The North American speaking tour of Palestinian ex-political prisoners and activists from Occupied Palestine will make their Chicago stop on April 9 and 10.

The Chicago leg of this tour is sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Group (www.psgchicago.org), the Arab American Action Network (www.aaan.org), the National Boricua Human Rights Network (www.boricuahumanrights.org), the First United Methodist Church of Downers Grove (www.dgfumc.org), the International Solidarity Movement-Chicago Chapter (www.palsolidarity.org), and the Coalition of African, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois.

JOIN US AT THESE EVENTS TO WORK TOWARD THE RELEASE OF ALL PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS!

Saturday, April 9th, 2005 at 7PM
Arab American Action Network
3148 W. 63rd St., 2nd Floor
Chicago

Sunday, April 10th, at 1 PM
First United Methodist Church
1032 Maple Ave
Downers Grove, IL 60515
630-968-7120
www.dgfumc.org (click on LOCATION for a map and directions)

Sunday, April 10th, at 4PM
Cafe Batey Urbano
2647 W. Division St.
Chicago

The tour speakers are from Addameer, a Palestinian organization in Ramallah that campaigns around Palestinian political prisoners.

*Sahar Francis, a Palestinian lawyer with Addameer who has worked for many years with Palestinian prisoners.

*Akram Al Ayasa, an ex-political prisoner and former president of Bethlehem University Student Council. Arrested seven times from 1976-1990 by the Israeli occupation forces.

*Ala Jaradat, an ex-political prisoner and activist with Addameer, where he works with families of political detainees.

The speaking tour has two primary objectives:

*To raise awareness and solidarity around the struggle of Palestinian political prisoners inside Israeli occupation jails.

*To connect the struggle of Palestinian political prisoners to struggles against the prison industrial complex in North America, and to the struggles of other oppressed nationality groups that support political prisoners' campaigns.

Background:

Central to Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is an institutionalized system of mass detention. Over 600,000 Palestinians have passed through this system since the beginning of the occupation in 1967.

As of March 2005, around 8,000 Palestinians are being held as political prisoners by the Israeli military and police. This figure includes approximately 350 children and 95 women. Israel is notorious for the widespread use of torture and other mistreatment against Palestinian detainees. This includes severe beatings, being tied in painful and contorted positions for long periods of time, psychological abuse, threats of rape or violence against family members, long periods of solitary confinement, and pressure to collaborate with the occupying forces. Like all colonialist regimes, this violent system of detention is aimed at breaking the will of a population that refuses to submit to occupation and injustice.

Recently, media attention has focused on the release of 500 prisoners as a supposed "good will" gesture from the Israeli government. This was a sham, because the prisoners released were only a few months away from the ends of their terms anyway. The Israeli government presented this as a concession to encourage a resumption of negotiations, but without admitting that the prisoners should not have been in prison to begin with. We must be clear--Palestinian prisoners cannot be used as bargaining chips or hostages to an unbalanced peace process.