Thirty Palestinian prisoners jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention have announced that they will launch an open hunger strike to bring an end to the practice on Sunday, 25 September. In a statement by the Prison Branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the prisoners going on hunger strike under the slogan, “Our Decision is Freedom,” listed their names.
The statement further noted that the Israeli occupation prison authorities are attempting to communicate or negotiate with the administrative detainees, and that they are committed to their demand to end their detention without charge or trial.
There are currently over 740 Palestinian prisoners jailed under administrative detention orders out of a total of approximately 4,650 total Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails. Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist project. Detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time on the basis of “secret evidence” denied to both the detainee and their lawyer. These orders are indefinitely renewable, with many Palestinians spending years at a time jailed under administrative detention, and neither they nor their families and communities are ever sure when they will be released, an additional form of collective punishment and psychological torture.
The first 30 administrative detainees scheduled to begin the strike tomorrow, 25 September, are listed below, with additional prisoners scheduled to join in the battle as it continues. They include community leaders like Nidal Abu Aker and Ghassan Zawahreh, who have spent years in administrative detention; French-Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender Salah Hammouri, student organizers like Zaid Qaddoumi, and a number of others:
1. Nidal Abu Aker.
2. Ehab Masoud.
3. Asim Al Kaabi.
4. Ahmed Hajjaj.
5. Thaer Taha.
6. Ramy Fadayel.
7. Lotfi Salah.
8. Salah Hammouri
9. Ghassan Zawahreh.
10. Kanaan Kanaan.
11. Ashraf Abu Aram.
12. Ghassan Karajah.
13. Saleh Abu Alia.
14. Awad Kanaan.
15. Leith Kassaberah.
16. Saleh Al-Jaidi.
17. Basil Mezher.
18. Majdi Al-Khawaja.
19. Jihad Shreiteh.
20. Haitham Siyaj.
21. Mustafa Al-Hasanat.
22. Azmi Shreiteh.
23. Muhammad Abu Ghazi.
24. Ahmed Al-Kharouf.
25. Nasrallah Barghouti.
26. Muhammad Fuqaha.
27. Tamer Al-Hajouj.
28. Raghad Shamroukh.
29. Zaid Qaddoumi.
30. Senar Hamad.
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society announced a press conference on the hunger strike on Sunday, 25 September at 12 pm Jerusalem time outside the Ofer military prison.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine and the prisoners’ struggle to join the campaign to end administrative detention and to support these valiant prisoners putting their bodies and lives on the line to resist and struggle for a liberated Palestine, through their hunger strike for freedom.
Download these distributable flyers and posters to highlight the struggle to free Palestinian prisoners:
- Poster/Sign: End Administrative Detention
- Poster/Sign: Free Hunger Strikers and All Prisoners
- Poster/Sign – End Administrative Detention (with Palestinian Flag)
1. Mobilize actions, demonstrations and creative interventions – Take to the streets to defend the Palestinian people and their resistance! As was made clear during the Unity Intifada/Seif al-Quds in May 2021, there is a vast depth of support for the Palestinian people everywhere around the world, including inside the imperialist powers. It is our responsibility to act and make it impossible to continue their support for the crimes against the Palestinian people.
2. Build the boycott of Israel – This is a critical moment to escalate the campaign to isolate the Israeli regime at all levels, including through boycott campaigns that target the occupation’s economic exploitation of the Palestinian land, people and resources as well as those international corporations, like HP and G4S, that profit from the ongoing colonization of Palestine.
