Hunger strike by
ISRAELI STATE that completely contradict our actual experience behind the prison walls and inside closed cells. We hope that with your support we will be able to put an end to the daily violence, terror and humiliation to which
Palestinian prisoners subjected in all the prisons. Prison Commissioner Maimon claims that our hunger strike is political, that our living conditions are good, that our demands are not practical, and that aim is to gain recognition as prisoners He has also
A NEW UPSURGE of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation seems now well underway. It was a predictable result of the failure of the Zionist army to accomplish and its. objectives in Lebanon.
Repeated protests by Palestinians and clashes with the Israeli repressive forces have brought the West Bank repression back to the attention of the world. In recent weeks, the Palestinian resistance has been inspired in particular by a húnger strike of Palestinian political prisoners. The following documents explain the motivations and the demands of the hunger strikers. They are taken from the
March 31 issue of News from Within, a bulletin the Israeli authorities want to suppress.
APPEAL of the lawyers of Palestinian political prisoners currently strike in prisons in Israel and the occupied territories, March 30, 1987:
We, the undersigned, lawyers from occupied territories and
Israel, appeal to you on behalf of our clients who are waging a hunger strike in the prisons in order to improve the conditions of their confine-
The modest demands put forward by the prisoners as the twentieth year of occupation comes to a close are solely intended to vouchsafe the most basic human rights, long recognized by the nations of the
There is nothing more painful to employ the means of a hunger strike, to fight with his body - his last fortress - to ensure that he be allowed to live as a human being.
The situation is such that from time to time Palestinian prisoners must put their lives in jeopardy to receive what is legally theirs in the prisons of the occupation.
We lawyers often stand helpless in the face of the brutality and cal.
lousness of the authorities in regard to granting the elementary rights of
Palestinian prisoners at a time when
Underground the Jewish hotel-like conditions in prison.
The only response to their demands thus far has been the threat to use force against them. This should be treated as an idle threat as it has been voiced by a prison commissioner with a "battle record"; its threatening resonances also awaken difficult biiter memories about those Palestinians who fell during the 1980 Nafha prison hunger strike.
In the final decades of the twentieth century and in the final months of the twentieth year of occupation, a Palestinian population of thousands behind bars has been forced to fight for something which appears so simple and which is taken for granted by every person of conscience.
We call upon you, in the name of the defence of human rights, to raise your voice on their behalf and to use your influence to bring about the fulfilment of the just demands of the Palestinian prisoners. Signed by: Attorneys Felicia Langer, Fouad Mansour, Fathi Shbeit, Walid Fahoum, Adnan Shu'aibi, Ali Ghuzlan, Muhammad Kiwan, Samih Haskaiya, Raji Surani, Dou Heinin Amal Sa'adi, Said Attili, Ossama Oudeh, Ibrahim Barghouti, Muhammad Na'amneh, Lea Isemel, Abed Assali, Shaher Arouri, Adnan Abu Leila, Jawad Boulus, Andre Rosenthal, Abdel Jawad Haj Yahyah, Hussein Abu Hussein, Abraham Melamed, Ibrahim Nassar, IbraShukri Habas. STATEMENT BY PRISONERS statement of clarification all our steadfast supporters inside the country and abroad, defenders of. human rights and to all those with a human conscience. We wish to expose the false claims and rationalizations made by prison commissioner David Maimon claimed that our hunger strike is partial. These falsehoods are being employed in the attempt to stop our
The facts are as follows: in recent months our living conditions have deterioriated and have become an unbearable hell. The prisons administration has withdrawn most of our rights which had become an integral part of our daily lives. For example, we are now prohibited from visiting prisoners in other cells and in other sections. We are kept in small rooms for twenty-two hours each day, and the break is given to each room individually so that prisoners of one cell cannot see the prisoners of another cell in the same section. More than sixty prisoners were beaten severely for no particular reason during the past two months.
All these measures have been taken in order to implement the iron fist policy which David Maimon has declared against us. We have sent Maimon many letters demanding improvements in our living conditions to a basic humane level. But the response was always more violence. We are not asking for more than what we pre. viously asked of the Minister of Police and the former Prison Commissioner, Rafi Suissa, who met our demands. The demands for hot water, sunlight. visiting rights, medical care and so on - can hardly be considered political. And the response to them with an iron fist policy and increasingly violent treatment has forced us into a position where we would rather die through voluntary hunger than continue living in this hell.
Maimon's declaration that our strike is only partial is willfully disingenuous, as he knows that the prison administration checked our cells carefully and saw that there is no food there at all.
We are calling on you, our families and supporters, our only hope under these difficult circumstances. Let our slogan be "Stop killing and repressing our prisoners." We promise to remain steadfast until we achieve all our basic human rights. The prisoners of the Palestinian revolution in Jnaid and the other prisons, March 26, 1987.