Bethlehem – Ma’an exclusive: the State of Palestine is aiming at fulfilling its obligations arising from its accession to the Convention Against Torture (CAT), while human rights organizations are keenly working on ensuring the prevention of any possible violations, while also adapting laws to conform with international standards.

Helmi Araj, Executive Director of the Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights “Hurryyat,” confessed to Ma’an about the gap existing between the current circumstances and the obligations that the State of Palestine needs to meet following its accession to CAT.

Araj blamed the rift between Fatah and Hamas that is negatively affecting the current status if human rights in Palestine where citizens are being arrested all over, but this process and situation remain proportionate to the political situation.

Other challenges facing Palestine are concerned with the law and legislations. Araj told Ma’an that the Palestinian legislations are in grave need of adaption and advancement for it to be able to meet the obligations facing Palestine as of its membership in the United Nations and its accession to the international treaties and conventions.

The laws in force in Palestine are outdated and the Jordanian Penal Code (1960) accredited in Palestine does not regard torture as a felony but as a misdemeanor which poses challenges for Palestine’s accession to CAT. To resolve the issue midst the paralysis of the parliament, the High National Committee for the Development of the Palestinian Government’s Legislative Plan was formed upon a presidential decree to meet the obligations facing Palestine upon its accession to the international treaties.

concerning the absence of parliament, Araj commented saying: “in the absence of a functioning parliament many obvious and tangible challenges erupt, but when need proves necessary for us to meet our obligations as a state there will always be a way out through a presidential decree by president Abu Mazen. We need to buy time and continue our legal battle in prosecuting the deeds of the occupation.”

According to Araj, there has been a positive development in the performance of the Palestinian security bodies and agencies. They have responded to the requests of the human rights organizations and scheduled regular visits to the detention centers and prisons, but the situation is far from ideal he added.

He affirmed that the meetings with the security bodies have resulted is an agreement of cooperation concerning the following up of complaints and the strategies to adopt. The security bodies admitted the willingness to receive complaints, and agreed that in case the human rights organizations find the reports unconvincing they can thus send them to the media for publishing. What is crucial to them is to have a fair revision of the complaints, and a fair evaluation of the work of the agencies eliminating false accusations.

He added: “there exists an obvious cooperation with the security services – the General Intelligence, the Preventive Security Services, and the Civil Police Force – and they all affirmed torture to be a despicable crime, but they admitted that any available cases are individualistic and are treated appropriately through surveillance and prosecution as torture is a crime forbidde3n internationally and does not lapse by prescription.”

Concerning the Gaza Strip, Araj affirmed that many organizations member of the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council are working in the Gaza Strip documenting and performing a monitory role, issuing and publishing the concerned statements and reports. We are up to date with the circumstances of the Strip due to the objectivity of their work, and because we believe that the Palestinian human rights are indivisible.

By: Karim ‘Asakrah

Acting upon the resolutions of the national conference held on 25/02/2015, the Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights “Hurryyat” launches a national campaign against the Israeli policy of banning travel as a means of opposing this policy gravely damaging the lives of tens of thousands of citizens of different strata, violating the basic human right of citizens to travel and to leave any country including their own and to return to their country at any time; a right guaranteed by the International Bill of Human Rights and the Universal Declartation of Human Rights (article 13), along with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (article 12, paragraph 2), and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 (article 35).

Moreover, the occupation authorities are posing strict restrictions on the liberty of movement and mobility between the governorates, mainly between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, preventing the Palestinians from practicing their right to worship, health, education, work, and social communication.

This silent crime practiced systematically since the early days of occupation as an arbitrary measurement of collective punishment demands a national and international movement to make the world understand the negative effects of this crime, and to put into action the international effective legal tools to put an end to this policy.

To insure the success of the campaign, Hurryyat Center calls upon the National and Islamic forces, the governmental and non-governmental organizations, and those affected from the policy to play an active role in it by forming specialized committees in the governorates, organizing events and activities, documenting cases banned from travel, and gathering signatures for a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and a copy to the international concerned authorities to urge them commit to their responsibilities and force the occupation state to respect the rights of citizens to travel, and their liberty of movement and mobility.

