The
Statement of the Head of the FCLD & the KRC
Mohammed Safa in the Press Conference about closing down the Tent of
Freedom
The
open-ended hunger strike that began on August 15, 2004 by more than 7,000
Arab and Palestinian detainees in protest of their conditions in Israeli
prisons achieving the demands called for better prison conditions was a
historical event in the Activities’ history of the Arab-Palestinian
Detained Movement due to the following:
1-
The Israeli forces took back all the health and the social demands
that the detainees had achieved during their struggle in the past years.
2-
Ignoring
the detainees’ case on the International and Arab level and not
considering it as a priority in the Palestinian struggle.
3-
The
open-ended hunger strike was a decision by the detainees themselves, they
were who decided it and they were who ended it, their decision didn’t go
under any political aim whatsoever.
4-
The
open-ended hunger strike gave back the image and consideration of the
detainees’ issue as being a Humanitarian World Wide cause after years of
being neglected, where the Arab world and international society have
traditionally marginalized the plight of detainees in Israeli prisons.
5-
The
detainees had assured through their strike that they are a basic part of
the Inifada and the struggle against the occupying forces after years and
years of paralyzing this partition of people due to either ignoring them
or waiting for the swap operations that would save them from the hell of
the Israeli dungeons.
6-
The
open-ended hunger strike was a human revolution where the detainees held
their case in their hands and sent it as a protesting message to the whole
world to break the International and Arab silence and to bring
international public attention to their suffer from the brutal torture in
the Israeli Prisons.
7-
The open-ended hunger strike paved a new struggling phase and a new
road that -if taken a good advantage from- will give the International and
the Arab World the chance to make a global action for the release of the
detainees, not only to be satisfied with achieving their human rights.
8-
The International and the local solidarity campaigns –according
to the continuous struggle of the detainees in their hunger strike- played
basic role that forced the Israeli Authorities to negotiate with the
hunger strike leaders and thus, the detainees
achieved their full rights after their hunger strike.
The
Tent of Freedom
The Tent of Freedom in Beirut symbolized a unique spot
in the solidarity campaign with the detainees, and the tent’s role over
passed its geographic place to become:
·
The first cry in the world in solidarity
with the protesting detainees. It helped put the case of Arab and Palestinian detainees on
the international map.
·
The axis of the solidarity campaign that
was launched Lebanese, Arab and International wise.
·
It raised public awareness of all
the International and Arab organizations to the suffering of the
detainees and their demands.
·
A media spot for the Arab TV Satellite
Channels and a daily event for the audio-visual-written media.
·
A link between all the solidarity
tents set up around the other world in support for the detainee's case communicating and
exchanging press releases and messages.
·
A mediator between the strike leadership,
for that the tent –the freedom tent- was their voice and their
conscience.
·
The tool that raised public awareness of the world to the arbitrary
disappearances in the Arab dungeons of the Arab regimes including the
political prisoners and the intellectuals. It was in solidarity with all
the victims of torture all over the world.
·
A space of freedom for the many activities
including art, media, and supporting movements for that the tent has been
the beating heart in the vicious empty circle of the political life and
death in Lebanon.
·
The solidarity of all the political and
social parties, the Lebanese and the Palestinians, as well as the social
organization, all united under the umbrella of the tent.
·
The tent, erected in front of United Nations House in downtown
Beirut, attracted thousands of Lebanese and Arab visitors,
scouts and youth camps that flocked to the tent including the Arab and
foreign tourists.
·
A floating tent over the water and the
land, for that the moving demonstrators of the freedom tent protested from
North to South, in front of the
Arab and
foreign Embassies, as well as in the boats parade and many other
spontaneous activities. All this had made the tent an International
Protest for
the Human Rights.
Twenty-four days and the tent of
freedom –Samir Al Kantar tent- erected
in front of United Nations House in downtown Beirut
at Gebran Khalil Gebran garden had united with the cries of the detainees
protesting to break the silence towards their case. And if we are today
-after this partial victory- closing down the tent, we would be only
closing down its wooden logs for that the Tent of Freedom will never be
closed down, it is the candle in the darkness of this Arab World
illuminating our hearts. Our dream is to enlarge this tent to close down
not only the Israeli Prisons, but to close down also the Arab Prisons and
all the dungeons of torture and injustice in the whole world.
We close down the tent to start again and to put the
new struggle plans depending on the achievements that were accomplished to
organize a global Arab and International solidarity campaigns.
The Solidarity campaigns must continue, improve, and
increase after the hunger strike has been ended under the title:
The
Release of all the detainees specially the women, children, patients, and
who have long sentence of imprisonment.
We assure to Samir Al-Kantar family, to the families of the disappearances and to all the Arab and the Palestinian Detainees in the Israeli Prisons that the FCLD will be their voice in the whole world. We will present their case to all the International and Humanitarian assemblies calling to a global participation in the National Conference about the Arab and the Palestinian Detainees that the FCLD will have on September 24, 2004 in the Press House in the occasion of the twelfths anniversary of the Follow-Up Committee for the Support pf the Lebanese Detainees in the Israeli Prisons.
Tent of Freedom
The Statement In Arabic.