The Qur’an as a Motivator of Change

The Qur’an has a wondrous impact on those who receive it as a book of guidance and remedy. Its influence on them is great and radical; the Qur’an reforms the character and remolds it into a new form that is loved by Allah. One who doubts this effect has to consider what happened to the Companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

 

 

 

 

Before Islam, the Companions led a miserable, ignorant life. The change effected by the Qur’an in their life testifies to its power of change and reformation. Those poor, insignificant, barefooted desert dwellers were reshaped into new beings; their ambitions were elevated to sublime goals; and their hearts were raised and attached to Allah.

Read Also: Qur’an: A Movement-Inspiring Book Fulfilling the Qur’an’s Mission Impact of the Qur’an on the Muslim Women How to Enrich Your Life With the Qur’an Tilawah (Recitation) of the Qur’an Revisited

Their souls were changed and, therefore, Allah’s promise came true:

{Surely Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition.} (Ar-Ra`d 13:11)

Thus, within a few years, a fresh force emerged from the desert of Arabia, conquering the strong empires of the time and seizing leadership from them.

How could the Qur’an bring about such dramatic change? Actually, what made the Qur’an so effective is the excellent approach followed by the Prophet’s Companions toward it. They understood the Qur’an and appreciated its value, taking in this regard the Prophet (peace  be upon him) as their best example.

The Prophet Muhammad lived the Qur’an and was imbued by its spirit, approving what it approved and rejecting what it rejected. Therefore, it is not strange that his wife `Ai’shah described him as the “Qur’an walking on the earth.”

The Prophet (peace  be upon him) used to recite the Qur’an slowly and clearly. Once a night, he would repeat the following verse in his prayer:

{If You should chastise them, then surely they are Your servants; and if You should forgive them, then surely You are the Mighty, the Wise.} (Al-Ma’idah 5:118)

The Companions savored the sweetness of the Qur’an and were touched by it.

The Qur’an had such an overwhelming effect on the Prophet that he said “(Surat) Hud [Surah 11] and its sisters [related surahs] have brought me white hairs before their due time.” So the appalling scenes of the Day of Resurrection and the description of what happened to previous nations, as mentioned in Surat Hud and its likes, affected not only the Prophet’s spirituality, but even extended to his physical being.

The Prophet’s Companions followed in the Prophet’s footsteps. They also savored the sweetness of the Qur’an and were touched by it. In this regard, the story of `Abbad ibn Bishr is very indicative. On their way back from one battle, the Prophet (peace  be upon him) appointed `Abbad and `Ammar ibn Yasir to guard the camp at night. `Abbad took the first turn and `Ammar went to sleep.

The place seemed safe and, therefore, `Abbad spent his time in prayer. However, one polytheist was watching the camp and shot `Abbad with an arrow; `Abbad took the arrow out of his body and continued his prayers. The polytheist shot another arrow at `Abbad, and, once again, `Abbad took out the arrow and continued with his prayers. The polytheist shot `Abbad with a third arrow and it was only then that he stopped his recitation, made ruku` and sujud, and woke up `Ammar. When `Ammar asked why he did not wake him up after he was shot the first time, `Abbad answered,

I was reciting a surah that I didn’t want to interrupt. But when he (the polytheist attacker) kept on shooting me, I awakened you. By Allah, had not I feared that the task (of guarding the camp) assigned to me by the Prophet would be jeopardized, I would not have ceased the recitation of the surah until I had finished it or until he had finished me off. (Abu Dawud; authenticated by Al-Albani)

Studying a small part of the Qur’an with careful reflection is better than large portions without contemplation.

The above example affirms that reciting the Qur’an was not mere lip service practiced by the Prophet and his Companions. Actually, the real value of the Qur’an lies in its meanings and in its ability to effect change in the reader. The Qur’an is meant to revive believers’ hearts and to reform their minds. This in turn would produce people who know Allah and worship Him sincerely. However, such a fruit cannot be attained through thoughtless reading of the Qur’an, even if one were to read the entire Qur’an thousands of times.

The Companions affirmed this point repeatedly. `A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) was told about some people who used to read the whole Qur’an two or three times a night. Her comment was that “they (obviously) read, but as a matter of fact, they did not read.” And she then related how the Prophet would spend the whole night reading in his prayer just the surahs of Al-Baqarah, Aal `Imran, and An-Nisa’. While reading, he would ask Allah for His mercy when he would read a verse that imparted good news, and he would supplicate and seek refuge in Allah when he would read a verse that caused fear.

