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Ivan Zhakata Herald Correspondent

The State of Palestine is saluting thousands of Palestinian detainees who have been and are still held in the Israeli detention dungeons, as they observe Palestinian Prisoner’s Day today.

In a statement, Ambassador of Palestine to Zimbabwe Tamer Almassri said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterates the centrality of the Palestinian detainees’ cause and reaffirms that their freedom is a fundamental part of the freedom of the Palestinian people.

“Over the past five decades, Israel, the occupying power, has detained over 800 000 Palestinians including children and women and currently, Israel illegally detained 4 800 including 29 females and 170 children,” he said.

“Moreover, 967 Palestinians are currently detained under the Israeli illegal policy of administrative detention. The highest number of administrative detainees in the past 11 years.

“Successive Israeli occupation governments have implemented discriminatory policies against Palestinian detainees. The current racist Israeli occupation government intensified these abhorrent policies approving a draft law authorising the execution of

Palestinian detainees, approving discriminatory legislation deporting Palestinian detainees from their land and introducing a draft law depriving detainees of medical treatment are only samples of such discriminatory policies.”

Ambassador Almassri said the Israeli detention system was a main part of its collection of colonial tools to intimidate and persecute Palestinian people.

He said the Israeli judicial system was also part of the colonial regime that legitimises discrimination, torture and persecution of the Palestinian people.

“We call on the international community to uphold their legal responsibilities towards Palestinian detainees by ending arbitrary detention without a fair trial or any legal basis for the deprivation of liberty.”