In his letter to PUIC President and Secretary-General on the occasion of the Day of the Palestinian Prisoners, Speaker of the Palestinian National Council noted that the policy of daily detention carried out by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians and their transfer outside the borders of their occupied country constitutes a war crime and a flagrant violation of the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Al-Za’noun also stressed the need for the release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees and called upon the Israeli Knesset to repeal its racist legislation against them which constitute a violation to the rules and provisions of relevant international agreements.

Following is the translation of the letter of Mr. Salim Al - Za'noun:

Palestine National Council

Speaker’s Office Date 16/4/ 2019

H.E. Sheikh Mouhamed Khouraichi Niass

PUIC Secretary General

Greetings

Subject: Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Occupation jails

The Palestinian people observe the 17th of April every year, as the “Day of the Palestinian Prisoner” which has been adopted by the Palestine National Council in recognition of the sacrifices of the heroic prisoners and detainees in the prisons of the occupation and in support of their steadfastness.

The PNC recalls that the Israeli occupation authorities have arrested since 1967 up to now, about a million Palestinian from all categories of the society. These authorities continue to keep in their prisons 6000 Palestinian distributed in about 23 prisons and detention centers, including 47 women prisoners, 250 children, 430 administrative detainees and 7 former members of Parliament.

About 1800 prisoners are suffering various illness as a result of torture, medical negligence and health care.

The PNC affirms that all facts establish that the great majority of the Palestinian prisoners, with their different ethnicities and age groups have experienced one kind or more of physical and psychologic torture, being inhumane and degrading in character, in contradiction to articles 83 -96 of the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949, which also constitutes a violation of articles 3 and 31 of the same Convention on Combating torture of 1984. As a result, 218 prisoners were martyred since 1967.

The PNC underlines that the policy of daily arrests which the Israeli occupation is carrying out against the Palestinians as well as deporting them outside the borders of their occupied country constitutes a war crime and a blatant violation of the provisions of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which stipulates that protected persons (prisoners) must be detained in their country, and their families must be enabled to visit them. The occupation authorities are continuing the policy of administrative detention which is contrary to Article 78 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Pursuant to the above, the PNC would like to inform the following:

The prisoners and detained Palestinians are prisoners of war and freedom strugglers. They must be released immediately. Israel, the occupying powers is demanded to pay reparations to the Palestinian victims for its organized terror which it is practicing against them, particularly the prisoners and detainees among them.

The States of the World are requested to shoulder their responsibilities for the Palestinian prisoners, and answer back to the campaigns of incitement and methodical punishment measures which the occupation is implementing against them, the last of which has been the pirating of the payments made by the Palestinian government to the families of the prisoners from the tax money which Israeli collects against a fee for doing this on its behalf.

Compelling the Israeli Occupation to abide by the rules and conventions of the international humanitarian law which have ensured protection of the rights of prisoners, especially the provisions of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949, which are binding to Israel, and must apply on the Palestinian prisoners in its jails, considered as war prisoners.

Compelling Israel, the Occupying power, to be committed to Articles 90 and 91 of the Geneva Convention which ensures the rights of the Palestinian prisoners to have access to necessary medical treatment and adequate health care, including regular medical checkups.

Demanding the Israeli Knesset to rescind its racist legislations against the Palestinian prisoners and detainees, considered as legislations that violate the rules of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as other relevant international laws such as the law on holding a part of the financial dues of the Palestinian National Authority; Law on depriving the prisoners from education; Law on recognition by Israeli civil courts of the decisions of Israeli military courts; Law on combating terrorism; Law on forced feeding which is a kind of torture and degrading inhuman treatment; act on indicating Palestinian without evidence; Law on absolving intelligence services from documenting interrogation of Palestinian detainees; Law on physical search without suspicion; and Law on prosecuting children under 14 years.

Salim Zaanoon

PNC Speaker