Hurryyat: Nafha Declares Open Hunger Strike Prisons Witnessing Turbulence

The Center for the Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights “Hurryyat” warned against the unprecedented and systemic attack of the Israeli Prison Services (IPS) upon the prisoners’ movement, backed by the incites of the Israeli Rightist Parties. Recently, the special forces of the IPS, equipped with all kinds of arms along with police dogs, have broken into several prisons, mainly Nafha and Rimon, and practiced various types of abuse, beatings and humiliation, and arbitrary and humiliating inspection of prisoners. A number of prisoners were sent to solitary confinement while section 10 was evacuated and its inhabitants dispersed among the rest of the sections. Rimon Prison was also broken into after midnight where 120 detainees were transferred to Nafha abused and mistreated.

This was reported today, Thursday, upon the visit of the Center’s attorney, Ibtisam Anati, to Nafha Prison where she met with National leader, Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmad Saadat, Fattah Representative Alaa Abu Jazar, Hussein Dirbas representative of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and Ibrahim Igbaria representing the Islamic Jihad. They all affirmed that the Nafha prison is in a state of turbulence particularly upon the commencement of the open hunger strike against the unjust policies of the IPS including the raids, the humiliating naked body inspections, deprivation of family visits, mass internal and external transfers between the prisons in an attempt to discourage the prisoners’ movement after crystalizing a revolutionary plan. As of the escalation in rids threatening the lives of prisoners, the prisoners in section 1 and 4 of the Nafha Prison, counting 120 detainees, have declared the start of their open hunger strike to defend their human and national dignity, along with their political rights provided by the International Bill on Human Rights.

They warned against the IPS’s continuous application of this policy where it will lead to an outburst in prisons declaring civil disobedience. They are asking the Palestinian National Authority along with the Palestinian people; its political parties, national and Islamic forces, its organizations, popular unions and the professional associations to support their struggle for dignity and basic right, notably:

1. Visits for Gazan prisoners every two weeks letting in children and first-degree relatives without restrictions.

2. The cause of solitary confinement.

3. The Hamas sanctions.

4. The transportation issue in the “bosta.”

5. The issue of sick prisoners and Ramla prisoners.

6. Unrestricted visits to humanitarian cases.

7. The banned from visits.

8. Public telephones.

9. Returning the kitchen and bakery to prisoners.

10. Giving access to the items and things brought during family visits.

11. The cantina profits.

12. Cantina shortages and prices.

13. Returning the expropriated belongings to prisoners and restoring the situation as it was.