From Guantanamo to Majeddo

Palestinian detainees in Majeddo detention announced hunger strike starting Wednesday morning in protest to desecrating the Holy Koran by Israeli soldiers who raided the rooms of the detainees, on Tuesday morning.

Prison commander tried to talk the detainees out of their strike claiming that he conducted an investigation with the commander of prisons in the northern area; the commander claims that the ripped pages “are bigger than the pages of the Koran, and does not belong to it”.

Prisoners in Majeddo said that they will go on with their hunger strike, and will refuse to receive visitors. The prisoners said that the incident took place approximately at 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, when soldiers raided the prison and ripped pages out of the Islamic holy book, and stepped on them in many instances.

Israeli prison authorities claimed that soldiers were conducting ‘ordinary searches’ in the prison rooms, and uncovered 81 mobile phones, handmade knives and other materials.

Also, Israeli prisons spokesperson called the press to film the ‘captured’ mobiles phones and copies of the Koran which were “shaken but not ripped out”. Arabs48 news website reported that a ‘Special Force’ which belongs to the Israeli police attacked the rooms of the detainees, and conducted searches, causing chaos and damage in the rooms.

 Also, soldiers tried to take away the ripped copies of the Koran but the detainees rejected and kept them as a proof of the desecration of the Koran.

 Arab member of Knesset, Abdul-Malik Dahamseh, demanded the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and Minister of Interior, Gideon Ezra, to conduct an investigation and interrogate the director of Majeddo detention, and prosecute the soldiers responsible for this act.