Who are the Palestinian prisoners?

There are approximately 4,600 Palestinian political prisoners inside Israeli jails. Palestinians, living under occupation and oppression for nearly 64 years, have been targeted for mass imprisonment and detention by the Israeli occupation. Nearly every Palestinian family has been touched by political imprisonment - a father, mother, son, daughter, sister, brother, cousin, uncle, and aunt. Since the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, over 650,000 Palestinians from those areas have been held as political prisoners - one out of every four Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza.

Forty percent of Palestinian men in the West Bank and Gaza have spent some time in occupation jails. Palestinian political prisoners are not only from the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians from the 1948 occupied Palestine, or Palestinian citizens of Israel, are also held as political prisoners, subject to an apartheid legal system that allows the use of secret evidence, torture evidence and gag orders against Palestinian ‘security prisoners’. There are currently 194 Palestinian political prisoners who are also citizens of Israel. Palestinian political prisoners are men and women, elderly and children. There are 7Palestinian women prisoners, even after an October 2011 prisoner exchange deal that was supposed to free all of the women prisoners. There are 218 child prisoners, including 33 under the age of 16. Child prisoners have been subject to torture, solitary confinement, and other harsh and inhumane conditions, alongside their adult fellow prisoners.

 (While Israelis - including settlers - are considered ‘adults’ at age 18, Palestinians are considered ‘adults’ at age 16.)

Palestinian political prisoners are also political leaders. Israeli Occupation Authorities have imprisoned 27 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Ameer Makhoul, one of the Palestinian prisoners who is also a citizen of Israel, was general director of Ittijah – The Union of Arab Community Based Associations and the Chairman of the Public Committee for the Defense of Political Freedom.

Writers, scholars, students and artists are also Palestinian political prisoners, including Palestinian scholar Dr. Ahmed Qatamesh, who has now been held without trial or charge for nearly a year, Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq, a professor at An-Najah University whose administrative detention was just extended for an additional six months, and Ola Haniyeh, a student leader at Bir Zeit University and a leading political prisoner solidarity activist abducted just before student elections and currently held under interrogation.

(Sources: Addameer, Prisoner Support and Human Rights Organization, and Samidoun, Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network)