19 November 1996
Press Release

BIRZEIT STUDENTS ENTER THIRD
WEEK OF OPEN-ENDED HUNGER STRIKE

from the Public Relations Office

Birzeit—Today, November 19, 1996, five detainees held without charge in the Ramallah Central Prison, including three Birzeit University students, enter their sixteenth day of hunger strike, demanding their immediate release from prison after more than eight months of detention without charge. Visitors from the University’s Human Rights Action Project and other report that the detainees appeared visibly tired from their prolonged strike and discouraged by the lack of response by the responsible authorities. The detainees have stated their intention to stop drinking water beginning from Friday, 22 November. The University is deeply concerned about the health of the detainees and the long-term effects of their strike, and joins them in calling for their immediate release.

The Palestinian National Authority has detained the students–Adeeb Ziadeh, Muhammad Ba’aloushi, and Mustafa Atari–since March without charge or legal proceedings. From the first days of their detention, the University has called on the competent authorities to act without delay in securing each detainee’s basic rights, beginning with the freedom from arbitrary arrest. In this light, the University welcomed the release on Thursday, 14 November of two students who had been detained with them. The University cannot overlook the physical, emotional, and academic costs resulting from their prolonged detentions.

Furthermore, two of the students were ordered released by the Palestinian High Court on 18 August 1996. The court stated in its ruling, "We find that the arrest … happened without any legal reason and took place in the absence of procedures and in contravention of the rule of law which gives us the power to accept this case and to find the arrested of the plaintiffs illegal. Release them directly." While the other cases were not brought before the court, the precedent of the court decision concerning detention without legal procedures should be brought to bear on all prisoners held without charge.

Protection of the basic rights of individuals must form the basis of every society. The Palestinian Declaration of Independence, celebrated this week, promises to safeguard political and religious convictions and human dignity by means of a democratic system of government based on freedom of expression and the rule of law. In this spirit the prisoners must be released.

HRAP Press Release #16/1996

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