27 April 2017, AFOPA's "3 Things" Digest

3 things to know about the Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons is a key political issue for the Palestinian community. At least since the 1990s, Palestinian prisoners have resorted to hunger strikes as means to protest Israeli arbitrary use of administrative detention. Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. Following recent hunger strikes in 2012 and 2014, Palestinian prisoners have launched a new mass hunger strike starting 17 April 2017.

• Hunger strike leader details 'why we are on strike' [NYT]
• Prisoners prevented from seeing their lawyers [Adalah]
• 1500 prisoners launch largest mass strike in years [Samidoun]

& ICYMI... The prisoners' list of demands [IMEMC]

Why We Are on Hunger Strike in Israel’s Prisons

Marwan Barghouti, New York Times, 16 April 2017

'HADARIM PRISON, Israel — Having spent the last 15 years in an Israeli prison, I have been both a witness to and a victim of Israel’s illegal system of mass arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners. After exhausting all other options, I decided there was no choice but to resist these abuses by going on a hunger strike.

Some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners have decided to take part in this hunger strike, which begins today, the day we observe here as Prisoners’ Day. Hunger striking is the most peaceful form of resistance available. It inflicts pain solely on those who participate and on their loved ones, in the hopes that their empty stomachs and their sacrifice will help the message resonate beyond the confines of their dark cells...'

>> Read full article

1500 Palestinian prisoners launch largest collective hunger strike in years

Samidoun, 17 April 2017

'Over 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners have announced they will launch a collective hunger strike today, Monday, 17 April, on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day 2017. The strike, which will come under the slogan “Freedom and Dignity,” highlights a number of key demands of the Palestinian prisoners, including family visits, appropriate medical care, ending abusive conditions and stopping the use of solitary confinement and administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial...'

>> Read full article

Israel Prison Service illegally preventing lawyers from meeting with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners

Adalah, 26 April 2017

The Israeli Supreme Court and State have previously determined that the punitive tactic of denying prisoners access to their lawyers is illegal. Adalah–The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel is urgently fighting an Israel Prison Service (IPS) practice which is preventing Palestinian prisoners who are participating in a hunger strike from meeting with their lawyers...

>> Read full article

And in case you missed it...

The Demands Of Hunger Striking Detainees In Israeli Prisons, IMEMC, 19 April 2017

'The following is a list of demands presented by the hunger striking Palestinian detainees, who intend to gradually expand their strike to include all Israeli prisons and detention centers, across occupied Palestine...'

>> Read the Palestinian prisoners' list of demands

Further resources and Prisoners' Rights campaigns