Children Singing for Freedom

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

Antoine De Saint Exupery

Freedom of Information

I was searching online for some information about British Gas after reading THIS

I stumbled on this website which lead me to something called the freedom of information Act (FOIA) implemented in UK which is something I wish if it could be implemented in Jordan since we badly need it, we need transperancy, we need to inform the public about how the government is operating,and the bases on which people in charge are making decisions. its our right to know.

the FOIA goes like this:

Any person can make a request under the Act - there are no restrictions on your age, nationality, or where you live.

All you have to do is write to (or email) the public authority that you think holds the information you want. You should make sure that you include:

• your name
• an address where you can be contacted
• a description of the information that you want

You don't have to mention the Freedom of Information Act, but there is no reason not to if you want to.

You should try to describe the information you want in as much detail as possible - for example "minutes of the meeting where the decision to do X was made", rather than "everything you have about X". This will help the public authority find the information you need.

Public authorities must comply with your request promptly, and should provide the information to you within 20 working days (around a month). If they need more time, they must write to you and tell you when they will be able to answer your request, and why they need more time


I think Freedom of Information is a prerequisite to Freedom of Speech for we, need the power to request information first. there are many things I wanna see , PLEAAASE

WHY ?

You pay taxes, and then government does things with the money. All sorts of things that affect your life, from healthcare through to national defence. Some it does badly, some it does well. The more we find out about how government works, the better able we are to make suggestions to improve the things that are done badly, and to celebrate the things that are done well.

I think its perfectly doable.

Good Day.

Honor Crimes

Think that a man related to you is to kill you; Think your father, your brother, your uncle, your cousin, or your husband, you know that today in Jordan he can get out clean & be applauded by ironically-your family & the society because he successfully proved your unworthiness of living, in addition to that, the juridical system justifies his madness & denies you your life.

We live in a society were women willingly submit to men, we obey, we allow the father figure to manage our lives for security & stability, we developed a need for protection by the male from the male, the workforce is male dominant, those who set up the rules are males, women keep silent out of respect and because of the precedence of the family unit in our priorities, but it turns to ownership that extends to how we should live and how to mold our lives to fit into our roles.

You know how I picture women in our society; we are like butterflies in a glass enclosure where we have limited fields to venture in, and are brought to think that this garden we have is paradise, thats why we are always thankful that we have a system to rely on regardless of how much it eats from our individuality. Thats why women obsess with things like " virginity being a family concern, marriage race, what if he divorced me, what if he married a second one, turn a blind eye to him cheating, quit the job to bring up kids, he yells at me, he started beating me.." you know the rest of the record.

you always need to satisfy the society & the "him" in the equation because you depend on him. you are never ever independent or learned to stand alone. If its not him, then its the family, you never own your space, something for yourself , when have you really thought of yourself alone, you know you can't ignore how much your family and society play a role in most if not all the decisions you make. you are either a sister, a daughter, a girlfriend, a wife, a mother "first". you were never "you" first before being any of those roles and think of about all your behaviors and how it serves these roles. where is you?

so you ask me what do you want? I tell you, I want legal safety, justice, more freedom, better education and civil rights for my gender.

Today, I wont talk about the cases where murdered women were proven innocent, this is an evident proof of a failure of the juridical system. when a woman whether guilty or not regardless of what guilty means, is killed and the killer gets away, this means I mean nothing to the system that I subscribe to and yeah I am less than a man in this case.

in Christianity it is written: " Do Not Kill " & in Islam you are not to kill a woman who commits adultery, not you, not by yourself without witnesses & this is exactly why there are courts. The raging reaction and the momentary insanity is bullshit & saying its a tradition is even more bullshit.

A View: Tanya Reinhart

Tanya Reinhart - Israeli Human Rights Defendant




Tanya Reinhart, speaking in New York, February 2007.

TANYA REINHART: So, in the present world, not only the international community does not impose sanctions on Israel. In fact, it elected to impose sanctions on the Palestinians. Since the Palestinian elections, all funds to the Palestinian Authority, all funds to the even NGO organizations have been frozen. And Israel itself is holding tax monies that it owes the Palestinian. And the Palestinian economy is completely paralyzed with no salaries, no social services, no medical care or functioning hospitals.

Just two years ago, the Western world hailed “the best of democracy in the Middle East” with Arafat departing and the Palestinian people getting ready for their elections. According to Jimmy Carter, in a report he wrote in the Herald Tribune, the Palestinian elections were, I quote, “honest, fair, strongly contested, without violence and with the result accepted by winners and losers.” Among the sixty-two elections that had been monitored by the Carter Center, these are among the best in portraying the will of the people.

In a just and well-ordered world, it would be unthinkable that a government that was elected in this kind of a process will be ignored just because Israel does not like the choice of the Palestinian people. But in a world in which the US rules, might is right, and might can define democracy as it wills. Thus, it was announced that the outcome of the Palestinian elections will not be recognized, and until this changes, the Palestinian people as a whole should be punished and starved.

What we see now, since then, is that the US is trying, together with Israel, to impose a longstanding policy that they have always had of trying to push the society into civil war. They are doing this in Palestine by supporting collaborating forces like the forces of Dahlan in Gaza. They are trying to do the same in Lebanon. They are trying this in Iraq. This is the US policy.

The Palestinian people so far have resisted this attempt to push them into a civil war, and they have managed to form a unity government. But just as we heard just yesterday, the US will not recognize—following Israel’s demand—will not recognize the new unity government and will continue the boycott.

