The hunger strike began on April 17, when prisoners began refusing food to demand basic human rights, such as: proper medical treatment, allowing family visits, access to higher education, an end to administrative detainments, ending solitary confinement and stopping imprisonment without charges or a trial.

As news of the prisoners on hunger strike began to circulate, supporters joined the hunger strike. For example, on May 6, Leila Khaled, the icon of the Palestinian resistance and a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), announced in Aman, Jordan, that she was beginning an open-ended hunger strike in support of the striking prisoners. With the participation of supporters around the world, the estimated number of participants has swelled up to 2000.

Israeli forces have attempted to shut down the hunger strike. They first circulated a video of Marwan Barghouti, a hunger strike leader allegedly eating a handful of cookies. This video doesn’t have a date stamp to confirm when it was taken. Occupation forces have also violently shut down protests in support of the prisoners and two Palestinians have been killed in the process. The transfers of weakened hunger strikers to field hospitals is done through an arduous process meant to put strain on tired bodies. Finally, Israeli settlers have been holding barbecues in front of prison windows in the hope that the aroma of cooking food will weaken their resolve.

But they haven’t broken. The Battle for Dignity now enters its second month with the numbers of prisoners going on striking growing larger.

In the U.S., it is vital that every progressive person stands in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners by publicizing their struggle and protesting Israel’s occupation of Palestine. We have a duty to oppose U.S. support for Israel.

The battle being courageously waged by Palestinians is part and parcel of the fight for the liberation of Palestine. These prisoners are risking their lives for the emancipation of their nation and to end the colonization by Israel. The Battle for Dignity is paramount in the struggle against imperialism and Zionism, and the struggle to free all historic Palestine – from the river to the sea.

We must continue to stand in solidarity with all Palestinian prisoners, abroad or here in the U.S., and we will not rest until Palestine is free.

#UnitedStates #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #HungerStrike #BattleForDignity #MiddleEast

The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing 92 million workers in the 5 continents, expresses its indignation for the vulgar, unethical campaign of “Pizza Hut” against the Palestinian Hunger Strikers.

The new advertising slogan of the Pizza Hut is “Barghouti, if you break the hunger strike, why not pizza?” addressing to the Marwan Barghouti who started hunger strike with others 1600 prisoners more that 3 weeks ago. The strikers demand the respect for the humans’ rights of the prisoners and the whole Palestinian people.

The inhuman advertising campaign is indicative of the morals of the bourgeoisie and the predatory nature of monopolies that violate every human value and right to maximize their profits. The mocking of the strikers for advertising reasons is absolutely unacceptable. This is not an isolate incident. During the 3 weeks of the strike a lot of immoral incidents took place, such as roasting meat outside the prison by far right groups.

The apology of the company spokesman is just a hypocritical statement which only shows that the marketing department of the company considers the campaign as failed and with negative impact on their profit goals.

The World Federation of Trade Unions and the international class oriented trade union movement stand on the side of the heroic Palestinian people and prisoners, express their solidarity and support to their fair struggle.

The Secretariat

#Palestine #HungerStrike #WorldFederationOfTradeUnionsWFTU #WFTU

The prisoners say they will not eat and will also not work unless the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agrees to negotiate honestly about their demands. Their five demands are:

-- End Group Punishment & Administrative Abuse -- Abolish the Debriefing Policy, and Modify Active/Inactive Gang Status Criteria -- Comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 Recommendations Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement -- Provide Adequate and Nutritious Food -- Expand and Provide Constructive Programming and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status Inmates.

California prisoners engaged in two three-week hunger strikes in 2011 based on the five demands. There were 12,000 prisoners in at least a third of California’s 33 prisons who participated in the 2011 hunger strikes. In the face of the protests, the authorities had agreed to make some changes, but two years later those changes haven’t been implemented and some conditions have worsened.

