Please add your name to the petition for Ahmad Sa'adat!

[mary <humdrum2 at libero.it>]

they are collecting the signatures to be added onto the letter to the UN today as well, please, if you haven't added yours, take a moment and consider doing so, and pass this to everyone you believe would be interested in publicly endorsing the call to liberate Palestinian Political Prisoners.  On the Free Ahmad Saadat site, there is a beautiful cartoon by Carlos Latuff, print it out and use it in any demos you might be involved in this week!! Make it into a T shirt... let people see that Israel holds political prisoners and leaders of parties not charged with crimes in their prisons and no civilised nation can permit any such thing.
mary

Please sign letter to the UN: Free Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners

By
Mary Rizzo
• Jul 3rd, 2009 at 8:41 • Category:
Action
Alert,
Biography
, Israel,
Newswire,
Palestine
,
Petitions
,

Resistance,
Zionism

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 at freeahmadsaadat.org. We welcome endorsements from all
organizations, individuals, coalitions and institutions in support of the
goals of this letter and the rights and freedom of Palestinian
prisoners. 

Statement in Italian |

Statement in French

Dear Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon;

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, 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,
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/
Campaign to Free Ahmad
Sa'adat

Campaign to Free Ahmad
Sa'adat

Al-Awda NY 
Al-Awda Newspaper and Publishing House, Chicago
Al-Awda Omaha
Al-Fajr News, Tunisia
Alliance for People's
Health
Almubadara
USA
Al-Nakba Awareness
Project
American Iranian Friendship
Committee
Anti-Imperialist Camp
Artists to End the Occupation
Association
Réveil des Consciences
Arab American Community Center, Youngstown, OH
Arab American Union Members Council
Arab Muslim American Federation
Arab Resource and Organizing
Center, San Francisco, CA
Architects and Planners for Justice in
Palestine
BAYAN USA
Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice
Campaign to Free Marwan Barghouti
and All Prisoners
Canadian Arab Federation 
Canada Palestine Association -
Vancouver 
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
(Toronto)
Comité 'Libérez-les!' 
Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche Orient, Luxembourg
Committee of Solidarity with the Palestinian People - Argentina
Committee of Solidarity with the Palestinian People - Brazil
Committee of Solidarity with the Palestinian People - Ecuador
Committee of Solidarity with the Palestinian People - Uruguay
Coordination de
l'Appel de Strasbourg pour une Paix juste au Proche-Orient 
Danish Communist Party
EuroPalestine
Free Gaza Movement 
Free Palestine
Alliance
The Freedom Archives
Freedom Road Socialist
Organization
French Committee to
Free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (Collectiv pour la libération de
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah)
Friends of Al-Aqsa 
General Union of Workers of Chile
Hammerhard MediaWorks
International Action Center
International Jewish Anti-Zionist
Network
International Platform
Against Isolation (IPAI)
International Platform of Jurists for East Timor, Leiden,
Netherlands
International Republican Socialist Network
International Socialist
Organization
International Solidarity
Movement - France 
Irish Republican Socialist
Committees of North America
Irish Republican Socialist
Party
Jericho Movement - NYC
Jewish People's
Liberation Organization 
Justice for Palestinians, San Jose, CA
Kommunistische
Initiative Deutschlands (KI)/Communist Initiative Germany 
L'Observatoire Tunisien pour les Droits et les Libertés
Syndicales
Middle East Children's Alliance
National Boricua Human
Rights Network 
National Democratic Action Society of Bahrain
National Lawyers Guild 
New Jersey Solidarity -
Activists for the Liberation of Palestine
New Orleans
Palestine Solidarity
NYC Labor Against the
War
NY Committee For Human Rights in the
Philippines
No One Is Illegal - Vancouver
PalestineFreeVoice
Palestine House
Palestine Solidarity Group -
Chicago
Palestine Solidarity
Committee - Seattle
Palestine Think Tank
Palestinian American Youth, Youngstown, OH
The Palestinian Cultural and Political Club of Boston
Palestinian Democratic Committee
- Chile 
Palestinian Federation of Chile
Palestinian Youth Network
PATOIS: New Orleans
International Human Rights Film Festival
Queers Undermining Israeli
Terrorism!
Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) of Ecuador
Secretariat Nationale de
la Voie Democratique Maroc
Socialist Action
Socialist Party of
Malaysia
TLAXCALA activist translators'
collective 
US Campaign for the Academic and
Cultural Boycott of Israel
US Palestinian Community
Network (USPCN) (Popular
Conference)
Vent Libertaire 29, France
Voice of Palestine, Canada
War Times/Tiempo De Guerra
WESPAC Foundation
Women Against Military
Madness
Women's Peace Speakers Series, Honolulu, Hawaii

