"increased visitation rights with humane treatment of family visitors; installation of a public telephone to communicate with families; and an end to medical negligence, solitary confinement and administrative detention".
Marwan Barghouti, the imprisoned Palestinian activist who called for the hunger strike, made his case in a New York Times op-ed, which included this rationale:
Hunger striking is the most peaceful form of resistance available. It inflicts pain solely on those who participate and on their loved ones, in the hopes that their empty stomachs and their sacrifice will help the message resonate beyond the confines of their dark cells. . . .
Palestinian prisoners and detainees have suffered from torture, inhumane and degrading treatment and medical negligence.
Barghouti added these damning statistics in his Times piece:
Approximately 40 percent of the Palestinian territory's male population has been imprisoned or detained by Israel at some point. Hundreds of the 6,500 Palestinians who are currently incarcerated are women, children, journalists and elected officials.
"There is hardly a single family in Palestine that has not endured the suffering caused by the imprisonment of one or several of its members".
In her Truthout report, Cohn writes that in one its rare public statements, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC):
Decried the "systematic suspension" by Israeli authorities of family visits for hunger strikers, and of permits for their families. Citing the Fourth Geneva Convention, the ICRC said Palestinians have a right to these visits, which can only be limited on a case-by-case basis for security reasons, not just for punitive or disciplinary purposes. . . .
"Family contact must be improved, not further restricted," said Mr de Maio, head of the ICRC delegation in Israel and the occupied territories, referring to the systematic suspension by Israeli authorities of family visits for detainees on hunger strike, and of the permits for their families. According to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, Palestinians are entitled to these visits, which can only be limited for security reasons, on a case by case basis, but never for strictly punitive or disciplinary purposes.
"The families are paying the price for this situation," said Mr de Maio. More generally, Palestinians are detained in Israel, rather than within the occupied territory as required by the law of occupation. As a consequence, family members have less access to their detained relatives. They need special permits and have to undertake long trips to see their loved ones, with checks and waiting times when crossing terminals or at the prison.
Palestinian author, grandmother, and political leader Samia Khouri, posted her own witness to the hunger strike, under the title, Starving for Justice. She expresses a pained awareness of how little attention the world pays to the strike. Her posting, in full, is below:
"How would you feel if your son or daughter went on a hunger strike demanding justice for more than a month, and nobody bothered to call you or check on you and your beloved one?
The silence is so loud that our hearts bleed with those mothers who are gathering daily in various areas including the Red Cross offices in the Palestinian Territories. Yet there is no reaction or action from the Israeli authorities or the international community to respond to their demands for basic rights as political prisoners, in accordance to the Geneva Convention.
So many of those political prisoners have been under administrative detention without any charge or trial.
In fact the only action taken was to move most of those prisoners to prisons near hospitals so that they can be hospitalised if need be or force-fed without any intention of starting a dialogue with them. How long will Israel continue to ignore the basic demands of those prisoners, and continue to get away with treating them with contempt void of any human dignity. Do they need to die before anybody cries out Enough is Enough?"
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