[News] Isolation of Sa'adat continued - Call from Occupied Palestine to the Occupy Movement

[Anti-Imperialist News]

<http://freeahmadsaadat.org/1027takeaction.html>Take<http://freeahmadsaadat.org/1027takeaction.html> 
Action - Isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat continued in violation of promise 
to prisoners

<http://freeahmadsaadat.org/1027takeaction.html>A Call from Occupied 
Palestine to the Occupy Movement


  <http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/>The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
www.freeahmadsaadat.org + info at freeahmadsaadat.org
Twitter:<http://twitter.com/freeahmadsaadat>http://twitter.com/freeahmadsaadat

October 27, 2011

Only one week after promising Palestinian political prisoners that 
isolation would end and that all prisoners in isolation would be 
returned to the general population, in order to convince those 
prisoners to end their hunger strike, Israeli authorities have 
announced their intention to continue the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat 
for at least one more year.

As reported by the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights 
Association, an Israeli court in Bir Saba issued a ruling on October 
27, 2011 to extend the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat for an additional 
year. Ahmad Sa'adat has already been held in isolation for over two 
and one-half years. His release from isolation was a key demand of 
Palestinian prisoners' recent hunger strike - and was promised to 
them one week ago.

The ruling, which was based on secret evidence like all such rulings, 
dates back to August 8 but was not released until today; Ahmad 
Sa'adat was not accompanied by lawyers in the hearing.

<http://freeahmadsaadat.org/oct18hospital.html>The prison 
administration had promised to end isolation following Palestinian 
prisoners' hunger strike. This decision is tantamount to torture - 
and a direct violation of the agreement with Palestinian prisoners to 
end their hunger strike, which had drawn the eyes of the world to 
their struggle.

20 Palestinian prisoners remain in isolation, despite the strike's 
suspension on October 17. Israel had promised that they would be 
released from isolation immediately following the release of 477 
prisoners in a prisoner exchange agreement - however, Israel's prison 
administration has acted in complete violation of its word.

On October 18, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez called in 
the UN General Assembly for all use of isolation longer than 15 days 
to be banned, saying that isolation can cause "severe mental pain or 
suffering" and "can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading 
treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pre-trial 
detention, indefinitely or for a prolonged period...Segregation, 
isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, supermax, the hole, secure 
housing unit... whatever the name, solitary confinement should be 
banned by states as a punishment or extortion technique."

The punishment, isolation and extortion of Ahmad Sa'adat for his 
ongoing courage and commitment as a leader of Palestinian prisoners 
and the Palestinian people must end. International action and 
solidarity is necessary!

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat reprints the following call 
received from activists in Palestine:

A Call from Occupied Palestine to the Occupy Movement - From occupied 
Palestine, from our occupied lands, from our camps of refuge, from 
the prisons of torture and the prisoners of freedom, from our stolen 
lands, our chained borders, our demolished homes and our revolution, 
our commitment, our struggle for freedom:

For us, the word occupation has always stood for colonialism, land 
theft, genocide, dispossession, and death. It is a word and a concept 
we have fought to bring to an end for over sixty years. Yet the 
Occupy movement that has arisen in public squares, in cities and 
towns around the world, from the centre of imperialism in the US, 
Wall Street itself, is an occupation that can serve as a source of 
hope for liberation, for decolonization, for an end to the racist 
occupation of our homeland.

Seeing the youth of the West in the streets rejecting the brutal 
consequences of the system of imperialism and capitalism once more, 
we salute you, we stand with you, and we call: "Occupy Wall Street, 
Liberate Palestine!"

Our political prisoners stood steadfast through three weeks of hunger 
strike and have today been confronted by yet one more lie, another 
broken promise on the heap of lies and broken promises of the 
occupier - rather than our prisoners being freed from isolation, they 
are remaining in isolation. Ahmad Sa'adat, Palestinian national 
leader, having already spent two and a half years in solitary 
confinement, is slapped with yet one more year.

We call upon you to make it clear that despite solitary confinement, 
Ahmad Sa'adat and the Palestinian prisoners are not isolated, and are 
part of a global movement and global solidarity. We call upon you to 
raise the voices, the pictures, and the stories of Palestinian 
political prisoners at Occupy Wall Street and all Occupy movement 
events. We, the Palestinian people are also the 99%, those victimized 
by war profiteers, by racism, by imperialism, by displacement and 
genocide. Our thousands of prisoners remain in the prisons of the 
illegal, illegitimate occupier.

Raise their voices among yours, and stand together for the liberation 
of Wall Street, Palestine, and all of our oppressed and stolen land and people!


Take Action!

1. Picket, protest or call 
<http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Diplomatic+missions/Web+Sites+of+Israeli+Missions+Abroad.htm>the 
Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the 
immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political 
prisoners. Make it clear that you expect the demands of Palestinian 
prisoners on hunger strike to be immediately implemented, including 
an immediate end to the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat!  Send us reports 
of your protests at Israeli embassies and consulates.

2. Bring the struggle of Palestinian prisoners to Occupy protests, as 
will happen in New York City on Friday, October 28 
(<http://www.existenceisresistance.org/archives/1176>Existence is 
Resistance Kuffeya Day) and has happened in 
<http://freeahmadsaadat.org/ijan107.html>New York, Chicago and San 
Francisco. Download and distribute 
the<http://freeahmadsaadat.org/flyer-as.pdf>flyer, hold a rally or 
teach-in and express solidarity.

3. Distribute the <http://freeahmadsaadat.org/flyer-as.pdf>free 
downloadable Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat flyer in your community 
at local events.

4. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other 
human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act 
swiftly to demand that the prisoners' demands are implemented. Email 
the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the 
conditions of prisoners, at 
<mailto:JER_jerusalem at icrc.org>JER_jerusalem at icrc.org, and inform 
them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa'adat. Make it clear that 
isolation is a human rights violation, a form of torture, and that 
Palestinian prisoners were coerced into stopping their hunger strike 
with false promises of the recognition of their rights, and that the 
ICRC must stand up and play its role to defend prisoners' rights.

5. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at 
<mailto:info at freeahmadsaadat.org>info at freeahmadsaadat.org with 
announcements, reports and information about your local events, 
activities and flyer distributions.
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat

<http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/>http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/

<mailto:info at freeahmadsaadat.org>info at freeahmadsaadat.org

Twitter:<http://twitter.com/freeahmadsaadat>http://twitter.com/freeahmadsaadat



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