Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke by telephone Thursday about rallying Palestinians to support Palestinian prisoners in their hunger strike against certain Israeli prison policies, such as administrative detention, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported Friday, citing a Hamas statement.
According to the statement, the call between Mashaal and Abbas focused on rallying grassroots Palestinian efforts and all other levels to support the prisoner's demands to end the practices of administrative detention, solitary confinement and to reverse recent policy with respect to rolling back prisoner privileges and increasing penalties.
The two also discussed tactical strategy for emphasizing the hunger strike and prisoner issues on the public relations and diplomatic fronts.
The start of the strike last week coincided with the release of Khader Adnan, a prisoner who refused food for 66 days before agreeing to a deal under which he was freed. Adnan is a member of Islamic Jihad which has vowed to destroy Israel.
The goals of the open-ended strike, dubbed the “battle of empty stomachs” by organizers, are better jail conditions and an end to detentions without trial for Palestinians suspected of security offenses.
The striking prisoners have said they would drink only water and salt until their demands are met.
Prisoners also say they are protesting a government clampdown on prisoner rights that started in 2011, including preventing access to books, educational programs and new clothes, expanding solitary confinement, cutting back on family visits and forcing detainees to meet their lawyers with their hands cuffed.
Security prisoners began enrolling in university in 1994 after a number of them launched a hunger strike demanding the same right to study as criminal prisoners, who had enjoyed that right since 1978. The Open University doesn’t require students to have a high school matriculation certificate (bagrut), so Palestinian prisoners could study without preparatory courses.
Israel has taken measures against some 1,200 Palestinian prisoners involved in the hunger strike, denying them family visits and separating them from inmates not taking part in the protest.
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