Prisoners’ Affairs Ministry: Israel arrested 420 Palestinians in Ramadan

[ 07/09/2011 - 08:00 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs has said that the Israeli occupation authorities placed 420 Palestinians in detention during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in a fresh report released on Wednesday. It was that month that Israel carried out one of the most massive arrest sweeps in Al-Khalil in years, rounding up some 190 Palestinians there in just a few days. Among those arrested that month were 45 minors, four women, three of whom are wives of Palestinians already detained in the Israeli prisons, and three members of the Palestinian legislature. The new report also documented the repressive circumstances that continued inside the Israeli prisons throughout the Muslim holy month. It said that special units continued to carry out search raids in the Megiddo prison during the morning meal ahead of the Ramadan fast, and that some 40 prisoners suffered from food poisoning from spoiled food served to them in the canteen. Other repressive acts were also reported. Prisoners in the Negev prison were once again required to wear uniforms whenever leaving prison in spite of prior agreements. All books were also removed from a sector in Damon prison, where a ban was also placed on books brought in by family members during visits. Also that month, the prisoners were banned from bringing foods into the prison and were also prohibited from receiving extra funds during Ramadan to purchase extra materials needed for the month as well as for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, marking the end of the Ramadan. The report says that Israeli occupation authorities froze all funds for the education of prisoners enrolled in the open Hebrew university until further notice, under an official decision to stop the education of Palestinian prisoners inside the prisons. Also on the political level, the Israeli legislative body, the Knesset, approved amending a law allowing the prison administrations to ban security prisoners from receiving lawyer visits without referring to the courts or providing justification. More than 50 prisoners were transferred to administrative detention, including Palestinian MP Mohammed Mutlaq Abu Juheisha and Ayed Doudein, who has spent more time in administrative detention than any other prisoner. Other prisoners, such as MP Marwan al-Barghouthi, were place in solitary confinement. Another prisoner was isolated for smuggling a letter over to his 85-year-old mother, the report highlights.