The way this is packed is the demand of the Palestinian—the Palestinians are demanded to meet the quoted three demands, the three mantras that keep repeating. The first mantra is that the Palestinians should renounce violence, specifically Hamas should renounce violence. It’s very hard to understand the content of this demand. Already in January 2005, when the Hamas announced that they are—Hamas announced that they are going to move from armed struggle into political struggle and enter the elections, and since then, there wasn’t a single terror attack perpetrated by the Hamas. According to Israeli security sources, the Hamas didn’t even participate in launching of Kassams to Israel until the events of last summer, when Israel attacked Gaza.

The second demand is that the Palestinians should recognize previous accords. In an interview with the the Washington Post already a year ago, Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh explained that according to the Oslo Accords in 1993, five years later in ’98, there should have been already a Palestinian state. Instead, what Israel did during this whole period was appropriate more land, continue to colonize, to build settlements, and it did not keep a single clause of the Oslo Agreements. “From now on,” Haniyeh said, “we will only accept and respect agreements that are good for the Palestinian people.”

Now, the third and crucial mantra that is being used to suffocate the Palestinian people is that the new government should recognize the existence of Israel. But the reality of the matter is that it is Israel that is not willing to recognize the right of the Palestinians to exist as a state. In the meeting of the Palestinian National Council in 1988, the Palestinian people have decided already that they are willing to accept a two-state solution within the borders of the ‘67—before the ’67 War, which for them means accepting to live in 22% of their historical land. Since then, Israel has not done a single thing to show that it’s willing accept this, to show that it’s willing to give the Palestinians a state in this little portion left of their land.

[Source]

Things I can do

1- turn fact sheets to videos and post them on Youtube and Ikbis in a dedicated channel
2- link those videos to Queen Rania Youtube Channel
3- Network with people around the world who worked on Middle Eastern Studies and include their views and support and findings
4- Draw thoughts
5- Inspire local singers to make music that is enjoyable and hearing friendly, art work and sculptures
6- Find strength in suffering and capture photos of success and hope
7- make wikis and develop answers in appropriate and documented content and propose it to places it can get adopted
8- Celebrate every success no matter how small

will be back

التعديلات الحرفية في قانون الاحوال الشخصية الاردني المؤقت

المادة1-
يسمى هذا القانون ( قانون معدل لقانون الاحوال الشخصية لسنة 2001 ) ويقرأ مع القانون رقم (61) لسنة 1976 المشار اليه فيما يلي بالقانون الاصلي وما طرأ عليه من تعديل قانونا واحدا ويعمل به من تاريخ نشره في الجريدة الرسمية.

المادة (1)
يسمى هذا القانون ( قانون الاحوال الشخصية لسنة 1976 ) ويعمل به من تاريخ نشره في الجريدة الرسمية.

المادة2-
يلغى نص المادة (5) من القانون الاصلي ويستعاض عنه بالنص التالي:-
المادة5-
ــــــــــــــــــــ
يشترط في اهلية الزواج ان يكون الخاطب والمخطوبة عاقلين وان يكون كل منهما قد اتم الثامنة عشرة سنة شمسية الا انه يجوز للقاضي ان يأذن بزواج من لم يتم منهما هذا السن اذا كان قد اكمل الخامسة عشرة من عمره وكان في مثل هذا الزواج مصلحة تحدد اسسها بمقتضى تعليمات يصدرها قاضي القضاة لهذه الغاية.

لمادة (5)
يشترط في اهلية الزواج ان يكون الخاطب والمخطوبة عاقلين وان يتم الخاطب السنة السادسة عشرة وان تتم المخطوبة الخامسة عشرة من العمر.

المادة3-
يعدل القانون الاصلي باضافة المادة (6) مكرر اليها بالنص التالي:-
المادة6 مكرر
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
أ- يتوجب على القاضي قبل اجراء عقد الزواج المكرر التحقق مما يلي:-
1- قدرة الزوج المالية على المهر والنفقة.
2- اخبار الزوجة الثانية بان الزوج متزوج باخرى.
ب- على المحكمة اعلام الزوجة الاولى بعقد الزواج المكرر بعد اجراء عقد الزواج.

المادة (6)
أ- للقاضي عند الطلب حق تزويج البكر التى اتمت الخامسة عشرة من عمرها من الكفوء في حال عضل الولي غير الاب او الجد من الاولياء بلا سبب مشروع.
ب-اما اذا كان عضلها من قبل الاب او الجد فلا ينظر في طلبها الا اذا كانت اتمت ثمانية عشر عاما وكان العضل بلا سبب مشروع.

لمادة4-
تعدل المادة (63) من القانون الاصلي باضافة عبارة ( على ان يوثق ذلك رسميا امام القاضي ) بعد عبارة ( كاملي اهلية التصرف ) الواردة فيها.

المادة (63)
للزوج الزيادة في المهر بعد العقد وللمرأة الحط منه اذا كان كاملي اهلية التصرف ويلحق ذلك بأصل العقد اذا قبل به الطرف الآخر في مجلس الزيادة او الحط منه.

المادة5-
يلغى نص المادة (68) من القانون الاصلي ويستعاض عنه بالنص التالي:-
المادة68-
ـــــــــــــــــــــ
تستحق الزوجة التي تعمل خارج البيت نفقة بشرطين:-
أ- ان يكون العمل مشروعا.
ب- موافقة الزوج على العمل صراحة او دلالة ، ولا يجوز له الرجوع عن موافقته الا لسبب مشروع ودون ان يلحق بها ضررا.

