THREAT Hassan Al Safadi

HASSAN ZAHI AS’AD SAFADI

Date of birth: 15 November 1978

Place of residence: Nablus

Date of arrest: 29 June 2011

Place of detention: Ramleh prison medical center

Number of administrative detention orders: 3

Expected end of current detention order: 29 December 2012

On 1 August 2012 Hassan Safadi entered his 42nd day of renewed hunger strike. This follows his previous 71-day hunger strike, which began on 5 March 2012 and ended upon the conclusion of Palestinian prisoners’ mass hunger strike on 14 May.

ARREST

Hassan Safadi was arrested at 2:30 am on 29 June 2011 from his home in Nablus by a large number of Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF). The IOF spent over an hour searching his house, during which time Hassan was repeatedly beaten. During the arrest Hassan’s mother passed out and was taken to a hospital, where she remained for three days. Hassan was initially brought to Huwarra detention center before being transferred to Al Jalameh detention center near Bethlehem. Only one week before his arrest, Hassan had been released from Jenaid prison, near Nablus, where he was detained for 45 days by the Palestinian Preventive Security Force.

ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION AND HUNGER STRIKE

Since Hassan’s most recent arrest on 29 June 2011, he has received three administrative detention orders. His first order was from 29 June 2011 until 29 December 2011, which was subsequently renewed for another six months until 29 June 2012. As with all other administrative detainees, Hassan’s detention is based on secret information collected by Israeli authorities and available to the military judge but not to Hassan or his lawyer. This practice violates international humanitarian law, which permits some limited use of administrative detention in emergency situations, but requires that the authorities follow basic rules for detention, including a fair hearing at which the detainee can challenge the reasons for his or her detention. These minimum rules of due process have been clearly violated in Hassan’s case, leaving him without any legitimate means to defend himself.

The continued use of administrative detention against Hassan forced him to launch a hunger strike on 5 March 2012, along with seven other prisoners already on hunger strike, to protest his detention without charge or trial and demanding to be immediately released. Israeli authorities attempted to coerce Hassan to end his hunger strike by offering to deport him, but he refused. Hassan also reported that on 3 May, he was held down by prison guards and forcefully given treatment by a prison doctor via an injection in his arm. Hassan also recounted having refused water for several days until he was moved to Ramleh Prison medical center. Upon his arrival, he was beaten by prison guards, and the prison doctor refused to record the injuries sustained from the attack.

On 17 April 2012, Palestinian prisoners launched a mass hunger strike, during which about 2,000 prisoners demanded an end to the use of long-term isolation, an improvement in detention conditions, an end to the ban of family visits especially for prisoners from Gaza (who were banned from visits since June 2007) and an end to the policy of administrative detention. This mass hunger strike ended on 14 May when an agreement was reached between the hunger strikers’ committee and the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) and Israeli intelligence agency, with Egyptian mediation.

Since the agreement, limited progress has been regarding some of the prisoners demands, although the policy of administrative detention remains. Though a few of the administrative detainees who launched a hunger strike prior to 17 April were released upon the expiration of their current orders, some have had their administrative detention orders extended, including Hassan. With the agreement in place to release these long-term hunger strikers upon the expiration of their current orders, Hassan ended his hunger strike, which had lasted for 71 days, and was due to be released on 29 June 2012. However, on 21 June 2012, in breach of the agreement, Israel renewed Hassan’s administrative detention order for another six months. As a result, Hassan re-launched his hunger strike.

The IPS immediately transferred Hassan to Hadarim prison and placed him in solitary confinement. As Hassan’s health had not recovered from his previous hunger strike, it deteriorated rapidly following the resumption of his hunger strike. As a result of this deterioration in his health, he was transferred to Ramleh prison medical center on the tenth day of his renewed hunger strike and currently remains there.

According to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel lawyer Mohamad Mahagni following his visit to Hassan on 22 July, Hassan is currently being held in an isolated cell. Hassan has reported escalating pressure from the IPS to end his hunger strike. Hassan further noted that his court hearing on 25 July regarding the extension of his administrative detention order has been delayed again until 7 August, stressing that he is in no condition to travel 15 hours every time for the court hearings. He also reported suffering from kidney problems, sight problems, extreme weakness, severe weight loss, headaches, dizziness and has difficulty standing.

