Office 915
Ninth Floor
Khotso House
62 Marshall Street
Johannesburg, South Africa
 
24 October 2013
Dear Friends and Comrades,
 
MORE ABOUT MARWAN BARGHOUTI
Marwan Barghouti (54) is widely known as the ‘Palestinian Mandela' and was one of the first (and most popular) Palestinian Members of Parliament arrested and imprisoned by Israel. He was abducted in 2002 by the Israeli army and thereafter tried, convicted and sentenced to five life sentences. At his trial in 2002, Barghouti refused to participate in its proceedings maintaining that his abduction and the Israeli trial were illegal and illegitimate. In 2011 the international Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) found that Barghouti’s abduction, arrest and transfer to Israeli territory was in violation of international law. The IPU, together with other international human rights organisations, have subsequently called for his immediate release. Click here for a recently published article on Marwan Barghouti by South African political analyst, Shannon Field.
 
MORE ABOUT PALESTINIAN PRISONERS
Over 750 000 Palestinians (roughly 40% of Palestinian men) have been imprisoned by Israel at one point in time. About 100 000 Palestinians have been held by Israel in "administrative detention" (the equivalent of Apartheid South Africa's "Detention without trial"). In the last 11 years alone, more than 7500 Palestinian children have been detained in Israeli prisons and detention facilities (including being held in solitary confinement)  with Muhammad Daoud Dirbas, at the age of six, being the youngest Palestinian child to have been detained by Israeli soldiers - such practices are considered illegal under international law. Similar to the experience of Black families under Apartheid, almost every Palestinian family has been affected by the Israeli imprisonment of a relative. Currently, as of October 2013, there are over 5000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel; 137 of them are being held under Israel's "administrative detention" (Apartheid South Africa's "Detention Without Trial") and 180 of them are children. Click here to read the 2012 United Nations report on Israel's detention of Palestinian children.
 
POEM BY PALESTINIAN POET, MAHMOUD DARWISH
It is possible...
It is possible at least sometimes...
It is possible especially now
To ride a horse
Inside a prison cell
And run away...

It is possible for prison walls
To disappear,
For the cell to become a distant land
Without frontiers:

    What did you do with the walls?
    I gave them back to the rocks.
    And what did you do with the
    ceiling?
    I turned it into a saddle.
    And your chain?
    I turned it into a pencil.


The prison guard got angry.
He put an end to the dialogue.
He said he didn't care for poetry,
And bolted the door of my cell.

He came back to see me
In the morning.
He shouted at me:

    Where did all this water come from?
    I brought it from the Nile.
    And the trees?
    From the orchards of Damascus.
    And the music?
    From my heartbeat.


The prison guard got mad.
He put an end to my dialogue.
He said he didn't like my poetry,
And bolted the door of my cell.

But he returned in the evening:

    Where did this moon come from?
    From the nights of Baghdad.
    And the wine?
    From the vineyards of Algiers.
    And this freedom?
    From the chain you tied me with
    last night.

The prison guard grew so sad...
He begged me to give him back
His freedom.

"Prison cell", by Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008)
 
 
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This Sunday, 27 October, the international "Free Marwan Barghouti and all Palestinian Political Prisoners" campaign will be launched from the historic South African landmark of Robben Island, where anti-apartheid struggle icons Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada and others were imprisoned during Apartheid in South Africa.

The Palestinian based Popular Campaign for the Release of Marwan Barghouti and all Palestinian Political Prisoners and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation are the primary organisers of the Robben Island launch event. Ahmed Kathrada launched the "Free Nelson Mandela and all South African Political Prisoners" campaign in 1962, just prior to his own arrest and subsequent imprisonment with Nelson Mandela and others on Robben Island
(click here for a short YouTube video by actor Morgan Freeman on the life and legacy of Ahmed Kathrada). Now half a century later, the 84-year-old anti-apartheid struggle veteran, is launching yet another campaign for an iconic freedom fighter, Marwan Barghouti, commonly dubbed "Palestine's Mandela". Barghouti is one of the most prominent --of over 5000-- Palestinian political prisoners currently detained in Israeli prisons and jails (see left hand column).

On Sunday, from Robben Island, BDS South Africa will also be announcing and detailing an upcoming South African boycott campaign against G4S Security, the international security company contracted in 2007 to equip and service Israeli prisons, torture centres and detention facilities where Marwan Barghouti and other Palestinian political detainees are held.
 
PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONER SOLIDARITY EVENTS TAKING PLACE ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA
[27 OCT - 02 NOV | Robben Island, CT, DBN & JHB]
 
Following Sunday's Robben Island launch, public events will be held in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. 

----------

LAUNCH OF "FREE MARWAN BARGHOUTI AND ALL PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS" CAMPAIGN AND BDS-SA ANNOUNCEMENT OF "G4S BOYCOTT"
WHERE: Robben Island, Cape Town, South Africa
WHEN: Sunday, 27 October 2013
TIME: Starting from 09h00
RSVP: Event full.

----------

CAPE TOWN PALESTINE PRISONER SOLIDARITY RALLY
DAY: Sunday, 27 October 
TIME: 18h00
WHERE: Drommedaris Hall, Good Hope Centre 
ADDRESS: Christiaan Barnard Street, Cape Town
  CONTACT: 0823731143 / info@kathradafoundation.org
COST: Free
 
----------

DURBAN PALESTINE PRISONER SOLIDARITY RALLY
DAY: Tuesday, 29 October
TIME: 19h00
WHERE: Durban Art Gallery, Durban City Hall 
ADDRESS: 2nd Floor, Durban Art Gallery, Durban City Hall, Anton Lembede Street (Smith St.), Durban
  CONTACT: 0823731143 / info@kathradafoundation.org
COST: Free

----------
 
DURBAN PALESTINE PRISONER FUNDRAISING DINNER
DAY: Wednesday, 30 October
TIME: 18h30
WHERE: NMJ Hall
ADDRESS: Mountain View Avenue (off Hendry Road), Morningside, Durban
CONTACT AND RSVP: 0823731143 / 0827757860
COST: R300 pp
 
----------

JOHANNESBURG PALESTINE PRISONER SOLIDARITY RALLY
DAY: Thursday, 31 October
TIME: 18h30
WHERE: Baitun Noor Centre
ADDRESS: Topaas Street, Extension 5, Lenasia
CONTACT: 0823731143 / info@kathradafoundation.org
COST: Free

----------
 
JOHANNESBURG PALESTINE PRISONER & HUMAN RIGHTS SYMPOSIUM
DAY: Saturday, 02 November
TIME: 09h00
WHERE: Constitutional Hill, Braamfontein
CONTACT: 0823731143 / info@kathradafoundation.org
  HOSTS: The Foundation for Human Rights, Constitutional Hill and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation
COST: Free

----------

The Robben Island launch and follow up events in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg will be addressed by Ms. Fadwa Bargouti (wife of Marwan Barghouti and head of the Palestinian based Popular Campaign for the Release of Marwan Barghouti & All Palestinian Political Prisoners), Azzam Ahmad (Former Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Palestinian delegation to the international Inter-Parliamentary Union), Qaddura Fares (Former Palestinian Minister of Detainees), Majed Bamya (Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Shawqi Issa (Director of Ensan, the Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Human Rights), Sahar Francis (Director of Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support & Human Rights Association), Helmi Al Araj (Director of Hurriyat), Nasser Alrayyes (Al Haq, the Palestinian Human Rights Organization), Yasser Amouri (Birzeit University) and Luisa Morgantini (the former Vice President of the European Parliament). The Palestinian delegates will be accompanied by Ahmed Kathrada and a host of other former South African political prisoners.

 
G4S AND ITS COMPLICITY IN ISRAEL'S PRISONS, TORTURE CENTRES AND DETENTION FACILITIES
In 2007 the international security company, G4S, was contracted to provide and maintain Israeli prisons, torture centres and detention facilities. Although claiming that it intends to terminate its Israeli contracts, G4S still operates in Israel and with the Israeli regime. G4S also provides equipment and services to Israeli checkpoints and Israel's illegal Jewish-only settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank (click here to download the United Nations Special Rapporteur report with details of G4S and its illegal activities in Israel [Pages 15 & 16]). More information on the South African G4S boycott together with campaign material and ways in which members of the public can get involved will be distributed shortly after the Robben Island launch and official announcement of the South African "G4S Boycott" campaign...
 
BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL in SOUTH AFRICA (BDS SOUTH AFRICA)
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