Over 180 organizations have joined together to call for the immediate release of Khalida Jarrar, the imprisoned Palestinian feminist, leftist parliamentarian. Jarrar, a leading advocate for Palestinian prisoners’ rights, has been jailed without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention for nearly a year.

The organizations who have expressed their support for Jarrar’s freedom include political parties, feminist groups, Palestinian community and Palestine solidarity groups, Indigenous justice, prison abolition and prison justice organizations, human rights organizations, legal groups and more from over 20 countries.

Jarrar has been jailed since 2 July 2017, when she was seized in a night raid on her home in El-Bireh by Israeli occupation forces.  On 14 June 2018, she was informed that her detention would be extended for another four months, a sentence that is scheduled to be confirmed in an Israeli military court on 2 July 2018.

We are calling for days of action for the freedom of Khalida Jarrar between 30 June and 2 July. It is more important than ever that our voices are heard and our actions are visible. Protests are already being organized in New York and elsewhere around the world. You can download flyers, materials and visit petitions to join the campaign here: http://samidoun.net/2018/06/take-action-to-free-khalida-jarrar-june-30-july-2-organize-for-freedom/

You are invited to add your organization’s name to the following statement to demand freedom for imprisoned Palestinian leader Khalida Jarrar! We will continue to update this statement and re-release with additional signatories. To endorse, please use the form or email samidoun@samidoun.net with your group’s name.

Freedom for Khalida Jarrar! End administrative detention!

We, the undersigned organizations, come together to demand freedom for Palestinian political leader Khalida Jarrar, prominent leftist, feminist, prisoners’ rights advocate and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. She has been imprisoned without charge and without trial since July 2017 – and now the Israeli military occupation has declared that her imprisonment will be extended for an additional four months.

On July 2, 2017, Khalida Jarrar’s home was raided by Israeli occupation soldiers in a pre-dawn raid. She was ordered shortly thereafter to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. She is one of approximately 450 Palestinians held under administrative detention, a relic of the British colonial mandate that has been used by the Israeli occupation to jail thousands of Palestinian community and political leaders, and one of approximately 6,100 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

In December 2017, her detention was renewed for another six months. Now, another military order declares that she will be imprisoned for four more months. Administrative detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable. Palestinians can spend years at a time jailed under these orders, never knowing when they could be released, if ever.

As Addameer notes, “This practice of arbitrary detention is a grave violation of international laws and human rights standards, particularly articles 78 and 72 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which state that an accused individual has the right to defend him/herself. This also violates Article 66 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the basic standards of fair trial.”

On July 2, an Israeli military court is scheduled to approve the detention order. Jarrar, like all administrative detainees, has boycotted these hearings since February, as they are mere rubber-stamp sessions used as a fig leaf to “legitimize” the arbitrary imprisonment of Palestinians.

Jarrar is a Palestinian political leader, representing the Abu Ali Mustafa Bloc, allied with the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in the Palestinian Legislative Council. She is a frequent leader and participant in demonstrations and popular actions for Palestinian freedom, a a long-time Palestinian political prisoners’ advocate and former executive director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and now a member of its board, and chair of the Prisoners’ Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

She has also been active in the Palestinian women’s movement since her earliest days as a university student organizing with other female students to challenge the occupation. She is a leading organizer of International Women’s Day events in Palestine and coordinates closely with Palestinian women’s organizations. “Palestinian women are full partners in the Palestinian struggle,” she emphasizes.

Khalida Jarrar is heavily involved in the fight to hold Israeli officials accountable for war crimes in the International Criminal Court. She is a member of a Palestinian commission charged with bringing complaints and files before the international court about ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, from attacks on Gaza to land confiscation and settlement construction to mass arrests and imprisonment.

Since 1998, she has been forbidden to travel outside occupied Palestine. When she needed medical treatment in Jordan in 2010, she struggled for months in a public campaign before finally receiving it. The Israeli occupation attempted to forcibly displace her from her home to Jericho in 2014, and in 2015, arrested and jailed her 14 months for her political activities.

The extended administrative detention of Khalida Jarrar is an attempt to remove an effective, grassroots leader from the Palestinian national movement. Especially now, when people are taking to the streets throughout occupied Palestine and thousands are marching in Gaza for the Great Return March, leaders like her are targeted for arrest and imprisonment in an attempt to defuse the Palestinian struggle.

