ISM London calls for the immediate release of Sireen Khudairi, a Palestinian teacher and activist with the Jordan Valley Solidarity campaign, following her unwarranted arrest in a night time raid by the Israeli army.

Sireen was taken from her home at 4 a.m. today (Tuesday 7th January) by Israeli forces who presented no warrant or papers for her arrest. She was then taken to Huwwara military base and detained.

Her arrest comes after months of harassment and intimidation in her role with the nonviolent activist group, the Jordan Valley Solidarity campaign.

Jordan Valley Solidarity is a coalition of local groups formed in 2003 to defend the rights of Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley, who have been subjected to the gradual takeover of their land and water resources, as well as frequent abuses by the Israeli Army and settlers.

Last month, the Israeli cabinet voted eight to three in favour of a plan to annex the Jordan Valley — in what could be the final move to formalise Israel’s control over the territory.

Please contact the British Ambassador to Israel and your local MP to express concern at Sireen’s arrest.

To contact the UK ambassador to Israel, email webmaster.telaviv@fco.gov.uk.

To find your Member of Parliament, visit: http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/.

For updates, please visit http://freesireen.wordpress.com/ and follow https://www.facebook.com/FreeSireenKhudiri.

On Thursday 15 August Myassar Atani, Lina Jawabre and Linan Abu Ghoulmeh, prominent activists working for Palestinian prisoners, were arrested by Israeli forces in Israel. ISM London is asking all those with conscience in the UK to write to the Israeli Brigadier General Dani Afroni, Military Judge Advocate General and the British Consul General in Jerusalem urging that these women are released immediately.

In a hearing on 19 August an Israeli Judge authorised the extended detention of all three women in an Israeli prison for a further 7 days. It is not clear why the women are being held. All three are active members of the non-violent resistance movement against the illegal Israeli occupation. Myassar Atani is well known for her activities supporting and promoting the cause of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as well as assisting ISM in their activities. All three women have been arrested and interned by Israel on several occasions.

Israel is currently imprisoning 15 women in Israeli prisons, in contravention of the Geneva Convention on Human Rights, particularly in relation to the illegality of holding prisoners outside the occupied territory. On 13 August Israel released 26 prisoners held since before the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, in an American brokered deal to resume peace negotiations. In the last negotiated prisoner releases in 2011, in the first phase Israel released 477 prisoners, however, 470 were arrested in the West Bank over the preceding 3 month period. Israel has also recently announced over 1500 units of housing in illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank in contravention of international law and despite the announced resumption of peace talks.

ISM London asks all UK residents to write to the Israeli Brigadier General Dani Afroni and Military Judge Advocate General urging the immediate release of these three women. We also ask that you write to the British Consul General in Jerusalem, Sir Vincent Fean, asking him to hold Israel to account for their imprisonment and immediate release. A suggested template letter for both is below and we urge you to share this with friends and colleagues.

For more information of Myassar, Lina and Linan write to Brigadier General Dani Afroni, Military Judge Advocate General – http://samidoun.ca/2013/08/action-alert-three-leading-palestinian-women-prisoners-activists-arrested-take-action/

Write to the British Consul General in Jerusalem:

Sir Vincent Fean
British Consul General
19 Nashashibi Street
Sheikh Jarrah Quarter
East Jerusalem 97200
PO Box 19690
Email: britain.jerusalem@fco.gov.uk
Tel: +972 (02) 541 4100
Fax: +972 (02) 532 2368

On Thursday 1 August, the people of the UK joined activists in Palestine and across the world to demonstrate against the Israeli Government’s plan to further ethnically cleanse 50,000 Palestinian Bedouin from their ancestral land in the Naqab desert.

The protest, outside the Israeli Embassy in London, was organised as part of a “Day of Rage” called for by Palestinian citizens of Israel in response to Israel’s so called Prawer Plan that seeks to expel native Palestinians in favour of Jewish settlements.

The demonstrators were joined by Mahmoud Sarsak, the Palestinian national footballer, illegally imprisoned without charge by Israel and who undertook a peaceful 3-month hunger strike from March to June 2012 to demand his freedom. Sarsak addressed demonstrators, stating clearly that “Prawer will not pass “.

The Prawer Plan, which passed its first reading in the Knesset on 25th June 2013, aims not only to expel over 50,000 Palestinian Bedouins but also to confiscate over 210,000 acres of land in the Naqab desert, to demolish forty villages and to confine 30% of Palestinian Bedouins in the Naqab to 1% of the land. The legislation has been widely condemned by international agencies and Governments. However, no affirmative action has been taken by either to stop this war crime taking place. For more information, please click here and here.

We urge UK citizens to write to the Foreign Secretary and your local representative expressing your concern if these plans go ahead and encouraging the British Government to take affirmative action against the racial discrimination practised by the Apartheid State of Israel.

You can write to the Foreign Secretary at:

Rt. Hon. William Hague

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

King Charles Street

London SW1A 2AH

haguew@parliament.uk

And you local MP via: www.theyworkforyou.com

Palestine solidarity groups in London and around the country were proud to host Nawal Slemiah, founder and director of Palestinian embroidery cooperative Women in Hebron, to discuss the importance of cultural resistance and women-led initiatives in Palestine as part of resistance against military occupation, racism and apartheid.

In London, Manchester and Birmingham, Nawal visited various groups such as student societies and trade unions to share the history of her cooperative, as well as her personal perspectives and experiences living under the onslaught of an illegal occupation and apartheid.

It was also the perfect opportunity to showcase her beautiful and unique work as part of Women in Hebron that have recently become popular and favoured amongst visitors, international activists and locals alike. Meeting new groups and individuals to provide support for her work, the gatherings, spanning over the course of ten days were well-attended and intimate, with question and answer sessions allowing for discussion on topics ranging from illegal settler violence, to the inspiration behind the products she creates.

