PCHR Condemns Collective Penalties against Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails

PCHR

Thursday, 06 October 2011 07:30

Ref: 100/2011

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns collective punishment measures being taken by the Israeli prison authorities against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who have organized a hunger strike in protest to their deteriorating detention conditions. PCHR is also concerned over the health conditions of the prisoners who have now been in an open hunger strike for nine consecutive days, as the Israeli prison authorities have refrained from providing medical care to them. PCHR calls upon the international community to exert pressure on Israel and compel it to respect international law, including ending the systematic cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers. 

Palestinian and other Arab prisoners initiated a hunger strike, which has progressively extended to all Israeli prisons and detention facilities. First, prisoners from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Rimon and Nafha prison in Israel declared a hunger strike on 27 September 2011, demanding an end to the solitary confinement of 20 prisoners, some of whom have served more than 10 years in solitary confinement. They also demand an end to the three-year incommunicado detention of PFLP Secretary General, Ahmed Sa’adat. Later, prisoners in other prisons and detention facilities joined and organized a three day hunger strike. This move was expanded when prisoners declared an open hunger strike until their demands were met. Their demands include: ending the policy of solitary confinement; allowing graduate education; allowing family visitation - especially for Gazan prisoners who have been deprived of family visitation for more than five years; stopping the imposition of financial fines; stopping raids and humiliating checks of prisoners; refraining from tying the hands and feet of prisoners during family visitations or meetings with lawyers; and improving the health conditions of hundreds of sick prisoners and providing them with adequate medical care. 

However, the Israeli prison authorities have refused to meet these demands and have escalated collective punishment measures against prisoners. It has placed dozens of prisoners in solitary confinement and transferred leaders of political prisoners to sections of criminal prisoners, in an attempt to break the strike. Moreover, it has omitted to provide medical care to prisoners, including old ones, have refrained from having medicines and foods. According to prisoners, the Israeli prison authorities have initiated a series of sanctions against prisoners, including withholding salt, which prisoners take to maintain the salt balance in their bodies, and electronic devices such as televisions after they had already censored some Arab news channels. Additionally, Israeli troops waged a campaign of raids and searches in detention cells, and used tear gas against prisoners. A number of prisoners were injured.

These latest punitive measures are part of a series of measures that have been taken by the Israeli occupation authorities as an effective translation of instructions given by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in late June 2011, asking the Israeli prison authorities to limit “the privileges granted to Palestinian prisoners.” Since then, the Israeli prison authority has taken a series of measures against prisoners, including intensifying naked physical check of prisoners, and placing their leaders in incommunicado detention. In response, the prisoners have declared a series of protests against these measures and have organized a number of hunger strikes.

At least 6,000 Palestinians are currently detained in 22 Israeli prisons and detention facilities, most of which are inside Israel, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, particularly Article 76, which stipulates that “Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein.” These prisoners include 700 persons from the Gaza Strip (including 6 who have been detained according to the Illegitimate Combatant Code); 400 persons from Jerusalem and Arab areas within Israel; 251 children; and 37 women. They also include 307 prisoners who were arrested before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, including 126 persons who have served more than 20 years in prisons, 27 of whom have served more than 25 years in prison. Additionally, the group includes 214 prisoners who have been placed under administrative detention, and 20 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, most of them from the Change and Reform Bloc affiliated to Hamas.

PCHR strongly condemns these collective penalties and measures of intimidation, which are prohibited under international law, particularly Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and:

1- Calls upon the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment to present reports on the situation to the Human Rights Council to exert pressure on Israel to stop its practices against Palestinian prisoners.

2- Calls upon the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to intervene to stop collective penalties executed by the Israeli occupation authorities against Palestinian prisoners.

3- Calls upon international human rights organizations to follow up the issue of Palestinian prisoners and to intervene with their governments to pressurize the Israel to stop arbitrary measures against Palestinian prisoners and to ensure their release.