Khalida Jarrar is being targeted as a Palestinian leader, a Palestinian voice for justice, and an active Palestinian woman. Her imprisonment is yet another attack by the Israeli colonial state against the Palestinian people struggling for freedom, and administrative detention and the mass imprisonment of Palestinians are two of the weapons used in an attempt to break the Palestinian liberation movement.

We come together today to demand the immediate release of Khalida Jarrar, an end to the policy and practice of administrative detention and freedom for Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. We pledge to struggle for justice through protests, actions, organizing and escalating boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) actions against Israel, in Khalida’s own spirit of resistance.

Signed,

1. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
2. Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
3. Action Antifasciste NP2C
4. Alkarama Movement of Palestinian Women
5. Al-Quds Day Committee of New York
6. American Muslims for Palestine – NY/NJ
7. American Party of Labor
8. Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland
9. ArbeiterInnenmacht (Germany)
10. Arbeiter*innenstandpunkt (Austria)
11. Association Belgo-Palestinienne
12. Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP)
13. AFPS 63 (Association France Palestine Solidarité 63)
14. AFPS 59/62
15. AFPS Alès-Cévennes
16. Associazione Amicizia Sardegna Palestina
17. ATIK – Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe
18. Balfour Declaration Centenary Campaign
19. BDS France Saint-Étienne
20. BDS Turkey
21. BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish
22. BDS Zürich
23. Belgian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI)
24. Black Alliance for Peace
25. Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (aka Boycott from Within – Israeli citizens for BDS)
26. Bruxelles Panthéres
27. Cafe Palestina of the Southern Berkshires
28. California Coalition for Women Prisoners
29. Campagne BDS France
30. Campagne unitaire pour la libération de Georges Ibahim Abdallah (Paris)
31. Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon
32. Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
33. Canada Palestine Association
34. Canadian Friends of Sabeel
35. Centre de la Communauté Démocratique Kurde de Toulouse
36. Coalition for Justice – Blacksburg
37. CODEPINK – Women for Peace
38. Colectivo Contraimpunidad
39. Collectif de Soutien à la Résistance Palestinienne 59-62
40. Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
41. Collectif pour la Libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
42. Colletivo Palestina Rossa
43. Comité de Vigilance pour la Démocratie en Tunisie
44. Comité Poitevin Palestine
45. Committee to Stop FBI Repression – National
46. Committee to Stop FBI Repression – NY
47. Committees for a Democratic Palestine – Europe
48. Coup Pour Coup 31
49. Dun Padraig Friends of Palestine
50. Eye On Palestine Arts and Film Festival
51. Familles de prisonniers pour la Justice – Belgique
52. Femmes en lutte 93
53. F.O.R. Palestine (Berlin)
54. Free Palestine Movement
55. Freedom Archives
56. Freedom Road Socialist Organization
57. Friends of Sabeel North America
58. Frihet åt Ahed Tamimi Göteborg
59. Fronte Palestina
60. General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS Aix-Marseille)
61. General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS France)
62. Gents Actieplatform Palestina
63. Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
64. Greek Front of Resistance and Solidarity with Palestine “Ghassan Kanafani”
65. Green Mountain Solidarity with Palestine
66. Greenville for Gaza
67. Handala Center for Prisoners and Former Prisoners – Palestine
68. Harakat Shaab – Lebanon
69. HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) Central Women’s Assembly
70. Hilombé Solidaridad
71. Human Rights Defenders
72. Independent Jewish Voices – Canada
73. Indivisible Midlands
74. Inminds Human Rights Group
75. intal
76. International Action Center
77. International Association of Democratic Lawyers
78. International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
79. International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) Spain
80. International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS)
81. International Red Help
82. International Women’s Alliance
83. Internationalt Forum – Denmark
84. Invictapalestina – Documentation Center
85. Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
86. Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA)
87. Irish Socialist Republicans
