Political Science Department organizes a training titled "Palestinian Prisoners Movement in View of Israeli Elections"

The Birzeit University Political Science Department organized a training titled “Palestinian Prisoners Movement in View of Israeli Elections” in corporation with the Hurryat Center on Saturday, November 19, 2022. The training was run by Hurryat Executive Director Helmi Araj and targeted political science and international relations students.

Political Science Department Chairperson Dr. Hani Mousa praised the Hurryat Center for upholding human rights and maintaining a distinguished relationship with Birzeit University.

During the training, Dr. Araj presented a historical survey of the Palestinian Prisoners Movement and its political, national and legal status. Dr. Araj stated that the Palestinian Prisoners Movement is central to the Palestinian National Movement and the Palestinian struggle for liberation and independency. Dr. Araj added that the falsified Israeli narrative must be refuted by internationalizing the prisoners’ cause and enshrining it as a national and political cause. Dr. Araj also elaborated on the brutal conditions of Israeli prisons and assured that Palestinian prisoners will not be intimidated by Ben Gvir’s threats to abolish the “detainee representative” role and implement the death penalty for prisoners. The movement will face these threats with a solid will and firm national unity.

Dr. Araj called for deepening national unity within the movement, developing the role of the Higher Committee for Emergency, adapting strategies to defend the movement’s rights, developing a national strategy to support the movement’s struggles, internationalizing the cause, refuting the deceptive Israeli narrative and enshrining the prisoners’ statues as prisoners of war struggling for liberation and independency, as per international law.

Furthermore, Dr. Araj affirmed the necessity of drawing attention to the suffering of sick prisoners, Israel’s withholding of proper treatment and periodic medical examinations to prisoners, Israel’s refusal to release the cancer-stricken prisoner Nasser Abu Hmeid, the Israeli policy of withholding martyrs’ bodies from their families, apartheid Israeli laws and the arbitrary administrative detention that violates human rights conventions.

Student’s questions about individual and collective strikes and the Palestinian Prisoners Movement before and after the Oslo Accords added to the richness of the training.