Israel still detains five Gaza citizens as "unlawful combatants"

[ 21/09/2011 - 04:41 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority is still holding five Gaza citizens under the so-called law of unlawful combatant after concluding their terms in prison, the Palestinian ministry of prisoners in Gaza said on Wednesday. Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the ministry’s spokesman, said the IOA released Abdullah Abu Mughiseeb, 29, a week ago after serving a six-year sentence then two more years as unlawful combatant thus reducing the number of those detainees to five. He charged the IOA with adopting that law in 2005 after the withdrawal from Gaza Strip and after endorsing it at the Knesset to circumvent the international law. He said that the law allowed the IOA to hold Palestinian citizens in custody without charge and for unlimited period. The detainees are not allowed to know charges leveled against them, not allowed to defend themselves, and not allowed to appear before court. Ashqar called for intervention on the part of the international human rights groups to stop this crime against the Palestinian prisoners and to annul this law, which contravenes international laws and conventions, and to release all those Palestinian detainees held under this law.

Prisoners still detained after completing sentences

Gaza – Ma'an – Israel has refused to release two Palestinian prisoners even though they completed their sentences, the Popular Movement for the Support of Prisoners and Palestinian Rights reported Friday.

Popular Movement coordinator Nash'at Al-Waheidi said in a statement that the Israel Prison Service had informed Raed Abu Mugheseib that he would be released after he served six and a half years in jail.

However, the administration of Israel's Ketziot military prison transferred the detainee to the nearby Beer Sheva prison to be held under Israel's 2002 Imprisonment of Illegal Combatants Law.

Al-Waheidi added that Israeli authorities refused to release Munir Abu Diba' after he completed his 11-year sentence in March. He pointed out that an Israeli military court had ruled that Abu Diba' would be deported because he did not have a Palestinian ID. The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Detainees and Ex-detainees Affairs appealed the decision, considering both the detention and deportation illegal.

Al-Waheidi called on international organizations and human right groups to put pressure on Israel to release prisoners who had completed their sentences, yet remain detained under the Illegal Combatants law.

The law allows the chief of staff of the Israeli military to detain anyone if there is a basis to assume that he or she "takes part in hostile activity against Israel, directly or indirectly" or "belongs to a force engaged in hostile activity against the State of Israel," according to Human Rights Watch. Detainees can be held for up to 14 days without access to a lawyer and have limited choice of counsel.

All detainees held under the law are automatically assumed to be a security threat and can be held without charge or trial as long as hostilities against Israel continue. A detainee may appeal his or her continued detention to Israel's High Court of Justice. But, based on similar appeals lodged in the cases of administrative detainees, the court hardly ever queries a military decision to detain an individual.

Human rights group issues report on Palestinian prisoners' reality in Israeli jails

Vienna, April 5, 2010 (Pal Telegraph)- Friends of Humanity International issued on Saturday "Behind the Sun"-- a detailed report describing the Palestinian prisoners’ reality in Israeli jails during 2009, confirming that 2009 was exceptionally one of the worst years: Israeli prison administration practiced new methods against them, to increase both the psychological and physical pressure  on them and continue locking them up in an exceedingly difficult environment, with the aim of rendering them soulless bodies, to guarantee they cannot live afterward. The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) also sought to destroy the Palestinian prisoner’s psyche, affecting his family as well, through oppressive policies such as preventing families from visiting their jailed relatives for very long periods of time.

The human rights group said that the Palestinian prisoners are still setting rare examples throughout humanity history, in terms of patience and endurance; where under tragic circumstances, tens of thousands of the Palestinian prisoners were forced to undergo months under torture and whips of occupation executioners in the dungeons of investigation, that they have long suffered years of oppression at the hands of prison guards and Shabas. The prisoner‘s ability to withstand these conditions and survive is a great meaning in the course of defending the right to life.

The organization pointed out that the number of prisoners in Israeli occupation jails has reached 7286 male and female prisoners over the past year, of whom 36 are females, as well as 20 ministers and deputies, in addition to 250 children under the age of 18, whose detention has been accordingly prohibited by laws. Occupation authorities also arrested 319 prisoners since before the Oslo peace accords signed by the Palestinian and Israeli sides in 1993, known as long-term prisoners (old prisoners), 115 of whom have now been held for more than twenty years, including three prisoners now being held for more than thirty years: Nael Al-Barghouthi, Fakhry Al-Barghouthi and Akram Mansour.

