Hi, I’m Patricia Skinner. Khalid has very kindly invited me to come along today and put down a few words on what I know about life in Palestine to mark Palestinian Prisoners Day. I live next door in Jordan, so we have a clear window on what is going on with the Palestinians on a day-to-day basis.
Most of you will be unfamiliar with Palestinian Prisoners Day. In fact, April 17, 2007 may be the very first time you’ve ever heard of it. For the most part, it affects just a small corner of humanity; those Palestinians living in Occupied territory who have fallen foul of the many rules laid down by their occupiers, the Israelis.
But there are many Small Corners of Humanity being oppressed out there, and together they add up to a mighty chunk of the human race. So We Who Have a Conscience owe it to each other to stick together and support each other’s causes. Don’t you agree?
I expect you’d like some statistics.
The hard facts are that over 20 percent — yes that’s 20 people out of every 100 — of Palestinians living in the Occupied territories have been detained at some point. According to Samoud, the number of prisoners at the moment stands at over 10,000. For a breakdown on the numbers, please visit the website.
Palestinians are allowed to be kept and tortured for up to 180 days without trial, and they can be deprived of legal representation for 90 days of this time. Torture is allowed under Israeli law, and the confessions extracted in this way are even considered admissible evidence in an Israeli court of ‘law.’ The Palestine Monitor will give you more information about this deplorable flouting of the Geneva Convention.
Many children are caught up in the Israeli detention process, more than you’d think because any child over the age of 14 is considered an adult to the Israelis, and will be tried as such. You can learn more here about Palestinian children in detention. I hope that you’ll take a look at these websites before you go on to read my true story about Bilal, a little Palestinian boy I befriended when he was having treatment in Jordan for terrible injuries sustained as a result of trying to get away from the Israeli Defence Force in order to avoid detention and torture.
My final thought is that the statistics are misleading. If you read the stories you’ll come to understand that all Palestinians living in the occupied territories are prisoners. It is up to every one of us to voice dissent and to keep on until Palestinians are free to enjoy their homes and their land, and to build lives for themselves.
Related posts:
