[Id: a tweet by Mohammed El-Kurd reading: This prison break news from Palestine also signifies that the seemingly impenetrable Zionist colonial regime is in fact penetrable. They want us to believe they know our every step—the fangs of their surveillance machine are sharp indeed, but Palestinian skin is thicker. / end id]
6 Palestinian political prisoners escaped a high security Israeli prison on September 6th. As great of a victory as that is, there's been a crackdown on prisons all over Israel in an attempt to break the people's spirits and discourage riots.
This thread by Mohammed El-Kurd explains the crackdown campaign. Prisoners are being tortured in the Naqqab prison, dogs are being unleashed on them and relatives of the escapees are being held hostage and interrogated.
Here's a graphic video that came to light in June showing IOF forces raiding the Naqqab prison and torturing inmates in 2019. This is what happens on the daily, the situation right now must be even worse.
The IOF is escalating violence in the prisons of Negev and Ofer and transfered prisoners from Gilboa (the prison where the escapees were being held), keeping them from water, food, yard time, put in solitary, threatened with sexual blackmail and their relatives are being held hostage.
Here's a video of prisoners from Gilboa being transfered. Checkpoints have been closed, besieging entire towns as collective punishment. Important reminder that the transfer of prisoners from occupied territory to occupier territories is illegal.
Negev and Ofer are often where the IOF detain children prisoners being interrogated and used as blackmail against their parents.
Here's a video of the IOF detaining Aysar Abu Sbitan, the teenage brother of one of the escapees. They waited for the boy at the school's gate, then arrested him, probably for interrogation.
Here's another video of IOF arresting relatives of the escapees
Israel has also been arresting palestinian health professionals responding to COVID without trials, including 60 year old Dr. Shatha Odeh who works giving health aid to Palestinians in remote areas, who has been detained since July with risks to her own health. The crackdown on health professionals is not news, as IOF has forced Covid response centers to be shut down with no justification and bombed Gaza's single testing laboratory.
This comes only days after Palestinians had been campaigning for the release of Anhar Deek, a political prisoner who was held in Hasharon prison since March and could go into labor at any moment. Anhar, who's already the mother of an 1 year old, said the police landed blows to her back and belly even though she said she was pregnant and put her in solitary confinement. The Israeli Prison Service denied her pleas to deliver her baby outside of prison many times, but after international pressure, they let her out. She was released on a $12,500 bond and delivered her baby safely. She was one of 11 mothers being held in that prison.
[Id: a picture of Anhar on a hospital bed, smiling and holding her baby son / end id]
Israel is a vile colonization project that's been trying since its conception to erase Palestinians. Don't look away from Palestine, from Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Beita, Gaza and so on. International pressure is effective. Here's some recourses, but feel free to add more.
Here's a constantly updating list of protests happening over the world (if you know of one that's not in the link, you can email them to add it)
Inform yourself but most importantly amplify Palestinian voices. Here's Muna El-Kurd, one of the spokespersons of the Save Sheikh Jarrah movement, talking about the importance of online support.
Palestinians are using the hashtag FreeThemAll over social media to amplify their calls for the release of prisoners in Israeli jails. Here's a link to the Twitter tag, keep yourself updated.
IF YOU'RE IN THE US: Call Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer
IF YOU'RE IN CANADA: Write to your MPs asking to stop selling arms to Israel
This link has a series of petitions that you can sign from anywhere in the world
Also, this toolkit by the Palestine Feminist Collective has resources on petitions, which representatives to call and BDS directions
Sign this petiton in support of Huda, the high school student who was harassed for calling her fellow students to learn about Palestine
Follow palestinian activists. Some of them:
Palestinian Youth Movement
Arab Resource and Organizing Center
Mohammed El Kurd (he often posts calls for action from all over the world on his stories)
Follow BDS, anywhere in the world.
janainaart
annaxmalina
baratheonpilled
kianamaiart
blakekathryn
snowghoul
