On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People: Palestinians Face Incarceration for Defending Their Right to Self-Determination

November 29, 2025

November 29, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, comes at a time when the world is witnessing an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, a crime marked by the systematic destruction of life, deliberate targeting of civilians, and policies aimed at erasing an entire population. This genocide is accompanied by mass displacement, the dismantling of communities, and a pattern of grave breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law, including collective punishment, arbitrary detention, torture, and the widespread denial of essential services and protections. In this critical moment, the global community must reaffirm its legal and moral obligation to protect Palestinian rights and confront these grave international crimes with decisiveness and urgency.

Despite the unequivocal prohibitions in international law, the prolonged and illegal Israeli occupation remains the central and most far-reaching violation underpinning all other grave abuses committed against the Palestinian people. This entrenched system of domination has enabled collective punishment, the systematic targeting of civilians, arbitrary detention, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and other flagrant breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law. Yet, States and international institutions have consistently failed to take the measures necessary to halt these atrocities or to ensure accountability for decades of unlawful conduct, allowing impunity to persist.

Among the most urgent concerns is the situation of Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli occupation’s detention system remains a central mechanism used to entrench its control over the Palestinian population. This system is characterized by mass arrests, widespread use of administrative detention without charge or trial, torture and sexual assaults, inhumane prison conditions, arbitrary restrictions, and the targeting of vulnerable groups.

The arrest and detention of Palestinians, including children, women, students, journalists, human rights defenders, and elected members of the Palestinian parliament, reflect a deliberate policy aimed at silencing political participation, suppressing civic engagement, and obstructing Palestinian efforts to claim their fundamental rights. The sharp increase in arrests, enforced disappearances, and deaths in custody since October 2023 further underscores the urgent need for international intervention. This year’s International Day of Solidarity must therefore serve not only as a moment of reflection, but as a call for coordinated global action.

According to Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (November 2025), there are more than 9300 Palestinian political prisoners in the Israeli occupation detention, including 3,368 held under administrative detention without charge or trial. Over 350 children and more than 50 women remain imprisoned, in addition to more than 1340 from the Gaza strip, 1205 among them are detainees under the unlawful combatant law. Since October 7, 2023, an estimated 21,000 arrests have taken place in the West Bank and Jerusalem alone. Human rights organizations have documented 98 deaths in custody resulting from torture, medical neglect, and inhumane conditions since October 2023. Additionally, thousands of detainees from Gaza remain forcibly disappeared, held in military camps, and denied access to legal representation.

These violations are taking place alongside the broader context of Israel’s illegal occupation, reaffirmed by the 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion, which declared Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful. The opinion underscores that all states have a legal duty not to recognize, aid, or assist the continued occupation, this includes practices such as the mass detention of Palestinians, the transfer of prisoners outside occupied territory, and the maintenance of an abusive military court system.

Despite this, states continue to maintain military, political, and economic ties that directly enable ongoing violations. The recent International Criminal Court (ICC) decisions including the rejection of Israel’s challenges and the issuance of arrest warrants for senior officials, underscore the gravity of the situation and the necessity of pursuing accountability through all available international mechanisms. Yet many crimes, particularly those committed against prisoners and detainees, remain insufficiently addressed.

The past two years have been the deadliest for Palestinians across Gaza, the West Bank, and occupied Jerusalem. Israeli forces and armed settlers continue to perpetrate widespread attacks with total impunity, while Palestinians are subjected to a discriminatory military legal system that criminalizes everyday life, including minor infractions that often lead to years-long sentences.

The ongoing deterioration inside Israeli prisons—including starvation policies, violence, denial of medical care, and systematic torture, demands immediate action. Humanity cannot afford a repeat of decades-long failures that have enabled the expansion of unlawful practices against Palestinians, including the violent and discriminatory detention system.

In this context, and in light of the catastrophic failure of the UN Security Council to uphold international law and prioritize the Palestinian right to self-determination as affirmed in the ICJ’s July 2024 Advisory Opinion, we call on third states to take immediate, meaningful, and effective action. This includes rejecting the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2803 and demanding a lawful and just resolution that prioritizes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including self-determination and the right of return of Palestinian refugees; dismantles Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime; ends Israel’s unlawful occupation and escalating annexation of Palestine; and centres accountability for Israel’s historic and ongoing mass atrocity crimes. Third states must also impose diplomatic, military, and economic sanctions on the illegal Israeli occupation, and ensure their actions align with obligations arising from the ICJ Advisory Opinions of 2024 and 2004, as well as international duties to uphold Palestinian protection and self-determination.

On this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Addameer calls on the global community to take the following urgent and concrete actions:

•  Impose a comprehensive two-way arms embargo on the illegal Israeli occupation by halting all transfers of weapons, military technology, and surveillance systems that enable human rights violations.
• Activate universal jurisdiction mechanisms to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations against Palestinian detainees.

• Apply political and economic pressure by suspending diplomatic, military, and economic cooperation with the illegal Israeli occupation until it complies fully with international law.

• Implement widespread boycott, divestment, and targeted sanctions to dismantle systems of oppression and promote accountability.

• Ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all Palestinian political prisoners, including:

• Ending the use of administrative detention;
• Dismantling the military court system;
• Conducting independent investigations into all cases of torture and deaths in custody.

• Cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court, including supporting ongoing investigations and enforcing arrest warrants for individuals implicated in international crimes.

Silence is complicity. Defending Palestinian rights: self-determination, dignity, and protection from arbitrary imprisonment is an urgent moral and legal imperative.

We call on people around the world to escalate collective action: to organize, mobilize, and demand accountability from the illegal Israeli occupation and from the governments that uphold its oppressive system, governments that arm, fund, and legitimize its system of oppression.

Solidarity cannot remain symbolic; it must translate into continuous pressure, tangible policy shifts, and committed advocacy until the Palestinian people achieve freedom and justice.