In addition to the legal nature of the campaign, Hurryyat Center aims at opening the horizons of the campaign to welcome a larger popular enrollment along with a governmental representation to ensure its effectiveness and continuity, and achieve its desired goals.

The Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights (Hurryyat) highly appreciates the preparations taking place for the realization of the Second Conference of the European Alliance in Defense of Palestinian Detainees titled “The Conference of Martyr Ziad Abu Ein.” The conference will take place in Berlin on the 30th and the 31st of the current month to combine the European and Palestinian efforts in supporting and advocating the cause of the prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons.

Hurryyat considers this conference to be of considerable importance where it has become an annual ritual combining the efforts of the Palestinian and Arab communities along with the solidarity movements supporting the Palestinian cause. They aim at transmitting the voice of prisoners and their message to the whole world as fighters of freedom with a national and political cause, fighting for the freedom and independence of their people.

Hurryyat looks forward to the outcomes of this conference, praising the keen interest in realizing it at this time and place, and wishes it a great success for its support to the struggle of the prisoners’ movement, and the fair struggle of our people for the right to return, freedom and independence.

For Palestinians, 2015 marks the 67^th year of forced displacement from, and within, their ancestral homeland. This ongoing Nakba (‘catastrophe’) continues to be perpetuated through Israel’s denial of the Palestinian refugees’ Right of Return, the right to self-determination, and various other Israeli policies, which give rise to forced displacement, including forcible transfer as a grave breach of international law. These policies are framed within the wider gamut of perpetual human rights violations being committed on both sides of the green line (across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel).

During the summer of 2014, Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip – more than 75 percent of whom are refugees – were subjected to a 50-day Israeli aerial bombardment and ground assault. At least 2,215 Palestinians were killed, with the homes of 108,000 more destroyed or severely damaged, whilst the already crippled civilian infrastructure of this besieged enclave received further extensive damage. At the peak of the assault, 520,000 Palestinians were internally displaced inside the Gaza Strip, accounting for 34 per cent of its total population.

Inside occupied East Jerusalem and so-called ‘Area C’ (accounting for more than 60% of occupied West Bank land), Israel pursues a policy of forcible transfer of Palestinians by way of – inter alia – unlawful land appropriation, home demolitions, denial of residency, restrictions on land access, and extensive settlement expansion. This multitude of grievous rights abuses is conducted against a backdrop of discrimination, harassment and violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers and security services alike, and reflected in Israel’s rapidly advancing plans to forcibly transfer Palestinian Bedouin communities on the Jerusalem periphery to urban townships in the Jordan Valley.

Yet this widespread Palestinian suffering is not limited to the borders of Mandate Palestine, but extends to the millions of individuals who make up the international Palestinian Diaspora. Of particular concern is the fate of those in Syria, with UNRWA finding that half a million Palestinian refugees have been directly affected by the country’s ongoing conflict. Many of these refugees will now have experienced secondary or tertiary displacement, whilst the level of human suffering for residents of Yarmouk Camp in Damascus has escalated wildly following extreme violence and the failure of the international community to ensure the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid and assistance.

These abhorrent developments, along with the predictable failure of US-led ‘peace talks’ in 2014, highlight the necessity of providing a durable solution to Palestinian refugees which is based upon the just application of international law, rather than political bargaining. The continued failure to deliver to Palestinians the full protection to which they are entitled under international law – centered around their inalienable right to return to their ancestral homes, unequivocally codified in UDHR Article 13, UNGA Resolution 194 and UNSC Resolution 237 – must be addressed as a matter of

extreme urgency. For as long as the current status quo is maintained, and international protection is absent, Palestinians remain condemned to a fate of continued acute hardship and suffering.

