Kayed Fasfous, a well-known Palestinian prisoner, has been freed by the Israeli authorities.
Two weeks after reaching a deal on his release, Kayed Fasfous has been able to taste freedom as a Palestinian freedom fighter.
All those who have followed the I.R.A prisoners will remember the marathon hunger strike of Bobby Sands. Briefly for our younger readers, Bobby Sands was a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who lost his life while being on a marathon hunger strike. Bobby Sands was imprisoned at Her Majesty’s prison maze in Northern Ireland which is occupied by the British. Bobby Sands was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike in which the Republicans protested against their treatment. The prisoner’s aim was to be considered as political prisoners as opposed to criminals.
Bobby was elected as a member of the House of Commons while being on a hunger strike in prison. Bobby Sands died on the 5th May 1981 in the maze’s prison hospital after 66 days on hunger strike. He was 27 years old. Riots followed his death. Sands will live for ever as a martyr to all those who love liberty round the world.
Kayed Fasfous carried out a marathon hunger strike for 131 days.
Kayed Fasfous was the symbolic figurehead of a group of six hunger strikers who were protesting against the fascist controversial policy of “Administrative Detention”. What is “Administrative Detention”?
Administrative Detention allows Palestinian suspects including kids to be held indefinitely without any charge.
The Administrative Detention practice allows the Israeli authorities to:
- Deny the right of due process to any Palestinian.
- Keep any Palestinian prisoner for years without showing to the Prisoner the alleged evidence against him or her.
- Deprive the prisoners of any access to lawyers.
Individuals held under administrative rules must be brought before a judge within 8 days (yes 8 days not 24 hours and yet many in the West will say that the State of Israel is democratic!). What sort of judges are they?
They are military judges. These judges may “accept evidence in the absence of the detainee or their counsel (when they are allowed at a very late stage) and without disclosing the evidence to them” (see the report of the Israeli Human Rights Group B’tselem) if they are convinced that disclosing the evidence may “harm regional security or public security”.
The Administrative Detention practice is very rarely applied to the Jews. Apartheid laws… there are many in Israel.
Kayed Fasfous served five years in Israeli prisons without any charge pressed against him. And you surely understand that he did not face any trial. During his hunger strike Kayed Fasfous lost around 100 pounds.
The other hunger strikers have also ended their hunger strikes. They are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, Kayed Fasfous has returned to this home on Sunday afternoon. Kayed Fasfous is presently living in the illegally occupied West Bank near the southern city of Hebron where he was rightly acclaimed as a hero.
Presently Israel holds some 4650 Palestinian prisoners including 200 children, 40 women and 520 administrative detainees. And since the Six Day War in 1967, Israel has imprisoned more than 700,000 Palestinians for political crimes.
RAMA VALAYDEN
NOTE : Les points de vue exprimés dans cette rubrique ne reflètent pas nécessairement ceux de la rédaction et n’engagent que les auteurs eux-mêmes.
