used live fire and tear gas against the protesters.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP that the faction was watching the developments with “the greatest concern” and that Israel would “regret its continuing crimes”.

The last time Gaza fighters launched rocket fire was on March 21 during a visit by US President Barack Obama, when two rockets landed causing some damage but no injuries.

Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh’s death threatened to raise tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, after reports surfaced that Israeli authorities had denied care to the prisoner. Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Minister Issa Qaraqe likened Israel’s handling of Abu Hamdiyeh’s condition to a “slow death penalty.”

Israeli authorities claim they informed Abu Hamdiyeh, 64, of his illness in February, however, prisoner’s rights groups say the diagnosis occurred in August 2012. His lawyers and relatives report that Israeli doctors ran biopsies on him after he repeatedly complained of throat pains.

Palestinians have held several protests in recent weeks in support of more than 7,000 prisoners in Israeli jails, including over 300 children.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel had ignored long-standing pleas to free Abu Hamdiyeh, 64, sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for recruiting a bomber who planted explosives in a Jerusalem cafe. The bomb did not detonate.

“The Israeli government in its intransigence and arrogance refused to respond to Palestinian efforts to save the life of the prisoner,” Abbas told members of his Fatah party in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Abu Hamdiyeh is the second Palestinian to die in Israeli custody this year. Arafat Jaradat, 30, died after an interrogation session in February. Palestinian officials said he had been tortured, an allegation Israel denied.

News of Abu Hamdiyeh’s death touched off protests by Palestinian inmates in several Israeli prisons. At Ramon jail, in southern Israel, inmates threw objects at guards, who fired tear gas at them, the Prisons Service spokeswoman said.

Three prisoners and six guards were treated at the jail for tear gas inhalation, she said.
In Abu Hamdiyeh’s West Bank home city of Hebron, masked stone-throwers confronted Israeli soldiers. No serious injuries were reported.

Israel holds 178 Palestinians in administrative detention, who have been jailed without trial as suspected militants for renewable three- to six-month terms based on classified evidence.

Hundreds of sick Palestinians are perishing in Israeli jails, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Minister and activists. The Palestinian Prisoners Club says some 25 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel are suffering from cancer.

Palestinians are expected to hold strikes across the West Bank and Gaza, and Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset have issued strongly worded condemnations of the Israeli government over Abu Hamdiyeh’s deah.

Rights groups, as well as Qaraqe, described Abu Hamdiyeh’s eight-hour trips to and from the hospital as hellish. He was transported in a corrugated metal van with no windows or seats.
The Palestinian Authority said they expected him to be released on Monday. Israel’s refusal to free Abu Hamdiyeh had sparked protests in several Israeli prisons, where 17 detainees have begun a hunger strike.

In recent weeks, Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad made intense efforts to secure Abu Hamdiyeh’s release in the light of his deteriorating health.
(Al-Akhbar, Reuters, AFP)

Clashes Erupt as Palestinian Prisoner Dies in Israeli Jail 

Israeli forces attack Palestinians angered by prisoner’s death

Local Editor
 
Clashes erupted on Tuesday between Palestinian protesters and Israeli occupation forces, few hours after the martyrdom of Palestinian prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh in an Israeli jail.

The Minister of Prisoners Affairs in Ramallah, IssAbu Hamdiyeha Qaraqe, announced the martyrdom of Abu Hamdiyeh, 64, in the Israeli jail of Ishel.

Abu Hamdiyeh, from the southern West Bank city of Hebron, died at Soroka hospital in the city of Beersheva where he had been taken at the weekend, the head of the Prisoners Club, Qadura Fares said.

He who was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to life in jail, began complaining of throat problems about nine months ago and was subsequently diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus.

“Prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdyieh died today. He had cancer,” Fares added, as he accused the Zionist entity of being responsible for his death due to its “refusal to release him for treatment,” despite repeated appeals.