Because Israeli occupation authorities refuse to release them in prisoner exchange deals with the Palestinians, the focus of this report is on the Palestinian prisoners, originally from Jerusalem and areas beyond the Green Line, who have continued to be marginalized by Israeli occupation authorities. Last year’s statistics showed that the number of both sexes Jerusalemite prisoners was 273. The Palestinian captive Fuad Al-Razim from Silwan neighborhood in the occupied Jerusalem is considered the dean of Jerusalemite prisoners, arrested 29 years ago. The number of Jerusalemites who died in Israeli prisons was 14, the first of whom was Qasim Abdullah Abu Aker, died in 1969 as a result of torture during interrogation in the prison "Al Maskoubiya". The last one was captive Joma’a Keyalah, who died nearly a year ago, after having spent 13 years in Al Ramlah prison hospital.

According to the organization, there are 31 Jerusalemite prisoners; some of them sets of brothers, inside Israeli jails who are still suffering bitter conditions. Among those prisoners are 3 brothers--Mousa, Khalil and Ibrahim Sarahneh who have been sentenced to life imprisonment since 2002. Regarding solitary confinement prisoners, there are two of them, both from Jerusalem: Abed Al-Naser Al-Hulaissi who has been isolated for more than 13 years, and Mo‘taz Hijazi, isolated for nine years. There is also Jerusalemite deputy-prisoner Mohammed Abu Teir, who spent more than 25 years in Israeli jails.

According to the human rights organization “Friends of Humanity”, there are four Jerusalemite females prisoners in Israeli jails: Ibtisam Issawi, resident of Jabel Al-Mukaber and sentenced to 14 years; Amna Mona, the oldest female prisoner, resident of the Old City, and is sentenced to life imprisonment; Sana‘a Shehadeh, a resident of Qalandia refugee camp, also sentenced to life imprisonment; and finally captive Nada Derbas, resident of Issawiya town and received a 4-year sentence.

Presenting the conditions of Jerusalem’s prisoners, the organization recalled the sixty-year-and-a-half-year-old Ali Hassan Abed Rabu Shallaldah, the eldest among prisoners from the occupied Jerusalem, held prisoner for 19 years and is currently serving a sentence of 25 years. He has 12 children, 8 of whom got married while he was languishing in captivity.

The organization stated that Wael Mahmoud Qassem, from Silwan town in the occupied east Jerusalem, received the longest ever sentence of a total of 35 life sentences in prison in addition to 50 years. He is married with four children. Brothers Ramadan and Fahmi Mashahreh have been sentenced to 20 life sentences. Israeli occupation forces also demolished their homes. The organization also named the two Jerusalemite prisoners Dr. Abed Al-aziz Amro and Alaa Al-Din Al-Bazian, both sentenced to life imprisonment.

For the Palestinian female prisoners, the human rights organization asserted that 36 Palestinian women are in Israeli jails toiling in harsh conditions, 27 of whom from the West Bank, 4 from Jerusalem, 4 from Palestinian areas inside the Green Line, and only one from the Gaza Strip. Also, there are five mothers along with sons in detention, with sentences ranging from 13 to 3 life sentences and thirty years. Their names are: Irena Poly Sarahneh, a mother of two daughters; Ibtisam Abdul Hafiz, with six sons; Qahera Said Al-Saadi, with four children; Iman Mohammed Gazzawi, a mother of two; and finally Latifa Mohammed Abu Thera’, who has seven children.

According to the organization, among the Palestinian prisoners, there are 250 delinquents in Israeli jails, aged less than 18 years old. These children are equally abused as their elders, and subjected to torture, unfair trials, inhuman treatment and violations of their fundamental rights.