المادة (68)
لا نفقة للزوجة التى تعمل خارج البيت بدون موافقة الزوج

المادة6-
تعدل المادة (126) من القانون الاصلي باعتبار ما ورد فيها فقرة (أ) واضافة الفقرتين (ب) و (ج) التاليتين اليها:-
ب- للزوجة قبل الدخول او الخلوة ان تطلب الى القاضي التفريق بينها وبين زوجها اذا استعدت لاعادة ما استلمته من مهرها وما تكلف به الزوج من نفقات الزواج وللزوج الخيار بين اخذها عينا او نقدا ، واذا امتنع الزوج عن تطليقها يحكم القاضي بفسخ العقد بعد ضمان اعادة المهر والنفقات.
ج- للزوجين بعد الدخول او الخلوة ان يتراضيا فيما بينهما على الخلع فان لم يتراضيا عليه واقامت الزوجة دعواها بطلب الخلع مبينة باقرار صريح منها انها تبغض الحياة مع زوجها وانه لا سبيل لاستمرار الحياة الزوجية بينهما وتخشى ان لا تقيم حدود الله بسبب هذا البغض وافتدت نفسها بالتنازل عن جميع حقوقها الزوجية وخالعت زوجها وردت عليه الصداق الذي استلمته منه حاولت المحكمة الصلح بين الزوجين فان لم تستطع ارسلت حكمين لموالاة مساعي الصلح بينهما خلال مدة لا تتجاوز ثلاثين يوما فان لم يتم الصلح حكمت المحكمة بتطليقها عليه بائنا.

المادة (126)
اذا ثبت قبل الدخول عجز الزوج باقراره او بالبينة عن دفع المهر لمعجل كله او بعضه فللزوجة ان تطلب من القاضي فسخ الزواج القاضي يمهله شهرا فاذا لم يدفع المهر بعد ذلك يفسخ النكاح ينهما ، اما اذا كان الزوج غائبا ولم يعلم له محل اقامة و لا مال له يمكن تحصيل المهر منه فانه يفسخ بدون امهال.

المادة7-
يلغى نص المادة (134) من القانون الاصلي ويستعاض عنه بالنص التالي:-
المادة134-
ــــــــــــــــــــــــ
اذا طلق الزوج زوجته تعسفا كأن طلقها لغير سبب معقول وطلبت من القاضي التعويض حكم لها على مطلقها بتعويض لا يقل عن
نفقة سنة ولا يزيد على نفقة ثلاث سنوات ويراعى في فرضها حال الزوج عسرا ويسرا ويدفع جملة اذا كان الزوج موسرا واقساطا
اذا كان معسرا ، ولا يؤثر ذلك على حقوقها الزوجية الاخرى.

المادة (134)
اذا طلق الزوج زوجته تعسفا كأن طلقها لغير سبب معقول وطلبت من القاضي التعويض حكم لها على مطلقها بالتعويض الذي يراه
مناسباً بشرط ان لا يتجاوز مقدار نفقتها عن سنة ويدفع هذا التعويض جملة او قسطاً حسب مقتضى الحال ويراعى في ذلك
حالة الزوج يسرا وعسرا و لا يؤثر ذلك على باقي الحقوق الزوجية الاخرى للمطلقة بما فيها نفقة العدة.

المادة8-
يلغى نص المادة (163) من القانون الاصلي ويستعاض عنه بالنص التالي:-
المادة163-
ــــــــــــــــــــــــ
أ- يتساوى حق الام وحق الولي في مشاهدة الصغير عندما يكون في يد غيره ممن له حق حضانته.
ب- عند الاختلاف في مشاهدة الصغير تحدد رؤيته للام والولي مرة كل اسبوع وللاجداد لأم والجدات مرة في الشهر ولباقي
من لهم حق الحضانة مرة في السنة.
ج- للقاضي تحديد زمان المشاهدة ومكانها حسب مصلحة الصغير اذا لم يتفق الطرفان على ذلك.

المادة (163)
يتساوى حق الام وحق الاب او الجد لاب في رؤية الصغير عندما يكون في يد غيره ممن له حق حضانته.

ما كتب باللون الاخضر هو القانون الحالي و اللون الاسود هو النص ما بعد التعديل .
المصدر هو التشريعات الاردنية حيث تستطيعون الاطلاع على القانون بعد اسقاط التعديلات عليه اذاااااا أقره مجلس الامة

هل تشجع قانون الاحوال الشخصية المؤقت

هناك مشروع قائم حاليا يهدف الى دفع البرلمان الاردني على الموافقة على اقرارقانون الاحوال الشخصية المؤقت ل 2001 فيما يخص الزواج و المرأة

ويركز المشروع على إقرار ستة بنود، وهي ضرورة الإبقاء على تعديل رفع سن الزواج للذكر والأنثى إلى ثماني عشرة سنة، والإبقاء على مبدأ حق المرأة في الخلع القضائي، وتأكيد أهمية رفع مقدار التعويض عن الطلاق التعسفي إلى ثلاث سنوات كحد أعلى.

والتعديل الخاص بالزواج المكرر، إذ أوجب القانون المعدل على القاضي، وقبل إجراء عقد الزواج المكرر، التحقق من قدرة الزوج المالية على المهر والنفقة، كما أوجب على القاضي إخبار الزوجة الثانية بأن الزوج متزوج بأخرى، وكذلك أوجب على المحكمة وفق التعديل الجديد إعلام الزوجة الأولى بعقد الزواج المكرر بعد إجراء عقد الزواج.

ويطالب بإقرار المادة المتعلقة بنفقة الزوجة العاملة، إذ أصبحت الزوجة، وحسب القانون المعدل (المؤقت)، تستحق النفقة إذا كانت تعمل عملا مشروعا وإذا وافق الزوج على العمل صراحة أو دلالة، ولا يجوز له الرجوع عن موافقته إلا لسبب مشروع ودون أن يلحق بها ضرراً.

