Ex-hunger striker Hana al-Shalabi wants mystery of Gaza banishment deal clarified

April 8, 2012 by Rami Almeghari The Electronic Intifada

Hana al-Shalabi

A week after her banishment to Gaza, Hana al-Shalabi spoke exclusively to The Electronic Intifada. She is currently at al-Quds hospital in Gaza, receiving treatment following her 43-day hunger strike against her detention without charge or trial by Israel that ended with her 1 April banishment to Gaza for three years.

In her comments to The Electronic Intifada, al-Shalabi demanded that her lawyer clarify to her and to the public the controversial circumstances surrounding the deal to send her to Gaza.

Al-Shalabi’s account casts doubt on the claims that it was her “choice” and confirm that she may have received misleading information in order to induce her to accept the deal.

She also revealed that a senior Islamic Jihad prisoner had written to her to tell her that Israel had asked him to urge her to accept deportation, but that he had refused.

Al-Shalabi’s father Yahya al-Shalabi had clashed publicly with Jawad Boulos, her lawyer, in a heated 2 April debate on Nazareth’s Ashams radio over the the deal. Yahya al-Shalabi accused Boulos of misleading the family.

On 29 March, Ma’an News Agency first reported the deal in which al-Shalabi would end her hunger strike in exchange for being banished to Gaza for three years. The report stated:

“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.”

Ma’an added, “Qadoura Fares of the prisoners society said Shalabi agreed to the deal ‘in return for ending her strike and being freed. … We reject deportation, but this is her decision and her own life,’ Fares said.”

According to Ma’an, “Shalabi’s lawyer, Jawwad Boulous, also confirmed the agreement” (“Officials say deal reached to free Hana Shalabi”).

Moreover, prisoner’s rights group Addameer, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, whose lawyers and doctors were denied access to al-Shalabi, expressed great concern that she may have been coerced into accepting the deal, which they consider illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Amnesty International said the deal “could amount to forced deportation” (“Palestinian detainee in Gaza deportation deal should be released to West Bank”).

Al-Shalabi previously spent more than two years without charge or trial in “administrative detention” until she was let go in October 2011 as one of 1,027 Palestinians released by Israel in exchange for an Israeli occupation soldier who had been held as a prisoner in the Gaza Strip.

On 16 February, she was violently rearrested from her family home in the West Bank village of Burqin and once more ordered held without charge or trial.

While Israeli officials attacked her via social media and claimed she was involved in “terrorism” with the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, they refused to charge her with any crime or provide her with an opportunity to defend herself.

The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari interviewed al-Shalabi in the Gaza Strip so she could tell the story of her detention and release deal in her own words.

Rami Almeghari: Please introduce Hana al-Shalabi to our readers.

Hana al-Shalabi: First and foremost, let me greet The Electronic Intifada and all its audience including Palestinians and internationals. My name is Hana al-Shalabi, a resident of Burqin village near the West Bank City of Jenin. I was born in 1982 and I have been placed under administrative detention twice.

RA: What does Palestine mean to you as a Palestinian woman?

HS: Palestine is a symbol for all of us. When I was a child, I began to realize that Palestine is being occupied by a foreign enemy. I belong to a struggling family and I used to see the Israeli military actions against us Palestinians, and therefore I began to be influenced. My family is originally from the northern historical Palestinian city of Haifa and they moved to Jenin after 1948.

RA: What has mainly influenced your personality, that you reached this place in your life?

HS: One of the scenes that has formed my character was that of someone being martryed in front of me while I was walking to my school at the age of six. I do remember well that during the first intifada of 1987 I began to recognize what occupation means.

RA: Have you opted for your path voluntarily?

HS: Yes, I have definitely chosen it myself and I am proud of my path. Hana al-Shalabi is a symbol for struggle and is equal to men in such a struggle.

Arriving in Gaza

RA: How did you feel when you arrived in Gaza?

HS: When I was liberated to Gaza, I was feeling sad as my parents met me briefly at the Israeli Erez [crossing into Gaza]. Meanwhile, I felt so happy to be among my other family in Gaza, especially those belonging to the Islamic Jihad.

RA: How were the conditions, including the hunger strike, inside the prison?

HS: When I was detained in mid-February, I announced my hunger strike and I can tell you that I was fasting before I was detained, in solidarity with the then hunger-striking prisoner Khader Adnan.

RA: How were you treated during your detention and hunger strike?

HS: When I began my hunger strike during detention, the Israeli jailers used to practice psychological pressure on me. For example, they used to tell me that my strike would not work, given the fact that I was the only hunger striker. Also, they placed me in a room with other female prisoners who were not striking or fasting.

In addition, they threatened me that senior prison inmates of mine [other Palestinian political prisoners] would be kept in solitary confinement, unless I stopped the hunger strike.

RA: While you were on hunger strike did you get any information about the support you were receiving from around the world?

HS: I was only able to get news of outside from the prisoners radio station and the Amwaj station and this was while I was being kept in solitary confinement. I did not have enough opportunity to hear such news.

Pressure and “mystery” over banishment deal

RA: Did you feel pressure to accept deportation to Gaza? Did this idea come from the Israelis?

HS: There is a mystery behind this, and I want the lawyers for the Prisoners Society and my lawyer Jawad Boulos, to clarify this to me and to the public. Jawad Boulos told the prisoners’ affairs bodies that Hana wanted to be deported, while he told me personally that the Shabak [the Israeli General Security Service also often known as “Shin Bet”] and the Israeli courts had no option for me, and that they didn’t want me to return to the West Bank and that the only option left is to deport me. Boulos was the last one to visit me, shortly before I was sent to Gaza.

RA: Did you ask to see anyone that the Israelis refused to allow to visit you?

HS: I asked to see the senior Islamic Jihad leader inside the prison, Sheikh Bassam al-Saadi, from whom I received a letter that the enemy [Israel] bargained with him that I was to be deported to Gaza for one year, but al-Saadi refused. Yet Jawad Boulos, my lawyer, agreed to [Israel’s] option that I was to be deported to Gaza for three years.

RA: What advice do you give to young Palestinians?

HS: I address all young men and women in Palestine to further support the prisoners issue by holding or organizing more activities that are aimed at helping lobby until all prisoners are released from the occupation’s prisons. I would like to advise young Palestinian generations to keep up the struggle and never fear Israeli detention. Just be steadfast, just be steadfast and you will eventually win your freedom.

Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.

Hana Shalabi’s Deportation to Gaza is a Violation

Wednesday, 04 April 2012 Palestine News Network

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the deportation of a Palestinian detainee, Hana Shalabi, by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, 01 April 2012, under a deal whose details have not been unveiled. According to reports about the deal, Shalabi would stay in Gaza for three years, and then return to her home in Jenin, in exchange for ending her hunger strike which had lasted for 44 consecutive days.

PCHR believes that the decision to deport Shalabi to Gaza amounts to a forcible deportation, and reminds that deportation of protected persons is prohibited under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention Relative of the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention).

Once she arrived in Gaza, Shalabi was transported to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, and was admitted into the intensive care unit, as her health condition deteriorated consequent to 44 days of hunger strike.

According to representatives of human rights organizations who had visited Shalabi in Hasharon Prison in the north of Israel, where she was detained, her health condition deteriorated and she suffered from pains throughout the body.

