United London - Gaza Protest Demands Freedom For The Hunger Strikers, End To Administrative Detention

inminds
26 July 2015

Posters from 'The Prisoners Center for Studies' in Gaza

On a very wet and windy friday 24th July 2015 activists in London protested outside G4S HQ in Victoria to demand freedom for Palestinian hunger strikers Muhammad Allan and Uday Isteiti, both on their 39th day without food. The protest organised by Inminds demanded Israel end its illegal practice of Administrative Detention whereby Palestinian prisoners are caged indefinitely without charge or trial. The protest was held outside the headquarters of the British security contractor G4S because it secures many of the dungeons and torture dens where Palestinian political prisoners, some as young as 12 years old, are caged and tortured. The protest demanded G4S end its complicity in Israel's war crimes against the prisoners.

This was the second protest organised in co-ordination with our friends at the 'Prisoner's Center for Studies' in Gaza as part of a joint protest with one they held earlier in the week in Gaza to show global united solidarity with the hunger strikers. Previously Inminds and the 'Prisoner's Center for Studies' in Gaza held a united protest on the 50th Day of Khader Adnan's victorious hunger strike. We thank them for the help they have provided in vital information that has helped us mount this protest.

Muhammad Allan, a 31 years old lawyer from Nablus has been caged by the occupation since 6th November 2014 without charge or trial under administrative detention. He has in total suffered 3 years in occupation prisons and several administrative orders having been issued against him. Muhammad Allan went on hunger strike after the occupation again renewed his administrative detention. As punishment for refusing food he has been locked up in isolation confinement at Ayala prison near Tel Aviv. He has lost over 10kgs in weight and is suffering severe stomach pains.

Uday Isteiti is from Jenin refugee camp. He has been caged by the occupation since 17th November 2014 without charge or trial, under administrative detention, at Israel's G4S secured Ketziot prison in the Negev. G4S provides and maintains the entire security system that keeps this hell hole operational. Isteiti went on hunger strike after the occupation again renewed his administrative detention. As punishment for refusing food he has been transferred to Eshel prison and locked up in solidarity confinement with severe measures being imposed on him. He is not permitted to bathe for more than two weeks now and is being refused a change in cloths. Vindictively the Israeli jailers have also taken away his Holy Qur'an during the month of Ramadan. Isteitiis is suffering extreme pain in his joints and can hardly move, but the prison is refusing to provide him with a wheelchair.

Both Allan and Isteiti started their hunger strike on 15th June 2015, and by friday 24th July they were without food or nutrients for 39 days. Their hunger strike follows the manner of Khader Adnan's hunger strike in that they are refusing everything apart from water so their bodies cannot survive long. Their lives are in critical condition, and international pressure must be exerted to save them. We will inshAllah be organising a second protest demanding their release this coming friday 31st July 2015.

*Due to the poor weather condition we lost all our photos and were left with just stills captured from our video footage. Also our 7m flag pole with our flag-cam broke in the high wind so the footage from that camera was also partly compromised. Please accept our apologies for the quality of the photos.

Activists in London holding posters from 'The Prisoners Center for Studies' in Gaza, in unity with twin protest in Gaza

Both flags in the photo are on the same pole twisted in the high wind before it broke

Speech - Free The Hunger Strikers

VIDEO - Free The Hunger Strikers

We are here today outside the headquarters of the British security firm G4S to demand freedom for the Palestinian hunger strikers Muhammad Allan and Uday Isteiti who have been without food or any nutrients for 39 days today. Their lives are in critical condition. Both have been caged by Israel for over 8 months without charge and without a trial. The British company G4S is complicity in Israel's crimes against Palestinian prisoners as it secures many of the dungeons Palestinians are caged and tortured in.

This protest was organised in co-ordination with our friends at the 'Prisoner's Center for Studies' in Gaza as part of a joint protest with one they held earlier this week in Gaza, to show global united solidarity with the hunger strikers Muhammad Allan and Uday Isteiti.

31 years old Muhammad Allan is a lawyer from Nablus in the occupied West Bank. The occupation soldiers abducted him on 6th November 2014 and he has been caged since then without a charge or trial under Israel's illegal practice of administrative detention wherby Palestinians are caged indefinitely under rolling administrative detention orders without any charge or trial. In total Muhammad has suffered 3 years in Israeli prisons with several administrative orders having been issued against him.