وجاء التعديل لمنع استغلال الزوجة من قبل الزوج، ورضوخها لمزاجيته، ولحماية الزوجة من إضرار الزوج بها والتضييق عليها.

وبخصوص حق المشاهدة فيطالب التحالف بإقرار المادة كما نص عليها القانون المؤقت على النحو التالي: يتساوى حق الأم وحق الولي في مشاهدة الصغير عندما يكون في يد غيره ممن له حق حضانته، وأعطى القانون المؤقت الحق للقاضي- عوضا عن مأمور الإجراء - في تحديد زمان المشاهدة ومكانها حسب مصلحة الصغير إذا لم يتفق الطرفان على ذلك.

وجاء هذا التعديل للمحافظة على صلة الطفل بأمه وأهله، وللإبقاء على المودة والمحبة والترابط، وللابتعاد بالصغير عن أجواء الخلافات والمشاكل.

التعديل عالق في المجاس و حسب المقال

ويرى القاضي الشرعي الدكتور واصف البكري أنه من الأفضل أن يتم التصدي للموضوع من قبل أصحاب الاختصاص في الشريعة، على أنه لا ينبغي بحسبه أن يترك الباب مفتوحا للاجتهاد لمن لا تنطبق عليهم شروط الاجتهاد الشرعي.

وطالب بعرض قانون الأحوال الشخصية المؤقت على مجلس الإفتاء حتى توضح بنوده من أهل الاختصاص.

ولفت القاضي البكري وهو من الأشخاص الذين شاركوا في وضع تعديلات القانون، أن بعض نواب المجلس الماضي رفضوا القانون لاعتقادهم أنه جاء بإملاءات، موضحا أنه لو تم التصدي للأمر من قبل أهل الاختصاص لكان الوضع اختلف. (مصدر)

و الجدير بالذكر ان هذا المشروع من تنفيذ معهد الملكة زين الشرف التنموي، الذراع التنفيذي للصندوق الأردني الهاشمي للتنمية البشرية، بتمويل من Freedom House ، وبالتعاون مع تجمع لجان المرأة الوطني الأردني والمركز الوطني للثقافة والفنون الأدائية/ مؤسسة الملك الحسين وتحالف جمعية مراكز الإنماء الاجتماعي.

قد تودون قراءة هذا ايضا

ما رأيكم يا سيدات و يا سادة؟



لقد وصلتني ايضا الرسالة التالية من مركز الملكة زين الانمائي

تحية طيبة وبعد،

نفذّت وحدة الإعلام من أجل التنمية في مركز الأميرة بسمة للشباب ثلاثة إعلانات خدمة عامة تلفزيونية، ضمن مشروع "من حقك التمتع بحقوق عادلة متكافئة"، تستهدف النواب الأردنيين وذلك لكسب تأييدهم لإقرار قانون الأحوال الشخصية المؤقت ليصبح قانونا دائما مما سيساعد في تفعيل وتقوية وتمكين دور المرأة في المجتمع، ومن ثم تحقيق ذاتها على مختلف الأصعدة المادية، السيكولوجية، الاجتماعية والسياسية.

اعلانات الخدمة العامة تبث 3 مرات يومياً على شاشة التلفزيون الأردني في الأوقات التالية:

1- ضمن برنامج يحدث اليوم الساعة 11:00 صباحاً.

2- قبل أخبار الساعة 07:30 مساءً، تقريبا الساعة 07:25.

3- بعد أخبار الساعة 08:00 مساءً، تقريبا الساعة 08:40.

كما نود إعلامكم بأنه سيستمر بث الإعلانات لغاية نهاية شهر 10.

ندعوكم جميعاً لمشاهدة الإعلانات

Palestinian Political Prisoners

There are 9000 Palestinians in the Israeli jails, we should not forget them, inform your surrounding of their current status.

Updated August 2008

No issue highlights Israel’s 41-year denial of Palestinian freedom under military occupation better than that of political prisoners. Israel uses the imprisonment of Palestinians as part of its policy to quash resistance to its occupation of Palestinian land and to intimidate the Palestinian civilian population.

Out of the 3.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, there are few who have not been personally affected by Israel’s imprisonment policy – either through their own imprisonment or that of a family member, friend or colleague. Since 1967, Israel has detained and imprisoned almost 700,000^[3] Palestinians – almost one fifth of the Palestinian population living in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

Currently, almost 11,000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons or detention camps, out of which around 9,000 are identified as political prisoners, including 326 minors and 94 women^[4]. Israel, in violation of several international conventions, continuously denies these prisoners their basic internationally recognized rights. Arbitrary arrests, imprisonment with no charges or trials, the absence of fair trials, torture, poor hygienic conditions, prohibition of family visits, and denial of medical treatment are all examples of the tragedy that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian prisoners have suffered during the last 41 years.

The widespread imprisonment of Palestinians, along with the inhumane treatment they receive while imprisoned, has placed the release of all Palestinian prisoners high on the national agenda. Israel’s release of high-profile prisoners during the most recent prisoners swap between Israel and Lebanon shows that Israel is capable of releasing prisoners who it claims are politically sensitive.

Today, the Palestinian people and its leadership aspire to the day when all the Palestinian and Arab political prisoners will be freed from Israeli jails.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How many Palestinian political prisoners are there in Israeli prisons?

There are approximately 9,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons or detention camps, including 94 women and 326 children. All of these have been charged with “security offenses” by Israeli authorities. Israel also detains 47 Palestinian parliamentarians. Of the total, approximately 1,150 are being held without charge^[5].

