Communities Behind Bars: From Palestine to Pelican Bay

Following the Prisoners’ hunger strikes in California and in Palestine, a panel of activists and doctors from around the world discuss community responses to mass incarceration, solitary confinement and torture.

Accompanied by an exhibition about the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strikes.

Panelists:

Dr. Ruchama Marton is the founder and president of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and a practicing psychiatrist in Israel. Contributing editor of Torture: Human Rights, Medical Ethics and the Case of Israel, Ruchama has been a leading voice in Israel against torture, administrative detention, solitary confinement and doctors’ complicity.

Manuel La Fontaine is an organizer for All of Us or None, a project of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. Manuel incorporates his experience inside California prisons with his organizing efforts on the streets to shed light on inhumane prison conditions and the resistance both inside and outside.

Dr. Allam Jarrar is a physician specialized in rehabilitation medicine and one of the leaders of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, the largest non-governmental organization providing health care to people of the Palestinian occupied territory.

Dr. Terry Kupers is a psychiatrist and an expert witness in class action lawsuits about prison conditions in the U.S. He was a member of the prisoners’ mediation team during the hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison, a contributing editor of Correctional Mental Health Report and author of Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It.

Sponsored by: American Friends Service Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace, Global Exchange, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, San Francisco Friends Meeting, Middle East Children’s Alliance, CODEPINK Women for Peace, Bay Area Women in Black, Free Palestine Movement, Interfaith Peace-Builders, International Solidarity Movement - Northern California, Break the Silence Media and Art Project, Arab Resource and Organizing Center