Abu Jamra once said to Ibn `Abbas, “I am quick in reading the Qur’an and I am used to finishing it in three days.” Ibn `Abbas replied, “As for me, I would prefer to spend a whole night reading (only) Surat Al-Baqarah with due reflection and careful recitation.”

In his book on the morals of the Qur’an bearers, Al-Aagri said,

Studying a small part of the Qur’an with careful reflection and due contemplation is better than reading large portions of it without such contemplation. This is emphasized by the lucid provisions in the Qur’an, by the Sunnah, and by the sayings of great Muslim scholars.

Mujahid was asked which of two men who spent similar time in prayers was better; the duration of their ruku` and sujud was the same, but one of them recited only Surat Al-Baqarah and the other recited the surahs of Al-Baqarah and Aal `Imran (but they spent the same time in reading). Mujahid said, “The one who reads only Surat Al-Baqarah is better.” He supported his view with the verse: {And it is a Qur’an which We have revealed in portions so that you may read it to the people by slow degrees} (Al-Israa’ 17:106) (Al-Aagri 82-83)

(www.onislam.net / 06.05.2012)

The Nakba never ceased

He clicked his prayer beads shoving a heavy breath out of two enormous nostrils that, I imagined, tumbled over a thick mustache before joining the air. In fact, it looked more like a broom than a mustache. His voice was cluttered and laden with years. He is seventy one. I almost closed my eyes, taking in as much aura as my lungs allowed. It was a mixture of baked cookies, stench, and coffee.

A young woman sneaked out of a clay-and-cement shack holding a tray of coffee close to her chest. She bent down and placed it on a plastic table in the middle of a circle of which I, Hajj Othman, a friend of mine and her father formed the contour.

A few strands of hair slipped out the young woman’s yellowish headscarf and landed on her forehead. She raised two perfectly arched eyebrows as if summoning a thought from the air but instead of speaking, she lowered her eyes, and nervously pushed the strands back into the hijab.

“Tfaddal, please help yourself” she finally broke the silence, serving the first cup to her grandfather, the Hajj.

“The guests first, seedi, darling” the grandfather rumbled, tenderly tapping her shoulder.

I never drink coffee except in funeral ceremonies where sugarless coffee becomes an arbitrary ritual; but her seemingly dim character and slight smile made me too vulnerable to reject anything. “Bless your hands, it is very well-made” I said, sipping the bitter liquid. “And your hands” she said, her face perking up.

I was in a meter-wide space between two shacks, one of which belonged to Hajj Othman; in an alleyway in Deir al-Balah refugee camp. To me, it was a fulfillment of a dream I had for so long denied myself. For so long I had been scared by the thought that I might look like an intruder who did not belong to this fragment of history.

Hajj Othman Sa’d Aldeen al-Habbash was born on 29 June 1941 in a small Palestinian village west of present-day Ashkelon known as al-Jura. On November 4 and 5 1948, the village was mercilessly depopulated of its native inhabitants who numbered just under 3,000 in 1948. Just like the rest, Hajj Othman, seven years old at the time, fled to Gaza.

“The Jews told us to grow crops and promised to export them for us; we waited and the crops rotted,” he recounted, rubbing his head, as if to stimulate the memories. “They imposed heavy taxes knowing that we would never be able to pay them, and once the due date had come, and we couldn’t pay, they mortgaged our lands and eventually confiscated them.” He arched his head towards the ground, clicked his beads for seconds and said: “Egypt sold us. King Hussein sold us.”

“I left my schoolbag at my house in al-Jura, we thought it was temporary. They raided us from their planes. Eighty-six were murdered in a matter of few minutes.”

The air was too dense by now; a rusty faucet at the turn of the alleyway was dripping. Two men approached us; we stood up and hoisted the chairs over our heads to make some space for them to pass. Alleyways.

“We were poor and scattered in tents; we mixed flour with powdered milk for food,” pause, a heavy breath, and a resumption: “I remained barefoot for many years. When I first enrolled in an agency [UNRWA] school, they handed me a pair of shoes. I embraced them, I couldn’t believe I owned them.”

I sank in my chair grappling with a tear quivering on the rims on my eyes. I was too immersed in my pain, too selfish to notice the reactions of my friend, and her father. He embraced his shoes.

