Through their own efforts, the families and wives of a number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons launched a global media campaign to save them from the “harsh conditions and most horrific violations” they go through inside prisons.
Through their own efforts, the families and wives of a number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons launched a global media campaign to save them from the “harsh conditions and most horrific violations” they go through inside prisons.
Through the campaign, the wives of some former prisoners called on human rights organizations, activists and influencers around the world to join them to save the prisoners and confront the death penalty law that the Israeli government seeks to legislate, targeting prisoners with life sentences in particular.
Last Wednesday, the campaign issued a launch statement and followed it with videos of the wives of prominent prisoners on its digital platforms, indicating that the campaign would continue for six months.
The most heinous violations:
The statement stated that since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, “the prisoners have been living in harsh and inhuman conditions, embodied in the most heinous violations of torture, solitary confinement, denial of treatment and visitation, administrative detention, and the detention of women and children in humiliating conditions that violate all international laws and conventions.”
She called on human rights institutions, media bodies, civil society organizations, influencers and free people of the world to “actively engage in this campaign, to ensure that the issue of prisoners remains present in the global consciousness, until they achieve their complete and undiminished freedom.”
In a video recording on the campaign’s social media accounts, Abla Saadat, wife of the captured Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat – who was sentenced to 30 years in prison – said: All prisoners are subjected to “permanent torture and genocide,” which requires international and human rights institutions to stand by them and make them a central issue in their struggles.
She called on “Free People of the World” to join the “Save the Prisoners” campaign to raise the voice demanding their release, expressing her fear for the fate of her husband and the rest of the prisoners “under the fascist government led by (Israeli Minister of National Security) Itamar Ben Gvir, especially the dangerous death penalty law.”
Worst periods:
For her part, Wafa Abu Ghalmi – the wife of the prisoner Ahed Abu Ghalmi, who is accused of planning the assassination of former Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001 and who was sentenced to life imprisonment – said that the prisoners are living “the worst periods ever: the lowest necessities of life are non-existent, they are prevented from visits and communication, and they are subjected to constant beatings with batons and other things.”
She continued: “Today we launch the Save the Prisoners campaign, and we call on international institutions and solidarity activists to stand with us, support us, and protect the prisoners from racist laws, especially the death penalty law.”
At the beginning of last November, the National Security Committee in the Israeli Knesset approved, in preliminary reading, a draft law allowing the implementation of death sentences on Palestinian prisoners, and it needs to be approved in three readings in order for it to be effective.
Umm Abdullah al-Sayyid, the wife of prisoner Abbas al-Sayyid, who has been sentenced to 35 life imprisonments, also pointed out the beatings and abuse that her husband and the leaders of the prisoners were subjected to to the point that “Abbas’s face became discolored from the severity of the bruises, as one of his lawyers reported.”
Goals and moves:
As for the campaign coordinator and activist in prisoners’ issues, Ghufran Zamel, the fiancée of prisoner Hassan Salama, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment 48 times, she said: The campaign is “an international humanitarian media campaign that aims to shed light on the issue of prisoners and the systematic torture they are subjected to.”
She added, “What is happening in the prisons today is a second war of extermination out of sight, and therefore the campaign comes to draw attention to their conditions and to form a state of public pressure on the occupation to improve the conditions of the prisoners and return them to what they were before the war.”
Ghufran Zamil stated that among the objectives of the campaign are:
– Move to repeal the laws passed by the Israeli Prison Service.
– Abolishing the death penalty law, which targets a large segment of prisoners, especially those sentenced to life imprisonment, whose number exceeded 116 prisoners.
– Abolishing the emergency law that the Prison Service has invoked since the first day of the war, which is supposed to be repealed when the entity signs the ceasefire agreement.
– Consolidating the issue of prisoners in the Arab and international consciousness so that it turns into a global issue instead of remaining a local issue.
– Exploiting the decisions of 124 countries that deemed this occupation illegal in the International Court of Justice, and therefore all decisions issued by it are considered illegal.
As for the origin of the campaign, she explained that its idea came from the families of the prisoners, especially after the end of the war of genocide and the remaining of a large number of prisoners with life sentences and high sentences in prisons. “There was a need for a movement to restore the prisoners and their cause to priority and centrality, so it was launched as an initiative by the families.”
She pointed to cooperation between those in charge of the campaign and human rights, humanitarian and media institutions in Palestine and abroad.
Western audience:
The campaign will last for six months, with each month having a specific topic to highlight. The topic of the first month will be the death penalty law, and the following months will be the issues of female prisoners, cubs, the isolated, the sick, and medical negligence, according to the Palestinian activist.
As for the geographical scope of the campaign’s movement, she said: It targets the Western public, especially after the movements of the Western peoples, which in the war of extermination constituted a tool of pressure on their governments – even if at a minimum – to change their positions towards the Palestinian issue, in addition to the Arab and Islamic publics.
She pointed out that the announcement of the campaign was planned to be at a press conference from the families of the prisoners in Ramallah, but the security reality prevented that for fear that the families of the prisoners would be exposed to Israeli persecution.
Regarding how the campaign differs from the existing human rights institutions concerned with prisoners’ affairs, she said: The campaign seeks for its movement to be continuous and for media institutions to adopt a permanent plan of action and increase their coverage of prisoners’ issues permanently and not seasonally, while the human rights and humanitarian institutions adopt a permanent plan of action for prisoners legally and legally.
It is noteworthy that data from prisoner institutions until the beginning of 2026 confirm that the occupation authorities detained 9,300 Palestinians in their prisons, including 350 under the age of 18, and 49 female prisoners.