Palestinian women prisoners are fighting back against a wave of repression inside Israeli occupation jails. Marah Bakir and Shorouq Dwayyat, the two women prisoners who represent the detainees as a group in negotiations or dealings with the prison administration, have both been transferred to solitary confinement. Their fellow prisoner, Mona Qaadan, has also been taken to an unknown location.

On Sunday, 19 December, Zionist repressive units violently attacked the women prisoners who were returning their meals, refusing to stand for security checks and banging on the doors of their prison rooms. The women prisoners demand that Shorouq Dwayyat and Marah Bakir be immediately released from isolation; both have been transferred to other prisons -- Dwayyat to Gilboa prison and Bakir to the Jalameh interrogation center.

According to prisoners' organizations in Palestine, the electricity was cut off from the women prisoners' cells, several of the women's hijabs were torn from their heads, and one of the women prisoners lost consciousness during the attack. The prison administration is continuing to threaten the women prisoners with tear gas inside their rooms.

Now, Palestinian women prisoners are being denied access to the "canteen" (the prison store where women must buy many foods and other necessities) and fined because of their protest of this injustice. The women prisoners in Damon prison have also been denied showers for three days.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has a responsibility to act to safeguard these Palestinian women prisoners -- and all imprisoned Palestinians -- from the retaliatory actions and collective punishment imposed by the Israeli occupation. We call on the ICRC to act to protect Palestinian women from attack; secure family visits for imprisoned Palestinian women; secure the implementation of phone calls to family members for imprisoned Palestinian women; and secure the release of Shorouq Dwayyat, Marah Bakir and Mona Qaadan from solitary confinement.  

This campaign is co-sponsored by the Canadian BDS Coalition.