Veteran Palestinian Prisoner Urges Unity among Palestinian Groups

Maher Younis, who was put behind bars for resistance against occupation forces, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Al Alam television news network on Saturday.

“In my contacts with Palestinian groups, I have called for real, honest unity. Not just unity…we need practical measures to make the unity of Palestinians come true. Nothing will happen without Palestinian unity. Rather than expecting help from the world, we have to act ourselves. After taking the initiative, we should ask the world for help,” Maher said. 

“We all must work hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder for the liberation of Palestine and not only the unity of the prisoners but also their freedom. We must make a serious effort to free the prisoners … The great nation of Palestine deserves respect and recognition; therefore it will achieve its freedom with honor and dignity,” he added.

Maher also noted that relevant authorities should follow up on the issue of Palestinian prisoners who come under attack on a daily basis in the regime’s jails, warning that the new far-right Israeli cabinet is planning to intensify its assaults on the inmates.

He further emphasized that Palestinians deserve recognition and freedom, adding that they should work together to achieve freedom and liberate their homeland. 

Maher, 65, was put behind bars in 1983 on charges of capturing and killing an Israeli soldier three years earlier.

Maher was initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was reduced to 40 years in jail. He was ultimately released on Thursday, two weeks after his cousin, Karim Younis.

The Israeli regime is holding 23 Palestinians who have been imprisoned since before the signing of the Oslo accords between the Palestinians and Israel in 1993, which called for the release of all Palestinian prisoners.

There are reportedly more than 7,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Hundreds of them have been incarcerated under the practice of “administrative detention,” under which some prisoners have been held without a charge for up to 11 years.

Palestinians and human rights groups say the detention policy violates the right to due process since the evidence is withheld from prisoners while they are held for lengthy periods without being charged, tried, or convicted.

The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the Israeli regime describes as secret evidence.

Human rights organizations have condemned the so-called administrative detention as a “cruel, unjust practice” which helps maintain “Israel’s system of apartheid” against Palestinians.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express outrage at the detentions. Israeli jail authorities keep Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions without proper hygienic standards. Palestinian inmates have also been subject to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.