October 2023 Archives

and remarkably similar, https://www.thenation.com/article/world/ofer-israel-guantanamo-military-justice/?fbclid=IwAR0gWpsIua1PuMYgGkccwRjzs_narMBODv6C3SYs07BeFWO8_dgWlTGnO1 (you may have to copy and paste this link for free access)

Before the invention of the military commissions, the US government tried to change the definitions of torture to make it fit the law. In her book The War in Court: Inside the Long Fight Against Torture, Lisa Hajjar explains how the Bush administration looked to Israel to help it generate legal rationales for torture. Israel, Hajjar points out, was "the first government to publicly claim the right to use violent interrogation techniques as a legitimate prerogative to protect national security."

Human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are subjected to acts of harassment, restrictions on freedom of movement, stigmatisation, abductions, long periods of arbitrary detention usually under administrative detention orders, illegal searches of their homes and offices and killings, (copy and paste https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/shatha-odeh-abu-fannouneh) 

Tomorrow, October 10th marks the World Day Against the Death Penalty. 

Join us online,
Tuesday October 10,
9 AM Pacific Time
RSVP Here

With no signs of the prison industrial complex abating in the US how can we tread the path towards abolishing not just the death penalty, but the carceral system altogether?

How can we imagine a country and a world that is committed to building healthy, safe, and stable communities that thrive, instead of systems that default to punishment and vengeance?

This panel will feature firsthand perspectives and an inside look on what it means to abolish the carceral state from those directly impacted by this system.

*Please note that ASL and CART Captioning will be provided.

Panelists:

Lyle May, an abolitionist journalist who is incarcerated on death row in North Carolina
Adama Bah, who was detained on suspicion of terrorism as a teenager
Mansoor Adayfi, a writer and advocate who spent more than a decade behind bars at the US' infamous Guantanamo Bay prison
Luke "Lucky" Harper, a Codefendant in Stop Cop City RICO indictment

Moderators:

Nawal Rajeh, an Advisory Board member of Muslim Counterpublics Lab
Khury Petersen-Smith, the Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies

This event is brought to you by Muslim Counterpublics Lab and co-sponsored by Witness Against Torture, Defending Rights and Dissent, and Aging People in Prison. Registration is free, but required.

In solidarity,

Dr. Maha Hilal
Founder and Executive Director