Avenues through which to pursue the just application of international law and, by extension, the promotion of durable, rights-based solutions, are already in place. Alongside diplomatic efforts at the international level to demand Israeli adherence to all applicable legal instruments, states and international civil society alike must also support and fully participate in mechanisms such as United Nations Independent Commissions of Inquiry, and the investigations of the International Criminal Court. The strength of these processes lies not just in their respective potential to promote accountability and deliver justice, but also in their contribution to a wider movement towards legally-rooted solutions for the Palestinian people.

Accordingly, we, the undersigned members of the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council, make the following recommendations:

• That the international community genuinely strives to secure international protection – including durable solutions – for Palestinian refugees, and primarily, their Right of Return and to self-determination.
• That the international community takes all measures to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations under IHL and IHRL and calls on Israel to cease those policies and practices which adversely affect the protected population. The international community is thus reminded that forcible transfer amounts to a grave breach of IHL, and as such, States must not recognize the ensuing situation as lawful, nor render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation. The International Community should further call for immediate cessation of such activities and seek guarantees of non-repetition and reparations.
• That the PLO makes concerted efforts to press concerned states and international agencies to meet their responsibilities, particularly with a view to fulfilling their obligations relating to non-refoulment, and non-discrimination.
• That the international community supports endeavors by international mechanisms aimed at securing justice and accountability, including the UN Commission of Inquiry and the ICC.
• That the international community significantly strengthens efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance and protection in accordance with international standards to Palestinian refugees and IDPs, particularly to those besieged in Gaza and Syria.

The Palestinian security services summoned and arrested nearly 20 former and current students from Bir Zeit University, north of Ramallah, who belong to the Islamic Bloc, after the Bloc’s victory in Student Council Elections on 22 April 2015. According to monitoring and documentation from PHROC organizations, such arrests and summons came in the backdrop of the Islamic Bloc’s victory over the Student Youth Movement (the Martyr Yasser Arafat Bloc). The detainees were taken for investigation and questioned on the Islamic Bloc’s activities at the university, the reasons for its victory in the elections, evaluating the electoral process, and the reasons for the loss of the Student Youth Movement. PHROC organizations documented cases of two students who suffered from acts of ill-treatment, which may amount to torture, during their interrogation and detention. These acts included: being put into “Al-Shabeh” position, where individuals stand with their hands raised and legs spread for long hours; being beaten on their legs; and strangling.

Since 26 April 2015, the Preventive Security Services have summoned by phone and through other means a number of current and former students from Bir Zeit University to the security headquarters. This included the representative of the Islamic Bloc, Jihad Imad Il Dein, taken without an arrest warrant from the Office of the Public Prosecutor, as legally required. During the subsequent days, a number of students were released while other students where subjected to repeated summons. Two students and a former coordinator are still in custody.

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council strongly condemns the summons and detention by the Preventive Security Service against students from the Islamic Bloc at Bir Zeit University for their student activities, and:

1. Affirms that these acts are in violation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to participate in student political movements, which are constitutionally guaranteed for Palestinians and are in accordance with international human rights standards.
2. Demands that the Palestinian Authority take measures to protect student activities in Palestinian universities, including freedom of political life, formation of peaceful groups, and participation in student elections.
3. Calls for an investigation into violations documented by PHROC organizations committed by the security services, including the illegal detention and torture and ill-treatment of students, and that those involved in the commission of these acts will be held accountable and brought before the competent judicial authority.
4. Demands that Palestinian security forces respect the constitutional and legal guarantees related to the detention of citizens in order to preserve their human dignity.
5. Confirms obligations made by the State of Palestine with the ratification of international covenants, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture, the need to respect these conventions and enforce them within their legal mandate.

The Center for the Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights (Hurryyat) condemns the reimprisonment of 73 ex-detainees liberated in the Shalit Swap Deal “the devotion of the free,” and condemns the sentencing of 45 of them including Neal Barghouti, Samer Essawi, Mahdi Al-Assi, and Khalid Makhamra. This operation marks a blatant violation of the terms of the deal, and challenges the will of the Palestinian people and its leadership. It also oversteps the initiatives of the Republic of Egypt who fostered this deal, and flagrantly violates international conventions.

