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Two Palestinian Hunger Strikers Send "Final Distress Call"

 

11-06-2012,08:00

Al Qassam website (Agencies) - A weekly report published by the Center for Political and Development Studies (CPDS), Gaza on the latest developments in Palestine.

Two Palestinian hunger strikers send "final distress call"

- Mahmoud Sarsak and Akram Rikhawi sent a letter to the Palestinian people in which they said "There is still enough time, and the support that comes late is better than that which does not come at all. It is better that you receive us alive and victorious rather than as lifeless bodies in black bags. Our people, our leaders in Gaza, in the West Bank and outside, and freedom loving people of the world, we cry out to you, and to all people in the world who believe in the justice of our cause: do not abandon us to the vindictive hands of the jailers to take what they want from our frail bodies."

Three Palestinians prisoners are still on hunger strike, they are: Mahmoud Sarsak, Akram Rikhawi and Samer Al-Barq.

- Ann Harrison, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa said in a statement "For decades, Amnesty International has urged Israel to end the practice of administrative detention and to release detainees or charge them with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and try them according to international standards."

- Writing in the Nation on May 10, Dave Zirin wrote:

"Imagine if a member of Team USA Basketball – let's say Kobe Bryant – had been traveling to an international tournament only to be seized by a foreign government and held in prison for three years without trial or even hearing the charges for which he was imprisoned.... Chances are all the powerful international sports organizations – the IOC [International Olympic Committee], [global football's organizing body] FIFA – would treat the jailing nation as a pariah until Kobe was free. Additionally, chances are that even Laker-haters would wear buttons that read, 'Free Kobe'."

-Thaer Halahleh, who went on hunger strike for 78 days was released on Tuesday as a part of the deal reached the Palestinians prisoners and the Israeli Prison Service (IPS).

- IOF detained an Al-Aqsa Mosque official early Monday from his East Jerusalem home.

Najeh Bkeirat, the head of the manuscripts and heritage department at Al-Aqsa, was detained in Sur Bahir. Israel aims to keep Muslim preachers out of the holy city to continue its colonial project and land confiscation with no obstacles.

- Addameer Lawyers call for a full investigation and are holding Israel fully accountable. They said the United Nations and the World Health Organization should create a committee to investigate the medical conditions of Palestinians. Zuhair's death was tragic, it's not the only occasion in which a former prisoner has passed away following medical neglect.

- UFree Network monitored the responses of the Israeli Prison Service to demands and reported that the IPS fulfilled the following demands since the first week:

· Allow telephone calls for the prisoner once a month.

· Increase canteen amount to be 400 Israeli Shekels instead of 300.

· Reinstall three TV channels (BBC – Abu Dhabi – Rotana Cinema)

· Permit taking photographs with families once every five years instead of once in the whole life.

· Allow putting brothers or fathers with their detained prisoner in the same jail.

· Permit open visits for humanitarian cases without any barrier.

· Allow visits for any security prisoners

· Improve the condition of the prison canteen through providing the missing supplies as fruits and vegetables and form a committee to check prices to achieve appropriateness between market and the canteen prices.

· Permit taking photographs inside prison cell once a year.

· Form a committee to examine the status of West Bank prisoners who are not allowed to receive visits to find solutions for them.

· Recommend transferring patient prisoners by ambulance instead of the "the Boaster", which is a bus with miserable humiliating conditions used to move the Palestinian prisoners form one jail to another, or from the jail to courts and back, and approve the report of the prison doctor about such cases.

- The Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights has revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities have renewed, without charge or trial, the administrative detention of an elderly MP in the Palestinian Legislative Council and a leader in the Islamic Resistance Movement.

Speaking on behalf of the Foundation, lawyer Osama Makboul explained that the Israeli military commander issued the order at the request of the intelligence services for a further six months in the case of the MP for Nablus City, Ahmed El- Haj Ali, 72. A similar order was issued for lecturer and Hamas leader Dr. Mohammed Ghazal. According to Mr. Makboul, MP Ali was arrested originally on 7 June last year; Dr. Ghazal was arrested on December 7, 2011. Both men will appear before the Israeli Supreme Court on 6 and 7 July to have the order confirmed or reduced.[1]

- Eighteen students, from Beit Ommar town in Al-Khalil, were prevented from sitting for their final examinations, after being arrested by the IOF. They were brutally detaimed, and most of them have been subjected to torture during interrogations by the Israeli intelligence officers[2].

Naksa (setback) Remembered in Palestine

Today, 45 years ago, Israel attacked Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Palestine, killing 15,000 to 25,000 Arabs and occupying The Gaza Strip, The West Bank, in which the second holy Muslim site in the world is located, The Golan Heights and the Sinai desert. The UNSC issued a resolution asking Israel to end the occupation of lands it occupied in 1967, yet the later still turns blind eye to the UN Resolutions.

Israel Suffocating the Fishing Industry in Gaza:

Israeli naval vessels have again attacked Gaza fishermen going about their lawful business in the sea. A statement from the Palestinian Fishermen's Union said that some of its members were targeted by the Israeli navy at dawn on Friday. The attack caused them to stop fishing and return to port. Friday's attack follows a similar assault on Wednesday, when four fishermen were kidnapped by the Israeli navy. Their whereabouts is still unknown.[3]

Israel Demolishes Palestinian Houses in Jordan Valley

Israeli bulldozers on Tuesday morning began demolishing Palestinian houses in Al-Meeta hamlet in Wadi-Al-Maleh northern Jordan Valley in the eastern West Bank. Municipality chief of Wadi-Al-Maleh and Bedouin villages, Aref Daraghmeh, told Quds Press that IOF broke into Al-Meeta hamlet in the Wadi al-Maleh area in the northern part of the occupied Jordan Valley, handing notifications for the demolition of four Palestinian houses. He also pointed out that the Israeli bulldozers raided the area before the expiry of the warning period, started demolishing several houses, and forced other families to demolish their homes with their own hands.[4]

Bibi: We will build 1000 units for each evacuated illegal one!

In a statement, the Prime Minister of Israel said "Israel will build 1000 new units for each illegal unit built 'without a permit' that they might evacuate."

Reconciliation talks 'fruitful'

The Egyptian Intelligence Department reported in a statement that the talks held in Cairo were 'fruitful'. Hamas political bureau is set to meet the acting Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo on 20 June, 2012.

Ismail Haniyeh, the Gaza Prime Minister, said in an article he wrote to the Guardian:

- We as a people want to live in our homeland, the land of our ancestors, in freedom, dignity and democracy, and with a just peace that restores our rights. We do not want to attack anyone and do not accept anyone attacking us. As we have said on more than one occasion, the key to security is the end of occupation. As a people we have been historically wronged and subjected to dozens of massacres; tens of thousands of us have lost our children for no other reason than that we demand our rights as clearly stipulated under international laws.

I would like to reiterate on behalf of my people our sincere desire to live in security and stability, without wars and bloodshed; we hope that the world will help us in this venture. We extend our hand to all those who seek a just peace to work seriously to end the occupation and help us establish our state, which the world has already recognised.