Read these sections of the
Winter-Spring 2019
newsletter:
TAKE ACTION:
• NO US $$$ for Abuse of Children - goes to our action alert eblast
• Rise Against Racism, Counter CUFI
• UNITED METHODISTS' NEWS:
Response to GC2019; 2019 Resolutions;
Oppose Anti-Free Speech Bill; MFSA Says "No"; UMC Board's Actions
• PARTNERS' NEWS
Two Steps Forward for Lutherans; AMP: 500 Strong on Capitol Hill; JVP: "Zionism, a false & failed answer"
IN THE NEWS: ISRAEL/PALESTINE
• SUMUD: The Great March Continues
• UN Report: Israeli War Crimes
• Removing Last Restraints in Hebron
• Palestinian Revenues, Economic Crisis
• Waging War on Prisoners
• Deporting and Denying Entry
• Israeli Elections: Game-changer or...?
IN THE NEWS: UNITED STATES
• Ilhan Omar and a New Frontier
• US, Israel Fight Int'l Criminal Court
• Airbnb Whirlwind Ends in Disgrace
• Occupied no longer? Golan Heights
• Deal of the Century...Not!
IN THE NEWS: SPOTLIGHT
• Black-Palestinian Solidarity
• SEIZE THE DAY
Coming Events, June-Dec 2019
• THE HOLY LAND BECKONS:
News on ethical tourism AND
Upcoming 2019 Trips
News & Analysis UMKR News & Alerts
UMKR Newsletter - Winter-Spring 2019
Read the newsletter eblast in your browser
IN THE NEWS: ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Waging War on Palestinian Prisoners
United Methodists are responding to Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth ,a statement of faith and urgent call to action from Christians in Palestine. UMKR seeks, through nonviolent means and in partnership with Palestinian Christians, freedom, justice and equality for all Palestinians and Israelis.
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ABOUT OUR NEWS SOURCES
The articles we include in our lists to 'Read More' – in our newsletters and on our website – are provided as an informational service for our readers, and the views expressed may or may not be shared by UMKR.
Some selections may be repetitive;because some periodicals have paywalls, we provide a variety of sources in the hope that every reader will find some of them accessible, with or without a subscription.
MASS INCARCERATION, TOOL OF CONTROL
Raid on prisoners, Ofer Prison, January 2019
Living conditions for Palestinian
prisoners have always been
notoriously poor and the Israeli
government has been threatening
to make them worse. Medical
negligence, rationing of food and
water, widespread use of solitary
confinement, and blocking visits
by family members are among the
recurring problems prisoners
have reported.
The Israeli government has been
threatening to make those conditions worse.
Israel has also been conducting violent raids on Palestinian prisoners in 2019: cells are sprayed with tear gas, then closed and sealed. Prison personnel enter cells with attack dogs, using batons and stun grenades, and shooting so-called “nonlethal” rubber-coated steel bullets. Prisoners rights groups say these attacks are part of a systematic and escalating policy to deteriorate prisoners’ living conditions and that recent aggression against prisoners is the most severe in years.
In early April, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners began a hunger strike which ended in eight days. The prisoners achieved several of their goals including medical attention, transferring women prisoners from a prison that "lacked the minimum conditions for human life, and other changes they had been demanding.
FYI only - ACTION ALERTS ON
THE (now ended) HUNGER STRIKE:
Samidoun:Take Action to
Support #DignityStrike2
Addameer: Urgent Call to Save
Palestinian Hunger Strikers
READ MORE
Mondoweiss: Palestinian prisoners win a notable battle
Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails won a small but significant victory April 15 when the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) agreed to several key demands voiced by 400 prisoners who had been on an open-ended hunger strike. Under the settlement, the IPS agreed to provide three-times-weekly access to (supervised) payphones so prisoners could call their families. It moved numerous prisoners from solitary cells back to the general population and made other concessions to the hunger strikers.
The hunger strikers’ apparent victory came just two days before Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, an
observation held annually on April 17 to draw attention to the plight of the thousands of political prisoners held—many for very long terms and many without any fixed term at all—in Israel’s broad network of military prisons.
Adameer: Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike ends achieving an agreement with the occupation
Eight days into the hunger strike announced by the Palestinian political prisoners in the occupation prisons, an agreement was reached, on Monday, April 15, 2019, between the occupation prisons administration and the prisoners’ representatives.
+972 Magazine: ’Change doesn’t
come from the courthouses alone'
Excellent background piece:
Addameer director Sahar Francis
talks about the pervasiveness of
incarceration in Palestinian society,
how she and her organization have
been targeted by Israeli forces for
their work, and what it means if the
international community can’t hold
Israel accountable for the occupation.
Samidoun: 400 Palestinian prisoners
join hunger strike as “Battle of Dignity 2”
continues in Israeli prisons
Palestinian prisoners continued to
develop their collective hunger strike
on 9 April, the second day of the
“Battle of Dignity (Karameh) 2” inside
Israeli prison. A number of leaders from
different Palestinian political forces
announced the launch of the strike on
Monday, 8 April after Israeli prison
administration officials reneged on
earlier commitments made to the prisoners’
negotiating team about telephone access....
Palestinian prisoners who have joined the strike are being transferred to other prisons in retaliation, reported the Prisoners’ Affairs Committee. This process began even before the strike started, as PFLP leader Wael Jaghoub, one of the first five leaders to announce the strike, was transferred to the Petah Tikva interrogation center two days before it began.