IOF arrested Hana Yahia Saber Shalabi, 30, from Bouqin Village near Jenin in the northern West Bank, from her house on 16 February 2012.

She was detained in Hasharon Prison, and was placed under administrative detention for 6 months. She had declared an open hunger strike in protest to re-arresting her by IOF, as she had been released in October 2011 in the context of the prisoners swap between the Palestinian resistance and IOF, after serving two years under administrative detention.

Shalabi's case highlights the conditions of more than 300 Palestinians who are currently placed under administrative detention in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, including the Speaker and 20 Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. These actions are in violation of the right of a detainee to fair trial, including the right to receive appropriate defense and to be informed of charges against him.

Administrative detention is applied by an administrative order only without referring to a court. It is applied under strictly confidential procedures that deprive a detainee and his/her attorney of knowing the charges or evidence against him/her, thus violating their right to provide adequate defense, in violation of the standards of a fair trial.

PCHR expresses utmost concern over the policy of forcible deportation practiced by IOF against Palestinian civilians. PCHR reminds of similar cases that took place recently, including the deportation of 40 Palestinian prisoners to other countries, and 163 others to the Gaza Strip in the context of the prisoners swap deal between Palestinian resistance groups and IOF, under which 1,027 Palestinian prisoners were released, in exchange for the release of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who had been captured by Palestinian resistance groups.

PCHR condemns the deportation of Shalabi by IOF to the Gaza Strip against her will, and:

1. Stresses that forcible deportation if a form of collective punishment and reprisals prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention, particularly Article 49 which prohibits "individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to

that of any other country, occupied or not;"

2. Calls for allowing Hana Shalabi and other Palestinian deportees to return to their homes.

Shalabi To Be Exiled To Gaza Sunday

April 01, 2012 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC

The Ad-Dameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association reported that female detainee, Hana’ Ash-Shalabi, is being exiled to the Gaza Strip, and that the Red Cross is bringing her family to the Erez terminal to see her shortly before she is sent to Gaza.

Once sent to the besieged coastal region, Ash-Shalabi will not be able to see her family, similar to all West Bank detainees who were released from Israeli prisons under the condition that they be sent to Gaza or exiled out of Palestine.

The Israeli act comes in direct violation to International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and all related Human Rights principles and resolution.

On March 30, AMNESTY International made a statement demanding that Ash-Shalabi should be released and allowed to head back home in the West Bank.

“Instead of deporting her to the Gaza Strip, where access to specialized medical care is limited, due to the Israeli blockade and the ongoing fuel crisis which threatens hospitals, she should be released along with other Palestinians held in administrative detention, or promptly charged with a recognizable criminal offense.”, AMNESTY said.

Immediately after being kidnapped by the Israeli army in the West Bank, Ash-Shalabi, 30, Shalabi, 30, conducted a 43-day hunger-strike demanding an end to her illegal detention.

Physicians or Human Rights said that she suffered from impaired thyroid functions, weakness and dizziness, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and that she requires specialized medical attention.

Full AMNESTY press release

Palestinian prisoner ends hunger strike

March 30, 2012 Al Jazeera

Hana Shalabi to be deported to Gaza in deal to end her 43-day protest against her detention without charge by Israel.

Shalabi is one of around 300 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails under administrative detention [Reuters]

Hana Shalabi, a Palestinian woman on hunger strike for 43 days in protest against her detention without charges by Israel, has ended her fast under a deal that will see her deported to Gaza. "Hana Shalabi agreed to end her hunger strike following an agreement with Israeli authorities under which she will be exiled to the Gaza Strip," Issa Qaraqaa, Palestinian prisoner affairs minister, told AFP news agency on Thursday. The Palestinian Prisoners' Club, which tracks detainees in Israeli jails, said Shalabi, a 30-year-old from the West Bank, would have to stay for three years in Gaza. "She had to accept because Israel put pressure on her. But we are totally opposed to all deportation measures," said the minister. Jawwad Boulous, Shalabi's lawyer, said he did not know when the deal might be implemented given her deteriorating health. Confirming the agreement, Israel's military said Shalabi would be deported to Gaza "in the next few days" and that she had promised "to avoid any involvement in terror activity". The Israeli army has described Shalabi as a "global jihad-affiliated operative" who was re-arrested on suspicion that she "posed a threat to the area." But no charges were filed. Last Sunday, an Israeli military court rejected an appeal from Shalabi against a four-month administrative detention order which allowed for her to be held without charge. She had been on hunger strike since her detention on February 16, to protest both her detention without charge and violence she says was inflicted during her arrest. Last week, rights group Amnesty International urged Israel to prosecute or free Shalabi, saying she was "at risk of death”. She was hospitalised on March 19, after 33 days without food, with doctors saying she had lost 14 kg and her pulse was "feeble”. Israel had previously held Shalabi for 25 months but released her in October last year under a prisoner swap deal with the Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza. She was among more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held by Gaza-based groups for more than five years. Shalabi is one of about 300 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails under administrative detention orders, which allow a court to order an individual to be detained for renewable periods of up to six months at a time. Her action followed a hunger strike undertaken by another Palestinian prisoner, Khader Adnan, who also protested his detention. Adnan refused food for 66 days, only agreeing to end his hunger strike after a deal was struck ensuring he would be released at the end of his four-month term. In the wake of his hunger strike, dozens more Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails launched similar protests, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials.

Addameer, PHRI won’t confirm Hana Shalabi ends hunger strike, warn of coercion in banishment deal

March 30, 2012 Electronic Intifada

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.

Inside the home of Hana Shalabi her pain, struggle and absence are deeply felt

March 27, 2012 Electronic Intifada

Palestinian women hold portrait of jailed compatriot Hana Shalabi, a female Palestinian prisoner jailed in Israel, outside the Red Cross building in Gaza City on March 26, 2012.

(Mohammed Asad / APA images)

Hana al-Shalabi is on her 41st day of hunger strike. She may suffer cardiac arrest at any moment. Support around the world is growing, but here in Ramallah, and the West Bank in general, a protest in support of Hana can’t muster up more than a dozen people.

It’s depressing. It doesn’t help to remember that it took Khader Adnan over 50 days on hunger strike before people decided to protest. Some photojournalists have expressed their annoyance at covering protests called for by random persons that end up being a total waste of their time because of the handful of protesters that show up. I won’t get into that nor try to explain the reasons behind the failure of the Palestinian street in supporting their Israeli-held prisoners.

Last week, I went to the northern West Bank village of Burqin and visited the Shalabi family. I ended up interveiwing Hana’s sister Zahra, which was really emotional. The Shalabis are a family of farmers, evidently still grieving for their brother and son Samer who was killed by Israeli warplanes in the family’s field in 2005. The first and inexplicable arrest of Hana in 2009 further added to the grief, and when she was released last October it was like “balm soothing our tormented souls,” as Zahra put it.

Here are some excerpts:

Prior to her release in October, Hana had spent 25 months in prison under administrative detention, which can be renewed every six months.

During the last family visit, Hana informed her mother that she would begin a hunger strike if her detention was renewed for the sixth time. When the prisoners’ deal came out, it was a welcome and joyous surprise.

