The Deanship of Student Affairs organizes a special seminar on the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day

2019-04-22

In honor of the Palestinian prisoners and the commemoration of the Palestinian Prisoners' Day, the Deanship of Student Affairs at Al-Istiqlal University organized a special seminar and hosted the Maj. Gen. Qadri Abo Baker, the Head of the Prisoners and Liberties Affairs Committee, HE Maj. Gen. Dr. Tawfiq Tirawi, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Al-Istiqlal University, Prof. Dr. Saleh Abu Osbaa, the President of Al-Istiqlal University, his deputies and the deans of the colleges, at Al- Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan Theater, on Monday 22th of April 2019.

HE Maj. Gen. Tirawi talked about the prisoners and their rights under the exposure of arbitrary measures and harassment, saying the Palestinian prisoner is "a living martyr" and the Palestinian leadership will remain steadfast on the rights of prisoners and martyrs and will not cut their salaries and dues, extending his greetings to all the Palestinian prisoners inside the occupation jails, saying that the dawn of freedom is near.

In a related context, Prof. Dr. Abu Osbaa said that the Palestinian prisoners defend the honor of the land and its capital Jerusalem, and that freedom is close, despite of the international conspiracies on our people and the issue of prisoners, greeting the Prisoners’ and Liberties Affairs Committee for its role and efforts in supporting the prisoners and their just cause.

For his part, Maj. Gen. Abo Baker gave brief about the history of the prisoner movement and its martyrs, who reached (218), as well as the suffering of the Palestinian male and female prisoners throughout history, regarding the years of detention, fines and the years of implementation, noting that the number of the patients among prisoners reached (700), with chronic diseases, and there are intractable disease cases such as the three prisoners Sami Abu Diak, Isra Jaabeis and Fouad Shobaki.

Also, he presented the achievements of the prisoners' movement at the scientific level. There are (3300) prisoners with bachelor's degrees, (36) prisoners with master's degrees, more than (2900) prisoners succeeded in the general secondary level inside the prison and the number of the prisoners who are studying in universities (1500), besides presenting the internationalization of their issue at the Arab and international levels through the establishment of activities and seminars.

Moreover, the prisoner Abd Al-Fattah Dawla, who has been freed, praised Al-Istiqlal University in his speech and its interest in the issue of prisoners through the regular initiatives and activities, offering the suffering of male and female prisoners, the pressure, the repression by the prisons' administration and how they are facing that by great patience and challenge by resorting to an open hunger strike defeating the Israelis jails.

In addition, the student Amal, a prisoner freed after two years of detention talked about her experience in the Israile jails from the beginning of the arrest until her freedom with the hunger strike and all the protest measures taken by the prisoners to meet their demands.

Finally, the symposium included by poems describing the reality of life in prisons. In addition, there was a short documentary film with touching scenes depicting the occupation's oppression and cruelty with the prisoner since the beginning of his arrest and subjected to investigation, torture, individual and collective repression and naked searches.