Israel must stop its illegal actions against the Palestinians!
Statement by Neoklis Sylikiotis, AKEL Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the EP Delegation for relations with Palestine
20TH September 2017
During their visit to Palestine, the MEP’s of the Confederal Group of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament met with the families of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. The MEP’s of GUE/NGL heard about the increasingly worsening conditions of detention, but also about the refusal to the families of the detainees of the right to visit them in prisons.
AKEL’s MEP and Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Palestine Neoklis Sylikiotis called on Israel to respect international laws regarding the Palestinian prisoners.
“Arbitrary detention, solitary confinement, denial of access to doctors and treatment, no family visits and torture are just some of the denunciations we have heard from the Palestinian prisoner’s families, which have also been noted by human rights organizations. Israel must stop these illegal practices, which violate International Law.”
“Hundreds of prisoners are currently detained on the basis of Israel’s so-called administrative detention practice. This means indefinite detention without any charges and without trial. Palestinians who face charges officially receive their sentence from a military court, which is biased against them. There is no justice in an unjust by nature occupation.”
At present, there are 6,000 Palestinian political prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, among them 300 children and eleven members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The GUE/NGL Group has repeatedly demanded the release of these detainees and has recently highlighted the cases of the members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Khalida Jarrar, and of the human rights activist Salah Hamouri, who are being detained without any charges brought against them or a trial on the basis of so-called administrative detention practice.
