[Ppnews] Addameer, PHRI won’t confirm Hana Shalabi ends hunger strike

[Political Prisoner News]

2 articles follow

Addameer, PHRI won’t confirm Hana Shalabi ends 
hunger strike, warn of coercion in banishment deal
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Fri, 03/30/2012 - 02:33
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/addameer-phri-wont-confirm-hana-shalabi-ends-hunger-strike-warn-coercion

Just after 2AM Palestine local time, or around 
7PM US East Coast time, Addameer, the Palestinian 
prisoner’s rights group, issued this important 
statement in Arabic via Facebook and in English 
on its website regarding Hana al-Shalabi, the 
Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger 
strike for more than 40 days against her 
detention without charge or trial by Israel.

The statement followed reports by Ma’an News 
Agency, the BBC and other outlets, that Shalabi 
had ended her hunger strike as part of a deal 
which would see her banished from the West Bank 
to the Gaza Strip for three years.
Official English version of Addameer/PHRI statement

Addameer and PHR-Israel Cannot Yet Confirm That 
Hana Shalabi Has Ended Her Hunger Strike

     Joint Statement, Addameer Prisoner Support 
and Human Rights Association and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel

     Ramallah-Jaffa, 29 March 2012- In response 
to this evening’s reports in the media that Hana 
Shalabi has ended her hunger strike on its 43rd 
day and agreed to a deal in which she will be 
deported to Gaza for three years, Addameer and 
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) 
cannot yet confirm this news. Addameer’s lawyers 
were deliberately denied access to Ms. Shalabi 
today and PHR-Israel’s doctor has been denied 
access to her tomorrow. Her family has also been 
denied permission to visit her.

     Addameer and PHR-Israel are first and 
foremost concerned about Ms. Shalabi’s health. 
Addameer and PHR-Israel are further concerned 
that her medical condition and the high danger on 
her life were used in order to threaten her to 
take the sole option of being deported.

     Addameer and PHR-Israel are against this 
form of forcible deportation, which is not only 
illegal under international law, as clearly 
stated in the Fourth Geneva Convention, but is 
also part of an Israeli policy that is not new; 
Israel has systematically made agreements in 
which Palestinians are deported from their homes 
and separated from their loved ones.

     Addameer and PHR-Israel are working hard to 
receive confirmation about Ms. Shalabi’s 
condition and will release a more comprehensive 
analysis of today’s events shortly.

Earlier Electronic Intifada rush translation of Arabic version

The Arabic statement is rush-translated by The Electronic Intifada:

     Addameer and Physicians for Human Rights 
cannot confirm end of Hana Shalabi’s hunger strike

     Regarding what has appeared in the media 
this evening regarding the prisoner Hana Shalabi 
ending her hunger strike on its 43rd day, and her 
agreement to a deal that would include banishing 
her to Gaza for three years, Addameer and 
Phyisicians for Human Rights - Israel [PHRI] 
cannot confirm this news as of this moment, given 
that Addameer’s attorney was prevented from 
visiting her today, just as physicians have been 
prevented from visiting her tomorrow. She is also 
forbidden from receiving family visits.

     Addameer and PHRI, first and foremost, are 
gravely concerned over the health of Shalabi, and 
are afraid that her critical health condition and 
the danger to her life were causes of pressure 
and threat to accept the only choice which was banishment to the Gaza Strip.

     Addameer and PHRI oppose this kind of 
compulsory banishment, which is not only against 
international law, and is mentioned clearly in 
the Fourth Geneva Convention, but is also a 
long-standing part of Israel’s policy which it 
has come to rely on - to make deals with 
Palestinians that result in banishing them from their homes and families.

     Addameer and PHRI are working to obtain 
confirmation regarding the condition of Shalabi 
and they will release a more complete analysis of 
the day’s events soon, and they call on media to 
exercise caution and and to verify information before publishing it.
************************************************
In banishment to Gaza, Hana al-Shalabi would face 
Winnie Mandela’s fate and hope
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 21:49
Update: 30 March 2012, 02:40 UTC
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/banishment-gaza-hana-al-shalabi-will-face-winnie-mandelas-fate-and-hope

As of about 2am Palestine local time on 30 March, 
Addameer and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel 
were refusing to confirm that Hana al-Shalabi had 
ended her hunger strike and warned that any 
“deal” to banish her to Gaza could be the result 
of coercion given her grave health situation. The 
groups also stated that such forced banishment 
and exile is forbidden by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Hana al-Shalabi to be banished to Gaza, reports say

In exchange for ending her 43-day hunger strike, 
Hana al-Shalabi, who is being held without charge 
or trial by Israel is to be banished to the Gaza 
Strip, far from her home and family in the West 
Bank village of Burqin, according to media reports.

