Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. This is Abby Martin. This is the audio version of each episode of

the Empire Files hosted on Telesaur English. You can watch every episode at the Empirefiles.tv.

Here's a startling fact. 40% of Palestinian men in the West Bank in Jerusalem have spent time in Israeli prisons.

And what every elected U.S. official touts as the only democracy in the Middle East,

somehow its justice system criminalizes a vast swath of the population.

But what types of crimes are being committed that warrants such an incarceration rate?

To find out more, I visited the offices of Admir and Ramallah, the most prominent

prisoners' rights organization in Palestine, and talk to Leith Abu Ziyadh, an international advocacy

officer for Admir.

So how many Palestinians have been through the prison system and why is the number so high?

So since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967,

around 800,000 Palestinians have been arrested,

which constitutes almost 20% of the entire Palestinian population

and 40% of the male population.

And I would say the number is high because not just because Palestinians are resisting

the Israeli occupation, but also the existence of arbitrary laws that criminalize any kind of political activities,

whether like military orders that have been issued since the beginning of

occupation as well and also the issue and so like there's Israeli kinesate issue and

serve in new laws that always criminalize any kind of resistance whether it's

violent or non-violent tools of resistance talk about what forms of non-violent

resistance are being penalized.

For example, even like BDS or taking like any activity that supports, like boycotting Israel,

...