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Let Sarsak Live! Palestinian footballer, 80 days on hunger strike


inminds
8 June 2012



An activist volunteers to represent Mahmoud Sarsak who is now near death after nearly three months without food,
he is symbolically bound and kneeling at the stone engraved "Gaza" outside the BBC headquarters in London,
to protest the corporate media's complicity in Palestinian suffering, their deafening silence
at the plight of Palestinian prisoners forced to hunger strike to resist their illegal detention.



Mahmoud Sarsak in action

On 5th June 2012 a protest was held in London to bring attention to the plight of Palestinian prisoner Mahmoud Sarsak who is on his 80th day of hunger strike and on the verge of dying, which has been largely ignored by the corporate media, including the BBC.

The protest commenced from the Palestine Place, a reclaimed space near Chancery Lane, and moved through central London including Oxford Street, stopping at the headquarters of the BBC, then on to Marble Arch and culminating in Hyde Park.

Mahmoud Sarsak, a professional footballer from Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, has been imprisoned by Israel for 3 years without charge or trial.

He was abducted by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint while on his way to join the Palestine National Football Team for a match in Balata refugee camp in the West Bank.

Mahmoud has now been on hunger strike for 80 days to protest being held without charge or reason for 3 years and to be allowed to defend himself as is his most basic right under international law.

After nearly three months without food, Mahmoud Sarsak has lost his sight and hearing and is on the verge of dying..

A finale plea from Mahmoud Sarsak and fellow prisoner Akram Rikhawi, received from inside prison on 3rd June 2012:

"To the freedom loving people of the world, we cry out to you, and to all people in the worl who believe in the justice of our cause: Do not abandon us to the vindictive hands of the jailers to take what they want from our frail bodies..

We say: There is still enough time and the support that comes late is better than that which does not come at all.. It is better that you receive us alive and victorious rather than as lifeless bodies in black bags.."


Video: Let Sarsak Live


Preparation at Palestine House
































Leaving Palestine House to commence protest














Marching, leafleting, playing football.. all raise awareness
































At BBC headquarters




















Leafleting Oxford Street - Europe's busiest shopping street



































Marble Arch and on to Hyde Park to play football and raise awareness














"Don’t wait until we’re in body bags": Two Palestinian hunger strikers’ "final distress call"

Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah, 3rd June 2012

Mahmoud Sarsak and Akram Rikhawi who have been on hunger strike for 78 and 59 days respectively issued the following urgent distress call from Israel’s Ramle prison today. It was published by Addameer on its Facebook page in Arabic and rush-translated by The Electronic Intifada:

The message of prisoners Mahmoud Sarsak and Akram Rikhawi from inside prison

In the name of God the Compassionate and Merciful…

To the masses of Palestine, who cling to the land, who grip as if to hot coals, to all the revolutionaries and freedom loving people in the world who stood by our cause and our victory throughout history; To those who always extended to us their steadfastness and fortitude in the face of adversity, our fellow Arabs and Muslims, and freedom loving people of the world;

To the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazin), and to the the brother Minister of Prisoner and Ex-Prisoner Affairs Mr. Issa Qaraqe, and to the honorable freedom fighter Qaddoura Faris, president of the Prisoners’ Club, and to national and Islamic parties and movements:

This is an urgent and final distress call from captivity, slow and programmed death inside the cells of so-called Ramle Prison hospital, that you know that your sons and brothers are still struggling against death and you pay no attention to them and do not remember their cause – as if, after the end of the general strike all the demands of the prisoners were met.

We are still here, continuing our open-ended hunger strike and that battle has not ended despite 78 days of strike for one of us, and 59 days for the other.

Regretfully, we thought that you would support us in our hunger strike, but instead you have stood on our wounds and our pain.

From here, we cry out to you, to our brothers, to dignified people, that you bear your responsibility, for after God, we have no one but you and the freedom loving people of the world to bring victory to our cause.

Second: As the hunger strike continues to erode our bodies and sap what is left of our strength, we cry out to you to help us in our battle on every level and field, local, regional and international, especially in the media, and especially Palestinian television which represents the Palestinian people.

And also in the newspapers, radio and electronic media, so that our voices can reach the freedom loving people of the world and expose this entity, and for the victory of our cause.

We say: there is still enough time and the support that comes late is better than that which does not come at all. It is better that you receive us alive and victorious rather than as lifeless bodies in black bags.

Therefore we two hunger strikers remain on our strike, Mahmoud Sarsak who has endured 78 days, and Sheikh Akram Rikhawi who has endured 59 days and was already ill, having spent 8 years in Ramle Prison clinic suffering from illnesses, and who now struggles against death.

We inform you that we will remain on our strike until all our demands are met and we will not submit to the demands of the Prison Service regardless of what we suffer in restrictions, provocations, and bargaining, and we will not accept promises and half-measures despite the deterioration of our health and our entry into difficult and dangerous situations, especially since we have lost more than 25kg and 18kg.

Our people, our leaders in Gaza, in the West Bank and outside, and freedom loving people of the world, we cry out to you, and to all people in the world who believe in the justice of our cause: do not abandon us to the vindictive hands of the jailers to take what they want from our frail bodies.

You are the ones able to support us for victory in our battle.

Your brothers who remain on hunger strike until victory or martyrdom,

Mahmoud Sarsak
Akram Rikhawi

src: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/dont-wait-until-were-body-bags-two-palestinian-hunger-strikers-final-distress


Source: www.inminds.com


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