ESA Committee Report: Situation of Prisoners in Israeli Jail
Education and Social Affairs
Committee Report:
The Situation of
Prisoners in Israeli
Jails
Summary
16
April 2012
Israeli violations of human rights of Palestinian political prisoners include:
1. Legitimization of torture crimes and
deprivation:
Repression and violence against
prisoners have taken multiple forms such as: medical
neglect, solitary confinement, deprivation of family and
lawyers' visits, lack of due process, deportation and
murder, in addition to the adoption of laws and policies
which legitimize their crimes against Palestinian prisoners.
For example, the Israeli authorities use special tactics to get misleading confessions and legitimize the "Shalit"[i] and "illegal fighter"[ii] laws.
Punishing prisoners and depriving them of rights guaranteed by International law. Palestinian detainees are prisoners of war according to the Geneva Convention III and IV (1949) and the Convention Against Torture (1991) and The Convention on the Rights of the Child
2.
Medical neglect and slow death:
Palestinian
prisoners in Israeli jails are living in inhuman conditions,
poor ventilation and high humidity levels inside the cells,
suffer widespread parasitic skin infections, poor nutrition,
and a lack of medical care and treatment from visiting
prison doctors.
51 Palestinian prisoners have died because of medical neglect, 1100 are sick, 300 of them need emergency surgery, 150 suffer from chronic ailments, 27 use wheelchairs and three suffer from hemiplegia.
3. Deprivation of family
visits:
Israeli authorities isolate Palestinian
prisoners from the outside world to put more physical and
psychological pressure on them, to break their will. They
have prevented family visits for five years under security
pretexts, which affects the prisoner's psychological and
physical health.
4. Abuse of solitary
confinement:
Solitary confinement is a tough
punishment imposed on Palestinian prisoners, where they are
held in narrow solitary cells for long periods. The Israeli
Prison Service (IPS) deprives them of visits, communication
with both the outside world and the prison population,
health care, and education in order to increase their
suffering.
5. Night raids:
The
IPS break into prisoners' rooms and attack them in the
middle of the night, using tear gas and attack dogs.
6. With-holding medical
examinations:
The Zionist Occupation forced
Palestinian prisoners to undergo DNA tests, until they
refused to comply because it violates their privacy, treats
them as criminals rather than political prisoners, and
affects their psychological, social, political wellbeing.
Forcing such tests is considered a breach of the Geneva
Convention. Recently, Almatsada private security agency
stormed and ransacked the cells in Nafha, Ofer and Askalan
prisons, and forced the prisoners to undergo DNA tests,
which resulted in clashes and injuries.
7.
Administrative Detention:
The Israeli Occupation
continues to implement the anachronistic policy of
administrative detention.
Since 1967, the Israeli
authorities have issued more than 100,000 administrative
detention orders, 20,000 of them during the Second
Intifada. Currently there are 320 Palestinians
administratively detained by the Israeli occupation,
including a number of Members of Parliament (MPs), and three
prisoners under the umbrella of the Illegal Fighters
Law. Most of them have had their detention order renewed
once, while others have had theirs renewed 16 times.
8. Prisoners' Statistics:
The
detention of Palestinians has continued without pause,
becoming a daily phenomenon. Not a day has passed without a
new detention, since the West Bank became completely annexed
by the Zionist Occupation and the Palestinian Authority
embarked on a cooperative security policy with them.
There are currently 4,700 Palestinian political prisoners
in Israeli jails, 475 of whom are from Gaza strip, 360 from
Jerusalem and the 1948 lands, 40 from other Arabic countries
(Jordan, Syria and Egypt), and the rest are from the West
Bank. 185 are children under 18 years old, nine are women,
27 are MPs, and 120 are in solitary confinement as a
temporary punishment. 158 have been in solitary confinement
for many years, such as Ahmad Sa'adat, Abdullah Albarghothi,
Hasan Salamah, Abbas Alsayyed, Jamal Abu Alhaija, Derar Abu
Sisi, Ibrahim Hamed, Mahmoud Eisa, Saber Abu Diab, Mohammad
Orman, A'hed Abu Ghalmeh, Bajes Nakhleh, Waleed Khaled, Rezq
Rjoob and Ahmad Almoghrabi.
3410 have been sentenced,
534 have been sentenced to life sentences while 881
prisoners have not yet been sentenced. Abdullah Albarghothi
has been sentenced to the longest term of imprisonment since
the Israeli occupation, receiving a total of 67 life
sentences.
120 were already imprisoned before the Oslo Agreement, 95 'veterans' have spent more than twenty years in Israeli jails, and 23 have served more than 25 years. Karim Yonis from Arara village has been detained since 1983, and he is the oldest Palestinian prisoner. Sedqi Almaqt from Aljawlan, Syria, has been detained since 1985, and he is considered the leader of the Arab prisoners.
9. Kidnapping MPs and Deporting
Jerusalemites:
The year 2011 was a bad year for
Palestinian MPs. The Israeli occupation redoubled its
attacks on them and their families, in addition to
detention, deportation, threats and torture, with complete
disregard for their "parliamentary immunity." During this
period, the Israeli occupation issued more than 50
administrative detention orders from four to six months
against 23 MPs.
The Zionist Occupation is still detaining 27 Palestinian MPs, including the speaker of the PLC Dr. Aziz Dwaik, the secretary of the PLC Dr. Mahmoud Alramhy, MP Ahmad Sa'dat, MP Marwan Albarghothi, two former ministers and a number of political leaders.
During 2011, the Israeli Occupation kidnapped MP Ahmad Atton and MP Sheikh Mohammad Abu Tier from Jerusalem after they had taken refuge in the Red Cross, and deported them to Ramallah. The Israeli Occupation raided the second tent and arrested MP Mohammad Totah, and Minister Khaled Abu Arafa, deporting them to Ramallah also.
10. Hunger Strike Battle:
After the speech of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu on 23rd June 2011, the war against
prisoners started. The Israeli Occupation harassed and
provoked prisoners, sparking an intermittent hunger strike
in September 2011. At the beginning of 2012, administrative
detainee Khader Adnan started his hunger strike, and so did
dozens of other administrative detainees, challenging the
policy of administrative detention policy in Israeli jails.
The Palestinian People, and activists from around the world,
stood with them.
The prisoners were specifically protesting against administrative detention, solitary confinement, medical neglect, DNA testing, repression, and deprivation of family visits and education.
11.
Recommendations:
1- We call
upon the powerful countries to prosecute the Israeli
Occupation leaders, politicians, and military for their
crimes against Palestinian prisoners.
2- We call upon the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the United Nations, and the Arab and Europeans Parliaments to hold a special session about Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails.
3- We call upon all Arabic and European institutions and parties to continue their activities and solidarity with Palestinian prisoners and MPs held in Israeli Occupation jails.
4- We demand the Palestinian Government establish an archive dedicated to prisoners' issues, to document all crimes against them.
________________________________________
[i] The Shalit Law was introduced by
Israel to punish Palestinian prisoners after Shalit's
capture. It includes deprivation of family visits,
education, watching T.V channels including Aljazeera and
holding prisoners in solitary confinement.
[ii] The Illegal Fighter Law enables
Israel to detain Palestinians indefinitely without charge
once they have been designated as an 'illegal
fighter.'
ENDS