Many of us who have been working for Palestinian human rights know of Khalida Jarrar, feminist, human rights activist, and Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member. She and her daughters have worked in solidarity with many of us.
Jarrar was seized in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, October 31, by over 70 armed soldiers and 12 military vehicles invading her Ramallah home. Her arrest came only eight months after she was released from 20 months of Israeli administrative detention; imprisonment without charge or trial, once again on the basis of secret evidence.
According to Addameer, approximately 450 people held under administrative detention without charge or trial, out of approximately 5,000 total Palestinian political prisoners. Seven of the prisoners are members of the PLC.
Jarrar was arrested amid a wave of Israeli arrests of Palestinians suspected of affiliation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), of which Jarrar is a member and which Israel considers to be a terrorist organization — along with most Palestinian political parties. Israel often rounds up members of specific political parties or social groups during heightened army crackdowns in the West Bank.
On November 8-11, Samidoun, the Palestian Prisoner Solidarity Network, and other prisoner rights activists are calling on us to organize tabling and events to demand an end to arbitrary detention and the release of all Palestinian political prisoners.