The Palestine you don't know

by Mahmoud Kamel Muhammad Sarsak on May 24, 2012

Our brother and son, Mahmoud Sarsak, is a 25 years old professional footballer from Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, today entering his 67th day of hunger strike. We ask you to support Mahmoud and his demand for fair treatment. Your voice can contribute to saving his life and to a little victory against injustice.

Mahmoud has been imprisoned by Israel for the past three years, after being arrested by the Israeli military on 22nd July 2009 at the Erez checkpoint in Gaza while on his way to join the Palestine National Football team for a match in Balata refugee camp in the West Bank.

After his arrest he was transferred to Ashkelon prison where he was interrogated for 30 days, before being given a detention order on 23rd August 2009 under Israel’s “Unlawful Combatants Law”. Addameer, the Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights group, state that “in practice, the Unlawful Combatants Law contains fewer protections for detainees than even the few that are granted under administrative detention orders in the West Bank”, and allows the Israeli state to hold Palestinians from Gaza for indefinite periods without charge or trial.

Mahmoud started a hunger strike on 19th March 2012 to protest being held without charge or trial, demanding to be informed of the reasons for his three year detention and to be allowed to defend himself, as is his most basic right under international law. After starting his hunger strike he was transferred to Naqab prison on 8th April and then moved to solitary confinement at Eshel prison. On 16th April he was transferred to Ramleh prison hospital as a result of his deteriorating health. He is now on his 67 day of hunger strike, an extremely dangerous milestone that could see his death at any moment.

He is one of over 4400 Palestinians held in Israeli jails in violation of Articles 49 and 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids the transfer of occupied peoples (Palestinians), to the territory of the occupier (Israel). Grave breaches of these Articles are considered war crimes in international law.

For us it is unbearable to see Israel has been awarded the hosting of the UEFA Under 21s football championship in 2013 and gears up to participate in the London Olympics, while it routinely arrests, tortures, imprisons and kills Palestinians, including football players, without consequence. This is not fair play. Sports should show solidarity.

As Mahmoud’s family, we call on all people of conscience to demand his immediate release, and to pressure governments and international organisations to force Israel’s compliance with the most basic standards of international law. In particular we ask fellow football players and athletes to speak out in support of Mahmoud – don’t be silent when Israeli cruelty and arbitrariness has destroyed the aspirations of a rising athlete and keeps thousands under inhumane conditions in their jails. We ask sports teams and anti-racist fan clubs to organize in support of Mahmoud and all the other Palestinian political prisoners. Your voice can contribute to saving his life and to a little victory against injustice.

It is time to end Israeli crimes carried out with impunity, and to demand the release of all Palestinians held illegally by Israel, including the other Palestinian prisoners who, along with our beloved Mahmoud, are hunger striking for their dignity and freedom.

Anonymous asked: OMG! That is madness!!? So Palestinians have to pay for Israeli bulldozers so they can destroy their houses and if they don't they go to prison? Thats madness. But its just sooo unfair, Israel IS killing and treating palestinians unfair and there are no sanctions or ANYTHING for Israel and Iran, who wants to have that nuclear thing gets sanctions and al that sht. While Israel already has nuclear weapons and it isnt impossible they use it against palestinians. Still they want Iran to not get it

Madness can’t really describe the situation , it’s more than that . The fact that israel doesn’t give permissions to build new houses to Palestinians in Jerusalem easly ( My family is trying since 7 years ) then -due to the normal population growth- people had to build anyway . What you said is the result .

After all , israel is an occupation force . It’s policy in Jerusalem is to make life for us hell to empty the city from it’s Palestinian residents in any possible way .

But here we stand and here we shall stay no matter what .

The mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israel ends with a deal brokered by Egypt. Only some of their demands will be met, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah

(also see Palestinian Prisoners are Still on Hunger Strike)

Hundreds of Palestinian political and resistance prisoners in Israeli jails have ended a mass hunger strike protesting against cruel and inhuman prison conditions following the conclusion of a compromise deal with Israel brokered by Egyptian Intelligence.

Israel refuses to grant the prisoners the legal status of “prisoners of war” and insists on considering them “terrorists” or “security prisoners” even though many of them were never involved in violent acts against the Israeli occupation.

According to the agreement, the prisoners pledged to refrain from getting involved in any security- impinging activities inside their places of incarceration. This includes recruitment of activists in order to carry out resistance missions and abetting or aiding acts that may undermine Israel’s security.

In return, Israel agreed to facilitate the living conditions of prisoners, including considering ending solitary confinement and allowing family visits from both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Allowing family visits cannot be considered an Israeli concession as such visits were always allowed since the start of the occupation in 1967.

Israel, according to the agreement, would be absolved from carrying out its obligations if the prisoners decide to declare a new hunger strike.

The agreement has been hailed as a “victory” by Palestinian leaders, including the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership, while extreme right- wing figures in Israel dubbed the deal “surrender to terror”.

Qaddoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, which monitors conditions in Israeli jails where Palestinian prisoners are incarcerated, described the deal as “satisfactory” and “good under present circumstances”.

“The agreement doesn’t meet all of our expectations, let alone our aspirations. This is a bitter struggle between two unequal parties and our brothers (the prisoners) in the Zionist bastilles and dungeons have made maximum efforts to obtain a semblance of conditions that would grant them some dignity and human decency.

“Any concession we extricate from Israel’s parsimonious hands is an achievement.”

Fares pointed out that there is a general state of satisfaction among the prisoners following the conclusion of the deal.

