As Palestinian prisoners are entering their 20th day of hunger strike on the Strike of Dignity and Freedom, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have announced they will join the strike in the coming several days, even as the Palestinian prisoners’ movement has issued a new statement urging action to protect the prisoners’ lives at this critical moment.

Given the lack of attention to the demands of the prisoners and the extreme danger faced by striking prisoners today, an increasing number of prisoners will join the strike to pressure for acceptance of the strike’s basic demands, reported Asra Voice.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement issued a statement, urging Palestinian, Arab and international action for the strikers as new repressive measures were announced.  “This trend carries with it preparation for a targeted crime against the prisoners with the intention of murder. It is clear that we are in the next stage now, that of repression, abuse, and attempts to break the strike through threatening the lives of the prisoners. The ongoing preparations indicate that there is a decision taken against the prisoners to their deaths at the hands of a gang of fascists in Tel Aviv. This is what makes this confrontation an extraordinary moment. Dealing with it requires vision, programs and activities that rise to the level required,” wrote the prisoners, urging “besieging the embassies of the occupation” around the world.

Approximately 1,500 Palestinian prisoners launched their hunger strike on 17 April, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, for a series of basic human rights demands including the right to family visits, to pursue higher education, to proper health care and medical treatment, and an end to solitary confinement and imprisonment without charge or trial. The strike has now continued for 20 days; an increasing number of strikers, including prominent leaders, have joined the strike.

Five prisoners held in Ofer prison have joined the strike on Friday, 5 May: Ghalib Warid, Ahmad Batajneh, Shadi Shalaldeh, Ashraf Zaben and Zakaria Kaabiyeh. They announced that 21 total prisoners were newly joining the strike in Ofer as of Friday evening.  The strikers have faced sharp repression, including frequent and arduous transfers, isolation and solitary confinement, confiscation of all personal belongings, denial of access to recreation, denial of legal visits and family visits. The abusive transfers continued inside Israeli jails: Nael Barghouthi, the longest-held Palestinian prisoner; imprisoned journalist and former long-term hunger striker Mohammed al-Qeeq; and Fayez Hamed were all transferred from Ohli Kedar prison to isolation in Ashkelon prison.

Ma’an News reported that Gilad Erdan, the far-right Israeli Minister of Public Security, has ordered even heavier sanctions against Palestinian prisoners, including levying fines of up to NIS 1,000 ($270 USD) on hunger strikers, cuts to legal visits and rejecting the prisoners’ choice of lawyers (following the decision of the Israeli supreme court on Wednesday, 3 May after Palestinian lawyers’ petition; prior to this, nearly all legal visits had been blocked); the frequent use of repressive units and attacks on prisoners.  Erdan was the promulgator of Israeli legislation to force-feed Palestinian prisoners and is reportedly considering bringing doctors from abroad to forcibly feed Palestinian prisoners in a “field hospital” in the Negev desert prison.

On Friday morning, 5 May, one of these repressive units in the Israeli Ramon prison beat Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Abu Rayyan, reported the Handala Center for Prisoners and Former Prisoners, highlighting the increased tension in the prison as a result. Abu Rayyan is an ill prisoner who suffers from a foot disease; his foot is threatened with amputation and he is severely in need of follow-up medical care and treatment.

Marwan Barghouthi, a prominent Palestinian leader of the hunger strike and a member of the Fateh central committee, is currently isolated in Jalameh prison. The prison administration has repeatedly attempted to evade negotiating with Barghouthi on the strike demands, which has been rejected by other Palestinian prisoners, including imprisoned Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat, who joined the strike on Thursday, 4 May along with other prominent Palestinian leaders.

Issa Qaraqe of the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission reported on Friday, 3 May that Barghouthi’s cell measures one meter by two meters, has no windows, and that he has been prevented from recreation and thus has not seen the sun from the beginning of the strike. Qaraqe also said that Barghouthi has lost 10 kg in weight (approx. 20 lbs) and is facing serious health dangers. On Thursday, 4 May, despite the limited decision of the Israeli Supreme Court to prevent the Israeli Prison Service from denying legal visits from a few approved lawyers to hunger strikers, Barghouthi was refused a legal visit with lawyer Tamim Younis.

Held in isolation in Nitzan prison, hunger-striking prisoner Nasser Abu Srour reported during his first legal visit that his salt had been confiscated on the first day of the strike and that some prisoners had been reliant on water only without salt for 15 days before gaining access to salt again.  Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike consume only water and salt to protect their lives and heath during the strike. This has inspired numerous actions and videos around the world labeled the #SaltWaterChallenge in support of the striking prisoners.

