Thirty Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli prisons have decided to start an open-ended hunger strike in protest against Israel’s policy of administrative detention without a charge or trial.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) announced on Sunday that 30 Palestinian administrative detainees are preparing to go on an open-ended hunger strike to protest against their unjust administrative detention without a charge or trial by Israeli occupation authorities.
The PPS noted that this comes as a continuation of longstanding Palestinian efforts to put an end to Israel’s policy of administrative detention and amid an increase in the administrative detention orders issued by ‘Israel’ against Palestinians as the policy has expanded in recent years to include women, children and elderly people.
“No for oppression, no for the Israeli occupation, we will continue our fight against Israel’s unfair policy of administrative detention,” the thirty Palestinian administrative detainees said.
Under the banner, “Our decision is freedom … no to administrative detention,” more than 600 administrative detainees also boycotted Israeli Military Courts for over 170 days, starting from January 1, 2022, in protest against Israel’s administrative detention without charges or trials.
The boycott includes initial hearings to uphold the administrative detention order, as well as appeal hearings and later sessions at the Supreme Court.
Since March 2002, the number of Palestinians in administrative detention has never fallen below 100. In 2015 alone, ‘Israel’ issued 1248 administrative detention orders.
In 2020, ‘Israel’ issued 1,114 administrative detention orders while it issued 1,595 administrative detention orders against the Palestinians in 2021.
Since the start of 2022, Israeli occupation has issued 1365 administrative detention orders against the Palestinians.
There are currently 4650 Palestinian detainees held in about 23 Israeli prisons, including 180 minors, 32 women and 743 detainees held in administrative detention without charge or trial.