2. What does Israel consider a “security offense”?

The majority of Palestinian political prisoners are charged with offenses under Israeli military orders. These orders employ a broad definition of “security”, such that they ban, among other things, political expression.

For instance, Military Order 101 states that it is “forbidden to conduct a protest march or meeting (grouping of ten or more where the subject concerns or is related to politics) without permission from the Military Commander.” The order also prohibits the distribution of political articles and pictures with “political connotations.”^[6]

Similarly, Military Order 938 even considers “supporting a hostile organization by holding a flag or listening to a nationalist song” a “hostile action.” Military Orders 101 and 938 are only two amongst numerous orders that restrict Palestinian political life in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Because of the breadth of Israel’s definition of “security,” Palestinians can be arrested and imprisoned for practically any form of public activity, regardless of whether or not they present any legitimate security threat to Israel.

3. Do Palestinian prisoners enjoy minimum standards of due process?

No. International, Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations have thoroughly documented the Israeli military court system’s failures in providing Palestinians with minimum guarantees of due process. Some of the failures of the system include the following:

· Palestinian political prisoners are put on trial in Israeli military tribunals. These military tribunals are made up of judges, prosecutors and translators who are all appointed by the Israeli military commander – the same individual who is empowered to make changes to Israeli military orders. Also, some of the judges appointed by the military commander do not have legal training. As a result, these tribunals fail to meet the standard required by Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights, to which Israel is a party, that calls for a “fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law.”^[7]

· Lawyers are denied the means necessary to build a proper defense. According to Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association, it takes an average of 30 to 45 days before a lawyer is able to meet his or her client due to a series of undue bureaucratic obstacles placed by the Israeli authorities.^[8] Additionally, lawyers are often searched at the prison before they are able to meet with their client, and client visits are often monitored by guards such that attorney-client privilege is compromised^[9].

· Palestinian detainees are often tortured, or subjected to cruel and degrading treatment during their interrogation or detention^[10]. The use of torture, combined with the absence of prompt access to an attorney compromise the veracity of confessions obtained through interrogation.

· Palestinians can be held in Israeli jails for 90 days without charge. This period can be extended by another 90 days by Israeli authorities.

· Sentences handed down by the military courts cannot be appealed to courts outside the military court system. Given that all actors within the military court system fall under a single command, and share common institutional allegiances and sets of interests, the military courts review process provides limited recourse, at best. As a result, Palestinians convicted of “security offenses” do not have access to an effective appeals process, and hence are denied the right guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to have a “conviction and sentence … reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law.”^[11]

4. What is “administrative detention”?

Israel has over 1,150 Palestinians locked up in what is called “administrative detention.”^[12] “Administrative Detention” refers to the detention of individuals for preventative purposes.

The practice of administrative detention as exercised by Israel is illegal.

• Israel uses administrative detention as “a quick and efficient alternative to criminal trial”,^[13] circumventing international procedural protections for the accused.^[14] Under Israeli law, administrative detention orders may last for up to six months, with Palestinians held without charge or trial during this period.^[15] Israel routinely renews the detention orders and may do so any number of times, thereby holding Palestinians without charge or trial indefinitely.

• The Israeli military detains Palestinians on a broad definition of “security threat” – a definition so broad as to include “political subversion.”^[16]

• Detainees are not informed of the reason for their detention.

• While detainees may appeal their detention, neither they nor their attorneys are allowed to access the State’s evidence, making it very difficult for them to refute the allegations against them.^[17]

5. Does Israel use Palestinian prisoners as political bargaining chips?

Yes. Israel has often used Palestinian political prisoners as bargaining chips in its history of negotiations with Palestinians. For instance, in 1994, Israel agreed to release 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners within 5 weeks,^[18] but failed to do so. Instead, it made the release of Palestinian political prisoners an issue to be renegotiated, to extract further Palestinian concessions.

In 1999, Israel agreed to release Palestinian prisoners arrested prior to May 4, 1994 in the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum. However, Israel failed to release these prisoners, and opted to hold onto them instead.

A more recent example is the “arrest” of 27 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council on June 29, 2006. These officials were arrested following the capture of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit. Only months before, Israel did not prevent these same people from running and campaigning in Palestinian elections, raising serious doubt that they presented a real security threat to Israel.

6. Is Israel committing violations against the prisoners’ families?

Yes. Families of Palestinian detainees are exposed to frequent violations, including raiding their houses, beating family members, or using family members as human shields during the arrest. In most cases, house raids are conducted after midnight, without providing the reason for the detention and opening fire against the building before entering.

In addition, since most prisoners are held outside the occupied Palestinian territory, their families are prevented from visiting them since Israel does not readily issue the permits required to enter Israel.^[19] This practice is particularly severe when it comes to relatives living in the Gaza Strip, whose right to visit the prisoners has been denied by Israel since 2005.^[20]

7. Do conditions of detention for Palestinian children meet minimum standards?

No. Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Israel is obligated to refrain from imprisoning children except as a measure of last resort and only for the shortest appropriate period of time. Yet, over 6,700 Palestinian children were arrested and detained between September 2000 and August 2008.^[21]

Today, about 326 children remain in Israeli jails, some as young as 12 and 13^[22]. Almost all child detainees have reported some form of torture or mistreatment, whether physical (beatings or being placed in painful positions) or psychological (abuse, threats or intimidation).^[23]

Children are routinely held in detention centers under appalling conditions: In some centers, up to eleven children have been packed into cells as small as five square meters.^[24] Children are also kept in centers with adults, all in contravention of the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child.

