We received the following from the International Group to Break the Chains (the media committee that follows the Strike’s Central Leadership Committee):
Statement Number 8, from the Strike’s Higher Leadership Committee
In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful
“If God is on your side, no one can defeat you” (Quran verse)
When we stand united and have a strong will, the arm must beat the stick, hunger and pain must beat the jailer’s dominance and arrogance, and as God says:
“God has blessed believers with his grace,” “We have granted you a great conquest,” and “God has made you a great victory.” To our free people inside Palestine and in exile and diaspora, and to all the free people of the world who raised their voices against oppression until it retreated, against the occupiers’ tyranny until they were defeated as they kneel when confronted by our pride and defiance, and signed the document of dignity that included:
First, the Higher Strike Committee commits that resistance work will not be conducted by the resistance fighters in solitary confinement after their release from solitary confinement, in particular military work from inside the prisons. In exchange for this commitment, the enemy entity and its General Security Service (Shin-Bet, Shabak), the General Intelligence and the Prisons Service, must execute the agreements it has made with the Egyptian brothers and the Palestinian leadership that include:
1. Releasing all solitary confined detainees out of solitary confinement within 72 hours from the time of this agreement and transferring them to general prison population.
2. Ending all illegitimate bans of visits to the prisoners from Gaza, and arranging this directly after the agreement is signed.
3. Ending all illegitimate bans of visits to the prisoners from the West Bank, and starting to arrange this directly after the agreement is signed.
4.Immediately starting to improve living conditions of the detainees in prisons through the formation of a committee that will continuously follow up, including a Shabak member and will meet with the Strike Higher committee periodically over time.
5. Administrative detention details:
a. About the six brothers who have been on strike for 2.5 months, which is the most important issue: Thaer Halahleh, Bilal Diab, Hassan al-Safadi, Omar Abu Shalal, Mahmoud Sarsak, and Jafar Izzedine:
After long talks that began Saturday evening and lasted until Sunday morning between the Higher National Committee members Jamal al-Hour and Juma’a al-Tayeh, and lawyer Jawad Boulos on one side, and the Shabak judicial counselor, Shabak General Intelligence, General Prisons Service Director (via direct contact) and a number of officers on the other side, it was agreed that these six brothers will be released on the day their current (previously renewed) time ends without any renewals in any case or circumstance with an Egyptian guarantee from General Nader al-Assar, representative of Egyptian intelligence.
b. Enforcing limits on the Shabak so that it can’t renew any administrative detainee’s time unless it gives material evidence to the court that proves the detainee guilty, or after interrogating him/her, and providing evidence to his/her lawyer that proves what was shown to the court after the court sees the evidence.
c. Egyptian brothers, led by the Intelligence represented by brother Nader al-Assar, pledged to follow up with the administrative detention issue until it’s solved. They also pledged to follow all issues including daily humanitarian conditions and problems of the prisoners’ movements inside Zionist jails.
To our heroic nation – men, women, elders, children, leaders and masses, especially the sons and daughters of the prisoners movement who took on this heroic battle, those who make Palestine proud when it knows it has loyal children and free people who can uproot mountains with their will, those freed prisoners who showed us solidarity and support in the sit-in tent in Gaza and everywhere, and all the free people of the world,
We present you this victory after the battle of dignity that we believe has restored our dignity and an important part of our rights, saving 6 human souls that were very close to death, putting an end to the torturous policy of solitary confinement, putting an end to the horrific isolation of prisoners from their families, and many humanitarian issues related to life inside the jails.
Finally, we all salute, and praise, everyone who contributed to forcing the occupiers to kneel and achieving this victory, and carving it into the walls of history. This includes our revolutionary nation inside and outside Palestine that rose like never before, and the free people who rose up around the world to call out in the name of our rights.
Your brothers,
The Higher Leadership Committee
May 16, 2012
