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Speech by Daithí Mac An Mhaistír to Palestinian Prisoners Day demonstration

A chairde agus a chomrádaithe. Ta an-áthas orm bheith libh anseo inniu ar son éirígí chun labhairt i dtacú agus i gcosaint na gcimí Palaistíneacha.

Friends and comrades. I am very pleased to be here with you today on behalf of éirígí to speak in support and in defence of Palestinian prisoners.

It is an honour.

There is a strong tradition of solidarity between Irish republicans and Palestinians, especially when it comes to the issue of prisoners.

The histories of both Ireland and Palestine are replete with the suffering of those imprisoned for their political beliefs and for resisting occupation.

That political prisoners have been and continue to be a feature of the political life of Palestine and Ireland is emblematic of the failed nature of attempts to pacify an occupied people.

Estimates vary, but it is believed to be the case that there are currently somewhere between 7,000 & 10,000 Palestinian men, women and children in Israeli prisons, including 280 ‘administrative detainees’ who have been interned without trial.

These Palestinian prisoners are symbolic of the fate of all Palestinians, who are forced to live in conditions that have seen the occupied Palestinian Territories themselves likened to a ‘mega prison’.

Very few Palestinians have escaped contact – either direct or indirect – with the prison system element of the Israeli occupation.

Since 1967, over 700,000 Palestinians have been detained – totalling approximately 20% of the total Palestinian population remaining within the occupied Palestinian Territories. The majority of those detained are male, meaning that the number constitutes approximately 40% of the total male Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

Those who were actually ‘convicted’ were subject to Israeli military law, in which they were tried in a non-jury military court.

Military law is being applied to a whole population because what is happening in Palestine is a military occupation whose policy it is to punish a whole people collectively.

According to the Israeli Human Rights Group B’tselem, up to 85% of Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to torture.

Methods of torture include: sleep deprivation, tying a detainee to a chair in painful positions, beating, slapping, kicking, threats, verbal abuse and humiliation, bending the body in extremely painful positions, intentional tightening of handcuffs, stepping on worn manacles, application of pressure to different parts of the body, forcing the detainee to squat in a painful position, choking and other forms of violence and humiliation (e.g. spitting and pulling hair, solitary confinement, exposure to extreme heat and cold, continuous exposure to artificial light, and confinement in inhuman conditions.

This system of political internment and torture makes a mockery of all notions of justice and of the Israeli state’s facade of liberal democracy.

A clear message must be sent to the Israeli government and its allies that the world has not forgotten about the Palestinians, that the rights of an entire people cannot be trampled on, and that Israel’s pretence of being an ordinary democratic state will be challenged at every turn.

Before I conclude, I would briefly like to draw your attention to the case of Ahmad Sa’adat, general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Comrade Sa’adat was abducted by Palestinian Authority security officials in January 2002 at the behest of Israel and imprisoned without trial. In March 2006 Israeli forces laid siege to the prison before kidnapping Sa’adat and five of his comrades.

Sa’adat, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was finally tried by the Israeli state in the summer of 2008, and on December 25 2008, he was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. He was convicted of membership of a prohibited organisation [the PFLP], holding a post in a prohibited organisation, and incitement, for a speech he gave following the Israeli assassination of his predecessor, Abu Ali Mustafa, in August 2001.

On behalf of éirígí I would like to take this opportunity to extend solidarity and fraternal greetings to comrade Sa’adat.

Comrades. While it is important for us to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, what is far more important is that we work in whatever way we can to support the Palestinian resistance and help end the occupation.

Go raibh maith agaibh.

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