Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordanians detained in Israeli prisons went into a hunger strike on Thursday, standing by the pledge they took over a month ago to go on an open hunger strike until their demands are met.
The prisoners demand their release, and held the Jordanian government responsible for any harm that afflicts any of the Jordanian detainees during the strike.
The prisoners are calling for allowing regular family visitations, sending a Jordanian medical delegation to check up on the conditions of prisoners, and a "pledge" by the Jordanian government to preserve Jordanian prisoners' rights, including rescinding the decision to withdraw National Numbers from some of the prisoners.
The Jordanian Professional Associations' National Committee to Defend Detainees in Israeli Prisons called o the Jordanian government to take swift measures to meet the prisoners' demands.
Head of the Jordanian Agricultural Engineers Association Mahmoud Abu Ghneimeh said in a press conference last month that Jordan needs to pressure the Israeli side to meet their demands and release the detainees.
"What Jordanian prisoners face in Israeli prisons undermines Jordan's sovereignty," Abu Ghneimeh said, adding that the abuse of prisoners constitutes a "crime."
"The case of releasing Jordanian prisoners is left to be dealt with by Palestinian resistance movement, as regimes are not taking any action to release them," Dhib Ghanma, member of the National Committee to Defend Prisoners said during the press conference.
"We sympathize with the struggle of prisoners and their families, who have not seen each other for over eight years," Ghanma said, adding that no medical team has went to check up on their conditions.
Families of prisoners threatened to resort to local and international courts against the Jordanian government for what considers as "shortcomings" in resolving the prisoners' file.
The 25 Jordanian prisoners send a letter last month addressed to the Jordanian people stressing that they intend to embark on an open hunger strike until the government responds to their demands.
"From behind bars, we follow with much sorrow our Jordanian government's disregard of our just demands, humiliation of our families, abusing us by taking away our citizenship rights, marginalizing our cause, and the ignorance of the Jordanian Ambassador to the Zionist entity of our conditions," the prisoners said in the letter received by the National Committee for Prisoners.
"Throughout twenty years, Jordanians detained in the prisons of the Zionist entity suffer from deprivation and oppression, deprived of their basic rights," a petition by the detainees issued on Thursday said.
"The bitter truth is that our governments, since the ill-reputed Wadi Araba peace treaty and until today, stand behind this marginalization and deprivation from while Jordanian prisoners and their families, and the families of missing Jordanian nationals, suffer.
The prisoners stressed that this is not the first hunger strike they go into, noting that there have been several individual hunger strikes that culminated in meetings with Jordanian government officials, but "each time they reach an agreement on a number of rights, and the government pledges to implement these rights, as was the case with the Karama hunger strike last year, but unfortunately, we heard nothing of that afterwards."
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