Ref: 47/2012

In continuation of mobilization and advocacy efforts exerted by PCHR in support of the cause Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons, Hamdi Shaqqura, Deputy Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) for Programs Affairs, participated in a meeting organized by the French NGOs Platform for Palestine to discuss the Platform's planned campaign against the administrative detention policy.

Palestinian, regional and French organizations participated in the meeting which discussed the support and advocacy campaign that the French NGOs Platform for Palestine plans to organize against administrative detention.  The meeting provided an opportunity to review the conditions in Israeli prisons and to highlight the hunger strike of around 2,000 Palestinians that has begun three weeks ago as well as the risks threatening the lives of 2 prisoners who have been on hunger strike for more than 70 days.

During the meeting, Shaqqura suggested that an immediate action be taken in order to support prisoners on hunger strike and in order to meet their demands.  He explained that Palestinian prisoners are on hunger strike because they have demands that need to be met, adding that these prisoners use their bodies and wills to peacefully struggle against a series of systematic violations of their rights, including administrative detention, isolation, denial of family visits, bad detention conditions, … etc.

The meeting was concluded by the publication of a joint statement signed by all the participating organizations.  This statement denounces Israeli violations of Palestinian prisoners’ rights, mainly administrative detention.

The French NGOs Platform for Palestine was created in 1993 and gathers 27 French organizations. The Platform supports the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and it promotes the values of democracy and citizenship.  It also aims at increasing the French public's awareness of the rights of the Palestinian people.

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