Ramallah, 1st September 2004 - Report on visit by Oxford PSC / Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association delegation (Niki Carter, Keith Hyams, Jenny Stanton)
Yesterday we visited my friend Basim Sbeih in Bethlehem, who works for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society. It was a roller-coaster of emotions, seeing his childhood places, Solomon’s Pools on a pine-covered hillside – 3 enormous ancient pools, now empty, where he used to swim as a child – and beside them a hotel abandoned before construction was complete, bullet holes on its tower, dog turds on the marble terraces, wores sticking out of the walls. More than 2oo workers lost their jobs. “One of the disadvantages of
our intifada” Basim said. At his parents’ home in Khader village, we saw from the roof the settler road 20 metres away, cutting them off from the green hill where Basim loved to walk. Roadblocks prevent the villgers from using the settler road. For settlers it’s five minutes to Jerusalem, for Palestinians in this village there’s no chance to go unless they have a special permit; for us it was half an hour or more through the checkpoint. When the Wall comes into the village, Basim’s parents will have to pass a
gate only open two times a day, to reach their fields.
Today we moved from Jerusalem to Ramallah. The Baladna Centre, where a year ago I met mothers of prisoners on their weekly vigil, is now the local centre of support for prisoners on hunger strike. Out of 8000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, between 3000 and 4000 are striking. (Figures vary – we have spoken with NGOs in Jerusalem and Ramallah – they say it’s hard because they cannot have direct access to prisoners, only via lawyers, and these are not being allowed in at the moment in many jails.) Basim Sbeih said the prisoners have 20 demands, beginning with an end to the stripping of prisoners. They want health care, medicine, even surgery, for the 800 prisoners who are injured and ill. Families to be allowed to visit.
Basim knows one prisoner in jail for 20 years who has not seen his sons in all that time. They want to be allowed to phone their families at time of emergency, for example a father dying. Those in ‘administrative detention’ are held separately, without trial.
Inside the Baladna, there were about 20 beds for men fasting in support of the prisoners. Some have fasted for a week, others a few days. I spoke to a group who called me over; they had all been prisoners and were fasting for their friends in jail, some for as long as 25 years, who were closer to them than family. The one who spoke English had been in for 12 years, the next man for 17 years, the next 13 years, the next 14 years. Why? “We asked for a flag, a nation, identity. We want our children to live freely, like children in other countries.”
By the 4th of Spetember, the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike will have continued for 20 days. Co-ordinated by a coalition of organisations, the hunger strike is news in every town in Palestine, with tents for supporters to conduct their fasts. One person has died so far, not a prisoner but a mother who was on hunger strike in sympathy – we don’t have the details yet.
The prisoners and their supporters are very keen that people in other countries should know about their action and press their governments for support. Their demands are for rights that all prisoners should have under humanitarian law, and their action is non-violent – as Gandhi’s grandson said when he spoke at the rally here last week.
Jenny Stanton, Ramallah, 1.9.04
our intifada” Basim said. At his parents’ home in Khader village, we saw from the roof the settler road 20 metres away, cutting them off from the green hill where Basim loved to walk. Roadblocks prevent the villgers from using the settler road. For settlers it’s five minutes to Jerusalem, for Palestinians in this village there’s no chance to go unless they have a special permit; for us it was half an hour or more through the checkpoint. When the Wall comes into the village, Basim’s parents will have to pass a
gate only open two times a day, to reach their fields.
Today we moved from Jerusalem to Ramallah. The Baladna Centre, where a year ago I met mothers of prisoners on their weekly vigil, is now the local centre of support for prisoners on hunger strike. Out of 8000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, between 3000 and 4000 are striking. (Figures vary – we have spoken with NGOs in Jerusalem and Ramallah – they say it’s hard because they cannot have direct access to prisoners, only via lawyers, and these are not being allowed in at the moment in many jails.) Basim Sbeih said the prisoners have 20 demands, beginning with an end to the stripping of prisoners. They want health care, medicine, even surgery, for the 800 prisoners who are injured and ill. Families to be allowed to visit.
Basim knows one prisoner in jail for 20 years who has not seen his sons in all that time. They want to be allowed to phone their families at time of emergency, for example a father dying. Those in ‘administrative detention’ are held separately, without trial.
Inside the Baladna, there were about 20 beds for men fasting in support of the prisoners. Some have fasted for a week, others a few days. I spoke to a group who called me over; they had all been prisoners and were fasting for their friends in jail, some for as long as 25 years, who were closer to them than family. The one who spoke English had been in for 12 years, the next man for 17 years, the next 13 years, the next 14 years. Why? “We asked for a flag, a nation, identity. We want our children to live freely, like children in other countries.”
By the 4th of Spetember, the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike will have continued for 20 days. Co-ordinated by a coalition of organisations, the hunger strike is news in every town in Palestine, with tents for supporters to conduct their fasts. One person has died so far, not a prisoner but a mother who was on hunger strike in sympathy – we don’t have the details yet.
The prisoners and their supporters are very keen that people in other countries should know about their action and press their governments for support. Their demands are for rights that all prisoners should have under humanitarian law, and their action is non-violent – as Gandhi’s grandson said when he spoke at the rally here last week.
Jenny Stanton, Ramallah, 1.9.04