“We were all filled with immeasurable happiness,” recounts Zahra. “Hana couldn’t believe she was out of prison. We stayed up past midnight on the day she was released, just chatting and laughing so much. She told me stories about life in prison, the types of dinners she’d cook with the other female prisoners, the sanitary conditions of the cells, all in a joking way.”

The four months between October and February were trouble-free days, bursting with dreams and ambitions. Hana loved to socialize and meet with people. She was busy with getting her papers in order to register for university, with her eyes set on enrolling at the American University in Jenin. She wanted to get her driver’s license, and later buy a car. She went on a shopping spree, buying new carpets and curtains for her bedroom, as well as new clothes since she couldn’t stand to wear the ones she owned before her imprisonment. Also she dreamed of getting married and of finding the perfect man to spend the rest of her life with.

On February 16, at 2:30am, Zahra woke up to the sound of unusual noises outside the house. At first, she thought it was a few stray dogs, but then came the unmistakable rumble of an Israeli army jeep. Hana woke up in a frenzy, gasping “The Israelis, the Israelis!” She confusedly thought that the occupation soldiers had come for her brother Ammar, who spent two weeks in prison after the Palestinian Authority arrested him in 2009 on the baseless accusation of weapon possession. The thought of getting rearrested did not cross her mind until the Israeli commander called her name.

“She began jumping around like a caged bird,” Zahra says. “She was panicking, and kept repeating over and over again that she was not going to go with the soldiers because she didn’t do anything.”

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

There are no words left after this. I picture Hana lying in a hospital bed, enduring an incredible amount of physical pain in addition to the taunts of the Israeli soldiers around her, who tell her over and over again that she will not survive, that she is not Khader Adnan, that the world does not care about her, that she will die alone and forgotten.

I don’t want to immortalize her; I just want her to live. The biggest injustice is happening right before our eyes and we are powerless to do anything about it. Relying on those so-called civilized western governments is like leaning on an nonexistent wall.

Free Hana. Save Hana.

Prisoner Group Files Appeal In The Case of Ash-Shalabi

March 27, 2012by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) filed an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court demanding the release of female detainee Hana’ ash-Shalabi who has been on hunger strike for 40 days.

Ash-Shalabi started her hunger strike directly after she was taken prisoner by the army, and is demanding her unconditional release as Israel did not file charges against her.

Head of the Legal Unit at the PPS, Jawad Boulus, stated that he filed the appeal on behalf of Ash-Shalabi after an Israeli Military Court judge rejected an appeal for her release.

He added that the PPS will use all legal venues in Israel, as Tel Aviv is responsible for the abducting of Ash-Shalabi, and her well-being as a political prisoner.

In related news, detainee Amani al-Khandaqji, declared an open-ended hunger strike last Tuesday after she was abducted by the army.

Al-Khandaqji is being held at the Asqalan Prison, and was repeatedly interrogated while her Israeli interrogators were also asking her about her social and political activities, mainly about a prisoner support Facebook page she manages.

DAY 40 URGENT ACTION: FREE HANAA' SHALABI NOW!

March 26, 2012 Al-Awda

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition again appeals to all people
of conscience to take immediate action to help save the life of Palestinian
female political prisoner Hanaa' Al-Shalabi who has been detained by Israeli
authorities without any charge whatsoever. Hanaa' Al-Shalabi lies critically
ill in Israeli detention on day 40 of her hunger strike at the point where
death could come at any moment.

Hanaa' was an "administrative detainee" with NO charge for over 2 years
before she was released in October last year as a part of the Shalit
prisoner swap. She has been refusing food since her recapture on Thursday 16
February 2012 and is now on day 40 of her hunger strike against her renewed
"administrative detention" again with NO charge. Shalabi refused to appear
before the Israeli military court after she was transferred to hasharon
prison . The court sentenced her to administrative detention and has
rejected an appeal for her immediate release.

The Israeli occupation authorities and courts continue to detain
Palestinians under the Emergency Law of 1945, which was in force during the
British Mandate of Palestine. This law allows the Zionist authorities to
detain Palestinians without trial or providing reason, and to repeatedly
extend the term of detention. The Israeli authorities have also ratified
the Unlawful Combatant Law of 2000, which allows the occupation state to
detain Palestinians without charge or disclosure of the term of detention.
There are currently about 290 Palestinian administrative detainees, among
them the chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), a number of
other PLC members, Sheikh Khader Adnan, who recently ended his hunger strike
after 66 days, and Hanaa' Al-Shalabi. Sheikh Khader Adnan is due to be
released on April 17, 2012.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Please join the voices and support around the world to save Hanaa'
Al-Shalabi's life and demand her immediate release from prison!

Write to President Obama and voice your concern and demand that the US
administration intervene for the immediate release of Hanaa' Al-Shalabi from
administrative detention and save her life. You can use the online form at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

Call US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: (202) 647-4000 or Office of Near
East Affairs: (202) 647-7209. Demand that the Secretary intervene for the
immediate release of Hanaa' Al-Shalabi from administrative detention.

Organize rallies.

Help spread awareness through social media and to all your contacts after
you take action!

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the largest
network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to Palestinian human
rights. We are a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable
501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of
the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC
are tax-deductible. To donate, please go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the instructions. To become a
member, go to http://al-awda.org/membership.html

Israel exploits Toulouse murders to justify no-charge jailing of hunger striker Hana al-Shalabi

March 25, 2012 Electronic Intifada

Badia al-Shalabi, mother of hunger striking prisoner Hana al-Shalabi.

(Ayman Nobani / APA images)

What does the spokesman of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do when his propaganda efforts fail to conceal Israel’s abuses of Palestinians? He uses the blood of Jewish children murdered in the French city of Toulouse last week to try to blot them out. This is low, even for Israeli official propaganda.

Since 16 February – when Israeli occupation forces violently seized her from her home in the West Bank village of Burqin – Hana al-Shalabi has been on hunger strike because she has no other way to resist the injustice Israel is inflicting on her and her family.

Now into her 38th day without food, and after severe deterioration in her health, doctors warn that she is at risk of “immediate death.”

Yet Hana al-Shalabi, who had already spent more than two years in Israeli jails without charge or trial, has still not been charged with any crime. During her current and previous detention she has faced severe abuse at the hands of Israeli authorities.

No wonder Amnesty Interational issued a statement yesterday reminding us that:

Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the Israeli authorities to release Hana Shalabi and other Palestinians held in administrative detention, unless they are promptly charged with internationally recognizable criminal offences and tried in accordance with international fair trial standards.

Amnesty noted that Hana is one of “more than 300 Palestinians, including more than 20 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, [who] are currently being held in administrative detention.”

None of them have been charged with any crime – even under Israel’s military kangaroo court system.

Israeli official uses Toulouse murders to justify detention, mistreatment of Hana al-Shalabi

But today, Ofir Gendelman, one of Netanyahu’s official spokesmen tweeted, “#HanaShalabi is in custody because she planned to murder Jews, just like the murderer in #Toulouse. People who defend her:is this your hero?”

@ofirgendelman
Ofir Gendelman #HanaShalabi is in custody because she planned to murder Jews, just like the murderer in #Toulouse. People who defend her:is this your hero?
Mar 24 via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply

Just like that. Hana has not been charged with a crime, has no opportunity to defend herself, is near death, and yet Israel’s official propagandists accuse her of planning “murder” and compare her to Mohamed Merah the Frenchman who killed three paratroopers, and three children and an adult.

