UN-Truth » Israel

Welcoming the agreement to end Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strikes

Marian Houk — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:53:12 +0000

Ahmad Nimer’s photos from Ramallah on 14 May 2012 as prisoner deal announced. [An album of his recent photos is posted here]:

Palestinians in Ramallah welcome agreement ending prisoner hunger strike

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Organization reported some details of the agreement here, today:

“The details of the agreement signed last night by the prisoners’ committee representing the hunger strikers was recounted today to Addameer lawyer Fares Ziad in his visit to Ahed Abu Gholmeh, who is a member of the committee, and to Addameer lawyer Mahmoud Hassan during his visit to Ahmad Sa’adat in Ramleh prison medical clinic, who conveyed what he was told last night when members of the committee came to Ramleh to announce the end of the hunger strike.

According to Ahed Abu Gholmeh, the nine members of the hunger strike committee met yesterday with a committee consisting of IPS officials and Israeli intelligence officers and determined the stipulations of their agreement. The written agreement contained five main provisions: the prisoners would end their hunger strike following the signing of the agreement; there will be an end to the use of long-term isolation of prisoners for ‘security’ reasons, and the 19 prisoners will be moved out of isolation within 72 hours; family visits for first degree relatives to prisoners from the Gaza Strip and for families from the West Bank who have been denied visits based on vague ‘security reasons’ will be reinstated within one month; the Israeli intelligence agency guarantees that there will be a committee formed to facilitate meetings between the IPS and prisoners in order to improve their daily conditions; there will be no new administrative detention orders or renewals of administrative detention orders for the 308 Palestinians currently in administrative detention, unless the secret files, upon which administrative detention is based, contain ‘very serious’ information.

For the five administrative detainees on protracted hunger strikes, including Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh, who engaged in hunger strike for a miraculous 77 days, their administrative detention orders will not be renewed and they will be released upon the expiration of their current orders. These five have been transferred to public hospitals to receive adequate healthcare during their fragile recovery periods. In regards to Israel’s practice of administrative detention as a whole, Ahmad Sa’adat further noted that the agreement includes limitations to its widespread use in general. Addameer is concerned that these provisions of the agreement will not explicitly solve Israel’s lenient and problematic application of administrative detention, which as it stands is in stark violation of international law”.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights [PCHR] in Gaza issued a statement expressing "respect for the prisoners' decision to end their open-ended hunger strike". It noted that "Almost a third of Palestinian prisoners in Israel started a hunger strike on 17 April 2012. Other individual prisoners started to hunger strike on 29 February 2012. The demands of the prisoners on hunger strike included improving detention conditions in Israeli jails and detention centers, allowing family visitations, especially for prisoners from the Gaza Strip, putting an end to solitary confinement, putting an end to administrative detention, allowing prisoners to pursue their education, and putting an end to night searching campaigns".

PCHR stated that "This hunger strike is one of the most serious hunger strikes in the Israeli jails. It is also the most complex, as it was the longest. The agreement reached, which will hopefully set a standard for Palestinian prisoners' demands, would not have been reached without the struggle and persistence of prisoners who put their lives at risk, in one of the highest forms of resistance and peaceful protest ... In this context, PCHR reiterates that releasing all of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is a principal demand".

The agreement was not welcomed by everyone in Israel, however. It was reported on the Arutz Sheva website here that Knesset member Danny Danon of the Likud party denounced the agreement and vowed to work to derail it:

“This deal is a serious mistake … Rather than making things harder on the terrorists, they give them gifts. The situation of security prisoners must be clear: no family visits, no special benefits, and key prisoners must be confined seperately … We would not allow a Hizbullah prisoner visits, and there is no reason to give Hamas prisoners visits. Both deny the existence of Israel”. The publication noted that “The hunger strike has been used by the prisoners – and Fatah and Hamas leaders – as a vehicle for attacking Israel’s administrative detention laws”. And, it was also reported in the same piece that “Danon told Arutz Sheva he plans to demand an urgent hearing by the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to debate the details of the agreement, and hopefully prevent its implementation”.

Israeli Government spokesperson Mark Regev told the television cameras yesterday, biting each word for distinctness, that Israel negotiated the deal at the request of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Hope – Lives have been saved

Marian Houk — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:21:45 +0000

Reports came from Egypt last night, from Gaza this morning, from Ramallah this evening, and Israel tonight that some kind of deal had been agreed by Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike to end their action in exchange for Israeli concessions on their demands.

