Wilders’ joodse, christelijke en anti-islamitische geldschieters

Kamerleden Marcial Hernandez en Wim Kortenoeven stapten vandaag uit de PVV.

Dikke vrienden waren Geert Wilders en uittredend PVV-Kamerlid Wim Kortenoeven niet. Wilders is een ‘politieke klaploper’, zei Kortenoeven vandaag tijdens zijn persconferentie. De partijleider loopt volgens hem voortdurend ‘de deur plat bij joodse organisaties om te vragen om geld’. Wie zijn Wilders’ religieuze geldschieters eigenlijk

Op het partijbureau van de PVV komen tonnen uit de Verenigde Staten binnen

• Voormalig PVV-Kamerlid Hero Brinkman

De rijksoverheid is nauwelijks geld kwijt aan de Partij voor de Vrijheid. Omdat de partij op landelijk niveau subsidie weigert, zijn de budgetten veelal krap.

Toch is Wilders voor de financiering van zijn partij niet volledig op zichzelf teruggeworpen. Voormalig PVV-Kamerlid Hero Brinkman vertelde zaterdag in NRC Handelsblad hoe er ‘tonnen uit de Verenigde Staten’ binnenkwamen op het partijbureau.

Brinkman over Wilders: ‘Hij noemde één geval waarbij een koffer van 75 duizend dollar cash was afgeleverd.’ De ‘radicalisering’ van de PVV (betreurd door zowel Brinkman als de recente uittreders Kortenoeven en Hernandez) zou onder meer gestuurd zijn door de Amerikanen die Wilders geldkoffers bezorgen. In de woorden van Brinkman: ‘Ik kan er niet omheen dat dit type radicalisering in lijn is met de belangen van onze financierders.’

Met de identiteit van die financierders loopt Wilders niet te koop. Toch zijn ze lang niet allemaal anoniem. Zo vertelde de conservatieve Amerikaanse islamcriticus Daniel Pipes enkele jaren geleden dat hij een ‘bedrag van zes cijfers’ voor Wilders had opgehaald.

Ook andere fanatieke islamcritici, zoals de rechtse blogger Pamela Geller, voeren regelmatig campagne. Een aanzienlijk deel van Wilders steun komt uit religieuze kringen, zo bleek de afgelopen jaren:

• Dit is een perfecte gelegenheid om de fascistoïde islam en radicale moslims te ontmaskeren

  De Joodse organisatie Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors over de financiële steun voor Wilders

Joodse steun: vóór Israël, tegen ‘de fascistoïde islam’
Toen Wilders zich enkele jaren geleden opmaakte voor de tegen hem aangespannen rechtszaak, riep de pro-Israëlische Joodse organisatie Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors op om geld naar Wilders over te maken.

De organisatie, die de politieke islam ‘een existentiële bedreiging voor het Westen’ noemt, typeerde geldsteun volgens Vrij Nederland als ‘een perfecte gelegenheid om de fascistoïde islam en radicale moslims te ontmaskeren’.

Hoezeer donateurs gedreven worden door religieus geloof is onduidelijk. Eind 2008 richtte Wilders met Israëlische en Amerikaanse geestverwanten een ‘Alliantie van Europese Patriotten’ op. ‘Spin in het web is de Californische ‘neocon’ David Horowitz’, schreef NRC Handelsblad twee jaar geleden. ‘Deze kapitaalkrachtige zoon van joodse communisten uit New York is een van de vurige bestrijders van de progressieve elites in de VS.’

Horowitz zou jaarlijks meer dan 5 miljoen Amerikaanse dollar ophalen voor zijn strijd tegen de jihad. Hij is zeker niet de enige speler in de Joodse kolonistenbeweging met wie Wilders samenwerkt.

Joodse kritiek: Wilders zaait haat
Tegelijk zijn lang niet alle Joodse organisaties blij met Wilders: velen vinden dat zijn islamkritiek de grenzen van het betamelijke overschrijdt. ‘Meneer Wilders is een man die haat zaait’, vertelde directeur onderzoek Oren Segal van de Anti-Defamation League (ADL) twee jaar geleden aan NRC. De ADL is een van de meest prominente joodse belangenverenigingen in de Verenigde Staten.

