Support Palestinian Prisoners’ Mass Hunger Strike
On 17 April 2012, Palestinian prisoners
held in Israeli prisons launched a mass hunger strike demanding an
end to administrative detention, isolation and other punitive measures taken
against Palestinian prisoners including the denial of family visits and access
to university education.
Approximately 1,200 Palestinian prisoners from all factions began an open
hunger strike on 17 April, with the campaign gaining further momentum over this
past week and additional prisoners joining daily. Addameer [Prisoner Support
and Human Rights Association] estimates that the current number of prisoners
engaged in open hunger strike is around 2,000. This number includes the 19
prisoners currently held in isolation for “security reasons.”
Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned Secretary General of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who has been held in isolation
for over three years, reported on 23 April that since the beginning of his
hunger strike on 17 April, he had already lost 6 kg.
As during hunger strikes in the past, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has
escalated its punishments of hunger striking prisoners in an effort to
undermine the campaign. Methods of punishment currently being employed against
hunger striking prisoners include attacks on prisoners’ sections; confiscation
of personal belongings; transfers from one prison to another; placement in
solitary confinement; fines; and denial of family and lawyer visits. Addameer
lawyers have been denied access to all hunger striking prisoners.
Forty prisoners who began their hunger
strike today in Ofer prison were informed that they will be transferred to
another section of the prison and will not be permitted to bring with them any
personal belongings except clothes. In Ashkelon prison, the 150 hunger strikers
are experiencing daily raids and attacks on their rooms by Israeli special
forces. In addition to all personal belongings being confiscated, the IPS also
confiscated the hunger-striking prisoners’ only nourishment: salt for their
water. Hunger striking prisoners in Nafha prison have also had their salt
confiscated, raising serious health concerns for the prisoners engaged in
hunger strike. Of the approximately 400 prisoners on hunger strike in Nafha, at
least 40 were transferred out of their sections. Hunger strikers in Nafha have
also been subjected to fines and electricity was cut in their rooms. On 23
April, six prisoners joined in the hunger strike in Naqab prison and were all
immediately placed in solitary confinement. Female prisoner Lina Jarbouni also
declared an open hunger strike on 19 April and was taken to solitary
confinement on the same day. These aforementioned measures are only a few
examples of the widespread punishments, particularly the use of transfers and
solitary confinement, currently facing the hunger striking prisoners, as an
attempt by the IPS to further isolate them from the outside world and from
other prisoners involved in the campaign.
Meanwhile, eight prisoners, including five administrative detainees,
remain on extended hunger strikes launched prior to 17 April. …
Despite the punitive measures being taken against hunger striking
prisoners, the campaign of hunger strikes continues to grow. The six female
prisoners in Hasharon who are not already on hunger strike have announced that
they will begin an open hunger strike on 1 May. Additional prisoners are also
expected to gradually join the campaign, including 120 in Ofer prison, who will
start their hunger strike on 29 April. As the mass hunger strike picks up even
more momentum, it will become that much more crucial for hunger striking
prisoners to have unrestricted access to their lawyers and independent doctors.
In light of these developments, an upsurge of action at the international
level is necessary to bring attention to the legitimate demands of Palestinian
prisoners. Addameer therefore renews its call on all political parties,
institutions, organizations and solidarity groups working in the field of human
rights in the occupied Palestinian territory and abroad to support the
prisoners in their campaign of hunger strikes.
Extract from Press release, 25
April 2012.
Addameer, Prisoner
Support and Human Rights Association. For updates on the situation see
www.addameer.org/index.php