The practices of the occupation authorities still violates the prisoners’ movement and their right to freedom, exploiting their cause as a bargain or for political blackmail.

Hurryyat added that the discriminatory laws practiced by the occupation are part of a larger unjust historical context thrust upon the Palestinian people, including the prisoners. A wide popular and official movement is thus needed in all its political, diplomatic and legal dimensions to expose the occupation policies and urge the international community along with the United Nations to undertake their moral and legal commitments to the cause of prisoners. Upon the UN recognition of Palestine as a non-Member Observer State, this need becomes more essential in pressuring Israel into annulling the oppressive laws of the occupation authorities issued against the prisoners; denying their right to immediate release while under international Humanitarian Law are supposed to be ‘protected persons’. This entails many aspects including humanitarian arrest circumstances, proper health care, release of critical health cases, in addition to prohibition of arbitrary administrative detention and the release of all administrative prisoners.

The Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights

Palestinian Prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons comprise an essential fraction of our people; they gave up their youth and sacrificed their freedom for the rights of their people. Due to the Israeli measures, they were deprived of all their rights including their right to basic and higher education. Against these Israeli measures contradicting every human right stating the right of every person to education, and in light of the violations to the Geneva Conventions against the treatment of prisoners, the prisoners decided to educate themselves. The prisoners innovated ways to educate themselves and their fellow prisoners, they also published many writings in different fields. As the rights of prisoners should be the responsibility of their community and their state both during their imprisonment and release, official institutions headed by the Ministry of Education should take the cultural and academic level and circumstances of prisoners into consideration. This will enable them to invest in their acquired knowledge during their imprisonment, and help evaluate their academic publications fairly according to their academic evaluation.

The Palestine Coalition for Education affirms the rights of prisoners who are liberated and those still imprisoned in the occupation prisons as follows:

1. Advocating the movement demanding the right of prisoners to education, and supporting their work in order to achieve these rights.

2. Demanding the positive approach of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to take responsibility for these demands, and demand calling the proper attention to the cause through serious and responsible dialogues. Liberated prisoners, teachers and academics should participate and provide insights about the implications of education for prisoners to help offer them the proper techniques that will enable them practice their right to basic and higher education.

3. Assessing the literary, academic and scientific works of prisoners in accordance with objective assessment criteria taking into consideration their deserved level.

4. Fully supporting liberated prisoner Esmat Mansour in his campaign “Prisoners’ Right to Education.”

5. Forming a committee consisting of scholars, academics and teachers to set the assessment criteria for evaluating the works and compositions of prisoners.

The Palestine Coalition for Education reaffirms its constant support to the right of prisoners to education, their right to invest and expand their compositions and writings, and their right to fair academic assessment. The Coalition also affirms its alignment in the struggle of prisoners to support their retainment of their right to education.

The Palestine Coalition for Education – Palestine

Prisoner Rateb Hreibat, Detainee representative of the Ramla Hospital Prison, stated that after the death of liberated prisoner Jaafar Awad, sick prisoners are sensing the danger threatening their lives and are waiting for their close martyrdom any moment even after their release. They believe that even after their release they will already be half alive and are speculating about the term of their stay in these graves! They have only one wish in this life now, not to be martyred away from their family and loved ones.

The prisoner addressed his cry and the cry of all sick prisoners to all the concerned parties whether officially or personally, to raise their concern towards their cause. He called for a political rally in a time where no tangible action is being offered to the cause of the sick detainees. He stated: “we are suffering tragic circumstances, we are constantly in pain, and the treatment they offer us has not changed since 13 years, it is only painkillers.”