The news came as 4 of 8 Palestinian prisoners protesting their Administrative Detention have been on hunger strike for over 70 days [2 of them for 78 days]. There are currently 308 Palestinian Administrative Detainees in Israeli jails.

In addition, some 1600 or so other Palestinian prisoners started their own hunger strike on 17 April, which included support for the Palestinian Administrative Detainees — but which also demanded an end to extensive periods of isolation in solitary confinement for others, and an end to the ban on family visits to prisoners from Gaza, as well as a repeal of punitive measures put in place as reprisal for the conditions that Gilad Shalit was held in, in Gaza, for some five years.

By email from the Israeli Government Press Office tonight came this toughly-worded communication by the Israel Prison Service: “End of the Hunger Strike by Security Prisoners”. [A link was given to a Hebrew-language website, here]. Here is an annotated version of the text:

“1. This afternoon (Monday), 14.5.12, the security prisoners stopped their hunger strike after 28 days. [Note: 99.9 percent of Palestinian prisoner in Israel jails are classified as "security prisoners". The collective hunger strike action began on 17 April, which Palestinians mark as Prisoner's Day. But individual hunger strikes to protest orders of Administrative Detention, following the unprecendented example of Khader Adnan, who is now free, began 78 days ago. And 7 or 8 Palestinians in advanced stages of hunger strikes, 3 of them over 70 days, 2 on Day 78, are in the Ramleh prison clinic.]

2. The declaration regarding the end of the strike was made possible in the wake of the understandings that have been formulated in recent days, the main point of which is the security prisoners’ signature on a commitment not to engage in terrorism inside the prison walls in exchange for various easements in several areas, including the return of prisoners held in separation to the prison wings and the possibility of first degree relatives’ visits to prisoners from Gaza. [Note, I personally am bursting with curiosity to know what kind of "terrorism" was going on inside the secure walls of the Israeli Prison System which will now stop, as part of this deal. Was it the hunger strikes? Is it the smuggling of sim cards and mobile phones?]

3. Pursuant to the ISA [Israel Security Agency] statement regarding the understandings, following are several additional points [Note: we did not receive the ISA statement, but the New York Times did -- see lower in this post]:

A. An inter-ministerial committee chaired by the Israel Prison Service Commissioner, and with the participation of representatives from the Justice, Foreign and Health ministries, as well as from the IDF (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the Judge Advocate General), the Israel Security Agency, the National Security Council and the Israel Police, evaluated the significance of the prisoners’ requests and issued a serious of recommendations to the political echelon.
B. Before the strike, the Israel Prison Service Commissioner appointed an additional team to evaluate the prisoners’ requests regarding their prison living conditions; in the wake of the halt to the strike, several actions will be carried out regarding which positive decisions have been taken.
C. The decisions of the committee were shown to prisoners who did not strike, thus preventing their joining and expanding the strikers.
D. It should be pointed out that throughout the strike, the strikers were under close medical care and received professional treatment as necessary, including check-ups and hospitalization according to need.
E. Upon the conclusion of the strike, the medical monitoring will continue in order to prevent possible complications from an unsupervised return to eating.
F. Security deployment in the prisons and dialogue with the strikers throughout the period prevented a worsening of the situation including possible violent scenarios.
G. Throughout the strike, the Israel Prison Service took care regarding prisoners’ rights according to law and acted with complete transparency vis-à-vis official oversight agencies”.

Seriously, what could the Israeli Prison Services mean when they said the prisoners had signed a “commitment not to engage in terrorism inside the prison walls”? What terrorism is going inside the prison walls? This we would really like to know.

From the New York Times, we learn that “Israel’s internal security agency, known as the Shin Bet, said in a statement on Monday that the agreement became possible after the prisoners made a commitment ‘to completely halt terrorist activity inside Israeli prisons’, and ‘to refrain from all activity that constitutes practical support for terrorism, including recruiting people for terrorist activity, guidance, financing, coordinating among recruits, aiding recruits’, and related activities”. This is reported here.

The NYTimes also reported that “Israeli officials said they had made no commitment to end the practice of incarceration without formal charges or a trial, known as administrative detention, and that current administrative detainees would serve out their terms. But Issa Qaraqe, the minister of prisoner affairs for the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, said earlier on Monday that there were understandings that the terms of the roughly 300 prisoners being held without charges would not be extended … Last week, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected appeals for the immediate release of Mr. Diab and Mr. Halahleh, but the judges expressed reservations about any extension of their terms without further investigation and better judicial oversight”.

