PRESS RELEASE
International Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

Khaled Barakat, international coordinator of the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

There is an urgent need for escalating actions in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, said Comrade Khaled Barakat, the international coordinator of the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat, in particular following the intense situation created by the occupation’s attack on Palestinian prisoners in Nafha prison. “The attack included invading prisoners’ rooms and isolating them, not to mention the attack on Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a major Palestinian national leader,” Barakat said. “Palestinian prisoners are calling for action and we must heed their call.” Read more »

Press Release – United Nations Human Rights Commissioner

UN experts urge Israel to halt legalization of force-feeding of hunger-strikers in detention Read more »

PRESS RELEASE
UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights

Families of Palestinian prisoners protesting

GENEVA (28 July 2015) – Two United Nations human rights experts today reiterated their call on the Israeli authorities to stop the process of legalizing force-feeding and medical treatment of prisoners and detainees on hunger strike against their will.

Their call comes after the current Knesset decided to continue the legislative process of a Bill to amend the Prisons Act (preventing damages due to hunger strikes) initiated by the previous legislature.

The independent experts warned that the Bill is expected to primarily affect Palestinians held by Israel, including those in administrative detention.

The UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez, underlined that “feeding induced by threats, coercion, force or use of physical restraints of individuals, who have opted for the extreme recourse of a hunger strike to protest against their detention, are, even if intended for their benefit, tantamount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” Read more »

PRESS RELEASE
Hamas

Mousa Abu Marzouk

Member of Hamas’s Political Bureau Mousa Abu Marzouk called on the Palestinian factions who signed the Cairo Agreement in 2011 to form a national unity government, backed by the Palestinian Legislative Council and approved by PA’s President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abu Marzouk stressed the need to recognize the legitimacy of Gaza Strip’s public sector employees and their rights, stating that Hamas would not object to a scheduled accommodation of the employees along the lines of the Swiss proposal, provided that both civilian and security staff are included. He added that it is not feasible to run ministries in Gaza with staff who are either not being paid, or who have been out of the workforce for many years.

Abu Marzouk also emphasised the importance of implementing a comprehensive community reconciliation process to end internal tensions, finding a permanent solution to the Gaza power crisis, lifting the Gaza siege, operating crossings, reopening Rafah airport and a seaport, and initiating reconstruction projects. Read more »

PRESS RELEASE
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Falah Abu Maria, murdered in his Beit Ummar home by Israeli military

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called for urgent international action to stop the escalating crimes of the Zionist entity against the Palestinian people, which have taken on multiple forms in recent days.

The PFLP considered that the escalation of these crimes, the latest of which was the murder of Falah Abu Maria and the wounding of his two sons in Beit Ummar, the murder of Mohammed Alawneh from Jenin refugee camp, and the decision of the illegitimate occupation court to deport the children of the martyr Ghassan Abu Jamal from the city of Jerusalem, as well as the approval of the constructions of colonization units in the West Bank, the continued raids and incursions into Palestinian villages and cities, the ongoing and escalating campaign of arrests and the attacks on prisoners, must inspire us all to move relentlessly and without complacency or submission to Zionist or international pressures to hold Zionist officials accountable before international courts, in particular the International Criminal Court.

The Zionist entity must be criminalized and delegitimized on an international level and its political and military leaders and settlers brought before these courts for crimes committed before the sight of the entire world.

The Front noted that the decision of the illegitimate Zionist court, ordering that the children of the Jerusalemite martyr Ghassan Abu Jamal be forced to leave the city by early October is a serious crime, and a part of the systematic Zionist policy aimed at changing the demographic character of Jerusalem and the imposition of an exclusive Jewish character on the city through the forced expulsion of Palestinians. This is a serious violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions, as well as covenants protecting the rights of children. Read more »

PRESS STATEMENT
HAMAS

Hamas’s spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated on Sunday that the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by occupation forces and settlers constitutes a dangerous escalation, and reflects the accelerated Judaization of Jerusalem.

Abu Zuhri said that the Palestinian people and factions will not stand idly by while the Israeli assaults on sanctities continue.

Abu Zuhri called for the resumption and intensification of Muslim worshipper presence in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and for activating the resistance, stressing the need for the PA to lift its grip on the Palestinian resistance so it can defend the Palestinian people and protect the sanctities.

July 26, 2015

PRESS RELEASE
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Comrade Mohammed Toman, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said that “the continuing [Palestinian Authority] security prosecutions of resistance fighters and militants in the West Bank is unacceptable ethically and nationally.”

