Protesting Israeli repression, Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons dissolve regulatory bodies

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Palestinian detainees held in Israeli occupation prisons dissolved on Sunday all regulatory bodies of all factions in protest against repressive measures taken by Israeli Prison Service (IPS).

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement today that the Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons dissolved all the regulatory bodies of all factions; this means that the IPS will have to deal with the detainees as individuals and not through the bodies representing them.

Last week, Palestinian detainees in various Israeli prisons staged a series of protests against IPS’s repressive measures taken against them. Last Monday and Wednesday, the detainees refused to take part in the security check and returned their meals as a first step of their campaign against the Israeli repression. They also organized sit-ins in prison yards.

However, the IPS responded by doubling the repressive measures, including “doubled isolation and removal of electrical devices” from prison cells, according to the PPS and “additional personnel have also been called in at different prisons.”

Thus, the detainees have decided to dissolve all the regulatory bodies.

The Supreme National Emergency Committee for Palestinian detainees, an organizational body that regroups all political factions inside Israeli prisons, has decided that detainees in Israeli prisons will embark on an open-ended hunger strike, starting September 1.

“Our battles with the Israeli occupation will continue until the liberation of land,” the National Emergency Committee for Palestinian detainees said in a statement.

Last Tuesday, the Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons announced they are preparing for new protest actions against punitive measures taken by the IPS.

The PPS noted that the Supreme National Emergency Committee for Palestinian detainees stated that the detainees, with such protest actions, seek to force IPS to halt their repressive measures and reverse all the unjust decisions they have taken in recent months against the detainees. The PPS added that Israeli punitive policies aim to impact the lives and spirits of the detainees; the goal is to target the daily life of the detainees.

The latest decision to launch protest steps came after IPS failed to respect the understandings reached last March and decided to resume the punitive measures against detainees, especially those serving life terms.

It is worth to mention that Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons have recently taken a series of actions against restrictions imposed on them by Israeli occupation.

About 650 Palestinian administrative detainees have been boycotting Israeli military court since the start of this year. The boycott includes initial hearings to uphold the administrative detention order, as well as appeal hearings and later sessions at the Supreme Court. Under the banner, “Our decision is freedom … no to administrative detention,” the detainees said their move comes as a continuation of longstanding Palestinian efforts “to put an end to the unjust administrative detention.”

In March, Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement, which represents Palestinian detainees from all the factions, announced a mass hunger strike to begin by the end of the month in protest of restriction measures by Israeli authorities implemented after the Gilboa prison break. However, the strike was called off after an agreement was reached the eve of the first day of the strike.

Such tensions came after the heroic act of six Palestinian detainees who managed to free themselves on September 6 2021, from Gilbou prison, a high-security Israeli prison, through a secret tunnel they had reportedly dug beneath the prison, and they were re-arrested later after over a week of large-scale sweep operations throughout occupied Palestine using high-tech systems.

The IPS took a set of punitive and repressive measures following Gilbou’s prison break.

That time, the detainees demanded the Israeli prisons’ administration to end its policy of repression, abuse, and arbitrary transfers, end the repressive measures imposed on the detainees, release isolated prisoners to regular sections, return detention conditions to what they were before September 6, and to end the policy of arbitrary administrative detention and stop the renewal policy for administrative detainees, among other demands.

There are now around 4550 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons, including 31 women, 175 minors, and over 700 held in administrative detention without charge or trial.