The 1,600 or so prisoners with the multiple demands are said to be waiting to see if Israel will fulfill its part of the deal.
Then, a bit after midnight, this news started to come in, via Twitter:
Al-Jazeera’s Rana Zabaneh – @RZabaneh:“#PalHunger: #ThaerHalahleh told his father he will end his hunger strike to be released on June 5″

Gaza Youth Break Out – @GazaYBO:
Lawyer Jawad Boulos: Thaer Hlahalh; Bilal Diab Stopped the strike after an agreement 2 end the AD; will be released on #June5.

Linah Alsaafin – @LinahAlsaafin:
“#BilalThiab according to what #ThaerHalahleh’s dad told me will be released August 17 after his administrative detention ends #PalHunger”

Maath Musleh @MaathMusleh :
“AD on hunger strike will end hunger strike in the morning when they receive official papers to confirm their detention will not be renewed!”

No one died. This is a major achievement.

No news about two Palestinian hunger strikers on Day 75 [or is it 74? or 76?] – UPDATED

Marian Houk — Sat, 12 May 2012 10:45:44 +0000

This is the Israeli weekend, and the Jewish Shabbat [Sabbath], and there is no news about two Palestinian Administrative Detainees in Israeli jail, Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab, on what is Day 75 [or is it Day 74? or is it possibly even Day 76?] of their open-ended hunger strike, a very critical day to protest the Israeli military court orders confining them to Administrative Detention — where the evidence is not shown to the accused or to their lawyers, so no defense is possible.

These two hunger-strikers, on the longest continuous self-deprivation action in Palestinian history, are reportedly still in Ramleh prison clinic, rather than in a regular independent civilian hospital.

In recent days, Halahleh has been exceptionally permitted to send letters that have been unusually rapidly delivered. The last one was to his wife, asking her forgiveness.

The Independent reports that “In his letter to his wife, Shireen, dated 8 May, he writes: ‘I cannot describe with words my love for you. I am doing this for the sake of God and my homeland, for [you] and my daughter Namar [Lamar]. Take care of her and take care of your health… and forgive me’. Arrested two weeks before Namar was born, he has held his infant daughter for only five minutes, as family visits are conducted via telephone”… [And, with a glass wall between the prisoner and his visitor.]

Now, another letter from Halahleh was delivered [yesterday?] to their only child, their daughter Lamar.

It has already been translated and posted on the website of IMEU, here. and here is an excerpt:

My Beloved Lamar, forgive me because the occupation took me away from you, and took away from me the pleasure of witnessing my first born child that I have always prayed to God to see, to kiss, to be happy with. It is not your fault, this is our destiny as Palestinian people to have our lives and the lives of our children taken away from us, to be apart from each other and to have a miserable life, nothing is complete in our lives because of this unjust occupation that is lurking on every corner of our lives turning it into eeriness, a continuous pursuit and torture…
Lamar my love: I know that you are not to be blamed and that you don’t yet understand why your father is going through this battle of the hunger strike for the 75th day, but when you grow up you will understand that the battle of freedom is the battle of going back to you, so that I can never be taken away from you again or to be deprived of your smile or seeing you, so that the occupier will never kidnap me again from you…
Lamar my love: that day will come, and I will make it up to you for everything, and tell you the whole story, and your days that will follow will be more beautiful, so let your days pass now and wear your prettiest clothes, run and then run again in the gardens of your long life, go forward and forward nothing is behind you but the past, and this is your voice I hear all the time as a melody of freedom

There is no similar news about Bilal Diab’s contacts with his family.

Unfortunately, Thaer Halahleh is not the only Palestinian prisoner who has promised, and vowed to his family, that he will one day “make it up to you for everything”…

And yet, there is no way and nothing that can really ever make up for these lives not lived together, and for this time lost…

UPDATE: Ma’an News Agency is reporting Saturday evening here that Bilal Diab’s family have received his written will. According to Ma’an’s report, it said:

” ‘We will have victory, but only through either martyrdom or immediate release — not any partial solution as claimed by the prisons administration’, Diab wrote … ‘On the 75th day of my hunger strike, I am still determined, patient and focused on continuing against conspiracies, threats and solitary confinement by the fascist Israeli prison administration’, Diab wrote. Diab instructed his family keep his grave at ground level, in accordance with Islamic teaching, and distribute sweets at his funeral as a sign of celebration. He asked his brother Homam to perform prayers for him, and freed hunger-striker Khader Adnan to lower him into his grave. The young hunger-striker thanked all Palestinians, and Arab and Islamic nations for their support”.

