Updates and Actions from the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat + www.freeahmadsaadat.org +
info@freeahmadsaadat.org

January 24, 2011 - Ahmad Sa'adat,Palestinian national leader and political prisoner, remains in isolation, for nearly 700 days, prohibited from family visits, reading material confiscated, and barred from his friends and fellow prisoners, and accompanied by his fellow prisoner in isolation, Jamal Abu el-Hija.

Isolation and prevention of human contact is widely understood by
human rights advocates to be ill-treatment that amounts to torture
and/or cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, in violation of the
Geneva Conventions. Ongoing and repeated isolation that will now
stretch to over two years, justified by vague declarations of
"security" needs, indicate that the Israeli regime is dedicated to
attempting to isolate Sa'adat not only from his fellow prisoners, but
to isolate and silence his voice among the Palestinian people.

Sa'adat's ongoing isolation only serves to make clear time and again
that the Israeli courts are merely an arm of the occupation,
dedicated at all levels to maintaining the oppression of the
Palestinian people and providing a "legal" pretext for ongoing
brutality and human rights abuses.

http://freeahmadsaadat.org/tunisia.html Despite the Israeli
occupation's goals, however, Sa'adat has continued to speak out. From
isolation, Sa'adat issued a message congratulating the people of
Tunisia for their remarkable revolution and the promise it holds for
the Arab world.

In addition, the French Foreign Minister, Ms Michelle Alliot-Marie,
visited Gaza on January 21, 2011, where she referred to the
Palestinian resistance's detention of occupation solidier Gilad
Shalit as a "war crime." At the same time, she had no words for the
thousands of Palestinian prisoners held hostage in Israeli jails,
including Salah Hammouri, a French and Palestinian citizen held in
Israeli jails. The Campaign condemned the Foreign Minister and
demanded an apology to the Palestinian prisoners.
(http://freeahmadsaadat.org/ffm012111.html Statement here in French
and English). http://www.salah-hamouri.fr/ Learn more about the case of Salah Hammouri!

January 15, 2011 marks the ninth anniversary of Sa'adat's kidnapping
by Palestinian Authority security forces, at the behest of Israeli
and U.S. demands, as part of the policy of "security cooperation."
The http://freeahmadsaadat.org/9thenglish.html Campaign issued a
statement in English and
http://freeahmadsaadat.org/9tharabic.html Arabic condemning the PA
and demanding an immediate end to the policy of security cooperation.
Indeed, the documents of the Palestine Papers newly released by
Al-Jazeera, revealing inside details of negotiations on such topics
as Jerusalem, the right of refugees to return and security
cooperation only confirm that such policies have been a disaster for
the Palestinian people; the tragedy of security cooperation is
illustrated precisely by Sa'adat's case.

Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, has been held in Israeli jails since March
14, 2006, when he was abducted from Jericho prison, where he had been
held in a Palestinian Authority prison under U.S. and British guard.
While imprisoned in the PA jail in Jericho, he was elected to the
Palestinian Legislative Council. He was sentenced to thirty years in
prison on December 25, 2008 by an Israeli military court for his
political activity, and has spent over 500 days in
continually-renewed isolation at the present time.

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat salutes the human rights and
Palestine solidarity activists around the world who have rallied to
struggle for Sa'adat and the approximately 7,000 prisoners held in
the jails of the occupation. http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org Read the
Campaign website for more news about actions - including vigils in
Ireland and a tour in late 2010 by Abla Sa'adat, Ahmad Sa'adat's
wife, in the United States.

This work defeats the occupation's plans - it refuses to allow the
Palestinian prisoners, on a Palestinian, Arab or international level,
to be isolated. The voices of Ahmad Sa'adat and the Palestinian
prisoners will be heard, and no bars or isolation will prevent that.


TAKE ACTION TODAY!


1. The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat calls upon all supporters of
justice and human rights to write to U.S. President Barack Obama and
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and demand an end to U.S. aid to
Israel. The U.S. is responsible for Sa'adat's kidnapping - demand it end now!

Write here:
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/action4.html


2. Write a letter to Ahmad Sa'adat. Letters of support are important
and demonstrate solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat and Palestinian
prisoners - let him know that the world is demanding his freedom.
Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at
info@freeahmadsaadat.org with your
letters, or use our contact form at:
http://freeahmadsaadat.org/contact.html.
We will send all letters received to Palestine. We also encourage you
to write to him directly using this address: Ahmad Sa'adat, Ramon
Prison, Ramon area, PO Box 699, Postal Code 80600, Israel.

3. Organize an event in your local area to support Palestinian
prisoners. Please contact the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at
info@freeahmadsaadat.org about your own events and activities!


The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org

info@freeahmadsaadat.org