Leila Khaled
MP George Galloway, UK
Parliament Member and coordinator of
Viva Palestina USA medical
aid caravan to Gaza
Ulla Sandbaek, former Member of European Parliament, Denmark
May Abboud, Lebanon
Chbari Abdelmoumen, journalist, Morocco
Prof. Bashir Abu Manneh, Columbia University
Susan Abulhawa, author, Pennsylvania
Nader Abuljebain, writer
Yousef Abudayyeh, California
Nasser Abu-khdeir, Jerusalem University Political Science Department,
Jerusalem-Shuafat, Palestine
Sheriff Abuzahra, Cambridge, MA
Darwish Addassi, Walnut Creek, CA
Ghassan H. Alami, Jordan
Abdul-Rahman Alawi, publisher and journalist, Cologne, Germany
Musa al-Hindi, Omaha, NE
Sonia Almonacid, Spain
Abdelwahab Amri Secretary-General of the Federation of PDP, Gabes,
Tunisia  
Giuseppe Ardizzone, Perugia, Italy
Emmanuel Arenes, France
Justo Arriola, Euskal Herria
Jamal Aruri, attorney, Andover, MA
Prof. Emeritus Naseer Aruri, University of Massachussetts at
Dartmouth
Boniardi Ambrogio, Milano, Italy
Mary Avice, Canada
Rahef Awadallah, Chicago, IL
A. R. Ayoubi, UK
Mike Baldwin, California, USA
Khaled Barakat, Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat, Canada
Nidal A. Barakat, California
Patrice Bardet, France
Anees Barghouthi, Palestine 
Pawel Michal Bartolik, journalist, Poland
Abdul-Nasser J.G. Baston, London, UK
Levent Basturk, Red Hook, NY
Tahmeena Bax, UK
Dr. Oren Ben-Dor University of Southampton, UK
Arnauld Bengochea, Bordeaux-France
Cheryl Benson, Canada
Simone Bilotta, Faenza (RA), Italy
Patricia Blair, Hawaii, USA
Yoon Bok-Dong, Korea Truth Commission - Hawaii Representative, USA
Thomas Bolt, England
Giulio Bonali, Italy
Hadassah Borreman, Jeshurun-Judaism Against Zionism, Belgium
Yamina Bounir, Comité Verviers Palestine, France
John P. Brassard, elementary teacher, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Andrea Breuer, Klagenfurt, Austria
Richard Brinton, Salinas, CA, USA
Peter Brown, Olives for Palestine/Olives for Peace
Dr.C.J. Burns-Cox MD FRCP, Gloucester UK
George Cammarota, San Jose, CA
Daniele Campione, Milan, Italy
José Canali, France
Hadi Chammah, Gainesville, FL, USA
Sukant Chandan, Chair of the British Section of the International Union
of Parliamentarians for Palestine.
Irene Clausen, Denmark
Ana Cleja, France
Catherine Cobham, St. Andrews University, Scotland, UK
Prof. William A. Cook, University of La Verne
Claude Coursin, Assistante Sociale, Marseilles, France
Maya Cutler, Stanley, ID
Professor Seif Da'Na, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Ilgvar Daga, USA
Elena Davinca, Austria
Prof. Emeritus Dr. Herman De Ley, Ghent University (Belgium)
Shaheen Sultan Dhanji, Chairperson, African Socialist Movement
Dennis E. Donohue, New York, NY
Peter Durant, New York, NY
Dr. Adel Elsaie, USA
Ali Faraj, Rennes, France
James C. Faris, Director Emeritus, University of Connecticut Program in
Middle East Languages and Area Studies
Mahmoud Faris, Gaza, Palestine
Enrique Ferro, Brussels, Belgium
Franco Ferro, teacher, Italy
Nadia Ferro, teacher, Italy
Sara Flounders, co-director, International Action Center