Hajj Othman caressed us with a gentle gaze and smiled. When his smile stretched to take over the rest of his face, magnificent lines gradually appeared on the corners of his eyes. Without much resistance, my face adhered and loosened into a smile.

“I used to smoke four packets a day. My wife begged me to quit smoking but I never listened to her;” he said in between bursts of laughter, “when the agency replaced the tents with shacks, I hurled the last packet I had that day on the rooftop and I never smoked again.”

Hajj Othman told us about his village’s sycamore. He told us about his grandchildren. I thought of the young woman who served us coffee. “Not a single moment does my country skip my thoughts,” he boasted. “It is the same for my grandchildren; they miss al-Jura even though they have never seen it. They know exactly how it looks like.”

In a refugee camp, everything has a meaning; colorful laundry dangling from overworked lines, a boy leaving traces of Falafel behind his steps, two girls locking their arms and running their tongues over cheap ice-cream, a mother calling her son a “devil,” or a grandfather clacking his prayer beads, just like Hajj Othman. Everything has a meaning.

We were immersed. I, my friend, and her father. The air, in addition to baked cookies, coffee and sewage, was saturated with dormant anger. It was there in the “we shall return” graffiti, in the “Palestine is more precious than our blood,” and in the youthful faces, alas killed, staring down from posters perching on top of iron pillars or glued to walls.

750,000 native Palestinians were expelled during the Nakba and 531 villages were destroyed so that the “State of Israel” could come into being. “Kill the Arabs” read their graffiti, and so they did in Deir Yassin on April 9 1948; so happened in “Operation Mopping-up” in the Galilee. For those who owned lives in the Galilee — indeed all Palestinians — were “cockroaches” according to Raphael Eitan, the 1976 Israeli Chief of Staff.

The Nakba never ceased. We were treated like “cockroaches” during so-called Operation Cast Lead. And we are the “cockroaches” on a hunger strike in Israel’s cells. But we will always remain the “cockroaches” who pray, laugh, and fall in love. Nevertheless.

(Rana B. Baker /  electronicintifada.net / 06.05.2012)

Egyptian law allows army to keep trying civilians

The Egyptian parliament did not challenge the army’s prerogative to transfer civilians to its own courts but voted to cancel the president’s right to do so.

Egypt’s parliament voted on Sunday to stop the head of state sending civilians for military trials, but rights campaigners said little would change immediately because the move would only apply to a civilian president and not the generals now ruling the country.

Pressure group No to Military Trials, created after a popular uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak last year, says the army has carried out at least 12,000 trials of civilians, many of them arrested during pro-democracy protests.

Leaders of the street movement that toppled Mubarak say the legacy of his autocratic rule lives on in the trials, which take place behind closed doors, with sentences often meted out swiftly on defendants lacking proper legal representation.

The army, which is promising to hand power to a new president by July, routinely dismisses accusations that its trials are unfair.

Supporters of the tribunals say they are vital to ensure order and relieve the burden on overstretched civilian courts.

Parliament did not challenge the army’s prerogative to transfer civilians to its own courts but voted to cancel the president’s right to do so – a mechanism used frequently by Mubarak against Islamists, who now dominate parliament.

“The parliament led by Islamists seem to only notice what has happened to them, and not to the thousands of civilians standing military trial or sent to military jails,” said Heba Morayef of Human Rights Watch.

The assembly ordered that civilians sent by the former president to military courts be given the right to a retrial before a civilian court within 60 days of the law being passed.

The law must be approved by the military rulers before it can take effect.

(english.alarabiya.net / 06.05.2012)

Saudi Arabia is Israel’s last hope: report

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud

The Al Saud family is very important to Israel because Saudi Arabia is very actively working in countries such as Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon to reduce Iran’s influence in those countries.”

Tel Aviv University Report

A recent report by Tel Aviv University says Saudi Arabia is the last hope and defense line for Israel and describes the Saudis as Tel Aviv’s last chance to protect its political interests in the Arab world.

The report said most of Israel’s allies in the region have collapsed and cannot play a significant role in the Arab world.

It added that Saudi Arabia is the only country that stands against the Islamic Republic of Iran and thus it is Tel Aviv’s last line of defense against Tehran.

The report noted that the Al Saud family is very important to Israel because Saudi Arabia is very actively working in countries such as Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon to reduce Iran’s influence in those countries.

Last March, a senior Egyptian cleric accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of meddling in the internal affairs of other Muslim nations, calling the two states “Israel’s servants.”

