[Pnews] Palestinian Prisoner’s Day 2014

[Prisoner News]

  Palestinian Prisoner’s Day 2014

/http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=673

Occupied Ramallah, 17 April 2014 /*– *On the occasion of Palestinian 
Prisoners Day Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association 
salutes the continued struggle of the over 5,000 Palestinian political 
prisoners currently being held in Israeli prisons. Every year Israel 
arrests thousands of Palestinians in an attempt to suppress any 
resistance to its continued occupation and colonization, the result 
being the imprisonment of approximately 800,000 Palestinians since 1967.
Since the beginning of 2013 12 Palestinians have been killed during 
arrest operations by Israeli Occupying Forces, while another three have 
died as a result of medical neglect and another of torture.  As of 1 
March 2014 <http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=672> there were 
5,224 Palestinian political prisoners being held in Israeli prisons. 
These include 183 administrative detainees; 210 children; 21 female 
prisoners; and 11 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The situation of the prisoners continues to deteriorate as they face a 
wide range of violations against them. Both detainees and prisoners 
continue to suffer from ill-treatment and torture on a systematic basis, 
including children. Since 1967 71 prisoners have died as a result of 
torture, the last being Arafat Jaradat who was tortured to death in 
February 2013.
Inside the prisons the prisoners are regularly subjected to night-raids 
by Israeli Special Forces. During these raids the prisoners are severely 
beaten and have their personal property destroyed. In 2013 alone 
Addameer documented 175 raids, which is an increase of 75% since 2011. 
In addition to these raids the prisoners face other violations such as 
the denial of family visits; the imposition of fines; solitary 
confinement; and severe beatings.
Given the lack of appropriate medical care provided by the Israeli 
Prison Service there are currently more than 800 sick prisoners in need 
of medical treatment. Of these 193 suffer from some sort of chronic 
disease; 25 suffer from cancer; 85 suffer from a variety of 
disabilities, whether physical or psychological; and 120 are in 
immediate need to surgery. Since 1967, 53 prisoners have died as a 
result of medical neglect.
The last twelve month also witnessed the continuation of a number of 
individual hunger strikes. In 2013 alone 38 prisoners launched hunger 
strikes for various reasons including their continued administrative 
detention 
<http://www.addameer.org/files/Administrative%20Detention%20Summary.pdf> 
and their re-arrest after being released in prisoner exchange deals. 
Currently Ayman Tbeisheh is the only prisoner on hunger strike and has 
been striking for 48 days. An extremely worrying recent development is 
proposed legislation before the Israeli Knesset which would allow for 
the reintroduction of force feeding of hunger strikers.
Many prisoners who had previously been released under prisoner exchange 
deals have been rearrested under Article 186 of Military Order 1651 
<http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=573>. Those rearrested are 
brought before a special Israeli military committee which is empowered 
to re-impose the remainder of their original sentence, based on 
completely secret evidence.
On Palestinian Prisoners Day 2012 Palestinian civil society called for a 
campaign against the private security company G4S 
<http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=460> because of its complicity 
in the Israeli occupation. G4S is heavily involved not only in the 
illegal Israeli settlements and Annexation Wall but also in many of the 
prisons and detention centres where Palestinian political prisoners and 
interrogated, tortured and imprisoned. Over the last couple of years the 
campaign has made significant progress as G4S continues to lose contacts 
around the world as a result of its involvement in the Israeli occupation.
Earlier this month Addameer and the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and 
Sanctions National Committee launched a campaign calling for the Bill 
and Melinda Gates Foundation to divest its $120m stake from G4S. The 
campaign has been endorsed by over 140 Palestinian and international 
organizations <http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=670> and to date 
almost 11,000 signatures have been collected through an online petition 
<http://www.addameer.org/gatesdivest>. Addameer also recently released a 
G4S campaign video, 'G4S: Securing War Crimes 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8u7yBhaUMI>’.
In March 2014 a cross-party European Parliament fact-finding mission 
<http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=622> visited the 1948 
Territories and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to investigate the 
situation of the Palestinian political prisoners. During the visit the 
delegation met with Palestinian and Israeli civil society organizations 
and other interested parties, as well as visiting Ofer military court. 
The delegation was prohibited from visiting any of the prisons which 
holds Palestinian political prisoners. To date the fact-finding mission 
has still to release its report.
Addameer urges the development of a national strategy to protect all 
Palestinian political detainees and prisoners held in Israeli prisons 
and ensure their release. This is particularly relevant given the recent 
signing of 15 international treaties and conventions, including the four 
Geneva Conventions, by the Palestinian Liberation Organization. This 
national strategy is necessary in order to counteract Israeli attempts 
to use the prisoners as political bargaining chips, which most recently 
was evident in its refusal to release the last group of 30 pre-Oslo 
prisoners 
<http://www.addameer.org/files/Negotiations%20Fact%20Sheet_%20Final.pdf> 
on 29 March 2014. Unless such a strategy is developed Israel will 
continue to violate the prisoners’ rights and manipulate them for 
political purposes.
Addameer also emphasizes the importance of the Boycott, Divestment, 
Sanctions <http://www.bdsmovement.net/>campaign which is the primary 
international tool to help bring an end to the occupation. The campaign 
continues to make massive strides and we encourage people of conscience 
across the world to join the campaign to support the Palestinian people 
in their quest for freedom and self determination.
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20140418/44c382b3/attachment.htm>