Events and mobilizations continued in Palestine and internationally in support of the prisoners. In Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, demonstrations rallied on Friday to support the Palestinian prisoners, urging their liberation and victory in their hunger strike.

In Palestine, Israeli occupation forces attacked multiple demonstrations for the prisoners; in al-Khalil, three Palestinian young people were seized by occupation forces while others were injured by rubber-coated metal bullets; dozens were affected by tear gas inhalation. In Beit Ummar, one Palestinian youth was wounded by live bullets fired by Israeli occupation forces; in Nablus, among the injured were three paramedicss. In Nabi Saleh, four Palestinians were injured and dozens overcome by tear gas inhalation as Palestinian youth demanded freedom for the prisoners. In Bil’in, Israeli occupation forces seized the head of the village council, Basil Mansour, along with Ahmed Abu Rahma during the weekly demonstration in support of the prisoners.

Internationally, protests and demonstrations around the world took place to support the prisoners on Friday, 5 May, including in Dublin, Waterford, Edinburgh, Manchester, Brussels, Rotterdam, Toronto, New York and Fort Lauderdale. On Saturday, 6 May, numerous international actions are planned, including a demonstration in Istanbul, Turkey, organized by Samidoun and BDS-Turkey. National days of action are organized in England and Scotland in support of the Palestinian prisoners, as well as a day-long hunger strike action in Berlin, Germany. Protests will take place in London, Birmingham, Whitstable, Norwich, Sheffield, Oxford, Halifax, Lewisham, Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Inverness, Aberdeen, Uppsala, Dublin, Newry, Derry, Limerick, Berlin, Cologne, Stuttgart, Paris, and Auckland, among others.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges ongoing and escalated action to support the strikers at this critical moment.

1) Organize or join an event in support of the hunger strikers. Protest outside your local Israeli embassy, consulate or mission, or at a public square or government building. You can drop a banner or put up a table to support the prisoners and their strike. See the list of current international events here, and add your own: send your events and actions to us at samidoun@samidoun.net, on Facebook, or use the form to tell us about your actions. Building this strong list of actions around the world will help to underline the global support for Palestinian political prisoners in their struggle for freedom, and the struggle of the Palestinian people for liberation. You can download flyers and posters for your events to support the prisoners among our resources. 

2) Hunger Strike for Justice! Join the Palestinian hunger strikers to support their demands with a symbolic one-day hunger strike in your community or on your campus. Tell us about your solidarity strike at samidoun@samidoun.net, on Facebook, or use the form.

3) Call your government officials and demand action.  Call your foreign affairs officials – and members of parliament – and urge action for the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.

Call your country’s officials urgently:

• Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop: + 61 2 6277 7500
• Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland: +1-613-992-5234
• European Union Commissioner Federica Mogherini: +32 (0) 2 29 53516
• New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully: +64 4 439 8000
• United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson: +44 20 7008 1500
• United States President Donald Trump: 1-202-456-1111

Tell your government: Palestinian prisoners are on hunger strike for their basic human rights – for family visits, medical care, and freedom from imprisonment without charge or trial. Governments must pressure Israel to recognize the prisoners’ demands!

4) Take action on social media! Support the hunger strike on social media. Take the #SaltWaterChallenge! Drink water and salt on video and add a message of support for the hunger strikers. Share and reshare information about the #DignityStrike.

5) Build the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign! Join the BDS Movement to highlight the complicity of corporations like Hewlett-Packard and the continuing involvement of G4S in Israeli policing and prisons. Build a campaign to boycott Israeli goods, impose a military embargo on Israel, or organize around the academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

The Palestinian prisoners’ movement engaged in the Strike of Freedom and Dignity within Israeli prisons issued a new statement on 6 May, the 20th day of open hunger strike.

The strike was launched on 17 April, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, by 1500 Palestinian prisoners and has been joined by a series of prominent leaders of the prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian national movement. Marwan Barghouthi, member of the Fateh central committee, launched the strike; leaders from all Palestinian political movements, including Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat, PFLP leader Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Islamic Jihad leader Zaid Bseiso, Hamas leaders Hasan Salameh and Abbas al-Sayyed, DFLP leader Wajdi Jawdat, People’s Party leader Bassam Kandakji and many others, including the longest-held Palestinian prisoners Nael Barghouthi and Karim Younes.

The strikers have a series of demands, including an end to the denial of family visits, the right to appropriate health care, the right to education in prison and an end to solitary confinement and “administrative detention,” imprisonment without charge or trial.

