The International League of Peoples Struggle Commission 3 condemns in the strongest possible terms the vicious attacks by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian women political prisoners in the notorious Damon prison, one of many detention facilities across Israel for Palestinian political prisoners.
On January 31, Israeli troops violently attacked the women prisoners’ section in Damon prison, confiscating all of their possessions and isolating Palestinian prisoner Yasmine Shaaban, who served as the women political prisoners’ spokesperson. The attack was the culmination of a series of repressive measures taken by Damon prison authorities against Room No. 10, removing all electrical appliances and imposing sanctions on its occupants. A day later, the authorities cancelled family and lawyers’ visits to all the women prisoners, in an effort to deprive them of access to the outside world and prevent outsiders from knowing about the repression.
The women prisoners at Damon have resisted the invasion in various forms, including burning items inside the prison cells. Their defiance has inspired Palestinian political prisoners in other detention facilities to come up with their own measures of protest, including closing the sections in all prisons and refusing to stand up or come out for security checks. Some prisoners have gone on hunger strike.
Israeli occupation forces have retaliated not only by seizing electrical appliances and basic necessities, but by blocking the entry of food purchased from the prison store and cutting off electricity and hot water, a particularly cruel tactic as temperatures in the Palestinian winter can drop to as low as 9 degrees Centigrade at night. Prison authorities are seeking to reverse the political prisoners’ gains, such as the right to cook their own food, which they won through long and arduous struggles such as hunger strikes.
Identified leaders of the political prisoners’ resistance have been transferred to isolation cells in other prisons in an effort to smash the ongoing self-organization and mobilization of prisoners.
The International League of Peoples Struggle Commission 3 is in firm solidarity with the Palestinian political prisoners as they confront the attacks against them. ILPS Commission 3 hails the political prisoners of Palestine for being among those at the forefront of the Palestinian resistance, steadfastly confronting Israeli occupation forces on a daily basis, organizing and staking their very lives in this struggle.
We, likewise, join other forces from the international community in protests and other efforts to raise awareness about the plight of Palestinian political prisoners and the justness of the Palestinian liberation struggle against Israeli occupation and to isolate the US imperialist-supported Israeli occupation regime worldwide.
Free all Palestinian political prisoners!
Support the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation!
Down with the US-supported Israeli occupation regime!