This coming
Thursday, May 17, will mark a month to the hunger strike, with over
2,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails participating in
it. As Israel refuses to accept the prisoners’ demands for their basic
rights, including humane treatment, many of them face immediate risk of
death as the world watches over in silence.

Background
More
than two weeks ago, some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have launched an
open-ended hunger strike and their life is in danger. Their demands are
simple and the strike’s slogan, echoing through the prison walls, is
just as plain- freedom or death. The lives of all prisoners on strike
are currently under danger, but among them is a smaller group, which has
been striking for a longer period and whose lives are under immediate
threat.

Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab have not eaten for more than 70 days – since the 29th of February. Israeli courts have rejected their appeals and refused to
free them from administrative detention where they remain without
charge or trial, subject to secret evidence and secret allegations. They
are in critical condition.

Hassan
Safadi has been refusing food since the 2nd of March, Omar Abu Shalal,
54, since the 4th of March, Mahmoud Sarsak, the only Gazan to have been
incarcerated under Israel’s Illegal Combatants Law, since the 24th of
March, Mohammed al-Taj, 40, also since the 24th of March and Ja’afar
Ezzadeen, 41, since the 27th of march.

The Prisoners’ key demands include:

• Ending the policy of solitary confinement and isolation;

• End to the use of administrative detentions;

• The
  restoration of visitation rights to families of prisoners from
  the Gaza Strip, a right that has been denied to all
  families for more than 6 years;

• Canceling
  ‘Shalit’ law, which restricts prisoners’ access to educational
  materials as punitive measure. The law remains intact despite a
  prisoner swap deal last October.

• Ending systematic humiliation, including arbitrary strip searches, nightly raids and collective punishment.

Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike have been hit hard with retaliation from Israel Prison Services, including beatings, transferring from one prison to another, confiscation of salt (an act that could have severe health consequences for hunger strikers), denial of family and lawyer visits, and isolation and solitary confinement of hunger strikers.

In
response, Human Rights Watch issued a statement chiding Israel’s over
its administrative detention policy; it said, “It shouldn’t take the
self-starvation of Palestinian prisoners for Israel to realize it is
violating their due process rights.” Amnesty International also issued a call for urgent action from individuals around the world to contact Israeli authorities about Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh.

Emphasizing
imprisonment as a critical component of Israel’s system of occupation,
colonialism and apartheid practiced against the Palestinian people,
Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations have called
for intensifying the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
campaign to target corporations profiting directly from the Israeli
prison system. In particular, we call for action to be taken to hold to
account G4S, the world’s largest international security
corporation, which helps to maintain and profit from Israel’s prison system, for its complicity with Israeli violations of international law.

Signed:Popular Struggle Coordinating Committee

Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)

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