Date/Time
Date(s) - 21 Feb 2013
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Thursday 21 February, 7.30 pm
Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton BN1 1AF
‘Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails: Brutality, Complicit Firms (e.g. G4S) and Palestinian Resistance’
SAEED AMIREH is a young but experienced Palestinian speaker from the Palestinian West Bank village of Ni’lin, which is in the front line of non-violent resistance to the Israeli Occupation. Using previously unshown video material from inside prison that he managed to take himself, he will speak from his own and his family’s experience of Israeli arrest, detainment and jail conditions, including torture – realities which almost all Palestinian families have to face. He will also speak about Palestinian resistance, through non-compliance and hunger strikes, and about the role of complicit firms such as G4S in the operation of the prisons in Israel where Palestinians from the West Bank are held.
There will be time for questions and discussion.
You can read an interview with Saeed Amireh on the Electronic Intifada and a piece about him by S. Taalay Ahmed.
UPDATE!
We are very sad and angry to report that Saeed Amireh cannot be with us because, grossly unjustly, his visa to visit Britain has been refused by the UK government on the grounds that the embassy does not believe he will return to Palestine after his tour. They say they are not satisfied about his economic situation – despite the fact that he has travelled to many countries on such tours before and has massively demonstrated his commitment to Palestine and has always returned there. He had supplied all the documents requested, and in any case all his expenses in Britain were being met by the groups who had invited him. Of course we will join in the campaign to protest against the visa refusal.
But we are not cancelling the meeting. We had hoped to set up an online link to Saeed on Thursday evening, but it seems this will not be possible because the internet connection in Ni’lin is often very weak, and the electicity supply to the village is often cut – especially at night during raids on the village. These are all reasons why our solidarity is so essential of course.
But we will be showing some video material of interviews with him, and we also have a back-up speaker on Palestinian Child Prisoners in Israeli Jails, and on the role of firms such as G4S which are complicit in running the jails. He is Bernard Regan from the Action for Palestinian Child Prisoners group.
SO PLEASE DO COME AND HELP US UNDERSTAND THESE ISSUES AND DISCUSS WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT THEM. And please pass on this information to anyone else interested. Thanks.