[Pnews] Fashioning Hope Dispatch - Newsletter on Palestinian Prisoners

[Prisoner News]

The Fashioning Hope Dispatch is a newsletter created by members of a new 
network cultivating solidarity with Palestinian women prisoners.

	
JOIN THE NETWORK <http://bit.ly/fhnetwork>

This newsletter is created by members of the Fashioning Hope Network for 
Palestinian Women Prisoners, in collaboration with Addameer Prisoner 
Support and Human Rights Association <https://www.addameer.org/>. The 
purpose is to strengthen awareness of the role that Palestinian 
prisoners play in the resistance movement with a focus on women 
prisoners whose stories, viewpoints and commitments are often invisible. 
It will also link the struggle to free Palestinian prisoners with the US 
prison abolition movement and the fight for gender justice.


Its title is inspired by “Fashioning Hope out of Despair,” a chapter 
written by Palestinian leader Khalida Jarrar in the book Our Vision for 
Liberation. 
<https://www.shoppalestine.org/products/our-vision-for-liberation?srsltid=AfmBOorzAg_V39Rb5dKrMms5j2x6Z4_yJvsWuNLeSMyX9CFvAUwBcGll>*Please 
send news or information you’d like featured in future issues and feel 
free to share widely. We especially welcome contributions from people 
living inside of prisons.*


Find messages of hope that are being shared with comrades in Palestine 
in the Fashioning Hope Out of Despair online altar 
<https://padlet.com/photoscourtneyjade/fashioning-hope-out-of-despair-xew3ewijrhvxqj0z>, 
and contribute your own messages! With support from Crisis Translation 
comrades, we hope the altar will be translated into Arabic soon.


We have created a collective Google group for the Network that you can 
use to share information about Palestinian prisoners. If you haven't yet 
signed up you can join here. <https://bit.ly/friendsnetwork>

*Fashioning Hope from the */*Long View of Palestinian History*/ 
<https://english.palinfo.com/authors/ramzy-baroud/>*by Ramzy Baroud*

*Palestinian female prisoners in occupation prisons: harsh conditions 
and inhumane living standards!*

Palestinian women prisoners continue to face deteriorating conditions 
<https://www.addameer.org/news/5423>. They have been denied medical care 
and are increasingly living without access to adequate cleaning 
supplies, leading to the spread of lice and fungal infections. The food 
quality is poor and the quantity of food is too low. Increasing arrest 
campaigns have led to cramped cells that are frequently raided. 
Detainees are subject to strip searches and prohibited from family visits.

*Addameer shares data on arrest campaigns since the beginning of 
Israel’s genocide*

As Israel has carried out genocide over the people in Gaza and most 
recently Lebanon, over 11,000 Palestinians have been arrested in the 
West Bank and Jerusalem since October 7, 2023. This includes over 420 
women and 740 children. There are currently 95 women detained in Damon 
prison, 30 of whom are being held with no charge under administrative 
detention.

According to Addameer and other prisoner organizations 
<https://www.addameer.org/news/5402>, “Accompanying the ongoing arrest 
campaigns are escalating crimes and violations, including severe 
beatings and assaults, threats against detainees and their families, as 
well as widespread destruction and vandalism of citizens' homes, 
confiscation of vehicles, money, and gold jewelry. Additionally, there 
has been extensive destruction targeting infrastructure, particularly in 
the camps of Tulkarm and Jenin, the demolition of homes belonging to the 
families of prisoners, and the use of family members as hostages, 
alongside the use of detainees as human shields.”

38 of the confirmed 40 prisoners who have been martyred in custody have 
had their bodies withheld by Israel. There are also dozens of 
unidentified prisoners in Gaza who have been martyred while detailed in 
prisons and camps. These figures do not include the number of people who 
have been subject to field executions. Read the statement issued by 
Prisoner Institutions regarding the case of Gaza detainees and martyred 
prisoners <https://www.addameer.org/news/5400>.

While firm data about the number of arrest cases from Gaza are not 
available, Israel confirmed it has detained more than 4,500 Gazans.

