• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > World

EU Lawmakers Pose Behind Bars for Palestinian Prisoners' Day

  • Members of the European Parliament take action in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners.

    Members of the European Parliament take action in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners. | Photo: ECCP

Published 18 April 2016
Opinion

Dozens of members of the EU parliament joined an exhibition called “If I were in Palestine” to show the plight of Palestinian inmates in Israel.

Members of the European Parliament from different political parties have participated in an art exhibition to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons to mark the International Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on April 17.

ANALYSIS:

Is International Palestine Solidarity Just a Symbolic Gesture?

Dozens of European parliamentarians posed for a photo behind bars as part of a wider photo exhibition titled “If I were in Palestine…,”  Belgium-based Palestina Soidariteit group which is a member of the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP).

There are more than 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, including over 400 children and 70 women, which is almost 1 percent of the adult male population in the occupied West Bank.

Prisoners Day has been commemorated annually since 1974, after the first Palestinian detainee - Mahmoud Hijazi - was released in a swap deal with Israel.

According to official estimates, Israel has arrested more than 4,800 arrests, including 1,400 children and minor teens since October 2015. Almost 700 Palestinians are held in indefinite administrative detention without charge or trial.

ANALYSIS:

How Israel Ignored the Oslo Accords Even Before the Ink Dried

“In the current situation of violent repression and acts of despair caused by a prolonged occupation the number of people being arrested and imprisoned on a daily basis has risen dramatically, ” ECCP said in a report on the action.

“The number of Palestinian children in Israeli jails has almost tripled compared to a few years ago.”

Meanwhile, thousands of palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank and Gaza to mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day as they demanded the release of those held behind bars by Israeli occupying force.

Family member of the prisoners were seen holding pictures of their loved ones and chanting slogans of resistance.

"We will spare no effort to have them released by either turning to international bodies, like the International Criminal Court, or by continuing to shed light on their plight with events like these," Issa Qaraqe, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization Commission for Prisoners Affairs said during one protest in Ramallah according to Al-Jazeera.

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.