A United Nations committee reported:

A few witnesses also drew the attention of the Special Committee to the appalling conditions of imprisoned minors, mixed up with adults, sometimes with women adults. They were allegedly arrested in the same way as adults, at night, taken to military camps and beaten up. They were interrogated without the presence of relatives and could not meet their lawyers for 60 days. They were subjected to various threats such as destruction of their homes, life imprisonment, beheading or rape. One youth had reportedly been confined in an isolated cell for 60 days. They were often kept three to a cell, sleeping on the floor, struggling with cockroaches and suffering poor hygienic conditions owing to lack of water. They were often exposed to ill-treatment when transferred to the court or to another prison. Unlike Israeli detainees, they had no rehabilitation or recreational programmes.^[25]

8. Do conditions of detention for Palestinian women meet minimum standards?

No. In Israel, there is just one prison for women, but no Palestinian female prisoner is held there. On the contrary, most Palestinian women are detained in jails that do not meet the minimum standards for female captives, including old jails that were built for men during the British Mandate.^[26] With bad hygienic conditions, as well as lack of food and basic services, even the two children living with their mothers in Israeli prisons are forbidden from getting toys into the jail.

Punishment against female prisoners, either individual or collective, ranges from confiscation of personal belongings and prohibition of family visits to strip-searching and late-night searches of cells conducted by male jailers. The most recurrent “faults” for which women are punished are:^[27]

a) Chatting and singing together (meaning that it might be a political meeting);

b) Doing physical activities (meaning that they are conducting military training); and

c) “Destroying public property”, which is often simply the result of the poor condition of the jails.

In addition, sexual harassment occurs frequently in Israeli prisons. Female prisoners do not have privacy and are constantly verbally abused with sexual harassment and sexual threats^[28], house demolition, or imprisonment of relatives^[29].

9. Do conditions of detention for Palestinians meet minimum standards?

No. Israel has regularly failed to ensure that the conditions under which Palestinians are detained or imprisoned meet minimum standards.^[30] Prisons and detention centers often provide prisoners little to no protection from the summer heat or the winter cold. They are poorly equipped, poorly maintained and overcrowded. In many cases, prisoners have contracted diseases as a result of poor hygiene.

In January 2006, a report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur found that:

Prison conditions are harsh: prisoners live in overcrowded and poorly ventilated cells which they generally leave for only two hours a day. Allegations of torture and inhuman treatment of detainees and prisoners continue. Such treatment includes beatings, shackling in painful positions, kicking, prolonged blindfolding, denial of access to medical care, exposure to extreme temperatures and inadequate provision of food and water.

Additionally, Israel transfers Palestinian prisoners to facilities in Israel despite its obligation to detain them within occupied Palestinian territory. Moreover, according to the UN Special Rapporteur, “family visits remain a serious problem. As prisons are held in Israel and many Palestinians are denied admission to Israel, a majority of prisoners receive no family visits.”^[31]

---

^[1] GRAFF, James (1991) Palestinian Children & Israeli State Violence. NECEF: Toronto, p. 57.

^[2] Then Israeli Transport Minister Avigdor Lieberman offered to bus Palestinian political prisoners to the Dead Sea to be drowned. Israel Radio, July 7, 2003.

^[3] United Nations, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Commission of Human Rights, Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine, January 2006 (para. 42).

^[4] Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, Palestinians in Israeli Prisons. August 2008.

^[5] Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, Palestinians in Israeli Prisons. August 2008.

^[6] Military Order 101, CONCERNING PROHIBITION OF INCITEMENT AND HOSTILE PROPAGANDA (1967).

^[7] Through its ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Israel has accepted the international agreement that sets the standard for the fundamental rights of the accused in a criminal case. The International Court of Justice in its 2004 Advisory Opinion on the Wall affirmed that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights applies to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (See Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion (9 July 2004), para. 111 (I.C.J.).)

^[8] Lawyers often must first find out where their clients are detained. Then they must coordinate the visit with Israeli authorities, and typically can only meet with their clients during three days of the week (other days being reserved for family visits, and visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross). In order to obtain copies of material related to their clients’ cases, lawyers must schedule an appointment to use the coin-operated copy machine at the military court. Files are not translated into Arabic.

^[9] Addameer, Status of Palestinian Political Prisoners In Israeli Prisons, Detention and Interrogation Centers (June 2004), available at: < http://www.addameer.org/resources/reports/addameerSumoud.html >, last checked 6 August, 2008.

^[10] The use of torture by Israeli authorities is widespread. On 6 September 1999, the Israeli High Court ruled that the Israel Security Agency (formerly known as GSS) could no longer use a number of methods of torture (including violent shaking, tying prisoners in contorted positions to a small child’s chair, covering the prisoner’s head with a sack, and sleep deprivation). This ruling was widely reported as an end to Israel’s practice of torture. However, according to the Public Committee against Torture in Israel and B’Tselem, the practice of torture has not ceased. Methods of torture include: sleep deprivation, tying a detainee to a chair in painful positions, beating, slapping, kicking, threats, verbal abuse and humiliation, bending the body in extremely painful positions, intentional tightening of the handcuffs, stepping on manacles, application of pressure to different parts of the body, forcing the detainee to squat in a painful position (“Kambaz”), choking and other forms of violence and humiliation (pulling out hair, spitting etc.). Ill treatment in solitary confinement includes: sleep prevention, exposure to extreme heat and cold, continuous exposure to artificial light, and confinement in inhuman conditions.

See: <http://www.stoptorture.org.il/eng/background.asp?menu=3&submenu=2>; and www.btselem.org, last checked August, 6 2008; and International Federation for Human Rights, Palestinian Detainees in Israel: Inhuman Conditions in Detention, 2003 (21-22), available at: < http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/ps365a.pdf>, last checked August 6, 2008.

