Administrative prisoners inside Israeli jails vow to continue hunger strike

Palestinian administrative prisoners inside Israeli jails who have now been on hunger strike for five days announced on Sunday that they will continue the open-ended battle of the “empty stomachs” until they regain their freedom.

The prisoners also called upon the Palestinian people and all the different factions to continue supporting them and to keep the prisoners’ issue at the top of their priorities.

In a letter published by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, one of the prisoners vowed that the hunger striking prisoners intend to: “fight the crimes with our empty stomachs, which will not be full at the expense of our freedom. Our aim is to kneel before the hands of our parents and kiss them, to hug our kids without restrictions and see the smiles of our wives.”

The author of the letter, Mahmoud Hamdi Shabaneh, also wrote: “The crimes start when the prisoner is obliged to stand before the military judge in a system that ordered the crime and ends with a stroke of a pen deciding that this Palestinian is deprived of his freedom while the details are kept secret from the prisoner, who is gradually facing the possibility of serving a life sentence without knowing any details in order to defend himself.”

Shabaneh continued: “The judge is no more than an employee for Israel’s intelligence officers who can only approve their decisions. This completes the crime.”

In his letter, Shabaneh called upon the people of Palestine to stand beside the families of the prisoners during this crisis. “Support them and do not leave them alone,” he urged.

Israel denies Palestinians in the occupied territories of their basic rights by trying them in military, rather than civilian, courts. Furthermore, the occupation authorities frequently hold Palestinians under what Israel euphemistically calls “administrative detention”, which is a procedure that allows them to imprison Palestinians indefinitely without ever bringing formal charges.