PRCS Organizes Sit-Ins in Support of Palestinian Detainees on Hunger Strike

(Al Bireh-19/4/2012): PRCS organized several sit-ins in a show of solidarity with Palestinian detainees on hunger strike. Work was suspended at all PRCS branches and sections in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Diaspora in support of those detainees.

Tens of PRCS staff and volunteers led by PRCS President Dr. Younis Al Khatib participated in a sit-in organized in front of the Society’s headquarters in Al Bireh. Participants held banners in support of the detainees’ just cause and demands, and called on international organizations to intervene to do them justice.

In his speech, Mohamad Ayyad, Media Advisor to President Al Khatib, said: “Israeli occupation authorities bear civil and criminal responsibility for the current and future conditions of Palestinian detainees. Israeli authorities must respect the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which legally applies in the oPT, facilitate the work of ICRC and enable it to fulfill its responsibilities in line with this Convention which is considered to be International Customary Law. As a national humanitarian Society guided by IHL and IM principles, PRCS affirms that Israeli measures which have led to this open-ended hunger strike constitute a crying violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

This Convention stipulates that internees shall receive the medical attention required by their state of health, enjoy conditions of hygiene sufficient to keep them in good health, enjoy complete latitude in the exercise of their religious duties, have the right to be visited by delegates of ICRC and to receive at least one relief parcel monthly. Moreover, Daily food rations for internees shall be sufficient and canteens shall be installed with profits credited to a welfare fund administered for the benefit of the internees. Internees shall be given all facilities to provide themselves with the necessary clothing, footwear and change of underwear. Medical inspections of internees shall be made at least once a month.

The Detaining Power shall encourage intellectual, educational and recreational pursuits, sports and games amongst internees. Internees shall have the right to present to the authorities in whose power they are, any petition with regard to the conditions of internment to which they are subjected. In every place of internment, the internees shall freely elect the members of a Committee empowered to represent them before the Detaining and the Protecting Powers, ICRC or any other organization which may assist them (Articles 76, 85, 89, 87, 86, 90, 91, 94, 95, 101 and 102 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949).