However, according to Ahmad Nimer on Twitter [@ANimer], Bilal Diab’s will reads: #bilaldiab also wrote “I want shaikh khader adnan to do my funeral prayer. & the father of shaheed muhamad abu jbarah to put me in grave”

Thaer Halahleh has given Do Not Resuscitate instructions, says PHR-Israel

Marian Houk — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:12:15 +0000

According to Anat Litvak of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel [PHR=Israel], Palestinian prisoner Thaer Halahleh, now on Day 74 [or 75 or 73?] of an open-ended hunger strike protesting his extended Administrative Detention in Israeli jails, has given Do Not Resuscitate orders.

According to the PHR-IL official, recorded on video by the Daily Telegraph, Thaer Halahleh does not want to be revived, if he falls unconscious or comotose.

This is stated in a video posted, along with a report, on the Daily Telegraph website here.

Halahleh was the prisoner who was well enough to testify at his appeal heard in Israel’s Supreme Court on May 3. His colleague, Bilal Diab, fainted and was not able to speak in Court.

What Thaer Halahleh told the Court was: “I am a man who loves life, and I want to live in dignity. No human can accept being in jail for even one hour without any charge or reason”.

A lawyer from Addameer who visited Halahleh on Thursday said that he was told by an Israeli physician that he is on the verge of death.

There is no documented case of a hunger striker surviving a total fast lasting beyond 75 days.

A group of Palestinian human rights NGOs has just issued a call on the European Union to intervene to save the lives of the few Palestinian prisoners on open-ended hunger strikers.

Mahmoud Abbas visits Solidarity tent in Ramallah – UPDATED with UNRWA retraction

Marian Houk — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:56:49 +0000

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas visited the Ramallah / Al-Bireh solidarity tents on Thursday afternoon. It was a rare public outing for a man who travels around Ramallah in a 14-car convoy [including an ambulance] on streets where all traffic has to be stopped, and where armed men stand watch at regular intervals all along the route. To the right of Mahmoud Abbas is the PA Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Qaraqe. Photo by Ma’an is posted here.

The prelude: On Wednesday, a group of Palestinian protesters stood in front of the UN Office in Ramallah, and also apparently an UNRWA office in Ramallah as well, disrupting work for the day. In Geneva, a smaller group took signs and went down to the UN Office in Geneva to explain the reason for the protest outside the Ramallah office.

Then: later on Wednesday, at UN Headquarters in New York, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-Moon issued a statement in the UNSG’s name saying that he “stressed the importance of averting any further deterioration in the condition of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody who are on hunger strike, and urged everyone concerned to reach a solution to their plight without delay. ‘The Secretary-General continues to follow with concern the ongoing hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, in particular those held in what is known as administrative detention’, according to information provided by his spokesperson. ‘He stresses the importance of averting any further deterioration in their condition’, the spokesperson added. ‘He reiterates that those detained must be charged and face trial with judicial guarantees, or released without delay‘.” [emphasis added]

This is posted on the UN website here.

After that: today [Thursday], the UNSG’s Special Coordinator Robert Serry, reportedly visited the Palestinian president in Ramallah. In any case, Serry also stopped with his entourage for a sandwich on the sunny terrace of Pronto, one of Ramallah’s best bistro cafes, near the Ramallah municipality building. [This is only to say that life does go on...]

The ususal significance-laden generalities about this meeting: the UN reported on their news website “The hunger strike also came up for discussion during today’s meeting between the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), Robert Serry, and the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, with both expressing the urgency of finding a solution for the issue, according to news release issued by Mr. Serry’s office. Mr. Serry reiterated the concern of the UN over the situation, as Mr. Abbas expressed his appreciation of the UN contribution to efforts to resolve the issue. The pair also discussed other issues of common interest, including the need for meaningful peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as internal Palestinian issues”… This is explained here.

[It is possible, though not known outside the innermost circles, that Serry may also have spoken of the protests at the UN Office in Ramallah, which may have been bothersomeve and disrupti, to some, but which were peaceful.]

The event itself: In any case, Palestinian leader [there is no other, at the moment] Mahmoud Abbas then made his first visit to the Solidarity tent opposite the Al-Bireh sweet shop, municipality and mosque. Whereas weeks had been growning in the open field where the tents and flags and posters and rows of plastic chairs were set up, the field had been neatly covered in asphalt overnight. It is not known if this was pure coincidence, or in preparation for the Abbas visit.