A unique embroidery cooperative priding itself on honouring the role of women in Palestinian society, Women in Hebron specialise in creating pieces that not only display the beautiful culture of Palestine, but embody the spirit of sumud — steadfastness — in the face of the racist military occupation. Since its foundation, Women in Hebron have proven to be a unique source of income, education and empowerment for the local women of the village of Idna.

Founded in 2005 as part of the Idna Cooperative, Women in Hebron’s presence in the Old City serves as a unique outlet to this day, promoting culture and resistance in an area of the city subjected to illegal settler and military violence on a daily basis.

Email: info@ism-london.org.uk

Website: www.ism-london.org.uk

2nd July 2013

FAO Ms Alicia Keys

Sent via email:

Dear Ms Keys,

RE: Your show in Apartheid Israel

First we should introduce ourselves. We are a group of activists that run the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in England, known as ISM London. ISM is a Palestinian led organisation that supports the non violent resistance of the Palestinians against the illegal occupation by Apartheid Israel. We do this in a number of ways but primarily by providing an international solidarity presence with the purpose to use Israeli racism against the occupation and support the Palestinians in their struggle for freedom and justice.

A number of our activists have attended your shows in London and we along with your millions of fans around the world have felt inspiration and enjoyment through your lyrics and music. It is partly through this inspiration that people can conjure up the courage to carry out vital struggles to realise justice, equality and freedom throughout this world.

However, we implore you to hear the call out from Palestinian civil society and adhere to the boycott of Apartheid Israel by cancelling your show scheduled for 4 July 2013 in Tel Aviv. In your response to the great writer and activist Alice Walker you talked about the power of music to unite. We entirely agree with you.

However, your music will not unite as millions of Palestinians are barred from sharing in the joy of your music by the Apartheid policies of Israel. This includes some 6 million refugees still living in camps around the world, while you perform on the land that their villages once stood and that they are barred from seeing.

As British citizens we feel a strong responsibility to support the Palestinians given the British history in the region. That history and continuing tragedy continues through the support of our Government but also yours, the American Government. As your songs tell us, it’s important to stand up and support your fellow man, upholding not just international law but humanitarian principles particularly where our Governments are mute or fail to.

You are a great source of inspiration for many and we sincerely hope you will stand on the right side of history:

This is for all the mothers fighting

For better days to come

And all my women

All my women sitting here trying

To come home before the sun

~Alicia Keys, Superwoman

In solidarity and hope,

ISM London

Under Universal Jurisdiction a suspect can be prosecuted regardless of where a crime was committed, or the nationality of the perpetrator or victim. This covers war crimes under the Geneva Conventions act, torture and hostage-taking.

Significantly, Universal Jurisdiction is about preserving the rule of law away from vested political interests, most usually in the home country where the will to prosecute may not exist.

What are the proposed changes?

Currently anyone can apply, as a private prosecutor, for a warrant in respect of such offences for the arrest of a foreign national visiting England. A warrant may quite properly be issued by a court.

However, under intense pressure from Israel and the Zionist lobby after the issuing of an arrest warrant for former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the UK government is proposing to restrict the issuing of arrest warrants under Universal Jurisdiction.

The proposed change, initiated by the previous government and pursued by its successor, would mean that arrest warrants for Universal Jurisdiction offences would in future need to be approved by the Director of Public Prosecutions following evidential and public interest tests being met. This would make securing a warrant practically impossible as the threshold for the tests would be prohibitively onerous – it would have to be shown than any arrest would almost certainly result in a conviction.

The implications

The British Government is changing the evidential requirements for these warrants purely to suit its political friends. It is a politicisation of the UK judiciary; without the spur of arrest warrants secured by private prosecution, the Crown Prosecution Service will not pursue suspected war criminals if the political will does not exist for them to be convicted.

How will the changes happen?

The Government has attempted to introduce this change innocuously, burying it in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill 2010-11. This Bill was presented to Parliament on 30 November 2010 in its First Reading and there was no debate. It will now be on the Order Paper for a Second Reading with the date to be confirmed.

The Second Reading is the second of three stages for any bill going through Parliament and the House of Lords before it becomes legislation. The third and final stage will be the committee stage where each clause is debated and amendments are proposed. It is vital to start lobbying MPs and, even more importantly, sympathetic Lords to oppose the clause in this bill watering down Universal Jurisdiction.

How to oppose these changes

The most effective way to defeat this move to politicise the UK judiciary is to challenge this one clause in this bill that is important to the UK government. If enough MPs and/or Lords oppose this clause, the government may drop it just to ensure the safe passage of the rest of the bill into legislation. If a member (MP or Lord) refuses to back down over this clause the government will be forced to a vote.

The Lords are the most vulnerable targets here as they are very sensitive to attacks on the sovereignty of the UK judiciary. Please lobby MPs but ESPECIALLY sympathetic Lords. Show that this is a politicisation of the judiciary, violating the key democratic principal of the separation of the executive and judicial branch of government.

Known sympathisers in the House of Lords include:

Lord Andrew Phillips, andrew_w_phillips@yahoo.com, 01787 370 856

Rt Hon Lord Whitty, whittyl@parliament.uk, 020 7219 3118

Baroness Ashton of Upholland, 020 7219 5353

Rt Hon Lord Woolf, stevensonmm@parliament.uk, 020 7219 3156, Fax: 020 7219 0785

Lords’ contact details can be found here

There will be protests outside Ahava early weekday evenings in the run up to Christmas in addition to the regular fortnightly protests on Saturdays.

Details of the weekday evening protests will be posted on this site.

Next Ahava demo: 12 noon, Saturday, 27 November.