AMP Congratulates All Supporters of the Palestinian Political Prisoners

The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) welcomes and applauds the victorious deal that was reached with occupation forces on behalf of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners to end their historical hunger strike. 

Thaer Halahleh agreed to end his 77-day hunger strikes protesting Israel’s illegal use of administrative detention, solitary confinement and other abuses, after Israel agreed to release Halahleh on June 5. Bilal Diab reached a similar agreement and also ended his hunger strike of the same length. In addition, more than 2,000 other Palestinian political prisoners, who began their hunger strike on April 17, agreed to end their strike after the Israeli Prison Service agreed to several concessions.

BACKGROUND
More than four weeks ago, some 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners launched an open-ended hunger strike, risking their lives to achieve their goals. Their demands were clear and simple: Freedom or death.

The Prisoners' key demands included:

• Ending the policy of solitary confinement and isolation;
• Ending the use of administrative detention;Restoring the right for families of prisoners from the Gaza Strip to visit them, a right that has been denied to all families for more than 6 years;
• Canceling the ‘Shalit Law,’ which, as a punitive measure, restricted prisoners' access to educational materials, books and other reading materials. The law remains intact despite a prisoner swap deal last October;
• Ending systematic humiliation, including arbitrary strip searches, nightly raids and collective punishment

The Israeli Prison Service’s use of the above tactics all violates international law.

With this deal, Palestinian political prisoners have achieved their third victory in the past few months. They proved to the world that Palestinians yearn for nothing more than freedom, dignity and respect, and they are willing to pay the price for these basic rights, even with their lives.

AMP congratulates the courageous prisoners and asks our government to re-evaluate its blind support of Israel’s occupation and its continued violations of international law. The US government and the international community must pressure Israel to respect and uphold this deal and we must hold it accountable swiftly for any breach of this deal’s terms.

AMP believes that the prisoner issue is a result of Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestinian land, and that the occupation should come to an end

AMP would also like to thank our supporters and those who stood in solidarity with the prisoners. The victorious outcome of the prisoners’ hunger strike shows that, in addition to their great sacrifice, our call for fasting, prayers and National Call-In campaign to the US State Department has indeed paid off!