The Palestinian Prisoner’s Day that falls on 17 April is commemorated this year, amidst a brutal campaign by Israeli occupation authorities against the whole Palestinian people, against the freedom fighters held captive in Israeli jails.
It is estimated that there are over 4,400 POWs still in Israeli occupation’s prisons, including 33 women and girls, about 160 children under the age of 18, and over 500 administrative detainees, including 8 elected MPs. At least 600 POWs suffer from terminal or serious illness, such as cancer, and partial or total paralysis. The Israeli treatment of Palestinian POWs and administrative detainees may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity if properly investigated by ICC.
Israel continues to deny Palestinian POWs and detainees their basic rights guaranteed by international conventions and norms, and continue its repressive measures and practices that include solitary confinement, torture and the use of force that has escalated significantly since the escape of 6 Palestinian POWs from the high-security prison center of Gilboa.
Among the many brutal measures Israel applies against the Palestinian people, the escalation of arrests, including children and women, the continued systematic torture of prisoners and detainees, the continuation of the policy of collective punishment of their families, and the lengthy retention of 8 bodies of prisoners who passed in prison largely due to medical negligence.
Following the attempted escape from the "Freedom Tunnel", last September, the Israeli occupation authorities intensified their harsh measure of abuse and oppression against Palestinian POWs and detainees. They moved a large number of them, including the six prisoners who had managed to escape from Gilboa prison to solitary confinement cells. The policy of collective punishment against Palestinian POWs and detainees escalated, prompting dozens of detainees to engage in individual hunger strikes to reject their administrative detention. In early January, the administrative detainees announced a collective stand declaring a firm and comprehensive boycott of all judicial procedures related to administrative detention in Israeli courts.
Last February, Palestinian POWs in Israeli jails announced that they would go on a comprehensive strike on 25 March if the prison administration’s restrictive measures that narrowed their basic rights including food restrictions, were not lifted. This serious threat, showing the unity and strong will of all Palestinians in Israeli jails, alarmed the prison administration to call off the measures and respond to the prisoners’ humanitarian demands, which led to the suspension of the strike.
The European Alliance in Defense of Palestinian Prisoners, as it continues its support to the struggle of all the men and women in Israeli jails and detention centers until they regain their freedom and legal and human rights, declares its absolute condemnation of the policy of repression and abuse practiced by Israeli occupation authorities against all prisoners, as it violates international humanitarian law, the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949.
The coalition, as it is continuing its activities, is determined to internationalize the issue of Palestinian POWs, in order to achieve their freedom and that of all detainees in Israeli jails and restore their dignity and legitimate, legal and humanitarian rights, including their right to treatment and appropriate health care for the sick ones, the right to education and other basic rights guaranteed by international humanitarian law.
Freedom for all sick prisoners, freedom for all children, women, and the elderly!
Freedom for administrative detainees!
Freedom for all those who sacrificed their own freedom for the sake of their people’s freedom!
European Alliance in Defense of Palestinian prisoners
Brussels, 17-4-2022
Time: 1:00 p.m. UTC
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