Ramadan iftar in Megiddo Prison: five pieces of potato for every 10 people

17.09.09 - 13:03 Jenin / Ali Samoudi for PNN - Five pieces of potato for every 10 prisoners is the Ramadan breakfast, iftar, at Megiddo, says Hilal Zidan who was released yesterday after spending seven months in the Israeli prison.
He told PNN that portions are meager at best during the holy month.
The 27 year old said that despite the warm reception he received at his family’s house in Jenin, he felt a sadness that even his mother’s evening meal could not fix. “I have a bitterness and pain that is lingering from the days of my detention, particularly those of Ramadan. I felt sad when I saw the food because my brothers in prison are deprived of everything.”
Zidan reports that the food provided by the Prisons Department is not of sufficient quantity or quality, particularly during Ramadan. Representatives of Palestinian political prisoners held extensive contacts with the Israeli prison administration to provide the needs of Ramadan, but basic requests were denied and conditions worsened. He described a Ramadan meal as consisting of five pieces of potato per 10 people and a piece of chocolate. Any additional needs are to be purchased at the prison store at exorbitant prices.
Zidan was arrested at his home in Jenin on 26 February of this year along with his nephew Nasser Mohammad Zidan. After 48 hours of interrogation Zidan says he came down with a stomach ulcer, but the Israeli prison administration refused treatment. “I lived for seven months without medication,” he told PNN. For 18 days he was kept in a small, narrow space. He was not allowed to communicate with counsel or the Red Cross. “The psychological pressure was designed to coerce me to plead guilty of belonging to the Fateh movement.” He was taken to Megiddo but submitted a request to spend his sentence at Al Naqab Desert prison where his nephew is, but the administration refused. For the first four months of detention he was denied visits by his family while clothes from his family and the Red Cross were banned.
The threat of orange uniforms remains on the horizon, noted Zidan, who said that the Department of Prisons at Megiddo said it would impose them immediately after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that comes at the end of the month of Ramadan.