The organization noted that Israeli occupation authorities discriminate against the prisoners from the Palestinian areas inside the Green Line. They consider them Israeli citizens; nevertheless, they do not treat them the same way they deal with Jewish prisoners, due to Israel’s prevailing racist policy. Furthermore, Israeli government refuses to include their names in any prisoner swap deals. There are 109 prisoners from both sexes in different Israeli jails; the 78-year-old Sami Younis who was arrested 27 years ago is considered the dean of all prisoners.

Considered as the most dangerous move, Israeli government formed a ministerial committee in March 2009, to intensify violations against the prisoners. It sought to study and appraise the situation of Palestinian prisoners, with the aim of choking them. Indeed, the committee has since adopted several decisions and unjust procedures, to crush them. There are more than 1000 prisoners in Israeli jails, suffering chronic diseases, and are subjected to medical negligence. There are also more than 1500 Palestinian prisoners and others from the West Bank who have been deprived of seeing their families for long times, including 775 prisoners from the Gaza Strip denied family visits since Israel imposed the siege on the Gaza Strip in 2006, under the pretext of maintaining security.

New Israeli violations were documented; such as using detainees as human shields during the recent assault on the Gaza Strip and forcibly keeping them in holes amid heavy firing. Israeli occupation forces also turned Palestinian-owned houses into military barracks while locking up the entire family in one room only.

Also, Gaza’s fishermen were a direct target for Israeli aggression. The number of Gazan fishermen who constantly were attacked by Israelis increased, as Israeli navy forces, almost every day, arrested them, confiscated their boats and tools, and humiliated and blackmailed them. Israeli occupation forces also arrested patients at Beit Hanoun crossing ‘Erez’ kept them for interrogation, and put pressure on them to collaborate with Israeli intelligence. The organization confirmed that all people arrested were subjected to torture and humiliation, and that inflicting all kinds of torture on the prisoners is an integral part of Israel’s policy against them.

In its report, “Friends of humanity” said that the prisoner is detained under administrative detention for many years without charging him, and it may extend longer than five years. Also, there are prisoners who were transferred to administrative detention after they had served long sentences. The prisoner Fathi al-Hayek, head of Zeta Jammai'n (Nablus) village, is the oldest administrative prisoner, imprisoned for more than four years. However, the organization noted that there was a significant decrease in the number of administrative detainees during the last year, where only 280 administrative detainees remained in detention.

The organization referred to the Fourth Geneva Convention, which clearly stipulates the illegality of the continuing isolation of the prisoner more than thirty days, regardless of the offense he made. However, this was not honored by occupation authorities. They held so many prisoners in long-term isolation instead. For example, prisoners Mahmoud Issa, Abdullah Barghouthi and Hassan Salameh have been isolated since 2002, Mo'taz Hijazi and Ahmed Al-Mughrabi isolated since 2004 and Jamal Abu Al-Hija isolated since 2005.

Unprecedently, Israeli occupation authorities have arrested since mid-2006 51 Palestinian MPs and ministers, and gave most of them harsh sentences. Later, many of them were released after having spent nearly four years in captivity, but the other remaining 20 are still in different prisons under very difficult conditions.

In 2009, Israeli prison authorities tried to impose the orange uniform instead of brown. Therefore, they clearly wanted to make resemblance between them and prisoners in American prisons at Guantanamo Bay. So if one saw the Palestinian prisoners in such clothes, it would come to his mind the intended similarity between the two groups. But the decision was rejected by the prisoners, despite all punishment and strangulation, and then prison administration realized that it would not be able to implement the decision. So they had to postpone it.

“Friends of Humanity” said that 15 arrests were recorded last year, most of whom were from the Gaza Strip arrested during Israel’s war on Gaza. The majority of them faced unjust decisions mostly labeling them as ‘illegal fighters’. After they had served their sentences, they, however, were not released and continued to live under miserable conditions. Undoubtedly, this is a flagrant violation of human rights and standards of just trial as well, where the Palestinian prisoner is unable to defend himself, and is detained indefinitely without a specific charge. 

