Friday, November 18, 2005

Ecrire pour Ziyad/ To write for Ziyad.

Below is a message from one of my friends.
you can find in her message samples of letters to write in protest of arrest of Ziyad, Al Haq's fieldworker who was arrested six months ago.




Dear All,

I have received some very bad news. My friend Ziyad, human rights
worker, focus of an Amnesty campaign, father of two beautiful children
and a lovely guy, has been given a further 6 months in detention. He
has not been charged with doing anything wrong. Palestinian men are
regularly arrested by the Israeli military because of the profile that
they fit- i.e. being Palestinian and being men.

His detention order was due to expire next week. In the next couple of
weeks there will be the judicial review and then the appeal before the
military board, but it is expected that the detention order will be
confirmed on both occasions.

Please please write again to the Minister for Justice (sample letter
below) to increase any chances of changing the situation.

Also, please keep writing to Ziyad- I cannot imagine how he must be
feeling to know that he will have missed the first year of the life of
his baby daughter. By maintaining a constant flow of letters/
postcards (postcards may be better) some will eventually get through.
His full address is

Ziyad Hmeidan
Prisoner no. 10435
Ketziot Prison
Military Mail 01771
Israel.

Sample Letter

Tzipi Livni (Ms)
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010, Israel

18th November 2005

Dear Minister,

I was disturbed to hear of the decision yesterday to renew the
administrative detention order of Ziyad Muhammad Shehadeh Hmeidan for
a period of six months. Administrative detention is the imprisonment
of individuals without charge or trial by administrative rather than
judicial procedure.

Ziyad, 31, has been a fieldworker with human rights organisation
Al-Haq since 2000. No formal charges have been brought against him.
This order and his administrative detention have been justified by
"security reasons", which have not been disclosed to Ziyad or his
legal counsel.

Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), to which Israel is a State Party, guarantees to everyone the
right not to be subjected to arbitrary detention. Ziyad's treatment
does not conform to this obligation. I demand his immediate and
unconditional release, and insist that his detention period is not
renewed this month.

Yours,

--------------------------

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Aoife Daly
Date: Nov 7, 2005 3:12 PM
Subject: FW: Call for Ziyad's release
To: aoifedaly@gmail.com




Aoife Daly
Research Fellow
Children's Research Centre
Trinity College Dublin
Tel: +353 (01) 608 2934
e-mail: dalyao@tcd.ie


-----Original Message-----
From: Aoife Daly [mailto:aoifedaly@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 November 2005 14:20
To: dalyao@tcd.ie
Subject: Fwd: Call for Ziyad's release


Dear All,

You may remember that almost 6 months ago I sent an e-mail around
about a good friend of mine who was arrested and detained by the
Israeli army almost 6 months ago.

Ziyad, 31, has been a fieldworker with Palestinian human rights
organisation Al-Haq since 2000. No charges have been brought against
him. His administrative detention order is due to expire on 23
November 2005 but may be renewed again after that.

He has a beautiful wife and two small children (see pics attached) who
miss him terribly. I am asking that you please get in contact with
Israeli authorities (see below for contacts and attachment for sample
letter) and insist that his detention period is not renewed this
month. Please encourage your contacts to do the same, and show the
Israeli authorities that the injustices that they perpetrate do not go
unnoticed around the world.

Thanks,

Aoife

Tzipi Livni (Ms)
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010, Israel

5th November 2005

Dear Minister,

I was disturbed to hear of the decision last June of the Moscobiya
Military Court to place Ziyad Muhammad Shehadeh Hmeidan in
administrative detention, for an indefinitely renewable period of six
months. Administrative detention is the imprisonment of individuals
without charge or trial by administrative rather than judicial
procedure. Ziyad, 31, has been a fieldworker with human rights
organisation Al-Haq since 2000. No formal charges have been brought
against him. His administrative detention order is due to expire on 23
November 2005 but may be renewed again after that.

The Israeli authorities have taken measures to deny his access to a
lawyer. This was done by moving him between different detention
facilities and then (through an order issued in a hearing on 30 May)
preventing his access to counsel for eight days. This order and his
administrative detention, has been justified by "security reasons",
which have not been disclosed to Ziyad or his legal counsel.

Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), to which Israel is a State Party, guarantees to everyone the
right not to be subjected to arbitrary detention. Ziyad's treatment
does not conform to this obligation. Ziyad's situation is not unique.
Addameer (a human rights organization of Palestinian prisoners)
estimated that at the end of 2004 there were over 850 Palestinian
administrative detainees in Israeli prisons. I demand his immediate
and unconditional release, and insist that his detention period is not
renewed this month.

Yours,

------------------------------------------

If you prefer to email than post,

here is the e-mail address of the Minister for Justice Tzipi Livni
(Ms) : zlivni@knesset.gov.il


Here is the list of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) Members of The
Constitution, Justice and Law Committee and their e-mail addresses

Michael Eitan (Chair) meitan@knesset.gov.il
Colette Avital avitalk@knesset.gov.il
Ronnie Bar-On rbaron@knesset.gov.il
Azmi Bishara abishara@knesset.gov.il
Naomi Blumenthal nblumentl@knesset.gov.il
Eitan Cabel ecabel@knesset.gov.il
Reshef Chayne rchen@knesset.gov.il
Eliezer Cohen elicohen@knesset.gov.il
Yuli-Yoel Edelstein yedelstein@knesset.gov.il
Zahava Gal-On zgalon@knesset.gov.il
Yitzhak Levy ithakl@knesset.gov.il
Eti Livni elivni@knesset.gov.il
Michael Ratzon mratzon@knesset.gov.il
Avraham Ravitz aravitz@knesset.gov.il
Gideon Sa'ar gsaar@knesset.gov.il
Yuli Tamir ytamir@knesset.gov.il
Nissim Zeev nzeev@knesset.gov.

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