The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Prisoners Affairs said today, Saturday, that the list of " prisoners deans", a term the prison use for those who have been detained in the Israeli occupation Palestinians continuously for more than 20 years, has increased in an manner. It reached, until the first of this November, (293) prisoners, after it was forcibly joined by (10) prisoners of war during the month of last October.
In its report, the commission added that among these prisoners, there are (38) prisoners who have been detained for more than 25 years, and these Palestinians call them "generals of patience", including (25) prisoners who have been detained since before the "Oslo Agreement" and the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority. They are what is known as the fourth batch that the occupation government refused to release them within the framework of political understandings under American auspices in 2013.
The commission explained that the list of "prisoners icons", who have been detained for more than 30 years continuously, rose during the month of October to reach (18) prisoners, after the prisoner "Dia Al-Agha", the dean of prisoners in the Gaza Strip and the detainee joined it. Since October 2, 1992.
She pointed out that there are (8) prisoners among those who have been detained for more than 35 years in a row, the oldest of whom are the two prisoners "Karim and Maher Younis", who have been detained since January 1983, that is , nearly 40 years ago.
In its report, the commission stated that, in addition to these prisoners, whose number reached (293); There are dozens of others who were liberated as part of the prisoner exchange (Shalit), and what is known in Palestine as "Wafa Al-Ahrar", in October 2011. Then, the occupation authorities re-arrested them in mid-2014, and restored them the previous sentences, most notably the prisoner Nael Barghouti, who spent, in two periods, more than 42 years in the prisons of the occupation.
The Commission stressed that these numbers are preceded, and have not been recorded before, and are also expected to rise further in the coming weeks and months, which calls on all Palestinians to keep this file open and requires giving these former prisoners more attention and shedding light on their issues, their suffering and the aggravating suffering of their families. And work effectively to release them and give them priority in any future exchange deal, in light of the obstruction of the political horizon.
