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Demonstration in front of Ansar (Ketsi’ot) Detention CampFriday 31 May 2002
author: Taayush
summary
On Friday, June 7th, Ta'ayush and the Association of the Prisoner will hold a
demonstration in front of Ansar detention camp.
We will express our solidarity with the detainees and prisoners, demanding to
deliver personal parcels and a delegation of lawyers.
We will demonstrate against administrative detention and political arrests at
the place which has become the symbol of oppression – Ansar detention permise,
which has been recently reopened. We will protest against 35 years of occupation
at the gates to the detention camp, at the end of the Negev, another place where
the occupation is perpetuated day by day, far away from our eyes.
All the Left organizations, as well as Va’adat Hama’akav, are invited to the
demonstration.
Details about transportation and the collection of items for the parcels will be
given as soon as possible.
Please reserve next Friday
Background:
Thousands of Palestinians are detained in military detention facilities. They
are concentrated in great density, suffer from hunger and hardly have any
contact with the outside world. Some of their families still don’t know where
they are or what has become of them, and they cannot see a lawyer.
Hundreds of people are held in administrative detention: they don't know why
they were arrested, and actually they are not suspected of anything specific.
They don't have even a trial to wait for.
Many have been arrested in mass arrests - the army concentrated all men in their
villages and towns and took them for detention in Megido, Ofer base, and Ktsi'ot
detention camp – Ansar. Some were taken from their homes in the middle of the
night with only their underwear on.
The detainees eat very little and very poorly, sleep in tents on wooden bunks,
and suffer from heat during the day and cold at night. Medical care is
insufficient, sanitation is poor, and no newspapers in Arabic are available.
The voice of Humanitarian and Human Rights organizations is ignored by the
courts and the media. The detainees’ suffering is unseen to the public eye. The
State of Israel is selling to the world and to its citizens a moral and
righteous image, while hiding dark deeds. But we see in the dark: we will not
shut our eyes.