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Emergency London Protest Demands Freedom For Palestinian Hunger Striker Sheikh Khader Adnaninminds An emergency protest to demand freedom for Palestinian hunger striker Sheikh Khader Adnan was organised by Inminds on 9th June 2015 at the reception of the Israeli deputy ambassador at the Goethe Institut in London where the Israeli government sponsored film festival Seret 2015 was being launched. After 36 days on open hunger strike, Khader Adnan is in critical condition, experiencing intermittent comas, a sharp decrease in weight and drop in his heart rate. Alert for Protest: http://inminds.com/article.php?id=10667    
The London public were very sympathetic around 500 leaflets were taken a short period of time. Taxis and cyclists stopped to ask questions and learn more about administrative detention, Khader Adnan and Germany's collaboration with Israel. Cars hooted in solidarity with the protest. All in all it was a very successful protest.
SPEECH AT PROTEST - FREE SHEIKH KHADER ADNANVIDEOSpeech at London Protest demanding freedom for Khader Adnan 9th June 2015, London  We are here today to demand freedom for Palestinian political prisoner Khader Adnan who is caged in an Israeli dungeon without charge and without trail. Today marks his 35th day of hunger strike. His condition is critical, he is experiencing intermittent comas, a sharp decrease in weight and drop in his heart rate. Sheikh Khader Adnan is known as the father of the hunger strike - the symbol of Palestinian resistance and steadfastness. In 2011 he was abducted and caged indefinitely without any charged or trial under Israeli illegal system of punitive administrative detention. To protest his illegal imprisonment he went on hunger strike and won his freedom. His successful 66 day hunger strike in 2012 - the longest in Palestinian history at the time, inspired over 1600 other Palestinian prisoners to hunger strike. Since his release Sheikh Khader Adnan has been the voice of the Palestinian political prisoners, ceaselessly defending their rights at every opportunity and thus is a thorn in the side of the occupation. He has been in and out of occupation prisons since his student days from 1999 due to his political stance against the occupation. He has spent more than 6 years of his life caged in occupation dungeons, yet he has never been formally charged with anything let alone stand trial for anything. Sheikh Khader Adnan is a father of 6 children. Youngest are triplets under 2 year old - Ali, Hamza and Mohammed; his other son is aged 3 - Abd-Al-Rahman. His two daughters are Maali - the eldest just 7 years old, and Besan 5 years old. Khader Adnan has a degree in Mathematics, and runs a bakery in the town of Arrabah near Jenin in the West Bank. His wife Randa describes their marriage as a partnership: "Khader is not just my husband.. He is a partner in struggle. I've been with him to protests and together we support prisoners families. I never considered this a burden or an exhaustion but rather an asset. " She stresses how loving and gentle Adnan is: “He always helped me look after the children, changing their diapers and doing stuff that some men never consider doing. During my pregnancy with triplets, Khader was the one cleaning the house and making every effort to keep me happy and comfortable.” On Tuesday 8th July 2014 he was returning home to share the Iftar meal with his family after the Ramadan fast when he was abducted at a temporary checkpoint the occupation had illegally set up near his home town. He was given a 6 month administrative detention order without charge or trial. When the occupation renewed the order in Jan 2015 with an additional 4 month administrative detention order Sheikh Khadar Adnan protested by going on a one week hunger strike, announcing beforehand the duration of the strike. And when that administrative detention finished and they again gave him another 6 month administrative detention order in May 2015, Sheikh Khadar Adnan started his open ended hunger strike on 6th May 2015. It must be noted that Khader Adnan's hunger strike is complete - unlike many previous long term hunger strikers he is refusing vitamins and other nutritional supplements, so he cannot stay alive long. Reports suggest that on day 35 of his hunger strike he is already experiencing intermittent comas, a sharp decrease in weight and drop in his heart rate. His mother says that "We discussed the issue before he was arrested again in July last year, I told him, please, if they arrest you again don’t go on hunger strike.’ He remained silent, but gave me a look that pierced my heart like a bullet — as if to ask me to respect his decision and not expect me to deprive him of the only weapon he would have.” Khader Adnan informed his wife and his father of his plan to go on hunger strike in case Israeli authorities were to renew his administrative detention. His father explains “Khader is not a nihilist.. He’s not doing this because he wants to die and because he wants to hurt himself. On the contrary, he’s going through this because he loves life and believes that this is the only way to achieve freedom.” His wife is concerned with the lack of action on the ground “During the last time [hunger strike], serious protests on the ground began only after the 45th day of his hunger strike and after he was nearing [death]. We cannot wait so long this time,” She urges Palestinians and the wider solidarity movement to mobilise for the prisoners cause "Those who believe in this cause should face the authorities and take to the streets, even if it meant arrest. Freedom is not without a price."    