Carrying pictures of their beloved, suffering in Israeli jails

By Yasser Al Banna, IOL correspondent

GAZA, August 14 (IslamOnline.net) – In the largest strike of its kind since the outbreak of Al Aqsa Intifada, some 8,000 Palestinian "security detainees" in Israeli jails are to go on an open-end hunger strike Sunday, August 15, to protest some of the "most terrible" Israeli repressive measures against them.

"The Zionist practices against us are much more horrific than those committed against the Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghreib prison", Palestinian prisoner Abu Khames told IslamOnline.net Saturday, August 14, over the phone.

"We will go on the strike, supported by our people and all free men, till our demands are met", he added.

Abu Khames called on all free nations and human rights groups to stand by the Palestinian prisoners in their hunger strike.

He said that the Palestinian prisoners decided to go on the strike after the Israeli practices against them reached an "intolerable limit".

"We decided to go on the strike after conditions in the Israeli jails have become similar to death and the Israeli practices are no longer tolerable."

Statement

In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net, the Palestinian prisoners said they demanded an end to their worsening incarceration situations, stopping humiliating search rounds and other repressive measures, in addition to not to force detainees to stand naked before each other and before an entire ward.

They also demanded an immediate end to the wardens storming of rooms that were usually coupled with severe beatings and nerve gas spraying.

The prisoners demands, moreover, included halting the imposition of heavy fines for trivial reasons, allowing family visitations, lifting the glass barriers in visiting rooms, ending deliberate medical negligence, moving prisoners to jails near to their hometowns, and stopping the policy of solitary confinement for long and/or indefinite periods.

The prisoners asked for the release of all female and child prisoners and until then to stop their maltreatment.

They also asked for an immediate end to the strip searches and the humiliating probing of the prisoners' private parts when they are moved from one prison to another or before carrying them to courts.

Amnesty International said in its annual report in May that at least 1,500 Palestinians were held in administrative detention without charge or trial.

The report said that "allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees were widespread," and slammed the Israeli army for carrying out "forcible transfers" of at least 18 Palestinians from their native West Bank to the Gaza Strip following administrative detention without charge or trial.

They Can Starve To Death

Palestinian Minister for Prisoners' Affairs Hesham Abdul Razeq said the strike is the largest since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000.

He mocked at the Israeli reaction toward the forthcoming Palestinian strike, saying it was a customary Israeli arrogance.

Israeli officials had earlier refused to comply with the demands of the Palestinian prisoners.

“I categorically reject the demands of the terrorists and they should know that contrary to what has happened in the past, they will get nothing,” Israeli Public Security Minister Tzaci Hanegbi told reporters, according to Israeli daily Ha'aretz.

“For my part they can starve themselves to dearth, we will give nothing, and this strike will pass away as another unremembered incident,” he added.

Israeli prison commissioner Yaakov Ganot, for his part, told reporters that if the movement went ahead, the prisoners "will lose all their privileges, family visits will be canceled and the prisoners will be deprived of television and radio," Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

Solidarity Campaigns

In a show of solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners' strike, several campaigns will be staged to all over the Palestinian territories.

The higher committee to follow up the prisoners’ affairs said it will launch a national and popular solidarity program with the detainees on strike starting Sunday, launching it with a press briefing at the media center in Ramallah.

That will be followed by setting up sit-in tents during the hunger strike of the prisoners in the headquarters of the International Red Cross societies and the centers of the cities nationwide.

On August 18, the national solidarity day with the prisoners, massive rallies will take to the streets from sit-in centers in all the Palestinian provinces.

On August 25, a rally of Palestinian lawyers will go to the sit-in centers. On August 26, a massive rally will head off from Al-Friends field in Ramallah with the participation of the grand son of Al-Mahtma Ghandi, “Aron Ghandi".

On Saturday 27/8 torch and candle rallies will head off from the sit-in centers, all participants will embark a hunger strike on Sunday in the sit-in centers.

There are around 8000 Palestinian detainees in 22 Israeli prisons, detentions and concentration camps. Large numbers of women and children are among them.