Thousands of protesters today staged rallies in the West Bank and Jerusalem to show their solidarity with Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails who entered day 15 of a hunger strike. The strike was initially sparked by the solitary confinement of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Ahmed Saadat. Tomorrow in Ramallah at 11:30 AM, a general strike will be launched in all administrative PA offices and NGO's. The main demand of the hunger strikers is an end to hardened conditions and in particular solitary confinement policies. On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad spoke to rally support for the Palestinian prisoners' case, pleading for the United Nations to make a statement of support for the case. He called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN institutions to support the strikers in their demands for basic human rights. “The greatest injustice is keeping them in detention against international convention and norms,” he stated in a government press statement. Local sources in Ramallah told Bikyamasr.com that the acts of solidarity Tuesday and on Wednesday are done primarily to object to prisoner conditions, but secondly to call on the international community to notice and monitor the violations allegedly going on inside Israeli jails. “First of all it (the protest and general strike) is to show the prisoners who are striking that they are not alone and that the whole Palestinian public is with them and supporting them,” a free media activist and concerned Ramallah citizen said. “The protest will be appealing to the international community to not only better the situation inside Israeli jails, but also to monitor these violations that are increasing as we speak.” Palestinian prisoner's rights groups such as the Palestinian Prisoners Society have been in an ongoing dialogue with major worldwide human rights organizations to monitor the conditions of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a press statement on Monday that conditions for Palestinians in Israeli jail were “cruel and degrading.” Meanwhile, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners' Society legal team Jawad Boulos reported on Monday that the health of PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat and other detainees was drastically stagnating. Saadat was captured by Israeli forces from a Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho in 2006. Israel sentenced him to 30 years for masterminding the assassination of former Israeli tourism minister Rahavam Zeevi in 2001. The solitary confinement has affected his health dramatically and sources told Bikyamasr.com that he was on the brink of going into a coma. Claiming that Israeli prison authorities do not provide sufficient medical attendance, PFLP and various prisoner groups stated that they will hold the Israeli government “solely responsible for the health of the prisoners.” PFLP-affiliated detainees launched the hunger strike on September 27 to protest worsening prison conditions, after which other factions joined the strike in prisons throughout Israel. BM