Wilders ‘heeft ideeën waar de ADL al generaties tegen vecht. Wij verwerpen elke vorm van onverdraagzaamheid, tegen Joden net zo goed als tegen de islam.’ Bij de grote Nederlandse Joodse organisaties lijkt tevens weinig enthousiasme over Wilders te bestaan.

• Het christendom preekt liefde, maar de islam verkondigt haat en is gewelddadig (…) We moeten onze joods-christelijke Westen verdedigen.

  Geert Wilders tijdens een spreekbeurt in de Cornerstone-megakerk in Nashville

Christelijke steun: samen joods-christelijke waarden verdedigen
Vanuit de grote Nederlandse kerkgenootschappen klinken regelmatig afkeurende geluiden over de PVV. In Nederland heeft Wilders wel enkele christelijke sympathisanten. Zij appeleren deels aan dezelfde ideeën als de Joodse organisaties: liefde voor Israël (het beloofde land) en afkeer van de (uitwassen van de politieke) islam.

‘Het christendom preekt liefde, maar de islam verkondigt haat en is gewelddadig’, vertelde Wilders in mei 2011 tijdens een spreekbeurt in de baptistische Cornerstone-megakerk in het Amerikaanse Nashville (zie onderstaande video). ‘We moeten onze joods-christelijke Westen verdedigen.’ De PVV heeft de steun van de Cornerstone-gemeente hard nodig, benadrukte Wilders.

Ook de evangelicale actiegroep Christian Action Network (CAN) trok de portemonnee, ontdekte NRC Handelsblad. De groep gebruikte beelden van een Wilders-spreekbeurt in een promotievideo die moest waarschuwen voor moslimterreur. Een bezoek van Wilders aan een CAN-evenement in Los Angeles ging niet door. De PVV zegde af nadat dagblad De Pers berichtte over het homofobe verleden van de actiegroep.

Of de partij ook in Nederland financiële steun krijgt uit christelijke hoek is onduidelijk. Contacten zijn er zeker: charistmatisch leider Mattheüs van der Steen van de pinksterbeweging TRIN ging afgelopen najaar bij Wilders op bezoeken voerde ‘een positief gesprek’. Volgens TRIN schoof ook een aantal andere christelijke leiders aan.

(www.trouw.nl / 04.07.2012)

45 years of occupation: enough!

There’s Occupation and then there is Occupation. One is the 99 percent demanding equity and dignity, holding out new hope and possibilities for a more just, fair and compasionate society.

The other is the Israeli occupation of Palestine, 45 years this week. 1967 changed everything. Israel defied UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 which called for withdrawing from the West Bank, Gaza (and the Golan) on the basis of the “inadmissibility of land taken by force.” Israel did not withdraw and simply ignored the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of people and lands being occupied. Some critics see this as the continuation of the 1940s pattern of dispossession and suppression of the indigenous Palestinian people, the Nakba (catastrophe), extended to the Occupied West Bank and Gaza.

To understand the full scope of the brutality of occupation is to get a glance at the human face of “Occupation.” Israeli occupation of Palestinians has impacted every aspect of their lives — what Jeff Halper (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) calls a “matrix of control.” Using a prison model, the area of the prison may be immense, but the space needed for the prisoners’ cells and the prison officials in control of inmates is relatively miniscule. Following that analogy, Israel has through 45 years used a series of mechanisms of control over the Palestinian people. Some target individuals, others form collective punishment. Closure of universities for a year; month-long, 23-hour curfews on entire villages; thousands of Palestinians killed and wounded (B’Tselem); deportations; indefinite detention without charges: attempts at creating alternative leadership have made up the history of these 45 years. Checkpoints, road blocks, permit systems for practically every kind of movement and, of course now the Wall, are among the more visible.

