This year’s Palestinian Prisoners Day (PPD) took place on April 17. Every year, activists use this occasion in an attempt to draw international attention to the hundreds of Palestinians arrested and detained annually by Israel in the West Bank. Yet much of this campaign is dominated by blatant inaccuracies and exaggerations regarding Israel’s behavior, and its supporters all but ignore endemic violence against the Jewish state’s citizens.
Support for PPD emanated from around the globe. In Israel, the Balad chapter at Tel Aviv University pledged its support for the cause. In the United Kingdom, Warwick University’s Friends of Palestine and King’s College London Action Palestine Society (KCLAP) joined the party. Meanwhile, in the United States, joining the attack were Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) founder and University of California, Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian; assistant professor at the University of Illinois Maryam Kashani; and the Facebook page of national SJP.
The “Adalah Justice Project” (AJP) also published an infographic to mark the occasion; numerous individual activists and campus-based organizations around the world shared the material and voiced support for PPD. It’s worth noting that the founder of AJP, Nadia Ben-Youssef, has leveled outrageous accusations against Israel, such as: “There’s no right to equality in Israel—it’s not enshrined in law because [Israel] cannot protect equality and protect [Jewish] privilege.” This alone speaks volumes about AJP’s lack of credibility.