Palestinian prisoners to carry out mass hunger strike in coming days

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Al Mayadeen
5 May 13:53

The strike comes to put pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities in an attempt to achieve their demands in terms of administrative detention.

A Palestinian protester waves the Palestinian flag in front of Israeli occupation forces security forces outside the "Ofer" prison in the occupied West Bank, March 30, 2016 (AFP)

The Committee of Administrative Prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons announced on Friday that it has decided to carry out a mass open-ended hunger strike in the coming days.

In a leaked statement conveyed by the Prisoners Information Office, the committee indicated that the strike comes to put pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities in an attempt to achieve their demands in terms of administrative detention and to respond to the assassination of prisoner Khader Adnan.

"We have become certain beyond doubt that the occupation and the Shin Bet, after exhausting all the tools of pressure, cannot provide positive results in terms of the administrative detention issue except with real pressure that forces them and pushes them to respond to our demands," the statement read.

The committee indicated that with external support and factional embrace, the collective hunger strike is an effective weapon, pointing out that the decision comes in fulfillment of all previous efforts that have been exerted against arbitrary administrative detention, whether through strikes or boycotts of courts, as well as an accumulation of the prisoners' activity that has been going on for two years.

The statement explained that the decision comes after consultations and coordination around the clock. It underlined that the hunger strike embodies the principles of freedom by rejecting injustices, and affirms that dying with dignity is more honorable than living under the humiliation of occupation.

The committee urged every able administrative prisoner to take part in the strike and called on the prisoners who will join the strike to write their wills, stressing that this is a "historic moment" that must be seized.

Elsewhere, the committee made clear administrative prisoners demand a cap on administrative detention to be set and that "this vile massacre that shortened our lives" be stopped.