According to Abu Hamdiyeh’s lawyers, the Palestinian martyr fainted repeatedly in the jail and’ he couldn’t speak because of the spread of the cancer.

For his part, the Palestinian Authority Chief, Mahmoud Abbas, blamed the Israeli government for the martyrdom of Abu Hamdiyeh.

“The Palestinian presidency holds the government of (Prime Minister)Banjamin Netanyahu responsible for the martyrdom of prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh today in the prisons of the Israeli occupation,” Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement.

Few hours later, clashes erupted across the Palestinian territories between occupation soldiers and protesters.

In the city of Hebron, several protesters were suffocated during the clashes with the occupation soldiers. Meanwhile protesters took to streets in the cities of Ramallah and Beit Lahm.

Source: Agencies
02-04-2013 – 15:16 Last updated 02-04-2013 – 15:16

مواجهات بين الأسرى الفلسطينيين وشرطة الاحتلال بعد استشهاد الأسير أبو حمدية



اقتحمت شرطة السجون العديد من الأقسام في معظم السجون مستخدمة الغاز المسيل للدموع
(عباس موماني – أ ف ب)

 
آخر تحديث 2:30 PM بتوقيت بيروت | خاص بالموقع
اندلعت مواجهات بين جموع الأسرى الغاضبين وشرطة السجون الإسرائيلية فور انتشار نبأ استشهاد الأسير ميسرة أبو حمدية، صباح اليوم، ما أدى إلى وقوع العديد من الإصابات في الجانبين.
استشهد الأسير فلسطيني ميسرة أبو حمدية المصاب بالسرطان، صباح اليوم، وعقّب رئيس «نادي الأسير الفلسطيني» قدورة فارس بأن «الأسير ميسرة أبو حمدية توفي اليوم حيث كان يعاني مرض السرطان، ورفضت إسرائيل كل الجهود الدولية لإطلاق سراحه».
وحمل فارس إسرائيل مسؤولية وفاة أبو حمدية «بسبب رفضها الإفراج عنه لعلاجه».
ومن ناحيتها، أكدت مصلحة السجون الإسرائيلية في بيان «الوفاة»، مشيرة إلى أنها كانت قد بدأت إجراءات لإطلاق سراحه المبكر بسبب حالته الصحية المتدهورة.
وحمّلت الرئاسة الفلسطينية الحكومة الإسرائيلية المسؤولية عن استشهاده. وقال المتحدث باسم الرئاسة الفلسطينية نبيل أبو ردينة في تصريح صحافي «تحمل الرئاسة الفلسطينية حكومة بنيامين نتانياهو مسؤولية استشهاد الأسير ميسرة أبو حمدية اليوم في سجون الاحتلال الإسرائيلي».
وأضاف البيان «حذرنا أكثر من مرة ومنذ وقت طويل من أن استمرار اعتقال الأسرى الفلسطينيين والإهمال الطبي المتعمد يؤديان إلى تداعيات خطيرة جداً».
كذلك حذر من «استمرار القتل البطيء للأسرى الفلسطينيين في سجون الاحتلال الإسرائيلي»، داعياً إلى إطلاق سراح كافة المعتقلين الفلسطينيين في السجون الإسرائيلية.
وقالت «منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية» في بيان لها إن «تعمد سلطات الاحتلال اهمال علاج الأسير ابو حمدية، وعدم تقديم العلاج له، يعدان جريمة ضد الإنسانية مع سابق الإصرار والترصد، وخرقاً صريحاً للقانون الدولي والبند 91 من اتفاقية جنيف على نحو خاص».
وأضافت المنظمة «ما زلنا أمام خطر شديد يحدق بالأسرى المضربين عن الطعام، وما زال هناك عشرات الحالات التي تعاني أمراضاً مزمنة، والتي هي بحاجة إلى العلاج، ويتحتم على العالم التحرك العاجل على ضوء تدهور حالتهم الصحية».
