Palestinian prisoners: using the media
While the media is focused on the return of Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, the issue of Palestinian prisoners, often held for decades and without charge in Israeli jails, is being sidelined.
This is a good opportunity to write a letter for publication to a national newspaper on the subject, as well as your local paper if it's covered the exchange, as a way of giving the Palestinians a voice.
Giving your views
You could start by saying you've read with interest the paper's coverage of the prisoner exchange and the emphasis on Shalit's homecoming. You could then go on to raise one, or more, of the following points:
Palestinians in Israeli jails began an open-ended hunger strike in September in protest at a series of collective and punitive measures that have been taken against them by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS). These measures worsened after a speech by Israeli PM Netanyahu in June 2011 in which he said Palestinian prisoners would be subjected to collective punishment as long as Gilad Shalit remained in prison. The hunger strike ended today (18 October) after Israel agreed to end solitary confinement.
Your letter could express the hope that other measures imposed as part of the collective punishment (an illegal form of punishment) will now be lifted and the worsening conditions for Palestinian prisoners will improve. These new measures include the shackling of hands and legs during family visits, and the confiscation of the prisoners' salt supplies (an essential nutrient).
Welcoming the return of Prisoners
Your letter could welcome the release of the Palestinian prisoners and Shalit, but express concern that none of those being released from Israel's prisons in the first exchange on 18 October are children. You could then go on to say that there are currently 164 Palestinian children aged between 12 and 17 in Israeli detention facilities, including 35 who are aged 12-15. Seventy six of these children have been sentenced while 88 are being held in pre-trial detention. Every year, approximately 700 Palestinian children (12-17yrs) from the West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli military courts after being arrested and interrogated by Israeli army, police or security agents. Their ill-treatment while in detention has been well-documented. The majority are charged with throwing stones.
Your letter could express the hope that the 164 children currently being detained will be among those Palestinian prisoners due to be released in the second part of the exchange in December. For more information and facts on child prisoners in Israeli jails >>
Your letter could welcome the release of the prisoners and then raise the point that approximately 6,000 Palestinians continue to be held in Israeli jails. Of these, at least 750 are detained without charge or trial, under what Israel terms 'administrative detention'. For details of the conditions, including torture, endured by these prisoners, which can be included in the letter>>
The Geneva Convention
The Geneva Conventions, the International Convention for Political and Civil Rights and the Convention against Torture and Cruel and Inhuman Treatment, all prohibit the use of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, without exception. Israel has consistently violated international laws in this regard. All details are given in the link provided. Your letter can express the hope that the international community will use the opportunity of this prisoner exchange to examine the inhumane conditions Palestinians are kept in in Israel's jails, and to look at the cases of those who are detained without charge.
Raise the point that while Shalit is going home, many of the released Palestinian prisoners are not being allowed to do so. Some of those from the West Bank are being sent to Gaza or to other countries including Turkey, Syria and Qatar, as report by the BBC, as they are deemed to be a 'security risk' by Israel. The likelihood is that they will never be allowed back to the West Bank, their homes and families in another example of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land.
Email addresses
Please state that your letter is for publication, and give your contact details, including a contact telephone number and full postal address (these will not be published).
The Guardian: letters@guardian.co.uk
The Independent: letters@independent.co.uk
Daily Telegraph: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
Sunday Telegraph: stletters@telegraph.co.uk
The Times: letters@thetimes.co.uk
Sunday Times: letters@sunday-times.co.uk
The Mirror: mirrornews@mgn.co.uk
Daily Mail: letters@dailymail.co.uk
Daily Express: express.letters@express.co.uk
London Evening Standard: letters@standard.co.uk
This link gives lots of good information on how to write to newspapers, as well as additional email addresses for magazines such as The Economist and New Statesman.
As well as writing to the papers, you could consider calling in to radio talk shows and using the points above to contribute to the debate.
Telephone numbers and email addresses for radio stations can be found on the Muslim Directory:
Special focus: the BBC
Please also write to the BBC to ask why its coverage has failed to give the same focus to returning Palestinian prisoners as it has to Shalit. Where are the human stories of mothers, wives and childrens reunited with loved ones, and the coverage of what the Palestinians, many of whom have been incarcerated for decades, have endured physically and phsycologically? What about interviews with those families who will not see their loved ones because they are being immediately deported from their homeland? You could also rewrite the points above and ask if the BBC will be covering any of these issues.
To make complaints and comments about BBC coverage generally, please do so via the form on the BBC website >>
When given the choice of whether or not you'd like a reply, please select 'yes' from the drop-down menu.
To contact BBC Radio 4's Today programme directly, email Today.Complaints@bbc.co.
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