Context: In addition to Robert Serry, two other UN officials have spoke out about the plight of the 4,600 Palestinian prisoners, including the 308 or so who are in Administrative Detention, in which all evidence is secret, so no defense is possible.

The generic charge for Administrative Detention invariably is the vague accusation of posing a “threat to the security and peace of the region”.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Princeton University Professor Emeritus of International Law Richard Falk, has made a series of statements and has posted an analysis on his own blog, in addition to publishing opinion articles on a number of news sites.

UNRWA deserves special mention here: The Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, also chimed in, though rather late in the day. UNRWA in Ramallah was also affected by the protest shut down on Wednesday [9 May].

Handwritten sign in red held over UNRWA sign during protest Wednesday says “Closed: Freedom for OUR prisoners” – photo posted on Twitter here by @Occupy2gether

In a statement [prepared by a spokesperson of course], UNRWA noted, prudently in line with what was said in the name of UNSG BAN Ki-Moon, that “The Commissioner General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, is following with increasing concern the ongoing hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, in particular, those held as administrative detainees. He echoes the calls of the Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, and Robert Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, to reach a solution without delay”. This is statement is dated 11 May, and posted here.

UPDATE: It had earlier been reported that Grandi’s statement repeated exactly what UNSG BAN Ki-Moon’s had said, i.e. — “He reiterates that those detained must be charged and face trial with judicial guarantees, or released without delay“.

But, this significant sentence had been deleted by the time this post was written — at least, on the UNRWA website. Initially, this was confusing.

On Saturday morning, however, it was learned that this had indeed been part of the statement as first issued, in Grandi’s name, by at least one of the UNRWA spokespersons — but it was later deleted, and the briefer, more cautious version above was posted. Thanks to the observations and research of Benjamin Doherty, published on the Electronic Intifada website, here, on 10 May, we can see that the full UNRWA statement as originally presented is this:

10 May 2012
Jerusalem

The Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, expressed his grave concern about the current medical and health conditions of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons.

The Commissioner-General appealed to the Israeli government to find an acceptable solution, noting that the hunger strikers’ demands are generally related to the basic rights of prisoners, as stipulated in the Geneva Conventions.

Filippo Grandi reiterated the call of the Secretary-General of the United Nations that those under administrative detention be brought to trial or be set free, noting that two of the administrative detainees are in serious condition after more than 74 days, and are in imminent danger of death. [emphasis added here].

For more information, please contact:

Sami Mshasha
UNRWA Arabic Spokesperson
Mobile: +972 (0)54 216 8295
Office: +972 (0)2 589 0724
s.mshasha@unrwa.org

The research posted on Electronic Intifada is entitled: “UNRWA mysteriously removes top official’s statement on Israel’s treatment of hunger strikers“. But the word “mysteriously” is rather tongue-in-cheek, for it is not mysterious at all…

UPDATE: And, in any case, after all, the original version is still posted on the UN News Centre [the UN uses British English spelling] here, which, yes, still reports that:

‘Filippo Grandi reiterates the call of the Secretary-General of the United Nations that those under administrative detention be brought to trial or be set free, noting that two of the administrative detainees are in serious conditions after more than 74 days, and are in imminent danger of death’, an UNRWA spokesperson said in a statement

FURTHER UPDATE: An UNRWA official said on Sunday that he’ll get the UN News Centre in NY to “update their story”…

So much for UNRWA.

Separately, Ma’an News Agency reported that “Prison doctors have told Thaer Halahla that he could die at any moment after 72 days on hunger strike, his lawyer Mona Neddaf said Thursday. Neddaf visited Halahla, 33, in Ramle prison clinic on Thursday, the prisoner rights group Addameer said in a statement. He is vomiting blood, bleeding from his gums and lips and has extremely low blood pressure, she said. His temperature is fluctuating at dangerous levels and the prison doctor said he also has an infection. He has refused food since Feb. 29 and now weighs 55 kilograms. Israel has ignored calls by the European Union and the International Committee of the Red Cross to transfer long-term hunger-strikers to hospitals and to allow them family visits. Prison authorities on Wednesday canceled a visit from his family, scheduled for Thursday, but the detainee remains mentally strong, his lawyer said”. This Ma’an News Agency report is posted here.