True, soon after June 1967, one could move more freely. A friend and I rented a car to take her soon-to-be sister-in law on a last fling before her wedding. We traveled from Kalandia refugee camp, West Bank, to Nazareth and Galilee where we enjoyed a picnic and a swim. A few checkpoints, but it was a decent human experience overall. My point: as the decades of occupation move on, the measures of control are a) harsher and b) multiplied and c) intensified, with 24,813 Palestinian homes demolished from 1967 to 2010. The Wall has effectively closed the circle of Jeff Halper’s analogy with a prison.

Bethlehem town is de facto, not virtual, a prison as is Qalqiya as is Bil’in, as is … as will soon be Al Walajeh, Beit Jala and other Palestinian villages.

More disturbing is the 1995 “Center of Life” policy applied to Palestinians living in Jerusalem. Its aim is to revoke Jerusalem residency for Palesinians who can not prove they continuously lived and worked in Jerusalem for the past seven years. An Israeli member of HaMoked (Center for the Defence of the Individual) took me to the home of a family under scrutiny. The Palestinian mother described the unannounced visit of a Municpal worker. He went through their modest home, bedroom, checked the bed, closet and drawers for clothing and other articles that would substantiate her claim that her husband indeed lived there. I was shocked, embarrassed, and felt her humiliation at such intrusive treatment.

We must not forget that the Occupation of Palestine is the longest in modern history. In the face of statements by high Israeli officials such as “making their lives so miserable that they will leave voluntarily”or, “creating conditions which would attract voluntary migration” or, “mass expulsions among Arabs in the territories,” can there be any doubt that Israel intends to make Occupation permanent? The Silent Transfer continues. Enough!

Sister Miriam Ward lives in Burlington.

(www.timesargus.com / 04.07.2012)

The Beginning of the End for Abbas

Palestinian demonstrators chant slogans in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on 30 June 2012, during a protest against a planned meeting between Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Israel’s vice prime minister Shaul Mofaz.

The Oslo-Palestinian Authority has lost its temper. The lesson we learnt from the Arab uprisings is that when the government loses its temper, it starts making mistakes. Eventually, it writes the ending to its own story with a series of mistakes that flips over the balance of fear that’s been sustained on the ground for so long.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has managed to contain the agitated youth movement that first took to the streets on 15 March 2011. Still, the PA remained wary of any issues that might trigger a mass uprising. Those fears have escalated since the beginning of the year, with a growing opposition against talks with the Israeli occupation and continuous scandals within the PA ministries. Despite the limitations put on the youth movement, unprecedented protests in front of the Presidential HQ (al-Muqata) in Ramallah served as a warning to the police-state of Abbas.

Last month, an official meeting between Abbas and war-criminal deputy Israeli PM Shaul Mofaz was announced, angering the public. It was a chance for the youth movement to mass mobilize. The PA unofficially announced that the meeting would be postponed “at the request of the people.” This effort to quell the anger failed to cancel the planned protest against the Mofaz meeting and the system of negotiations and security collaborations. But the protests marginalized factional – in particular Fatah youth – participation in the protests.

Ironically, the security forces accuse the protesters of links to the US and Israeli governments. This accusation comes from the same security forces that were trained by US General Keith Dayton and refuse to end their public security collaboration with the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Around 200 to 250 protesters took to the street as planned on Saturday. Dayton-trained PA security forces lost their tempers and attempted to intimidate the protesters. They brutally suppressed and crushed the protest. It is not the first time security forces have used excessive force against protesters, but on previous occasions, brutal suppression of demonstrations was not followed by further protests. The PA security forces thought this time would not be any different. The suppression portrays the lack of freedom of speech and press in the West Bank. Brutalities were covered up on previous occasions by intimidating the media and confiscating cameras and footage of the suppression. But this time they failed. As cameras were confiscated and journalists were attacked, smart phones managed to surpass the obstruction and provide a live feed to social media.The next day, around 500 protesters rallied against the security forces’ brutality. The scenario of the first day was repeated. Spokesman of the Palestinian security services, Adnan al-Dumairi, resorted to expired methods previously used by toppled and current Arab governments. He pointed the finger at the “agendas of the unknown movements.”

