The following statement was issued on May 1, 2012 by the leadership of the hunger strike in Israeli prisons, following on Statements No.1 and 2, highlighting the denial of lawyer visits, medical care and the confiscation of salt:
Our steadfast Palestinian people….
We are moving resolutely to secure our rights, and we are in this battle of the empty stomachs in order to achieve victory. We hold to our stubborn hunger to defend our dignity against the usurpations of the prison management, and reflect the determination of all of our struggling people, all of our martyrs, to achieve our basic rights, end the crime of isolation, and put an end to the arrogance and aggression of the jailers.
Our Palestinian people…
We are exposed to the worst kinds of unprecedented abuse and aggression in a desperate and failed attempt to break our will. We emphasize the following points:
First, lawyers’ visits to prisons have been blocked in an attempt to isolate us and cut us off from the outside world, to practice their crimes silently away from the spotlight and outside the view of human rights and legal institutions. Where are you, the Ministry of Prisoners? We appeal to you, to act immediately, for lawyers to go on a status of alert and go to the courts, especially the Supreme Court, to stop these practices.
Second, the management of the Prison Service has refused required medical examinations required for the strikers unless they break their strike, which led to the decision to boycott the clinic here. We call on you to expose this in the public and media.
Third, the management of prisons are preventing prisoners from having salt, and engaging in repeated inspections in a barbaric campaign to confiscate any amount of salt they might find.
Oh, masses of our people – we emphasize that this will only strengthen our determination to uphold our humanity, even if we give martyrs to achieve all of our just demands.
The Higher Committee of the Leadership of the Prisoners’ Struggle
The Fifteenth Day of the Strike
May 1, 2012
