Al Mezan Concerned for Lives of Prisoners

Al Mezan Concerned for Lives of Prisoners Mahmoud As-Sarsak and Akram Ar-Rakhawi; Calls on International Community to Intervene for Their Release and Oblige Israel to Respect Principles of Justice

03/06/2012
The prisoner Mahmoud As-Sarsak is continuing his hunger strike, now on its 77th consecutive day, as is Akram Abdullah Ar-Rakhawi, now entering his 54th consecutive day, in order to achieve their just demands. The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights notes that a number of detainees started individual hunger strikes on 29 February 2012. On 17 April 2012, about 1,600 Palestinian detainees started a collective hunger strike, which ended on 14 May 2012 after the Israeli authorities responded to a number of their demands. However, some prisoners undertaking individual action have now been on hunger strike for more than two consecutive months.

According to the information available to Al Mezan, Mahmoud As-Sarsak is a member of the Palestinian national soccer team, who is being detained under Israel’s Unlawful Combatant Law. He has now been on hunger strike for 77 consecutive days and has lost about 30 kilograms of body mass, leaving his current weight at 40 kilograms. According to a lawyer at the Al Dameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, As-Sarsak’s health condition has become critical: he suffers from weakness of the myocardium (heart muscle tissue) and intestinal disturbances, he cannot walk or see, and is in pain in different parts of his body. He has also suffered fainting spells several times.

Akram Abdullah Ar-Rakhawi, 39, was detained on 7 June 2004 and was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment. He has been on hunger strike for 54 consecutive days. He has been serving his term in Ar-Ramla prison hospital for eight years, as he suffers from asthma. His health condition has deteriorated and he is now suffering from diabetes, brittleness of the bones, atrophy of the eye lenses, cataracts, increased cholesterol levels, and kidney problems. According to a lawyer at Al Dameer, Ar-Rakhawi has lost 18 kilograms of body mass. He is on hunger strike in order to demand his release, given that he has served two-thirds of his sentence and his health condition has deteriorated under Israeli detention.

Al Mezan reiterates its expression of solidarity with As-Sarsak and Ar-Rakhawi and other Palestinian and Arab detainees in Israeli prisons, and holds the Israeli authorities responsible for their lives. Al Mezan strongly condemns Israel’s gross abuses of Palestinian detainees, starting with the Unlawful Combatant Law, administrative detention, and other procedures that violate detainees’ rights, including solitary confinement, medical negligence, barring of family visitation, and other practices that violate human rights standards, particularly the UN Minimum Standards for the Treatment of Prisoners.

Al Mezan emphasizes that Israel’s Unlawful Combatant Law and administrative detention are gross violations of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War. They also violate principles of fair trial and protection guaranteed by international law. Israel’s practices against Palestinian detainees reveal a politicized justice system which provides legal cover for crimes carried out in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights calls on the international community to intervene for immediate release of detainees on hunger strike. Al Mezan also calls on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to revoke the Unlawful Combatant Law and cease administrative detention, to end Israel’s systematic and flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and principles of fair trial, to exert pressure on Israel to uphold its legal obligations and duties to respect detainees’ rights, including freedom from torture and ill-treatment, and to provide for detainees’ needs, including health care and the right to family visitation and correspondence and communication. It also calls on the international community to take action for the immediate release of children, women, and those detained without trial, as a preliminary step towards the release of all Palestinian detainees.

Al Mezan calls on civil society groups, national and international human rights organizations, and political parties to express their solidarity with Palestinian detainees and to expose Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law.

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