TAKE ACTION AGAINST ISOLATION - FREE AHMAD SA'ADAT!
INTERNATIONAL DAYS OF ACTION - OCTOBER 5-15, 2010
International Days of Action include events throughout Palestine, in Paris, Denmark and throughout Europe, in New Zealand, in Canada and the U.S., and more! Read below about important event in New York City on Monday, October 11, 2010INTERNATIONAL DAYS OF ACTION - OCTOBER 5-15, 2010
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat + www.freeahmadsaadat.org + info@freeahmadsaadat.org
Imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa'adat will be returning to court in mid-October 2010 challenging his isolation and the isolation of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons. Write letters today and take action from October 5-15, 2010 in support of Palestinian prisoners' struggle for freedom - demand an end to isolation!
The events that have taken place so far include dozens of actions and activities throughout occupied Palestine, including press conferences, rallies and sit-ins in nearly every major Palestinian city; in Lebanon, Syria and throughout the Arab world, in Denmark, France, New Zealand, Canada, and the US. These activities, their breadth and their wide range speak to the importance of Ahmad Sa'adat's case and the struggle of Palestinian prisoners.
On Monday, October 11, Columbia University in New York City will feature an important event as part of the Days of Action:
From Palestine to Oakland: The Fight to Free Political Prisoners
405 Milbank Hall, Barnard College
3009 Broadway, New York
RSVP on Facebook Recommended: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121787404541092&ref=ts
As part of the Global Days of Action for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Political Prisoners, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine presents a talk featuring:
FRANCISCO TORRES
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City, Cisco is a Vietnam Veteran who fought for the grievances of Black and Latino soldiers upon his return to the states. A former Black Panther, he has been a community activist since his discharge from the military in 1969. He worked with troubled youth up to the day of his arrest. Freed on bail in September 2007, Cisco is the sole defendant to still face charges as part of the San Francisco 8, a group of Black Panthers arrested for their alleged involvement in the 1971 murder of Sgt. John V. Young.
LAMIS DEEK
Lamis Deek is a Palestinian organizer born in Nablus, Palestine and raised in New York. She is member and co-chair of Al-Awda New York. In her practice as a lawyer, she focuses primarily on criminal defense and FBI investigations. She has handled a number of political prisoner cases domestically and witnessed the trial of Ahmad Sa’adat in Palestine.
MICHAEL KENNEDY
Michael Kennedy is currently a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. His research explores the lived experiences of Palestinian political prisoners, focusing on alternative forms of visual and textual representation. He also serves as a photography instructor and Regional Coordinator for the Research Journalism Initiative, an educational media nonprofit that provides conceptual and technical training in media production to Palestinian journalism students.
Co-sponsored by: Al-Awda NY, Existence is Resistance, Black and Latino Student Caucus, ISO, Turath, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
FRANCISCO TORRES
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City, Cisco is a Vietnam Veteran who fought for the grievances of Black and Latino soldiers upon his return to the states. A former Black Panther, he has been a community activist since his discharge from the military in 1969. He worked with troubled youth up to the day of his arrest. Freed on bail in September 2007, Cisco is the sole defendant to still face charges as part of the San Francisco 8, a group of Black Panthers arrested for their alleged involvement in the 1971 murder of Sgt. John V. Young.
LAMIS DEEK
Lamis Deek is a Palestinian organizer born in Nablus, Palestine and raised in New York. She is member and co-chair of Al-Awda New York. In her practice as a lawyer, she focuses primarily on criminal defense and FBI investigations. She has handled a number of political prisoner cases domestically and witnessed the trial of Ahmad Sa’adat in Palestine.
MICHAEL KENNEDY
Michael Kennedy is currently a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. His research explores the lived experiences of Palestinian political prisoners, focusing on alternative forms of visual and textual representation. He also serves as a photography instructor and Regional Coordinator for the Research Journalism Initiative, an educational media nonprofit that provides conceptual and technical training in media production to Palestinian journalism students.