The prisoners’ action has its roots in the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) prison. The SHU is a supermax prison designed to isolate that prisoners who authorities feel they can’t control, including politically conscious prisoners. They are away from the general population in total isolation, in conditions widely acknowledged to be torture. Prisoners can get sent to the SHU indefinitely. Similar conditions exist in the Administrative Segregation units of California’s other prisons. The California prison system currently holds nearly 12,000 prisoners in solitary confinement units, with dozens having spent more than 20 years each in isolation.

Those 12,000 imprisoned people spend 23 of 24 hours living in a concrete cell smaller than a large bathroom. The cells have no windows, no access to fresh air or sunlight. People in solitary confinement exercise an hour a day in a cage the size of a dog run. They are not allowed to make any phone calls to their loved ones. They cannot touch family members, who often travel days for a 90 minute visit; their conversation and their mail is monitored by prison guards. They are not allowed to talk to other imprisoned people. They are denied all educational programs and their reading materials are censored. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, stated that any time over 15 days in solitary confinement constitutes torture. Yet many people in California state prisons have been caged in solitary for 10 to 40 years.

The prisoners have called on people on the outside to support their struggle and amplify their voices. See a video about the hunger strike: and follow the hunger strike solidarity website for developments: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

#LosAngelesCA #torture #HungerStrike #PelicanBay #supermax #SHU

Gainesville, FL – On March 21, Palestine solidarity activists came together on the University of Florida campus to protest inhumane Israeli prison conditions and the mistreatment of political prisoner Samer Issawi. In the middle of a 24-hour solidarity hunger strike, students sat in the center of Turlington plaza with blindfolds over their eyes and duct tape over their mouths.

“We are here in solidarity with Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi to demand an end to his unjust confinement in Israeli prison,” stated Farah Khan, an organizer with the University of Florida chapter of Students for a Democratic Society and UF Students for Justice in Palestine. Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi has been on a protracted hunger strike. Two weeks ago, he began refusing water.

Rami Okasha, vice president of UF Students for Justice in Palestine noted, “Samer Issawi is not just protesting his own treatment. Both his brother and his sister have been detained before. He, like other strikers past and present, is on hunger strike for all Palestinian political prisoners. Rather than people – especially here in the United States – criticizing Palestinians for violence, while ignoring Israel’s acts of aggression, they should start recognizing these extreme acts of non-violence and courage.”

In violation of international law, Issawi has experienced psychological torture and up to 22 hours per day of interrogation. He has also been denied a lawyer for many days at a time. No evidence has come to light justifying Issawi’s imprisonment. Evidence of abuse and torture, however, can be seen from the bruises on his body.

Students for a Democratic Society organizer Conor Munro stated, “Political prisoners like Samer Issawi are making huge sacrifices for the Palestinian cause. We need to stand in solidarity with them and with those targeted by repression in our own country.”

As of March 21, Samer Issawi remains in confinement under Israeli jurisdiction.

The UF chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine organized this action as one of many during their “Palestine Solidarity Month.” For more information about UF SJP, please visit their facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/UF-SJP/492026674165807?fref=ts

#GainesvilleFL #Palestine #PoliticalPrisoners #HungerStrike #IsraeliOccupation #SamerIssawi

St. Paul, MN – On March 1, people of conscience gathered here during rush hour at a busy Saint Paul intersection, to show solidarity with hunger striking Palestinian political prisoners and to demand justice for Arafat Jaradat, who died Feb. 23 as a result of being tortured by Israeli security. Many passing cars honked in support of the protest.

Over 4000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails launched hunger-strike action on Feb.24 to protest the death of 30-year old Arafat Jaradat. He was detained for throwing stones at an Israeli soldier. While detained, he was tortured to death, sustaining six broken bones in his spine, arms and legs; his lips lacerated; his face badly bruised.

Sabry Wazwaz of the Anti-War Committee said, “I am disgusted that the media in the U.S. never reports the murdering of Palestinian prisoners by Israel. Also Israel detains the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for long periods of time – months and sometimes years – without any charges. This is all against international law and inhumane. Israel has one of the worst human rights records of any country in the world and yet it receives billions of American tax dollars in aid every year.”