The following statement was released today in Arabic by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement on behalf of the strikers and is translated into English below. We urge its widest distribution and the implementation of its calls to action, including the escalation of our international organizing and solidarity to build support around the world for the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike and their just demands for dignity and freedom. (Click here for translation in Italian)

In the name of God, the most merciful

“Those to whom hypocrites said, ‘Indeed, the people have gathered against you, so fear them.’ But it merely increased them in faith, and they said, ‘God alone is sufficient for us and he is the best disposer of affairs.’” – the Holy Qur’an

Statement issued by the Palestinian Prisoners’ National Movement
Follow-Up Committee for the Hunger Strike

As the Dignity Strike of the prisoners’ movement enters its 20th day, it is the beginning of a stage of extreme danger to the lives of the prisoners on hunger strike. This day also marks a specific point in the context of the targeting of the strike by the fascist occupation government, which announced yesterday, led by Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan, that work is being done to recruit doctors from another country to carry out the crime of feeding the prisoners forcibly and that this heinous crime will take place in the Ramle prison clinic, which we have always experienced as a place of isolation and torture. We are also threatened with repression and murder by the al-Matsada repressive units, and informed of their permanent readiness for possible developments and confrontations inside prison.

This trend carries with it preparation for a targeted crime against the prisoners with the intention of murder. It is clear that we are in the next stage now, that of repression, abuse, and attempts to break the strike through threatening the lives of the prisoners. The ongoing preparations indicate that there is a decision taken against the prisoners to their deaths at the hands of a gang of fascists in Tel Aviv. This is what makes this confrontation an extraordinary moment. Dealing with it requires vision, programs and activities that rise to the level required. We emphasize that the government of the fascist murderers and security forces did not yet understand well our decision for 50 leading prisoners to join the strike, and that if this message has not yet reached the Zionist gangs, they will be well aware of it in the coming days.

In this context, we emphasize that any attempt to implement the crime of forced feeding against any prisoner on hunger strike will mean for us a project of the execution of the prisoners. We will deal with it on that basis and we will turn the prisons into sites of confrontation with our bare bodies, armed with our faith, our will, our determination and our confidence in our people, the Arab and Islamic nation and the forces of freedom and justice in the world to stand by our side. This is a battle of freedom in confrontation of injustice, persecution and oppression, a battle to preserve and fight for human values and concepts in the face of the barbarity and racism represented by the occupation and its agents.

We are aware of the seriousness of the current situation prepared by the fascists in the Tel Aviv government. In this context, we call for:

1) After 20 days of strike and the entry of the prisoners into a dangerous and fateful phase, we call today for a week of outrage shared by all sectors of the Palestinian people in the homeland and in exile, a week in which our people direct their lava, their volcanoes of anger to the sites of confrontation with the occupation. This also means the continuation of marches, protests and sit-ins, and marches to sit-in tents with the prisoners in Palestinian towns and villages, and besieging the embassies of the occupation throughout the world.

2) We demand the Palestinian Authority immediately end security coordination with the occupation. These are days of national confrontation and action.

3) We call for the launch of a wider international campaign by unions of Palestinian and Arab doctors, warning of the dangers of doctors agreeing to participate in the crime of forcibly feeding the prisoners.

4) We urge action to pursue and prosecute the criminals of the occupation prison administration and intelligence agencies, and the Minister of Internal Security, the terrorist Gilad Erdan, for judicial action everywhere in the world, with the announcement of a list of names, officials and ministers of the enemy to prosecute them as war criminals.

5) We call for the formation of a leading Palestinian national framework with the membership and participation of all of the national and Islamic forces and national Palestinian figures to lead and follow up the actions of struggle for the Palestinian prisoners on the Palestinian, Arab and international level. We emphasize the need for the follow-up committee in occupied Palestine to lead in forming this framework. The Palestinian people everywhere they are have a critical role to play in promoting the struggle of the prisoners. This confrontation deserves to be represented and supported by a national and unified framework.

6) We turn to the Palestinian young men and women, students, workers, the forces of revolutionary initiative who hold the title to the future, and we urge them to participate creatively in struggle and to play the role required of them. You have never disappointed the prisoners for one day, and you will continue to confront and struggle, and we rely on you always.

In conclusion, the coming days will carry new developments from us and as we confront the policy of occupation, we will confront this policy of execution approved by the occupation government against us, the prisoners of the armed resistance and the daily popular struggle.

“And those who do wrong will come to know by what overturning they will be overturned.”

Glory to the martyrs and the revolution continues. We march in the footsteps of victory!

Your brothers, comrades and mujahideen
Palestinian Prisoners’ National Movement
6 May 2017
20th Day of the Strike of Freedom and Dignity