West Bank Municipality to Take on Hunger Strike in Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners

Rasa - Employees of the Beita municipality, South of Nablus city in the Northern occupied West Bank, declared on Wednesday that they would go on a 24-hour hunger strike in solidarity with some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners who have been on hunger strike for 10 days.

News ID: 429251

Date: 26 April 2017 - 21:52

RNA - Beita Mayor Wassef Mualla said that all members and employees of the municipality would be striking for 24 hours starting Thursday morning, Ma'an reported.

"in order to deliver a powerful and clear message to all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons that we are with them in their strike until they gain all their legitimate rights."

Mualla called upon all Palestinians to take concrete steps to show solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners, who are protesting the torture, ill treatment, and medical neglect of prisoners at the hands of Israeli authorities, as well as Israel’s widespread use of administrative detention, internment without trial or charges.

The Fatah movement, which organized the hunger strike, called for a general strike to be held across the occupied Palestinian territory Thursday in solidarity with the hunger strikers, and also pronounced Friday to be a “day of rage," urging the Palestinian people to "clash with the occupier" on that day.

A Palestinian teenager was detained from the Beita crossroads last week as Israeli forces attempted to prevent dozens of worshipers from Beita and the surrounding areas from performing Friday prayers at the crossroads as a form of demonstration in solidarity with the hunger-striking prisoners.

Israeli authorities have detained approximately one million Palestinians since 1948 and the subsequent occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in 1967, according to a joint statement released last week by Palestinian organizations.

According to prisoners' rights organization Addameer, some 6,300 Palestinians were held in Israeli custody as of March.

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