[van-announce] April 17: Rally and Speak-Out for Freedom for Palestinian Political Prisoners! – Vancouver

[Charlotte Kates]

April 17: Rally and Speak-Out for Freedom for Palestinian Political
Prisoners! – Vancouver

*Tuesday, April 17, 2012*
*5:00 PM – 7:00 PM*
*CBC Building, 700 Hamilton St (Hamilton and Georgia), Vancouver*

*Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/134719799989932/
*

Nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners are held in jails in Israel,
including 170 children and 6 women. 310 prisoners are held – without charge
or trial – under administrative detention. Palestinian prisoners include
over 20 lawmakers and national leaders, like Ahmad Sa’adat, Marwan
Barghouthi and Aziz Dweik.

On April 17, 2012, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, people around the world will
respond to the call to take action for Palestinian political
prisoners<http://palestinianprisoners.org/palestinian-prisoners-day>.
The courage of hunger striking prisoners Khader Adnan and Hana Shalabi drew
the attention of the world as they protested their confinement in
administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – by the
Israeli occupation.

In Vancouver, Join us on April 17 to support Palestinian prisoners, demand
their freedom, and call for justice. Rally and Speak-Out for Palestinian
Prisoners; Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 5 PM – 7 PM, CBC Building, 700 Hamilton
St (Hamilton and Georgia), Vancouver.

We demand the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners held by
Israel. Their imprisonment reflects Israel’s inherent system of injustice
and racism. In addition, Israel must immediately halt its practices of:

   - Administrative detention.
   - Torture and ill-treatment of detainees.
   - Solitary confinement and isolation.
   - The use of military courts in the occupied Palestinian territory that
   illegally try civilians.
   - Undermining a fair trial by using secret evidence against the accused.
   - Arresting and targeting vulnerable groups including children, people
   with disabilities, elderly people and ill people.

Here in Canada, the Canadian government is deeply complicit and directly
implicated in the ongoing occupation of Palestine and the crimes of the
Israeli state – as well as responsible for political imprisonment and
repression in indigenous communities, against migrants, refugees and other
targeted communities.

The voices of Palestinian political prisoners remain silenced and unheard.
Indeed, Jason Kenney’s Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration defunded
Palestine House’s immigrant settlement programs in part because it held an
event celebrating the release of Palestinian
prisoners<http://www.mississauga.com/news/article/1298166--government-ends-funding-for-palestine-house>,
in a clearly politically-motivated action. When the voices of Palestinian
prisoners manage to break through on Radio-Canada (French-language CBC),
they face immediate attack from Zionist
groups<http://www.honestreporting.ca/news_article_name/OmbudsmanRebukesCBCRadioCanadasMideastReporting2172012.aspx>and
even rebukes from within the station while Palestinian prisoners’
struggles rarely make it at all to the English-language CBC airwaves.

Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of the Palestinian struggle
for liberation on a daily basis. In the jails of occupation, Palestinian
prisoners confront the oppressor and the occupier, and put their bodies and
lives on the line to continue their people’s struggle to achieve justice
and freedom for the land and people of Palestine. The Israeli occupation
has criminalized all forms of Palestinian existence and Palestinian
resistance – from peaceful mass demonstrations to armed struggle to simply
refusing to be silent and invisible as a Palestinian. Palestinian prisoners
are men and women – and children – from every part of Palestine, from every
family. Their absence is keenly felt in the homes, communities, villages,
towns, labour, women’s and student organizations from which they were taken
by the occupation. They suffer torture, isolation, coercive interrogation,
denial of family and lawyers’ visits, on a daily basis. And it is their
hunger strikes, their calls to the world, their unity and solidarity, and
their continued leadership in the Palestinian movement that must inspire us
daily and remind us of our responsibility to take action.

Join us on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, to be part of the global
movement for justice and freedom for Palestinian prisoners.

*Called by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Alliance for
People’s Health, Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign, Solidarity for
Palestinian Human Rights – UBC, International League of People’s Struggle –
Canada, Canada Palestine Association *
* <http://samidoun.ca/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/freedom2.jpg>*

-- 
Charlotte L. Kates     charlotte.kates at gmail.com