ICC decision to prosecute Israel is “an achievement saturated in the blood of ‎the Martyrs, wounded, and prisoners,” says PLO prisoners’ affairs official

Headline: “Abu Bakr: The ICC’s decision ‎is a national achievement saturated ‎ in the blood of the Martyrs, the ‎wounded, and the prisoners”‎

‎“Director of [PLO] Commission of ‎Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr praised ‎the ICC judges’ decision from Friday, Feb. ‎‎5, 2020 (sic., 2021), according to which the ‎ICC has jurisdiction over the Palestinian ‎territories, which enables investigating the ‎Israeli war crimes that are being committed ‎against the Palestinian people.‎

Abu Bakr said that the decision is a great ‎national achievement that is saturated in ‎the blood of the Martyrs, the wounded, ‎and the prisoners, and in the Palestinian ‎people’s endless sacrifices. He called on ‎the ICC to hurry and investigate the severe ‎violations against the Palestinian people, ‎its lands, and property, and [all the way to] ‎prosecuting the leaders and criminals of ‎the Israeli entity as war criminals…‎

Abu Bakr noted that throughout its years ‎of activity the Commission of Prisoners’ ‎Affairs has documented the Israeli ‎occupation’s severe violations against ‎the prisoners, which contradict ‎international humanitarian law, the ‎human rights conventions, and human ‎values (sic., see note below regarding the ‎PA libel on medical abuse of Palestinian ‎prisoners).”‎

Libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners - The PA claims that Israel abuses Palestinian prisoners through medical neglect, medical experiments, and by intentionally infecting them with diseases. However, the International Red Cross regularly visits these prisoners and has not documented or accused Israel of any of these claims. Likewise, lists of demands occasionally issued by the prisoners during hunger strikes—such as during one in 2011—include no demands relating to these claims. PMW has documented prisoners talking about how they "lack nothing" in the prisons and that "the worst thing about Israeli prison" is riding in a prison vehicle that has no padding on the seat. When PMW contacted the Israeli Ministry of Health in 2007 regarding PA claims of medical experiments on prisoners, the ministry responded: "Clinical testing on prisoners in prison was never approved, never performed, and is most certainly not taking place at present."