Palestinian prisoners to take escalatory moves in protest at Israeli measures

[ 01/04/2009 - 02:37 PM ]

ABU DHABI, (PIC)-- The UAE Al-Khaleej newspaper quoted Palestinian MP Khaleda Jarrar as saying that the Palestinian prisoners intend to take escalatory moves inside Israeli jails including a general hunger strike in protest at the restrictive measures which the last Israeli government implemented against them. Jarrar, who herself was a prisoner in Israeli jails, added that there is no doubt that all the prisoners will be united in the face of the Israeli arbitrary measures and will not yield to attempts to tighten the incarceration conditions inside jails. In the same context, the Dhameer foundation for human rights called for pooling international legal efforts to oblige Israel not to implement its plans to privatize its prisons, asserting that such a step contravenes the rules of international humanitarian law. The foundation added that the act of privatizing jails means that the prisoners will be deprived from many services and the prison administrations will reap profits from them which also will lead to the escalation of arrests and additional financial burdens on the prisoners' families and thus the prisons will turn into commercial markets. The foundation also charged that Israel, through this dangerous precedent, tries to evade its legal and moral obligations towards the Palestinian prisoners. The last Israeli government headed by Ehud Olmert had approved in its last meeting a package of penal measures against Palestinian prisoners especially those affiliated with Hamas.