According to Amnesty International:

“Among the thousands of Palestinians arrested after 27 February 2002, some hundreds were transferred to full-scale interrogation by the GSS [Israel Security Agency], in centers…. Amnesty International has received reports that some of the detainees interrogated by the GSS were subjected to prolonged sleep deprivation, shabeh (prolonged standing or sitting in a painful position), and being violently shaken.”

Amnesty International, Israel and the Occupied Territories: Mass detention in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions, May 2002 (14).

^[11] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 14 (5).

^[12] Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs. “Palestinians in Israeli Prisons”. August 2008.

^[13] B’Tselem, Prisoners of Peace: Administrative Detention During the Oslo Process, July 1997 (13).

^[14] Fourth Geneva Convention, Arts. 64 to 77; and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 14.

^[15] Administrative detentions are currently carried out on the basis of Military Order No. 1229, of 1988. This Order empowers military commanders in the West Bank to detain an individual for up to six months if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention.” Commanders can extend detentions for additional periods of up to six months.

^[16] B’Tselem, Prisoners of Peace: Administrative Detention During the Oslo Process, July 1997 (18).

^[17] B’Tselem, Prisoners of Peace: Administrative Detention During the Oslo Process, July 1997 (31); and Hamoked, Annual Report, 2004 (39). Available at: <http://www.hamoked.org.il/index_en.asp>, last checked August 6, 2008.

^[18] Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, Article XX (May 4, 1994).

^[19] According to the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees, from the current number of prisoners, just 150 are Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and over 250 are holders of Jerusalem ID. The rest, over 8.000 families, are not able to visit their relatives.

^[20] http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL26333827 last checked August 14, 2008

^[21] Ministry of Detainees and Ex Detainees Affairs. Palestinian Child Detainees in Israeli Prisons. August 2008.

^[22] Ibid.

^[23] Defence for Children International/Palestine Section, Palestinian Children in the Judicial System, http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=171&CategoryId=2 , last checked August 6, 2008.

^[24] Defence for Children International/Palestine Section, Press Release, Israeli Government Fails to Release Child Detainees – 330 Still in Custody, 7 June 2003. See also, International Federation for Human Rights, Palestinian Detainees in Israel: Inhuman Conditions in Detention, 2003 (15-16).

^[25] Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that “every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child's best interest not to do so.”

The Article also states that “[n]o child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” See Convention on the Rights of the Child, available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm, last checked August 6 , 2008.

^[26] Fact Sheet “Behind the Bars: Palestinian Women in Israeli Prisons”. Addameer. July 2008. P 1.

^[27] Ibid. P 5.

^[28] UNFPA. Gender-Based Violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. http://www.unfpa.org/women/docs/gbv_opt.pdf. last chequed August 20, 2008.

^[29] Interview with Addameer Advisor. July 23, 2008.

^[30] United Nations, Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, September 26, 2005 (para. 96)

^[31] Ibid. (para. 91-96)

62nd Anniversary of Independence

هدية الحرية هي الاستقلال
بذرة الطيبة دائما تكبر و تعطي امل و حياة
كل عام و الاردن بخير و العالم بخير
يا رب اعطينا السلام و اعطينا الوعي لنفهم معنى الحرية

update: i just noticed that i wrote 62th instead of 62nd, well its too late to fix it, anyways i just realised that whenever i read it, it read 26th anniversary, not sixty second anniversaryy because sixty second sounds like sixty seconds! i think i lost my mind, im writing a lengthy report and started seeing things.... actually when i blog at times of deadlines, it means mish mla72aaa and im getting somehow hyper over coffee. sigh.. hanat!!

i give you one cent, you give me ten

As over 1,000 Palestinian, Arab, Israeli and International investors gather in the historic city of Bethlehem to participate in the Palestine Investment Conference aimed at jumpstarting a process of boosting the Palestinian economy and thereby the chances of Middle East Peace.

Israeli ministry of construction and housing announced plans to issue tenders for 286 new housing units in Settlements built on confiscated lands from the Palestinian villages of Wadi Fukin, Husan and Nahalin. These villages are currently trapped between Israel’s Wall, settler bypass roads, and ever expanding Israeli settlements..

http://www.nad-plo.org/facts/jerusalem/NAD-web.pdf

its all about the money

Israel is Disgusting

I dont know how there are no penalties set on Israel till the day for the outstanding amount of increasing violations of all kind of rights! i truly dont understand how the whole world remains silent while Israel feeds its blood-thirst, how can they stand themselves! when i think of IOF i feel like i want to vommit because all this killing is intentional and yes they can tell a child from a gunman. SOBs!!


11 April, 2008
a special unit of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) penetrated on foot into the Gaza Strip, IOF tanks opened fire indiscriminately in the area and bulldozed fields planted with olive trees. At approximately 1pm, IOF opened fire at a group of children, who are residents of the nearby area. As a result, 13-year-old Riyad Sherif al-Owais was killed and five other children were injured.


all, seven people were killed in this incursion. At approximately 2:20pm later that day, IOF fired an artillery shell at a group of children and teenagers who gathered to watch the incursion. As a result, four of them were killed immediately and were identified as:

18-year-old Shihab Mohammad Ahmad Abu Zubeida of al-Bureij refugee camp;
19-year-old Jihad Mohammad Salem Abu Zubeida of al-Bureij refugee camp;
18-year-old Yousif Ali al-Maghari of al-Bureij refugee camp; and,
18-year-old Abdul-Raziq Atta Nofal of al-Nuseirat refugee camp.


