Panelists discussed the ongoing occupation of Palestine by Israel as one entrenched in colonialism built on the exploitation of Palestinians, and the journey to ‘Free Palestine!
Students for Palestine (SFP) held a forum to discuss the liberation of Palestine and called for an end to Israeli colonisation on Wednesday afternoon. SFP President Owen Marsden-Readford chaired the discussion, introducing SFP as an activist group that “builds solidarity with Palestine and against the complicity of the Australian government and political establishment with Israeli apartheid”.
Students for Palestine member Ban Hasanin condemned the “criminality of the State of Israel”, which was responsible for the arrest of Ahmad Manasra at age thirteen, without an adult or lawyer present and had been detained since 2015.
Mansara had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and is “suffering from psychotic delusions, severely depressed with suicidal thoughts”, according to Hasanin. Last week, Mansara’s (now 20 years old) appeal to be released from prison was rejected. where Israel maintained the classification of detainee held for “terrorism”. Under Israeli law, those convicted of counterterrorism are refused early release. Amendments to the Counter-Terrorism Law (2016) barring early release for individuals convicted of terrorist crimes were introduced in 2018, two years after Mansara’s arrest. Advocates have criticised the retroactive application of the law to Mansara, where his case is “yet another morally and legally unjustifiable consequence of the law”. His health condition was also considered “not dangerous enough for his release.”
Hasanin echoed the words of Manasra’s family who described this case as a form of “slow execution”, and criticised the “systematic targeting of Palestinian children” which has occurred since Al Nakba (the destruction of Palestine in 1948 that led to the permanent displacement of most Palestinians).
Read the article by Christine Lai in Honi Soit.