By: Fuad Al Khoffash (Researcher) and Ghassan Obaid (Human Rights Activist)
Translated by: Mohammed S. El-Nadi
Photo by: Pam Bailey

Comrade Itiani: 2009 was a year of repression and steadfastness for Palestinian prisoners

Posted on the PFLP website

Click here for French translation
Comrade Maysar Itiani, prisoners' affairs activist, said on January 1, 2010 that the year 2009 saw a continuation of the repressive measures and practices against our brave prisoners in the jails of the occupation, including a marked increase in the use of solitary confinement, isolation, and imposition of restrictions and sanctions upon them. She particularly noted that prisoners from Gaza have been denied family visits for three years.

In an interview with Al-Quds TV, she denounced the separation of Gaza prisoners from their families, saying that it has taken place since 2007, when the occupation Knesset labeled prisoners from Gaza "illegal combatants," a practice upheld by the occupation courts, illustrating the nature of the occupation courts as part and parcel of the structure of the Zionist project.

Comrade Itiani said that despite these difficult conditions, Palestinian prisoners are constantly confronting the occupier. "We will always be stronger and more solid in this confrontation," she said.

She described her own recent arrest and detention on December 9, 2009, when occupation forces stormed her house in Nablus and arrested her and her brother, Abdel Nasser. They were bound and placed in small, dark cold cells before being taken to Hasharon prison for interrogation. She said that she came out from detention more determined than ever in her advocacy for prisoners, emphasizing the need to expose the policy of solitary confinement and isolation.

Comrade Itiani noted that PFLP General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa'adat, has been held in isolation for nearly a year. She saluted her sister prisoners from Islamic Jihad and Hamas who were imprisoned with her in the interrogation period in Hasharon prison, as well as all of the comrade and brother prisoners of the PFLP, Fateh and all factions who stood by her during the arrest period, particularly Comrade Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Marwan Barghouthi and Amir Touqan.

On Thursday, December 31, 2009, Comrade Mohammed Abu Oun returned to Jabalya, Gaza after 6 years in the prisons of the occupation. He was warmly received by a rally of members and cadres of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine at Erez crossing. The PFLP congratulated Comrade Abu Oun and his family on his safe release, praising his steadfastness in the jails of the occupation, and saying  that complete joy will only come when all prisoners are released.

Comrade Abu Oun carried greetings from the prisoners,  affirming that the only mechanism to achieve the liberation of all of the prisoners is the resistance. He criticized the Palestinian Authority's approach to prisoners' issues, saying that the PA is not bearing its full responsibility in meeting their needs or alleviating their suffering.

Comrade Abu Aoun was kidnapped by the occupation forces in 2003 and sentenced to six years in prison. An additional year was arbitrarily added to his sentence in 2007 when all prisoners from Gaza were classified as "unlawful combatants."

Leaflet of the International Campaign of Solidarity with the Palestinian Prisoners (April 2009)

PPS: 47 Palestinian prisoners died in captivity due to medical neglect

[ 19/08/2009 - 08:38 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Palestinian prisoners' Society (PPS) has said that 1,500 Palestinian sick captives are threatened with death in Israeli jails due to the deliberate medical neglect. The PPS, in a report on Tuesday, said that 47 prisoners died in the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) jails due to such intentional medical neglect while 70 were tortured to death in IOA dungeons and 73 were executed in cold blood. The report noted that IOA jails are void of specialized medical teams and some of them do not have a doctor at all or at best a doctor would be present for only two hours. The Society charged that medical neglect has turned into one of the weapons used by the IOA against those prisoners. The PPS appealed to all human rights groups to expose the IOA violations against those prisoners and to shed light on their suffering. Meanwhile, the Palestinian ministry of prisoners in the Gaza Strip said that the IOA released two Palestinians from its jails after nine years in captivity under the so-called detention of "unlawful combatants." It noted that seven other Palestinians from the Strip are still held under the same pretext in IOA prisons, describing the pretext as an attempt to circumvent the international law. The ministry explained that those Palestinians are essentially civilians and should be protected by the fourth Geneva Convention, while this pretext was exploited by the IOA to hold those citizens for unlimited periods and without any commitment to indict them. In the West Bank, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Wednesday rounded up 12 Palestinians in the districts of Ramallah, Qalqilia and Tulkarem for questioning, local sources reported. The IOF soldiers on Tuesday launched a large-scale search campaign in Al-Khalil district that ended with kidnapping 11 citizens after claiming that a resistance cell was dismantled in the process.

