Palestine Updates 35/2017
Palestinian Prisoners Day 2017 – Call to solidarity
The entire global community should be alarmed by Israel’s willful breach and devaluation of the rights and lives of Palestinian political prisoners, especially in regards to the imprisonment and ill-treatment of Palestinian men, women, children, and the elderly. Israel continues to employ repressive and illegal measures against the Palestinian prisoners; these include the extreme and unjust use of administrative detention and solitary confinement, the transfer of detainees from occupied Palestine to Israel, the deliberate medical neglect and lack of health care, the constant prevention of visitations by family members, and the denial of adequate education for prisoners. Israel must not be given a free hand to systematically dehumanize the Palestinian people without any serious accountability or punitive measures.
(PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi)

This month is one of demonstrations, rallies, marches, events and actions to commemorate support and build solidarity for the struggle of imprisoned Palestinians. 2017 marks the year of 50 years of military courts and military orders, controlling all aspects of Palestinian civil and political life. We urge all activists, campaigners, organizations and people of conscience to organize actions for Palestinian prisoners’ freedom throughout the month of April 2017.
Approximately 6,500 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including approximately 300 children and nearly 550 held under administrative detention, a form of detention without charge or trial that Israel uses to hold Palestinians indefinitely on secret information.
Each year the Israeli military arrests thousands of Palestinians in an attempt to suppress any resistance to its continued occupation and apartheid policies. Among these are hundreds of children, some as young as 12 years old. In too many cases Palestinian children are tortured, ill-treated, placed in solitary confinement and coerced into signing a confession in Hebrew, a language which most Palestinian children do not understand. Every year approximately 500-700 children are sentenced in Israeli courts.
Night raids are the most common form of arrest, during which Israeli soldiers will ransack an individual’s house, destroying personal property and abusing physically abusing family members. The arrested person will then be handcuffed and blindfolded before being thrown into the back of an Israeli military jeep, face-down, where the beatings, insults, and humiliation will continue.
Under Israeli military law, Palestinians can be interrogated for a period of 75 days and denied access to a lawyer for 60 days. Since 1967, approximately 75 Palestinian detainees have died as a result of torture while under Israeli interrogation.
Every day, Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of struggle, facing torturous interrogation, nighttime raids, solitary confinement and relentless attacks on their rights at the hands of Israeli occupation forces. Those attacks are aided by international and corporate complicity, support and profiteering. Palestinian Prisoners’ Day is a critical time to stand against state and corporate complicity with Israeli imprisonment of Palestinian political prisoners.
Read more on the Addameer website.
Addameer Prisoner Support & Human Rights Association calls on campaigners, activists, and people of conscience to take actions for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on April 17 to stand in solidarity with all Palestinian political prisoners. Every year, the month of April is considered Palestinian prisoners’ month. In this month, the Palestinian people and supporters of justice and liberation for Palestine all over the world mark this month by expressing their support to Palestinian political prisoners through organizing events and activities to stand in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners of freedom.
This month is one of demonstrations, rallies, marches, events and actions to support and build solidarity for the struggle of imprisoned Palestinians. 2017 marks the year of 50 years of military courts and military orders, controlling all aspects of Palestinian civil and political life. We urge all activists, campaigners, organizations and people of conscience to organize actions for Palestinian prisoners’ freedom throughout the month of April 2017. Addameer Prisoner Support & Human Rights Association calls on campaigners, activists, and people of conscience to take actions for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on April 17 to stand in solidarity with all Palestinian political prisoners. Every year, the month of April is considered Palestinian prisoners’ month. In this month, the Palestinian people and supporters of justice and liberation for Palestine all over the world mark this month by expressing their support to Palestinian political prisoners through organizing events and activities to stand in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners of freedom. This month is one of demonstrations, rallies, marches, events and actions to com
Approximately 6,500 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including approximately 300 children and nearly 550 held under administrative detention, a form of detention without charge or trial that Israel uses to hold Palestinians indefinitely on secret information.
Each year the Israeli military arrests thousands of Palestinians in an attempt to suppress any resistance to its continued occupation and apartheid policies. Among these are hundreds of children, some as young as 12 years old. In too many cases Palestinian children are tortured, ill-treated, placed in solitary confinement and coerced into signing a confession in Hebrew, a language which most Palestinian children do not understand. Every year approximately 500-700 children are sentenced in Israeli courts.
Night raids are the most common form of arrest, during which Israeli soldiers will ransack an individual’s house, destroying personal property and abusing physically abusing family members. The arrested person will then be handcuffed and blindfolded before being thrown into the back of an Israeli military jeep, face-down, where the beatings, insults, and humiliation will continue.
Under Israeli military law, Palestinians can be interrogated for a period of 75 days and denied access to a lawyer for 60 days. Since 1967, approximately 75 Palestinian detainees have died as a result of torture while under Israeli interrogation.
Every day, Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of struggle, facing torturous interrogation, nighttime raids, solitary confinement and relentless attacks on their rights at the hands of Israeli occupation forces. Those attacks are aided by international and corporate complicity, support and profiteering. Palestinian Prisoners’ Day is a critical time to stand against state and corporate complicity with Israeli imprisonment of Palestinian political prisoners.
Read more on the Addameer website
Take action for justice to prisoners
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails call for popular support during projected hunger strike
The strike is expected to commence on April 17, which coincides with the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. It was called for by incarcerated popular Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and an estimated 1700 prisoners from various political factions are expected to participate in it.
Israeli reports said the Israeli government is bracing itself for possible outbreak of violence in the occupied territories once the strike begins since the issue of prisoners is considered one of the most sensitive ones that affect almost every Palestinian household. The Palestinian Authority constantly demands release of prisoners in any political deal knowing very well the positive impact of such a deal on the general public.
Read more on the Wafa website
Amnesty calls:
Israel must end ‘Unlawful and Cruel’ policies to Palestinian prisoners

Read what International Middle East Media Centre website says
PHOTOS:
Palestinians protest in support of hunger-striking prisoners
Hundreds of Palestinians in Bethlehem protest in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners and to mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.
See photos and text by Oren Ziv and Faiz Abu Rmeleh
Bargouti threatened with execution on 2nd day of prisoners hunger strike

Read what FARS news agency says
Palestinian Prisoners Day 2017
Palestinians in London and supporters came together at the Palestinian Mission – to call for freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners, to mark the 40-day anniversary of the assassination of Basil al-Araj and to demand that the Palestinian Authority #EndCoordination with Israel.
View video