A group of Palestinian youth in Ramallah has closed down the International Committee of the Red Cross office in Ramallah on Wednesday morning, May 28, protesting the ICRC’s silence on Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for over 35 days. Their action can be followed on #ICRCClosed on Twitter, and their images may be found here: http://ow.ly/user/StopAdMedia
Our prisoners will not become martyrs
Thirty-five days have passed since the Palestinian prisoners and administrative detainees launched their battle of the empty stomachs from the Zionist colonial entity’s prisons.
Thirty-five days have passed as the hunger strikers continue to suffer from beatings, cell raids, and solitary confinement, and forcible transfer, threats of force-feeding and deliberate medical neglect at the hand of the oppressor as a punishment for protesting the colonial policy of administrative detention.
Thirty-five days have passed with silence from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other international organizations who are responsible for ensuring human dignity and rights of Palestinian prisoners as prescribed by their mandate.
Silence is complicity.
We, as Palestinian youth, refuse complicity as our brothers and sisters cling to life in the illegal Zionist entity’s prisons, and we refuse to remain silent as the ICRC evades its responsibility to the Palestinian prisoners.
We hold the ICRC fully and directly responsible for the lives of the prisoners, especially the hunger strikers and demand the following:
- A clear statement that administrative detention as practiced by the Zionist entity is in violation of the Geneva conventions and the practice is considered a war crime and crime against humanity due to its widespread and systematic use and the widespread torture against the prisoners
- Demand the Zionist entity to release all administrative detainees, as they are held without charge indefinitely
- Protect the Palestinian prisoners and detainees, especially those on hunger strike
- Maintain the Palestinian detainees’ right to hunger strike as a form of resistance in their struggle for justice and basic rights guaranteed by international human rights and humanitarian law
- Hold the Zionist entity accountable in international courts for the inhumane practices against the hunger strikers in an attempt to break their strike and spirit
We, as Palestinian youth, express our deep concern about the lives of our fellow countrymen, who are fighting in their battle of empty stomachs for our collective freedom as a dispossessed and displaced nation. This is the first of an escalating series of direct actions against those who continue to be complicit in the Zionist entity’s war crimes until the recognition of the prisoners’ rights and demands.
Occupied Ramallah
28 May 2014