Muhammad Allan went on hunger strike after the occupation again renewed his administrative detention. As punishment for refusing food he has been locked up in isolation confinement at Ayala prison near Tel Aviv. He has lost well over 10kgs in weight and is suffering severe stomach pains.

Uday Isteiti is from Jenin refugee camp. Isteiti was been caged without charge or trial since last November 2014 under administrative detention at Israel's notorious G4S secured dungeon at Ketziot in the Negev desert. G4S provides and maintains the entire security system that keeps this hell hole operational. Isteiti went on hunger strike after the occupation again renewed his administrative detention. As punishment for refusing food he has been transferred to Eshel prison and locked up in solidarity confinement with severe measures being imposed on him. He is not been permitted to bathe for more than two weeks now and is being refused a change of clothes. Vindictively the Israeli jailers also took away his Holy Qur'an during the month of Ramadan. Isteitiis is suffering extreme pain in his joints and can hardly move, but the prison is refusing to provide him with a wheelchair.

Prisoners go on hunger strike, putting their lives in danger, as a last resort.. as the only form of non-violent protest available for them. It's their last method of peaceful resistance to Israels criminal policies towards the prisoners. Muhammad and Isteitiis went on hunger strike to protest against Israel's illegal policy of administrative detention, to demand an end to being caged indefinitely without charge or trial.

The Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan who won his freedom two weeks ago after 55 days of hunger strike had simply demanded Israel put him on trial is he had done anything wrong, or otherwise release him. After 55 days without food, when he was close to death, Israel finally relented and released him.

We are here to demand Israel also release the hunger strikers Muhammad Allan and Uday Isteiti, and for Israel to end its illegal practice of administrative detention - of caging people indefinitely without charge or trial.

We are also here to demand the British company G4S stop its complicity in Israel's crimes against Palestinian prisoners, to stop helping secure the torture dens and dungeons where Palestinians political prisoners, some as young as 12 years old are being tortured and caged.

Shame on you G4S! Shame on you G4S!

End Administrative Detention!

Shame on you Israel! Shame you Israel!

Free Muhammad Allan and Free Uday Isteiti

Free Palestine!

Speech - End Administrative Detention

VIDEO - Free The Hunger Strikers

Muhammad Allan and Uday Isteiti are on hunger strike to protest against Israel's practice of Administrative detention. I want to explain what administrative detention is.

Administrative 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. Such practice is against international law. For example administrative detainee Mazen Natsheh has been locked up cumulatively for nearly 10 years without charge or trial. Muhammad Allan has in total been caged for 3 years under different administrative detention orders 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 8 Palestinian MPs who are currently caged in Israeli dungeons to punish them for their political stance.

Palestinian prisoners rights group Addameer have documented "many cases where the detainees themselves will say that administrative detention is actually far worse than a fixed sentence, be that five years, ten years, 20 years, or whatever and why. With a fixed sentence, you know when you're going home, a prisoner knows when he goes home. It could be ten years or 15 years down the line, but they know when they're going home. Not with an administrative detention.." They have documented "many cases where prisoners or detainees have been literally leaving the prison, walking out of the prison with their bags in their hand after their administrative detention order has expired [with their family waiting on the other side] and the Israelis have handed that detainee another administrative detention order and they have to go back into the cell to recommence another administrative detention order. Now, this is a form of psychological torture for not only the detainee [but also] their families."

Israel has on average issued over 2000 detention orders every year (between 2007 and 2011). Today there are around 450 administrative detainees. Most of them, like Muhammad Allan and Uday Isteiti, having been transferred from the West Bank into Israel in contravention of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, with their families being prevented from visiting them.

Statistics from last year revealed that G4S secures most of the prisons where Israel cages administrative detainees. Last year 86% of administrative detainees were caged in G4S secured israeli prisons. So G4S is totally complicit in Israels crimes against Palestinian prisoners including Administrative detention.

We call for an end to Israel's illegal policy of administrative detention, and for G4S to stop its complicity in crimes against Palestinian political prisoners, some of which are children as young as 12 years old.

Shame on you G4S! Shame on you G4S!

End Administrative Detention!

Shame on you Israel! Shame you Israel!

Free Muhammad Allan and Free Uday Isteiti

Free Palestine!