Three others were injured and one, 15-year-old Yousif Sarhan, sustained serious injury. He was transferred to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for treatment, where medical sources later pronounced his death. He was from al-Bureij refugee camp. in addition to injuring 31 and taking random 17 arrested palestinians the rest is here

16 April, 2008

at least 22 Palestinians are reported killed till now, 5 children under 16 are among them, 11 civilians and 1 camerman from Reuters, i am trying to find a reference to quote details of the attacks, the only thing IOF was sorry about was the death of the camerman, which is a pity to human morals!

various coverages ranges from the BBC , Aljazeera , Arabiya and Haaretz

and how the UN Secretary General responds:

The Secretary-General is gravely concerned at the escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel today. He condemns the reported civilian casualties among Palestinians including children, during Israeli military operations, and calls on Israel to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law. The Secretary-General also reiterates his condemnation of rocket fire against Israeli civilian targets. He urges all parties to exercise restraint


i dont see much difference from his previous March statements for real, will someone tell me how to put at end to this?!!

Israeli Violations

For every time Israel committed violations and state terror in occupied Palestine, our efforts as people - since governments are in null state- can be concluded to raise the voice to gain an international condemnation for the acts, an international condemnation that slows down the Israeli motion that wants to win it all legally. do we know any slight positive progress at any scale on this issue from Palestinian point of view? if you know any, please do point them out whatever ideology you follow.

fine, we are citizens here and we support peace but how much are we willing to compromise in the name of peace? firstly, how much do you know about Palestine today, do you know anything more than the death count of Palestinians?

Palestinian Authority controls 17.2% of the occupied West Bank divided into 13 non-contiguous reservations.

Palestinian Authority controls 80% of the Gaza Strip

Palestinian Authority controls 21.7% of the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Palestinian Authority controls only 5% of Historical Palestine, you know the map, 5% is what Palestinians have control on!

Israel is presently building a wall between Israel and the West Bank that, when completed, will be some 450 (possibly 650) kilometres in length. 150 kilometres have already been completed and building constructors are working frenetically to finish it as soon as possible. At times this barrier takes the form of an eight‑metre‑high wall (near Qalqiliya). Mostly it takes the form of a barrier some 60 to 100 metres wide, which includes buffer zones with trenches and barbed wire, trace paths to register footprints, an electric fence with sensors to warn of any incursion, a two-lane patrol road and fortified guard towers at regular intervals. No-go areas of over 100 metres wide on each side of the barrier will be policed by IDF (IOF). Israel has undertaken to install some 27 agricultural crossings and 5 general crossings for traffic and persons through the barrier but as yet little progress has been made on these crossings.

The Wall does not follow the Green Line, that is the 1967 boundary between Israel and Palestine which is generally accepted as the border between the two entities. Instead, it follows a route that incorporates substantial parts of Palestine within Israel. At present the Wall intrudes six to seven kilometres within Palestine, but there are proposals to penetrate still deeper into Palestinian territory in order to include the settlements of Ariel, Immanuel and Kedumim. In some places the winding route creates a barrier that completely encircles Palestinian villages while at many points it separates Palestinian villages from the rest of the West Bank and converts them into isolated enclaves. Qalqiliya, a city with a population of 40,000, is completely surrounded by the Wall and residents can only enter or leave through a single military checkpoint open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Palestinians between the Wall and the Green Line will effectively be cut off from their land and workplaces, schools, health clinics and other social services. Much of the Palestinian land on the Israeli side of the Wall consists of fertile agricultural land and some of the most important water wells in the region. The Wall is constructed on Palestinian lands expropriated by Israeli military order, justified on grounds of military necessity. Many fruit and olive trees had been destroyed in the course of building the barrier. B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights NGO, estimates that the barrier will cause direct harm to at least 210,000 Palestinians living in 67 villages, towns and cities.

Palestinians, unconvinced by Israel’s assurances that they will be allowed to pass through the crossings to be erected in the Wall, are moving from their homes in the affected areas to the security of what remains of Palestine. It is reported that already some 600 shops and enterprises have closed in Qalqiliya as a result of the construction of the Wall. The Wall will therefore create a new generation of refugees or internally displaced persons.It is impossible to give complete facts about the Wall as its final trajectory is still surrounded in secrecy and uncertainty. The path of the Wall changes regularly in response to demands from settlers and other political interest groups within Israel. There is no transparency surrounding the construction of the Wall and its final course seems to be known only to an inner circle of the military and political establishment within Israel. It is, however, widely expected that, following the completion of the Wall separating Israel from the West Bank on the western side, an eastern wall will be constructed, along the mountain ridge west of the Jordan Valley, which will separate Palestine from the Jordan Valley.

from John Dugard Report to the United Nations, dated 26Th of February, 2008

this is just a little bit of what is going on, people, Israel is so close of sealing the deal to 95% of whole Palestine together with Jerusalem when this wall is fully built casting Palestinians in colonies if we didnt support the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department. Palestinians needs full Arab and Islamic support to overcome its current state without losing it all for good, its negotiating on no grounds, no military force, internal factions and Israel is playing them like marionettes and just giving no bonding resolutions, its floating because of a weak counter negotiator, please understand that, all this while Arab people are waving the banners of western dome and fake freedom based on ignorance. there is nothing to fear here, Palestinians need backup in negotiations.

READ AND LEARN HOW MUCH YOU PEOPLE ARE SUBJECT TO THEFT AND YOU ARE HAPPY AND EASILY LETTING GO OF YOUR RIGHTS TILL YOU WONT HAVE ANY BECAUSE YOU SURRENDERED TODAY!