RAMALLAH: Over 150 people, mostly Palestinian citizens of Israel and East Jerusalemites, protested outside of Ramleh Prison on Monday, witnesses told BikyaNews.com.
Demonstrators traveled from Jaffa, Haifa, Ramleh, and Lod. An additional two buses came from East Jerusalem, a demonstrator said. The nonviolent demonstration lasted roughly one hour, and no clashes with police were reported.
Protesters called for solidarity with Palestinian hunger strikers and the release of all political prisoners. Among those present was the mother of Samer Al-Issawi, a prisoner who has been on hunger strike for nearly 200 days and whose health is rapidly declining.
Over the last few years, the plight of Palestinian hunger strikers has served as a unifying cause in an otherwise fractured political landscape.
According to the latest figures from Addameer Prisoner Support Network, there are presently 4,743 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. From that total, 193 are children, and another 23 under the age of 16. 177 are administrative detainees, held on “secret evidence” without charge or trial. 12 are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
From Monday’s demo at Ramleh Prison
As of January 30, at least four prisoners were on hunger strike. Jafar Azzedine and Tarek Qa’adan have reached the 70day mark. Samer Al-Issawi is nearing the 200th day. Akram Rikhawi, another prisoner who launched a 102-day hunger strike last year, joined on January 24 after Israeli Prison Services reneged on their agreement to release him.
“Hunger strikers all over the world gained the kind of attention that merited governmental pressure,” Aziz, a student from Haifa University, told BikyaNews.com “Yet when a Palestinian man being held in an Israeli prison without charges breaks a hunger strike record, the world fails to react.”
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