{"id":18797,"date":"2026-04-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=18797"},"modified":"2026-04-14T11:49:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:49:56","slug":"palestinian-prisoners-day-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=18797","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian Prisoners’ Day – 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day<\/strong>: In 1974 the Palestinian National Council approved April 17th as Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, choosing the date as the anniversary of the first prisoner exchange between Palestine and Israel – when Fatah militant Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi who had been captured by Israel six years earlier was released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2008 the 20th Arab Summit adopted it for all Arab countries as a day in solidarity with Palestinian and Arab prisoners detained by Israel. Human rights organisations<\/a> say many prisoners are denied visits, subjected to mental and physical tortures and denied proper medical care. Many are held without trial under ‘administrative detention<\/em>‘ while Palestinians “are tried by Israel’s military courts and often held in Israel, in conditions that violate international humanitarian and human rights conventions<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014 the World Council of Churches had issued a Palestinian Prisoners Day call<\/a> to churches worldwide to pray and act for justice which “resolutely confirms our solidarity with the nearly 5000 Palestinian men, women and children languishing in Israeli prisons<\/em>” and called for churches to press UN Member States to put pressure on Israel to end arbitrary detention, meet its obligations over human rights, provide apt medical care and end athe use of torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bill Gates End Support Of Israeli Child Torture<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Cardinal Place, Victoria<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Palestinian<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On 27th April 2014 I photographed the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day protest in Westminster, where protesters met on the plaza outside Westminster Cathedral for a ‘mystery protest’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Palestinian<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There they put together a mock prison cell and gave a briefing that the protest was to be at the Europe and Middle East Office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in Portland House, just across the road inside the Cardinal Place shopping centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Palestinian<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We crossed the road with the prison cell and some protesters, one with a Bill Gates mask and they tried to deliver a petition from the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian NGO based in Ramallah which monitors and provides legal support to Palestine prisoners in Israeli and Palestinian jails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Palestinian<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“By holding shares in G4S, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is complicit in Israel\u2019s detention without trial and torture of Palestinians.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As people that share your belief that every life has equal value, we call on you to divest from G4S immediately<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Palestinian<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Gates Foundation is one of the biggest shareholders in G4S and Addameer say it “is legitimising and profiting from Israel\u2019s use of torture, mass incarceration and arbitrary arrest to discourage Palestinians from opposing Israel\u2019s apartheid policies<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Addammer point out that their investment makes a mockery of the foundation’s aim to use its investments to fund projects that “help all people lead healthy, productive lives<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A few protesters who tried to enter the building were quickly ejected by security and the protest continued outside with speeches, chanting and music. They promised to leave after someone came down from the Gates Foundation office to receive the petition, but no one came in the 20 minutes while I was there before leaving to cover another Palestinian Prisoners’ Day protest at the G4S offices a short walk away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More at Bill Gates end support of Israeli child torture<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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G4S Occupied on Palestinian Prisoners Day<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Victoria St<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Inminds Palestinian Prisoners Campaign – which began twice-monthly London protests against companies supporting Israel’s prisons in 2012 – had arrived outside the G4S offices before me and set up their banners. They were handing out leaflets about the terrible conditions under which prisoners are held and calling for the release of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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British multinational G4S is the worlds largest security contractor and provides security services for many prisons in Israel where Palestinian men, women and children are tortured and caged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After around 25 minutes we were joined by some of the protesters who had been at the Gates Foundation and their cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After a few minutes some of the protesters walked into the foyer of the offices and I followed them to take photographs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They brought in the ‘cage’ as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And there was soon a prisoner in the cage with a smiling ‘Bill Gates’ and another protester holding it. There were some short speeches about why they were there protesting against G4S and some chanting, but the foyer is large and the protest did not interfere with people entering and leaving the building – which contains other offices as well as that of G4S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eventually a couple of police arrived, and took a look at what was happening and decided just to watch. More protesters arrived and some brought their banners into the foyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Outside the protest also continued, with people handing out detailed leaflets about the conditions in ‘G4S Israeli Dungeons’ in which men, women and children are tortured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can read some of the details and in particular about the case of the 5 Hares boys on My London Diary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G4S Occupied on Palestinian Prisoners Day<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flickr<\/a> – Facebook<\/a> – My London Diary<\/a> – Hull Photos<\/a> – Lea Valley<\/a> – Paris<\/a>
London’s Industrial Heritage<\/a> – London Photos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photographs on this page are copyright \u00a9 Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day: In 1974 the Palestinian National Council approved April 17th as Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, choosing the date as the anniversary of the first prisoner exchange between Palestine and Israel – when Fatah militant Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi who had been captured by Israel six years earlier was released. In 2008 the 20th Arab Summit … Continue reading Palestinian Prisoners’ Day – 2014<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[1960,23998,8276,24000,23997,6577,16885,4466,24003,24002,11671,1037,691,3221,4468,17,23996,18667,3106,12039,83,4310,16,24001,1073],"class_list":["post-18797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","category-political-issues","tag-1960","tag-addameer","tag-administrative-detention","tag-bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation","tag-bill-gates","tag-cage","tag-child-torture","tag-g4s","tag-g4s-israeli-dungeons","tag-gates-foundation","tag-hares-boys","tag-human-rights","tag-inminds","tag-israeli-jails","tag-israeli-prisons","tag-london","tag-medical-care","tag-military-courts","tag-palestinian-prisoners-campaign","tag-palestinian-prisoners-day","tag-peter-marshall","tag-petition","tag-protest","tag-shares-in-g4s","tag-torture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18797"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18799,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18797\/revisions\/18799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}