[Ppnews] What Palestinian political prisoners are fighting for

Political Prisoner News ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Tue Mar 20 15:54:27 EDT 2012


What Palestinian political prisoners are fighting for
Ameer Makhoul

Gilboa Prison
20 March 2012
http://electronicintifada.net/content/what-palestinian-political-prisoners-are-fighting/11076


The case of the freedom fighter Khader Adnan 
reminds us of where the strength of the 
Palestinian people lies. This is the strength 
that was squandered and dissipated in the Oslo 
process and the pursuit of a state at the expense of national liberation.

With his historic hunger strike and his heroic 
resolve in his fight against the occupying state, 
Adnan has reaffirmed an important principle of 
resistance to colonialist regimes: when the 
people, or individuals, who are their victims 
remain resolute, the world will react. Sympathy 
turns into solidarity, and that in turn can 
nurture a growing movement of support for the 
struggle which is capable of shaking the foundations of the colonialist system.

His case has also confirmed the fact that the 
colonizer’s agencies can never protect its 
victim. Its project can only be defeated by 
breaking the dominance of those agencies and the rules they enforce.

Adnan’s battle for life and dignity is a model to 
be emulated in the Palestinian liberation 
struggle. It has lessons to offer the 
participants in that struggle, including 
prisoners and international solidarity activists, 
on how their work can be integrated.
Campaign of defiance

Adnan seized the initiative and declared an 
open-ended hunger strike to protest against his 
imprisonment under an administrative detention 
order. His aim was clear: to defy both the order 
and the Israeli system of oppression. He also was 
seeking to serve notice that Palestinians refuse 
to accept the treatment meted out to them by the occupation authorities.

The campaign he triggered illustrated how the 
components of popular struggle can be brought 
together. Inspired by the prisoner’s 
determination, Palestinians in the 1948 
territories responded quickly. A popular media 
and mobilization campaign was rapidly launched, 
both locally and internationally. A variety of 
youth and other grassroots organizations became 
immediately involved, as did prisoners’ families and political groups.

This activism soon spread to the West Bank, Gaza 
Strip and Jerusalem. It also spread among the 
Palestinian diaspora and spawned a formidable worldwide movement.

Prisoners in Israeli jails also launched a 
campaign to champion, support and share the 
responsibility with Adnan. They adopted the 
principles of organized collective escalation, 
which began by rejecting meals and refusing to 
receive supplies (the prison authorities 
responded by closing off the open-air courtyards 
and preventing the prisoners from leaving their 
cells). Growing numbers also declared open-ended hunger strikes.
Israel’s weak link

The prisoners knew that their battle was not with 
the prison authorities per se, but the occupation 
state as a system, with all its extensions and 
institutions. But the prison authorities were the 
weak link within the security apparatus on which 
pressure could be applied. The prisoners thus 
sent a message to the government of Israel that 
Adnan speaks for them all and warned of the 
consequences of endangering his life.

The prison authorities in turn urged the 
government to resolve Adnan’s case as quickly as 
possible in order to forestall the growing unrest 
among the prisoners. In effect, the prisoners’ message was received.

The Israeli security apparatus was extremely 
worried when the hunger strike continued and 
Adnan’s condition became critical. They were not 
concerned for his life, but feared his death 
could help trigger a new Palestinian intifada, 
including in the 1948 territories.

The strategy of rapid, multi-faceted action 
proved its effectiveness. In addition to 
Palestinian action, a major and influential role 
was played by international solidarity movements. 
This pressure, coupled with fear of what would 
happen if there was an explosion of Palestinian 
anger, prompted even the US and European 
countries to make statements in the last few days 
of the hunger strike against the administrative detention of Adnan.

One of the major strengths of the campaign to 
support Adnan was that it told his personal human 
story, as well as of his life in politics and his 
struggle, in a manner that successfully conveyed 
both his suffering and his resolve. Adnan’s story 
also embodied the essence of the Palestinians’ 
experience and their quest for their rights and 
freedom, and serve to expose Israel’s essence for what it really is.

