Nablus- This time is different from the previous ones for Hajj Nayfa Badir, the mother of the prisoner Samer. Coming to the Martyrs’ Roundabout in the center of Nablus was the top of her tasks today, and for this she endured the hardship of traveling from her village of Beita, south of the city, crossing the Awarta checkpoint, which is considered one of the worst military checkpoints of the occupation army, to participate. The Palestinian masses who came out in rejection of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip and in support of the prisoners.
Coinciding with the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, thousands of Palestinians gathered this afternoon in the middle of city centers in the West Bank, as part of a national program of events adopted by prisoners’ institutions and national and Islamic forces, with broad participation from various civil and official sectors.
The participants in the vigils denounced the crimes and genocide committed by the Israeli occupation in Gaza, and its crimes and escalating violence towards the prisoners, whose number exceeded 10,000 prisoners. Since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, the occupation has killed more than 47 prisoners.
The rights of their children
Umm Samer (60 years old) stood alongside her fellow prisoners’ mothers, and held high a picture of her captive son, Samer Badir, who had been sentenced to 22 years in prison, and whom she had not visited for 16 months, and knew only what information had been suggested about him. She paid a heavy price to reach her and be reassured. On her son, and what he suffers in the Negev prison, where prisoners suffer various types of torture.
Through Tel Aviv Tribune Net, Umm Samer conveyed her message to the world and the goal for which she came today, saying, “I have suffered for more than two decades during my visits to my son in the occupation prisons, but my suffering since the war on Gaza has been more severe and cruel. They have robbed the prisoners of everything, food, drink, cover, and treatment.” And visits, and I came today to restore their most basic rights.”
Like Umm Samer, mothers and fathers raised pictures of their captive children and chanted their slogans in support of them, and sent messages to the world before the local community stopped what they called the occupation’s massacres and crimes against them.
Among the attendees was former prisoner M.N., who was released a few days ago, and who comes from the city of Nablus. He came to testify about the suffering he faced during a year of detention, during which the torture against him and the prisoners in Shatta prison where he was held did not stop. Beating them with sticks, spraying them with pepper gas, and mauling them with dogs are “the least tools of punishment,” he says.
The released prisoner, who has entered his seventh decade, adds, “I saw prisoners whose teeth were broken, prisoners who were completely stripped and placed on top of each other, and others who were subjected to a form of rape through an electronic inspection device, and I suffered bleeding and fainted 3 times within a few minutes as a result of the beatings.”
He asserts, “This year has not passed for the captive movement. They face torture, punishment in all its forms, and starvation. They only give the prisoner what keeps him alive so they continue to torture him.”
Solidarity Day
Palestinian prisoner organizations and officials sent numerous messages through solidarity activities today in the West Bank, warning of the danger of what the prisoners are exposed to at this stage, especially with the increase in arrests, which have approached 12,000 cases since the war on Gaza, and which the occupation has intensified in the recent period.
The head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, Abdullah Zaghari, describes what is happening against the prisoners as “genocide,” which has led to a rise in the number of captive martyrs to 47 martyrs since the war on Gaza, while others – especially Gaza prisoners – face “forced disappearance and an unknown fate by the occupation.”
Zaghari told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “Israel is carrying out a war of revenge that expresses hatred and malice against the prisoners, who only have their own will after the occupation stripped them of all their rights, and isolated them after turning their prisons into ghettos and cemeteries.”
In light of the occupation’s denial of all international agreements and covenants, and those it signed with the Palestinians, and its obstruction of the work of international humanitarian organizations, the most important of which is the Red Cross, which is prohibited from visiting prisoners, Zaghari confirms that the issue of prisoners is considered “central” by the Palestinian leadership, and stands on the list of priorities of the Palestinian Authority, and remains To present it before various legal authorities, especially the International Criminal Court.
Zaghari adds, “The issue of prisoners – like other Palestinian issues – is denied by Israel and supported by America, and through its veto it prevents the implementation of many of the decisions taken 14 months ago of the war on Gaza,” considering that this is the biggest challenge facing the Palestinians.
Zaghari believes that the unity of the Palestinians today at the level of the cities of the West Bank has its impact and influence in supporting the prisoners, shedding global light on their suffering, and holding the international system responsible for providing protection for them and the Palestinian people in general. He says, “Today the issue of the prisoners – as well as the issue of Palestine – has its status at the international level.” “Especially in light of the crimes committed by the occupation against them that exceed the human mind.”
The role of authority
Member of the Executive Committee of the Liberation Organization, Wasel Abu Youssef, says that prisoners are subjected to various types of killing, isolation, and torture, and are deprived of sleep, food, and drink. The occupation prevents their families and human rights institutions from visiting them, and deprives them of treatment in light of the spread of infectious diseases, specifically the skin disease “Scabius,” in addition to overcrowding. Inside prisons.
Abu Youssef adds, “But despite all that and despite his pain, it will not break the will of the Palestinians or end their national cause and rights, nor will it prevent them from achieving their dream of their independent state.”
In a speech he delivered during an event in the central city of Nablus, the same speaker added that the war of extermination that the occupation continues would not have continued without the American silence and partnership with Israel, and the world’s silence regarding its crimes.
He stressed that these solidarity activities send messages to the world, the most important of which is that any solution for the Palestinians must be based on stopping aggressive war, genocide, and crime, and rejecting everything related to the goals of the occupation, whether displacement, starvation, thirst, or siege.
The official considered that the International Criminal Court’s decision regarding the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “gave the Palestinians a glimmer of hope in their approach to the International Court of Justice and the United Nations General Assembly and holding Israel accountable,” considering that this comes in the right direction, “because without imposing sanctions “Israel must be tried and isolated, and its crimes will increase, especially in light of the unlimited American support.”
