Palestinians rally for Israel prisoners
2013-02-18 20:56
Bethlehem - Palestinians blocked roads and held marches
across the West Bank on Monday to protest the fate of thousands of their
countrymen held in Israeli jails and demand the release of four detainees on
hunger strike.
The hunger strikers include Samer Issawi, 35, whose
health has severely deteriorated after staging an on-again, off-again strike
for more than 200 days.
The men were all in stable condition, said a spokesperson
for Israel's prison authority, Sivan Weizman.
Israel is holding some 4 500 Palestinians for charges
ranging from throwing stones to undertaking deadly militant attacks.
Their incarceration is a sensitive issue for
Palestinians, who see them as heroes of their struggle for liberation from the
Jewish State.
Hundreds of men and women in the southern town of Hebron
brandished yellow, red, black-and-white flags of different Palestinian
factions.
Other demonstrators held up photographs of their loved
ones behind bars, some in heavily ornate frames.
"Freedom for the prisoners!" they chanted.
Near the biblical city of Bethlehem, Israeli forces
chased protesters who blocked a major West Bank road.
Soldiers chased them with sticks and hurled tear gas and
stun grenades between jammed cars as Palestinians blocked traffic, waving their
national black-green-red-and-white flag and shouting support for the prisoners.
There were no reports of injuries. A military spokesperson
said forces responded after Palestinians hurled rocks at soldiers.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, about 50 activists
demonstrated at a UN office. Another demonstration was staged in the northern
city of Nablus.
Of the four hunger striking prisoners, Issawi has refused
food for the large part of some 200 days.
He was hospitalised over the weekend after he lost
consciousness, but his condition improved after receiving an IV drip containing
vitamins and minerals, a lawyer for the men, Jawad Boulous said.
Another prisoner, Ayman Sharawneh, refused food for 70
days.
He halted his strike for a month and resumed it two weeks
ago, said prison spokesperson Weizman. The other two men have refused food since
they were incarcerated almost three months ago, she said.
Freed
Issawi and Sharawneh were prisoners who were freed as
part of a 2011 exchange that released hundreds of Palestinians, many of them
militants involved in deadly attacks, in exchange for an Israeli soldier held
by Hamas-backed militants.
Issawi's original sentence was 26 years "for a
terrorist act" but he had served only six years, Weizman said.
The four were re-arrested and sent to prison for
violating the terms of their release, Weizman said. She said Issawi was banned
from entering the West Bank but entered three times after he was freed.
He was arrested in July, said Anat Litvin from Physicians
for Human Rights-Israel.
The Israeli rights group monitors Palestinian prisoners.
Litvin said neither Issawi nor Sharawneh, who was
arrested in January 2012, has been sentenced. Israel's high court is expected
to hear Sharawneh's appeal on 20 February. There were no details on the
original accusations against Sharawneh or how he had violated the terms of his
release.
The other two men, Tarek Qaadan and Jafar Ezzeldeen, are
being held on administrative detention, a system where prisoners can be held
without being charged for months at a time.
Boulous said that in an appeal to Israel's high court,
the prisoners rejected a plea bargain under which they would be released after
an additional three months in administrative detention.
The hunger striking prisoners are refusing hospital
treatment because they did not want to be shackled by their hands and feet to
hospital beds, as they has been done in the past, said Litvin of Physicians for
Human Rights.
Last year hundreds of Palestinian prisoners went on a
mass hunger strike to demand better incarceration conditions. In a deal
mediated by Egyptian officials, they were promised more family visits and
limits on administrative detention.
- AP