In the first two days of the suppression, the PA used official security forces and undercover police to crush the protests. If they fail to stop the protests, the PA might resort to organizing Fatah-loyalists to counter these protests, a similar tool used by Egypt’s ruling military. But the movement has come a long way to just stop now, despite the challenges of facing an Israeli occupation and a Palestinian collaborator government.

Ironically, the security forces accuse the protesters of links to the US and Israeli governments. This accusation comes from the same security forces that were trained by US General Keith Dayton and refuse to end their public security collaboration with the Israeli Occupation Forces. The next step might be accusing the protesters of serving an Iranian-Hamas conspiracy against Fatah. It remains astonishing how they successfully sell this to many people.

The PA is now in a critical position not only because of the continued protests, but also due to internal conflicts within Fatah. Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas has taken the decision to eliminate his internal rivals within Fatah. But Abbas, his allies within Fatah, and his rivals all share one quality: corruption. Although Abbas managed to drive out strongman Muhammad Dahlan, he failed to successfully eliminate his loyalists from the security forces. New rivals keep emerging amongst the leadership of Fatah. Unfortunately for Abbas, these rivals are forming a united front against him. These rivals, using their wealth, have built a base of loyalists. During years of corruption in the West Bank, the likes of Dahlan and Mohammad Rashid have made a mint, concentrating their support in the north of the West Bank. The PA, centralized in Ramallah, has ignored and marginalized the cities and villages in the north of the West Bank.

The security forces’ brutality has so far only strengthened the bonds between the youth.

Abbas was put on the alert by several incidents in the Jenin governorate, including an incident that resulted in the death of the Governor of Jenin. Abbas decided to strike at his rivals’ loyalists within the security forces in the north, announcing on Sunday that at least 200 men had been rounded up in Jenin in an illegal weapons trade, including Fatah men. The level of success remains unclear.But Abbas’ problems are not confined to the north, as the PA is also facing growing opposition in the marginalized south of the West Bank. The brewing trouble in Hebron is becoming a real threat to Abbas’ control over Fatah. The northern and southern edges of the West Bank face the worst attacks by illegal Jewish settlers and Israel’s Occupation Forces, adding to the people’s anger.

This week, Palestinians from all over Palestine will continue their demonstrations in Ramallah to protest the security forces’ brutality. This is a critical time for the PA. Although the youth movement remains limited in numbers, it is stacked with brave and determined women and men. The security forces’ brutality has so far only strengthened the bonds between the youth. Along with the actions taken during the prisoners’ hunger strike, the recent agitation has also strengthened the bonds between activists within the ‘48 occupied territories, the ‘67 occupied territories and in exile. Judging from the Arab uprisings, we know what to expect from a police-state, but we have also learnt the key to success: determination and sacrifice. This week’s protests might not trigger a mass revolution yet, but it is certainly the first step to liquidate the collaborator and corrupt Palestinian leadership and return to the path of liberation.

(english.al-akhbar.com / 04.07.2012)

Gaza women petition Supreme Court for right to pray in Jerusalem

Judges say Israel has no obligation to guarantee freedom of religion to non-citizens

Palestinian female students protest in Rafah, Gaza Strip in February

Six women from Gaza appealed to the Supreme Court on Wednesday to be allowed to pray at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque. The original petition was denied by the Beersheba District Court last year.

The women, all over the age of 50, claim that Israel is discriminating against them on the basis of their Muslim faith. The petitioners cite Christian women in Gaza, who are allowed access to holy sites within Israel. Gisha, an Israeli NGO that deals with Palestinian freedom of movement and is representing the women, argued that Christian women aged 35 and over are allowed access to Israel based on government-set quotas, whereas Muslim women are categorically denied.

‘If Israel chooses to fulfill its obligations towards Gaza by allowing Christians to pray in Jerusalem, it must also allow Muslims to pray in Jerusalem’

Israel toughened its security stance toward the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006 and its violent takeover of the Strip one year later.

