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RESOLUTION
IN SUPPORT OF THE CAMPAIGN TO FREE AHMAD SA'ADAT AND ALL PALESTINIAN
POLITICAL PRISONERS for
the National Assembly National Conference, July 10-12, 2009 WHEREAS, Israel
currently holds over 11,000 Palestinians as political prisoners, including men,
women and children, and one out of every four Palestinians living in the West
Bank and Gaza has been subject to political arrest or detention, including
40% of Palestinian men from the West Bank and Gaza, and WHEREAS, the arrest,
detention and imprisonment of Palestinians is directed by a series of over
1500 Israeli military regulations that can be changed at any time by the
regional military commander, and Palestinians arrested by the Israeli
military are often relocated to Israeli military prisons outside the West
Bank and Gaza, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and as the
Israeli military continues to abduct Palestinians on a daily basis and
imprison them in these military prisons, and WHEREAS, Palestinians
abducted by the Israeli military are subject to psychological and physical
torture and abuse, especially during the period of interrogation, which can
last for up to 180 days, including up to sixty days in which a Palestinian
prisoner may not be seen by an attorney, and WHEREAS, nearly one thousand
Palestinians are held in "administrative detention," a system of
detention without charge or trial, that is indefinitely extensible for successive
six-month periods, confronted only by secret evidence that is impossible to
refute, and WHEREAS, those Palestinian
detainees that are tried are brought before an Israeli military court, in
which Palestinians' rights to a fair trial are systematically violated,
presided over by three judges, only one of which is required to have any
legal training, and WHEREAS, the Israeli military
courts exist only as a function of the illegal military occupation, and thus
can never provide a legitimate or fair trial to Palestinian political
prisoners, and WHEREAS, Palestinian national
leaders, including Ahmad Sa'adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine, Marwan Barghouti, and 37 other members of the
Palestinian Legislative Council, are systematically targeted for political
arrest and imprisonment, and WHEREAS, the most basic of
political activities, including simply being a member of most Palestinian
political parties, are sufficient to serve as "charges" against
Palestinian political prisoners and are met with substantial sentences, and WHEREAS, Ahmad Sa'adat and
five other Palestinian political prisoners were arrested by the Palestinian
Authority in 2002, and were transferred to Jericho Prison under U.S. and
British guard as a condition of a settlement between then PA President Yasser
Arafat and Israel in May 2002, and WHEREAS, during his time in
PA prison, Sa'adat was never charged with any crime nor tried for any
offense; his release was ordered by the Palestinian High Court, and supported
by numerous international organizations, including Amnesty International, and
WHEREAS, on March 14, 2006,
the U.S. and British monitors at Jericho Prison left their posts, shortly
before the inception of a ten-hour siege of the prison by the Israeli
military that ended in the death of two Palestinians, the injury of
twenty-three more, and the abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat and five other
political prisoners from Jericho to Israeli military prisons, and WHEREAS, Ahmad Sa'adat was
sentenced by an illegitimate military court to 30 years in prison for 19
political offenses, including membership in a prohibited organization,
holding a post in a prohibited organization, and incitement, for giving a
speech after the Israeli assassination of his predecessor, Abu Ali Mustafa,
in 2001, and WHEREAS, Ahmad Sa'adat and
his attorneys consistently refuse and refused throughout his trial to
recognize the authority of a military court that is an instrument of
occupation, and WHEREAS, political
imprisonment has been one part of a deliberate strategy to deprive
Palestinians of their leaders, educators, writers, journalists, clergy,
unionists, and popular activists from all political orientations, as part of
the dispossession and repression of the Palestinian Arab people in the
interests of colonialism and occupation for over sixty years, including the
denial of millions of Palestinian refugees' right to return home, and WHEREAS, as Ahmad Sa'adat said
in his statement to the court of January 14, 2007, " This trial cannot
be separated from the process of the historical struggle in Palestine that
continues today between the Zionist Movement and the Palestinian people, a
struggle that centers on Palestinian land, history, civilization, culture and
identity," and WHEREAS, Ahmad Sa'adat has
been a leader among Palestinian prisoners and recently completed a nine-day
hunger strike against Israeli policies of isolation and solitary confinement
against Palestinian prisoners, and is currently in isolation until September
17, has faced serious health problems, and has been denied family visits from
his wife for months and from his children for years, and WHEREAS, the United States
government bears direct responsibility for the situation of Ahmad Sa'adat,
and oversaw his imprisonment in PA prison for four years and was complicit in
his abduction and kidnapping by the Israeli military during its attack on
Jericho prison, and WHEREAS, there is an
international campaign to free Ahmad Sa'adat, and all Palestinian political
prisoners, and as the National Assembly has a history of supporting struggles
for justice and freedom, and WHEREAS, the political
imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians is made possible by the billions of
dollars in economic and military support as well as the vast political and
diplomatic support given to THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED,
that the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and
Occupations calls for the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all
Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the National
Assembly shall actively support the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat and all
campaigns to free all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, and BE IT FURTHER
RESOLVED,
that the National Assembly shall endeavor to issue statements and publicize
the cases of Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, and BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the National Assembly shall
endeavor to support the struggles and organizing of Palestinian political
prisoners, and the work of activists and organizations on the ground working
for justice and freedom for Palestinian political prisoners and the cause of
freedom for which these thousands of prisoners are held - of
self-determination, liberation and return for all Palestinians in exile and
in all of historic Palestine |