Prisoners declare steps of solidarity with the strikers start Tuesday
20/01/2013
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Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails declared on January 20, 2013 that they will escalate solidarity actions in support of their fellow prisoners on hunger strike beginning on Tuesday.
The prisoners called on human rights organizations, Palestinian organizations, and international solidarity groups to elevate the solidarity movement with the strikers, noting the declining health of hunger striker Samer Issawi.
The prisoners said that they will begin to return meals as a warning to the prison administration and demand action to meet the strikers’ demands, denouncing the ongoing delays in addressing the strikers’ demands at all levels of the occupation system, from the Prison Services to the courts to the security services. The prisoners noted that any harm that befalls the prisoners will have major and dangerous consequences and that the prisoners’ movement will not allow prisoners to be killed by disregard for their health and their demands.
The prisoners demanded an end to unjust military laws, and in particular the use of administrative detention and the re-arrest of former prisoners, including the reimposition of their former sentences.
Four hunger strikers remain at the present time: Tareq Qaadan, Jafar Ezzedine, and Yousef Shaaban Yassin, all held under administrative detention, arrested on November 22, 2012 in a mass arrest following the ceasefire in Gaza; they have been on hunger strike since November 27, 2012 – and Samer Issawi, a re-arrested former prisoner, on hunger strike since August 1, 2012.