Palestinian political prisoner in Israel on hunger strike
RAMALLAH, May 24, 2020 (WAFA) — A Palestinian prisoner currently held in Israeli solitary confinement is engaged in an open-ended hunger strike against the administrative detention policy.
Sami Janazreh, currently held in solitary confinement at the Israeli Ayla Prison, Sunday entered his 14th day of hunger strike against being placed under administrative detention without charge and abusive treatment.
Janazreh, 47, is the secretary-general of Fatah in al-Fawwar refugee camp in Hebron, and a father of three children, aged 8, 11 and 17.
Last Wednesday, IPS transferred Janazreh from the Naqab Prison to the Ayla Prison as a means to force him to end his hunger strike.
Israel’s widely condemned practice of administrative detention that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.
The US State Department has said in past reports on human rights conditions for Palestinians that administrative detainees are not given the “opportunity to refute allegations or address the evidentiary material presented against them in court.”
Amnesty International has described Israel’s use of administrative detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and has long called on Israel to bring its use to an end.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy, which violates international law.
