Prisoners go on hunger strike to mark Palestinian Prisoner Day

[ 16/04/2011 - 05:06 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have decided to go on hunger strike on Sunday as a warning before going on an open ended hunger strike soon in order to have their demands met for an end to isolation and medical neglect, the Gaza ministry of prisoner affairs said on Saturday. The ministry called on the Palestinian masses to take to the streets and show solidarity with those prisoners going on hunger strike as they mark Palestinian Prisoner Day in order to draw attention to their cause. ”The prisoner circumstances have reached the worst stage altogether. The prison administration has closed every door in front of them, and there remains nothing for them except to go on an open hunger strike until their legal rights are attained,” the ministry said in a fresh statement. ”The strike will not be successful unless there is a strong, parallel, and simultaneous solidarity campaign, in order to send a clear message to Israel that we will not renounce our prisoners, and we will not leave them easy prey for the Israeli prison system.” The statement addressed Israel and the family of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by resistance forces, asserting that the continued detention of Palestinian prisoners would force factions to try and capture more soldiers in order to negotiate the freedom of more Palestinian prisoners. ”If you want to regain your son Shalit, you must pressure your government in order to end its practices against those prisoners and meet the conditions of the factions and release the long time prisoners who have spent more than twenty years in detention. Without that you will never see Shalit, but rather you will be forced to pay an even greater price should Allah permit that the resistance factions capture more soldiers.”