Co-sponsored by: Al-Awda NY, Existence is Resistance, Black and Latino Student Caucus, ISO, Turath, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
We encourage all supporters and friends of Ahmad Sa'adat, the Palestinian prisoners and the cause of Palestine to attend and support this event, and to inform the Campaign about similar events in your area. Please email info@freeahmadsaadat.org to inform us of these important events and activities!
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Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been held in isolation in a series of prisons since March 16, 2009, with his isolation renewed again and again by occupation courts. He has been transferred from prison to prison, and is currently held in the isolation section of Ramon prison in the Naqab desert. Within these isolation units, Sa'adat has been placed further inside a separate isolation unit where he is confined without access even to the other prisoners in isolation, and deprived of basic human rights. His personal books have been confiscated and he is allowed access to newspapers only once or twice weekly. He is denied access to English and Arabic language newspapers and allowed only Hebrew-language media.
He has been repeatedly denied family visits - his wife, Abla, has been allowed only two visits during his entire period in isolation - as well as legal visits, and barred from purchases at the prison canteen, including cigarette purchases. In the prison yard, Sa'adat has been held handcuffed and in ankle shackles and allowed only one-hour of exercise/recreation. The Prison Administration is attempting to criminalize the human and social relationship between fellow Palestinian prisoners, and between the prisoners and their families outside.
Sa'adat has led in the struggle against isolation, engaging in a nine-day hunger strike in 2009 in protest of isolation. Isolation is damaging and destructive to the mental and physical health of Palestinian prisoners, and is being used as a political weapon in order to punish and isolate Palestinian prisoner leaders. Some prisoners have been subject to isolation for years at a time, with severe effects. Take action now to fight isolation and demand the freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners!
TAKE ACTION TODAY!
1. The Campaign in Solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat in Palestine is calling upon all supporters to write letters to the Israeli Prison Service and demand they end the practice of isolation, end human rights violations, and free Palestinian prisoners. Send an email to the Bureau of the Minister of Public Security at sar@mops.gov.il and to the Public Complaints Department at mevaker@mops.gov.il, and copy the following: Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister, 3, Kaplan Street, PO Box 187, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem, Israel, Fax: +972- 2-651 2631, Email: pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
Mr. Menachem Mazuz, Attorney General, Fax: + 972 2 627 4481; + 972 2 628 5438; +972 2 530 3367
Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit, Military Judge Advocate General, 6 David Elazar Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv, Israel, Fax: +972 3 608 0366, +972 3 569 4526, Email: arbel@mail.idf.il, avimn@idf.gov.il
Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations Office and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, Avenue de la Paix 1-3, 1202 Geneva, Fax: +41 22 716 05 55, Email: mission-israel@geneva.mfa.gov.il
You may use our online form at: http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/action3.html.
2. Write a letter to Ahmad Sa'adat. Letters of support are important and demonstrate solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat and Palestinian prisoners - let him know that the world is demanding his freedom. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at info@freeahmadsaadat.org with your letters, or use our contact form at: http://freeahmadsaadat.org/contact.html. We will send all letters received to Palestine. We also encourage you to write to him directly using this address: Ahmad Sa'adat, Ramon Prison, Ramon area, PO Box 699, Postal Code 80600, Israel.
Ahmad Sa'adat has been imprisoned since 2002 in the prisons of the Palestinian Authority, held under U.S. and British guard, until his abduction by the Israeli occupation forces on March 14, 2006 by an occupation military raid on Jericho prison. On December 25, 2008, he was sentenced to thirty years inside the occupation prisons. He is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and one of the foremost Palestinian national leaders held inside the occupier's jails.
Ahmad Sa'adat and approximately 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are daily on the front lines, confronting Israeli oppression and crimes. Today, on October 5-15, 2010 it is urgent that we stand with Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners against these abuses, and for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and for all of Palestine!
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org
info@freeahmadsaadat.org
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A revolution now cannot be confined to the place or people where it may commence, but flashes with lightning speed from heart to heart, from land to land, til it has traversed the globe ...
--Frederick Douglass
Free All Political Prisoners!
nycjericho@gmail.com • www.jerichony.org
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