MCHR uncovers horrific details of treatment of captives in Israeli jails

[ 14/08/2009 - 03:45 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Mizan Centre for Human Rights has published a report about the human rights abuses suffered by Palestinian captives in Israeli occupation jails. The details of the report were made public in a press conference on Thursday at the Ambassador Hotel in occupied Jerusalem. Lawyer Abdel-Rauf Musa, director of the Mizan Centre said that the reason for the report was the media pandemonium caused by Zionist claims that Palestinian captives were living a life of luxury at Israeli occupation jails, to the extent that a ministerial committee was formed by the Israeli government to make life hard for Palestinian captives. The report discredited Zionist claims and stressed that Palestinian captives live under sub-human conditions. Musa added that the centre will use the information and facts gathered by his organization about the life of Palestinian captives to lobby the United Nations and international human rights organizations on the issue. Meanwhile, Munir al-Saghir, spokesman of the Committee of Jerusalemite Prisoners' Families, for his part, expressed disappointment at the silence of Arab and Muslim governments towards the issues of Palestine, the Aqsa Mosque and Palestinian captives in Israeli occupation jails. He stressed that those captives are soldiers of freedom and defenders of legitimate rights. He also condemned the separation imposed by the Israeli prison authorities between Palestinian captives, from Jerusalem and 1948 areas and those of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, calling for an end of such classifications which only serves the Zionist occupation authorities. Saghir also talked about some of the suffering endured by the captives, such as solitary confinement, denial of family visits and letters and other rights that were gained by the prisoners after along struggle. Madhat Isawi, a former captive talked about the suffering of captives in occupation jails based on his personal experience and testimonies of other captives and stressed the need for human rights organizations to get involved in this issue. He pointed out the use of armored cars to transport sick prisoners, causing them even more pain.