Hunger Strike: Repression and Resistance Continue

News items as reported by Ali Samoudi: Samidoun

• Special units of the Israeli prison administration raided an isolation ward in Jalama prison on April 25, 2012 after the prisoners there announced their participation in the hunger strike. The prisoners were reported transferred to an unknown destination.
• 140 prisoners in Megiddo prison on hunger strike on the ninth day of the Battle of the Empty Stomachs, the hunger Strike for Dignity, from at least Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front, were transferred to other locations. Prisoners in Megiddo prison, as well as in Bir Saba prison were subject to raids, inspections and beatings, at the same time hundreds more prisoners announced they would join the strike within several days. All sports television had been removed previously; today all news programming was removed from the prisoners’ cells.
• A spokesperson for the central leadership committee of the strike reported that the prison administration had engaged in extensive night raids over the past 2 days in an attempt to create an atmosphere of fear among the prisoners. Prisoners’ salt was confiscated and they have been isolated from the outside world. He emphasized that the response to this aggression by the prison administration must be for all prisoners to join the strike as soon as possible.
• He said that the raids did not deter the prisoners’ commitment nor impair their resolve or position, saying that the leadership committee is continuing to coordinate among all prisoners and adhering to their demands despite pressure and threats.
• A lawyer from the Mandela Association was prohibited from visiting isolated prisoners in Gilboa prison on April 25, reported lawyer Buthaina Duqmaq, president of the federation. She was denied permission to visit Sheikh Jamal abu el Hija, Mohammed Arman and Sayyed Abbas, the reason stated that they were on hunger strike.
• 150 prisoners in Ofer prison joined the strike on April 25 and 100 more will join the 1st of May. All factions will join the open hunger strike, and all prisoners not engaged in full open hunger strike will return all of their meals on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, as Ofer prisoners have been doing since April 17.