Electronic Intifada: Palestinians launch mass hunger strike against prison repression
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners entered day five of their mass hunger strike in several Israeli prisons on Friday. On 8 April, 400 Palestinians launched an open-ended mass hunger strike with a long list of demands, including improved medical care and conditions, more family visits and access to a public telephone, among others. Prisoners are also calling for an end to repressive measures imposed by a newly formed committee headed by Israeli public security minister Gilad Erdan to worsen conditions for detained Palestinians and reduce their standard of living to “the minimum required,” including imposing water rations. The strike, taking place in the Israeli prisons of Ofer, Gilboa, Megiddo, Eshel, Ketziot, Rimon and Nafha, was announced weeks ago by the Hamas prison leadership, to begin two days before Israeli elections on 9 April.
Samidoun: Palestinian prisoners under attack: Raids in Ofer Prison
and prisoners’ resistance
Israeli special units have escalated their repressive tactics against Palestinian
political prisoners in the past days,. These attacks have led to an ongoing mass
protest inside Ofer prison, called “the battle of unity and dignity.”
Electronic Intifada: Israel injures dozens of Palestinian prisoners
Israeli forces injured dozens of Palestinians in Ketziot prison in the southern Naqab
region this week in its latest crackdown on detainees. The Israel Prison Service
raided cells on Monday, beating prisoners and using tear gas and stun grenades.
Some were hospitalized and then returned to the prison.
Electronic Intifada: 100 Palestinian prisoners injured in Israeli attacks
Several Israeli military units raided two other prisons since then, Nafha prison in the Naqab region in southern Israel and Gilboa prison in the north, after allegedly receiving an intelligence tip that members of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian political and resistance organization, had mobile phones, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
....Soldiers used rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters, military dogs and sound bombs against Palestinian prisoners, according to Quds News Network. Three rooms were also fully burnt.
Most injuries were caused by rubber-coated steel bullets, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, and many prisoners were transferred to hospitals. About 20 remain hospitalized.
This has been the biggest attack on Palestinian prisoners in more than a decade, the club stated, adding that it poses “grave danger to the life and fate of the prisoners.”
....Erdan reaffirmed his intent, announced earlier this month, to worsen conditions for Palestinians in Israeli prisons and reduce their standard of living to “the minimum required.”
Haaretz: The Israel Prison Service’s Brutal Raid on Palestinians ‘To Locate Unauthorized Cellphones’
Around 140 Palestinian prisoners were injured in Monday’s onslaught at Ofer Prison, which is
seen in the West Bank as PR for Israel’s public security minister before the April election.
When Manal Tamimi watched the pictures released by the Israel Prison Service, she felt her
body emptying of energy and her head exploding in horror. The photos and videos showed
dozens of men wearing uniforms and helmets, armed with rifles, their faces covered with
World War I-style gas masks. The men, accompanied by dogs, crowded around the doors of
cells at Ofer Prison.
Al Jazeera: Israel vows to 'worsen' conditions for Palestinian prisoners
Planned moves unveiled by Israeli security minister include limiting water supplies and cutting number of family visits.
Foreign Policy Journal: The Unfinished Gaza War: What Netanyahu Hopes to Gain from Attacking Palestinian Prisoners
Why is Israel provoking confrontations when Palestinian prisoners are already subjected to human rights abuses? Equally important, why now?
Telesur: Israel Detained 500 Palestinians,
Including 89 Children So Far in 2019
This January alone, Israel detained 509 Palestinians,
including 89 children and eight women, from occupied Jerusalem,
the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian
prisoners rights groups….The organizations stated that as
of Jan. 31, around 5,700 Palestinians were held in Israeli prisons,
including 48 women, and 230 children under 18 years of age.
The total number of administrative detainees is at 500, with
around 95 Palestinians being held in administrative detention
without charge or trial in the same month – 50 of them were
newly detained….Administrative detention is incarceration
without trial or charge, alleging that a person plans to commit
a future offense. It has no time limit, and the evidence on
which it is based is not disclosed. Israel employs this measure
extensively and routinely, and has used it to hold thousands
of Palestinians for lengthy periods of time….The joint statement
added that Israel has intensified its collective punishment policy
against families of Palestinians who are alleged to have attacked
Israelis, including the detention of several members of the
immediate and distant relatives.
According to the director of the Palestinian policy network, Al Shabaka, intensifying policies that make life harder and unbearable for Palestinian prisoners are a political tool for Israeli politicians who are looking to gain support in the lead-up to elections.
Al Jazeera: Palestinian prisoners in Israel's jails launch hunger strike
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have launched an open-ended mass hunger strike over deteriorating conditions inside. About 30 inmates started the strike on Sunday, and up to 1,500 others will join them in the coming week, the prisoners - including administrative detainees - said in a statement circulated by local media.
Palestine Chronicle: PNC Calls for Support of Palestinian Prisoners on Hunger Strike
The Palestinian National Council (PNC) issued a statement, on Tuesday, stressing that “the prisoners’
issue is a national issue” and calling for supporting the prisoners in their open hunger strike. The PNC called for the support of the Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons, who began an open hunger strike after the Israeli authorities failed to respond to their demands, such as removing the jamming devices, and to restore visiting of Gaza Strip residents to their imprisoned children, ending the isolation of prisoners in the Negev prison, and stop the incursions, abuses and medical negligence against the prisoners, in addition to other demands.
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