RAMALLAH, May 19, 2017 (WAFA) – As around 1,600 Palestinian prisoners Friday entered a critical phase on the 33rd day of their hunger strike in Israeli jails, Palestinians made calls to continue solidarity marches and sit-ins across the West Bank.
The Media Committee of the Freedom and Dignity Strike called on Palestinians to organize solidarity marches and to crowd in sit-in tents and public squares in various West Bank districts.
According to a press statement, Palestinians would crowd in sit-in tents in al-Hussein Stadium in Hebron city, Manger’s Square in Bethlehem, Beit Dajan town, east of Nablus, Aqabet Jaber refugee camp, southwest of Jericho, Ramallah and al-Bireh, and Jenin.
Some 1,600 out of 6,500 Palestinians held by Israel launched a mass indefinite hunger strike on April 17, only consuming salt and water during the strike, without additives or supplements, to pressure Israel to improve their prison conditions.
Initially called for by Fatah-affiliated prisoners, most notably imprisoned senior Fatah official Marwan Barghouthi, the strike has been joined by other prisoners from various Palestinian political factions.
The hunger strikers‘ demands are basic and can hardly be described as political. They include reinstating bimonthly family visits, better medical treatment, and the right to education.
Hunger strikers are also calling for an end to Israel’s widely-condemned policy of "administrative detention", which allows the imprisonment of individuals on "secret evidence" for without trial or charge for six-month intervals that can be renewed indefinitely.
Many Palestinians have gone on hunger strike to protest their administrative detention, raising fears that Israel would force-feed them, a practice that violates human rights standards. Some have managed to pressure Israel into releasing them, although some have been re-detained.
K.F.