One of the petitioners, 52-year-old Umayma Qishawi, told The Times of Israel that she last visited the Aqsa mosque 35 years ago.

“I am very upset because I would love to visit Jerusalem,” she said. “If we are given a permit, we will go and return the same day. All we want to do is pray, nothing else.”

Qishawi said she had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca three years ago and that it was customary to complete the religious trip with a visit to Jerusalem.

“We are only women, what damage could we do? In any case, we would undergo security checks at the Erez border crossing. This is clearly a government policy and we demand explanations for it.”

The Court, however, seemed unimpressed by the argument.

“The state has the right to control its gates, freedom of religion notwithstanding,” said Justice Miriam Naor, who presided over the three-judge panel. The judges refused to acknowledge Gisha’s argument that the state had an obligation to treat non-citizens equally.

“Where is it written that a state must implement equality outside its borders? Does Israel have an obligation to let in all the citizens of the world?” asked Justice Uzi Fogelman.

But Sari Bashi, director of Gisha, said the Supreme Court had acknowledged Israel’s special humanitarian obligations toward the Gaza Strip back in 2008.

“Gaza is not a country, Gaza is not an enemy state. Gaza is an area which we believe is under occupation. The Court does not believe it is under occupation, but rather is an area where Israel has special obligations,” Bashi told The Times of Israel.

‘We are only women, what damage could we do? In any case, we would undergo security checks at the Erez border crossing. This is clearly a government policy and we demand explanations for it’

“Our claim today was that those obligations cannot allow the state to discriminate based on religious beliefs. If Israel chooses to fulfill its obligations towards Gaza by allowing Christians to pray in Jerusalem, it must also allow Muslims to pray in Jerusalem.”

Attorney Nomi Heger, representing Gisha, argued that the unusually high court fees — NIS 25,000 ($6,400) — imposed on the organization by the District Court are “punitive” and will deter Palestinians from petitioning Israeli courts in the future.

“The imposition of costs raises serious questions about the openness of the Israeli justice system to Palestinian petitioners and to human rights organizations,” Bashi said.

But on Wednesday, Umayma Qishawi remained optimistic that come  Ramadan in two weeks, she will be allowed to pray at Al-Aqsa.

(www.timesofisrael.com / 04.07.2012)

Anti-Islam protest sees low turnout in Norway

A demonstration of the far-right Norwegian Defence League last week in Stavanger saw a turnout of only around 20-30 people, while an counter anti-racist protest nearby attracted around 800 supporters. Speakers at the NDL meet included the organisation’s Martin Olsen, as well as Merete Hodne from Stop the Islamisation of Norway (SIAN), both of whom were questioned as part of the trial of confessed mass killer Ander Behring Breivik.

The anti-racist organisation SOS Racism attracted 800 supporters to its rally by the cathedral.

Despite the low turnout at the NDL event, the area around the Petroleum Museum was cordoned off, and reports indicate that there were over 100 police officers stationed around the city in case of trouble. The Stavanger Aftenblad newspaper also claims that officers were drafted in from the rest of Rogland and western Norway, and that some businesses in Stavanger were asked to delay their summer holidays in case violence erupted.

Talking about the two conflicting protests, police inspector Fredrik Martin Soma admitted that, “There were more [officers] than usual to ensure these could be carried out in a safe way.” He, however, declined to say exactly how many personnel were posted to the city.

(www.icenews.is / 04.07.2012)

Israeli Occupation Forces Deliberately Start Another Fire in Golan

QUNEITRA, (SANA) – In line with its hostile practices against the occupied Syrian Golan, the Israeli occupation authorities deliberately set fire to the occupied town of Banias in the northern sector on Tuesday.

SANA reporter quoted a number of the Golan residents as saying that the fire spread over huge spaces of agricultural and forest areas from east of the archeological town of Banias to Shilal Sa’ar area.