UN torture watchdog demands access to secret jail

Jonathan Cook, Foreign Correspondent

• The National Last Updated: May 16. 2009 10:53PM UAE / May 16. 2009 6:53PM GMT

The UN is demanding that Facility 1391, a secret prison camp in northern Israel where it is believed prisoners are routinely tortured, be opened to inspectors.

Nazareth, Israel // The United Nation’s watchdog on torture has criticised Israel for refusing to allow inspections at a secret prison, dubbed by critics as “Israel’s Guantanamo Bay”, and demanded to know if more such clandestine detention camps are operating.

In a report published on Friday, the Committee Against Torture requested that Israel identify the location of the camp, officially referred to as “Facility 1391”, and allow access to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Findings from Israeli human rights groups show that the prison has in the past been used to hold Arab and Muslim prisoners, including Palestinians, and that routine torture and physical abuse were carried out by interrogators.

The UN committee’s panel of 10 independent experts also found credible the submissions from Israeli groups that Palestinian detainees were systematically tortured despite the banning of such practices by the Israeli Supreme Court in 1999.

The existence of Facility 1391 came to light in 2002, when Palestinians were detained there for the first time during Israel’s reinvasion of the West Bank.

In a submission to human rights groups last week, Israel denied that any prisoners are currently being held at the site, although it admits that several Lebanese were detained there during the attack on Lebanon in 2006. The committee expressed concern about an Israeli Supreme Court ruling in 2005 that found it “reasonable” for the state not to investigate suspicions of torture at the prison. The panel is believed to be concerned that without inspections the prison might still be in use or could be revived at short notice.The Israeli court, the committee wrote, “should ensure that all allegations of torture and ill-treatment by detainees in Facility 1391 be impartially investigated [and] the results made public”.

Hamoked, an Israeli human rights organisation, first identified the prison after two Palestinian cousins seized in Nablus in 2002 could not be traced by their families. Israeli officials eventually admitted that the pair were being held at a secret site.

Israel still refuses to identify the precise location of the prison, which is inside Israel and about 100km north of Jerusalem. A few buildings are visible, but most of the prison is built underground.

“We only learnt about the prison because the army made the mistake of putting Palestinians there when they ran out of room in Israel’s main prisons,” said Dalia Kerstein, the director of Hamoked.

“The real purpose of the camp is to interrogate prisoners from the Arab and Muslim world, who would be difficult to trace because their families are unlikely to contact Israeli organisations for help.”

Ms Kerstein said the prison site was an even grosser violation of international law than Guantanamo Bay because it had never been inspected and no one knew what took place there.

According to the testimonies of the Palestinian cousins, Mohammed and Bashar Jadallah, they were held in isolation cells measuring two metres square, with black walls, no windows and a light bulb on 24 hours a day. On the rare occasions they were escorted outside, they had to wear blacked-out goggles.

When Bashar Jadallah, 50, asked where he was, he was told he was “on the moon”.

According to the testimony of Mohammed Jadallah, 23, he was repeatedly beaten, his shackles tightened, he was tied in painful positions to a chair, he was not allowed to go to the toilet and he was prevented from sleeping, with water thrown on him if he nodded off. Interrogators are also reported to have shown him pictures of family members and threatened to harm them.

Although Palestinians passing through the prison were interrogated by the domestic secret police, the Shin Bet, foreign nationals at the prison fall under the responsibility of a special wing of military intelligence known as Unit 504, whose interrogation methods are believed to be much harsher.

Shortly after the prison came to light, a former inmate – Mustafa Dirani, a leader of the Lebanese Shia group Amal – launched a court case in Israel claiming he had been raped by a guard.

