AMP calls on State Department to defend tradition of due process and human rights

CONTACT

Kristin Szremski
AMP director of media and communications
[email protected]
708.598.4267, ext. 22

(CHICAGO 05/09/2011) – A national grassroots organization, whose mission is to educate Americans about Palestine’s rich cultural and historical heritage, today is calling on the U.S. Department of State to intervene on behalf of 2,500 Palestinian political prisoners, who are engaged in a lengthy hunger strike to protest their inhumane and illegal incarceration as well as Israel’s illegal use of administrative detention.

The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) has issued an action alert for supporters to call U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffery Feltman to urge the US government to uphold our traditional values of freedom, justice and due process under the law by pressuring Israel to abide by international law and release the illegally held political prisoners.

In addition to calling on the State Department to intervene in this humanitarian crisis, AMP is also calling on members of the media to report on this situation that, if it were occurring in any other country, would most certainly make the news.

“The fact that more than half of those Palestinians being held illegally in Israeli prisons are engaged in this hunger strike has implications of huge importance to the world, especially Americans,” said Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid, political analyst and AMP National board member. “We are seen as unilaterally supporting Israel and its trenchant policies that deny Palestinians their human rights. And now, when people are being held without charge or trial, when children as young as 12 are being charged and convicted in a foreign language without their parents present, when families are prevented from visiting their loved ones because they can’t enter Israel, any death that results from this hunger strike could cause major unrest in Palestine and the US will look complicit in these deaths. That doesn’t help us appear as honest brokers in the Middle East.”

As of May 1, 2012, Israel was holding 4,653 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, in direct contravention of international law. This number includes 308 administrative detainees, 7 women and 218 children.

Administrative detention is the imprisonment of someone without charge or trial. Frequent and extended use of administrative detention is illegal under international law. Israel is following the path set by apartheid South Africa, which used illegal incarcerations to intimidate and harass the majority African population. Administrative detention allows Israel to hold Palestinians on “secret evidence,” which is never shown to prisoners or their lawyers. The six-month terms can be renewed indefinitely and some prisoners have spent years in jail without charge or trial. Also, the Fourth Geneva Convention also prohibits occupier Israel from incarcerating Palestinians within historic Palestine or what is known today as Israel.

“These tactics are entirely anathema to American values of due process and habeas corpus and our continued silence in the face of the dire conditions of these prisoners hurts the US image abroad,” said Dr. Hatem Bazian, AMP chairman. “We hope the State Department will publicly acknowledge that Palestinians also are deserving of their inherent human rights by making Israel finally comply with international law.”

Today, Bilal Diab, 27, and Thaer Halahleh, 33, have reached the 71^st day of their hunger strike and are very near death, with low heart rates, muscle atrophy and lapsing in and out of consciousness. They are joined by Hassan Safadi, 64 days; Omar Abu Shala, 62 days; Mohammad Taj, 51 days; Jaafar Azzedine, 47 days; Mohmoud Sarsak, 46 days; Abdullah Barghouti, 26 days.

Halahla, from Hebron, and Diab, of Kufr Ra’i, Jenin, have not eaten or taken nourishment for more than 70 days, the longest-lasting hunger strike among Palestinians in Israeli detention. The Israeli Supreme Court rejected their appeals of their detentions on May 7, effectively sentencing both men to death.

Since 1967, Occupier Israel has illegally arrested and detained nearly 20 percent -- or 700,000 -- of the Palestinian population in the occupied territories. Children are no exception. Since 2000, Israeli Occupation Forces have arrested at least 8,000 children, some as young as 12 years old, according to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner rights group.

AMP believes that as the beacon of human rights around the world, the United States has an obligation to uphold these rights everywhere, not just where it is political expedient to do so. Heeding the call of these hunger-striking prisoners would help the United States reclaim some of its moral legitimacy in the global arena and could go a long way in helping bring a fair and balanced foreign policy to the Middle East. It is imperative for the United States holds Israel accountable for the deplorable conditions that have brought these illegally detained prisoners to the point where they are willing to die affect change.