David Rose [whose April 2008 article in Vanity Fair about PA machinations is iconic] has reported in The Daily Mail that “The last letter Thaer Hahlaleh [sic] wrote to his wife Shireen was delivered by the Red Cross a few days before he began to refuse all nourishment on February 29. ‘My detention has so far been renewed seven times and they still haven’t charged me with anything … I can’t take any more. I am going on hunger strike because the situation has become unbearable’.” This is reported here. Rose notes that “According to Shireen Hahlaleh, her husband has been held under administrative detention for more than six years in total”.

Thaer Halahleh is 33 years old, and has been held for over six years of his live in a state of total uncertainty.

Rose also reports that Halahleh’s wife Shireen told him that her husband was arrested just before she gave birth to their only child: ‘This time he was arrested in June 2010, two weeks before I was due to have our first child, our daughter Lamar … ‘We were just getting ready for the birth. Can you imagine the state of mind he left me in? The previous time they arrested him was 14 days after our wedding. They seem to choose their moments carefully. The baby has only seen her father six times. My husband has a young family. Why would he want death? He wants life. But he is desperate’.”

As this report indicates, Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails can send the occasional letter to their families, if they live in the West Bank [rather than in Gaza] via ordinary mail [Israeli prison service to Israeli postal service to Palestinian postal service], but they take months to arrive.

Meanwhile, families of Palestinian hunger strikers have no information, no family visits allowed, and an Israeli district court has said that Physicians for Human Rights-Israel [@PHR_IL] must appeal on case-by-case basis.

Resources are stretched thin, nerves on edge, information extremely limited + often late, and there are discrepancies in calculating durations – #PalHunger. [Just for example, are Halahleh and Diab on Day 72 or Day 73 of their open-ended hunger strike? Depends on whether you count Feb 28 as whole day or not, and if not, Day 1 was Feb 29 etc]

Also meanwhile, journalists are confused about whether a time-limited hunger strike is as valid as an open-ended hunger strike.

Journalists are also confused about whether this issue of Palestinian hunger striking prisoners is something that touches a raw nerve in Palestinian society or, because the numbers of activists who demonstrate is relatively small, this is something that can be dismissed if not ignored.

In this matter, it might be useful to recall that while Israeli society has such an identification with its armed forces because every family has someone who is a soldier, the parallel for Palestinians is that almost every family has someone who is, or once was, a prisoner…

UPDATE TWO: For a personal eyewitness account of someone who was present in the Al-Bireh protest tent area when Mahmoud Abbas and his entourage showed up, read Linah Alsaafin’s account in Electronic Intifada, here.

Solidarity protests at the ICRC in Ramallah on Thursday to demand international action in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails

Marian Houk — Thu, 10 May 2012 06:51:04 +0000

This morning, solidarity protesters showed up at the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] in Ramallah, in support of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails on hunger strike:

Photo by Radio Ajyal, posted on Facebook here

Solidarity protests block UN office in Ramallah to call attention to Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails

Marian Houk — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:14:38 +0000

Photo by Ahmad Nimer posted on Twitter here.

Solidarity tent in al-Bireh / Ramallah for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails

Marian Houk — Tue, 08 May 2012 23:03:16 +0000

Photo by Ahmad Nimer via Twitter here

Day 70 [or Day 69?] of historic hunger strike of two Palestinians protesting Israeli military orders of Admininstrative Detention

Marian Houk — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:05:09 +0000

Today is Day 70 [or is it Day 69?] of a historic hunger strike by two Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh.

The two men are protesting the Israeli military orders of Administrative Detention under which they have been seized and kept prisoner without their [or their lawyers] knowing the details of any evidence that Israeli secret services may have against them. In such a situation, no defense is possible.

Even the exact details of the charges or accusations are not known, just the generic reason always given in cases of Administrative Detention, which is: “posing a threat to security in the area”

There is apparently no record of anyone surviving a hunger strike longer than 75 days.

These two men appeared in Israel’s Supreme Court in Jerusalem last Thursday [3 May] for a hearing on their appeal of the Administrative Detention orders. One of them, Bilal Diab, fainted and could not speak. Here is a photo of Bilal Diab inside the Supreme Court chambers:

Photo taken by @thameenaHusary and viewed on Twitter via @Occupy2gether here.

Today, the Israeli Supreme Court declined giving any decision on their appeal, reportedly declining to be involved.

