Tuesday, April 17, 2012

On Palestinian Prisoner’s Day; Al Dameer Calls On International Community To Take Serious Action to Release all Palestinian Prisoners Held in Israeli Prisons and Detention Centers


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.

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