ورأت كتلة «التغيير والاصلاح» التابعة لحركة «حماس» في المجلس التشريعي أن وفاة أبو حمدية «تكشف مدى بشاعة وعنجهية الاحتلال ضد أسرانا الأبطال». بينما دعت «حركة الجهاد الاسلامي» إلى «الانتفاض انتصاراً لدم الأسير الشهيد».
غضب في السجون
وبحسب ما تناقلت مواقع الاحتلال الإسرائيلي فقد أصيب 3 أسرى بالاختناق بالغاز المسيل للدموع في سجن رامون، وصفت حالتهم بالبسيطة، فيما أصيب 6 من عناصر الشرطة الإسرائيلية بعد اقتحامهم السجن بالقوة مستخدمين الغاز والهراوات، ووصفت إصابة أفراد الشرطة بالبسيطة أيضاً.
وأشارت هذه المواقع إلى أن «مصلحة السجون» استدعت مزيداً من أفراد الشرطة منذ الصباح بعد استشهاد الأسير ميسرة أبو حمدية بوقت قصير، في الوقت الذي شهدت فيه السجون في منطقة الجنوب توتراً شديداً وغضباً عارماً. فقد بدأ الأسرى في سجون النقب، رامون، ايشل، نفحة، بالقرع على أبواب غرف السجن والتكبير فور سماعهم نبأ استشهاد أبو حمدية.
واقتحمت شرطة السجون العديد من الأقسام في معظم السجون مستخدمة الغاز المسيل للدموع والهراوات بدافع التهدئة، لكن جميع المحاولات باءت بالفشل.
من جهة ثانية، اتصلت رئيسة لجنة الداخلية التابعة للكنيست الإسرائيلي ميري رجب المنتمية لحزب «الليكود» برئيس مصلحة السجون اهارون فرانكو، وطلبت منه توضيحات حول هذه المواجهات، فرد عليها فرانكو بأنه سيؤلف لجنة تحقيق في هذا الموضوع.
وأفاد «نادي الأسير الفلسطيني» بأن قوات تابعة لإدارة السجون الاسرائيلية اقتحمت، قبل ظهر اليوم، قسمي 10 و11 في سجن «ايشل» ونفذت عمليات قمع بحق الأسرى واعتدت على بعضهم بالهراوات والغاز.
من جهته، أكد وزير الأسرى عيسى قراقع في حديث لوكالة «معاً» الإخبارية أن حالة من الغليان تسود صفوف الأسرى في السجون عقب استشهاد ابو حمدية، وان اشتباكات وصدامات عنيفة تحدث حالياً بين الأسرى وإدارة السجون الإسرائيلية، مشيراً إلى أن الأسرى سيخوضون إضراباً عن الطعام بدءاً من يوم غد في كافة السجون.
وقال قراقع «إنها جريمة بشعة وخطيرة عن سبق إصرار وتصميم ارتكبت بحق الأسير ميسرة بسبب الإهمال الطبي والتلكؤ بالإفراج عنه»، مطالباً بلجنة «تقصّ دولية عاجلة للتحقيق في ظروف استشهاده».
الجدير بالذكر أن الأسير أبو حمدية اعتقل عام 2002، وحكم عليه بالسجن المؤبد، ويعاني السرطان في الحنجرة، ونقل قبل أيام من سجن «ايشل» في بئر السبع إلى مستشفى سوروكا نظراً إلى تردي وضعه الصحي. وباستشهاد الأسير أبو حمدية يرتفع عدد شهداء الحركة الأسيرة إلى 207 شهداء.
وأبو حمدية من مواليد مدينة الخليل عام 1948، وهو ضابط متقاعد برتبة لواء، حاصل على دبلوم في الإلكترونيات من جامعة القاهرة. درس الحقوق في جامعة بيروت ولم يكمل الدراسة بسبب ظروف الملاحقة والاعتقال من قبل الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، ويدرس التاريخ في جامعة الأقصى في غزة بالمراسلة.
اعتقل في 28/5/2002 في سجون الاحتلال الإسرائيلي وحُكم عليه بالسجن المؤبد. متزوج وله أربعة أبناء.
(الأخبار، معاً، أ ف ب)

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Issawi Faces Death after having Stopped Drinking Water

Local Editor
Issawi before/afterHunger striking Palestinian detainee Samer Issawi has stopped drinking water in an escalation of his 223-day protest; his lawyer was quoted by Ma’an as saying on Tuesday.