Mr Dirani, seized from Lebanon in 1994, was held in Facility 1391 for eight years along with a Hizbollah leader, Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid. Israel hoped to extract information from the pair in its search for a missing airman, Ron Arad, downed over Lebanon in 1986.

Mr Dirani alleged in court that he had been physically abused by a senior army interrogator known as “Major George”, including an incident when he was sodomised with a baton.

The case was dropped in early 2004 when Mr Dirani was released in a prisoner exchange.

Ms Kerstein said there was no proof that more prisons existed in Israel like Facility 1391, but some of the testimonies collected from former inmates suggested that they had been held at different secret locations.

She said the concern was that Israel might have been one of the countries that received “extraordinary rendition” flights, in which prisoners captured by the United States were smuggled to other countries for torture.

“If a democracy allows one of these prisons, who is to say that there are not more?” she said.

The committee examined other suspicions of torture involving Israel. It expressed particular concern about Israel’s failure to investigate more than 600 complaints made by detainees against the Shin Bet since the panel’s last hearings, in 2001.

It also highlighted the pressure put on Gazans who needed to enter Israel for medical treatment to turn informer.

Ishai Menuchin, executive director of Israel’s Public Committee against Torture, said his group had sent several submissions to the committee showing that torture was systematically used against detainees.

“After the court decision in 1999, interrogators simply learnt to be more creative in their techniques,” he said.

He added that, since Israel’s redefinition of Gaza as an “enemy state”, some Palestinians seized there were being held as “illegal combatants” rather than “security detainees”.

“In those circumstances, they might qualify for incarceration in secret prisons like Facility 1391.”

jcook@thenational.ae

Prisoners denounce pope for visiting family of captured soldier

Date: 11 / 05 / 2009 Time: 15:20

[Ma'anImages]

Gaza - Ma'an - The families of several Palestinian prisoners set up camp in front of the Red Cross building in Gaza City on Monday, in protest of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the family of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The families urged him to visit them, and to note the situation of their own sons in Israeli prisons. Moreover, the families asked that the pope visit them in Gaza to hear of their sons suffering in Israeli jails, and to pressure the Israeli government to free them.

The father of Palestinian prisoner Ali Al-Sarafati urged rights organizations to focus on the issue of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, and insisted that it was unfair for the pope to attend to the concerns of a single Israeli soldier and ignore the more than 11,000 Palestinians held by Israel.

Mwafeq Hameed, the general relations for the Gaza Organization of Prisoners and Former Prisoners, sent a message to the pope encouraging him to board a plane to visit the Gaza Strip’s prisoners. He said, "Our prisoners are suffering more than the Israeli prisoner Glad Shalit, as they lack the most simple human rights of the Fourth Geneva Convention."

Hameed went on to say that the Israeli prison administration has punished some 240 prisoners who refused to wear orange jumpsuits by preventing them from using restrooms, purchasing items and even eating lunch.

He called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to intervene on the international level to pressure Israel to release jailed Palestinians, particularly political prisoners. He also denounced the continuos Israeli arrests and detainment Palestinians seized during the Gaza assault, which Israel has labeled "illegal combatants."

17 April 2009: The Continuous Violation of Palestinian Political Prisoners’ Rights

ADDAMEER, Ramallah, 17 April 2009 - 17 April 2009 marks yet another Palestinian Prisoners’ Day in the occupied territory with nearly 8,400 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons and detention centers, among them 61 women, 423 children and approximately 550 administrative detainees, indefinitely held without charges or trial. The total number additionally includes 41 Palestinian Legislative Council members and 122 long-term prisoners serving sentences of 20 years and above.

Addameer is extremely concerned over Israel’s continued arrests, torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees, especially children under the age of 18. In 2008 alone, the Israeli Occupying Forces arrested nearly 4,960 Palestinians in more than 10,200 raids across the West Bank and Gaza Strip . In addition, hundreds of Gazans were arrested in Israel’s most recent aggression on the Strip (27/12/2008 – 18/01/2008) and used as human shields during military operations and house searches. An approximate 100 of these are still held in Israel, including 10 “unlawful combatants” captured on the basis of the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law of 2002, which allows for the indefinite administrative detention of foreign nationals.