Sheikh Mohammad Alaedin Madhi said the two countries were implementing an Israeli-US plan in Syria.

He also criticized the Saudi-owned television network Al-Arabiya and the Qatar-owned broadcaster Al-Jazeera for “serving Israeli interests.”

Moreover, in emails leaked by WikiLeaks and obtained by the Beirut-based newspaper Al-Akhbar, it was revealed that Saudi Arabia had reached out to the Mossad, which assisted the kingdom with, as Al-Akhbar reports, “intelligence collection and advice on Iran.”

According to a source quoted in the emails, “Several enterprising Mossad officers, both past and present, are making a bundle selling the Saudis everything from security equipment (to) intelligence and consultation.”

(www.presstv.ir / 06.05.2012)

PA forces launch security crackdown in Jenin

Palestinian Authority security forces

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinian Authority forces launched a large scale security crackdown in the Jenin district on Saturday.

“Security services are sending summons to all suspects who possibly partook in the shooting at the house of the late Jenin governor Qaddura Musa, and suspects involved in murder, blackmailing or other assaults,” the commander of Jenin’s security forces Radi Asida told Ma’an.

The governor of Jenin died from a heart attack on Wednesday, which officials say was brought on by an attack on his home by gunmen.

The perpetrators of the attack have not been found and security services are working around the clock to bring them in, Commander Asida said.

“There will be detentions all around Jenin,” he added.

A number of members of the PA security forces have also been questioned on suspicion of involvement in different illicit activities, Asida said.

The security campaign also aims to collect illegally possessed weapons in the Jenin district which could pose a threat to public security, he added.

The northern West Bank city of Jenin became known as a center for Palestinian fighters during the second intifada, with many militant groups launching attacks on Israeli targets from the Jenin refugee camp.

(maannews.net / 06.05.2012)

#PalHunger | Islamic Jihad: Any hunger-striker death will start next intifada

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Islamic Jihad leader Mohammad Al-Hindi warned Sunday that the death of any hunger-striking prisoner will start the third intifada, referencing the popular uprisings against Israeli occupation.

The Jihad official said the “battle of the empty stomachs” — in which more than 2,000 jailed Palestinians are refusing food — had overcome factional divisions.

“This battle will be the gateway for Palestinian unity,” he told supporters of the hunger-strikers at a solidarity tent in central Gaza City.

Al-Hindi urged cross-factional demonstrations to support the prisoners even if they lead to clashes with Israeli forces.

He also called on the Arab League to shut Israeli embassies and expel envoys in response to the popular protest rocking Israel’s jails.

Meanwhile, the Arab League held an urgent meeting in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the situation, with the Kuwaiti chair of the summit posing a resolution at the UN General Assembly to support the prisoners.

Delegates also urged the World Health Organization to investigate the conditions inside Israeli jails for Palestinians, official PA news agency Wafa reported.

On April 17, Palestinian prisoners day, over 1,000 prisoners joined a group of hunger-strikers protesting detention without charge. Around 2,000 are now taking part in the strike, prisoners rights groups estimate.

Administrative detainees Bilal Diab, 27, from Jenin, and Thaer Halahla, 33, from Hebron — are in a precarious condition after 68 days without food, a doctor from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said this week.

The organization petitioned an Israeli court to allow an independent doctor to access to Diab, but the urgent appeal was rejected and postponed until a regular hearing on Monday, PHR said.

The group also slammed the Israeli High Court for not setting a date to hear an appeal against Diab and Halahla’s detention orders.

“By ignoring the gravity of their current situation, the High Court judges are not only acting with severe negligence, but also with malicious intent,” PHR said in a joint statement with prisoners rights group Addameer.

(occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com / 06.05.2012)

Four brothers jailed by Israel for prisoner solidarity activism

Samir and Samira Halabi

Late one night in March, Rami Halabi was working on a laptop at his family’s apartment home in Kufr Aqab, on the road between Ramallah and Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. Suddenly, a group of Israeli soldiers banged on the door and demanded to be let in. They confiscated the iPhone his employer had lent him, and, despite the pleas of his mother, father and sister, they took Rami away to prison.

This is a scene all too familiar for many Palestinian families living under the boot of Israeli occupation. But there is one difference for the Halabi family that night: all three of Rami’s brothers were already imprisoned by Israel.