The BBC reported this afternoon that: “In his decision, Judge Elyakim Rubinstein expressed concern over their deteriorating condition, and referred the military authorities to a legal clause which could allow their release on medical grounds, AFP reported. The clause relates to those ‘whose illness is limiting his days, or for whom remaining in prison would seriously endanger his life due to his illness’. Judge Rubinstein said that although the practice of administrative detention caused him ‘great discontent’, it was ‘necessary when the material regarding the petitioner is intelligence material, the exposure of which would harm its conveyor or the methods in which it was obtained’. Such detainees’ cases could be examined by ‘a jurist acceptable to the detainees, who would receive the sufficient security approval… [and] who could examine the material on their behalf’, he added”. This report is published here.

The BBC reported the length of Diab and Halahleh’s hunger strike as 68 days. There seems to be some discrepancy, with two of the most involved organizations differeing slightly: Physicians for Human Rights-Israel [PHR-Israel] seems to consider this Day 69, and Addameer counts today as Day 70. The two men started their hunger strike at the end of February, with February 29th as their first full day without food.

Meanwhile, PHR-Israel has submitted appeals for court orders to allow independent physicians to see Diab and Halahleh and another Palestinian on extended hunger strike in Israeli jails.

Diab and Halahleh are both reported to be members of Islamic Jihad.

In recent days, they have gone on and off liquid infusions with vitamin and mineral supplements. [Halahleh said he was held down by force while needles were inserted into his arm.] According to a report by CNN, published here, Amany Daify, a project coordinator for Physicians for Human Rights, said that “There is no documented history of any person who survived without food or supplements beyond 75 days”.

There are over 4,000 Palestinian prisoners now in Israeli jails, and over half of them are reportedly now on hunger strike, in part in sympathy with the protest against Administrative Detention, and also for other reasons, including the repeal of punitive measures put into place last year to retaliate for the continued detention of captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was seized in a cross-border raid and kept in Gaza for some 5 years without any visits.

UPDATE: Haaretz later published a fuller account of the Supreme Court decision, reporting that the judges said “the state should consider allowing that information to be passed on to those who qualify to certain criteria. ‘It’s possible that there’s room to revisit – and this is said with much caution and with no “bottom line” – notions that have come up in the past, [referring to] the possibility of giving access to the material to a jurist acceptable to the detainees, and who could be a former top civil jurist or judge’ … The justices added that such a step could ‘bring the discussion closer to the detainees’ rights, without harming security … However, we’re aware that the broader consequences aren’t in our full awareness and are not setting anything in stone’.” The decision also noted that “Administrative detention is an aberration in the judicial field, and thus, no one can deny, must be used as little as possible, even if we don’t remember that it’s used in the world at large, and mainly because we do not forget that Israel regularly fights terror and those who seek to harm it from many directions … The state should not have to apologize for securing its own safety”. Speaking of the recent wave of hunger strikes among Palestinian detainees, the justices wrote in their ruling that ‘hungers strikes cannot serve as a element in a decision on the very validity of administrative detentions, since that would be confusing the issue’.” The prisoners’ attorney, Jawad Boulus, told Haaretz that “one can see that the justices are convinced that administrative detentions are a severe act”, and he added that “the justice’s conclusion should have been their just and honest release, and not to leave the issues vague and by recommending to release them at the end of their administrative detention”.

The court’s ruling came after last week, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch was said to indicate that Israel should reduce its use of administrative detention against Palestinian suspects.

Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel: “To every person, there is a name”

Marian Houk — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:04:53 +0000

No qualifications, no explanations, no analysis, and no numbers — just a note that today is the day that the Holocaust is remembered in Israel.

At 10:00 am, sirens sounded throughout the country for two minutes. The nation came to a standstill, in respect. Traffic stopped on the streets, drivers emerging from their cars to stand at attention in respect.

Radio stations broadcast special musical and other remembrance programs, people listened to these in the background during the day, as life went on. There was a calm and sober remembrance of an extended event in human history that is so horrifying — partly because its planned cruelty was so calculated and deliberated — as to be truly incomprehensible.

Amir Mizroch, an Israeli writer and editor, wrote a post published on his blog here, and entitled “If you don’t understand the Holocaust, you won’t understand Israelis”, saying that he viewed the Holocaust as “the purposeful, single-minded continuation of an ancient, worldwide hatred which seeks to exterminate the Jewish people” … and, he wrote, “Until and unless you have been in our shoes, when it comes to our lives, we don’t really care what you think”.

Ok. This is not unusual, here. It is a bit belligerent, and that is not unusual either.

But how effective is it to say: “we don’t really care what you think”? [ It's not even true -- they do care what we think.]

What happened during the Holocaust was individually and collectively tragic, on an immense scale.