It is a sign that the global solidarity with Hana al-Shalabi and other political prisoners is making Israel desperate. Gendelman’s use of Merah’s crimes to justify Israel’s abuses of Hana al-Shalabi’s rights is exploitive, opportunistic and simply depraved.

Hiding behind children

Merah had reportedly said that his murder of the Jewish children in Toulouse was to avenge Israel’s frequent killings of Palestinian children. No decent person could ever accept this.

Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian member of the Knesset, put it best when he called the killings a “vile crime” and said “The Palestinian people do not need those who shoot children to protect them. Enough!”

Let us now hope that no one believes Gendelman’s claim that Israel’s massive and ruthless abuses of Palestinian rights are being carried out in the name of completely innocent Jewish children around the world.

If Israel had any evidence against Hana al-Shalabi why did it not charge her with a crime during the two years it held her from September 2009 to October 2011 (when she was released as part of the prisoner swap Israel negotiated with Hamas)? Why hasn’t it charged her now?

That’s the question that all of Gendelman’s inflammatory and cynical propaganda cannot hide.

Lawyer: Court rejects appeal for Hana Shalabi

March 26, 2012 Ma'an News Agency

A woman holds a placard depicting prisoner Hana Shalabi during a rally in
support of her hunger strike as well as calling for the release of Palestinian
prisoners held in Israeli jails, in front of Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City
March 24, 2012. (REUTERS/Ammar Awad)

JENIN (Ma’an) -- Ofer military court on Sunday rejected a legal appeal for administrative detainee Hana Shalabi, a lawyer from the Prisoners Society said.

Jawad Bulus told Ma'an that a secretary from the Israeli military court informed him the judge rejected his appeal against Shalabi's detention without trial.

The judge, after reviewing Shalabi's case, said that there are grounds to continue holding her as she is a threat to Israel's security.

Bulus said that he will petition against the decision, which he described as unfair and oppressive. Prisoner Society director Qadura Fares said he was not surprised by the decision, as Israeli courts have never treated Palestinian prisoners fairly.

Shalabi, from the village of Burqin, is being held in "administrative detention," a category in the Israeli legal system which permits imprisoning suspects for six months at a time without charge.

On Thursday, Boulos said Shalabi was in a critical condition.

Bill ban Esveld, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, says Israel is violating Shalabi's rights.

"After previously imprisoning her without charge for more than two years, Israel is again violating Hana Shalabi's basic due process rights," van Esveld said. "If it lacks the evidence to charge her with any crime, as seems to be the case, it should release her immediately.

Israeli Prison Service Refusing to Transfer Shalabi to Hospital Despite Risk of Death

Thursday, 22 March 2012 Palestine News Network

Previously published at Addameer

On Wednesday, March 21, Addameer, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) and Al-Haq express their grave concern for the health of Hana Shalabi, who is at immediate risk of death on her 34th day of hunger strike. As of today, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) is refusing to transfer Ms. Shalabi to the hospital, despite yesterday's urgent reports by her doctor that she should be transferred immediately. Addameer, PHR-Israel and Al-Haq are certain that the quality and facilitation of medical care administered by the IPS is not adequate to attend to her current condition. Meanwhile, today, the Israeli military judge of the Court of Appeals postponed yet again making a decision regarding Ms. Hana Shalabi's four-month administrative detention order following a meeting with her lawyers and the military prosecution.

Following an urgent report issued by the PHR-Israel doctor who examined Ms. Shalabi yesterday, 19 March, which concluded that Ms. Shalabi is in immediate mortal danger and should be immediately transferred to a hospital for close observation, Ms. Shalabi was transferred to the civilian Meir Hospital last night. However, for unknown reasons, she was not admitted to the hospital and the IPS transferred Ms. Shalabi back to the IPS medical center in Ramleh Prison Hospital later on the same night. Ms. Shalabi's doctor was not informed of this transfer until today. Addameer, PHR-Israel and Al-Haq share fears regarding the adequacy and timeliness of the medical care available in Ramleh, especially given the growing concern about her rapidly deteriorating condition.

Today, the chairman of PHR-Israel has been pushing on all possible fronts for her immediate transfer to a hospital. When he asked the IPS why they are refusing to transfer her, IPS Chief Medical Officer Dini Orkin informed him that the commissioner of the IPS—who is not a medical official—said that Ms. Shalabi's doctor would have to return to Ramleh and provide another medical opinion before they would even consider her transfer, despite her urgent report from yesterday. Furthermore, and even more troubling, Ms. Shalabi reported to the PHR-Israel doctor that during her various transfers yesterday, she was handled violently, including being "dragged across the floor". Her PHR-Israel doctor is particularly worried about Ms. Shalabi in light of this mistreatment, which undoubtedly is having an effect on her already-fragile state. Any further deterioration or aggravation of her condition, including emotionally, could cause a heart attack.

Addameer, PHR-Israel and Al-Haq also condemn the IPS' latest actions regarding its role in pressuring Ms. Shalabi to end her hunger strike. During a visit by Addameer lawyer Muna Neddaf on 16 March, Ms. Shalabi stated that the IPS' attempts to get her to end her hunger strike have included continuing to deny her family visits for the next month from 13 March; pressure from a Muslim cleric who is a member of the IPS "Ethics Committee"; and attempts to undermine her confidence and trust in her PHR-Israel doctor, including providing her with misinformation and telling her the doctor does not care about her. The IPS continues to consider force-feeding in disregard to the principles of medical ethics and the guidelines of the World Medical Association and the Israeli Medical Association.

In legal proceedings, today's meeting followed her original appeal hearing on 7 March, during which the military judge stated that he would make his decision on 11 or 12 March in order to give the military prosecution ample time to "revise its position" and to allow for any negotiations on a "deal" between the military prosecution and the committee of lawyers representing Ms. Shalabi. He noted that his intention was for any such "deal" to occur at the Appeals Court level and not after, as in the case of Khader Adnan. No decision was made on 11 or 12 March in this regard. Today's meeting with the Israeli prosecutor and Ms. Shalabi's lawyers was called for by the military judge to discuss developments on the matter. However, the negotiations have not resulted in any agreement as of today. As a result, the judge stated that he will be announcing his decision soon, but did not specify when. The judge requested a detailed medical report on Ms. Shalabi's health condition, which has been prepared by the PHR-Israel doctor and submitted to the court.

Commenting on the discussions, Addameer lawyer Mahmoud Hassan stated that "the Israeli military prosecution's concern is to get Hana to end her hunger strike as opposed to seriously considering the reasons underlying Hana's protest, including the infringement on her right to fair trial and right to an effective defense."

At least 23 other Palestinian political prisoners are currently on hunger strike to protest the use of administrative detention as an indefinite form of detention without charge or trial, including 72-year-old Palestinian Legislative Council member Ahmad Al-Hajj Ali. Since the beginning of March, a number of administrative detainees have refused to acknowledge the military court and refused to participate in legal discussions of their cases. Due to Israel's use of administrative detention, and the lack of due process afforded to Palestinians in the military court system, a hunger strike serves as a non-violent and sole tool available to administrative detainees and other political prisoners to fight for their basic human rights.