Jawad Bulous stated that “Issawi started refusing all liquid on Monday in protest at having to wear ankle restraints and being shackled to his hospital bed.”

“He is required to keep his restraints on even when using the bathroom,” Bulous further told the agency, indicating that “keeping him tied to the bed is inhumane and undignified.”

Issawi’s lawyer added that when he visited Issawi’s room he “found seven Israeli prison officers eating food to deliberately torment Issawi.”

Doctors have tried to convince Issawi to drink water and are afraid he may die at any moment as his blood pressure is very low, Bulous added.

Source: Agencies
13-03-2013 – 17:33 Last updated 13-03-2013 – 17:33


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Whitewashing Israeli Murder by Torture

by Stephen Lendman

img class=”alignright size-full wp-image-241762″ style=”border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;” title=”A Palestinian woman reacts as an Israeli soldier detains her son in Hebron” src=”http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/torture.jpg” alt=”" width=”342″ height=”256″ />Torture is official Israeli policy. It’s longstanding. Palestinian suffering explains best. Thousands every year are subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment. Their physical and emotional scars bear witness.

Accountability is long overdue. Arafat Jaradat is Israel’s latest victim. Israel tortured him to death. His body bore clear signs. Autopsy evidence proved it.

Severe upper body bruising, blisters, and blot clots were visible. Multiple broken bones in his neck, ribs, spine, arms and legs were discovered.