PREVIOUS ARRESTS

Hassan has been consistently targeted for arrest and administrative detention by Israeli authorities. No charges have ever been brought against him. These previous arrests date back to the mid 1990’s and range from periods of a few months to a number of years. On 28 June 2007, Hassan was arrested and interrogated for 60 days before being transferred to administrative detention, where he was held for 40 months and then released on 25 November 2010.

As stated above, Hassan was also detained by Palestinian Authority forces, being held in Jenaid prison for 45 days and release only one week prior to his most recent arrest by Israeli authorities.

HASSAN'S FAMILY

Hassan’s family consists of his mother, who is 62 years old, and his 11 brothers and sisters. His brother Fareed was killed by the IOF in 1996.

Hassan’s family has been denied visits to Hassan since the first day of his arrest. His younger sister received permission to visit him in July, but this visit was subsequently revoked as punishment for Hassan’s participation in the hunger strike.

***

Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold detainees indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. In the occupied Palestinian West Bank, the Israeli army is authorized to issue administrative detention orders against Palestinian civilians on the basis of Military Order 1651. This order empowers military commanders to detain an individual for up to six month renewable periods if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention.” On or just before the expiry date, the detention order is frequently renewed. This process can be continued indefinitely.

For more information about administrative detention and Addameer’s Campaign to Stop Administrative Detention see: 

http://www.addameer.org/admin_detention.php. 

Read Addameer’s report on administrative detention:

Administrative Detention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: A Legal Analysis Report, updated July 2010.

ACT NOW!

Here is how you can help Hassan Safadi:

*Write to the Israeli government, military and legal authorities and demand that Hassan Safadi be released immediately and his administrative detention order not be renewed.

• Brigadier General Danny Efroni
  Military Judge Advocate General
  6 David Elazar Street
  Harkiya, Tel Aviv
  Israel
  Fax: +972 3 608 0366; +972 3 569 4526
  Email: arbel@mail.idf.il; avimn@idf.gov.il
• Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon
  OC Central Command Nehemia Base, Central Command
  Neveh Yaacov, Jerusalam
  Fax: +972 2 530 5741
• Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak
  Ministry of Defense
  37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
  Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
  Fax: +972 3 691 6940 / 696 2757
• Col. Eli Bar On
  Legal Advisor of Judea and Samaria PO Box 5
  Beth El 90631
  Fax: +972 2 9977326

*Write to your own elected representatives urging them to pressure Israel to release Hassan Safadi and to put an end to such an unjust, arbitrary and cruel system of incarceration without trial.

THREAT Samer Al Barq

SAMER HILMI ABDULLATIF AL-BARQ

Date of birth: 13 December 1974

Place of residence: Jayyous-Qalqilya

Marital status: Married                                                                                 

Occupation: Science Teacher                 

Date of arrest: 11 July 2010

Place of detention: Ramleh prison medical clinic

Number of administrative detention orders: 7

Expected end of current detention order: 22 November 2012

On 29 August 2012, Samer Al-Barq entered his 100^th day of renewed hunger strike. This follows his previous 30-day hunger strike, which began on 15 April 2012 and ended upon the conclusion of Palestinian prisoners’ mass hunger strike on 14 May.

ARREST

In 1995 Samer travelled to Pakistan where he completed a master’s degree in medical analysis at Karachi University. Upon completion he began working as a science teacher at a Karachi school. However, in late 2002, concern mounted when his family was unable to contact him. Eventually they received a phone call from Samer, who had travelled to Jordan in 2003 and he informed his family that he had been detained in prison for eight by months by Jordanian intelligence. Samer was released after this initial period of eight months, but for only two days before being rearrested. At this time, Samer spent four and a half years in Jordanian prisons, three of which were spent in isolation. Samer was never tried or charged with any offense while in Jordanian custody.

Samer was eventually released in January 2008 and then settled in Jordan where he began working in a medical laboratory, while he wife joined him from Pakistan. During this time Jordanian intelligence continued to target Samer and subjected him to intensive interrogation which lasted for periods of a few days to a number of months. His last detention lasted from April 2010 to 11 July 2010.

On 11 July 2010 Samer was brought by Jordanian intelligence to Allenby Bridge, the border crossing between Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territory, where he was handed over to Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF). Samer was then taken to Ofer Prison, near Ramallah, where an Israeli military court issued him with an administrative detention order. As a result, Samer has been held for almost 800 days - without trial or charge – based on secret information.

ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION AND HUNGER STRIKE

Since Samer’s arrest on 11 July 2010, he has received 7 administrative detention orders. As with all other administrative detainees, Samer’s detention is based on secret information collected by Israeli authorities and available to the military judge but not to Samer or his lawyer. This practice violates international humanitarian law, which permits some limited use of administrative detention in emergency situations, but requires that the authorities follow basic rules for detention, including a fair hearing at which the detainee can challenge the reasons for his or her detention. These minimum rules of due process have been clearly violated in Samer’s case, leaving him without any legitimate means to defend himself.

The continued use of administrative detention against Samer forced him to launch a hunger strike two days before the Palestinian prisoner’s mass hunger strike, which began on 17 April 2012. During the mass hunger strike, about 2,000 prisoners demanded an end to the use of long-term isolation; an improvement in detention conditions; an end to the ban of family visits especially for prisoners from Gaza (who were banned from visits since June 2007); and an end to the policy of administrative detention. This mass hunger strike ended on 14 May when an agreement was reached between the hunger strikers’ committee and the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), with Egyptian mediation. According to members of the hunger strikers’ committee, the agreement included a provision that would limit the use of administrative detention to exceptional circumstances and that those held under administrative detention at the time of the agreement would not have their orders renewed.

Nevertheless, even immediately following the end of the hunger strike, new administrative detention orders were issued and many administrative detention orders were renewed, including for Samer. Just one week after the end of the hunger strike, Samer received a new administrative detention order for a period of three months. Following the failure of the IPS to fulfil its obligations under the agreement by renewing Samer’s administrative detention order, on 21 May 2012 Samer resumed his hunger strike.

On his 9^th day of renewed hunger strike, Samer was transferred from Ofer prison to Ramleh prison clinic as a result of his deteriorating health, where he currently remains. Independent doctors from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) have largely been denied access to Samer and the other hunger strikers. On his 59^th day of hunger strike, a PHR-I lawyer visited Samer and Samer reported that his health had severely deteriorated. He noted that three weeks prior, his heart rate had dropped to 35 beats per minute, which is an alarming and life-threatening state.

He was then transferred to Assaf Harofeh Hospital for one night, during which he was shackled by three limbs to the hospital bed. Samer also reported that the IPS had been threatening him with force-treatment or force-feeding if he did not break his hunger strike. At the time, he was suffering from vertigo, drastic weight loss and involuntary shivering and coldness in his legs, symptoms that may indicate peripheral nerve damage. Samer also suffers from both kidney problems and a previous injury to his leg, both of which need constant medical attention. As a result of both hunger strikes there has been a critical drop in his blood sugar levels and he also has high blood pressure.

Samer and fellow hunger striker Hassan Safadi have also been subjected to severe mistreatment by the IPS. On 5 August, Samer reported to Addameer lawyer Fares Ziad that he was transferred from Ramleh to Ofer military court on 31 July by IPS special forces, or Nahshon, known for their particularly brutal treatment of prisoners during transfers. During this transfer, the special forces ordered him to walk, and when he told them that he could not, they beat him on his legs. They eventually brought him a wheelchair but did not help him, so he was forced to crawl to the chair and wheel it himself.

Samer and Hassan were also put together in an isolation cell in Ramleh, which is only about 1.5 by 1.8 meters in size, with no windows or ventilation. Furthermore, there is no space in the room for the wheelchair that is being used by both hunger strikers for everyday activities, including the use of shower and toilet. After Hassan protested these conditions and treatment, he and Samer were both beaten. In a visit by a PHR-IL doctor on 2 August, the doctor reported that Samer’s health would only continue to deteriorate.

An even more violent attack was made against the two hunger strikers on 13 August. At approximately 9:00 am, IPS guards entered the isolation room that the two hunger strikers share and announced their intentions to move them to a room with other prisoners in the medical clinic who are not on hunger strike. Samer and Hassan refused the transfer, as they considered it an attempt to further pressure them to break their hunger strikes by surrounding them with individuals who would be regularly eating in front of them.

After refusing to be moved, the Israeli prison guards attacked both Samer and Hassan. During the attack, Hassan’s head was slammed against the iron door of the cell two times, causing him to fall to the ground, unconscious. Prison guards then dragged him through the hall to be seen by all the other prisoners. Later that night, at around 10:00 pm, Samer and Hassan were taken to a new isolation room with no mattresses. In a visit with an Addameer lawyer on 27 August, fellow hunger striker Ayman Sharawna reported that he was also being held in the isolation cell with Hassan and Samer.

