by Fiona Bowden, PSC Executive
During the last few weeks PSC have regularly taken part in the twitter campaign for Palestinian hunger striker Samer Issawi via our @PSCupdates account. The main focus of the campaign was to get the notice of mainstream media, who had ignored the issue completely, despite the fact that Samer has been on hunger strike since 1\8\12. Latterly the campaign has been broadened to include others on long term hunger strike (Ayman Sharawana, Jafar Azzidine, Tarek Qa’adan).
There is a new hashtag issued each day, and we have “trended” worldwide i.e. been the topic most people are tweeting about, on many occasions. We have been partially successful in that there have now been some news reports of what is probably the longest ever hunger strike.
Today Samer went to court and was sentenced to 8 months imprisonment, backdated to the date of his arrest 7\7\12, which means he would be due for release 6\3\13, however there are still charges outstanding from Military court. Samer’s sister Shireen confirmed on her Facebook page (shireenessawi) that Samer will remain on hunger strike until his release. If you would like full details of Samer, Addameer have produced a profile detailing his arrest and detention.
To take part in the twitter campaign, @samerissawi1 the new hashtag will be tweeted at 7pm UK time.