“No one is euphoric or ecstatic, but at least some of prisoners’ demands have been met, Israel is an enemy, not a friend, and we should not expect our archenemy to behave charitably towards us.”

Fares also thanked the Egyptian government for playing a key role in the conclusion of the agreement.

The agreement doesn’t meet some of the key Palestinian demands, especially those pertaining to so-called administrative detention, which Israel uses to incarcerate a given prisoner for years without charge or trial. Israel currently holds as many as 26 Palestinian parliamentarians without charge or trial.

Palestinian inmates have repeatedly demanded an end to open-ended internment, which they charge is tantamount to “hostage taking”. However, Israel, while recognising that keeping prisoners in jail for years without charge or trial is not “an optimal exemplification of justice”, argues that administrative detention is an effective deterrent that it doesn’t want to lose.

Shortly before signing the agreement with the prisoners, an Israeli military court extended the captivity of Palestinian Legislative Council member Nayef Rajoub for another six months, for the fourth time running. Rajoub has spent a total of 10 years in Israeli jails on frivolous charges having to do with “inflammatory speech” and “incitement” against Israel’s military occupation of Palestine,

The extension of Rajoub’s detention is believed to be aimed at forestalling any agreement with hunger striking prisoners that might oblige the Israeli government to end his open-ended captivity.

Lawyers defending these leaders before Israeli courts argue that Israel resorts to “this manifestly illegal type of punishment” when it fails to establish a real case against prisoners.

“When the Israeli attorney fails to present hard or indicting evidence against a detainee before Israeli courts, Shin Bet (Israel’s domestic security agency) simply claims there is secret evidence, and the Palestinian defendant is sent to open- ended incarceration, not knowing why he is in jail or when he will be set free,” says Mohamed Amr, a lawyer from the southern West Bank of Hebron.

“No other country in the world, perhaps with the exception of Stalinist and fascist states, adopts this as part of its justice system. And, above all of this, Israel claims to be the only real democracy in the Middle East.”

Another blemish that is likely to undermine the credibility of the deal between Israel and the Palestinian inmates has to do with Israeli goodwill. Israel is notorious for violating agreements reached with the Palestinians, especially those agreements not signed on Israel’s own volition.

For example, Israel has rearrested more than a dozen former prisoners freed as part of the Gilad Shalit deal last year. Israel had pledged to refrain from re-arresting any of the freed prisoners.

Palestinian leaders also believe that Israel will seek “creative and innovative” tactics to further torment Palestinian prisoners and their families.

Bassam Kawasmeh, who has spent several years in Israeli jails, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Israel’s cruel treatment of Palestinian prisoners was a reflection of the supremacist and racist Jewish view of the rest of mankind.

“What sort of treatment would you expect from a Jewish jailer or prison warden who sees you as an infra- human being, or outright animal. Their treatment of our prisoners is a direct reflection of their virulent religious ideology.”

A few decades ago, Israel used to have somewhat modern laws guaranteeing a semblance of basic human rights and dignity in its jails and detention centres. However, as Israeli society kept moving towards extreme right-wing politics, and religious fanaticism became rampant, new draconian laws inflicting more pain and harassment on Palestinian prisoners were enacted by a justice system based on the notion that non-Jews are less than complete humans whose lives have no sanctity and whose rights are not protected.

According to the late Israeli writer and intellectual Israel Shahak, when Jewish sages and rabbis use the term “human” they only refer to Jews as non-Jews are not considered truly human. Hence, they are not entitled to human rights. The same maxim applies to the rabbinic interpretation of the Ten Commandments whereby “thou shall not murder,” for example, is understood to mean “thou shall not murder a Jew” as the lives of non- Jews have no sanctity especially when compared to Jewish lives.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been quoted as saying that the prisoner agreement is a gesture of goodwill towards Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu hopes that Abbas will reciprocate by returning to a peace process with Israel that only saw the Jewish entity devour more and more Palestinian land and may already have rendered the creation of a viable Palestinian state unfeasible, due to ubiquitous Jewish settlements and colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

I wish everyone could at least have a snippet of my childhood in the desert of Palestine. The air, balmy and thick with heat, and the rubble, crumbled and ancient. There is a spirit that flows through the rooted trees and the vast plains. It whispers at night under the scintillating, unperturbed stars and flutters through the crests of the mountains and into the valleys. The children cry in laughter in the streets of the small neighborhood of El-Khidawi. Running after each other, rustling the dirty lands with fresh prints of life. On the corner, Abu-Namoos and his son fry falafel in the sizzling oil. A systematic operation of sizzle and smiles placed between sandwich orders. I hand him two shekels and ask for a sandwich with shatta. He glances at my glass eyes and freckles and remembers that I am Awad’s granddaughter. The granddaughter that trickles back into the neighborhood streets every four years or so; each time with a part of her different, a part of her matured. I become a living snapshot of human life running wild and untamed during a game of tag. Running, running, running until the sweet desert air feels compressed in my lungs and I can run into the night forever. Unleashed from my own oppressive sense of vanity, I rub my clean eyes to the world around me. The mountains envelope the valley, the lights sparkle in the midst of the desert, and the moon, whole and round, emits the aura of welcome. I have changed, but my Palestinian desert will always be with me. In the depths of my soul, my grandfather’s canopy of grapes shelters my inner most being. The roots are tangled and intertwined with the knots of vein in my body. And I, Fadila Ehab Akel, know that I am blessed by the hand of Allah Subhana Wa’talah to have this snippet of childhood in the desert of Palestine.

Thank you fadilaakel for sharing !

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see Experience Palestine