April 17th is Palestinian Prisoners Day – a date to remind the public that thousands of Palestinian are imprisoned in Israeli jails under extremely difficult circumstances and are exposed to various forms of torture and inhumane treatment. A new campaign has been launched to raise awareness about the issue. The campaign asks people (among other things) to “wear black on the day and tell people why they are doing it”.
The Campaign’s objective, as explained by Naji Mohamed, Action Palestine’s campaigns officer is to “shed light on the plight of Palestinian prisoners which is a very crucial issue in the Palestinian cause but is very rarely talked about”.
Palestine student societies will organise actions and events about the issue of student prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centres. The campaign which is supported by several organisations, including, NUS Black Students Campaigns, PSC and FOSIS alongside others, is calling on people to use the logo of the campaign as their facebook profile picture on the 17th of April. Also a petition has been placed on the Downing Street website asking the Prime Minister to apply maximum pressure on the Israeli government for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Palestinian prisoners from the Occupied Territories, hundreds of whom are under the age of 18, are tried under military courts and sentenced by military judges. Defendants are often convicted on secret evidence and are given serve disproportionately long sentences.
In what is referred to as “administrative detention” the Israeli army is allowed to arbitrarily arrest and detain Palestinian civilians for periods of six months. After this period has ended the sentence can be extended without explanation. These loose guidelines allow the Israeli army to exercise broad and unchecked powers against the Palestinian population.
Naji added that Action Palestine as a student group is especially concerned with this issue as students in Palestine are the most severely affected by it. The Israeli army often launches waves of arrests against university students, particularly first year students, simply to collect information on them. The Israeli army has recently arrested eight Birzeit University students and one employee but none of them have been charged.
Ruqayyah Collector, NUS Black Students’ Officer explained that given the current conditions within these prisons this Prisoners Day is partiularly significant. In addition to the poor treatment and inhumane conditions under which Palestinians are held Palestinian prisoners at multiple detention centres have recently suffered direct attacks. These attacks often occur when Israeli forces attempted to transfer large numbers of prisoners from one detention facility to another. By moving prisoners around every few months Israel seeks to disrupt supportive relationships that form amongst prisoners.
Ruqayyah stressed that it has become of huge importance that the people of the world pressure their governments to hold Israel accountable for its violation to international law, particularly after the failure of the international community in protecting the rights of the Palestinians.
*END*
- To contact Action Palestine please email info@actionpalestine.org
- To view the campaign pamphlet please visit: http://www.actionpalestine.org/temp/Palestinian%20Political%20Prisoners.doc
