Published on 6/28/2026
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Last update: 19:25 (Mecca time)
Activists in solidarity with Palestine organized a protest in the Dutch city of Utrecht to demand the freedom of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons.
The demonstrators performed skits simulating the torture and violations that prisoners are subjected to inside Israeli occupation prisons, including denying them water, harassing them, making them squat and bend, just as Israeli jailers do, and forcing them to chant slogans glorifying Israel, such as “The people of Israel are alive,” amid the prisoners’ screams and calls for help.
Forcibly disappeared
Dutch activist Maika told Al Jazeera that the purpose of the event was to draw attention to the prisoners in Palestine: “There are thousands of people who were taken prisoner in Palestine. Men, women and children, medical aid workers and just ordinary people who deserve to have their normal lives.”
She added that the Israeli forces took these people without any justice: “This has been going on for many years.”
For his part, activist “Mirin” said that more than 9,400 Palestinians are detained by Israel, including more than 350 children and more than 80 women.
He stated that Palestinian prisoners are called “prisoners” because they are detained by an illegal occupier, and they are detained without trial or tried under military law.
Refusal to collude
Through the actors who portrayed the prisoners, Mirren stressed the need to draw people’s attention to what Palestinians are experiencing, and the need to do something about the genocide in Palestine.
The Dutch activist touched on the psychological abuse, medical neglect, torture, sexual violence, solitary confinement and starvation that Palestinian prisoners are exposed to, stressing the need for “this to stop now.”
He called on the Dutch governments and all governments to raise their voices regarding the Palestinian prisoners and demand their release, that there be an investigation into their mistreatment, and that Israel be punished for its crimes.