This was more effective at moving people than 
mere facts and figures — important as they are — 
could have been. The main part in the drama was 
played by the prisoner himself. Adnan’s family, 
wife, father and children also played heroic roles.
Bankruptcy of “moderation”

This battle highlighted the bankruptcy of the 
discourse of “moderation” which Israel and the US 
have foisted on the official Palestinian 
leadership. This moderate stance claims that if 
we Palestinians wish to secure international 
support, we must adopt a moderate posture. In 
practice, this means voluntarily accepting the 
oppressive controls imposed by the globalized 
terror of the state. “Moderation” here means 
abandoning the right to resist the occupying state.

Yet what we have just witnessed is that the world 
lends support when Palestinians themselves fight 
back and stand firm, regardless of their 
political affiliation. The ability to affect and 
move international public opinion and secure 
effective wide-scale solidarity was not the 
outcome of a public relations strategy but of a 
real struggle on the ground to stand up to the oppressive colonialist machine.

In all cases when an Israeli administrative 
detention by military order has been legally 
challenged — or an emergency regulations 
provision such as a ban on traveling or entering 
the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 — the 
Israeli high court has always upheld the policies 
of the military, security and intelligence services.

What happens in court is that the judge asks the 
Palestinian challenging the order, whether he is 
an Israeli citizen or not, to authorize the 
Israeli judges to see the “secret evidence” which 
the victims and their lawyers are not allowed to 
see or know. If the victim agrees, the judges 
rule on the basis of the “secret evidence” and 
invariably agree with the finding of the security 
agencies, normally issued in the name of a 
relevant minister or military leader.

Should the victim refuse to trust in the honesty 
or credibility of the occupying state, the legal 
challenge is in effect over, as the judges will 
throw it out and blame the victim for its failure.
Dangerous notions

During the Adnan campaign, a number of 
Palestinian political leaders, human rights 
activists and media outlets used the argument 
that if Israel had any evidence against Adnan, it 
should have brought him before an ordinary court. 
Others have suggested that the success of his 
campaign should inspire a new one against the use 
of administrative detention orders in general.

These are dangerous notions, particularly when 
coming from people of standing and influence. 
Israel is an occupying state and a colonialist 
entity. Even international law protects the 
victims of occupation and prohibits their 
transfer to prisons within the borders of the 
occupying state. Therefore, both administrative 
detention and the “ordinary” occupation prisons are equally illegal.

Moreover, what is “evidence” supposed to mean 
here? Evidence of resisting the occupation? 
Resisting the occupation is legitimate: it is the 
Israeli occupation and colonization, with its 
settlements and courts, that are illegitimate. 
Have the thousands of Palestinian and Arab 
prisoners in Israeli jail been legitimately 
sentenced? They have all been tried on “evidence” 
that is mainly secret and neither they nor their lawyers are allowed to see.

There is another factor. Israeli academic studies 
have proven unequivocally the scale of scandalous 
discrimination in the sentences handed down by 
judges in criminal cases. The sentences given to 
Palestinian citizens of Israel are much harsher 
than those given to Jewish Israeli convicts. So 
what can one expect when the judge representing 
the occupying state adjudicates on a charge of 
resistance by victims of this occupation?
Our battle

The real concern for the people under occupation 
is not whether the detention of their sons or 
daughters was carried out using an Israeli 
administrative order or a military or civilian 
court order. The oppression, repression and 
plunder are the same no matter which tool the 
occupation uses. Adnan’s battle is a fight 
against the whole colonialist project and not just one of its tools.

But when Palestinian leaders and human rights 
activists declare that the next step is to 
escalate the campaign against administrative 
detention orders, it indicates weakness or faulty vision.

The battle against Israeli emergency laws is a 
battle for the Israelis, not for the Palestinian 
people. The battle for the Palestinians, and all 
in the world who oppose occupation and 
colonialism, is against the occupation and the 
occupying state, and for national liberation, 
recovery of the homeland and the return of its 
people who are refugees and exiles.

The case of Adnan proves that victory over the 
colonialist project is not a mission impossible. 
It is possible. And it has renewed and 
strengthened the hope that the Palestinian people 
are capable of energizing their free will — the will for victory.

Ameer Makhoul is a Palestinian civil society 
leader and political prisoner at Gilboa Prison.

This article is co-published by Al Akhbar English and translated from Arabic.




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