88. ISM France
89. Izquierda Unida – Spain
90. Jacksonville Community Action Committee
91. Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network
92. Jericho Movement – National
93. Jericho Movement – New York City
94. Jersey City Peace Movement
95. Jeune Garde Lyon
96. Jeunes Révolutionnaires Genève
97. Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
98. Jewish Women for Justice in Israel/ Palestine
99. Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
100. Justice For Palestinians, Calgary
101. Justice for Palestinians – San Jose
102. Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights – Philippines
103. Katie Miranda Studios
104. Kia Ora Gaza (New Zealand)
105. Kickapoo Peace Circle
106. LA4Palestine
107. Labor for Palestine
108. La Voix des Prisonnier.ère.s Politiques de Turquie et Kurdistan
109. Le Collectif Rouge Internationaliste pour la libération des prisonniers révolutionnaires (Paris)
110. Le Comité d’action et de soutien aux luttes du peuple marocain (Paris)
111. League for the Fifth International
112. Links Ecologisch Forum/Forum Gauche Ecologie – LEF-FGE
113. Libérons-les
114. London Palestine Action
115. Manchester Palestine Action
116. Mouvement Citoyens Palestine
117. National Campaign to Free Georges Abdallah – Lebanon
118. National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy
119. National Lawyers Guild International Committee
120. National Lawyers Guild- Massachusetts Chapter
121. Newry Palestinian Support Group
122. NION (Not In Our Name)
123. No One Is Illegal – Vancouver Coast Salish Territories
124. NY4Palestine
125. NYU Disorientation Guide
126. NYU Jewish Voice for Peace
127. NZ Palestine Solidarity Network
128. Palestine Democratic Forum
129. Palestine International Network – Lebanon
130. Palestine Solidarity Committee – Austin, TX
131. Palestine Solidarity Network – Edmonton
132. Palestinian Child and Youth Institute (PCYI)
133. Palestinian Cultural Club – American University of Beirut
134. Palestinian Cultural Club – Beirut
135. Palestinian Progressive Student Bloc
136. Palestinian Refugee Portal
137. Palbox
138. Palestina Toma La Calle
139. Palestinian Youth Movement – USA
140. Partido Comunista de España
141. Party for Socialism and Liberation
142. Paz con Dignidad
143. People Power Assembly Queens
144. People’s Power Assembly
145. Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee
146. Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine
147. Progetto Palestina
148. Progressive Palestinian Youth Union
149. Progressive Scouts Group – Gaza
150. Progressive Student Labor Front (Palestine)
151. Project South
152. Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP
153. Republican Network for Unity
154. Revolutionary Socialist Movement (Pakistan)
155. REVOLUTION (youth movement)
156. Right of Return Coalition – Baddawi Camp, Lebanon (composed of 22 organizations)
157. Saoradh
158. Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
159. Secours Rouge Belgique / Red Help Belgium
160. Sheffield Hallam Palestine Society
161. Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine
162. Sheffield Labour Students
163. Sodepaz Euskadi
164. Solidarity with Palestine St. John’s
165. Students Against Israeli Apartheid at York University
166. Students for Justice in Palestine – CCNY
167. Students for Justice in Palestine – College of Staten Island
168. Students for Justice in Palestine – Houston
169. Students for Justice in Palestine – NYU
170. Students for Justice in Palestine – Temple University
171. Students for Justice in Palestine at University of South Carolina
172. Syria Solidarity Movement
173. Taqadomy Media Team
174. TJA (Tevgera Jinên Azad)  – Free Women Movement
175. The Bronx Green Party
176. The Palestine Project
177. The Red Nation
178. UNADIKUM Association
179. United National Antiwar Campaign (UNAC)
180. Union of Palestinian Communities and Institutions – Europe
181. Unión de Juventudes Comunistas de España
182. Unione Democratica Arabe Palestina (UDAP)
183. Union juive française pour la paix (UJFP)
184. University of Leeds – Palestine Solidarity Group
185. University of Sheffield Palestine Society
186. US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)
187. US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
188. Vrede vzw
189. Within Our Lifetime • United for Palestine
190. Women Against Military Madness
191. Women for Women’s Humans Rights – New Ways
192. Women’s Solidarity Foundation (KADAV)-Turkey
193. Workers World Party
194. Young Democratic Socialists – University of South Carolina

Categories: Colonialism, Imperialism, International, Israel, Palestine, Racist Oppression, Zionism