Ma’an News Agency reported:

     BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – A deal to release 
Palestinian hunger-striker Hana Shalabi to the 
Gaza Strip temporarily was reached late Thursday, 
officials with knowledge of the negotiations told Ma’an.

     The officials say Shalabi will be sent to 
Gaza for three years in exchange for giving up a 
43-day strike against Israel’s policy of holding detainees without charge.

     The Palestinian prisoners society confirmed 
the deal in a statement praising Shalabi’s 
resolve. It expressed its appreciation for her 
efforts to bring attention to Israel’s policies toward prisoners.

The report says that Hana herself made the 
“choice” to accept the deal. But let us be 
honest: Hana was given no real “choice” by her 
Israeli tormentors. She had already spent two 
arduous years in prison without charge or trial, 
and now faced the prospect of months, or perhaps 
years more in so-called “administrative detention.”

Perhaps under those circumstances being banished 
to Gaza far from her family, seemed easier. No 
one who did not live through the agonizing 43 
days of hunger strike that Hana endured, bringing 
her to the edge of death, can decide what is right for her.

Hana will share the fate of Winnie Mandela

When the news of the deal broke, the name of 
another woman immediately came to mind: Winnie 
Madikizela-Mandela. The anti-apartheid fighter, 
and former wife of Nelson Mandela, once shared 
Hana’s fate under the South African apartheid 
regime – banishment to a distant region.

As South African History Online reminds us, on 16 May 1977:

     Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former wife of 
Nelson Mandela, was banished to a dusty Afrikaner 
dominated town of Brandfort in the Free State 
where she was unceremoniously dumped at house 802 
with her youngest daughter, Zinzi. There was no 
running water, no electricity, and the house had 
no floors or ceilings. The town was hostile, and 
the people spoke mainly Sotho, Tswana or 
Afrikaans, and hardly any Xhosa, which was 
Winnie’s home language. Winnie took a provocative 
stance, and would spend hours in the White shops 
empowering the shop-keepers with political 
ideologies. In her banishment order, Winnie was 
given a condition of either leaving South Africa 
for Swaziland or Transkei, which was regarded as 
independent by the South African government. 
However, she chose to remain in South Africa, 
where she continued fighting for the liberation 
of her people and at times arrested for defying her banishment order.

An impossible “choice”

So like Hana, Winnie too was given an impossible 
“choice.” Madikizela-Mandela wrote about the 
night she was arrested in her memoir Part of My Soul Went With Him:

     At about four o’clock in the morning I heard 
a great noise outside–it seemed as if a hail of 
stones were dropping on my house and it sounded 
as if they were falling inside the wall – I’ve 
got this high cement wall around the house in Orlando [Soweto].

     In a fraction of a second there were knocks 
all over, on the doors, on all the windows, bang, 
bang, bang-sounds. You would think they would 
ring the bell – no – simultaneous knocking on the 
door, barking, then I knew what was happening. I 
just took it for granted that I was under arrest. 
I thought as usual they were taking me under Section 6.

     I went and opened the door and of course I 
saw the whole army inside the yard, chaps in 
camouflage carrying guns, and members of the 
Security Branch; they were all heavily armed.

A terrifying night raid, like those that take 
place any night in Palestinian homes across the 
occupied West Bank, and like the one that took Hana from her home.
“A bigger prison”

In 1983, still banished, Madikizela-Mandela gave 
an interview to South African filmmaker Kevin 
Harris, speaking about the “extreme isolation” she felt.

Asked if she believed she would see liberation in 
her lifetime, Madikizela-Mandela said:

     Oh certainly, that I am completely convinced 
of. That is why even exile is so worthwhile 
because I am absolutely certain that we shall 
attain our liberation and even being in exile 
really is a constant reminder of the sickness of 
our society and that we are virtually in prison 
even in our country. Those who are outside prison 
walls are simply in a bigger prison


So Hana too will be moved from Ramle Prison to 
the “bigger prison” of Gaza. But the consolation 
for her is in Winnie Mandela’s words. Liberation 
from Israeli apartheid is certain, and Hana too shall go home a free woman.

A note on terminology

I use the term “banishment” or “internal exile” 
rather than “deportation” to describe Israel’s 
policy of forcing Palestinians from the West Bank 
to go to Gaza. “Deportation” usually denotes when 
a country expels a foreign citizen. Palestinians 
are not foreigners on any inch of Palestine, so 
Israel cannot “deport” them. It can only “exile” 
them outside the country, or “banish” them to 
another part of it. Gaza, of course, is an 
inseparable part of historic Palestine.

In Arabic, the term that is usually used is for 
this Israeli policy is ????? (ib’aad) which means “putting at a distance.”




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20120330/0227cdaf/attachment.htm>