The situation facing Palestinian prisoners and their families is dire– more than 800,000 Palestinians have been arrested by the occupation since the policy of arrest started. The arrest campaigns have affected all Palestinian families, and it is now hardly possible to find a family where there is not at least one member who has experienced detention and imprisonment. Some families are less fortunate, with two, three, or even four brothers from the same family under detention at the same time. The Israeli occupation uses detention and imprisonment as a tool to punish Palestinians for practicing their right to resist the occupation and the oppression that it imposes on them. Those prisoners suffer from various violations from the moment of arrest, to interrogations and torture and finally to the unjust and illegal military court system.

Several organizations, governments and legislations indirectly and directly support these arrest campaigns and oppose the work of certain Palestinian movements and human rights organizations. Specifically, this is shown in recent American laws that affect Palestinians directly. Whether those laws affect funding received from the U.S. government or repress the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, they show the weaponization of American legislation against Palestinian basic rights as well as the basic rights of American citizens.

Join Lana Ramadan, the International Advocacy Officer for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, for a deeper discussion on the conditions of Palestinian political prisoners and to discuss the ways we can mobilize and coordinate our efforts in support of prisoners and against the occupation.

Lana Ramadan was born in Dheisheh refugee camp, near Bethlehem in the West Bank. After being actively involved in community activities, Lana studied Human Rights and International Law in the joint Al Quds University and Bard College program. After graduating, Lana went directly into a master’s program at the London School of Economics. She graduated with a Master in Human Rights in 2016. Lana worked with Badil Refugee Resource Centre. She worked as a researcher, specifically focusing on forced displacement and the creation of coercive environments by Israeli policies. In December 2017, she began at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association as the International Advocacy Officer.

*Featured image is a painting by artist Sliman Mansour