This is the english translation of the message from Sheikh Khader Adnan on day 30 of his hunger strike written at the so-called Ramla prison hospital, more accurately described by patients as a 'slaughter house' due to the treatment the patients are subjected to. In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praises be to Allah in trials and tribulations, and All praises be to Allah in times of grief and happiness, Peace and mercy upon his messenger Muhammed who was patient and all his family and companions who struggled in the valley of Abu Taleb through hunger, under a tight siege until Allah relieved their trial. To my people, my family, and to the world’s free souls I send you my greetings, love, and gratitude. It is the strength that I drawn from Allah, and from your support and prayers that gives me the power to continue. From by beloved al-Ramla city with its majestic minarets.. its land and al-Lod which witnessed the massacre of 1948, I send you greeting a second time, I would like you to know that I am not engaged in a personal fight for freedom. My battle is that of all Palestinian detainees who are yearning for freedom and dignity. They are the symbols of pride, freedom and dignity in this universe.. fighting for the noblest cause the world has known for decades.. when our land and our holy places were stolen. Administrative detention is just one of the most despicable policies our people have ever witnessed. Britain bears responsibility for initiating this criminal policy, but that does not justify the occupations use of this detention against our people whose place is not to be detained inside these jails but to be home in our homeland with our families. From the bottom of my heart, I express my gratitude for your support and solidarity. May Allah restore our freedom so that we can rejoin our families soon. The Israeli jailers try to break us down, but we promise them with Allah's help and support and your solidarity that we will inshAllah win. This hunger strike continues until we win our freedom, inshAllah. Khader Adnan, 4th June 2015 - day 30 of hunger strike
    
MESSAGE FROM SHEIKH KHADER ADNAN ON DAY 30 OF HUNGER STRIKE Photo from second protest, 11th June 2015 This is the english translation of the message from Sheikh Khader Adnan on day 30 of his hunger strike: In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praises be to Allah in trials and tribulations, and All praises be to Allah in times of grief and happiness, Peace and mercy upon his messenger Muhammed who was patient and all his family and companions who struggled in the valley of Abu Taleb through hunger, under a tight siege until Allah relieved their trial. [This is a reference to early history of Islam when the first Muslims who accepted prophet Muhammed's message of the oneness of God were persecuted and some tortured to death by the polytheists that Abu Taleb, the Prophets uncle, took them to safety in his valley under his tribes protection. The polytheists laid siege to the valley starving the Muslims inside - some days the Muslims had so little food that they had to share one date to feed two people. After 3 hard years of patience and struggle the siege collapsed and the Muslims could return home.] To my people, my family, and to the world’s free souls I send you my greetings, love, and gratitude. It is the strength that I drawn from Allah, and from your support and prayers that gives me the power to continue. From by beloved al-Ramla city with its majestic minarets.. its land and al-Lod which witnessed the massacre of 1948, I send you greeting a second time, [Khader Adnan is currently in Ramla prison hospital, described by patients as a 'slaughter house' due to the conditions the patients are subjected to. The prison hospital is located in the ethnically cleansed Palestinian city of al-Ramla and its nearby city of Lydda (Lod) infamous of the massacre by Zionists in 1948 which left around 450 Palestinian men, women and children dead with 70,000 forcefully expelled from their homes.] I would like you to know that I am not engaged in a personal fight for freedom. My battle is that of all Palestinian detainees who are yearning for freedom and dignity. They are the symbols of pride, freedom and dignity in this universe.. fighting for the noblest cause the world has known for decades.. when our land and our holy places were stolen. Administrative detention is just one of the most despicable policies our people have ever witnessed. Britain bears responsibility for initiating this criminal policy, but that does not justify the occupations use of this detention against our people whose place is not to be detained inside these jails but to be home in our homeland with our families. From the bottom of my heart, I express my gratitude for your support and solidarity. May Allah restore our freedom so that we can rejoin our families soon. The Israeli jailers try to break us down, but we promise them with Allah's help and support and your solidarity that we will inshAllah win. This hunger strike continues until we win our freedom, inshAllah. Khader Adnan, 4th June 2015 - day 30 of hunger strike POSTER - PLACARD DESIGNS   ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTIONAdministrative detention is a practice used by Israel to imprison Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial. Prisoners are given rolling detention orders which can be anything from 1-6 months, renewable indefinitely. This is against international law. 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, or for punishment as in the case of 8 Palestinian MPs. Israel has on average issued over 2000 detention orders every year (2007-2011). Today there are over 400 administrative detainees. Most of them having been transferred from the West Bank into Israel in contravention of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.   