At the same time, the lives of several other Palestinian prisoners are in danger, as they have carried on a hunger strike for months, to protest their inhumane and illegal detainment in Israeli prisons. Samer Issawi has been on strike for nearly 220 days.

Issawi has detained by Israeli authorities without any charge whatsoever. He had been released from prison in October 2011 as a part of the Shalit prisoner swap, but was detained again without charge on July 7, 2012, and has been refusing food since August 2012 to protest his detention. He is in critical condition, losing his vision, vomiting blood and lapsing in and out of consciousness.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are striking in solidarity with the long term hunger strikers, and the prisoners’ actions have set off a wave of demonstrations in Palestine and around the world, protesting Israel’s unjust treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

Sophia Hansen-Day, a student and Macalester College said, “I stand in solidarity with the courageous Palestinian hunger strikers. The daring action taken by Samer Issawi, Ayman Sharawna, Tarek Qaadan, Jafar Ezzeldeen and countless others speaks to the deep desire for justice and self-determination among the Palestinian people. As a U.S. citizen complicit in Israeli state violence, I protest today to demand all Palestinian prisoners are released immediately!”

The vigil for Palestine is held every week at the intersection of Summit and Snelling Avenues, sponsored in part by the WAMM Middle East Committee. This week’s special call for solidarity with Palestinian prisoners was sponsored by the Anti-War Committee.

#StPaulMinnesota #StPaulMN #Palestine #HungerStrike #SamerIssawi #MiddleEast

Chicago, IL – More than 125 people gathered here for a candlelight vigil in support of over 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli jails.

One of the hunger strikers is Saeed Mustafa Sbitan, a 19 year old from Beit Dukoo, a town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He is the nephew of Hatem Abudayyeh, a member of Chicago US Palestinian Community Network (www.uspcn.org). Sbitan is one of hundreds in solitary confinement, and his family knows nothing about his health because the Israelis will not allow him to be visited or make phone calls. Abudayyeh spoke of his nephew at the end of the vigil, and denounced the treatment of Palestinian activists as criminals.

The condition of the hunger strikers is rapidly deteriorating. While most joined the hunger strike one month ago, two of the prisoners, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh, have passed their 70th day refusing food, putting them in critical condition and close to death. Abudayyeh urged the crowd to be prepared to mobilize for quick action as the situation develops.

Jess Sundin, of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) also spoke at the protest. While speaking in support of the Palestinian hunger strikers, she decried efforts by the US government to make political prisoners of US solidarity activists. She invited everyone present to join Wednesday, May 16, protest in solidarity with Carlos Montes. The action will take place outside the Dirksen Federal Building, where a grand jury has been investigating Abudayyeh, Sundin, and 21 other anti-war and international solidarity activists. The case against Montes stems from this same investigation.

Noemi Teppang, of BAYAN-USA and the International League for Peoples Struggle, addressed the crowd, declaring support for the Palestinian political prisoners, and the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.

Abudayyeh and Sundin both announced plans to join the Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda march and rally on Sunday, May 20. Marchers with a 35-foot Palestinian flag will join the contingent of the CSFR.

#ChicagoIL #Palestine #HungerStrike #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #PalestinianCommunityNetwork #MiddleEast

Taher noted that Sa’adat had been transferred to Ramleh prison hospital after 13 days on hunger strike alongside thousands of his fellow prisoners to confront the rule of terror by the occupation authorities. Taher saluted the brave and steadfast prisoners and affirmed that the occupation bears full responsibility for the life of the General Secretary, and the lives of thousands of prisoners bravely fighting the battle of the empty stomachs, and warned the occupation of the consequences of its oppression.

He called for the prisoners’ struggle to be internationalized and taken up by the United Nations at all levels, from the General Assembly to the Security Council, and for Israel to be held accountable by the International Court of Justice for its policies against the prisoners. He called for emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to take appropriate measures to protect Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the prisons of the occupation. He called upon the Arab masses and popular forces, and all democratic and progressive forces around the world, to build the broadest solidarity with the prisoners and to condemn the barbaric practices of the brutal occupation authorities.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #HungerStrike #IsraeliOccupation #MiddleEast