Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei endorses the 'empty stomach' battle

Additional Reporting By Hamdi Al Husseini, IOL Correspondent

CAIRO , August 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As an open-ended hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails entered its third consecutive day, all Palestinian cities and towns join Wednesday, August 18, the “Empty Stomach” protest at the appalling and inhuman prison conditions.

A mass rally in solidarity with the hunger strikers will also be held in front of Beir Al-Saba’s prison (Beershaba) Wednesday, the London-based Al-Quds Press news agency reported Tuesday, August 17.

Citizens of the West Bank city of Tulkarm continued Tuesday their hunger strike in a tent before the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Some 1,550 of the 3,800 inmates inside detention centers run by the Israeli prison service began their strike Sunday while others held in military-run prisons were also refusing their food although exact figures were not available.

Palestinian Chief Judge Taysir Rajab Al-Tamimi and Archbishop Atallah Hana, the spokesman for the Orthodox Church in Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem ), joined Monday, August 16, the strike.

The president of the Palestinian prisoners' association, Issa Qaraqea, said Monday that jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghuthi was among the prisoners who were taking part in the fast.

Arab Israelis

A Palestinian prisoner flashes a V sign from a cell inside the Hadarim prison

Arab Israelis have also decided to translate their heartfelt sympathy into action.

Amir Mukhwal, the chairperson of the federation of the NGOs operating inside the UN-demarcated Green Line, told IslamOnline.net over the phone that a sea of Arab Israelis would took to the streets of Haifa in solidarity with the prisoners.

“They will hold their mass rally under the slogan of ‘Freedom for Prisoners,” he told IOL over the phone.

“We want to get their massage cross, particularly to international prisoner rights organizations.”

Kamal Al-Khatib, the deputy head of the Islamic Movement inside the Green Line, said the movement will not turn the prisoners down.

“We fully rally behind our brothers inside the Israeli prisons and support their just demands,” he said.

Chief among the demands are mandatory visiting rights as well as an end to humiliating body searches and the removal of glass barriers in visitation rooms.

For his part, Hussein Abu Hussein, a lawyer for several Palestinian prisoners, said a group of Arab Israeli solicitors plans to file a lawsuit against the Israeli government, obliging it to improve prison conditions and lift recently-imposed restrictions on the prisoners.

Member of Knesset Jamal Zahalka said the prisoners’ sufferings are high on the agenda of Arab Israeli MKs.

International Action

Meanwhile, Palestinian Minister of Negotiations Saeb Erekat said Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority will ask the United Nations General Assembly to hold an emergency session to discuss the deplorable conditions of the prisoners.

He said the PA has also appealed to the international quartet committee, which comprises the United States , the European Union, Russia and the UN, for an immediate intervention.

Continuing their careless and provocative policies, Israeli prison officers set up Monday barbecues to tempt Palestinian prisoners into abandoning their strike and breaking their will.

The occupation officials were hoping that the psychological warfare tactics would derail the protest by thousands of prisoners.

The Israeli government said Saturday, August 14, it did not care if the detainees starved to death, imposing even more restrictive measures on the security detainees.

More than 8,000 Palestinians are detained in Israel , some are held with no charges leveled or terms set.

The Washington Post reported June 16 that the accounts of physical abuse of Iraqis by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad are similar to the Israeli army techniques in torturing Palestinian detainees.

It cited cases of Palestinian detainees painfully tortured by their Israeli interrogators and placed in stress postures similar to those imposed on Iraqi detainees.