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PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS

PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS:
STARVING for FREEDOM
TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT PALESTINIAN PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE!
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat info@freeahmadsaadat.org
Learn More & Take Action: www.freeahmadsaadat.org

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons began an open-ended
hunger strike on September 27, 2011, demanding an end to the isolation of
Palestinian prisoner and national leader Ahmad Sa’adat, an end to isolation
for all Palestinian political prisoners, and an end to the policies of repression
and humiliation against visitors to the prisoners, including denial of family
visits and visitors being stopped, searched and impeded at Israeli occupation checkpoints.
The prisoners are also demanding an end to abuse
and humiliation of prisoners while they are transferred from one prison to
another, as well as their right to an education.
There are over 5,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation  jails, in violation
of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Palestinian political prisoners are
frequently subject to torture and abuse, and placed in solitary confinement
in order to silence their demands for dignity and justice. These prisoners are
held in jail because they are committed to ending the Israeli occupation of
their homeland.
Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian national leader whose isolation has
inspired Palestinian and international protest, has been imprisoned
by Israeli occupation forces since his kidnapping in March 13, 2006. He was
abducted in a violent Israeli military raid from a Palestinian Authority prison
where he had been unjustly held without charge or trial for over four years
under U.S. and British guard. He has been in isolation for over two years following his
calls for resistance to the Israeli assault on Gaza in winter 2009.
The Israeli Minister of Internal Security, at a meeting in Ramon and Naqab
Prisons, has threatened to escalate repression against prisoners, threatening to move all
prisoners participating in the hunger strike into isolation and
solitary confinement, and to forcibly transfer those prisoners to other prisons
in the occupation prison system. Prisoners are frequently transferred by occupation forces
in an attempt to break up social bonds and disrupt organizing against prison repression.
Twenty-eight prisoners have so far been newly
placed in isolation in retaliation for their participation in the hunger strike.
Furthermore, prisoners announced that they will reject all prison orders, refusing
to wear uniforms, stand up for daily counts, or accept food. For decades, Palestinian
prisoners have engaged in hunger strikes to demand
– and win – their rights, and are now putting their bodies on the line once
more to demand the freedom and dignity of themselves, their people, their
homeland and their nation.  The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat calls
upon all solidarity, international justice and human rights groups and organizations to join us to demand freedom, dignity and justice for Palestinian
prisoners.
Palestinian hunger strikers’ demands:
“1. End the solitary confinement and
isolation of our comrade, General
Secretary of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, member of the
Palestinian Legislative Council and the
PLO Central Council, Ahmad Sa’adat,
Abu Ghassan.
2. End the policy of isolation for all prisoners;
3. End the policy of systematic humiliation by the occupation army against
the Palestinian people at checkpoints
and crossings, particularly targeting
visitors to prisons, and end the arbitrary
denial of visits to the prisoners, especially the prisoners from the Gaza Strip. End
the humiliation and abuse of prisoners
during transfer. Ensure our right to education and visits.”
TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT
STRIKING PRISONERS!
1. Contact the International Committee of the Red Cross at
the ICRC to take action to protect
the rights of Palestinian prisoners
and end isolation and torture.
2. Organize  a local action. Protest
or picket your Israeli or US embassy
or consulate! Please contact the
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
coordinate.