Speaking on behalf of the National and Islamic Forces, Toman noted that “the Palestinian Authority has not, to this moment, implemented the decision of the PLO Central Council, demanding an end to security coordination with the occupation. Coordination between the security forces and the occupation are continuing until this moment. In order to confront the actions of the occupier against the Palestinian people in the West Bank, and most recently, the construction of new colonies, security coordination must be ended immediately. Instead, it is time to complete the Palestinian reconciliation and implement signed agreements among the Palestinian factions for national unity and struggle.”

“Palestinian reconciliation is not primarily about a government being formed, but the framework of the new provisional leadership of the PLO, representing all Palestinian factions, must come together to develop a clear political vision to serve the aspirations and needs of the Palestinian people,” said Toman.

Edited from a UNISPAL Press Release

Palestinian workers lining up at an Israeli checkpoint to get to work (Photo: CJPP)

At the opening sessions of the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s 2015 Coordination and Management meeting on 20 July, the Council adopted a resolution on “Economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan”, by a vote of 42 in favour to 2 against (Australia, United States) with 2 abstentions (Honduras, Panama).

Overview

TARIK ALAMI, Director of the Emerging and Conflict Related Issues Section of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), said Israeli policies and practices continued to violate international human rights and humanitarian law, as well as the right to self-determination and the principle of non-discrimination. Its 51-day offensive against Gaza in July 2014 had led to an unprecedented loss of life and had triggered concerns about war crimes. Palestinians lived under harsh military rule and Israel had created two separate legal systems in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians. In addition, Israel had de facto exiled some 250,000 Palestinians from their land, including 14,000 from East Jerusalem. Read more »

PRESS RELEASE
Hamas & Islamic Jihad

Falah Abu Maria, 52, lies in hospital after his murder early on Thursday

The Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad held the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the cold-blooded murder of the 52 year old Palestinian citizen Falah Abu Maria, who was shot in the chest as Israeli occupation forces stormed his house.

In a joint statement on Thursday the two movements stated: “We mourn the martyred hero Falah Hamdi Zamel Abu Maria, 52 years, who was martyred today at dawn in the Hebron town of Beit Ummar.”

Both movements held the Israeli occupation responsible for the life of Abu Maria’s son, Mohammed, who was injured with two bullets in the pelvis, and was arrested while bleeding.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad affirmed the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves, and to respond to the Occupation’s crimes by all available means, and called for mass participation in the martyr’s funeral.

Press Release – International Solidarity Movement

U.S. State Department Urges Israel to refrain from demolishing Palestinian village, Susiya in the West Bank. Fears a deterioration in standard of policy of indigenous displacement. Read more »

Press Release – Leslie Bravery

It is one year now since Israel’s brutal Operation Protective Edge blitz all butobliterated much of the defenceless Gaza Strip. The 50-day assault was yet another tragic human rights outrage among countless other violations of international law perpetrated … Read more »

Press Release – Palestinian Liberation Organisation

PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi met with Swedish Consul General Ann-Sofie Nilsson at the PLO Headquarters in Ramallah. Read more »

Press Release – Palestinian Liberation Organisation

In separate meetings, Dr. Ashrawi calls on the international community not to put Palestine on the back burner Read more »

Press Release – Womenmedia Representative

The 8th of July marked one year since the terrorist state of Israel began its merciless onslaught entitled, Operation: Protective Edge against the defenceless, innocent Muslims of Gaza which left over 2,200 dead, including around 550 children … Read more »

Article – Franklin Lamb

Several credible reports this week from Palestinian refugees in Syria and Europe, the latter among those who by various means managed to escape the Syrian conflict with their lives, illustrate the increasing pressure and dangers Palestinians are … Read more »

PRESS STATEMENT
Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, issued the following statement on the first anniversary of the criminal Zionist assault on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip:

Today, we face the first anniversary of the racist, genocidal war waged by the fascist enemy against the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, on top of eight lean years of siege and starvation, assuming that those years had exhausted Gaza and forced her people to their knees. The people delivered a frank and compelling answer, that the people of Palestine – in Gaza and everywhere else they are – are unbreakable, resisting and strong. Read more »

Article – Redress Information

Marianne Azizi writes: You may remember the story of Fanny Vadkin whose five-year-old son was taken from her by the Israeli authorities. Read more »

Press Release – Center for Political Development Studies – CPDS

Abstract: Palestinian freedom prisoner Samy Younis, freed from the occupation jails, died at the age of 84. Younis spent 28 years in Israeli jails and was finally freed as part of the prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel. Read more »

Article – Redress Information

Marianne Azizi writes: I met with Yadidya in a coffee shop in Tel Aviv. As with most trapped foreign nationals, he was still in shock that this could be happening to him. We sat down for a coffee, and he tells me his story. The big questions are: … Read more »

Article – Redress Information

The Israeli government believes it is locked in an epic struggle to save Israel from the growing movement calling for an international boycott. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu warns that Israel must quickly rebrand itself to avoid pariah status. … Read more »