These details have been covered by Ibtisam Al-Anati, attorney of the Center for the Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights, in her visit for the sick prisoners in the Ramla Hospital Prison. The patients include: Mansour Mewqada, Nahed Al-Aqra, Khalid al-Shawish, Motaz Obeido, Iyad Radwan, Mohammad Salaymeh, Shadi Daraghmeh, Anan Jallad, Ashraf Abu alHuda, Saleh al-Titi, Mustafa Balut, Hassan Haddad, Mahmoud Abu Osba’, Rateb Hreibat, Abdul Fattah Hoshyeh, Mo’tassem Raddad, and Yousif Nawajaa’.

In his description of the Ramla Hospital Prison, Hreibat affirmed that the conditions are extremely poor; the space is tight and is not fit for 17 sick detainees who mostly move on a wheel chair. The health conditions of prisoners is deteriorating as they also suffer psychological consequences. They are calling upon all the prisons and detention centers to stand up by their side and demand either the return of the sick prisoners to their former prison departments where it is more convenient, or their transfer to civil hospitals.

During her visit, attorney Al-Anati met with three sick detainees who shared their pain:

Prisoner Mohammad Mahmoud Abdul Razeq Salaymeh from Jerusalem / Ras Al-Amud. Arrest Date 6/3/2015. Birth Date 28/7/1993. Health Condition: was shot with live ammunition in his right and left arms, his back, and his leg when arrested. He is moving on a wheel chair. He reported an improvement in health and that he was able to walk for concise periods of time. He takes painkillers whenever necessary.

Prisoner Anan Abdul Raheem Jallad from Tulkarm, born in 14/7/1962. Health Condition: suffering from a state of permanent amnesia, and is psychologically tired. He underwent a proctocolectomy during his previous years in prison as he suffered enterorrhexis, and also had a surgery in his foot due to coagulation.

Al-Anati stated having difficulty in conversing with him as he had deficiency in attention and was not able to remember anything not even the date of his arrest or the circumstances. Jallad could not remember the types of medication he is currently taking, and seemed

psychologically drained and in a miserable situation. In light of his poor conditions, Al-Anati demanded an exceptional act to release him.

Prisoner Shadi Ishaq Younis Daraghmeh from Qalandia Refugee Camp, arrested in 7/8/2014 suffering from an injury in his spinal cord which caused him partial paralysis, in 2007. He had one of his kidneys removed and is not taking painkillers. His health condition demands physiotherapy for his vertebral column, and although he has asked for it multiple times, his demands were ignored like many other demands reflecting a general negligence of the health conditions of the detainees.

Prisoner Daraghmeh confessed having stayed for 59 days of interrogation. After the 40th day, jailors attacked him with metal instruments injuring his foot and causing a bleeding in his intestines. During his transfer to court he was on his wheel chair and as he was crawling to exit the “bosta” prison security vehicle, a metal rod extruding from the vehicle cut through his leg deeply. The judge of the court demanded x-ray pictures of the cuts and the medical reports attesting the veracity of the circumstances are with his lawyer Isma’il Al-Taweel.

Consequently, Hurryyat called upon the international community to take on its ethical, legal and political responsibilities towards the sick detainees in the Israeli occupation prisons, and address the dangers facing their lives due to the policy of medical negligence practiced by the occupation authorities while denying their release. Hurryyat accused the Israeli government of having full responsibility in case anything happens to those prisoners. The center called upon the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross to take immediate action through sending medical committees to diagnose the health circumstances and meet those apt to death any coming moment.

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) organized a field visit to the Gaza Strip during the 20th and the 24th of April 2015. The council delegation came from the West Bank to witness the deterioration of the human rights in the Strip, particularly after the last war on Gaza, the ongoing siege on the Gaza Strip imposed by the occupation forces, the obstruction of the reconstruction process of Gaza still not effective eight months after the end of war, while the suffering of victims is still ongoing.

