Hana Albidaq speaks at The Nest in Hastings Old Town in 2023. Photo: Hastings PSC

Free Hana! Local day of action for Palestinian political prisoners

Local campaigners will be holding a 12-hour public exhibition about Palestinian political prisoners on Saturday 1 November, 9am – 9pm, at Butler’s Gap (the chess board area on George Street) in Hastings Old Town. Gabriel Carlyle explains what’s happening and why.

The exhibition aims to raise awareness of Israel’s use of arbitrary detention and torture – including of children – to maintain its brutal system of apartheid. A series of short films will be screened from 5.30pm onwards.

Systemic torture

In its August 2024 report Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System
as a Network of Torture Camps the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem found clear evidence of ‘a systemic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel’.

The report concluded that this policy ‘is applied across all prison facilities and to all
Palestinian prisoners. Among its main tenets are unrelenting physical and psychological violence, denial of medical treatment, starvation, withholding of water, sleep deprivation and confiscation of all personal belongings. The overall picture indicates abuse and torture carried out under orders, in utter defiance of Israel’s obligations both under domestic law and under international law.’

Nearly 2,000 people – including about 1,700 seized from Gaza and held without charge – were set free from Israeli jails earlier this month, as part of the latest ‘ceasefire’ deal.

According to the Guardian, prior to these releases ‘11,056 Palestinians were held in Israeli prisons … At least 3,500 of those were held in administrative detention without trial. An Israeli military database has indicated that only a quarter of those detained in Gaza were classified as fighters’.

Free Hana!

At the 1 November exhibition, members of the public will be encouraged to sign a petition to Hastings’ MP Helena Dollimore, calling on her to take action on behalf of Hana Albidaq, who is currently being held in an Israeli prison in the West Bank.

They will also be encouraged to write letters to Hana’s family letting them know that they are not alone, and that Hana’s fearless campaigning is continuing to reach people across the world.

A long-standing friend of Hastings Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Hana Albidaq helped to co-ordinate the fashion show of historic thobes – traditional Palestinian embroidered dresses – at Hastings’ Palestine on the Pier event in 2022, and also supported the twinning link between Hastings and Al-Mawasi in Gaza as an interpreter.

According to Hastings PSC:  ‘Israeli forces abducted Hana from her home in September because of her role in the hunger strike for Gaza movement in the West Bank – but like many detainees she has not been charged with committing any crime or given any legal process to fight for her release. She has no access to lawyers, and nobody, including her family, is able to communicate with her. Reports from the prison indicate that she has been tortured. Her husband was also held briefly then released. Hana’s story is all too common but we cannot allow her to disappear into an Israeli dungeon without a fight – we must be her voice now.’

In recognition of Hana’s work with the global hunger strike for Gaza, some supporters will also be taking part in a hunger strike on the day.

To help staff the exhibition or to take part in the hunger strike on the day please contact info@hastingspalestinecampaign.org.

Who is Hana Albidaq?

Hastings PSC write:

Hana is a computer systems engineer from Ramallah in the West Bank and a devoted mother to four boys.

Hana Albidaq walking. Photo: Hastings PSC

She is also a grassroots campaigner for civil rights, committed to fighting all types of oppression, whether it is the Israeli occupation, oppression from the Palestinian authority, corruption or patriarchal domination.

We first got to know Hana as a cultural ambassador when she helped to organize the thobe show we exhibited during our Palestine on the Pier festival in September 2022, a collection of traditional and ancient dresses from all over Palestine.

She visited Hastings in January 2023 to give a talk on how Palestinians in the West Bank live under a brutal military occupation that has morphed into apartheid, denying them their basic human rights like safety, freedom of movement, education, economic opportunities and access to food and clean water.

She encouraged everyone to join the global boycott of Israeli apartheid.

Hana has been active in many grassroots movements to try to improve the condition of her people, including ‘Tafah Al Kel’ which means ‘We are Fed Up’, and has helped to support those in her community imprisoned by the occupation.

Most recently she has taken part in the global hunger strike for Gaza to protest the occupation’s forced starvation there. It was this peaceful action which the occupation used as a pretext for her arrest.

As well as being a passionate vegetarian, Hana enjoys long hikes through the countryside with a group of fellow walkers.

To Hana, walking through the land is more than just exercise, it is also a form of resistance, reclaiming the right roam freely, a way to reconnect with nature and with the historical sites on the land of her ancestors.

We hope that Hana is free soon, reunited with her friends and family, so she can continue her good work in her community, to keep walking towards true freedom.

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