Desperate to break Samer Issawi hunger strike, Israel relentlessly targets his family
"As people all over the world participate in today’s global hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, Samer Issawi has become an international figure of determination in his fight against the violations of the occupation. As he nears the end of his 164th day of hunger strike it is clear to Israel that Samer’s strength will continue to outweigh their brute force.
As part of the 2011 prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel, Sameer was released after serving ten years of a thirty year sentence. Seven months later he was re-arrested in violation of the prisoner swap terms, with the Israeli Military Court suggesting a twenty year sentence to complete the original thirty year sentence. Samer was re-arrested following an apparent breach of the conditions of his release forbidding him from leaving Jerusalem. He was captured in an area of land that does not belong to the Jerusalem governate according to the Israeli military, but the West Bank. “We do not know what Jerusalem is for us. Whenever the Israeli regime wants to change its boundaries, it does it by deceit and under the false cover of security,” said Samer’s father to Mondoweiss."
Revenge against the family has been a fact of life for the Issawi family, as the article explains.
All but one of the seven brothers and sisters have spent time in Israeli prisons.
Fadi Issawi was killed, shot by Israeli soldiers in 1994, a week after his 16th birthday. Yet another child targeted and killed by Israel, certainly not surprised by that, the Zionist way is to target and hurt and kill children in Palestine!
As Samer’s strike continues and his health deteriorates, israel is desperate to break his resolve. So, more targeting of the family for abuses commences.
On December 18, Samer was publically beaten in the Jerusalem Magistrates Court after he tried to greet his family, dragged from his wheelchair and carried away, repeatedly crying out as he was hit on his chest by the guards around him. As a result the family were barred from the trial. Samer's sister Shireen Issawi was later on that same day arrested by the Israeli army. She was held for 24 hours, and then released to house arrest for ten days. They also confiscated her license to practice her profession as a lawyer for six months. What kind of government occupies a people and carries out practices like that against a people, taking a law license for her acts in defending her own brother and fighting unlawful acts of the Occupier?
Shireen says, "When they realised that they will never break Samer’s hunger strike, when they realised everyday he is stronger, and everyday more people are supporting him, the Israeli authorities started going crazy. In the end Samer will have his victory. Over 160 days is a long time, and he has become a symbol, not just for Palestinian people. All around the world people have an international view about him and his struggle, but Israel doesn’t want anyone to know. When we go to protest to support Samer, it’s not just the family; there are Palestinians and people from all over the world taking part, and he has gathered everyone who has a conscious, as a human being.”
Shireen explains how even the house the family lives in has been targeted. Just two days earlier, the Israeli military came and cut off the water line from the house, and the family gets a bucket of water a day from neighbors. Israeli Occupiers claim they must pay around 50, 000 US dollars for water they claim they have not paid for, despite paying a monthly bill every month. They are getting documents together to prove their case, but it was all obviously just a part of the continuing attacks on Samer's family to stop his hunger strike.
Samer’s brother, Ra’fat Issawi, had his house demolished on 1/1/2013, there was no demolition order or anything, the army just came and destroyed his house, where he lived with his wife and three children.
“This is revenge against the family as a whole,” said Shireen.
Besides all of these attacks on the family, during Samer’s plight two of his brothers have been arrested, Midhat and another brother. In May 2012, Midhat missed the birth of his first child. held in an Israeli prison, arrested at 4 am in the morning for attending prisoner solidarity protests. he was not allowed visits from his wife and newborn baby, either. The second brother was released after 24 hours, again arrested for participating in protests, banned from attending any demonstrations in support of his brother’s struggle for 90 days.
“I want the world to see Israel’s policies and witness the Palestinians’ humanity. That is our only hope,” said Samer’s father Tariq Issawi to Mondoweiss.
This story of all the family has been put through, for Israel to keep unlawfully detaining a Palestinian political prisoner, Samer Issawi, is disgraceful.
And this story needs to be told and retold and every American needs to know this story of what Israel does to Palestinians in their Occupation of Palestine.
And when Americans know the truth about the Occupation, I cannot help but think we will want and demand our government to stop funding that Occupation, which we do presently to the tune of millions of dollars every single day.
Desperate to break Samer Issawi hunger strike, Israel relentlessly targets his family
Sherri
