Leeds PSG

Events

This part of the website is to inform people of our upcoming events and campaigns.

Palestinian Prisoners Day

Raising awareness of the plight of Palestinian prisoners

On April 17th, people across the world will mark Palestinian Prisoners Day in recognition of the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli detention centres. Palestinian prisoners from the Occupied Territories- hundreds of whom are under the age of 18- are tried under military courts and sentenced by military judges. Defendants are often convicted on secret evidence and serve disproportionately long sentences.

In what is referred to as “administrative detention”, the Israeli Army is allowed to arbitrarily arrest and detain Palestinian civilians for periods of six months and after this six months the sentence can be extended without explanation. These loose guidelines allow the Israeli army to exercise broad and unchecked powers against the Palestinian population.

Given the current conditions within these prisons, this Prisoners Day is particularly significant. In addition to the poor treatment and inhumane conditions under which Palestinians are held, Palestinian prisoners at multiple detention centres have recently suffered direct attacks. Both at Ofer Prison and the Ketziot Detention Centre, prisoners were recently assaulted and beaten by the Israeli forces. These attacks occurred when Israeli forces attempted to transfer large numbers of prisoners from one detention facility to another. By moving prisoners around every few months Israel seeks to disrupt supportive relationships that from amongst prisoners. Such bonds are an essential coping mechanism for Palestinian prisoners, particularly for children as without them the prison experience becomes significantly more acute.

For the most up to date information about Palestinian political prisoners please visit the palestine monitor website prisoners page.

Freedom Now: Campaign to Release Palestinian Child Prisoners
by: Defence for Children Internatinal - Palestine Section

For inforamtion about Palestinian child political prisoners please visit the Defence for Children International - Palestine Section. www.dci-pal.org/

Leaflets for the campaign:
Front
Back

Please join in this campaign and make your voice heard on the issue:

1. Wear black on Thursday 17th April. Black shirt well will do, we are not asking people to dress all in black.

2. Sign the petition on the 10 Downing Street website (UK only)
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/palprisoners/

3. Use the event’s image as your Facebook profile image, on the 17th of April and maybe before and after.
www.actionpalestine.org/ppp.jpg

This effort is facilitated by Action Palestine, Palestine societies on UK will be holding a series of actions and events as part of the campaign.

We ask all the other groups and organisations to support this effort about this largely forgotten issue.

Action for Gaza

As the situation in Gaza has deteriorated the Palestine Solidairty Group at the University of Leeds has decided to launch a week of action to raise awareness and money for those who are suffering and those who have been killed.

We will be fasting from sunrise to sunset on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week. The programme for the week is:

Tuesday: Fasting from 6:30am - 5:59pm
Vigil Outside the social sciences building at 6pm

Wednesday: 6:28am - 6.00pm
1pm Meeting with Palestinian women in Meeting Room 3 in the ARC

Thursday: 6.26am - 6.02pm
Breaking fast together (At a venue which is yet to be confirmed)

During the fast we will all be wearing tshirts which will be available for collection from the ARC reception all next week (we ask for a £3 contribution to pay for the cost of the t-shirt) which should be worn to publicise the fast. Alternatively ring Akram on the number below and I can meet you to give you one.

Please tell all your friends and get them involved. We will also be raising money for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) over the course of the week.

 

Public meeting: Palestinian Women Speak Out

Wednesday March the 12th 2008

1pm

Meeting room 3 in the ARC

Leeds University Union

As part of a national speaking tour organised by the Britain-Palestine Twinning Network and to coincide with the week of International Women’s Day, Leeds University Union Palestine Solidarity Group is hosting a talk by three students from the West Bank.

Rawan Abu Amreyya is an English and Gender Studies student at Al Quds in Abu Dis

Shatha Zeedeh is a student at the Al Quds Open University in Salfeet

Imtethal Alaqad is a student at Al-Najah University in Nablus

They will be talking about women and the Palestinian situation. There will be room at the end of the meeting for questions to be put to the speakers.