Democratic Palestine : 24 (ص 16)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 24 (ص 16)
- المحتوى
-
Maimon’s appointment. He said that
70 prisoners had presented a complaint
about torture, and that the strikers’
morale was high.
The progressive Israeli lawyer Lea
Tsemel spoke on behalf of the Com-
mittee to Defend Prisoners, confirming
that a large number of prisoners were
continuing the strike, and that a strike
had started in Nafha prison. Palesti-
nian lawyer Walid Fahoum, president
of the Committee of Friends of the
Prisoners, spoke of the Zionist prac-
tices in Jnaid. He added that on April
lith, 140 prisoners in Ramallah prison
had joined the hunger strike. The
lawyer Abdul Rahman Abu Nasr spoke
about Ansar II prison in Gaza, where
scores of prisoners have become sick,
and the minimal living conditions are
absent.
Tawfiq Toubi of Rakah said that
despite the authorities’ attempts to im-
pose a news black-out on the strike in
the first days, the strikers were deter-
mined to continue their struggle for the
sake of their lives and dignity.
ZIONIST STRIKE—
BREAKING
The Zionists attempted to play down
the strike and the prisoners’ demands
from the start. One day after the strike
Started, the prison administration
claimed that it was a ‘seasonal’ strike
dictated by hostile, external forces, and
that the strikers had ended their fast.
Maimon insisted that he would not
«allow the security prisons to become a
school for the fedayeen», or kneel to
the prisoners’ politically motivated
demands. Speaking to Israeli radio,
Police Minister Haim Bar Lev claimed
that the prisoners had staged the strike
due to disappointment at not being ex-
changed with the four hostages in
Lebanon.
Over one week after the start of the
strike, the prison administration
claimed that the prisons were calm and
that the prisoners were under medical
supervision. It threatened that if the
prisoners continued their strike, they
might be deprived of all ‘privileges’.
The administration admitted that, upon
directions from Maimon and in coor-
dination with the police minister, steps
had been taken to eliminate organiza-
16
tional activities in the prisons; prisoners
were prohibited from moving between
cells and sections of the prison.
Maimon declared that he would not
recognize any representatives of the
prisoners.
SOLIDARITY PROTESTS
In support of the strikers,
demonstrations erupted on April 2nd in
the occupied West Bank. The Israeli
army tried to disperse these by shooting
in the air and arresting many
demonstrators. Meanwhile, families of
prisoners staged a sit-in at the Red
Cross offices in Jerusalem, Hebron,
Bethlehem and Nablus. Women’s
Organizations called on humanitarian
and juridical organizations, Arab and
international, to intervene in support of
the prisoners’ just demands.
There were demonstrations in Balata
camp near Nablus, in support of the
striking prisoners. In Dura, near
Hebron, the occupation forces brutally
prevented students from demonstrat-
ing. In Askar camp, demonstrators
stoned military vehicles and the oc-
cupation forces opened fire on them. In
Beit Sahour, the people woke up to find
slogans covering the walls, calling for
solidarity with the striking revolu-
tionaries and condemning the prison
administration.
On April 7th, the occupation troops
opened fire on demonstrators in
Ramallah, injuring one person accor-
ding to the Israeli military spokesman
who claimed that the demonstrators
had attempted to grab the pistol of an
officer. Shops closed down in protest of
the Zionists’ atrocities against Palesti-
nian prisoners. Students at the
Polytechnical Institute in Hebron went
on strike in support of the prisoners,
erecting barricades and stoning military
vehicles. The occupation forces threw
tear gas bombs to disperse them. The
Palestinian Press Office in Jerusalem
reported that the Zionist forces stormed
the institute, confiscating books and
documents. This office also reported
that Zionist settler gangs had blocked
roads leading to Halhoul, and broken
the windows of a number of houses in
the town.
Demonstrations and sit-ins continued
in support of the striking prisoners. The
occupation authorities imposed curfews
on Ramallah, Tulkarem and Duheisheh
camp, after the April 9th demonstra-
tions where five persons were wounded,
including one Israeli. A spokeswoman
for the occupation troops said that the
curfew on Ramallah was imposed after
a molotov cocktail was thrown at a set-
tler’s car. Settlers opened fire on a
group of youth in Ramallah. In Al
Bireh, settler thugs went on a rampage,
looting, breaking windows and
damaging cars.
UNITY IN STRUGGLE
The prisoners ended their strike on
April 13th, after some of their demands
were met, and the prison administra-
tion had promised to look into the other
demands. On April 16th, Maimon, who
initially refused to recognize the
prisoners’ representatives, met with
such representatives in Jnaid prison.
However, according to the Israeli daily
Haaretz, the police minister is still
forbidding visits to the prisons.
The strike and the broad popular
Support it generated revitalized
Palestinian unity in confronting the
plans of the prison administration, that
aimed at breaking this same unity and
strength. The Zionists were counting on
the fact that the great majority of
prisoners today are relatively young
and umexperienced, after the 1985
prisoner exchange liberated over 1,000
veteran militants. However, this strike
disproved the Zionists’ calculations.
Palestinian prisoners showed that they
are no less capable than _ their
predecessors. The experience ac-
cumulated in the struggle against oc-
cupation is not confined to any one
group. It has become part ofall the
Palestinian masses’ struggle.
The scope of the Palestinian
prisoners’ confrontation against the
occupation alerts all Palestinian na-
tionalist forces to the need for
upgrading support to the prisoners’
struggle, and working for a broad in-
ternational solidarity campaign. Such a
campaign could help to pressure the
Zionist authorities to back down from
their fascist practices against im-
prisoned Palestinian militants. It would
expose the Zionist propaganda which
tries to gloss over the ugly picture of its
occupation in the face of international
public opinion. - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 24
- تاريخ
- مايو ١٩٨٧
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
Contribute
Not viewed