In Amman, activists rally for freedom of Jordanians in Israeli jails
Agencies | Apr 17,2012 | Jordan Times
AMMAN/RAMALLAH — At least 1,200 Palestinian inmates of Israeli jails began an open-ended hunger strike on Tuesday as thousands of people rallied across the occupied territories for Prisoners’ Day, Agence France-Presse reported.
As crowds gathered in towns and cities across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, three-quarters of the 4,700 Palestinians held by Israel began refusing food, said the Israel Prisons Service.
Of that number, 2,300 men said they would refuse food throughout the day, while another 1,200 said they were beginning a hunger strike, IPS spokeswoman Sivan Weizman told AFP.
“Around 2,300 security prisoners said they were refusing their daily meals, and around 1,200 prisoners said they were starting a hunger strike,” she said, adding: “We have coped with hunger strikes in the past and we are prepared to do so again now.”
Palestinian officials gave a higher figure of 1,500 and said the number was set to grow in the coming weeks.
This year’s Prisoners’ Day took on added symbolism due to the fact it coincided with the day Israel was to release Khader Adnan, an Islamic Jihad prisoner who went on hunger strike for a record 66 days in protest at being held without charge.
Lawyer Jawad Bulus told AFP he had not been informed exactly when Adnan would be freed, but a Palestinian source said he had been discharged from Ramle prison near Tel Aviv during the afternoon and was “on his way home” to the northern West Bank.
Speaking to crowds gathered in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, said “1,500 prisoners from all the factions” had joined it already with more set to join.
“We are united and undivided when it comes to prisoners, and we will stand by them until they get their demands,” he said.
In a letter smuggled out of prison, the hunger strikers said they would continue to starve themselves until their demands were met — or they died in the process.
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A Jordanian relative of a prisoner being held in an Israeli jail wipes her tears during a protest to mark Palestinian Prisoners Day, near the Israeli embassy in Amman, on Tuesday (AFP photo)