5:30 PM – 7 PM: Inside Penn Station – Amtrak Level, Entrances on 8th ave between 33rd and 31st
Hosted by International Action Center and 30 others
Join the days of action to free Ahed Tamimi (samidoun.net/2018/01/
Gather inside Penn Station by the Amtrak information booth on the upper level, closest to the entrance on 8th Avenue at West 32nd Street.
On January 31, Palestinian teen activist Ahed Tamimi will mark her 17th birthday behind bars as the next Israeli military court hearing is convened against her. Ahed is one of 360 Palestinian children in Israeli prison and nearly 6,200 total Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. As her birthday approaches, take action to stand with Ahed and demand her freedom and that of her fellow imprisoned Palestinians!
Ahed is imprisoned – along with her mother Nariman – in an attempt to suppress Palestinian organizing and resistance to occupation. The Tamimis are leaders in the indigenous anti-colonial land defense and popular resistance in the village of Nabi Saleh, a Palestinian village of 600 people that has been targeted for land theft and even the confiscation of their spring by the illegal Zionist settlement of Halamish.
Ahed and Nariman Tamimi have been imprisoned since December 19 after a video of Ahed slapping an Israeli occupation soldier – who had slapped her while occupying her land and family home while suppressing a village demonstration – went viral on social media. For nearly all of her life, Ahed has been in direct confrontation with occupation forces who have repeatedly invaded her home; arrested and imprisoned her father, brothers, cousins and other relatives; killed her cousin and her uncle; attacked the village with tear gas and other weaponry, including the rubber-coated metal bullet shot into the face of her 15-year-old cousin, Mohammed, shortly before the video was filmed.
There has been a global upsurge of outrage at the ongoing imprisonment of Ahed. Protests, letter-writing campaigns, petitions and actions in cities around the world have demanded her freedom and that of her fellow Palestinian prisoners. Her case has also highlighted the ongoing, systematic imprisonment of Palestinian children. Approximately 700 are brought before military courts each year, and Palestinian kids seized by Israeli forces are frequently subject to beatings, abuse, and interrogations without parents or lawyers present in violation of the law.
The resistance of the Palestinian people has never been quelled by arrests or repression, and it must be clear that we, around the world, stand alongside the Palestinian people as they defend their entire land and people. This includes standing with Ahed Tamimi and all detained and jailed Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for liberation for themselves, their people, and their occupied homeland.
Media advisory
Joe Catron
(718) 395-3419
joecatron@gmail.com
Rally to free Ahed Tamimi and all Palestinian prisoners
5:30 pm Tuesday, January 30
Amtrak board inside Penn Station
33rd St & 8 Ave Entrance
New York, New York
Over 40 organizations will rally to demand the release of Ahed Tamimi, a 16-year- old Palestinian girl held in Israeli military detention since Israeli forces raided her home in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh early the morning of December 19, and more than 6,000 other Palestinians imprisoned by Israel on political charges.
“We must demand the release of Ahed Tamimi, who is held in Zionist captivity paid for by U.S. tax dollars that funded the soldiers who harassed and shot her family in the first place.” said Nerdeen Kiswani of New York City Students for Justice in Palestine. “The U.S. played a part in starting this, so we must play a part in ending it.”
The demonstration is part of a series of worldwide actions marking both Ahed’s 17th birthday on Wednesday, January 31 and the start of her Israeli military trial, scheduled to begin at Israel’s Ofer prison the same day.
“At least forty gatherings over a week, including 14 on Tuesday alone, will call for Ahed’s release.” said Joe Catron, U.S. coordinator of Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. “Her imprisonment by Israeli occupation forces has ignited a strong global campaign and reinvigorated the overall movement to liberate Palestine.”
For more information, visit samidoun.net.
NYC Endorsing organizations
Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return
Coalition
American Muslim for Palestine – NJ Chapter
Anakbayan NJ
ANSWER Coalition
Bayan USA Northeast
CODEPINK: Women For Peace
Committee to Stop FBI Repression — NYC
Existence Is Resistance
Free Mumia Abu Jamal Coalition
Free the Tamimi Women
Gabriela NY
International Action Center
International League of Peoples' Struggle
International Socialist Organization
The Jericho Movement
Jersey City Peace Movement
Jewish Voices for Peace – NYC
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Labor for Palestine
National Lawyers Guild Palestine Subcommittee
New York Progressive Action Network
NY4Palestine
NYC Shut It Down: The Grand Central Crew
#BlackLivesMatter
NYC Solidarity with Palestine
NYC Students for Justice in Palestine
Pakistan USA Freedom Forum
Palestinian American Community Center, NJ USA
Palestinian Youth Movement
Peoples Power Assemblies
RAIA — Researching the American Israeli Alliance
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Socialist Action
Socialist Alternative, NYC
Staten Island Progressive Action Network
Students for Justice in Palestine, New School
Students for Justice in Palestine at College of
Staten Island
United National Antiwar Coalition
Veterans For Peace, 034 NYC, 021 NJ
Workers World Party
Youth Against Settlements
