As of 5 August 2021, 15 Palestinians continued their hunger strikes in Israeli occupation, 14 of them protesting their administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial — and one, Mohammed Nuwarra, protesting his ongoing solitary confinement. On 5 August, two detainees joined the hunger strike: Akram al-Fasfous, joining his brother, Kayed al-Fasfous, who has been on hunger strike for 22 days.
Sign the grassroots international petition: change.org/
Their other brother, Mahmoud al-Fasfous, also jailed without charge or trial, suspended his hunger strike earlier on Thursday after a severe deterioration of his health. Amjad Nammoura, of Dura near al-Khalil, also joined the hunger strike on Thursday in protest of his administrative detention.
Earlier, three Palestinian prisoners suspended their hunger strikes: Alaa el-Din Ali and Maher Dalaysheh, both Palestinian refugees from Jalazone camp near Ramallah, and Guevara Nammoura, the Palestinian professional football player who has competed on the Palestinian national team. Ali and Dalaysheh suspended their strikes after an agreement to set an end date for their administrative detention. Nammoura also suspended his strike after an agreement to conclude his administrative detention before the Israeli military court on 5 August.
While the occupation military court confirmed his detention on 5 August, reducing it to three months instead of four, it did not verify that this was a final order, which leaves open the possibility that the detention order could be renewed.
Administrative detention orders are issued for up to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable. As a result, Palestinians routinely spend years at a time jailed without charge or trial in Israeli occupation prisons on the basis of so-called “secret evidence” denied to both the detainee and their lawyer. Administrative detention was first introduced to occupied Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist occupation in order to suppress Palestinian resistance.
Fellow Palestinian prisoners have joined protests inside Israeli occupation prisons in support of the detainees on hunger strike. A series of rolling solidarity strikes have been announced, with the first participants including Bara’a Issa from Anata in Jerusalem, Taha al-Tarwa from Taffouh in al-Khalil, Malik al-Sa’ada from Halhoul and Qasim Masalmeh from Beit Awwa, all held in Ramon prison.
Israeli occupation forces have escalated their repression targeting the hunger strikers, including throwing them into isolation, storming and ransacking their cells, and repeatedly transferring them from one prison to another, a physically and mentally exhausting and taxing process, especially as the detainees begin to experience severe health effects. The Israeli prison system has also delayed in issuing permits to lawyers to visit the hunger-striking detainees, attempting to deprive them of communication and representation.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine to take action to support these Palestinian hunger strikers and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom, for their own lives and for the Palestinian people. They are confronting the system of Israeli oppression on the front lines, with their bodies and their lives, to bring the system of administrative detention to an end. Take these actions below to stand with the hunger strikers and the struggle for liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea!
Download these signs for use in your campaigns:
- Poster/Sign: End Administrative Detention
- Poster/Sign: Free Hunger Strikers and All Prisoners
- Poster/Sign – End Administrative Detention (with Palestinian Flag)
TAKE ACTION:
Sign the petition!
Independent grassroots international activists have launched a petition in support of the hunger strikers and to end administrative detention. Show your support by signing on – in addition to taking action in person! Sign here: change.org/
Protest at the Israeli Embassy or Consulate in Your Country!
Join the many protests taking place around the world — confront, isolate and besiege the Israeli embassy or consulate in your city or country of residence. Make it clear that the people are with Palestine! Send us your events at [email protected].
Take to the streets: Organize a protest in solidarity with Palestine!
Take to the streets and join the actions on our full list of events, which is constantly being updated as new actions are announced! Organize your own if there is none in your area, and send us your events at [email protected].
Boycott Israel!
The international, Arab and Palestinian campaign to boycott Israel can play an important role at this critical time. Local boycott groups can protest and label Israeli produce and groceries. During Ramadan, Israeli dates from stolen Palestinian land are marketed around the world while Israel attempts to force Palestinians from Jerusalem, demolish homes, and imprisons thousands more. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism.
Demand Your Government Sanction Israel!
The racist, settler colonial state of Israel and its war crimes against the Palestinian people are enabled and backed extensively by the over $3.8 billion each year given to Israel by the United States — targeted directly to support the Israeli occupation military killing children, women, men and elders throughout occupied Palestine. From Canada to Australia to the European Union, Western governments and imperialist powers provide ongoing diplomatic, political and economic support to Israel as well as selling billions of dollars of weaponry to the settler-colonial state. Meanwhile, they also purchase billions of dollars in weaponry from the Israeli state. Governments in league with imperialist powers, such as in the Philippines, Brazil, India and elsewhere, also buy weapons and “security” services — all “battle-tested” on the Palestinian population. Call your representatives, MPs, political officials and demand your government sanction Israel now, cut off all aid, expel its ambassadors, and stop buying and selling weapons!