Israel initially attributed his death to cardiac arrest. On February 28, Haaretz headlined “Death of Palestinian in Israeli jail not due to abuse or poisoning, autopsy finds.”
Israel’s Health Ministry said so. It lied. Alleged findings turned truth on its head. Institute of Forensic Medicine officials said Jaradat’s cause of death remains undetermined.
Chief pathologist, Dr. Yehuda Hiss, conducted the autopsy. Israeli Health Ministry head, Arnon Afek, witnessed it.
PA chief pathologist, Dr. Saber Aloul was there at the time. His assessment was blunt. Jaradat’s body bore clear signs of torture, he said.
Shin Bet interrogators tortured him to death. They were caught red-handed. They denied culpability. Lies and coverup define Israeli policy. They follow all Israeli crimes.
Jaradat was in good health when arrested. Days later he was dead. Israel bears full responsibility.
More tests are being conducted. Final results are expected in about another two weeks. Health Ministry officials claimed bruises and broken bones were “characteristic of findings of a resuscitation.”
Israel Prison Service and Magen David Adom medical personnel spent “50 minutes in an effort to save” him.
Perhaps they beat him to death trying. Israel notoriously whitewashes truths. Officials are paid to lie. Death by torture killed Jaradat. He was murdered in cold blood.
“Who killed Arafat Jaradat,” asked Gideon Levy? Knowing is as simple as saying Shin Bet. His death became “a national symbol.” Hopefully he didn’t die in vain.
West Bank anger’s on the boil. More on that below. Prison conditions haven’t changed. Gulag harshness continues. Palestinians are incarcerated for wanting to live free.
Israel calls them terrorists. Rogue states operate that way. Israel’s by far the region’s worst.
Palestinians mourn Jaradat’s death. Flags on King Hussein High School’s roof fly at half mast. His brother Mohammed was with him the night he was arrested.
He viewed his body in the morgue. He remembers ugly bruises on his forehead and legs, swollen wrists, and blood stains in his nose. He was told his ribs were broken.
“Is it possible a person suspected of (stone-throwing) was tortured to death under interrogation,” asked Levy.
“Did he really die in the solitary confinement cell at Megiddo Prison, or had he been transferred there after his death in Jamameh in order to blur the fact that he died under interrogation, as his family suspects?”
He was strong and athletic. He hadn’t been ill a day in his life. He was a third year Al-Quds Open University student.
He didn’t resist arrest. Neighbors said soldiers beat him anyway. They heard him scream. Days later, his family learned he was dead. He’s Palestine’s latest martyr.
He won’t soon be forgotten. Palestinians demand justice. They’ve been protesting for days. After Friday prayers, thousands rallied supportively. They did so across the West Bank.
Israel responded violently. Nonviolent demonstrators were attacked. Israel does viciously with tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets, skunk water, and at times live fire.
Dozens were injured. Clashes broke out near Ofer Prison. High-velocity tear gas canisters were fired. Some hit passing vehicles. Others hit two ambulances.
Calls for a third Intifada are heard. Some believe it started. It’s long overdue. Liberation won’t come otherwise. Confronting the Israeli beast takes courage. Ending occupation harshness is crucial. Living free matters most.
In February, Israel kidnapped 382 Palestinians. Women and children were included. Multiple neighborhood incursions occur daily.
Palestinians have no place to hide. Police state harshness terrorizes them.
Preliminary Jaradat autopsy results are in. Dr. Saber Aloul conducted Palestine’s examination. He said:
“Reason of Death: nervous shock as a result of extreme pain from the intensity of (his) injuries, which resulted from multiple direct and extensive acts of torture.”
Signs of severe upper back, spine, chest, and arms bruising were visible. Blood was inside his nose. More was around his mouth. Multiple broken bones in his neck, spine, ribs, arms and legs were discovered.
His heart was completely healthy. No evidence of damage or weakness was found.
Injuries discovered were recent and severe. Torture caused them. Dozens of Palestinians died in detention. Others succumbed after release.
Thousands languish in Israeli gulag hell. Human rights defenders are targeted. Addameer legal researcher Mourad Jadallah said:
“This is a way to (break) the principle of solidarity between the Palestinian people and the Palestinian prisoners, and the case of the Palestinian prisoners in the conscience of the Palestinian people.”
Collective punishment is enforced. No one’s safe in Palestine. Children are vulnerable like adults. Stop the Wall’s Jamal Juma says “Israel’s drunk with power.”
Its government reflects “right wing fascism.” Total control is policy. Viciousness enforces it. Palestinian resistance is brutally targeted. He expects a third Intifada.
People only take so much before exploding. Perhaps it’s soon. He and others want Israel challenged judicially.
They want sanctions, boycotts, and divestment imposed. They want long denied accountability.
Israel’s whole system is corrupt. It’s immoral, oppressive and lawless. Palestinians have a right to live free. They’re committed to fight for it.
Last October, Addameer’s Ayman Nasser was targeted. He was violently arrested and detained.
He’s outrageously charged with supporting Palestinian prisoners. Israel accuses him of calling for their freedom. He spoke for others saying he “supports the prisoners issue even if the cost is my freedom.”
Jadallah shares his sentiment. Liberating struggles will continue, he said.
“It’s very emotional and sensitive for Palestinians all over the world. They look to the prisoners as the real leaders.”
“The prisoners issue means that we are still in occupation and we still have to resist.”
“We are ready to pay the price. Just like Ayman said, I am supporting the Palestinian prisoners and I am ready to pay my freedom as a price for my support.”
Many others feel the same way. On February 27, Addameer headlined “The Prisons Will Be Gone, and the Shackles Broken.”

On March 4, it commemorates its 20th anniversary. Everyone is welcome. Ramallah’s Cultural Palace is host venue.
Palestinian art work will be displayed. A photo exhibit will be featured. Cultural performances will follow.
“Together we will bring the prisoners issue to the forefront of Palestinian sentiment.” Doing so is vital for everyone to know.