In a translated interview with The Electronic Intifada, their mother Samira recounted her plea to the soldiers not to part her from her last free son: “I went to hug my son, and I said, no, you’re not taking this one, you have three already, leave this one!”

One of the soldiers took Samira and her husband Samir aside. “They took us to the room to preach at us,” Samira said. “While we were in the room, they took Rami. And his dad was next to him, and they didn’t let him say goodbye to his son … they were really obnoxious.”

As the soldiers once again searched the home, Samira reached the end of her tether: “It’s still untidy [from last time],” she told them. “It’s my fault, I didn’t bring media to come and cover it and take photos.”

Accused of solidarity activism

Rami has been held in Ofer prison on remand since then. A spokesperson for the Palestinian prisoner rights organization Addameer said the Israeli authorities are accusing him of involvement in Kutub Talabi, an activist group at Birzeit University which the Israelis say is close to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the secular, Marxist-Leninist political party.

The night they took him, according to the account of workers at a nearby restaurant, “there was a collaborator standing on the top of the hill,” said Samira. “They saw him wearing a mask.” Disguised Palestinian collaborators helped Israeli soldiers during each arrest, she added.

The previous arrest had come only a week before, on 12 March, when Rami’s brother Nasser was taken. His brothers are all accused of being activists in Kutub Talabi, which is involved in organizing solidarity with Palestinian prisoners.

A student at Al-Quds Open University, Rami was also working for an alcohol company when he was arrested. His mother says he was no longer politically active.

“I didn’t expect them to arrest him, because there is nothing about him [they could charge him with],” Samria said. All three served previous prison terms in 2004 and 2009, but this was Rami’s first arrest. Rami has yet to be charged.

Samira says the Israeli soldiers caused a lot of damage when they arrested Nasser, the youngest son, at 21. “They removed the wardrobe. They searched the drawers. They threw the clothes on the floor. They checked the jackets. They opened every zipper on the jackets. They broke all the kids’ beds. When I put myself back together, I’m going to bring the carpenter to [fix] them.” The soldiers also stole a laptop and several mobile phones.

“It was horrific,” Samira said, recounting how the armed soldiers threatened the family. “I started to talk a lot. I said, I want to see my son, why are you taking him? What do you want from him? And so on. They said, shut up, shut up, we’ll destroy the house. But I didn’t shut up.”

As they were taking Nasser away, he tried to reassure his mother. “He said, ‘don’t be scared.’ I said, ‘no you are heroes, why should I be scared? I raised you this way,’” Samira recollected.

Samira began to weep during the interview, the forced parting from Nasser still raw. Nasser is currently being held on remand in Eshel prison, in Beir al-Sabe (Beer Sheva) in theNaqab (Negev) desert. In 2009 he spent a year in prison.

“You don’t know how to raise your kids”

Samira says her sons have been imprisoned because they are accused of activism: helping organize solidarity with the prisoners, throwing stones during demonstrations and membership of a banned organization, the PFLP. “I don’t want to say, but they [the Israelis] considered them big organizers.”

On 5 April 2011, when they came for Nael, one of the soldiers displayed a sense of sarcasm.

They hammered on the door so hard they seemed ready to break it down, until husband Samir rushed to open it. They went in to arrest Nael, and one soldier gestured as if to shake his hand. Nael did not reciprocate. “There were [student] elections at [Birzeit] university. And you know that the Popular Front won ten seats, to the soldier said, congratulations, the Popular Front won ten seats. So my son ignored him.”

The soldier then told Nael to get dressed and come with him. Nael deliberately moved slowly, said Samira, washing his face, combing his hair. “He took his time,” she said. It was 2:45am.

Orders came over the radio to hurry up because there were confrontations between the soldiers and local youth outside.

“One of the soldiers said [to another soldier], ‘you can’t get him?’ And he started to scream,” remembered Samira. Again, they lectured the parents, demanding to know why they didn’t raise their son “properly.”

“I raised them well, I raised them this way to be patriotic,” the mother countered. “He didn’t like what I said to him.”

“I shook [Nael’s] hand, and I hugged him. I said, may the Virgin go with you, may Jesus go with you. I hugged him: what more can I say to him?”

And then they took him away into the night. He was sentenced to 14 months for membership in Kutub Talabi, and is due to be released from Ashkelon prison on 5 June. In November 2004, Nael spent four years and two months in jail, accused by Israel of membership of a banned organization.