Linda Frank, Northwest Middle East Peace Forum, USA
Donnie Fraser, UK
Yolanda Garza-Birdwell, Houston, TX
Elisabeth Geschiere, Minneapolis, MN
Ron George, USA
Francesco Giordano, educator, Milano, Italy
Prof. Emerita Sherna Berger Gluck, California State University Long
Beach
Margaret Goodheart, Honolulu, HI
Maligorn Gouez, France
Stephen Gowans, Canada
Michela Graham, Italy
Dr. Anne Gray, London, UK
Lamari Habib, Al-Fajr News, Tunisia
Anita Hadjadji, Bordeaux, France
M. Hadjuk, USA
Prof. Emerita Elaine Hagopian, Simmons College
Samia A. Halaby, artist, New York, NY
Hatem Hammad, Canada
Dr. Leila Hanaineh, Jordan
Kamal Hassan, USA
Monadel Herzallah, San Francisco, CA
Nadia Hijab, writer
Paul Hubbard, Providence, RI
Jay Hubbell, Peace Fresno, Fresno, CA
Mary Hughes Thompson, Women in Black Los Angeles, CA
Barbara Ida, Malone, NY
Sascha Iversen, International Forum, Denmark
Firas Jaber, writer and researcher, Palestine
Karl Ange Angri Jacobsen, Red-Green Alliance, Denmark
Dr. Mohammed Jadallah, Jerusalem Centre For Development
Francois Jadoul, Belgium
Intisar Jardaneh, Jordan
Randa Jazairi, Gainesville, FL
Humberto Jijón, Ecuador
Richard Jones, Swansea, UK
Maya Joulkva, France
Sana Kassem, Athens, Greece
Charlotte Kates, attorney
Ahmad Kawash, Boston, MA
Prof. Mujid S. Kazimi,   Massachusetts Institiute of
Technology
Nabil Keilani, California
Basem Khader, Chappaqua, NY
Hocine Khelfaoui, Montreal, Canada
Peter Klosterman, Ph.D. Oakland, CA
Norman Koerner, educator, Philadelphia, PA
Khaled Kouteich, France
Zbigniew Marcin Kowalewski, researcher and editor, Poland
Garold Langley, Hawaii, USA
Carlos Latuff, cartoonist, Brazil
Joelle Laurent-Laneau, France
David Letwin, Brooklyn, NY
Michael Letwin, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former
President, Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325
Mariah Leung, Al-Nakba Awareness Project, Eugene, OR
Dr. Renee Levant, Instructor, Master of Liberal Studies Program, Fort
Hays State University
Catherine Lieutenant, Belgium
Tammy Bang Luu, Los Angeles, CA
Amir M. Maasoumi, Quebec, Canada
Professor Moshé Machover, London School of Economics
Patrick MacManus, Rebellion, Denmark
Dr. Bruce J. Malina, Dept of Theology, Creighton University
Hanif Manjoo, South Africa
Polly Mann, Women Against Military Madness, Minneapolis, MN
Sharon Martinas, San Francisco, CA
Professor Nur Masalha, London
Beatriz Maturana, President, Architects for Peace, Australia
Bill McGrath, Minnesota, USA
Marcelo Mendoza Azat, Arauco, Chile
Roberto J. Mercado, photographer, Social Impact Photography, New York,
NY
Ali Mili, Phillipsburg, NJ
Emil Mishriky, Palestine
Harald Molgaard, Twickenham, UK
Serajeddin Momeni, Phoenix, AZ
Michael Moore, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Lillian Morgan, East Aurora, NY
Talaat Ahmed Mosallam, Retired General, researcher, co chairman Al A'mal
Party, Egypt
Tawfieq Mousa, California, USA
Atiya Munir, Policy Analyst, London, UK
Catherine Myles, UK
Linda Nedjaa, France
Marlene Newesri, New York City, USA
