Collecting donations for Canteen accounts of the popular struggle prisoners
25/08/2010
As we all know, in addition to the hard running violence in demonstrations against the occupation, one of the key tools of repression against the popular movement is the mass arrests - along with bogus trials that lead to long periods of confinement in prisons in the West Bank and Israel.
Nearly a 100 of Bil’in residents were jailed for various periods of time since 2005. In Ni’lin alone, more than 120 people were detained since the beginning of the struggle in May 2008. During the months in which the people of An Nabi-Salih, Karawat Bnei-Zeid, Beit Rima and Kufer Ein dared to protest more than 40 of them were arrested.
These arrests, mostly operated as a military invasion in the middle of the night, are based almost entirely on general incriminations that were forced out of arrestees after pulled from their bed and interrogated without presence of their parents or a lawyer even though many of them are under aged. "The Legal rule" in the military court system is such that even one incrimination on throwing one stone can lead to being arrested until the end of the proceedings. The "proceedings", in most cases, will take more than a year so the defendant has no choice but to admit a plea bargain on an offense not committed by him in order to cut the period of time of his imprisonment.
Today, there are close to forty prisoners/detainees awaiting long prison terms. Most of them are youths aged 16-30, some of them being the only breadwinners of their families. Between them are two members of the Bil’in popular committee, and three members of the Ni’lin popular committee.
The Ofer military base and prison, near Ramallah. Photo: Australians for Palestine
Canteen accounts are available to inmates in prisons which allow purchasing limited amounts of basic products, somewhat easing prison life. Most of the families of prisoners - even those that are not dependent on the prisoner as the only breadwinner, or that their agricultural livelihoods weren’t stolen by the fence, or have not been denied their work permits in Israel for their participation in demonstrations - find it hard to put even the smallest amounts required.
Support prisoners through a donation to their canteen accounts may facilitate their time in prison and is an act of critical solidarity for those who pay the highest price for their partnership in the struggle.
Local donations can be transferred to the following bank account:
Shai Gorsky
Bank Hapoalim (12)
Account number: 306029
Branch number: 694 (please specify in comments "Canteen")
As well it is possible to bring a donation to one of the weekly demonstrations and we will take care of the depositing.
Donations from abroad can be transferred to the following bank account:
ACCOUNT HOLDER: FRANCHASKA KATZ
ISRAEL POSTAL BANK
SWIFT CODE: IPOAILIJ
BANK ACCOUNT: 7125479
IBAN: IL430090010000007125479
Any donation should be followed by sending an email as a confirmation to: freedom.canteen@yahoo.com
For further information:
Shai - 052-3727602
Chaska - 050-2167583