*Free Khalida Jarrar!*

Palestinian feminist, scholar and leader Khalida Jarrar has been held in 
solitary confinement in Israeli prisons for over two months. She has 
been arrested several times and is most recently being held under 
administrative detention without charge since December 26, 2023. Jarrar 
has endured living in a tiny overheated cell without fresh air and only 
space for one mattress. She is targeted because of her history of 
educating women and girls while being incarcerated and the title of this 
newsletter is inspired by her words in the essay Fashioning Hope out of 
Despair where she teaches us that “hope in prison is like a flower that 
grows out of stone.” Amplify the demands of her immediate release and 
sign onto the Palestinian Feminist Collective’s statement. 
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeiom3mgxB0Wdw6ZnD59PcnA0sQXPzjmJLCGFVK1_ZWGzf8Bw/viewform>

*Palestinian feminists & human rights activists detained *

/Abla Sa’adat/

/Tahreer Jaber/

As part of their escalating reign of terror in the West Bank, Israeli 
forces arrested Palestinian human rights and feminist leaders from their 
homes in mid-September. Abla Sa’adat, a progressive feminist and the 
wife of Ahmad Sa’adat, who is currently imprisoned, was forcibly taken 
from her home in Al-Bireh. IOF forces also raided the home of Tahreer 
Jaber, a human rights defender, feminist activist, and member of the 
General Union of Palestinian Women. After the arrests, the Union of 
Palestinian Women’s Committees stated, “we call on all freedom fighters, 
both in Palestine and globally, to launch solidarity campaigns with 
Palestinian female prisoners and all of our nation’s activists until 
they are liberated.”

*Increased targeting of pregnant detainees*

In mid-October, the occupation arrested a woman named Afnan while she 
was in her last week of pregnancy. Afnan was released after two days and 
forced to pay a fine. Afnan is the third pregnant woman who has recently 
been detained. The other two, Jihad and Aisha, were detained for longer 
and periods prevented from receiving adequate nutrition or prenatal 
health care during their imprisonment. Both were also released shortly 
before giving birth, forced to pay fines and now face ongoing trials and 
strict conditions.

*Medical neglect heightens risk for ill prisoners*

Another case of ongoing medical neglect is that of Shaymaa, a detainee 
whose medical condition requires a special diet. She has been prevented 
from receiving the diet that she needs and her weight is now alarmingly 
at 88 lbs. Shaymaa’s case is similar to a male detainee who also 
suffered from a medical condition that required a special diet. That 
detainee was one of the first to be killed in the prisons since October 
7th and he passed away as a result of not being provided with his diet.

*Voices of Gazan detainees outline extreme conditions and torture*

*“Afterward, they placed us in animal cages with small, pointed stones 
on the ground. They threw us onto the stones, causing us to hit and 
injure ourselves. The weather was very cold because the cage was made of 
open mesh with a tin roof. We asked for blankets to protect us from the 
cold, but they refused and didn't allow us to use the bathroom on the 
first day. When they first put us in the cage, soldiers (both male and 
female) came in and beat us with their hands and feet, continuing to 
come in and beat us at any time throughout the day. Even my grandmother 
was beaten, and they showed no regard for her age.”*


/-Testimony from a female detainee and minor from Gaza/


*Find more testimonies and analysis in Addameer’s Update on the 
Conditions and Torture Violations Commtiteed Against Gazan Detainees 
<https://www.addameer.org/sites/default/files/publications/GF%20Submission.pdf>

*SUMUD: Resistance Until Liberation Mural*

The SUMUD: Resistance Until Liberation mural project is a collaboration 
between artists and activists in the U.S. and Palestine that explores 
and confronts the deep interconnections between the brutal systems of 
imprisonment in the U.S. and Palestine. The mural will serve as a 
demonstration of the Palestinian Liberation Movement’s vibrancy and a 
memorialization of this historical moment in our struggle globally and 
locally.

*Sumud is an Arabic word meaning the steadfast will to survive, endure, 
and remain connected to the land.

The California Coalition for Women Prisoners and the Palestinian 
Feminist Collective collaborated to design the "These Chains Will be 
Broken - Free All Women Prisoners - Free Them All!" spoon within the 
mural (center photo below) which features Fatima Bernawi, the 
Palestinian freedom fighter and first documented female political prisoner.

*Learn more about this mural and all of the collaborative murals at 
https://www.sumudmuraloakland.org 
<https://www.sumudmuraloakland.org/there-is-no-free-homeland-without-free-women>

	

	

*Recap of Fashioning Hope Out of Despair: Honoring Palestinian Women 
Prisoners and All Palestinian Prisoners event*

On October 1, over 70 people from across California and out of state 
(Georgia, Minnesota, Texas, etc.) took the time to contribute, show up, 
and honor Palestinian women prisoners, and the role and contributions of 
Palestinian prisoners overall in the liberation movement. There was a 
powerful sense of unity and interconnectedness in who showed up to this 
event: those on the frontlines of Palestinian resistance here in the US, 
organizers fighting policing and imprisonment, language justice 
advocates, our siblings focused on trans liberation and gender justice, 
and political prisoners and those supporting them. The poetry, art, and 
messages from currently incarcerated people were particularly moving. 
Thank you again to our co-sponsors who made this gathering possible.


/To contact the folks who put together this newsletter:/

/fashioninghopenetwork at gmail.com <mailto:fashioninghopenetwork at gmail.com>/


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