In Israel, 30 Palestinian prisoners have reportedly begun an open-ended hunger strike to protest their incarceration by "administrative detention," a process that allows Israel to hold prisoners for renewable durations based on secret evidence that requires neither charges nor trial.
The prisoners declared their hunger strike using the slogan "Our Decision is Freedom." They reportedly rejected a request from the prison management to postpone their action until Wednesday.
In the face of a brutal occupation and unjust detention techniques, the use of hunger strikes is one of the only ways Palestinian prisoners can reclaim their human rights. These prisoners are being wrongly held, and have little other option than to protest against the Israeli state and its abhorrent practices.
Administrative detention is necessary to keep dangerous suspects off the streets without revealing sensitive intelligence that would harm Israel's security. This approach has been proven to prevent deadly terror attacks. This context must be applied when covering the stories of any hunger strikes.