Despite his deteriorating medical condition, Samer’s administrative order was once again renewed for another three months on 22 August. He was taken again to Assah Harofeh hospital on 27 August. As of August 29, Samer entered his 100^th day of renewed hunger strike, following his previous strike of 30 days, making him only the second Palestinian prisoner in history to reach this stage of hunger strike.

SAMER’S FAMILY

Samer’s wife, Sajida, is originally from Pakistan. She returned to Pakistan after Samer’s detention by Israeli forces. She has not been allowed to visit him since his arrest in July 2010 under the pretext that the IOF do not allow the entry of foreigners who hold a citizenship of countries that do not recognize Israel. Samer is longing to see his wife and family and is looking forward to granting his mothers wish to go on the Hajj together. Samer’s family support his hunger strike unconditionally and call on the international community to work for the release of Samer and all Palestinian prisoners who remain in Israeli jails. They are dismayed by the lack of access to him, including denial of doctor and lawyer visits, and are deeply saddened by the low attention towards his very urgent condition in both local and international spheres.

***

Statistics August

As of 1 August 2012, there were 4,660 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 250 administrative detainees, 6 women and 210 children.

THREAT two brothers

The arrest of two brothers from Bethlehem
Ismail Abdullah Arouj (27)
was arrested at dawn "29_8_2012" he was just released 4 days ago out of more than five years of imprisonment.
While his wife was staying with their little daughter in hospital.

The process of re -arresting Ismail was 18 days after the arrest of his brother Ibrahim, sentenced to 6 months of administrative detention.

August 31, 2012

THREAT Hani Abu Sabaa

According to the Ahrar Center for the Study of prisoners and human rights, his health is deteriorating dramatically, because in Megiddo prison medical care was denied.
The only treatment meted out to him were suspiciou

s injections.

Following protests by prisoners on the matter, Abu Sabaa was conveyed under extremely difficult circumstances to Ofer prison and here: doing nothing, in spite of an agreement on his treatment by Doctors Without Borders / Red Cross.

Abu Sabaa suffers now, because of kidney stones, at a severe generalized infection and an old fracture in his left foot. Signs of torture during Israeli 'hearing'.

The Israeli court is claiming that Abu Sabaa is dangerous to the security of the country, is also claiming that the prisoner belongs to the organization Hamas and that he has a leadership role within the prison.

August 29, 2012

AWAY FROM THE SUN: A DOCUMENTARY

THREAT Hunger Strikers since MAY 2012

Israeli court extends the remand of Samer Al Issawi and refuse him to see his lawyer.
Samer Al Issawi was re- arrested on Saturday 07 July 2012. He spent the last ten years in israeli jail.

He is on hunger strike til then.
Note : Kindly notice, all prisoners released in the ‘Shalit-deal’ received a “Presidential PARDON” (= Amnesty) of Pres. Perez yet many are re-arrested again without charges nor trial.

 

 

UPDATES AUGUST ....and happening: NOTHING !!!

Israeli occupation authorities prolonged the detention of Samir El-Barq and Samir Isawi,

The authorities prolonged, yesterday, for two months, detaining Samir Isawi who was re-arrested last months.
He had have a sentence of actual imprisonment to 30 years. He spent ten years in jail and was freed last year due to prisoner swap deal.

Israeli occupation authorities renewed aswell the administrative

arrest, for three months, against Samer el-Barq, in spite of the promises of releasing him of is hunger strike
Jawad Polos, Head of the Lawful Unit at the Palestinian Prisoner Society said that the court of Ofer was held for renewing the detention, in spite of the absence of el-Barq; he is in the hospital of Asaph Hroophe, after 100 days of hunger strike.
The Israeli occupation authorities said that there was no importance for keeping Samer in jail, but still detain him and renew the arrest.
Samer had been arrested 30 months ago without real charges being filed, so he had started the food strike 100 days ago, protesting on detaining illegally. His wife in Pakistan is waiting his freedom to gather family.
Polos added that Hasan el-Safadi, who has been striking for freedom since the middle of June, is in the hospital of Ramlah, suffering in a bad health condition
August 29, 2012