Governor of Quneitra, Hussein Arnous, indicated to the repeated violations by the Israeli occupation of international resolutions, adding that the governorate has taken a set if precautionary measures to extinguish any fire set by the Israeli occupation authorities along the “cease fire” line.

In turn, head of the Environment Affairs Department in the governorate, Hamzeh Suleiman, said that the occupation forces have set three fires in the Golan in the last few weeks with the aim of harming the environment and the people of the area for their adherence to their lands

(occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com / 04.07.2012)

Saudi Arabia warns citizens not to travel to Lebanon

Saudi Arabia has urged its citizens not to travel to Lebanon, citing concerns over security in a country shaken by the uprising in neighbouring Syria, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The Saudis joined Gulf peers Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in advising citizens to stay away from Lebanon, where sectarian tensions fuelled by the revolt in Syria sparked street fighting earlier this year.

“Considering the unstable situation in the Lebanese arena, the Foreign Ministry warns its citizens against travelling to Lebanon for their own safety,” a Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying on the state news agency SPA.

Gulf Arab states – particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar – have thrown their weight behind the anti-government uprising in Syria, paying the salaries of members of Syrian rebel army and calling for the opposition to be armed.

Wealthy tourists from Gulf states flock to Lebanon, particularly in the summer months, giving a boost to the economy that has been hit hard by unrest in Syria.

Supporters and opponents of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have battled in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, and the border area has been used by rebels to smuggle arms into Syria and take refuge from government troops.

In April, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Lebanon to avoid Lebanon’s border areas after two Saudi citizens were kidnapped and tortured for eight days. The two were later freed in a joint Saudi-Lebanese rescue operation.

(in.reuters.com / 04.07.2012)

Islamic University of Gaza celebrates first medical graduates

 

Almost all of the new medical graduates will serve their people at hospitals in Gaza.

The Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) is preparing for its 31st graduation ceremony; this year’s theme is “creativity and distinction”. Students from different faculties at the university, such as engineering, commerce, science and religious studies, will graduate. For the first time, they will be joined by graduates from the School of Medicine.

The IUG School of Medicine was established 4 years ago under the ongoing Israeli siege; it has been faced with and overcome a number of challenges and difficulties. Almost all of the new medical graduates will serve their people at hospitals in Gaza.

In cooperation with the Government of Turkey, the IUG is building Al-Sadaqa Hospital where medical students will be able to work as part of their studies. The Israeli siege against the people of Gaza has resulted in delays for this project, to the embarrassment of the IUG graduates.

(www.middleeastmonitor.com / 04.07.2012)

 

PA: Israel agrees to register 216 Gazans in West Bank

Israel suspended changes of address applications in 2000, effectively making residents of the West Bank from Gaza illegal in their own homes.

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israel has agreed to register 216 Palestinians originally from the Gaza Strip as residents of the West Bank, a Palestinian Authority liaison department said Wednesday.

The Civil Affairs department, tasked with coordinating the population registry with Israel,released the names of Palestinians who will now be able to reside in the West Bank without fear of detention.

It said the department would continue efforts to change the residency status of all Palestinians from Gaza who are living in the West Bank.

Palestinians living in the West Bank whose registered address is in the Gaza Strip have been detained by Israel as “illegal aliens.”

Despite handing control of the population registry to the Palestinian Authority in the 1995 Oslo Accords, Israel stopped updating changes of address between the Gaza Strip and West Bank in its own system in 2000, effectively overriding the Palestinian government.

Israel received an estimated 120,000 change of address applications that it did not process between 2000 and 2005, according to Human Rights Watch.

Meanwhile Palestinians registered in Gaza were forbidden from traveling to the West Bank or changing their registered address despite living in the West Bank.

“Around 35,000 of these ‘Gazans’ had entered and resided in the West Bank using temporary permits that have expired,” a February report by Human Rights Watch said.

Citing a political gesture to the Palestinian Authority, Israel processed 33,000 registration applications between 2007 and 2009, and allowed around 2,800 Palestinians registered in Gaza to change their address to the West Bank.

