Ref: 43/2021
Date: 17 April 2021
Press release
On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day
ICSPR calls on the international community to take serious actions to ensure the release of all Palestinian detainees and end their suffering
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights “ICSPR” expresses its solidarity with the Palestinian detainees and their families on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, which matches 17 April of every year to highlight the increasing suffering of the detainees due to the practices and policies of the occupation forces, which constitute gross and systematic violations of the rules of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
The Israeli occupation forces continue to implement the policy of random arrests by launching mass arrest campaigns, which systematically affected a number of candidates running for the upcoming legislative elections in recent times, and the implementation of administrative detention on a large scale, depriving Palestinian prisoners and detainees of fair trial guarantees, forcible deportation, the policy of systematic torture practiced against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and the policy of medical neglect.
According to official statistics, the number of prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers reached about (4,400) prisoners, of whom (36) are female prisoners, while the number of children and minors in the occupation prisons reached about (140) children, and the number of administrative detainees reached about (440). Statistics indicate that these prisoners and women prisoners are subjected to ill-treatment, not to mention that they are held in inhuman and difficult conditions, especially in light of the spread of the Corona pandemic, without taking the slightest preventive measures required inside prisons, which constitutes a clear violation of the rules of international humanitarian law and relevant human rights rules concerning the treatment of prisoners.
ICSPR affirms that the forces of the Israeli occupation state, represented by the Prison Administration Authority, intend to follow these coercive policies against Palestinian detainees in order to undermine their dignity, as these policies are considered grave violations according to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and affirms that the occupation state deals with detainees in a racist, immoral and legal way, which is inconsistent with the international legal rules that protect detainees in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the First Additional Protocol of 1977 attached to the four Geneva Conventions, and other international charters and conventions.
ICSPR condemns the declared Israeli policies implemented against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and expresses its solidarity with Palestinian and Arab detainees inside Israeli prisons and with their families who share their suffering. Therefore:
• ICSPR calls on the international community to take serious actions to ensure the release of all Palestinian detainees, in order to end their suffering.
• ICSPR calls on the states parties contracting to the Fourth Geneva Convention to carry out their legal duties in pressuring the occupation state to ensure that it respects its legal obligations under international law and international humanitarian law, by stopping the policy of violating the dignity of detainees, and abide by all international standards that regulate the situation, place and conditions of detention.
• ICSPR stresses the importance of working to mobilize public opinion, global and internal, against Israeli practices and crimes against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, exposing racist laws and violations, activating the boycott of the occupation state, and boycotting companies that supply the Israeli occupation state and the Prisons Authority with the means and tools of repression that are used against prisoners.
• ICSPR calls on the international community to put pressure on the Israeli occupation forces to stop the random arrests campaigns, including providing protection for Palestinian citizens running for the upcoming legislative elections.
