The People's Party Launches International Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty and Hold the Occupying State Accountable for Its Crimes

SadaNews - The Palestinian People's Party has launched an international campaign against the death penalty, with the participation of solidarity movement activists and progressive parties, to abolish this racist law and to hold the occupying state accountable for its crimes, obliging it to comply with international laws and implement the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

During a press conference held by the party at the Watan Media Network today, Wednesday, on the occasion of Palestinian Prisoners' Day, party leader Issam Bakr stated that the People's Party is reaching out to the female and male prisoners in the prisons of the occupation on the occasion of Palestinian Prisoners' Day, which this year coincides with the escalation of repression faced by prisoners and the violations committed by the prison administration against them, including deliberate medical neglect, starvation, and brutality in torture, which have collectively resulted in the deaths of 90 prisoners since October 7, 2023. This is an unprecedented indicator of the escalation of violations committed by the occupying state. The party also extends its greetings to the families of the female and male prisoners, emphasizing the importance of working at all levels for the broadest campaigns, especially with the enactment of the racist death penalty law that affects the entire Palestinian people in an attempt to target the legitimacy of national struggle and criminalize it.

He added: "As we renew our rejection of these procedures and racist laws, we appeal to the free people of the world, international solidarity committees, and the leftist and progressive parties with whom we continuously work under extensive campaigns to abolish this law and to raise our voices loudly for the release of the female and male prisoners."

Bakr indicated that prisoner organizations have documented since October 2023, the arrest of 23,000 citizens in the West Bank and Jerusalem, including 800 women and 1,700 children, and there are now 9,600 prisoners, including 350 children and 84 women, in addition to 3,500 administrative detentions, a number unprecedented in the history of the prisoners' movement, alongside the arrest of 1,200 prisoners from Gaza under the label of "illegal combatants."

He stressed that the media law concerning Palestinian prisoners is a fascist and racist law that serves as a cover for the crimes of the occupation over the past years, and that the occupation is trying to disguise the ongoing field executions under the guise of "legitimacy."

For his part, Dr. Aql Taqaz, the coordinator of the International Relations Committee of the People’s Party, confirmed the necessity of integrating grassroots and official efforts within a common Palestinian vision and a national and popular work program to emphasize the unity behind the prisoners' cause in order to secure their freedom as an alternative to the fascist death penalty and to restrain the occupying state from expanding its aggression towards more crimes against our people and our prisoners.

He called for intensifying efforts and pressure from the United Nations and international bodies to secure international protection for the female and male prisoners as part of the protection for the Palestinian people until the end of the occupation of their land and the securing of their legitimate rights to self-determination, the right of return, and national independence.

He also urged working with serious and effective international resolve to enforce international and humanitarian law and to punish the occupying state for its crimes, including this racist law, and to impose a complete boycott until it complies with international law. Additionally, we demand a serious international investigation into the crimes of the occupation against female and male prisoners, including torture, rape, sexual harassment, and attacks, as well as the holding of the bodies of martyrs in numbered cemeteries and refrigerators.

He emphasized the need to work at the local level with various forces, prisoner institutions, and human rights organizations to create the broadest popular movement demanding the freedom of prisoners in the occupation’s jails, rejecting the confinement of Prisoners' Day activities to a single day but instead extending these activities in various forms in the squares and centers of cities and in front of international institutions to raise our voices in support of the prisoners' movement, which remains a beacon for all despite everything surrounding it. We emphasize the importance of securing full rights that befit the dignity of female and male prisoners and their families, representing the minimum of loyalty to the sacrifices and suffering that the prisoners have lived and continue to endure in various forms of torture for our freedom and dignity.

He confirmed the participation of various communist parties and international solidarity movements in the solidarity campaign launched by the party, such as the French, Greek, Turkish, Cypriot, Spanish, Portuguese, and South African communist parties, alongside cooperation with comrades inside such as the Shiite party.

In turn, Ashraf Taha, a member of the International Relations Committee of the People's Party, confirmed the need to activate diplomatic efforts through embassies, communities, and representations at the global level to launch the broadest solidarity campaigns and work with international parliaments to revoke the membership of the occupation's Knesset and suspend partnership agreements, as well as military and commercial cooperation with the occupying state, as it poses a threat to international peace and security, and to issue clear public positions from parliaments around the world in this regard.