Thirty Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli prisons are on an open-ended hunger strike for the fifteenth day in a row in protest against Israel’s policy of administrative detention without a charge or trial.
On the 25th of September, 30 Palestinian administrative detainees announced the launch of a mass hunger strike, rejecting their unjust administrative detention without a charge or trial by Israeli occupation authorities and demanding “fresh air, a sky without prison bars, a space of freedom, and a family dinner.”
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said that this move 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.
The thirty Palestinian detainees are listed below, with additional detainees scheduled to join the battle as it continues:
1. Nidal Abu Aker.
2. Ehab Masoud.
3. Asim Al Kaabi.
4. Ahmed Hajjaj.
5. Thaer Taha.
6. Ramy Fadayel.
7. Lotfi Salah.
8. Salah Hammouri
9. Ghassan Zawahreh.
10. Kanaan Kanaan.
11. Ashraf Abu Aram.
12. Ghassan Karajah.
13. Saleh Abu Alia.
14. Awad Kanaan.
15. Leith Kassaberah.
16. Saleh Al-Jaidi.
17. Basil Mezher.
18. Majdi Al-Khawaja.
19. Jihad Shreiteh.
20. Haitham Siyaj.
21. Mustafa Al-Hasanat.
22. Azmi Shreiteh.
23. Muhammad Abu Ghazi.
24. Ahmed Al-Kharouf.
25. Nasrallah Barghouti.
26. Muhammad Fuqaha.
27. Tamer Al-Hajouj.
28. Raghad Shamroukh.
29. Zaid Qaddoumi.
30. Senar Hamad.
This is the second mass strike against administrative detention after the strike of 2014 (62 days), which ended with an agreement with the occupation, including suspending extending administrative detention for open periods and limiting them to a maximum of a year, which has been violated. This mass strike follows various individual strikes of administrative detainees demanding an end to their detention. Since 2011, individual strikes amounted to over 400 which the Occupation authorities tried to halt and deliberately stalled in responding to the strikers.
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.
According to Palestinian prisoner’s advocacy groups, 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, the Israeli occupation has issued 1500 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.
