CALL TO MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
We are calling upon Members of the European Parliament to stand up for freedom and justice for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners. Sa’adat, along with over a dozen other elected Palestinian parliamentarians and nearly 5,000 other Palestinian political prisoners, is being held – and his sham military trial conducted – in the eyes of the world, yet this has been met with silence from much of the world.
It is incumbent upon Members of the European Parliament to exercise their responsibility to uphold the rights of Palestinians under attack, and to defend Palestinian political leaders and activists against the Israeli onslaught on their very existence.
Locate your MEP here. All members are listed by region and by party, with email addresses.
The following sample letter should serve as a guide to you. Please copy the Campaign, at campaign@freeahmadsaadat.org, on all of your letters and e-mails to MEPs.
SAMPLE LETTER TO MEPs
Dear MEP,
I am writing to you to express my concern regarding the case of a Palestinian political leader, parliamentarian and prisoner of conscience, Ahmad Sa’adat. Sa’adat, elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been imprisoned since January 2002, first in Palestinian Authority jails under the guard of U.S. and British monitors, and now in an Israeli military prison. Sa’adat, with five other Palestinian political prisoners, was kidnapped from the PA prison in Jericho on March 14, 2006, during an armed Israeli military assault on the prison waged in order to abduct these prisoners.
During his entire time in Palestinian Authority prisons, Sa’adat was never tried or charged. Sa’adat was nominally a prisoner of the Palestinian Authority, but was in fact guarded by U.S. and British guards, at the behest of Israel. The Palestinian High Court of Justice ruled that Sa’adat should be immediately released, as did numerous international human rights organizations. Following his election in January 2006 to the Palestinian Legislative Council, despite growing calls for his release, Sa’adat remained imprisoned at Jericho. On March 14, 2006, the U.S. and British guards assigned to Jericho prison abandoned their posts in order to allow for an Israeli military assault on the prison that ended with the capture of Sa’adat and five other Palestinian political prisoners, the deaths of two Palestinians, and the injury of 23 Palestinians.
Following the abduction of Sa’adat, the Israeli military courts admitted they lacked sufficient evidence to try Sa’adat under more serious charges, and have instead convicted him with an array of political offenses, including membership in a prohibited organization (the PFLP), holding a post in a prohibited organization, and incitement, for delivering a speech harshly condemning the Israeli military’s assassination of his predecessor Abu Ali Mustafa, and sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
The military courts that tried and the other Palestinian prisoners are entirely institutions of the illegitimate military occupation. They function solely as a means of maintaining that occupation and repressing any and all resistance and opposition to its perpetuation. As such, these military courts are illegitimate entities of an illegal military occupation that has been condemned by every leading international body and human rights organization. They have a 99.74% conviction rate of Palestinian prisoners.
I am asking you, as a Member of the European Parliament, to take a stand in support of freedom and justice for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners, and to take action in your position to move the EU as a whole to support Ahmad Sa’adat and Palestinian political prisoners. The international community, and especially the European Union, have allowed an intolerable situation of political repression and imprisonment against Palestinians to continue for decades upon decades. Ahmad Sa’adat is today one of 43 Palestinian members of Parliament and over 4500 political leaders and activists held prisoner by an illegitimate military occupation, while even those in the international community – such as the EU – that pledge fairness and support for Palestinian victims of occupation are silent in the face of brutal and bitter injustice.
I am urging you to take up the case of Ahmad Sa’adat, as your responsibility as a Member of the European Parliament and a responsible member of the international community, in the interests of justice, freedom and self-determination for the Palestinian people.
Thank you.