outside Goethe Institut  Germany's Deputy Ambassador Tania Freiin von Uslar-Gleichen, arrives at the Goethe Institut  Germany's Deputy Ambassador Tania Freiin von Uslar-Gleichen takes a leaflet  Leafleting entrance of Goethe Institut  Taxi driver stops to take leaflet SPEECH - GERMANY 50 YEARS COLLABORATION WITH APARTHEID & THE SERET 2015 FILM FESTIVALVIDEOSpeech at London Protest of Israeli deputy ambassador reception at Seret 2015 film festival launch as Goethe Institut, 9th June 2015 Today the German government is shamefully celebrating 50 years of collaboration with a racist apartheid regime. As part of this celebration of ethnic cleansing, occupation and war crimes the German deputy ambassador Tania Freiin von Uslar-Gleichen and the Israeli deputy ambassador Eitan Na'eh are hosting a reception at the Goethe Institut to launch the Israeli government sponsored Seret 2015 film festival. We are here outside the Goethe Institut to tell the German deputy ambassador to stop pandering to a regime whose deputy defense minister has threatened the people of Gaza with a holocaust; a regime whose siege of Gaza has been compared to the nazi siege of the Warsaw Ghetto by the United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur; a regime whose genocide in Gaza has been unequivocally condemned by more than 300 survivors of the nazi holocaust. We ask the deputy ambassador to learn from Germany's past and stop supporting a fascist racist regime, to stop arming Israel with nuclear submarines, and to stop helping Israel whitewash its crimes behind a veneer of culture. The Israeli government through its London embassy is sponsoring the Israeli film festival Seret 2015 as the latest chapter of Israel's million-dollar ‘Brand Israel’ PR campaign, whereby culture is used to whitewash an apartheid state founded on the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and occupation of their land. As former deputy director general of the Israeli foreign ministry, Nissim Ben-Sheetrit, explained upon launching the Brand Israel campaign in 2005: “We are seeing culture as a hasbara [propaganda] tool of the first rank, and I do not differentiate between hasbara and culture.”.  At last years launch of Seret Israel's ambassador Daniel Taub stressed the importance of "the role the Festival plays in providing a platform for spreading a more accurate picture of Israel across all communities". Its founders see themselves as "informal ambassadors for Israel", one of them - Odelia Haroush, who was previously the marketing manager of the settler shop Ahava in Covent Garden that sold stolen dead sea produce before being forced to shut down, sees the film festival as a direct response to the boycott Israel campaign. The festival is also co-sponsored by occupation profiteers like Bank Leumi. Acclaimed British filmmaker Ken Loach has said "The massacres and state terrorism in Gaza make the showcasing of Israeli films in various sections of international film festivals unacceptable". After public outcry small independent cinemas have stopped hosting this apartheid film festival. We urge this years hosts to similarly abide by the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel. We welcome independent film making but reject the promotion of Israel in the UK while Palestinians continue to live under siege, discrimination and exclusion. Goethe Institut Stop your complicity with apartheid, it was wrong in South Africa and its wrong today in Palestine. Stop hosting apartheid, stand on the right side of history! Free Palestine! Letter by over 40 filmmakers and artists against cinema's hosting apartheid Israel funded festivals8th June 2015, The Guardian We, the below listed artists, producers, and concerned citizens, are disappointed and saddened to see that Curzon, Odeon, Bafta and other cinemas are hosting the London Israeli Film and Television Festival. This comes at a time when the global boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is gaining unprecedented momentum, and the Israeli government is finding itself increasingly isolated for its systematic violation of Palestinian human rights, the Geneva conventions, and international law. The Israeli state is promoting this festival and supporting it financially. By hosting it, these cinemas are ignoring the 2004 call by Palestinian civil society for sanctions against Israel until Israel abides by international law and ends its illegal displacement of Palestinians, discrimination against them, and occupation of their land. This festival comes in the aftermath of the wanton destruction and killing in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military in 2014, and the re-election of an Israeli prime minister who denies Palestinians their equal rights and self-determination.  The festival is co-sponsored by the Israeli government via the Israeli embassy in London, creating a direct link between these cinemas, the festival screenings and Israeli policies. By benefiting from money from the Israeli state, the cinemas become silent accomplices to the violence inflicted on the Palestinian people. Such collaboration and cooperation is unacceptable. It normalises, even if unintentionally, the Israeli government’s violent, systematic and illegal oppression of the Palestinians. This is not a request to refuse to show films by individual film-makers, but to reject the involvement and financial support of the Israeli state. We call on these cinemas to stand with the oppressed Palestinian people and to take no part in presenting the festival. Saleh Bakri Actor        VIDEOREMEMBERING MUHAMMED ABU KHDEIRAt the protest we also remembered Muhammed Abu Khdeir the 16 yrs old Palestinian schoolboy burnt to death by Israeli settlers last July (2 July 2014). VIDEOSpeech at London Protest demanding freedom for Khader Adnan 9th June 2015, London  Remembering Muhammed Abu Khdeir
Source: www.inminds.com   Related ArticlesAlso Of InterestPage URL: http://inminds.com/article.php?id=10668
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