During the stay, the council delegation met with members of the Palestinian human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip mainly Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR). The delegation also me with different civil and official sectors including: the Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), representatives of all Palestinian sectors, vice president of the Palestinian Contractors Union, and the Minister of Public Work and Housing in the Palestinian Unity Government. Moreover, the delegation visited the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

During the stay, the delegation conducted intense field visits that involved cities and villages in the Gaza Strip, particularly those affected by war. The visits investigated the situation of the shelters for those displaced from their homes due to war, including the containers’ area and its difficult living circumstances there. The delegation encountered many people with demolished houses waiting since eight months to have the heaps of their demolished houses removed so as to live in the wreckage and save what may be left of their human integrity.

The delegation participated in a session organized by PNGO titled: “National Challenges and the Role of Civil Work.” A number of experts and civil activists from the Strip attended to hear the experience of the PHROC delegation and their first impressions.

Ramallah- The High Follow-up Committee for Prisoner Affairs and the head of the Center for the Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights (Hurryyat), Helmi Araj, called for internationalizing the cause of prisoners and retrieving their legitimate title as prisoners of war, while immediately transferring their case to the International Criminal Court with no further delay. The government of the Israeli occupation has been legislating laws through the Knesset as an attempt to enforce capital punishment on the detainees, while concurrently, human rights organizations along with the High Follow-up Committee for Prisoner Affairs were celebrating the release of minor Khaled Al-Sheikh on Tuesday before the headquarters of the International Community of the Red Cross in Ramallah.

Araj commented that the occupation, and after 50 years, has not sought to change its policy and release the prisoners, but instead furthered their punishment to capital sentences. This is a clear statement of an occupation that has come to stay … and the prisoners are thus there to stay. Nevertheless, Araj affirmed that the will that the prisoners hold and the will of our people will undoubtedly overcome the will of the occupation.

Araj congratulated Khaled Al-Sheikh and wished for the release of all minors and prisoners. He thanked all those who contributed in reviving this day of the Palestinian prisoner whether locally or in the diaspora, or anywhere else in the world. He affirmed the importance of reviving this day this year as reflecting a national and international consciousness of the cause of prisoners.

During her visit to Ofer Prison, Ibtisam Al-Anati, Attorney of the Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights (Hurryyat), visited several prisoners amongst them prisoner Abdul Fattah Doleh, representative of detained minors in Ofer, who confirmed an increase in the number of detained children. An overcrowding of the sections resulted in the transfer of 13 minors to the Megiddo minor section. The number of minor detainees in Ofer registered 105 children while the number of minors detained in general reached 200 children.

Doleh added that 23 children were detained this month mainly coming from Husan village and Al-Arroub refugee camp where they were all detained from their homes. The children were arrested and convicted based on photographs taken of them during clashes and presented to them during interrogation. 13 prisoners in the section do not exceed 15 of age and Abdul Rahman Jawabreh marks the youngest prisoner being detained on 14/04/2015 while born on 04/07/2000.

As he mentioned, the two children from Al-Bireh Saji Ahmad Abed and Moath Mousa Abed were arrested on 25/03/2015 and held 21 days for interrogation in the Jerusalem Detention Center (Russion Compound). Fadi Taqatqa aged 16 from Beit Fajjar, considered the dean of minor prisoners, was detained on 08/02/2013 and sentenced to 28 months marking the longest detention period among the minors. Doleh also mentioned the minhaleh, or else the deducing of days or weeks from the supposed sentence, is being practiced as a measure against the increase of prisoners in numbers.

Doleh also urged the human rights organizations and the Palestinian Detainees Committee to form a committee for legal affairs concerned with investigating the cases of minor detainees prior to their investigation by lawyers.

On its part, Hurryyat condemned the continuous violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) committed by the occupation concerning the conditions of the arrest and release of minor detainees, but primarily condemned the policy of daily child arrests for insignificant or no reasons. Hurryat condemned their harassment in front of their families during arrest, their chaining in detention centers, frightening them with police dogs and putting their lives in danger. Hurryyat also condemned the unjust verdicts and overpriced fines, the inappropriate detention conditions, the humiliating naked body checks, the night raids, and the medical negligence committed unlawfully against them.