Addameer, PHR-Israel and Al-Haq are gravely concerned for the life of Hana Shalabi and call for her immediate transfer to a hospital, with adequate care that is uninterrupted by frequent and unnecessary transfers. Addameer, PHR-Israel and Al-Haq also appeal to the local and international communities to take every action in applying pressure on Israel to seriously address the underlying reasons behind the growing protests of Palestinian political prisoners and to end the large scale practice of internment without charge or trial. This practice is indicative of willful deprivation of the right to fair trial afforded to protected persons, in addition to the well-documented systematic policy of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment as methods of intimidation and coercion that Israel employs.

Shalabi Moved To Hospital After Sharp Health Deterioration

March 20, 2012 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian Minister of Detainees, Issa Qaraqe’, stated on Monday evening that hunger-striking detainee Hana’ Ash-Shalabi, who has been on hunger strike since 34 days, was moved to Meir Israeli Hospital, in Kfar Saba, after a sharp deterioration in her health condition.

Qaraqe’ said that Ash-Shalabi was hospitalized after she was examined by a medical team of the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), adding that the doctors had to wait for three hours until they were allowed to see her.

He further stated that the physicians determined that Ash-Shalabi is unable to stand, nauseated, suffering from pain in her abdomen, headache, her heartbeats are slower than they should be, and low sugar levels.

Qaraqe’ said that Ash-Shalabi refuses to take any medications or liquids except in the presence of PHR doctors who will be visiting her again Tuesday morning.

The Minister held Israel fully responsible for the life of Ash-Shalabi, and voiced an appeal to human rights groups to intervene and save her life.

Ash-Shalabi is demanding the Israeli Authorities to release her as she is being held without charges or trial.

DAY 29 URGENT ACTION: FREE HANAA' YAHYA AL-SHALABI NOW!

March 16, 2012 Al-Awada

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition once again calls on all
people of conscience to take immediate action to help save the life of
Palestinian female political prisoner Hanaa' Yahya Al-Shalabi who has been
detained by Israeli authorities without any charge whatsoever.

Hana was an "administrative detainee" with NO charge for over 2 years before
she was released in October last year as a part of the Shalit prisoner swap.
She has been refusing food since her recapture on Thursday 16 February 2012
and is on day 29 of her hunger strike against her renewed "administrative
detention" again with NO charge. Al-Shalabi refused to appear before the
Israeli military court after she was transferred to hasharon prison . The
court sentenced her to administrative detention for six months.

The Israeli occupation authorities and courts continue to detain
Palestinians under the Emergency Law of 1945, which was in force during the
British Mandate of Palestine. This law allows the Zionist authorities to
detain Palestinians without trial or providing reason, and to repeatedly
extend the term of detention. The Israeli authorities have also ratified
the Unlawful Combatant Law of 2000, which allows the occupation state to
detain Palestinians without charge or disclosure of the term of detention.
There are currently about 290 Palestinian administrative detainees, among
them the chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), a number of
other PLC members, Sheikh Khader Adnan, who recently ended his hunger strike
after 66 days, and Hanaa' Al-Shalabi. Sheikh Khader Adnan is due to be
released on April 17, 2012.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Please join the voices and support around the world to save Hanaa'
Al-Shalabi's life and demand her immediate release from prison!

Write to President Obama and voice your concern and demand that the
US administration intervene for the immediate release of Hanaa' Al-Shalabi
from administrative detention. You can use the online form at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

Call US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: (202) 647-4000 or Office of Near
East Affairs: (202) 647-7209. Demand that the Secretary intervene for the
immediate release of Hanaa' Al-Shalabi from administrative detention.

Organize rallies at Israeli embassies and consulates, and elsewhere.

Help spread awareness through social media and forward to all your contacts after
you take action!

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
Fax Toll Free: 866-619-2090
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the largest
network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to Palestinian human
rights. We are a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable
501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of
the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines,
your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible. To donate, please go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the instructions. To become a
member, go to http://al-awda.org/membership.html

Starving for Freedom: Six Years on the Abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat - One Month on the Hunger Strike of Hana Shalabi

www.freeahmadsaadat.org

March 14-15, 2012 marks the sixth anniversary of the attack on Jericho prison and the Israeli abduction of Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades, who had been held under U.S. and British guard in a Palestinian Authority prison.

For the past three years, since March 18, 2009, Ahmad Sa'adat has been in isolation in an Israeli occupation prison, subject to solitary confinement, poor health care and intense repression. Similarly, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, one of his comrades also abducted from Jericho in 2006, has been in isolation for many months. The demand to end the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat - and his fellow prisoners in solitary confinement - sparked the September-October 2011 hunger strikes that swept through the occupation's prisons.

As we mark this anniversary, a Palestinian prisoner's hunger strike has once again captured the attention of the world, very soon after the heroic 66-day hunger strike of Khader Adnan. Hana al-Shalabi, released in the October 2011 prisoner exchange, was re-abducted on February 16, 2012, and is held under administrative detention without charge or trial. She has now been on hunger strike for 28 days.

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat echoes the call of Hana al-Shalabi's parents for a day of action this Saturday, March 17:

"We call upon...all Palestinians to go to the streets and participate in the support action planned on Saturday March 17 in solidarity with our daughter Hana Al-Shalabi and all administrative detainees. We will continue supporting our daughter’s hunger strike and we want to let our daughter Hana know: we are with you in your hunger strike until you achieve your demand; your immediate release from the unjust Israeli jails.

Your support to Hana is necessary to achieve Hana’s immediate release; it is also needed to support our daughter in her open hunger strike which she has started on February 16, 2012.

Finally, we call upon all administrative detainees to join Hana’s hunger strike until you achieve your own immediate release and put an end to the unjust Israeli policy of administrative detention which violates human rights and International law."

Similarly, we join in the call for people around the world to take action on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners' Day, for Ahmad Sa'adat, Hana Shalabi, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Khader Adnan, and all of the nearly 5,000 Palestinian prisoners held within the jails of the occupation:

"On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, Tuesday, April 17, we ask that all supporters of the Palestinian political prisoners’ movement bring Khader Adnan’s spirit of resistance to the doorsteps of his captors and would-be killers...Let Khader Adnan’s hunger strike mark the beginning of a revitalized global movement for Palestinian prisoners, their rights, their families, and their struggle. Together, we can make it so."

Ahmad Sa'adat, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Khader Adnan and Hana al-Shalabi - alongside their nearly 5,000 sisters and brothers - are paradigmatic examples of the steadfastness of Palestinian prisoners. Despite the abuse and isolation they have suffered, Palestinian prisoners - and the Palestinian people as a whole - will continue to resist occupation, racism, and settlement in order to obtain their rights to freedom, self-determination and return.

On this, the sixth anniversary of the storming of Jericho prison and the abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat reiterates that it is long past time to end the dangerous and damaging policy of Palestinian Authority security coordination with the Israeli occupation. This policy is responsible for ongoing political repression and for the imprisonment of Palestinians in both PA and Israeli jails. It must be noted that Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades were abducted not from their homes but from the Palestinian Authority jail that had held them - contrary to Palestinian law - for over four years at the time of the military siege.

