The Palestinian National Council (PNC) said that caring for the prisoners and detainees, the families of the martyrs and the wounded, and providing them with a decent life is a national duty and a legal obligation, and one of our constants, that their cause is at the top of the priorities of Palestinian people, institutions and leadership.

In a statement issued on the occasion of the Palestinian Prisoner's Day, which falls on April 17 every year, PNC added that the Palestinian people, solidarity movements and human rights, and human rights institutions, are commemorating this occasion to celebrate the sacrifices of the prisoners that they offer as a price for the freedom of their Palestinian people, and an affirmation of their right to obtain freedom from the prisons of the Israeli occupation.

PNC reiterated the rejection of the incitement campaigns and the systematic punitive measures practiced by the occupation government against the prisoners, and attempts to label their struggle with terrorism. The statement saluted the steadfastness of the prisoners and detainees, in the forefront of them are the leaders Marwan Barghouthi, Ahmad Sa’adat and Fouad Al-Shobaki.

PNC stressed the duty of the contracting states under Geneva Conventions of 1949, to pressure the Israeli occupation to immediately release the prisoners, led by the long term prisoners, women, children, sick cases and the elderly, such as the 83-year-old prisoner, the leader, Fouad Al-Shobaki, to implement the text of Article 109 of the Third Geneva Convention, and obligate the occupation to apply Articles (90 and 91) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to guarantee the right of Palestinian prisoners to obtain the necessary treatment and adequate medical care in their capacity as “protected persons,” as well as to support them in accordance with the text of Articles (81 and 98) of the same Convention, given that Israel is ”The Detaining Power” to them.

PNC appealed to the regional and international parliamentary unions, and the relevant institutions to announce their stance towards the violations committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian prisoners, the latest of which is the piracy of amounts the Palestinian government pays to the prisoners’ families from the Palestinian tax funds collected by Israel, and to pressure the Israeli Knesset to cancel its racist legislation towards the prisoners, which is violating the rules and provisions of The Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions.

The council indicated that The occupation arrests about 4,500 Palestinians, including 160 children, 31 women, 549 serving life sentences, 530 administrative detainees, and about 600 prisoners suffering from chronic and dangerous diseases such as cancer, as is the case with the prisoner Nasser Abu Hmaid, PNC indicated that 227 prisoners have been martyred in the Israeli occupation prisons since 1967, as a result of torture and deliberate medical negligence.