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[Boycott - Other News] G4S Protest demands freedom for Palestinian hunger striker Suleiman Skafi and activist Mahmoud Abujoad Frarjah
inminds
12 October 2015
Protest organised by Inminds outside the headquarters of the British security firm G4S on 8th October 2015 demanded freedom for Palestinian hunger striker Suleiman Skafi who was on day 38 of his hunger strike, and demanded freedom for Palestinian activist Mahmoud Abujoad Frarjah who was abducted by Israel on 9th Sept 2015. Both are caged in Israeli dungeons secured by G4S.
Photos, videos, speeches and protest resources are included below.
VIDEO - Protest outside G4S HQ to free hunger striker Suleiman Skafia
and activist Mahmoud Abujoad Frarjah
SPEECH: FREEDOM FOR SULEIMAN SKAFI
We are here today outside the headquarters of the British security company G4S to demand freedom for Palestinian hunger striker Suleiman Skafi.
Suleiman Skafi has been caged without charge or trial for 11 months, since 12th Nov 2014. He is imprisoned under Israel's illegal policy of punitive administrative detention whereby Palestinians are caged indefinitely on rolling 6 month detention orders without any charge or trial. Israel is threatening Skafi with another 6 months imprisonment when his current order expires next month.
To protest his imprisonment without charge or trial, Skafi has been on hunger strike since 1st September 2015 - today is his 38th day without food . Skafi has lost nearly a third of his body weight - some 23Kg. He can no longer walk and has difficulty in speaking. He is suffering extreme pain in his stomach, head and joints, and feels dizziness.
As punishment for hunger striking Skafi was moved to Israel's remote G4S secured Negev prison in the desert. Caged in solitary confinement, he was denied personal possessions and adequate cloths and his family were denied permission to visit him. His health rapidly deteriorated and last Sunday Israel were forced to move him to Soroka hospital in Ber Sheeba.
30 years old Skafi is from the city of Al Khalil in the occupied West Bank. He has been imprisoned by occupation five times, having been caged for over 6 year in total. Skafi has been on hunger strike several times, including the mass "Karameh" hunger strike in 2012. Skafi was tortured during interrogation and as a result suffers chronic pain in his joints and legs. Israel has denied him medical treatment for the wounds inflicted on him during torture.
Skafi has rejected Israel's offer of release after 6 month renewed administrative detention. His demand is that his administrative detention not be renewed when it expires next month on 12th November, so its imperative that pressure be put on Israel now to release him before the next rolling six month administrative detention order kicks in.
We are here today to demand Israel release Suleiman Skafi immediately and unconditionally, and for G4S to stop its complicity in Israel's crimes against Palestinian political prisoners.
The British security firm G4S is the worlds largest private security contractor. It has been contracted by the Israeli prison service to secure many of its prisons and interrogation centres where Palestinian political prisoners including women and children are caged and tortured. Figures for August 2015 show that 61% of all Palestinian political prisoners are caged in G4S secured prisons.
98% of all administrative detainees including Suleiman Skafi are caged in G4S secured prisons. Administrative detention is a vile form of internment where Palestinians are caged indefinitely without charge or trial on never ending administrative detention orders month after month, year after year. Israel's use of administrative detention - largely as a punitive measure - is illegal under international law. Prisoners are left on rolling detention orders which can be anything from 1-6 months, renewable indefinitely. So for example administrative detainee Mazen Natsheh has been locked up cumulatively for nearly 10 years without charge or trial. Detention orders are based on so called "secret information" which never needs to be produced, either to the detainee nor their lawyer. Administrative detention is often used to arbitrarily jail Palestinians where there is no evidence for a trial. It is also used for punishment as in the case of Palestinian MPs who are often caged to punish them for their political stance.
Israel has on average issued over 2000 detention orders every year (between 2007 and 2011). Today there are around 350 administrative detainees including Suleiman Skafi.
Former hunger striker Khader Adnan was caged in total for over 6 years under 10 administrative detention orders without charge or trial. It was by going on hunger strike for 56 days, approaching death, that Israel eventually released him. And similarly today Suleiman Skafi is on hunger strike protesting administrative detention, fighting for his life.
Shame on you Israel!
Shame on you G4S!
Free Suleiman Skafi!
Free Palestine!
SPEECH: FREEDOM FOR MAHMOUD ABUJOAD FRARJAH
We are here today outside the headquarters of the British security company G4S to demand freedom for Palestinian activist Mahmoud Abujoad Frarjah.
Grass roots activist Mahmoud Abujoad Frarjah and his wife Sireen were abducted by the Israeli occupation forces last month on 9th Sept 2015 whilst travelling to Jordan to visit family.
His wife Sireen has since been released but Mahmoud still remains caged at Israel's G4S secured Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank. He was initially accused of stone throwing at a demonstration a year ago. When he proved that he was not even present at that demonstration the charge was dismissed by the Israeli military court. But he still remains imprisoned at Ofer as under Israel's apartheid law Palestinians who are rearrested within 5 years of being released from prison can be held indefinitely. The fact that he was released 7 years ago and not 5 years ago (for another trumped up charge of stone throwing) seems to make no difference to Israeli justice.
Mahmoud, the youngest of 16 children, is a refugee living in Deishah refugee camp in Bethlehem. His family was ethnically cleansed from the Palestinian village of Zakariya which was destroyed by zionist occupation forces in 1948.
Mahmoud was targeted by the occupation for his activism in the Jordan Valley - he works tirelessly to help preserve and support indigenous Palestinian communities. Most of the Jordan Valley is under Zone C - deemed an Israeli military zone where local Palestinian communities are being actively ethically cleansed from their land, and their stolen land being handed over to the illegal settlements for expansion. The military prevents the indigenous Palestinian communities from building any attachments to the land such as building schools and homes. Among the many project Mahmoud worked on was Samra School - a simple mud brick school that helped provide education for 70 local children. In September 2015 the Israeli military demolished Samra school and a few weeks later they arrested Mahmoud.
Shame on you Israel! Shame on you Israel!
Today Mahmoud is languishing in Ofer prison which is secured by G4S. G4S provides the entire perimeter defence systems for the prison and G4S has provided the central command room from which the entire prison is controlled.
Shame on you G4S! Shame on you G4S!
We demand the immediate unconditional freedom for Mahmoud Abujoad Frarjah!
Free Mahmoud!
Free Palestine!
VIDEO - Courtesy Mr Alex Seymour
RESOURCES
Source: www.inminds.com
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Page URL: http://inminds.co.uk/article.php?id=10690
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