Today, Addameer marks Palestinian Prisoners’ Day by officially launching its new campaign, Prisoners at Risk, which will raise awareness of specific cases of Palestinian political prisoners whose detention presents serious dangers. The campaign will begin with a demand to free Ayed Dudeen, who has been held by Israel without charge or trial since October 2007, making him the currently longest held administrative detainee.

 

At present, almost 6,000 Palestinian political prisoners remain in Israeli prisons. While it is impossible to fully document the violations these prisoners have endured, it is vital that the voices of forgotten prisoners are magnified to illustrate the vast range and types of dangers that they are exposed to every day. The Prisoners at Risk campaign aims to highlight those cases that receive little public attention yet raise grave concern and require urgent action. They include prisoners suffering from serious diseases at risk of further deterioration as a consequence of medical neglect; prisoners at risk of indefinitely renewable detention without charge or trial; human rights defenders at risk of repeated arbitrary detention in an effort to quell their non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation; and prisoners at risk of torture because of their persistent refusal to be silent about their ill-treatment. “This campaign, and its focus on the mobilization of international civil society, is absolutely essential”, says Sahar Francis, director of Addameer, “because the failure of peace talks, including Oslo, to resolve the prisoner issue has amply demonstrated that without intense external pressure, Israel will never abide by international human rights and humanitarian law.”

 

Addameer inaugurates the campaign with Ayed Dudeen, a father of six who has spent the majority of the past 19 years in Israeli prison. For three and a half years now, Ayed has been held without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence, stripped of his most basic right to due process. For further information about Ayed’s case, please read his detailed profile and follow updates on his detention on .

 

Take action today on behalf of the Prisoners at Risk by joining our campaign and calling for Ayed’s immediate release.

In doing so, you will be joining members of international civil society presently mobilizing for Palestinian prisoners on this occasion. A demonstration has already taken place in front of the European Parliament on 15 April calling for the release of all prisoners, and a number of demonstrations and other events are also planned by Addameer partner solidarity groups in France, Greece, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

 

Please remember to inform us of any action you take in Ayed’s case by emailing [email protected] or posting about it on Ayed’s Facebook or the Prisoners at page Risk ;.