No: 120 /2021
Date: 2 Oct 2021
Press release,
ICSPR calls on the international community to intervene to save the lives of the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike against their administrative detention in the Israeli occupation prisons.
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) follows up with great concern and condemnation the deteriorating health conditions of the seven Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike against their administrative detention, “which is an arbitrary detention without charge or trial”. In addition to the policy of neglect and denial of their most basic legal and human rights, in contravention of the lowest principles of international humanitarian law, foremost among which are the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
According to the available data, the prisoner “Kayed El-phesphos” has been on hunger strike for 80 days, “Miqdad al-Qawasma” for 73 days, “Alaa al-Araj” for 55 days, the prisoner, “Hisham Abu Hawash” for 47 days, “Rayeq Bisharat” for 42 days, “Shadi Abu Akar” for 39 days, and the latest of whom is “Hassan Shawka” for 13 days.
In light of this, they are suffering from fatigue and headaches, as well as from a severe shortage of fluid in the body, which may expose the functions of their vital organs to severe failure and dangerous repercussions, which may lead to undesirable results in light of the continued abuse and deliberate medical neglect by the occupation authorities. ICSPR holds the occupation authorities fully responsible for the lives of prisoners in general, especially the prisoners on hunger strike, and calls for a response to their demands that prompted them to go on strike.
ICSPR stresses that the Israeli occupation authorities deliberately implement coercive policies against Palestinian prisoners and detainees with the aim of undermining their dignity, by continuing the crimes of torture, administrative detention and medical negligence. Therefore:
1. ICSPR calls on the international community to intervene to compel the occupation state to stop administrative detention and violations against prisoners and to ensure that the Israeli occupation authorities are bound by international human rights standards, especially the conventions and charters on the rights of prisoners and those deprived of their liberty, the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners of 1955 and the set of principles Relating to the Protection of All Persons Subjected to Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment of 1988. 2. ICSPR calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to intervene urgently to prevent further deterioration of the humanitarian conditions of prisoners and detainees on hunger strike and to provide protection for prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons.
3. ICSPR calls on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open an immediate investigation into the grave Israeli violations that Palestinian prisoners and detainees are subjected to in the occupation prisons, including crimes of torture, medical negligence and administrative detention.
4. ICSPR calls on the leadership to activate official and popular Palestinian diplomacy, and assign Palestinian embassies and missions to international organizations, to raise awareness on the justice of the issue of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, with the aim of mobilizing global support and exerting pressure on the occupation authority to release them.
