In the Face of Shackles… Freedom is Born
To our great people everywhere,
To the free people of the world and all those with living consciences,
On April 17th of every year, the Palestinian people — along with the free people of the world — commemorate Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. It is a day to renew our commitment to those who have paid a heavy price in defense of dignity and freedom — those who have given the best years of their lives behind bars, carrying their homeland in their hearts and holding on to truth despite the chains and the walls.
This day is a reaffirmation that the issue of prisoners in the occupation’s jails is a central national cause, inseparable from the overall Palestinian struggle against colonialism. It is a moment to shed light on the suffering of thousands of prisoners — women, children, the ill, and those who were martyred behind bars. It is also an open call to the global conscience: to act, to listen, and to break the wall of silence in the face of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank — a reality in which Palestinian prisoners are subjected to war crimes.
Palestinian Prisoners’ Day is a constant reminder to the world that behind barbed wire lie lives fighting with patience and steadfastness, writing history with their blood — despite all attempts to isolate and erase them. On this day, we repeat our cry: freedom is a right that cannot be delayed. Those who sacrificed for Palestine will never be forgotten, and our prisoners must never be left alone.
Today, over 9,500 prisoners are held in occupation prisons, including 21 women and 350 children, more than 120 of whom are under administrative detention — held without charge or trial. They face brutal policies: violence, starvation, torture, medical neglect, and visitation bans — under an international silence that is both alarming and complicit in the occupation’s genocidal policies against our people and our prisoners.
Among these prisoners are some who have been incarcerated since 1967. Some have died in custody, and even in martyrdom, their bodies are still held hostage by the occupation. Over one million Palestinians have experienced imprisonment over the years — a testament to the scope of this ongoing, collective targeting.
There are 3,405 administrative detainees behind bars — the highest number since the Palestinian uprisings — including women, children, and the sick. Their legal rights are systematically denied: court hearings are frozen, renewals are rampant, and access to lawyers is blocked. Fourteen Palestinian mothers are denied access to their children, suffer isolation and raids, are deprived of medical care, and endure conditions that leave deep physical and psychological scars over years of imprisonment.
More than 350 children face horrific abuse: from violent night arrests to harsh interrogations, physical and psychological torture, to hunger and neglect. Recently, the first child martyr in prison since the genocide was killed: Walid Ahmad (17) from Silwad — a chilling symbol of this regime’s barbarism.
In recent months, 62 prisoners have died due to torture, neglect, and denial of treatment. Many of their bodies are still withheld by the occupation as bargaining chips — including that of Walid Daqqa, the imprisoned intellectual, leader, and author from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Meanwhile, 24 prisoners remain in the so-called “clinic” of Ramla prison — in conditions unfit even to be called catastrophic, with no treatment, no examinations, no care. They are simply left to die slowly.
To the free people of the world…
In the face of these terrifying facts, these bleeding numbers, the suffocated cries inside cells…
In the face of mothers forbidden to hug their children, of children thrown into cold dark cells instead of sitting in classrooms…
In the face of martyrs who fall in prison and the sick left to die…
In the face of the suffering of Gaza’s prisoners in particular — we call on you, in the name of what remains of justice and humanity, to:
1. Internationalize the cause of Palestinian prisoners — expose the occupation’s crimes and prosecute the perpetrators in every global forum. The prison walls must no longer remain sealed off from humanity’s conscience.
2. Launch sustained support campaigns in schools, universities, public squares, and in front of international institutions — to keep the prisoners’ cause front and center.
3. Call on the international community and the International Committee of the Red Cross to fulfill their responsibilities — especially to investigate the fate of 85 missing persons from Gaza, believed to have been detained after October 7th, and to end the policy of enforced disappearance.
4. Mobilize at the UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court to document the occupation’s crimes against prisoners and classify them as war crimes that demand accountability.
5. Demand the UN send a fact-finding mission to occupation prisons to investigate the conditions of children, women, and sick prisoners.
6. Expand boycott and sanction campaigns — especially against companies involved in supporting the prison system.
7. Organize permanent protests and sit-ins in front of Red Cross offices and Israeli embassies in world capitals.
8. Transform Palestinian Prisoners’ Day into a Global Week of Solidarity with Prisoners everywhere.
To the free people of the world,
Our prisoners are not numbers or statistics. They are the voice of resistance. They are the dignity of our nation. They are the salt of our land — Palestine, from the river to the sea. They gave up their freedom so that Palestine would remain alive. The prison did not erase them — it strengthened them. They are symbols of resilience, of hope, of steadfast resistance. They are the heartbeat of Palestine, resisting occupation from behind barbed wire.
Let us be loyal to their pain that never subsides, their dreams not yet realized, their heroism that the world has not yet heard as it should.
Let us raise our voices everywhere, in every forum, and let the world know:
Our prisoners are the symbol of dignity — and we will never stop fighting until they are free.
Together, for our prisoners, for Palestine:
Freedom for our prisoners! Freedom for Palestine!
