Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian, sets out the case for his people

HADARIM PRISON: Having spent the past 15 years in an Israeli prison, I have been a witness to and a victim of Israel’s illegal system of mass arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

After exhausting all other options, I decided there was no choice but to resist these abuses by going on a hunger strike. About 1 000 Palestinian prisoners have decided to take part.

Hunger striking is the most peaceful form of resistance. It inflicts pain solely on those who participate and their loved ones, in the hope their empty stomachs and sacrifice will help the message resonate beyond the confines of their cells.

Decades of experience have proved that Israel’s inhumane system of colonial and military occupation aims to break the spirit of prisoners and the nation to which they belong, by inflicting suffering on their bodies, separating them from their families and communities, using humiliating measures to compel subjugation.

In spite of such treatment, we will not surrender.

Israel has violated international law in multiple ways for nearly 70 years with impunity. It has committed breaches of the Geneva Conventions against the Palestinian people – the prisoners, including men, women and children, are no exception.

I was 15 when first imprisoned. I was barely 18 when an Israeli interrogator forced me to spread my legs as I stood naked in the interrogation room, before hitting my genitals. I passed out and the resulting fall left ascar on my forehead.

The interrogator mocked me afterwards, saying I would never procreate because people like me give birth only to terrorists and murderers.

A few years later, I was again in an Israeli prison, leading a hunger strike, when my first son was born. When he was 18, he was arrested and spent four years in Israeli prisons.

The eldest of my four children is now 31. Yet here I still am, pursuing this struggle for freedom with thousands of prisoners, millions of Palestinians and the support of so many around the world.

What is it with the arrogance of the occupier and the oppressor and their backers that makes them deaf to this simple truth: our chains will be broken before we are because it is human nature to heed the call for freedom regardless of the cost.

Israel has built nearly all its prisons in Israel rather than in the occupied territory. In doing so, it has unlawfully and forcibly transferred Palestinian civilians into captivity, and used this to restrict visits and inflict suffering on prisoners through prolonged transport under cruel conditions.

It turned basic rights that should