The policy of security coordination is the policy that kept Ahmad Sa'adat, a Palestinian national leader, behind bars for four years before the Israeli attack and abduction. It poses a deep danger to the Palestinian cause, and represents the inverse of the unity and national solidarity displayed overwhelmingly by Palestinian prisoners standing together across all lines to confront occupation. It endangers the accomplishments of the Palestinian revolution and dishonors the struggles of the Palestinian people over its decades.

In addition, it must also be emphasized that United States and British guards maintained the prisons that held Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades in Jericho, and that they were warned and exited the prison in a coordinated fashion prior to the Israeli occupation attack - when their presence there had been repeatedly, and falsely, justified as "protection." The actions of the US and British guards and monitors in Jericho prison are yet one more example of the active complicity and responsibility for occupation by these states. Further, we call upon international authorities, including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to take up their responsibility to address the ongoing suffering and abuse of Palestinian political prisoners by occupation forces.

Six years after the abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat from Jericho prison, the Palestinian people and Palestinian prisoners are steadfast as ever, unbowed by repression, confronting the occupier from behind its own bars. They are a living beacon of steadfastness and inspire our struggle for the liberation of each prisoner - and the liberation of all of Palestine, its land and its people.

Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat

Take Action!

1. Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat, Hana al-Shalabi, and all Palestinian political prisoners.

2. Distribute the free downloadable Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat flyer in your community at local events.

3. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that prisoners' rights are recognized. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at JER_jerusalem@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situations of Hana Shalabi and Ahmad Sa'adat. Make it clear that isolation is a human rights violation and a form of torture, and that the ICRC must stand up and play its role to defend prisoners' rights.

4. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at campaign@freeahmadsaadat.org with announcements, reports and information about your local events, activities and flyer distributions.

WHO IS AHMAD SA'ADAT?

Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was elected to his position in 2001 following the assassination of the previous General Secretary, Abu Ali Mustafa, on August 27, 2001 by a U.S.-made Apache missile shot from an Israeli military helicopter as he sat in his office in Ramallah. PFLP fighters retaliated by assassinating Rehavam Ze'evi, the racist extremist Israeli tourism minister and head of the Moledet party, notorious for his political platform based on the "transfer" or ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, on October 17, 2001.

Sa'adat was abducted by Palestinian Authority security forces after engaging in a meeting with PA officials under false pretenses in February 2002, and was held in the Muqata' PA presidential building in Ramallah until April 2002, when in an agreement with Israel, the U.S. and Britain, he and four of his comrades were held in the Palestinian Authority's Jericho prison, under U.S. and British guard.

He remained in the PA jails, without trial or charge, an imprisonment that was internationally condemned, until March 14, 2006, when the prison itself was besieged by the occupation army and he and his comrades were kidnapped. While imprisoned in the PA jail in Jericho, he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Since that time, he has been held in the prisons of the occupation and continually refused to recognize the illegitimate military courts of the Israeli occupation. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison on December 25, 2008 solely for his political activity, and has spent three years in isolation at the present time.

Call to Action: Support Hana al-Shalabi as her health declines 4 weeks into hunger strike in Israel jail

March 14, 2012 Electronic Intifada

The parents of hunger-striking political prisoner Hana al-Shalabi have issued a call to all Palestinians to protest this weekend in support of their daughter who is on her 28th continuous day without food in protest at her detention without charge or trial by Israel:

“We call upon the Palestinian National Authority, the Palestinian national factions, and all Palestinians to take to the streets on Saturday, March 17 and to demonstrate in support of our daughter Hana Shalabi and all administrative detainees.

Pressure on the Palestinian street is imperative in achieving Hana’s immediate release, as well as support for her open hunger strike [that began on February 16, 2012]

We as Hana’s family continue to support her hunger strike, and we want to let our daughter know that we are with her in every step of her hunger strike until she achieves her immediate release from the Israeli occupation jails.

Finally, we call upon all administrative detainees to join Hana’s hunger strike until they achieve their own release and to put an end to the unjust Israeli policy of adminstrative detention, which violates human rights and international law.”

Sharply deteriorating health

Yesterday Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) visited Hana and reported that her health had deteriorated significantly.

“The second doctor’s second examination on 12 March indicated an additional deterioration in Ms. Shalabi’s condition, shown mainly in advanced muscle atrophy and wasting, additional weight loss, a significant reduction in blood sugar, severe dizziness and severe muscle pain, especially in her chest and back.”

Hana was violently re-arrested by Israel on February 16th after her release in the first half of the Hamas-Israel prisoner deal in October. She had spent 25 months on administrative detention, without ever being informed of the reason of her detainment and with no charges brought against her. Her hunger strike is one for freedom and dignity, which began immediately as a result of being horribly mistreated during her last arrest, which included a forced strip search by a male soldier, beatings, and later solitary confinement. She is held in HaSharon prison.

Amnesty International reiterates urgent concern

Amnesty International reiterated its concern for Hana al-Shalabi’s condition following the examination by PHRI doctors. Earlier this month, Amnesty issued an urgent action alert calling on people to contact authorities to demand Israel release Hana al-Shalabi and other so-called “administrative detainees” held without charge or trial by proper international standards.

Background on Hana al-Shalabi

Background from Addameer

“On 23 February 2012 Ms. Hana Shalabi was given an administrative detention order for six months. On 29 February there was a discussion regarding her detention in Ofer military court. On 4 March the military court decided to reduce the detention period from six to four months, but without promising not to extend or renew it. As a result, Ms. Hana Shalabi announced she would continue to hunger strike until her release. On 7 March, an appeal hearing regarding the court’s decision was held at Ofer, and the military judge ordered the parties to try and reach a compromise by Sunday 11 March, but an agreement has not yet been reached.

Administrative detainees’ protests are growing. Two additional administrative detainees, Bilal Diab and Thair Halahleh declared hunger strikes on 1 March, which they claim will continue until their release from administrative detention. On 3 March, two other administrative detainees declared hunger strikes until their release. Since the beginning of March, a number of administrative detainees have refused to acknowledge the military court and refused to participate in legal discussions of their cases. Due to Israel’s use of administrative detention, and the unwillingness of the military court to interfere in this practice, a hunger strike serves as a non-violent and sole tool available to administrative detainees to protest and fight for their basic human rights.

Approximately 310 Palestinians are currently held in administrative detention in Israeli prisons. Administrative detention allows Israel to hold detainees for indefinitely renewable six-month periods. The arrest is granted on the basis of “secret information” and without a public indictment. Therefore, administrative detainees and their lawyers cannot defend against these allegations in court.”

Parents of Hana al-Shalabi plead for urgent action to save their daughter

March 9, 2012 Sophie Crowe The Electronic Intifada

Badia al-Shalabi, mother of hunger striking prisoner Hana al-Shalabi.

(Ayman Nobani / APA images)

Hana al-Shalabi is on day 23 of an open-ended hunger strike she has undertaken to protest the violent and degrading treatment meted out by Israeli forces throughout her arrest and administrative detention, which began on 16 February.

Israeli authorities have refused al-Shalabi’s parents visiting rights, leaving them to suffer in the dark as her fate is decided. Bereft of opportunities to offer Hana support in person, her parents began a hunger strike of their own two days after her.

This is not the al-Shalabi family’s first experience of losing their daughter to Israeli authorities. Hana has previously spent 30 months in Israel’s HaSharon prison, only returning to her village of Burqin in the northern West Bank last October. She was one of the 1,027 prisoners released by Israel, in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier, in a deal with Hamas.