“These steps have not cleared the backlog,” HRW said, calling for Israel to allow Palestinians to live in their own homes and travel freely.

(www.maannews.net / 04.07.2012)

Urgent: 83 Days of Hunger Strike- Take action for Palestinian prisoner Akram Al-Rikhawi!

Palestinian political prisoner Akram Al-Rikhawi is currently on his 83rd day of hunger strike, in severe danger of death. He is suffering from numerous medical conditions, including diabetes, asthma, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, glaucoma, kidney problems and immune deficiency. Addameer reports that “Prior to his arrest, Akram received injections of Kenacort to treat his asthma, but following his arrest, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) did not allow Akram to take this injection. Instead, it was replaced with injections of cortisone, which is most likely the cause of severe complications, resulting in additional chronic illnesses such as diabetes and osteoporosis, from which Akram now suffers.” Take action today to call for the immediate release of Akram al-Rikhawi!

Akram began his hunger strike on April 12 of this year to demand his early release due to his heath circumstances. He also has eight children, and he and his wife are also responsible for the care of the five children of his late brother. Despite his severe health circumstances and his difficult family and economic straits and responsibility for 13 children, his appeals for early release in 2012 and on June 5, 2012 were both rejected.

He did not stop his hunger strike on May 14 at the time of the agreement between prisoners and the Israel Prison Services because his unique circumstances were not addressed – namely, early release on medical grounds. Physicians for Human Rights were denied access to Akram for nearly two months, until June 6. He has lost 26.5% of his body weight – and was already very unhealthy. Akram has been refusing medical examinations since mid-May – and in response, the cortisone injections have only increased. PHR has stated that he must be transferred immediately to a civilian hospital in order to receive proper medical care, and filed suit to demand he be transferred – which was denied by an Israeli District Court on June 14.

On the heels of the victory achieved by Mahmoud Sarsak after an unprecedented 95-day hunger strike, in which Sarsak, held without charge or trial under a new law labelling uncharged detainees from Gaza as “unlawful combatants” – won his release, scheduled for July 10. Sarsak – a Palestinian football player on the national team – was released after international publicity – including statements from FIFPro and FIFA officials and players – was drawn to his case. It is urgent that we act now to free Akram Rikhawi and secure his much-needed medical care.

Akram al-Rikhawi is not the only Palestinian prisoner currently on hunger strike. Samer al-Barq has now been on hunger strike since May 22, for 43 days, protesting Israeli violations of the agreement with the prisoners – after his own administrative detention, rather than expiring as agreed by the Israelis at the end of the strike, was renewed for an additional three months. Samer al-Barq is now on hunger strike until his release is secured.

Samer al-Barq is not the only Palestinian victim of the Israeli violations of the agreement ending the hunger strike. Notably, Hassan Safadi, a long-term hunger striker who had been striking for 71 days at the time the agreement was concluded, had his administrative detention order renewed by the Israelis on June 21, despite the explicit agreement that the long-term hunger strikers such as Safadi serving in administrative detention without charge or trial would not have those orders renewed. Safadi is now on his 13th day of hunger strike and plans to continue until he is released.

Addameer reports that the cases of al-Barq and Safadi are not the only examples of Israeli intransigence and violation of the agreement:

In regards to the implementation of the agreement as a whole, one of the 19 prisoners in long-term isolation, Dirar Abu Sisi, has still not been moved to the general prison population, and an additional prisoner was moved to isolation last week. Furthermore, family visits to prisoners from Gaza have not yet resumed, though one month has passed since the agreement was signed. Addameer has observed no change in Israel’s overall administrative detention policy and fears that these practices will only continue without significant pressure from the international community.

Administrative detention, mass roundups, and military trials are continuing in Palestine. Activists like Walid Abo Rass, the financial and administrative manager of the Health Work Committees – a community based health organization – continue to be kidnapped and held arbitrarily in occupation prisons. International solidarity and action is needed to hold the occupation accountable for its ongoing imprisonment and abuse of the people of Palestine!

(samidoun.ca / 04.07.2012)