Today marks Palestinian Prisoners Day, a day that also serves to mark the ongoing perserverence of the Palestinian peoples relentless struggle for peace, justice, freedom and dignity. It is also used as a means to illustrate the Israeli army's excessive and often lethal use of force against peaceful and unarmed demonstrators throughout the West Bank and Gaza, A day for Palestinian people and supporters of justice and liberation for Palestine all over the world express their support to Palestinian political prisoners of freedom.
Commemorated since 1974, when the first , Mahmoud Hizazi was freed in a prisoner exchange with the Palestinian resistance, Palestinian Prisoner Day was founded to remind the world of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners imprisoned in Israeli occupied prisons or detention centers without charge or trial for extensive periods of time. It is a day to demand their freedom.
In Palestine, political imprisonment is a central feature of Israeli Apartheid with over 20% of Palestinians facing imprisonment in their lifetime.The number of Palestinian detainess increases as Israeli occupying forces continue to wage campaigns of arbitrary arrests and detentions against thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails continue to be subject to wide-ranging violations of their rights and dignity.
Since Israeli began its military occupation of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip in 1967, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been abducted and imprisoned by Israel. This figure represents 20% of the total Palestinian population and 40% of the Palestinian male population. It also includes 10,000 women imprisoned since 1967 and more than 200 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons as a result of torture and lack of medical care. Furthermore, 8,000 Palestinian children have been arrested since 2000.
Under international law and conventions, including the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (the Third Geneva Convention), the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966, Israel is legally bound to exercise its powers for the benefit of the occupied area and its people.
Palestinian Prisoner Day was founded to remind the world of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners imprisoned in Israeli prisons or detention centers without charge or trial for extensive periods of time. The number of Palestinian detainess increases as Israeli occupying forces continue to wage campaigns of arbitrary arrests and detentions against thousands of Palestinians.
Investigations have revealed that prisoners are regularly subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including poor detention conditions, in violation of Israel's obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law.
The number of Palestinian prisoners at Israeli occupation prisoners reached around 5000 prisoners as of April 2020. This number also included 432 administrative detainees, 41 female detainees, 7 PLC members and 183 child detainees among them 20 under the age of 16, according to the latest figures released by the Israel Prison Service.
The number of young children detained between the ages of 12 and 15 was 20. In the middle of January, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) transferred 33 child detainees from Ofer prison, inside the occupied West Bank near Ramallah, to Damon prison, located inside Israel near Haifa. International humanitarian law and international criminal law prohibit the transfer of persons part of an occupied civilian population outside of an occupied territory, including prisoners. When a child is detained inside Israel, their parents face undue obstacles, like permits and checkpoints, when trying to visit.https://www.dci-palestine.org/israel_forces_transfer_palestinian_child_detainees_amounting_to_war_crime?utm_campaign=detention_bulletin_april2020&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dcipalestine
Detention facilities and prisons in Israel have long been criticized for overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and inadequate access to healthcare. Classified separately to regular prisoners, Palestinians in Israeli custody are subjected to depressed conditions, which, as the highly contagious COVID-19 spreads through Israel, puts them at increased risk. The majority of Palestinians in Israeli custody are defined as “security” prisoners by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), which entails special restrictions that regular criminal prisoners do not face, such as the denial of phone calls. With the recent emergency regulation to combat the spread of coronavirus prohibiting visits of attorneys and family members to prisons, the ban on phone calls means that thousands of Palestinians in custody are isolated from their families and legal representative
As COVID-19 spreads rapidly throughout the world, people in prisons and detention centers are extremely vulnerable. Prisoners live in cramped conditions, often without access to basic sanitation, and this is especially true for Palestinian child detainees in Israeli prisons. We must act now to demand Israeli authorities release all Palestinian child detainees to keep them safe from COVID-19.https://www.dci-palestine.org/israel_must_release_all_palestinian_child_detainees_amid_covid_19_pandemic?utm_campaign=detention_bulletin_april2020&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dcipalestine
There are also reports of security inmates being held eight per cell, rather than the regular four persons per cell,a discriminatory measure with direct impact on Palestinian prisoners’ ability to ward off the coronavirus, as its contagiousness increases with proximity. Also, the health instructions and guidelines concerning the virus are being distributed only in Hebrew, a practice that serves to jeopardize the health of Palestinians as Arabic-speakers.
It should be pointed out that Israel's system of arrest and detention is an integral part of Israel's apartheid system, under which Palestinians are governed and oppressed under a separate set of laws than Israelis. It combines human rights abuses against individuals with a system of discrimination specifically designed to restrict and repress the Palestinian people and their unrelentless struggle for freedom.
These are some of the reasons why I support the Palestinian prisoners, and continue to support the international communities efforts to ensure the immediate and effective measures to ensure that Israel releases all unlawfully detaned prisoners, and ensures that conditions of arrest are consistent with international human rights and humanitarian law.Despite a multitude of guidelines and recommendations issued by the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and UN human rights bodies and experts on the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in detention, conditions in Israeli prisons continue to deteriorate with the Israeli occupying forces having failed to adequately mitigate and prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has
stated: “Now, more than ever, governments should release every person
detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners
and others detained simply for expressing critical
or dissenting views.”
Every day, Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of struggle, facing torturous interrogation , nighttime raids, solitary confinement, and relentless attacks on their rights at the hands of Israeli occupation forces. These attacks are aided by international and corporate complicity, support and profiteering, on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, we must demand the immediate release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Israeli prisons, particularly those who are more susceptible to the pandemic, including those who are chronically ill, members of vulnerable groups, and those held under administrative detention in contravention of international law and join a renewed call to the international community to take immediate action before it is too late to ensure the safety of Palestinian prisoners and to hold the occupying power accountable for its violations of the prisoners’ rights at all times. The international community, including states, the United Nations, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, must take action to ensure Israel’s respect for the rights of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, allowing communication with family members and lawyers, and to heed WHO recommendations by providing access to adequate healthcare, a hygienic environment and allowing for distancing among inmates and prison personnel.
Every day, Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of struggle, facing torturous interrogation , nighttime raids, solitary confinement, and relentless attacks on their rights at the hands of Israeli occupation forces. These attacks are aided by international and corporate complicity, support and profiteering, on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, we must demand the immediate release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Israeli prisons, particularly those who are more susceptible to the pandemic, including those who are chronically ill, members of vulnerable groups, and those held under administrative detention in contravention of international law and join a renewed call to the international community to take immediate action before it is too late to ensure the safety of Palestinian prisoners and to hold the occupying power accountable for its violations of the prisoners’ rights at all times. The international community, including states, the United Nations, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, must take action to ensure Israel’s respect for the rights of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, allowing communication with family members and lawyers, and to heed WHO recommendations by providing access to adequate healthcare, a hygienic environment and allowing for distancing among inmates and prison personnel.
Further information and resources available at:
- Addameer (Prisoner Support & Human Rights Association)
- Samidoun (Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network)
- Take Action here http://palestinecampaign.eaction.online/prisoners
Palestinian Prisoner's Day 2020