A Final Comment

Eileen Fleming is an author, writer and activist. She’s in the forefront of Mordechai Vanunu’s liberating struggle.
Her new book is titled “Vanunu’s WAIT for Liberty: Remembering The USS Liberty and My Life as a Candidate of Conscience for US HOUSE 2012.”
It’s the fourth in the series she began writing in 2005. She’s been to both sides of Israel’s Separation Wall seven times.

She founded the Public Service WeAreWideAwake.org. She did so after her first trip. She’s written over 1,000 related articles. She provides information vital to know.
Pre-9/11, she had no interest in politics, she said. That event changed her. It compelled her to travel to Israel and Palestine.

In 2005, she met Vanunu. Israel imprisoned him for 18 years. He exposed its nuclear weapons program. He was released in 2004. He’s severely restricted. He can’t give interviews. Speaking to foreigners is prohibited.

Fleming was inspired to act. She’s does so ever since. She does it honorably. She’s supports right over wrong.
She challenges what needs to be exposed and changed. She struggles for what’s vital to support. She inspires others to act the same way.

About the Author: Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled “How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War”

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
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Prisoners Versus NGOs


ngos

Israel has said its word to the Palestinian prisoners and given its answer to all prisoners that came – as usual- in terms of killing prisoner martyr ‘Arafat Jaradat who died in the Israeli prison of Meggido on the 24th of February after being tortured to death by his investigators . This is what Israel has to say to the Palestinian prisoners and to all those promoting their cause or speaking on their behalf . There is a message here that says to the prisoners , and to their families and supporters : either you die from hunger on a hospital bed , or you get killed under torture , and – in both cases- you have no helper in the world. Jaradat was detained a week before his death and accused of throwing stones on an Israeli . He was in perfect health when he was imprisoned and it is still a mystery why he was killed by his investigators . He was not carrying a bomb or planning a terrorist attack and it seems his investigators were trying to make him admit of some crime that he refused to admit . His funerals caused a single rocket to be fired from Gaza unto Israel breaking the truce between Israel and HAMAS and bringing the Palestinian prisoners’ issue again to the front lines . If this incident shows anything it shows the great danger Palestinian prisoners find their selves in between dubious NGOs that are not fit to carry the prisoners’ cause and reluctant Palestinian organizations that have forsaken the whole matter.
Previously hundreds of arab and Palestinian prisoners were released by way of exchange deals. The last exchange deal arranged by the Egyptian authorities and HAMAS on one hand, and Israelis -on the other – had released more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons against Soldier Gilad Shalit . But these were the good old days where releasing prisoners was in the perspective of the Palestinian leadership and one of their major concerns . But these days are over now and- with no prospect of kidnapping any Israeli soldier – Palestinian Political prisoners are left to rot in prisons without any hope of being released sometime soon .
The deal struck around Shalit was not the best of deals and a great number of the released Palestinian prisoners had little incarceration time left and were to be released soon. Some prisoners -now on hunger strike- were not included in the deal or were included but were withdrawn before the actual exchange took place . The prisoners thus are left with no one to cater to their cause and seek their release from the unjust incarceration they are being subject to . Of course there are activists active on the ground and foreign and local NGOs and lots of cyber activities and internet campaigns , still with all this fuss the only choice left to the Palestinian prisoner is to starve himself to death. The local NGOs affiliated to other foreign NGOs and in coordination sometimes with Israeli NGOs are now conducting the whole activities around Palestinian prisoners after HAMAS has withdrawn and joined the sectarian camp and started the process of reconciliation with the Palestinian Authority and normalization with the enemy .
These activities and functions are to no avail and will not solve the prisoners’ problem and the demonstrations they organize and conduct are not the least convincing . The multiple Palestinian factions were complaining about the fact that they did not share in organizing any of the functions around the funeral of martyr Jaradat that included direct confrontations with the Israelis . These confrontations were not- in any way- likely to turn into a third Intifada according to observers , they lacked the essential since they carry foreign agendas that do not favor uprisings but work rather on normalization with the enemy . On the other hand – as an additional precaution- Israelis has also released funds that belonged the Palestinian Authority in order to have order maintained in the West Bank . Caught between the crippled collaborating Palestinian factions and the inefficient world NGOs the prisoners and their families are at a loss of what to do . Israelis have infiltrated almost everything related to the Palestinian Cause starting from Palestinian organizations to local and world NGOs. What is left for the cause itself is very little and the Palestinian prisoner should provide for himself and expect nothing from dubious NGOs serving foreign agendas for the benefit of Israel and using Palestinians for this purpose and even exposing them to the worst. The mysterious death of martyr Jaradat can maybe find an explanation here.

