Palestinians everywhere, including those held in Israeli prisons and detention centers, mark today the 78th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, whose chapters continue through Israel’s occupation, displacement, settlement and imprisonment, amid ongoing efforts to target Palestinians and break their national will.
The issue of Palestinian prisoners has, over the past decades, been one of the clearest manifestations of the continuing Nakba. Palestinian suffering did not stop with the displacement and uprooting of 1948, but extended into Israeli prisons and detention centers, which have become a constant part of daily Palestinian life.
Nearly 2 million Palestinians have been detained in Israeli prisons since the Nakba of 1948, as part of a systematic policy targeting Palestinians for their attachment to their land, identity and right to freedom and independence. This has made imprisonment a central part of Palestinian national memory and consciousness.
The Palestinian prisoners’ movement has offered an advanced model of steadfastness and national resilience. Despite shackles, cells, torture, starvation and continuing policies of repression, prisoners have preserved their national and human will, proving that Palestinians are prepared to sacrifice for their stolen land, no matter the cost.
Israel continues to escalate its retaliatory policies against prisoners through unprecedented laws, legislation and measures, including calls for executions, torture, sexual assaults, medical neglect, solitary confinement, arbitrary transfers and the denial of family visits, in a continuing attempt to undermine prisoners’ will and break their steadfastness.
Despite the severity of these policies and violations, Palestinian prisoners continue to uphold their right to freedom and dignity. They confront Israel’s machinery of repression with a firm will that reflects the depth of their connection to their land and national cause.
Israeli prisons today hold nearly 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including men, women, children and the sick, who are living under extremely poor and unprecedented humanitarian conditions amid escalating torture, starvation and medical neglect, as well as the continued use of isolation and the denial of basic human rights.
The escalating crimes against prisoners, especially after the war on Gaza, reflect Israel’s move into a more dangerous phase in its treatment of the prisoners’ movement. Israel now deals with prisoners through a retaliatory mentality based on abuse and revenge, taking advantage of international silence over continuing violations inside Israeli prisons and camps.
The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy affirms that the anniversary of the Nakba will remain a unifying national moment that reminds the world that the Palestinian people continue to face a project based on uprooting, repression and the denial of rights. The prisoners’ cause will remain an essential part of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and a permanent symbol of steadfastness and defense of the land, identity and national dignity.
Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy
Friday, May 15, 2026
