In honor of the April 17 Palestinian Prisoners Day, Students for Justice in Palestine remembers the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, hundreds of them women and children, who are illegally held in Israeli prisons. This day is particularly relevant in light of the recent Israeli roundup of more than 100 Palestinian women.
Since the Israeli occupation of Palestine in 1967, 10,000 to 15,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and/or detained, many of them under the age of 18.
Palestinian women are imprisoned or indefinitely detained in Israel, which is in violation of Article 76 of the Geneva Convention, which states that an occupying power must detain residents of occupied territory in prisons inside the occupied territory.
Female Palestinian prisoners in Israel, even those who are pregnant, face medical negligence, psychological torture and sexual violence in addition to other injustices and human rights violations. As documented by Addameer, a human rights organization, 38 percent of Palestinian women prisoners have treatable diseases that are never treated. Addameer has also documented cases where Palestinian women were forced to give birth in Israeli prisons with very little or no pre- or post-natal care. One woman, Fatima al-Zeqq, gave birth while shackled to a bed.
Students for Justice in Palestine stands against these injustices, human rights abuses and violations of international law. We intend to work in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the struggle for liberation and self-determination. For more information on these issues, please visit addameer.org/detention/women.html and find Ohio University Students for Justice in Palestine on Facebook.
Eden Almasude is a senior studying molecular biology and a member of Students for Justice in Palestine.