Dr. Marcy Newman, Associate Professor of English, An Najah University,
Nablus, Palestine
Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice.org, USA/Palestine
Christopher North, Antalya, Turkey
Henry Ode, California
Alain Ollivier, Quebec, Canada
Ivan Olsen, San Francisco Bay, CA
Ardeshir and Eleanor Ommani, Founders, AIFC
Michael Opperskalski, Journalist and Editor, Germany
Manlio Padova, Italy
Marie-Ange Patrizio, psychologist, Marseille, France
Daniel Perez Creus, Ingenio {Gran Canaria} Spain
Jørgen Petersen, Danish Communist Party, Denmark
Lily Phan, Calgary, AB, Canada
Andrea Pietropaolo, Italy
Paola Pisi, Uruknet.info
Karina Rahef, USA
Jespers Raf, Progress Lawyers Network, Belgium
Ahmed S. Rajah, South Africa
Hussin Ramadan, Palestine
Dr. Nagesh Rao, Assistant Professor of English, The College of New
Jersey
Gabriele Rapaci, student, University of Milan, Italy
Angel Rebollar, Spain
Dick Reilly, Chicago, IL, US
Mary Rizzo, writer, translator, S Benedetto Tr, Italy
Diane Roehm, New York, NY
Francesca Rosa, San Francisco, CA
Nadine Rosa-Rosso,
recognizeresistance.net
, Belgium
Mimi Rosenberg, Esq., Producer & Host Building Bridges: Your
Community & Labor Report WBAI Radio, NY
Bob Rossi, union organizer, Salem, OR
Mireille Rumeau, Bordeaux-France
Tony Ryan, Australia
Dr. Hamoudi Hadj Sahraoui, Setif University, Algeria
Nizar Sakhnini, Toronto, Canada
Samia Saleh, northern Virginia, US
Professor Therese Saliba, The Evergreen State College, Washington
Carol Scheller-Doyle, Genève, Switzerland
Guenter Schenk, Strasbourg, France
Penny Schoner, paralegal, San Francisco, CA
Marco Antonio Sechi, Sassari, Italy
Shahin Shabanian, Williamsport, PA
Mark Shapiro, UK
Meena Sharma, USA
Michel Shehadeh, San Francisco, CA
Kemal Sidhoum, Paris, France
Júlio da Silveira Moreira, International Association of People's Lawyers,
Brazil
Hilary Smith, UK
Dr. Ahdaf Soueif, author
Professor Mustapha Soueif, University of Cairo
Maryloo Souied, house cleaner/office worker, New York, NY
Stan Squires, Canada
Robert H. Stiver, Hawaii, USA, retiree and activist 
Prof. Emeritus Dr. Y.N. Tamimi, University of Hawaii
Zaid Tayem, the Netherlands 
Richard S. Thomas, former Hampden County Commissioner, retired 
Angie Tibbs, Canada
Brian Tierney, Union organizer, Washington, DC
Madjid Tounsi, Montreal, Canada
Vic and Barby Ulmer, Our Developing World, Saratoga, CA 
JoAnne VanDatta MS, Eugene, OR 
Fay Van Dunk, United Kingdom
Erin Wade, Seattle, WA
Claudia Wainerman, occupied Palestine 
Darlene Wallach, San Jose, CA 
Donna Wallach, San Jose, CA
Viola Ware, Artists to End the Occupation 
Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, M.D., USA
Alison Weir, If Americans Knew, USA
Tony Whelan, London, UK
Katherine Wilson, CUNY, New York City
R. Worrell, US
Ra'ana-Dilruba Yasmin, USA 
Anthony Joseph Geha Yuja, Italy 
Dr. A. B. Zahlan, London and Beirut
Edgar Zarifa, Canada 
Omar Zietawi, Arab American Community Center, Southern California
Said Zulficar, Network for Colonial Freedom 

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 at freeahmadsaadat.org.