Living in the Shadow of The Wall

Women hold pictures of their relatives held in prison in Israel as Palestinians mark Prisoners’ Day.

Around 1600 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli Prisons started a hunger strike on Prisoner’s Day, 17th April, in order to protest against the conditions of Palestinian prisoners.

Around 300 Palestinians are currently held in Administrative Detention - held indefinitely without charge or trial. Prisoners are almost always held in Israel, rather than in the Palestinian territories which is a contravention of Article 76 of the 4th Geneva Convention, and makes receiving family visits extremely difficult.  According to Addameer “Visits to Palestinian prisoners and detainees are restricted to first degree relatives – children, spouses, parents, siblings and grandparents only. Men between the ages of 16 and 35 are typically prevented from visiting prisons inside Israel and receive the special entry permits only once a year if they are the brother of the detainee and biannually if they are the son of the detainee. Furthermore, in practice hundreds of families fail to receive permits at all, based on undisclosed “security grounds”. Thousands of Palestinian prisoners serve their entire sentences without receiving regular family visits.”