JEDDAH, 25 August 2004 — The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has called upon the international community to “take stock of the inhuman conditions” in which Palestinian detainees are living in Israeli prisons and detention camps.
It has also “very strongly” condemned the racist pronouncements made by the Israeli minister of internal security in which he expressed indifference to the lives of Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli prisons and detention camps.
In a statement, made available to Arab News yesterday, the Jeddah-based pan-Islamic organization said it has been following the tragic situation of the hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners, which has entered its second week.
“The prisoners are protesting infringements and inhuman measures meted out to them by the Israeli occupation authorities, practices that are at odds with human dignity and a violation of their legitimate rights and international conventions, mores, charters and laws,” it emphasized.
The OIC urged the international community to act quickly by constituting and dispatching international committees under the United Nations supervision to study the inhuman conditions.
“The international community should also take necessary measures to make Israeli occupation authorities stop the crimes and infringements to which Palestinians are subjected to and, in respect of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, implement conventions and charters including the Geneva Convention, which demands that they be treated as prisoners of war,” the statement said.
It also called on the United Nations and its agencies as well as various international governmental and non-governmental organizations to assume their moral and legal responsibilities by intervening to end “this inhuman tragedy.”
