Greetings Friends,
We are asking for your endorsement and that of your organization to
the below letter, inspired by the hunger strike of imprisoned
Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat, calling upon United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to uphold his responsibilities and take
action to protect the rights, health and lives of Palestinian
prisoners and demand the freedom of all 11,000 Palestinian political
prisoners. This letter will be delivered to Ban Ki-Moon's office on
July 8, 2009. Please send your endorsement as quickly as possible in
order to ensure it is included, preferably before July 5, 2009. This
initiative is being supported by the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat.
Please send endorsements to info@freeahmadsaadat.org. We welcome
endorsements from all organizations, coalitions and institutions in
support of the goals of this letter and the rights and freedom of
Palestinian prisoners.
Dear Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon;
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals in North America,
call upon you to immediately take action in defense of the lives,
health and rights of the over 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners
held inside Israeli occupation jails. This number includes numerous
elected members of Palestinian Legislative Council, among them Ahmad
Sa'adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine; Marwan al-Barghouthi, Fateh leader; Abdel-Aziz Dweik, Hamas
leader and President of the Council, just freed after three years in
prison, and dozens of other elected political leaders, in addition to
thousands of other Palestinian activists, union members, community
organizers, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.
Palestinian prisoners suffer in conditions that violate international
standards and norms, and are imprisoned because they refuse to accept
a brutal occupation of their land and their people. Ahmad Sa'adat
recently waged a nine-day hunger strike in protest of the policy of
isolation and solitary confinement that has recently been escalated
against Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian prisoners have been denied
family visits, at times for years, denied access to all books and
magazines, and denied even communication with their fellow prisoners
in the isolation units. Palestinian prisoners, including Sa'adat, are
currently denied necessary health care and medical treatment.
Palestinian prisoners are placed into isolation because they are
national leaders and because the Palestinian prisoner movement has
been an inspiration to all Palestinians and all who struggle for
freedom. Ahmad Sa'adat's hunger strike has sparked thousands of people
around the world to appeal for his release, as a living example who
symbolizes the steadfastness and strength of the Palestinian prisoners
amid isolation and dire conditions, and it must compel all of those
outside the prisons to act. Many Palestinian and international human
rights and social justice organizations have called for the release of
Sa'adat and to ensure the safety of his life and health, as well as
for freedom and protection for all Palestinian prisoners.
The fate of these 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners is a
fundamental issue of justice. Palestinians, in Palestine and in exile,
are denied their rights - to return home, to self-determination, and
to freedom, and those who seek to secure those rights are subject to
imprisonment, whether within the open-air prisons of Gaza under siege
or the walled-in West Bank, or the jails of the occupation. The
silent, and at times, active, complicity of international agencies,
particularly the United Nations, in the denial of Palestinian rights
must not continue.
We call upon you to uphold your responsibilities and exert all
pressure to end torture, cruel and inhuman treatment of Palestinian
prisoners, and to free every Palestinian political prisoner from
Israel's occupation jails.
Sincerely,
The undersigned:
This letter will be delivered to Ban Ki-Moon's office on July 8, 2009.
Please send your endorsement as quickly as possible in order to ensure
it is included, preferably before July 5, 2009. This initiative is
being supported by the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat Please send
endorsements to info@freeahmadsaadat.org.