Reference: 23/2011
Al
Dameer Association for Human Rights expresses its solidarity with
Palestinian detainees and their families on the occasion Palestinian
Prisoner’s Day. This day 17 April, is commemorated annually in order to
remember the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners resulted from the
Israeli practices and policies against them. Palestinian Prisoners Day
comes at a time when the Israeli authorities are escalating their grave
violations of the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) and
International Human Rights Law.
This year, the Palestinian Prisoners Day
comes at a time in which Palestinian detainees are going on hunger
strike in protest against their ongoing administrative detention, and
the extension of their terms of detention without presentation of any
evidence legally justifying their imprisonment. The Palestinian
prisoners are going on a hunger strike also because they are subjected
to cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions, they are denied to access to
medical care, in addition to practicing methods of torture against
them; placing some of them in solitary confinement; depriving them of
family visitation; and banning them from receiving academic education.
They also demand to cancel the ‘Shalit Law” bill, which imposes harsher
measures on the conditions of detention for Palestinian detainees in
Israeli prisons.
Al Dameer condemns the systematic and
continuous inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees carried out by
Israel .The Palestinian prisoners’ rights are violated , they are
subjected to Ill-treatment and poor detention conditions, denying
visitation rights, Medical negligence and denial of healthcare,
Torture, and administrative detention. Also, Innumerable prisoners have
been subjected to torture and other forms of degrading and cruel
treatment during interrogation. IOF subject Palestinians detained in
Israeli prisons to numerous instances of torture, and cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment. Moreover, Israel has placed a
total, sweeping ban on visits by the families of prisoners from Gaza
since June 2007. Further, Israeli Authorities categorizes Gazan
detainees as ‘unlawful combatants’.
IOF violations of Palestinian
prisoners’ rights constitute serious violations of the Fourth Geneva
Convention of 1949, the additional protocol of 1977 and all the
international conventions and treaties. Palestinian and Arab detainees
are subject to degrading treatment in breach of their most basic rights
accorded by international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights
standards
Al Dameer Association for Human Rights
condemns the systematic and random detention of the Palestinian
civilians in the OPT. IOF continues practicing torture, cruel, inhuman
and degrading treatment against the Palestinian prisoners and their
families.
In the light of the above, Al Dameer expresses its solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails and:
1- Calls upon the international
community to take effective and urgent action to ensure the release of
all Palestinian detainees and to end their sufferings.
2- Calls upon The High Contracting
Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their legal
obligations, and to exert pressure on Israel to respect IHL and IL. That
was in addition to the Israeli obligation to uphold the applicable
international standards regarding detention place and fair trial.
3- Calls on Palestinian society to unite
behind the legitimate demands of detainees to ensure the Palestinian
unified efforts for the attainment of freedom and dignity of detainees
and to release all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons and
detention centers.
End
