JERUSALEM, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestinians jailed in Israeli prisons are going to start a hunger strike Wednesday to protest against what they call "an escalating series of punitive measures by the Israel Prison Service (IPS)."
Beginning this week, the prisoners will go on a hunger strike every Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, together with other forms of disobedience, including refusal to wear prison uniforms or cooperate with any other IPS demands, according to a press release from Addameer, a non-governmental organization working to promote Palestinian prisoners' rights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on June 23 that he was working to revoke the "privileges" of the Palestinians incarcerated in the Israeli prisons, in response to Hamas' earlier rejection of the request by the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid in 2006 and is thought to be held in Gaza.
Those measures affected "everything from prisoners' access to education, books and family visits, to the IPS's use of isolation and fines as punishment," said the Addameer statement.
Some 7,000 Palestinians are now held in Israeli prisons. The rights group calls on the Palestine Liberation Organization to refuse to return to peace negotiations with Israel before all Palestinian and Arab political prisoners are released.
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