PRISONERS’ RESISTANCE While carceral practices have been central to the colonial subjugation of Palestinians, the resistance of Palestinian prisoners and the long- standing prisoners’ movement have been formative to the Palestinian struggle. Over the decades, Palestinian prisoners have fought against their conditions, as well as the practice of imprisonment by the Israeli state, by various means. In September 2021, six Palestinian prisoners escaped from Gilboa prison, one of Israel’s most highly-secured prisons, by tunnelling their way out and crossing over into the West Bank. The news that they had managed to escape led to celebrations across Palestinian society, their ingenuity and persistence seen as a defeat of Israel’s system of captivity. Palestinians pledged to protect them, and although they were later re- captured, their feat was a blow to Israel’s image of invulnerability and it galvanised Palestinian morale. For decades, Palestinian prisoners have also regularly gone on hunger strikes, not just to protest their conditions inside prison but also to sustain their connections to Palestinian society and act as a focal point for Palestinian resistance. The largest strike in around 18 years was called for in March 2022, before being cancelled after Israeli authorities agreed to meet prisoners’ demands
regarding healthcare and family visits. In April 2017, around 1,500 Palestinian prisoners began a hunger strike to demand improvements in conditions and an end to solitary confinement and heavy restrictions on family visits. After 40 days, with 834 prisoners still on strike and 18 hospitalised, the action was called off with the prisoners declaring victory. In 2014 another mass strike took place, perhaps the longest in Palestinian history, at over 60 days, with a focus on the issue of administrative detention. Almost 300 prisoners took part, with 70 hospitalised. Palestinian scholar Lena Meari describes the history of Palestinian hunger strikes as “messy, nonlinear, and made up of various acts of singular and collective suffering, sacrifices, gains, and retreats.” Hunger strikes carried out by Palestinian prisoners, whether individually or collectively, are a part of the history of Palestinian resistance to imprisonment, and reflect the way in which Palestinian prisoners understand their capacities and position within the Palestinian liberation struggle, not as subjugated captives, but as active participants. For this reason, the Palestinian struggle, in all the various forms it has taken, has always viewed the issue of prisoners as a driving force towards self- determination.
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