Less than four months later, the al-Shalabi home was ransacked a second time by an Israeli military unit that hauled Hana off to the Salem detention center, near Jenin. The next day — in protest against the brutality of her interrogators — she began her strike. On 23 February the military court at Ofer prison issued her a six-month administrative detention order.

While Ofer military court agreed on 4 March to shave two months off al-Shalabi’s detention order, she refuses to break her strike until free. Her lawyers sought to broker a deal for her release at the military court of appeals on Wednesday, on which the judge said he would give a decision by Monday.

The al-Shalabi family have been trying tirelessly to hasten Hana’s release, erecting a tent beside their home where they receive well-wishers and the press, holding aloft posters of a smiling Hana. They hope to muster enough awareness of her plight in the international corridors of power to pressure Israel into conceding to their daughter’s release.

Beaten and brutalized by soldiers

“Israel put Hana in jail without any accusation,” her father, Yahya, 67, told the Electronic Intifada. “We’re asking the Palestinian Authority, and authorities all over the world, to save my daughter.”

Yahya and his wife, Badia, 65, looked worn and exhausted, recalling the shock of Hana’s violent arrest and their powerlessness to help her. “My feeling at that moment, I was very scared for my daughter. The only thing I wanted to do was to hold her to me,” Badia recalled.

“When they came to arrest her she was crying and saying, please mother, don’t surrender me to the Israelis,” Badia added. “She was very afraid … she said, ‘please don’t open the door to the army.’”

When the commanding officer attempted to take Hana by force, she struggled away from him. “The officer started beating her,” recalled Omar, Hana’s older brother. “I tried to protect her but the soldiers began beating me too.” Omar recounted that when he demanded a reason for his sister’s arrest, the officer responded, “Hana must die and never see the sun.”

Lack of substantive evidence

Hana was first arrested in September 2009 and held under administrative detention, a law introduced in the 1940s under the British Mandate and appropriated by Israel in the ’70s for use in the newly-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel uses it to imprison people indefinitely without presenting charges or conducting trials, explained Abed Aal of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, the legal advocacy group representing Hana al-Shalabi. Aal has experienced this first-hand, held under administrative detention for 18 months during the second intifada.

People are detained based on “secret files,” off limits to detainees and their lawyers, which allow judges to use vague allegations to incriminate people. “Our lawyers have no information on why any of those held in administrative detention have been put there,” Aal said. “There is no explanation.”

The only clarification offered to detainees, Aal explained, is that they are “dangerous for the security of the area.” Al-Shalabi’s case is no different; the court contends she began planning an attack against Israel upon her release.

Her father believes the state used administrative detention against his daughter for lack of substantive evidence. “They have no clear evidence and no ability to make a solid case against her so they use this policy,” he said. “If they have anything they can present it to the world.”

International law allows administrative detention as a last resort in emergency situations. But Israel has normalized the practice, now a crucial feature of the occupation’s apparatus.

Rights groups condemn the practice for failure of due process. By not revealing evidence or even the purported crime, producing a genuine defense is rendered impossible. “These courts are a joke,” Aal argued.

Israeli leaders, on the other hand, insist it “helps secure the well-being of Israelis,” as Israeli parliament member Danny Danon of the Likud party put it (“Palestinian Khader Adnan tests limits of Israel’s system of military detention,” JTA (12 February 2012).

Abeer Baker, who runs a prisoner rights clinic at Haifa University, has argued that Israel seeks to criminalize political activity in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in order to safeguard the occupation.

“Prison is used as a tool to hinder [Palestinians’] struggle and silence their voices,” she told the International Middle East Media Center last month. “Criminalizing Palestinians … turns them into ‘terrorists’” (“Under-reported Palestinian political prisoners: An urgent matter for peace,” 23 February 2012).

“Near psychological collapse”

Before her arrest last month, al-Shalabi was beginning to recover from her stint in Hasharon, where she endured the abuses that most Palestinian political prisoners face in Israeli prisons.

Yahya recalled that she was “near psychological collapse” on her return home. “I wanted to take her to Mecca with me after her release,” he said, “but when we got to Allenby Bridge [border crossing with Jordan] the authorities would not let her leave.”

For a long time she did not leave her home but gradually “she came back to life,” said her sister, Zahara. She was interested in enrolling in Nablus’ An-Najah National University, to study either nursing or law.

“It was a great happiness to have her back with the family,” Badia said, “she is very dear to us.” But “the Israelis didn’t allow us to have happiness or enjoy this period with her,” added Ahmar, Hana’s brother.

These days, Israeli prison authorities have tried to coerce al-Shalabi into ending her strike, according to Aal. “First they put her in solitary confinement to punish her … They have removed the blankets from her room. It is part of the psychological war they use on all detainees,” he said. “They are trying to break her psychologically.”

As al-Shalabi’s health deteriorates, her family are increasingly anxious for her well-being. “This is a very hard moment for us,” Zahara noted. “We’re praying she will be able to survive and be safe.”

“We are suffering,” said her mother. “We are afraid for her life.”

Sophie Crowe is a journalist based in the West Bank. She can be reached at croweso [at] tcd [dot] ie.

Interview: why Hana al-Shalabi’s hunger strike is the focus of Women’s Day in Palestine

March 7, 2012 Jillian Kestler-D'Amours The Electronic Intifada

Palestinians are marking International Women’s Day this year with actions in support of Hana al-Shalabi.

(Issam Rimawi / APA images)

Palestinians will mark International Women’s Day (8 March) this year with solidarity actions for Hana al-Shalabi, who has now spent more than three weeks on hunger strike in protest of being held under Israeli administrative detention without charge or trial.

Al-Shalabi is the second Palestinian prisoner in recent weeks — the first being Khader Adnan, who ended his fast after 66 days — to go on hunger strike as a way to draw attention to Israel’s use of administrative detention and mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners.

“In Palestine, Women’s Day is a day of struggle,” wrote Janan Abdu, a political activist and wife of Palestinian prisoner Ameer Makhoul, in the call-out announcing Women’s Day as a day in solidarity with al-Shalabi.

“Despite the achievements of some significant things, which were achieved as a result of long paths of struggle, we shouldn’t celebrate yet as we are still Palestinian women, whether in Palestine 1948 or in the West Bank and Gaza or the diaspora suffering from colonialism, occupation, discrimination and racism,” she stated.

The Electronic Intifada contributor Jillian Kestler-D’Amours interviewed Khitam Saafin, chairwoman of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees about the challenges Palestinian women face today and why al-Shalabi’s hunger strike should be supported.

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours: Tell me a bit about the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.

Khitam Saafin: The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees is a mass-based organization for women. It was established in 1980 as a framework for lifting up Palestinian women, to organize them and to support ourselves, as women, to participate in our national struggle and towards achieving full equality for Palestinian women. Since then, we are working as a mass-based organization, organized in a democratic system, working with the whole Palestinian women and community towards our goals.

JKD: What challenges do Palestinian women face?

KS: The first challenge and the first problem that we face is the occupation itself and all of its policies and strategies against our people. The occupation itself is a crime and its whole policies — in arresting people, in confiscating land, in building settlements, in taking our water, in using checkpoints, in the siege of Gaza — all of these policies are considered in human rights laws and international laws as crimes against humanity.

