A Cry from the Homeland

4 April 2000

This morning a new petition "A Cry from the Homeland" was released in Arabic. It condemns the illegal measures by the Palestinian Authority in the case of Dr. Abdel Sattar Qassem and the fate of Palestinian prisoners of conscience. The petition was signed by Palestinian activists, intellectuals and PLC members. Among the signatories are George Habash, Bassam Shaka'a, Ahmad Qatamesh, Abdel Jawad Saleh, and Leith Shubailat.

The translation of this manifest entitled: "Stop Political Arrests and Build a Judiciary with Authority" and its signatories is published below. Also today, LAW, a Palestinian human rights organisation issued a press release on the Palestinian High Court which issued yesterday a preliminary order for Police Chief Ghazi Jabali and the Attorney General to explain the continued illegal detention of Dr. Abdel Sattar Qassem. The defendants were given 8 days to provide a satisfactory explanation.

1. Cry from the Homeland: Stop Political Arrests and Build a Judiciary with Authority
2. LAW's press release see http://www.lawsociety.org
3. Cry from the Homeland: in Arabic see http://hanthala.virtualave.net/unof.html

Stop Political Arrests and Build a Judiciary with Authority

A Cry from the Homeland

While the Zionists continue to blackmail the Palestinian Authority through the Oslo Accords, and to cover up the process of settlement expansion and the judaization of the land, especially in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority arrests political activists and intellectuals who are committed to human rights and the rights of the nation, through their continuous resistance to the Zionist enemy. These arrests are carried out in the name of protecting the "security" of the Zionists.

These arrests occur without proper investigation, charge or trial and violate all human rights standards. They occur despite fifty two decisions by the High Court to free prisoners of conscience. They occur under the pretexts of the Oslo Accords and on behalf of the chairman of the Palestinian Authority himself.

This is the way the destiny of the nation and the people is decided and the role of the judiciary violated and negated.

Dr. Abdelsattar Qasem was shot once and was arrested with other signers of the "Cry from the Homeland" petition. He was arrested again and is still being held in Jericho prison. No lawyers have been allowed to visit him. This is something that judges and human rights organisations failed to insist upon. Only members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and one member of the Palestinian Indepedent Commission for Citizen's Rights were allowed to visit Dr. Qasem last week.

This is the way a university lecturer has been seized from among his students and family. On an order from the chairman of the Authority his personal freedom has been violated, without charge or trial. Neither judicial nor human rights organisations are allowed to intervene.

At the same time it is strange that these bodies accept this situation and throw up their hands, as if their role is merely to take note of arrests instead of putting them in a proper judicial framework.

The case Dr. Qasem is one of hundreds of detainees in the Palestinian Authority prisons. These arrests aim to protect the security of the Zionists who continue to practice all forms of aggression against our people and our Arab nation, and continue to threaten peace in the Arab world.

We condemn and protest these illegal measures and call upon the Arab league, the Writers Unions, intellectuals and journalists, the Islamic conference, the world's intellectuals, the Palestinian academics, the Arab progressive and national bodies, and the United Nations to bear their responsibilities and call for the release of Dr. Abdulsattar Qasem and hundreds of his brothers in the Palestinian Authority prisons and stop the manipulation the fate of our citizens and our people.

SIGNED:

George Habash, Bassam Shaka'a, Laith Shbailat, Ali Akla 'Orsan, Abdeljawad Saleh, Hasan Khrisha, Bahjat Abugharbiyya, Ahmed Alkhaldi, Namir Albitar, Tib Tizyeeni, Mahmoud Almawaysa, Mo'awiya Almasri, Naji Alloush, Ismat Shakhshir, Zuhair Abushayeb, Mowafaq Mahaddeen, Tareq Fayyad, Rawya Alshawwa, Abdalla Hmooda, Wahid Alhamdalla, Yousef Abdelaziz, Ibrahim Ajwa, Zuhair Alzugheebi, Ali Aburreesh, Hamdi Matar, Ahmad Qatamish, Husein Jum'a, Malik Madi, Yousef Abdilhaq, Ra'fat Alnajjar, Hamad Hijjawi, Ahmad Shaker Doodeen, Jawad Younes, Mowwafaq Alrahayfa, Goerge Kurzum, Fakhri Altrkuman, Rashad Abushawar, Abdelrahim Kitani, Miflih Al'udwan, Ibrahim Alloush, Ahmad Abughosh, Yahya Shawer, Hisham Alghusaib, Nabil Bushnaq, Mustafa Wazwaz, Hamad Ben-Sbahi, Mohammed Ilyas, Anan Abuzahra, Abdulrahman Alnabulsi, Ahmad Maslamani, Mohammed Lafi, Mustafa Alkurd, Jibril Jahshan, Sami Ayyash, Break Alhadid, Ahmad Sa'dat, Hisham Odeh, Helga Ghreeta, Omar Abdulrazeq, Bilal Alshaf'i, Wakim Wakim, Issam Awwad, Mohammed Alshayeb, Yakob Alrreemawi, Othman Othman, Basim Alzubaidi, Amin Iskandar, Sa'eed Alhusaini, Ahmad Alshi'ri, Tharwa Katbe, Ali Mohammed Kawayha, Na'ila Adel Z'eatir, Abdulal Albakoori, Saleh Abu'eeda, Ibrahim Alkhatib, Rifqat Sayyed Ahmad, Faisal Za'noon, Ghazi Dwaikat, Fathiyya Alassal, Mohammed As'ad, Yousef Hamza, Tareq Kayyali, Taha Atharbe, Na'im Abutear, Nazih Abunidal, Salah Albustami, Subhi Ghoshi, Abdulqader Yasin, Adel Samara, Bashir Alkhairi.

For the Arabic original see http://hanthala.virtualave.net/unof.html