Dear compatriots,

We reach out, through this open letter, to every political organization represented in the Greek and the European Parliament, excluding of course the criminal organization Golden Dawn. We aim to inform you, urge you to publicly state your position and take action concerning a positively grand injustice taking place in Palestine’s occupied land.
Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian national leader, leftist parliamentarian, feminist and advocate for Palestinian political prisoners, was issued a six-month administrative detention order on Wednesday, 12 July 2017. The order was signed by the Israeli occupation military commander over the West Bank, and it is scheduled to be confirmed at a hearing at the Ofer military court on 17 July 2017.
The order came after Israeli military prosecutors did not have enough evidence even to make out a military court indictment on Monday 10 July; Jarrar’s detention was extended for 48 hours to give the military time to issue this order for administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial on the basis of so-called “secret evidence.”
It comes three days after Saafin was also ordered to three months in administrative detention without charge or trial. Administrative detention orders are issued for one to six months at a time, but they are indefinitely renewable; Palestinians have been jailed for years under administrative detention.
Jarrar is one of 11 Palestinian parliamentarians imprisoned by the Israeli occupation; nine of them, including Jarrar, are under administrative detention orders. There are nearly 500 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial among around 6,200 total Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel’s widespread and systematic use of administrative detention violates the Geneva Conventions and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Khalida Jarrar has been subject to repeated attacks by Israeli occupation forces, including the attempt to forcibly displace her to Jericho from her Ramallah home in 2014, followed by her arrest and imprisonment in 2015. She was also ordered to six months in administrative detention then; however, following an international outcry, the administrative detention order against her was canceled and she was instead ordered to the no less unjust Israeli military courts, sentenced on political charges and jailed until June 2016.
The attack on Khalida is an attack on Palestinian parliamentary legitimacy and political expression. The arrest of Khitam is an assault on the Palestinian women’s movement. We urge you to publicly condemn these unacceptable and illegal actions taken by the occupation forces and pressure Israel, as representatives of the Greek people, to comply with international law.
We also urge you to pose parliamentary questions and demand from the Greek and the other European governments to cease diplomatic relations with Israel as long as it persists on keeping this criminal stance of contempt towards human rights.
Best regards,

Greek Front of Resistance and Solidarity for Palestine
“Ghassan Kanafani”