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Erdogan is Correct; Zionism is a Crime Against Humanity

ED Note:

Erdogan, and the author are nothing but stooges and tooles for that crime against humanity, real Palestinians should not be fooled with what Erdoghan, Mursi, and Ghanoushi say, and should care for what they did during the last two years, especially in Libya and Syria, the cave of the Arab – Islamic resistance.

Yes zionism is a crime against humanity, but they, I mean the brothers of america are a crime against Islam and Muslims.

Related

Erdogan is Correct; Zionism is a Crime Against Humanity

by Khalid Amayreh

Israeli leaders have been infuriated by the fleeting remarks made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the opening session of the Fifth UN Alliance of Civilizations held in Vienna last week.

Erdogan“Just like Zionism, anti-Semitism, and fascism, it becomes unavoidable that Islamophobia must be regarded as a crime against humanity,” Erdogan said.

To the people who are familiar with Israel, especially Palestinians, Lebanese and other Arabs who have been on the receiving end of Zionist criminality; Erdogan’s remarks are a statement of the obvious.

After all, Zionism is about the dispossession and usurpation of Palestine from its rightful native people, the Palestinians. It is the biggest act of theft and falsification since Adam and Eve. It was a crime against humanity then, it will always be a crime against humanity, no matter how many Congressmen and women praise the Jewish Golem.

In all honesty, I can’t find an iota of untruth in Erdogan’s words.

What else can be said about those gangs of Zionist Jews who came from Eastern Europe to arrogate, by way of terror and violence, a land that never belonged to them?

These criminal invaders didn’t come to Palestine in order to live and let live. They rather came to Palestine in order to slaughter the indigenous Arabs, Christians and Muslims alike, and dispossess them of their homes and lands in order to establish a racist Jewish state free of non-Jews.

They wanted and still want to do to the Palestinians what the White man did to native Americans in the Americas and Australia. The white colonialists annihilated millions of native Americans and called the genocide “manifest destiny.” Likewise, the Zionist murdered untold numbers of Palestinians, massacred Arab villagers at will and drove the bulk of our people to the four winds, and then had the audacity to call the genocidal ethnic cleansing “war of liberation.” Indeed, the Zionists and much of the Western world don’t even hesitate to commit an act of fornication with truth and history by calling their victims “terrorists.”

Even today, 65 years after Israel’s misbegotten birth, its leaders are shamelessly demanding that the victims recognize Israel as a Jewish state, where non-Jews, including native Palestinians, have no right to live except as wood hewers and water carriers.

In truth, there are a thousand observations justifying Erdogan’s remarks. In the final analysis, Zionism is too nefarious and too ugly to be described in words. It is a movement that combines ethnic cleansing, genocide, racism, mendacity, barbarianism and fanaticism.

In fact, it is extremely hard to find a similar movement in the history of mankind that would parallel Zionism in its brutal ugliness and nefariousness, both at the theoretical and practical levels.
Today, in 2013, we continue to be affronted with Jewish Zionist leaders who continue to argue amongst themselves if non-Jews are genuine human beings. The most prevailing opinion within Orthodox Judaism is that non-Jews, that are more than 7,090.000.000, are actually sub-humans or actually animals in human shape.

