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Vol. 76/No. 22      June 4, 2012

 
Palestinian political prisoners
end hunger strike
 
BY SETH GALINSKY  
Palestinian political prisoners held in two dozen Israeli jails ended their hunger strike May 14 after the government agreed to end solitary confinement and improve conditions. Between 2,000 and 2,500 prisoners refused food at the high point of the strike, which began April 17.

Demonstrations celebrating the victory took place in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and inside Israel itself.

More than 4,600 Palestinians, mostly from the West Bank as well as 340 Arab citizens of Israel, are held as “security prisoners” in Israeli jails. More than 300 of them are under administrative detention without charges or the right to a trial.

“Under administrative detention there are no indictments, no evidence,” Amjad Al-najar, a leader of the Prisoner’s Club, said in a phone interview from Hebron in the West Bank. “The military commanders just say ‘this man is dangerous’ and they arrest him.” Administrative detentions can be extended every six months indefinitely.

Under the agreement, 19 prisoners who had been held in solitary confinement were released to the general prison population. For the first time since 2007, family members of 450 prisoners from Gaza will be allowed to visit.

The Israeli government also stated it would discuss other improvements, including in health care, enrollment in university correspondence courses and access to lawyers.

As part of the deal, the Palestinian prisoners agreed that their leaders would not organize from within the prisons in support of armed actions against the Israeli government. Many of the prisoners are supporters of Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

“Most of the prisoners from the West Bank were tried in Israeli military courts,” Sahar Francis told the Militant by phone as she was waiting to go through the Israeli checkpoint between her office in Ramallah in the West Bank and her home in Jerusalem. Francis is director of Addameer, the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

The prisoners “don’t trust that the Israeli judges, civilian or military, will treat them in a fair way,” said Francis. “They figure they will end up with a higher sentence if they go to trial, so most of the cases end in plea bargains.

“Not more than 400 or 500 of the 4,600 prisoners are accused of activities that caused injury or death,” continued Francis. “The majority are in prison because of their political and even humanitarian activities. It’s enough to work in a health clinic run by Hamas to be accused of terrorism, or for a child to throw a stone during a demonstration.”
 
 
Related articles:
Prisoners in Va. conduct hunger strike against abuses, solitary
Solidarity with prisoners’ struggles!  
 
 
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