[van-announce] Reminder: Palestinian Political Prisoners Conference (Sept 27)

[Mike Krebs]

**please forward**

PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS
At the Frontline of Resistance to Israeli Occupation

A full-day conference with: Speakers • Films • Live report from Palestine

Saturday, September 27th
11am – 4pm
SFU Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings Street

Throughout the decades of Israeli military occupation, Palestinians from
all walks of life have been illegally detained by Israel. Since 1967,
more than 650,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel in the West
Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. This forms approximately 20% of the
total Palestinian population of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and
40% of the total male population. At present, an estimated 10,000
Palestinians are in prison because of their refusal to accept foreign
occupation and ongoing Israeli colonization.

 From Canada to Israel, incarceration has been central to the process of
colonization and the dispossession of the indigenous population from
their lands. At the same time, political prisoners remain at the centre
of struggles against occupation and apartheid.

On September 27th the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign will be hosting
a conference on Palestinian prisoners and struggle for liberation,
featuring:

ABLA SA'ADAT, Palestinian activist, former political prisoner, and
partner of Ahmad Sa'adat – General Secretary of the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine, who was kidnapped by the Israeli military
in 2006 and is currently being illegally detained by Israel (Live report
from Palestine).

ADAM HANIEH, organizer with the Toronto Coalition Against Israeli
Apartheid and author of 'Stolen Youth: The Politics of Israel's
Detention of Palestinian Children.'

CHARLOTTE KATES, an organizer and activist with New Jersey
Solidarity-Activists for the Liberation of Palestine and Al-Awda, the
Palestinian Right to Return Coalition New York's chapter. She's a Rutger
School of Law graduate admitted to practice in New York & New Jersey.
She currently works at the Centre for Constitutional Rights in New York
City as an Education and Outreach Organizer on its project representing
Guantanamo Detainees. She's Also the Co-Chair of the Middle East
Subcommittee of the National Lawyers Guild.

SOBHI AL-ZOBAIDI, Palestinian filmmaker will be presenting his film
'Light at the End of the Tunnel' that follows six ex-detainees in
Palestine following their release and return to their families and
community.

LYNN HIGHWAY, local indigenous and prison abolition
activist.

**Schedule TBA**

For more information contact the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign:
boycottapartheid at gmail.com | www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org | 604-220-0451


SOME FACTS ABOUT PALESTINIAN PRISONERS:

• Under current military orders in the West Bank, the following
activities are defined as threats to the security of Israel: putting up
political posters, writing political slogans, participating in
demonstrations and belonging to any political party. What counts as
exercising Charter rights in Canada makes you a "security threat" to
Israel–if you're Palestinian.

• More than 700 of the approximately 10,000 Palestinians currently held
in Israeli prisons are "administrative detainees" meaning that they are
held on secret evidence, have no right to a trial, and are held for
six-month periods that can be renewed indefinitely.

• In addition, all Palestinians detained by the Israeli military can be
barred access to a lawyer for 90 days, and can be held for
"interrogation" without being charged for 188 days. At any given time,
about 40% of Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails have
not been tried and convicted of anything.

• Currently, 316 of the Palestinian political prisoners are children
(under the age of 18). Since September 2000, more than 6,000 Palestinian
children have been detained in Israeli jails.

• Since 1967, more than 650,000 Palestinians have been detained by
Israel. This means that almost 40% of all Palestinian males have been
incarcerated in an Israeli jail.

• Palestinian residents of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem
are almost all prosecuted in Israeli military courts, which fail to meet
international standards for a fair trial. Military judges and
prosecutors are not required to have civilian legal training. Military
courts do not publish their decisions, and no justification is required
for "administrative detention" other than a judge stating that their
approval is based on "secret evidence."

• Israeli law allows "physical pressure" during "special"
interrogations. A 2006 study by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem
found that two-thirds of Palestinian detainees they interviewed reported
serious physical and psychological ill-treatment, while one-third
reported ill-treatment that constitutes torture under international law.
Of more than 500 complaints of torture and ill-treatment against Israeli
interrogators 2001-2006, not one resulted in a criminal investigation.