Hurryyat urged the international community, the international human rights organizations, particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council to undertake their legal and moral obligations towards the blatant violations against minor detainees that transgress the basic rights of the CRC, while seriously working for eliminating them.

Important Prisoners Statistics on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day April 17th 2015

On this glorious day, the day of the Palestinian prisoner, the birth of the prisoners’ movement and the symbol of their national struggle, the Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights (Hurryyat) honors this occasion and celebrates the dignity and pride of the prisoners in their movement; a movement that has written an individualist and collective heroic history with its resistance and sacrifices towards freedom, liberty, and independence.

The Palestinian people have long preserved and celebrated this day over the past years as an occasion for recognizing the value of and admiration towards the conscience and sentiments of the prisoners’ movement. This day marks a renewal of our devotion to and solidarity with every prisoner that has sacrificed their own freedom for the freedom of their people. This day is a day for standing up to the violations committed against them as a means of liberating them from the shackles of prison.

This year the day comes midst a wave of accusations from the Israeli prison services and resolutions from the Israeli government that aim at crushing the acquired rights of prisoners, imposing collective punishment, applying the Penal Code of Israel, working on permitting and imposing capital punishment, authorizing the force feeding of hunger strikers, conducting arrests in large numbers including the re-arrest of 65 prisoners liberated by the Shalit Prison-swap deal, reimposing long or life imprisonment, and renouncing their obligations toward releasing the fourth group of pre-Oslo veteran Palestinian prisoners for using them as a card for negotiations and political blackmail.

Six thousand Palestinian prisoners are still dispersed among the several Israeli prisons of Glibo’a, Megiddo, Shata, Hadarim, HaSharon, Ofer, Eshel, Nafha, Negev (Ktsi’ot), Ramon, Ashkelon (Shikma), Ramla, in addition to other interrogation and detention centers. Amongst these prisoners are 24 female detainee the oldest of which is Lina Al-Jarbouni sentenced for 17 years. Sick prisoners have registered approximately 1000 patients suffering from various diseases; 200 suffer chronic diseases while 85 suffer critical health situations where 28 prisoners are diagnosed with cancer, 24 are partially paralyzed, and 6 are completely paralyzed. According to Hurryyat, the policy of deliberate medical negligence practiced since 1967 led to the death of 61 prisoners the latest being Jaafar Awad from Beit Ummar north of Hebron. Jaafar Awad, aged 22, developed severe pneumonia, diabetes, and other diseases upon his arrest and died three months after his early release in al-Mizan hospital in Hebron; an attempt of the occupation authorities and the Israeli prison service to wash their hands of his death. As for minor prisoners, the number of children in Israeli prisons has reached 200. Administrative detainees have approximately registered 480 noticing an increase since the last hunger strike on 14/04/2014, a strike that lasted 36 days. Following the arrest of Khalida Jarrar, the number of the Legislative Council members have reached 13 including: Marwan Barghouti sentenced to five life sentences, Ahmad Saadat Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine sentenced to 30 years, Aziz Dweik, Hassan Yousef, Mohammad Jamal Al-Natsheh, Husni Burini, Abdul Jaber Fuqaha, Mohammad Maher Bader, Azzam Salhab, Riyad Raddad, Khalil Rubi’i, and Wasfi Qabaha, the most of whom are under administrative detention.

In this occasion, Hurryyat invites the Palestinian people, the governmental and non-governmental organizations, the sectors, unions, and the political forces to conduct activities in solidarity with the prisoners to empower them, motivate them, alleviate the popular struggle, and reinforce their legal and political battle before the international community. This battle enables the prisoners to reaffirm their status as prisoners of war, address the crimes committed against them to the International Criminal Court, and demand the High Contracting Parties in the Geneva Conventions to abide by their obligations in protecting prisoners and detainees and ensuring the application of their declarations last December in prohibiting the (forcible) transfer of detainees and prisoners outside of occupied territory.