Threats of re-arrest because of hunger strike protest

During more recent arrests, Samira says soldiers threatened to re-arrest Nael after his release, because he is a “trouble maker” who is currently on hunger strike along with approximately 2,000 other Palestinian prisoners. “They want him to be polite,” said Samira.

Raed, the oldest son at 28, was arrested on 25 May 2011 while he was crossing Qalandiacheckpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem. Samria says it was because he defied Israel, and, after serving previous jail time, went back to activism: “It’s because of the organization [allegedly the PFLP] and Kutub Talabi, papers, transferring [information] and so on.”

In 2004 he was sentenced to two years. During that initial arrest they also took his father along as a form of extra pressure on him to cooperate, Samir explained. A softly-spoken man whose multiple health problems have forced him into retirement, Samir, also known as Abu Raed, recalled how the Israeli authorities reprimanded him, saying: “You don’t know how to raise your kids.”

Nael was also on solidarity hunger strike when Khader Adnan and Hana al-Shalabi were on hunger strike, says Samira.

He has now been on hunger strike since 17 April — Palestinian Prisoners’ Day — the beginning of the growing mass hunger strike. Since Nasser and Rami are still under investigation, the leadership of the prisoners’ movement instructed them not to go on hunger strike for now.

Part of an attempt to break the prisoners’ movement

Aiming to win improved prison conditions, Addameer estimated this past week that 2,000-2,500 of Israel’s 4,600 Palestinian political prisoners are currently on hunger strike.

Mourad Jadallah from Addameer told The Electronic Intifada that the arrest of the Halabis was part of an Israeli attempt to break the prisoners’ movement.

“They don’t want to allow a solidarity movement,” he said. “Actions like these arrests make the price high for activists.”

Jadallah added that while the case of the Halabi family was unusual, it was not unique, and cited the case of the Abu Hammed family from al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah who had four sons in jail with a fifth killed by Israel.

“You think about them all the time”

“Our problem is a real problem. We don’t know what to do or where to go,” said Samira Halabi. Asked if they are a political family, Samira says no, but that they are very proud of their sons

“This is their will and their love for their country. This is something that honors me and raises my head up,” she said.

How has the loss of four sons affected this family? “Depression. You think about them all the time,” said Samira, wiping away more tears.

(electronicintifada.net / 06.05.2012)

Israel punishes Palestinian inmates over hunger strike

Protesters hold posters depicting Palestinian hunger strikers Thaer Halahla and Bilal Thiab.

A group of Palestinian detainees say that Israeli prison officials have enacted a series of new measures to punish prisoners for an ongoing hunger strike.

Prison guards confiscated personal belongings, conducted strip searches, and placed prisoners in small metal containers in Negev prisons in southern Israel, Ma’an reported on Saturday.

Authorities also banned breaks for prisoners and six detainees were placed outside in the containers as a punishment.

On April 17, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners began the hunger strike to protest against imprisonment without charge and solitary confinement exercised by the Tel Aviv regime.

There have been several demonstrations across the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip to express solidarity with the prisoners.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and prisoner advocacy groups, there are currently thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, many of whom have been rounded up without charge or trial.

(www.presstv.ir / 06.05.2012)

#PalHunger | URGENT | Joint Statement Addameer & Physicians for Human Rights-Israel | May 6, 2012

Concern Mounts for the Lives of Prisoners on Protracted Hunger Strikes, as Bilal Diab, Thaer Halahleh and Hassan Safadi are Subjected to Medical Negligence

Joint Press Release, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel

Ramallah-Jaffa, 6 May 2012

Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh are at risk of death as they enter their 69^th day of hunger strike in protest of their administrative detention. In spite of their rapidly deteriorating health, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) is still denying regular access to them by independent Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel)—Addameer  and PHR-Israel are outraged by the blatant breach of medical ethics committed by the IPS in regards to these most urgent cases and by the negligence of the Israeli High Court judges who have yet to make a decision regarding their petition.

