Beydoun calls on students to stand up for detainees

                   Zayan Khalil
                   Daily Star staff

Education Minister Mohammed Youssef Beydoun on Friday urged students and teachers to rally outside the UN House in downtown Beirut on Nov. 7 to express solidarity with prisoners held in Israeli jails. Beydoun urged public and private institutions to take part in the protest, organized to mark the Detained Teacher’s Day. It will culminate a series of events to draw attention to the plight of detained civilians that will begin later this month. The Follow-Up Committee for the Support of the Lebanese Detainees in Israeli Prisons has called for a protest to be held on Oct. 28 to press for the detention center’s closure. Mohammed Safa, the committee’s secretary-general, said the action, officially called the “International Day for the Closure of the Khiam Camp,” will take place in front of the UN House. “We will set up a tent in front of the UN headquarters and refrain from eating from 11am until 6pm, after which a candle-light march will be held,” he said. As the title indicates, the demonstration is part of the committee’s campaign to pressure Israel to stop holding Lebanese civilians and speed up closure of Khiam. There are 144 detainees held at Khiam in the occupied zone, among whom are children, and elderly women and men, said Safa. Fourteen inmates have died from torture, said Safa, and some have been detained for more than 15 years. “The atrocities and violations of human rights that take place behind the walls of the Khiam camp are worse than anybody can imagine,” said Safa. “Detainees are being treated worse than animals.”