The residual experience has affected people down through three generations, so far.

Meanwhile, human beings being as unpredictable as they are, an interesting story emerged for the first time, this year, as AFP reported from Um al-Fahim in the Galilee region: “For more than five decades, Leila [Leah, also known as Helen, of mixed Hungarian and Russian descent] Jabarin hid her secret from her Muslim children and grandchildren — that she was a Jewish Holocaust survivor born in Auschwitz concentration camp. Although her family knew she was a Jewish convert, none of them knew of her brutal past. It was only in the past week that Jabarin, who was born Helen Brashatsky, finally sat down and told them the story of how she was born inside Auschwitz, the most notorious symbol of Nazi Germany’s wartime campaign of genocide against Europe’s Jews … The family were finally freed when the camp was liberated in 1945 and left for Mandate Palestine three years later. At first, the new immigrants were put in camps at Atlit, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Haifa, but two years later, they moved further south to Holon and then to Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. Ten years later, when she was 17, Helen Brashatsky eloped with a young Arab man called Ahmed Jabarin, and they moved to live in Umm al-Fahm, which caused a huge split with her family … ‘She ran away with me and she was 17 when we got married’, her husband says. ‘The Israeli authorities used to come to Umm al-Fahm and take her back to her family in Ramat Gan, then she would come straight back here’. Initially, her family did not speak to her for two years, but later they were reconciled … ‘I hid my pain for 52 years and the truth about my past from my eight children and my 31 grandchildren. I hid the fact that I was born in Auschwitz and what that painful past means. I was just waiting for the right moment to tell them’…” This story about being actually born in Auschwitz is a bit hard to believe, but it is possible, and can be read in full here.

Haaretz yesterday published another story, here about the survival of two young Hungarian brothers torn from their family at the ages of 3 + 4, and a documentary recently made about their story.

Haaretz republished a speech in commemoration of the Holocaust by Knesset member Ahmed Tibi, from the Galilee. Tibi apparently made this speech two years ago in the Knesset [Parliament]. He said that “The forces of evil sent tens of millions of people – Jews, Soviets, Poles, Gypsies, and political rivals – to an awful death. This wasn’t a simple death, but an industry of death, which was borne of an ideology of hate, racism, and ethnic cleansing. This is the place and the time to cry out the cries of all of those who were and are no longer with us, the cries of those who have remained and who are struggling, justifiably so, to unburden themselves from the scenes of death and horror. I will once again repeat that I am full of empathy for the families of the victims of the Holocaust wherever they may be around the world, including those with whom I live on the same land, in the same country. This is the moment in which every individual must relieve oneself of all of his nationalist or religious hats, relieve oneself of the otherness and wear just one robe: the robe of humanity. One must look at himself, look around him, and be human. Only human … I, Ahmed Tibi, a tall, proud Arab, is happy to be on the same side as prominent Arab intellectuals who came out forcefully against Holocaust denial in the Middle East and other places around the world – men such as Mahmoud Darwish, Samih Al-Qassem, Elias Khoury, Edward Said, Elias Sanbar, and others. This is the time to send a special greeting and encouragement to my colleague, Mohammed Barakeh, who is currently in Auschwitz. He was joined, as a guest of the UN and acting on explicit instructions of President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian ambassador in Poland. This is the place to declare that the Holocaust should not become a tool of a political, populist argument. It should not be commercialized, nor should it be ridiculed. The Holocaust, Mr. Speaker, is the most heinous crime against modern humanity, and Nazism is the coldest, most calculated instrument which led to this crime. Racism was the tie that bounded them together, the tie that bound the ends of this awful ideology. Here and now we need to stand up and confront, with a loud voice, all instances of discrimination, racism, and the politics of hatred. Racism and hatred for anything that is different, including Arabs, have raised their heads here in Israeli society. Racism has long become ‘mainstream.’ Those who were victims of that horrible death, which is a byproduct of a malicious exercise of power – a destructive, absolute power – must be attentive to the cries of the bereaved mother whose home was destroyed and whose children were buried underneath it; to the pain and cries of a doctor who lost his daughters; to the victims of the other, even if the other is his victim, the victim’s victim. The good must let their voices be heard, and not their deafening silence. Because from that time we will not just remember the misdeeds of the evil ones, but in particular the silence of the good. Lately I have not been able to find those benevolent ones who have lost the strength to utter courageous words in order to stand alongside the weak other…” This speech by Ahmed Tibi to the Knesset to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, two years ago, was published today in Haaretz, here.