Palestinian activists close UN office in Ramallah in support of hunger strike

Human rights activists have shut down the United Nations office in the West Bank city of Ramallah to denounce the world body’s silence on a mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails as the protest action enters its 31st day.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the campaigners said the UN has shunned its responsibilities and chosen to keep mum on the Tel Aviv regime’s violation of international law.

The UN should take an immediate action to support the hunger-striking Palestinian inmates, read the statement.

The protest rally comes as hunger strike leader Marwan Barghouti is set to stop drinking water in protest against Tel Aviv’s refusal to heed the inmates’ calls.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs quoted Barghouti’s lawyer Khader Shqeirat as saying that Barghouti’s decision to refuse water would be “a new turning point in the ongoing open-ended hunger strike,” dubbed the Freedom and Dignity Strike.

Since April 17, more than 1,600 Palestinian prisoners have gone on hunger strike to demand appropriate medical care and treatment in Israeli jails as well as the right to pursue higher education. They are also calling for an end to the denial of family visits, solitary confinement and the so-called administrative detention, which is a form of imprisonment without trial or charge.