This is not merely an anecdotal remark. There are millions of Jews around the world who are fully convinced of the veracity and correctness of this belief. Two years ago, Ovadia Yosef, one of the most respected rabbis in Israel told a Sabbath homily in West Jerusalem that non-Jews were very much like donkeys whom the Almighty created in order to serve Jews.

Yosef is not a marginal or satirical figure in Israel. He was Israel’s Chief Rabbi and he now has hundreds of thousands of loyal followers. Unfortunately, his manifestly racist remarks raised no eye-brows in Israel, neither among politicians, nor intellectuals, not even amongst the media, which is very telling, indeed.

It would still be somewhat innocuous if Zionist criminality and racism were confined to the theoretical sphere. But Zionism, especially religious Zionism, which views non-Jews as animals or infra-human beings, also believes that the life of a goy, a non-Jew, has no sanctity and can be expended without any compunction. This is what prompts Jewish interrogators and prison wardens to torture innocent Palestinians to death, as happened with Arafat Jaradat last week.

Today, innocent Palestinians are routinely murdered in cold blood at the hands of Gestapo-like Zionist Jews, and when the murderers are apprehended and prosecuted, every conceivable legal trick is used to exonerate them.

Even when the indicting evidence is overwhelming, all sorts of extenuating circumstances are concocted in order to acquit the killers.

In 1953, Zionist Jews murdered my three uncles in one incident near the armistice line west of Hebron. Moreover, they seized our property, livestock and everything else, condemning us to 30 years of abject poverty.

Until this very moment, my family is yet to receive a simple Mea Culpa let alone any compensation from Israel for this crime. Compare this to rabid Zionist efforts to squeeze Europe to the last penny for stolen Jewish property and other grievances.!!

John Kerry has been dismayed by Erdogan’s remarks. But I want to ask the honorable Secretary of State “what do you know about Zionism?”

Would you forgive Zionism if it did to you even a small fraction of what it has been doing to us since 1948?

I know it is difficult for you and your boss, Obama, to be honest and spell out your conscience regarding Israel. But forget you are Secretary of State for a moment and try doing some soul-searching as a moral human being. I have no doubt whatsoever that you will find yourself face to face with the ugliest and most evil entity under the sun.

Yes, the Jewish stranglehold over American politics and policies will silence your conscience and the conscience of your boss. This is exactly what happened to most of your predecessors since time immemorial, which explains America’s shameless and unrestricted backing of the most Nazi-like state since Adolph Hitler’s Germany.

Today, Israel adopts the policy of lebensraum that Germany practiced at the expense of her European neighbors. True, Israel calls the policy settlement expansion but the substance is the same.
Israel, like Nazi Germany, is carrying out an aggressive policy of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank by banishing Palestinians from their homes in order to settle Jews in their places.

And you are watching passively while reiterating the same platitudinous jargon that you have been babbling for many decades.

Remember, Mr. Kerry, the holocaust didn’t really start with Auschwitz or Treblinka or Bergen Belsen. It started much earlier in the early and mid-1930s when the Nazi authorities were indulging in the same harsh discriminatory and repressive practices that Israeli Jews are now practicing against the Palestinians, with government approval and encouragement.

I don’t expect you or your government to take Israel to task over its manifestly criminal behavior toward the Palestinians. After all, you are Israel’s protector and guardian. You are part of the problem, and you can’t be part of the solution.

But at the very least, don’t expect the victims to suppress their feelings by pretending that Israel is actually a charitable entity that has gone astray.

No, Mr. Secretary of State. Israel was evil from the very inception. At least for the Muslims and many Christians of this world as well as millions of other honest people, Israel is and will always be evil.

As for Erdogan, we must salute him for his honesty and rectitude.

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