A number of Egyptian parliamentarians announced on Thursday a symbolic strike on food and drink, in solidarity with the rights of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the “freedom and dignity” battle they are waging against the arbitrary measures imposed on them and demanding their most basic rights.

   The 25/30 parliamentary bloc expressed its condemnation of the shameful international silence towards what Israel is doing against Palestinian detainees.

   The statement criticized the United Nations, and “the great Powers that glorify international law” for its apparent lack of defense of the Palestinian people’s rights, especially prisoners’ rights.

   The parliamentarians stressed the solidarity of the Egyptian people with their brothers in Palestine and the support of the prisoners’ strike, which came to demand the most basic rights of detainees in the humane treatment stipulated by all divine laws and guaranteed by all human rights charters.

   The statement called on all members of the Egyptian parliament to participate in the hunger strike, as well as the signing of a letter in all languages to all the parliaments of the world to invite them to carry out their responsibilities in establishing the right and impose peace and stop racist practices against the entire Palestinian people.

   In turn, the Embassy of the State of Palestine in Cairo expressed its thanks for this important step which the Egyptian parliamentarians have made to support the prisoners, stressing the importance of this message at this particular time to support our heroic prisoners in the occupation prisons.

   The embassy added in a statement that the supportive and courageous positions of the Egyptian leadership, the Egyptian parliament and the people of this brotherly country are not new, but rooted in the various stages of the Palestinian cause and the battle against the occupation.