We, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), call upon all supporters of the Palestinian struggle to join us on October 14th - 23rd for a week of action in support of Palestinian political prisoners and their fight for freedom and dignity.
On September 25th, 30 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli military prisons began an indefinite hunger strike calling for an end to their “administrative detention.” Administrative detention is a systematic policy of arbitrary imprisonment whereby the Zionist state detains Palestinians and incarcerates them, without charge or trial, for an indefinite period. The policy is one of the many colonial tactics used by the occupation to routinely target, harass, intimidate, and silence Palestinian youth and organizers who become a symbol of hope for their people. In this way, administrative detention is ultimately an effort to dampen Palestinians’ collective spirit and deter them from continuing to organize for liberation.
Following the announcement of their collective open hunger strike, the Israeli Prison Services has punitively transferred all the detainees to isolation cells, away from the rest of the Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Out of the 30 detainees, 28 of them are held in Ofer Prison and are currently in collective isolation, divided into four separate prison cells. Of the other two, Salah Hammouri is being held in solitary confinement in Hadarim while Ghassan Zawahreh is being held in solitary confinement in Naqab Prison. Salah Hammouri, is a recognized Palestinian/French human rights defender and political prisoners lawyer working at Addameer, who has been the subject of the Israeli occupation harassment for over 22 years now and is currently facing an imminent threat of forced deportation from his hometown Jerusalem in an attempt of the Israeli occupation to further ethnically cleans Jerusalemites from Jerusalem.
Nonetheless, in the face of unspeakable repression, Palestinian political prisoners including Salah continue to demonstrate their courage and steadfastness on the frontlines of our struggle, using their bodies and their physical autonomy as tools to liberate themselves, and empowering others to do the same. Indeed, following the initial announcement and statement from the 30 hunger strikers, on October 9th, 20 more prisoners joined them — with a total of 50 Palestinian political prisoners now on hunger strike in protest of their detention.
We ask our people in the diaspora and our joint struggle partners, along with Palestinian/Arab organizations, collectives, and unions, to join us for a week of action in support of the hunger strike. We call on you to organize actions at Israeli embassies and consulates, engage politicians on all levels, mobilize media channels, organize twitter storms including influencers and others, release your own statements in solidarity, host educational events in your area with unions, students and policy makers, and issue public demands to your governments to apply sanctions against the settler-colonial state of Israel.
We will continue to uplift the courage, determination and steadfastness of Palestinian political prisoners by amplifying their demands: an end to administrative detention and the immediate and unconditional release of all Palestinian political prisoners held hostage in Zionist jails.
Until Return and Liberation,
