SA ruling party expresses solidarity with Palestinians on hunger strike

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Wednesday expressed solidarity with the Freedom and Dignity hunger strike by 1,600 Palestinian prisoners in 200 Israeli jails.

The ANC affirms its position that the Israeli state's pattern of arbitrary arrests and detention without trial of Palestinians "bears the hallmarks of apartheid South Africa", ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said in a statement.

The Palestinian prisoners started the hunger strike on April 17 to press their demand for better daily living conditions.

The prisoners are on strike to draw attention to the plight of Palestinian political prisoners, many of whom are held in solitary confinement.

In a letter addressed to parliamentarians around the world, jailed Palestinian MP Marwan Barghouthi has called the arrest of Palestinian MPs by Israel "an insult to Parliamentarians everywhere ... an insult to freedom and justice, and an insult to human rights everywhere".

"The ANC concurs with the sentiments expressed by Commrade Barghouthi," Mantashe said.

Mantashe said progressive organizations in South Africa and around the world should be appalled that prisoners are denied their basic human rights in Israel.

Israel reportedly has imposed general closures in the West Bank to prevent gatherings in support of the prisoners on hunger strike.

This denial of the legitimate right to protest should be condemned, Mantashe said.

He recalled apartheid's darkest days when hunger strikes remained the only means by which political prisoners were able to draw attention to their plight.

Countless political prisoners embarked on hunger strikes in prison, including on Robben Island off Cape Town during the apartheid period.

"The ANC affirms that the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands has gone on for far too long. For far too long Palestinians have been denied their right to self-determination," Mantashe said.

The ANC knows too well that every attempt will be made to break the morale of the prisoners on hunger strike; and salutes the Palestinian prisoners for their determination and courage, he said.

According to figures provided in February by Israel's Prison Service, at least 6,820 Palestinians, including hundreds of minors, are incarcerated in Israeli prisons.

Most of them are jailed for participating in the struggle against the Israeli control over the West Bank and Gaza, lands that Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East War and where the Palestinians wish to establish their future state. Endit