After continual denial of access to Bilal Diab and news of his further deterioration, PHR-Israel submitted an urgent appeal to the District Court yesterday, 5 May, demanding that the IPS allow a PHR-Israel doctor to visit him, and for his family to visit him immediately. Though Bilal is entitled to a second medical opinion, the urgent appeal was rejected and postponed until a regular hearing on 7 May. Addameer and PHR-Israel are further dismayed that personnel in Assaf Harofeh Hospital, where Bilal is currently held, are placing obstacles in front of the PHR-Israel independent doctor in her attempts to ensure that her patient, Bilal, receives trusted care during this critical period. An examination by Member of Knesset Dr. Ahmad Tibi after Bilal’s collapse on 3 May indicated that Bilal is experiencing hypothermia and losing sensation in his feet. Additionally troubling is the IPS’ refusal to transfer Thaer Halahleh to a public hospital from the Ramleh Prison medical clinic, where he is currently held.

Following the Israeli High Court hearing on 3 May regarding the petition against Bilal and Thaer’s administrative detention orders, Judge Eliakim Rubenstein noted that a decision would be made at a later time, without specifying when. As of this afternoon, there is still no decision. By ignoring the gravity of their current situation, the High Court judges are not only acting with severe negligence, but also with malicious intent. Judges Rubenstein, Noam Saulberg and Yuram Dinzinger are knowingly delaying the decision despite Bilal and Thaer’s days potentially being numbered, without even providing any certainty as to when a decision will be made.

Hassan Safadi is now on his 63^rd day of hunger strike and is currently held in the Ramleh Prison medical clinic. Addameer lawyer Mahmoud Hassan succeeded in visiting Hassan today, 6 May. He noted that Hassan’s health is deteriorating and that he is very weak and cannot stand, but vows to continue his hunger strike. He is refusing any treatment or examination by prison doctors.

Hassan 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. Addameer and PHR-Israel are alarmed by this news, as forced treatment is in strict violation of the principles of medical ethics and the guidelines of the World Medical Association and the Israeli Medical Association. According to the Malta Declaration, “Physicians need to satisfy themselves that food or treatment refusal is the individual’s voluntary choice. Hunger strikers should be protected from coercion. Physicians can often help to achieve this and should be aware that coercion may come from the peer group, the authorities or others, such as family members. Physicians or other health care personnel may not apply undue pressure of any sort on the hunger striker to suspend the strike. Treatment or care of the hunger striker must not be conditional upon suspension of the hunger strike.”

Hassan also recounted having refused water for a several days until he was moved to Ramleh Prison medical clinic. Upon his arrival, he was beaten by prison guards, and the prison doctor refused to record the injuries sustained from the attack. Since the beginning of his hunger strike, Hassan has had no visits from independent doctors. PHR-Israel petitioned the District Court to allow them access, and the court ordered the IPS to allow a PHR-Israel doctor a visit no later than 7 May, though when PHR-Israel tried to coordinate a visit on 4 May, the IPS denied their request.

The appeal for Jaafar Azzedine, now on his 46^th day of hunger strike, was also postponed today by an Israeli military judge. The judge, who also ruled in Hana Shalabi’s case and rejected her appeal, said that he already decided in Hana’s case that he would not consider critical medical condition due to hunger strike as a reason for accepting an appeal, and that he would let the High Court judges in Bilal and Thaer’s case decide on this fact.

In light of growing concern for their lives, Addameer and PHR-Israel demand:

• the immediate transfer of Thaer Halahleh to a public hospital, and the transfer of prisoners on hunger strike for more than 40 days to hospitals, in addition to unrestricted access for lawyers and independent physicians to all hunger strikers, especially Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh;
• that no hunger striker be shackled while hospitalized;
• that all hunger strikers—especially those in advanced stages of hunger strike—be allowed family visits, while they are still lucid;
• that all information be given to families as to the medical condition of their loved ones, which is the responsibility of hospitals and medical staff in accordance with medical ethics and confidentiality standards;
• that Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh, along with all other administrative detainees, be immediately and unconditionally released.

(occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com / 06.05.2012)

Hamas representative in Lebanon visits Gaza

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas representative in Lebanon Ali Baraka visited the Gaza Strip in recent days for discussions with the party’s leaders, an official said Sunday.

Baraka met senior Hamas officials over the situation in the Gaza Strip, and visited the training center for the Gaza government’s ministry of interior, the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Ma’an.

On Saturday, a delegation of Hamas leaders, headed by Khalil Al-Hayya, arrived in Cairo for talks on their stalled reconciliation deal with rival party Fatah.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahhar said in a press statement on Saturday that the reconciliation talks were just as useless as talks with Israel.

“We are fed up with talking about this issue which has become similar to negotiations with Israel. We sit, and we reach agreements, but nothing goes into effect,” he said.

(maannews.net / 06.05.2012)