Date: March 22, 2023
Urgent appeal for immediate action to halt repressive and punitive measures against Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons imposed by the Minister of Security of the extremist occupation “Itmar Ben-Gafir”.
Presents to you the International Commission to Support the Palestinian Rights (HASHD) with its regards, We hope that you will receive this message while you are healthy and comfortable, and we appreciate your positive interest. In order to put an end to human suffering, including excess and justified suffering as a result of arbitrary imprisonment of liberty, With reference to the above subject, we address you urgently as part of our human rights follow-up on the recent situation of Palestinian prisoners’ and detainees’ rights in Israeli prisons. To put you in the picture of the catastrophic developments to which they are subjected, in the light of the continuing repressive measures against them inside Israeli occupation prisons for the 36th consecutive day, which took more than one form, the imposition of new penalties on prisoners by the Minister of Extremist Occupation “ITMAR BEN GAFIR” affects their basic lives, consisting of preventing visits and not allowing the introduction of clothes, controlling the amount of water used by prisoners, reducing the duration of the shower, and the placement of locks on bathrooms for showers, which also included the provision of poor bread to prisoners, and in some prisons the administration provided frozen bread, Incursions and searches of prisoners and women using stun grenades have also doubled. and sniffer dogs during crackdowns and incursions, and recently the Knesset parliamentary committees approved a bill to deny prisoners treatment and some surgeries. and the Prisoners’ Execution Act, and increased unilateral segregation of prisoners, in addition to the withdrawal of television from the sections of the detainees held in the “crossing”. The prisoners then decided to escalate their protest steps to demand the improvement of family conditions and detention, including the start of a major and open hunger strike, which will begin on Thursday, March 23, 2023.
Ladies/Gentlemen
The occupation’s new policy of restricting Palestinian prisoners and detainees in prisons raises a real risk to them by depriving them of their minimum rights, thereby aggravating their humanitarian conditions and living conditions, which are at least contrary to international law and human rights law, including the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, thereby directly affecting their lives and human dignity. The occupation authorities are holding in their prisons approximately 4780 prisoners and detainees, including 29 women, 160 children, 950 administrative detainees, and 500 patients, all of whom are in violation of human rights and human rights treaties.
In the light of the foregoing, it can be said that, should the occupying power continue its punitive and arbitrary actions, this would usher in an unwavering explosion of conditions in Israeli prisons, especially since the Palestinian family and detainees have decided to begin their large-scale protests. They may be threatened with burning rooms in prison departments in protest and in response to punitive measures against them, as the prison administration procrastinates to meet their just and legitimate life demands. So, while we hold the occupation authorities fully accountable for what the situation will lead to, we continue to consider your contribution and interventions as a lever to ensure that members of the international community fulfill their obligations under international law and resolutions of legitimacy. and, above all, your call to condemn all types of reprisals and punitive measures directed against prisoners and detainees, including your vigorous efforts and serious endeavors to stop the oppressive actions of the Minister of Extremist Occupation “ITMAR BEN GAFIR” against prisoners inside Israeli prisons, including stigmatizing the occupying power on the blacklist of states most violating human rights in times of armed conflict and working to release them as one of the most basic human rights.
In conclusion, we hope that your legal, humanitarian, and moral responsibilities will be discharged. Prisoners and detainees arbitrarily deprived of their liberty deserve to work with them and their neighborhoods in order to ensure their release and the hugging of liberty with their family members.