The burden of massive oppression in any society comes indirectly on the shoulders of the women. Palestinian women face these challenges strongly but they have a big burden to hold. This is the first challenge.

The second challenge is the traditional society, which was considered and is still considered an obstacle towards full equality and [in] dealing with women as equal people in the Palestinian society. We know that this social challenge is a global challenge for women, even in countries who have secular or more equal laws. It is a challenge because it is based on a kind of discrimination, and on the traditional and the historical discrimination against women.

This is a big and long process and road that we have to go through to achieve our democratic rights as women, as equal people.

JKD: Has the Israeli occupation had an impact on the challenges women face within Palestinian society?

KS: The occupation used this traditional [Palestinian] mentality to reduce the participation of women in general life. First they claimed that there are no Palestinian people. And after that, they claimed that the Palestinian population is very traditional and they are not modern and they don’t have the right to be part of the world because they are not modern. This is a kind of racism, you know.

Second, through the great expulsion of our people in the Nakba [catastrophe; the wave of ethnic cleansing that led to Israel’s establishment in 1948], they destroyed the structure of our society. A new structure began to be seen according to the fact that about half of our population are refugees, [and because of] losing our lands, losing our system of life. Many things were destroyed.

After that, the occupation tried to use this traditional view of women to force the [Palestinian] males and the heads of the families to stop women from struggling against the occupation. They used this mentality to threaten women in prisons, and [to say to women] that [their] family will neglect [them], all to try to give a bad [impression on] the women who are participating in the national struggle.

So, yes, the occupation was part and is still part of the reasons that prevent the natural, progressive way of our society, including the women’s issue.

Khitam Saafin

(Jillian Kestler-D’Amours)

JKD: The UPWC believes that gender issues are linked to class issues. Tell me about this.

KS: We believe that the discrimination against women is related to the [capitalist] system around the world. This discrimination began when the private sector began ruling the world. The [status of women], in the interests of capital and the private sector, came down and in some communities, [women] were used as a good.

For us, as a union of Palestinian women, we consider the whole [Israeli] occupation as a kind of capitalist, imperialist project in our land and it is related to this whole system of imperialism, dependent on capitalism and private entities. We believe that in the long-term, discrimination against women won’t be ended unless we live as women in a full, equal and social society.

As I said in the beginning, the burden of the general oppression, in any society, comes on women because they are considered [to be] the weaker part.

JKD: Palestinian women played a large role in the first intifada. Today, we see women participating in popular resistance in the West Bank, including in the weekly protests in places like Nabi Saleh,. How would you describe the participation of women in Palestinian popular resistance today?

KS: The first intifada was full, popular work. It was dependent on bodies that were ready to be active. For example, our union was well established and well organized and able to be active and to mobilize women in good ways in the first intifada. There was a very big participation of women and it raised new questions for the Palestinian women’s movement [with regards to] the future, Palestinian statehood, the Palestinian entity and the role of women. This was a big opportunity for women to present themselves as real participants in political and social life.

These days, when we are talking about the [demonstrations] in many places in Palestine, especially near the confiscated lands, I think we need, as Palestinian people, to improve our strategy for popular resistance. [We need] to make it not [only] occasionally and mostly on Fridays and only in some areas … that will give more spaces for women to participate.

But, even in this situation, women are trying to raise their participation in these activities. For me, it is not enough. Women must have their special way to participate. There is participation of women [in the demonstrations], but we have to improve it and make it better in the future.

JKD: How would you suggest making it better?

KS: I think through collective plans from different organizations of the women’s movement, and to find tools and actions that women can participate and be part of easily. When we are talking about Fridays, Fridays is the formal holiday for the families. If the woman is working all the days of the week, this day is used not to take a rest, but to do household work. I know it is not an excuse because we are struggling, but these are the circumstances of Palestinian women. Also when we are talking about only some places here or there [that hold demonstrations], the access for women to reach these places is not always easy, especially the women who are living far away.

Also the women are active more in the boycott campaigns, [and] in solidarity with prisoners’ campaigns. You know these days we have the hunger strike of Hana al-Shalabi. Women must have solidarity and support Hana in her strike.

JKD: Do you think that Hana will garner as much attention as Khader Adnan, the Palestinian prisoner who recently ended his hunger strike after more than sixty days?

KS: I don’t know. It depends on herself. For us as Palestinian women and as the Palestinian population, we are ready to support her in her decision because she is the person who is undertaking this strike and this battle with administrative detention. We are ready to support her until she achieves her goals and we, of course, salute her for her strong position confronting administrative detention.

JKD: Do you feel that she is also drawing attention to Palestinian women prisoners, who are often overlooked?

KS: I think it is a big issue for Palestinian women as prisoners. Nowadays, we have six female prisoners. I think that it brings the issue of women as political prisoners more and more in the high level of concerns of the world. The United Nations must be responsible for the whole violations that are going on against our people. These prisoners are war prisoners, not security prisoners, not criminals; they are freedom fighters for their rights.

JKD: What else is being done right now to promote and protect Palestinian women’s rights?

KS:This is a long struggle and to make social change you need a long time and you need a very strong will to go on. What was done is from the beginning, the women’s movement, even before the ’80s — it was a struggle through the national struggle.

After the [Palestine Liberation Organization’s] declaration of independence in 1988, it was the question of the coming independent Palestinian state and the role of every person in it. In the independence document, it was clear that there is no discrimination between men and women, but this is theoretical. On the ground, we have to work.

We worked on awareness. We worked on mobilization. We worked on some campaigns for political participation. We are preparing our proposals for new laws reducing the level of discrimination against women. It is [about raising] more awareness, more mobilizing for ourselves as women, and more pressure and lobbying through the decision-making [bodies] in the Palestinian society.

JKD: Are Palestinian women aware of the resources that are available to them?

KS: In general, they are aware but we have to present the women’s organizations better. That means to give these consultations and services for women to make them more aware about the women’s movement organizations. We try to reach them and to give them services, for their children, for their awareness, for their vocational training. We try to make them reach the resources for education, for economic resources.

JKD:Are you working on opening up a dialogue on gender issues in Palestine?

KS: We are talking on many levels, and we have our awareness work day by day.

For us as a union, we have a program with the General Union of Palestinian Women. We have another program for encouraging young women for political participation. We have programs for encouraging women and giving them a kind of economic empowerment. We are active, but it is not enough. We are not covering the whole Palestinian society.

If every organization works alone and tries to cover all the Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza, it is not enough. No one can work alone. So we have coalitions for some things and we try to build more and more networks.

JKD: If there was one thing you would want people to know about the situation Palestinian women face, what would it be?

KS: I say that Palestinian women deserve to live free in their independent state with the right of return, the right of our people to self-determination, the right of establishing our independent state with Jerusalem as a capital. For the people all over the world, justice means freedom. Justice means ending occupation. Justice means full equality for all of the people, men and women, everywhere.

We are part of the freedom strugglers around the world and we are asking all the freedom voices to bring solidarity with our cause and also, we are in solidarity with all the people who are asking for their democratic freedom and rights.

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours is a reporter and documentary filmmaker based in Jerusalem. More of her work can be found at http://jkdamours.com/.