On Tuesday the martyrdom of Nasser Abu Hamid was announced, along with allegations of medical neglect that led to his death. Despite the clear evidence of rights deprivations, Western media have adopted the line that a militant simply died from cancer. The way the martyr died and the coverage after it, both serve as examples of why the prisoners' voices must be elevated.

Born in Nuseirat refugee camp, located in central Gaza, later moving to Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah, 49-year-old Nasser Abu Hamid became a Palestinian national icon for his key role in the Palestinian armed struggle during the second Intifada. Abu Hamid was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 7 life sentences, plus 50 years, in Israeli military prison, where he suffered physical and psychological abuse by Israeli jailers. He was sentenced for his role in co-founding the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and engineering 12 attacks against Israeli settlers and soldiers. 

First active in the Fatah youth movement, he continued on to play a leading role beside Marwan Barghouti in the Fatah Party’s armed efforts during the early 2000’s. Nasser Abu Hamid is known as the first person to have fired a mortar during the second Intifada, attacking the Psagot settlement that is illegally built between Ramallah and Al-Bireh. 

In August 2021, Abu Hamid was diagnosed with cancer. Although part of the cancer was removed, the Israeli prison authorities delayed further treatment leading to cancer spreading throughout his body, gradually bringing him to a point of constant and arduous pain. The Palestinian Waed Prisoners Association said, days before the martyrdom of Abu Hamid, that the occupation authorities are "responsible for all the repercussions having refused to transfer cancer-stricken prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid to the hospital although his condition is critical and rapidly deteriorating”. Abdallah al-Zaghari, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), said that when Abu Hamid was first diagnosed with late-stage cancer it came after many months of the prison authorities ignoring his complaints of intense chest pain. Only under pressure from the organizing efforts of other Palestinian prisoners in occupied Askalan jail did the authorities take him to the hospital where he was finally diagnosed, according to PPS.

For years, Abu Hamid’s mother was blocked from seeing him and her five other sons who are also serving life sentences. For some time there had been calls for Abu Hamid to be transferred to better care facilities, yet the prison authorities kept him at the infamous Ramle jail’s clinic, transferring him to Assaf Harofeh Medical Centre just a day before his death.

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After intervention from the Red Cross, Nasser Abu Hamid was permitted a short visit from his mother on Monday, it was the last time she would ever see her son alive and he had fallen into a coma. Reports on his condition suggested that he had been in and out of the coma since February, waking up in intense agony each time. Following his death on Tuesday, the Zionist regime decided that it would hold the body of Nasser Abu Hamid, a common practice with Palestinians that they kill and who they consider to have been “terrorists”. There are currently 11 other prisoners who had died in Israeli detention whose bodies are currently being held, with this specific case causing added outrage.

The responsibility for the wealthfare of the political prisoners legally falls directly upon the Israeli authorities, something that Addameer - a leading Palestinian prisoners rights group - says "Tel Aviv" refuses to respect and instead adopts a “policy of medical neglect”. Prisons are overcrowded, the standards of the environments inside the facilities do not meet international standards and this poses a great risk to the political prisoners. 

Nasser Abu Hamid was also not alone in his suffering, around 600 Palestinian prisoners are currently held whilst sick, of which 24 suffer from cancer and tumors to varying degrees. This year specifically has also seen a dramatic rise in the number of prisoners held in Israeli detention, with the occupation forces rounding up 6,500 Palestinians since the start of 2022, among those detainees were at least 153 women and 811 children. 2,134 administrative detention - imprisonment without a charge - orders were issued this year alone, around 850 longer-term cases are currently ongoing, of Palestinians held without a charge, included among them are minors.

"Israel’s" military court system maintains a 99.7% conviction rate, making it a kangaroo court, or in other words biased to the point that appeal is nearly meaningless. The best any Palestinian that is arrested by the occupation forces can hope for is that they are released after serving the majority of their time in administrative detention, or that a lawyer can manage to lessen their sentence. You can be arrested for anything from “online incitement”, AKA posting nationalistic takes on social media, to armed resistance, with most short-term arrest cases normally revolving around the intimidation of minors who throw stones or attend protests. If "Israel" decides to, it can hold a Palestinian child for stone-throwing for up to 20 years. 

All of the above information is important to keep in mind, because it helps build a better understanding of the horrors Palestinian political prisoners face at the hands of the occupation's military prison system, however, this information only scratches the surface. We should also not fall into the trap of only defending those Palestinian detainees who are suffering due to non-violent resistance or those who are minors, women, sick etc. The reality is that all the prisoners are of equal value and the violation of their rights must be understood as a single unit, not just individuals.

"Israel" detains and abuses resistance leaders, from Ahmad Saadat to Marwan Barghouti and Zakaria Zubeidi, it does this to empower the current wing of Fatah, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who advocates non-violence at all costs and maintains the infamous security coordination with the occupier. By keeping the resistance isolated in Gaza, whilst assassinating them or imprisoning them elsewhere, the PLO is kept in the hands of those who maintain security for "Israel" to continue its daily human rights abuses. In reality, all of those who fight against the Zionist regime and who pose a real threat, end up in Israeli detention or are sought out for assassination.

The Western world's so-called adherence to the principles of international law and human rights, are nothing but an act. We see this yet again exemplified with the silence and inaction, even the biased coverage in their media, of Abu Hamid’s martyrdom. Palestinians have the right to armed struggle against their occupier, they have the right to democratic decision-making and to human rights, yet the Zionist regime and its Western backers will not allow for this at all. All Palestinian political parties are considered terrorist organizations by not only "Israel", but by the majority of Western countries, with the exception of the Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan brands of Fatah. The wing of Fatah which aligns itself with Zakaria Zubeidi, Marwan Barghouti and Nasser Abu Hamid are considered to be the same as Hamas, PIJ or the PFLP, they are delegitimized as “terrorists” in the West. The prisoners, along with the martyrs, are in many ways the true representatives of the Palestinian people, their voices must be amplified and we can no longer simply advocate for the “perfect victim”. The Palestinians have the right to fight and their liberation will not come from security coordination and collaboration with the entity that occupies their land, they understand this well and so should those on the outside who support their struggle.