There are currently 2000 Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli prisons, though judging by the lack of coverage of the story in the mainstream media you'd never know it. Two of the prisoners involved are now in a critical condition, having been on hunger strike for 60 days and counting. They are protesting prison conditions, including the widespread use of solitary confinement, lack of medical treatment, and most importantly the use by the Israelis of the prisoner category described as administrative detention.
Under this particular category prisoners can be held indefinitely at the behest of the military without any charges being brought, no trial, or even so much as a hearing to be made aware of the evidence against them. Currently, over 300 Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons and detentions centers under administrative detention, including six women and six children.
According to the website of the Palestinian prisoner support organisation Addameer, 19 of the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike are being kept in solitary confinement. One of those, Ahmad Sa'adat, has been held in isolation for three years.
It is also claimed that the Israeli prison authorities are waging a campaign of punishment against the hunger strikers, which includes daily raids on their cells, the confiscation of personal belongings, cutting their electricity supply, and various other measures deemed illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Back in March Amnesty International called for the immediate release of Hana Shalabi, a female prisoner who was being held under administrative detention and was close to death as a result of the hunger strike she began 37 days prior.
The human rights organization issued a statement on Shalabi's plight.
Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the Israeli authorities to release Hana Shalabi and other Palestinians held in administrative detention, unless they are promptly charged with internationally recognizable criminal offences and tried in accordance with international fair trial standards.
Shalabi's case came to international attention. The resulting pressure brought to bear on the Israeli government led to her being released her as part of the prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas involving 1,027 Palestinian detainees in return for Gilad Shalit, who'd been held captive in Gaza after being captured during an operation by members of the Palestinian resistance on an Israeli military position in 2006. Shalit was the only Israeli being detained by the Palestinians, who are now holding no Israelis captive. In contradistinction, the Israelis currently have over 4,000 Palestinians in captivity.
Israeli prisons and military detention camps are primarily located within the 1948 borders of Israel. There are a total of four interrogation centers, as well as secret interrogation facilities, five detention/holding centers, and about 21 prisons in which Palestinians from the Occupied Territories are held. The location of prisons within Israel and the transfer of detainees to locations within the occupying power's territory are illegal under international law and constitute a war crime. Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly states that "Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein."
Most of the Palestinian Prisoners are being held in detention facilities located outside the Occupied Territories.
Physical abuse and humiliation of the detainee by Israeli forces is common. Based on numerous sworn affidavits, detainees have reported that they have been subjected to attempted murder and rape, thrown down stairs while blindfolded, as well as various other forms of physical abuse. During their arrest, detainees are often forced to strip in public before being taken into custody. Family members have also been forced to remove their clothes during military raids. Mass arrests from homes in entire neighborhoods continue to take place in the Occupied Territories during military incursions. Once bound and blindfolded, the detainee is usually placed on the floor of a military jeep, sometimes face down, for transfer to an interrogation and detention center.
Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, over 700,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel. This forms approximately 20 percent of the total Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories. Considering the fact that the majority of those detained are male, the number of Palestinians who've been detained forms approximately 40 percent of the total male Palestinian population of the Occupied Territories.
Draw your own conclusions.
Follow John Wight on Twitter: www.twitter.com/johnwight1
2 Most of the numbers if they correct which turns each time to be wrong, relate to the intafada when they were blowing ( justifiably??) our children buying pizza.
3 I was in such a jailo on my very last reserve duty. May the American jail birds have such condition ( esp in Arizona - yes we everything about you people). They make their own food, watch TV, study for degrees and discuss how they going to blow us up again.
Their 'rights' are way above what the convention requires for POW's were taken away when the free Gilad movement demanded it. Gilad was in a dark underground room with NO contact with the outside, being beaten,no meeting with the red cross.With all my understanding of the situation of these brave freedom fighters, sort of agree. ( I missed my units stint and was sent for a month to guard such a prison. Not QUIET like a Turkish prison or even an american one - I have seen on TV - the worst thing I did to them was speak yiddish - they thought I was a russian immigrant)( I wonder whether I could be tried at the Hague UN Intl court human rights
They're protesting conditions? Really? They're in prison precisely because they were "protesting" [using violence] their living conditions where ever they are from, prior to their arrest. When do they not protest? when do they own up and take accountability for their situation?
**Under this particular category prisoners can be held indefinitely at the behest of the military without any charges being brought, no trial, or even so much as a hearing to be made aware of the evidence against them. Currently, over 300 Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons and detentions centers under administrative detention **
And it's different than the prisoners kept in Gitmo how? Yet you don't whine about the US, yet you do about the palestinians.
**Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the Israeli authorities to release**
I'll take Amnesty International a bit more seriously when they start focusing on the US as well.
"Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein."
Right, did you whine about Shalit not being in Israel? As far as hamas is concerned Israel in her entirety is occupied territory.
As to the rest of your propaganda, that's precisely what it is, Israel outlawed torture years ago.
If they are guilty of something, why are so many being held without charges for so long?
It is disturbing for me - I have to keep reminding myself that they are at war with us and its better than shooting them. I once went to demonstrate against such a hearing - but I left more confused than when I came (to Nazereth court). I wish above wishes that all this warring could be over tomorrow morning!
In extraordinary acts of collective non-violent resistance to abusive conditions connected to Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory, more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners began an open-ended hunger strike on 17 April 2012, Palestinian Prisoners Day. This hunger strike is a protest against unjust arrest procedures, arbitrary detention and bad prison conditions. Prison authorities have reportedly taken punitive measures against those on hunger strike, including by denying them family and lawyer visits, confiscating their personal belongings and placing them in solitary confinement.
“I am appalled by the continuing human rights violations in Israeli prisons and I urge the Government of Israel to respect its international human rights obligations towards all Palestinian prisoners,” Falk said. “Israel must treat those prisoners on hunger strike in accordance with international standards, including by allowing the detainees visits from their family members.”
Falk noted that since the 1967 war, an estimated 750,000 Palestinians including 23,000 women and 25,000 children have gone through detention in Israeli jails. This constitutes approximately 20 percent of the total Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territory or 40 percent of the total male Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territory.
When a country claims to be democratic and better than its evil and murderous neighbors it should be held to higher standards. Syria is killing thousands of people and so are many other Middle Eastern nations but those nations are not held up as glorious examples of democracy in which the people have rights- No they are autocratic regimes and/or police states. So if Israel wants to be judged based on the same standards then it should be called what it is... ...
so let me get this straight….according to 'pen name'….
>if ure not a democracy, or don't claim to be, then it's OK to slawter ure own people in masse.
>israel should give the prisoners that tried to slawter them, all the rights that their citizens have.
>it was OK to deny gilladShalit every single 'right' he was entitled to, cause after all, he wasn't being held by a 'democracy'
pathetically laughable.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/opinion/1425-prisoners-have-the-right-to-see-parents-read-books
Also, according to their own stats, approximately 250 Palestinians are arrested or held in admin detention each month or 3,000 a year. This is out of a population of nearly 4 million people. There is no way of knowing the validity of all of these arrests but in 2006, 14 million people were arrested in the US, a little less than 5% of the total population. 3000 out of 4 million is less than one 10th of 1%.
Finally, there is an argument to be made against administrative detention, but they represent less than 10% of those being held.
read my post
from yet another Jew.
Do you mean this one?
we still live in 1984. truth means NOTHING. we lost the 1st ww for the Germans and started the 2nd. Depressing indeed. I really for, good reasons am a pacifist - but I guess its good we keep our guns clean and powder dry
As I am typing I am listening to a program broadcast every day at 4-45 on Reshet Bet, with people still searching for family lost in the Holocaust - This unfortunately is true. It is so sad to hear I usually go have coffee else where. I dont understand the inhumanity of these antisemites here.
I read it but did not have time to reply. I am not sure if I understand your first comments re: llike 1984 and we lost the first ww for the Germans. I do agree with you that I read some of the anti-Semitic posts on HP and I scratch my head and wonder what they would have done if they lived in Germany in the 1930s.
By the way, even this was not a story about the hunger strikers. It was just an opportunity to hurl a bunch of various accusations against Israel which may or may not have anything to do with how prisoners are being treated.
Engaging in a hunger strike is a method of last resort. Its a method in which a person is weighing imminent death against a perceived wrong of the strongest depth and an appeal of last resort towards justice and dignity! Have some respect for persons who are risking their lives for the simplest demands in life.
Suppose prisoners in California go on a hunger strike to protest over corwding or for what ever reason. The prisoners which include child molesters, rapists, murderers, etc. can go on a hunger strkie and I may object to the conditions that they are in but still not have sympathy for them being there for the choices that they have made.
That's bigger news than a bunch of pro-terrorists in prison deciding to not eat
Did you know more arabs were killed when the hamas took over Gaza than we caused in all the time we were there.
My earlier comment exclusively dealt with raping a stranger (according to the jailhouse reports). I stand by my earlier remarks.