Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli jails to start open-ended hunger strike, says PPS
Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli occupation prisons will launch a mass hunger strike on June 18 in protest against Israel’s policy of administrative detention, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
A special detainees’ committee announced on Monday in a press release shared by the PPS that the Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli prisons will go on an open-ended hunger strike on Sunday, 18 June, to protest against their unlawful indefinite detention without charge by Israeli occupation authorities.
The committee was formed out of the unitary, multi-factional leadership body of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in response to the rising rate of “administrative detention” orders implemented by the Israeli occupation in recent months.
The detainees would also continue to boycott Israeli courts as a means of drawing attention to the violation of their rights, the PPS said.
The key demand of the detainees is bringing an end to the administrative detention policy and obliging Israeli occupation to respect its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, the committee pointed out as it called on Palestinian masses and CSOs to further engage in pro-prisoner activities.
This came following the committee’s announcement that its recent dialogue with the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) failed.
During its recent meeting with IPS, the committee presented its demands concerning bringing the administrative detention policy to an end, immediately releasing terminally ill novelist Walid Daqqa, 61, whose medical condition is further deteriorating due to deliberate medical negligence, lifting the penalties and other measures of collective punishment imposed on the Islamic Jihad-affiliated detainees, ending the solitary confinement of female detainees in Ramla Prison and halting other forms of violations.
The Commission pointed out that IPS and Israeli intelligence turned a deaf ear to their demands and even resorted to threats.
In October 2022, Palestinian administrative detainees went on a mass hunger strike demanding an end to Israel’s administrative detention policy last year, with dozens of detainees participating in the protest.
Last year, hundreds of Palestinian administrative detainees also boycotted Israeli court sessions for ten months, in protest against the administrative detention policy.
Since 2011, some 400 Palestinian detainees have launched individual hunger strikes, demanding their release. The longest-running strike was that of Palestinian detainee Khalil Awawdeh, which lasted 170 days.
Last month, Palestinian detainee and prominent activist, Khader Adnan, died in an Israeli prison after 86 days of a hunger strike protesting his administrative detention for the 6th time since 2012.
As of April 2023, the number of Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli occupation prisons has reached 1083, including 15 children and 3 females.
‘Israel’ routinely uses administrative detention and has, over the years, placed thousands of Palestinians behind bars for periods ranging from several months to several years, without charging them, without telling them what they are accused of, and without disclosing the alleged evidence to them or to their lawyers.
Thus, the hunger strike is a method of a non-violent resistance which the prisoners use to protect their lives and their fundamental rights and a response to the occupation racist policies which they face in the prisons.
