arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Mrs. Sa'adat left her home in Ramallah at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday 21 January
2003 to travel to the Karamah Border Crossing. The last contact with her
family in Ramallah was at noon on Tuesday, when she called to inform them
that she was still waiting to cross through the Israeli side of the
border. At 6 p.m. the same evening, the director of Addameer received a
phone call from a Jordanian citizen who had met with Mrs. Sa'adat on the
Israeli side of the border crossing at 4:30 p.m. He informed the director
that she had been waiting for the Israeli General Security Services to
interrogate her and that they had refused to allow her to call her family
to inform them of the delay and asked that he send word to them.

After 10 p.m. that same evening, she still had not met with her son in
Amman, Jordan, who was waiting to take her to the airport in order to catch
her flight to Brazil at 4 a.m. Addameer's lawyer then called the Israeli
authorities at Karamah Crossing to ascertain the whereabouts of Mrs.
Sa'adat. They refused to confirm or deny whether she was being detained or
if she was still at the border crossing.

On 22 January 2003, the lawyer unsuccessfully attempted to locate Mrs.
Sa'adat, and was told that her name was not on any lists of detainees being
held in Israeli detention centers or prisons. At 9 a.m. on 23 January,
over 40 hours after she was last seen, the lawyer was finally informed that
Mrs. Sa'adat was being held in an isolation cell at the Ohel section of
Beit El military detention center. At the time of writing, the lawyer was
still waiting to be informed as to whether or not he was allowed to visit
Mrs. Sa'adat.

Mrs. Sa'adat, 47 years old and a mother of four, is a long time women's
rights and human rights activist and was traveling to represent Addameer at
the World Social Forum, a congregation of over 80,000 social activists
meeting to discuss and strategize activities to ensure a democratic, just
world based on respect for human rights. She is the wife of the Secretary
General of the Popular Front for The Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Ahmad
Sa'adat, who was arrested without charge or trial by the Palestinian
Security Services on 15 January 2002, and then transferred to Jericho
Central Prison with five other detainees under UK-US guard as part of a
political agreement with Israel to end the siege on Arafat's Presidential
headquarters in Ramallah in May 2002. (For more information on the campaign
to release the six detainees, visit
http://www.addameer.org/paprisoners/index.html/). Mr. Sa'adat remains in
detention, despite a Palestinian High Court of Justice ruling on 3 June
2002 ordering his immediate release as he had not been charged or brought
to trial. He recently ended a 3-day hunger strike beginning 15 January
2003, to mark one year of his illegal arrest and to demand his immediate
release. His brother, Mohammad Sa'adat was also a victim of Israel's
policy of 'targeted killings', assassinated on 20 August 2002.

Addameer strongly condemns the detention of Mrs. 'Abla Sa'adat as yet
another act fueling the climate of intimidation and terror being imposed on
the Palestinian community, and in particular on Palestinian activists and
families of political detainees. This climate of terror is reinforced
through daily humiliation by the Israeli occupying forces, whether at
Israeli checkpoints, in re-occupied cities and villages in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, or within the home; by house to house raids and mass
arbitrary detention, effectively imprisoning activists and leaders of the
community, whether political, civic, social, or religious; by
indiscriminate 'targeted killings', assassinating Palestinian leaders and
innocent individuals; by forcible transfer of population through eviction
and demolition of homes in the name of settlement expansion and elusive
'security'; by the indiscriminate and unjustified use of force amongst
civilian populations on a daily basis, leading to at least one Palestinian
death every day; by the continued curfews and closures which have
essentially paralyzed development within the Palestinian community.

Addameer demands the immediate release of 'Abla Sa'adat as she has not been
charged with any crime, and holds the Israeli Authorities directly
responsible for her security and well-being. Addameer is concerned for
Mrs. Sa'adat's health as she suffers from severe back problems due to a
slipped disc. Addameer also calls on the international community to
intervene on behalf of 'Abla Sa'adat and call for her immediate release, in
addition to the release of all Palestinian detainees held by Israel without
charge or trial, and to halt its arbitrary arrest policies as a form of
collective punishment.

Letters of protest should be directed to the following:

Ariel Sharon
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister, 3 Kaplan Street, P O Box 187, Kiryat
Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91919 Fax: +972 2 651 2631
Telex: 25279 MPRES IL
E-mail: rohm@pmo.gov.il

Uzi Landau
Minister of Public Security
Ministry of Public Security (Police), Kiryat Hamemshala, PO Box 18182,
Jerusalem 91181
Fax: +972 2 584 7872

Meir Sheetrit
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice, 29 Salah al-Din Street, Jerusalem 91010
Fax: +972 2 628 8618
E-mail: sar@justice.gov.il

Eli Yishai
Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister
Ministry of Interior, 2 Kaplan Street, PO Box 6158, Kiryat Ben Gurion,
Jerusalem 91061
Fax: +972 2 670 1628
E-mail: sar@moin.gov.il

Elyakim Rubinstein
Attorney-General/Legal
Advisor to the Government
Ministry of Justice, 29 Salah al-Din Street, Jerusalem 91010
Fax: +972 2 628 5438