In 2008, Addameer Association has documented at least 30 cases of torture and ill-treatment during arrest, transfer to detention and in interrogation centers aiming at coercing detainees into confessions. Abusive techniques included beatings, slapping and kicking – in some cases in front of family members – excessive use of blindfolds and painful handcuffs for prolonged periods of time, threats of torture and killing and lengthy transfers to detention centers without access to basic human needs. In addition, detainees were exposed to psychological pressure in collaborators’ rooms, denied lawyers’ visits, placed in solitary confinement, shackled in contorted positions and finally denied access to hygiene products, clean clothes, the use of showers and toilets for days and sometimes weeks.

Addameer stresses that detention conditions have not improved in comparison with last year and still fall far below accepted international standards, with overcrowding, humidity, the lack of natural light and a poor diet affecting both the mental and physical well-being of all detainees.

Medical neglect seems to have become an institutionalized policy of the Israeli Prison Service, leading to the death of two detainees in 2008 – Fadel Shahin, of the Gaza Strip who died in Beersheba’s Eshel prison on 29/02/2008 and Jum’a Musa who passed away on 24/12/2008 in Ramla prison. The denial of specialized gender-sensitive medical care and counseling to female prisoners persisted, while their right to regular contact with family members, including children remained unfulfilled. Additionally, women prisoners were systematically exposed to degrading strip searches. The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) continued depriving child detainees of adequate schooling in line with the official Palestinian curriculum, whereas adult prisoners did not see their right to higher education in Arabic fulfilled. Rather than a right, the IPS views education as a privilege and makes it conditional on a prisoner’s disciplinary record. Similarly, sanctions against prisoners from the Gaza Strip persisted. Since June 2007 when Israel unilaterally suspended the ICRC Gaza Family Visit Programme, 900 Gazan prisoners have continuously been deprived of the right to family visits.

Finally, Addameer reiterates its belief that Israel systematically arrests Palestinian political leaders to achieve political gains and thus keeps them in detention as “bargaining chips”. Following the collapse of Egypt-mediated prisoner exchange negotiations with Hamas on 18 March 2009, the Israeli Occupying Forces have raided West Bank towns and kidnapped 10 Palestinian political leaders, including 4 Palestinian Legislative Council members believed to be associated with Hamas. All of the arrested were consequently placed under administrative detention for a 6 month-period. Addameer reminds the international community that these arrests follow the Israeli government’s decision to implement sanctions against Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners as a way of ensuring the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit. On 29 March the Israeli government accepted recommendations presented by a special Ministerial Committee aiming at downgrading detention conditions of prisoners identified with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These punitive measures included: lowering the number of family visits to a minimum, preventing prisoners from either higher or secondary education, banning them from watching selected TV channels and listening to the radio; denying access to newspapers and lastly, placing restrictions on prisoners’ canteen accounts.

Consequently, some of the sanctions were implemented: children under the age of 6 visiting their fathers imprisoned in Gilboa were prevented from the usually allowed 10-15 minutes of physical contact at the end of the visit, while female prisoners affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad detained in Hasharon prison were threatened to be denied the right to family visits.

In light of the above and in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners, Addameer Association calls upon the international community to pressure Israel to ensure its compliance with international law. More specifically, Addameer:

• Urges the international community to pressure Israel to end its continuous policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people and the use of prisoners as bargaining chips.

• Demands that all administrative detainees be released promptly and unconditionally. Likewise, Addameer demands the right to a trial in which international standards and legal guarantees for fair trial are upheld for all political detainees.

• Stresses that the use of torture and ill-treatment is prohibited under international law and constitutes a grave violation of human rights as inscribed in international standards and conventions. All cases of torture should be investigated while perpetrators should be brought to justice.

• Calls upon the international community to pressure Israel to respect internationally recognized detention standards, including the right to regular family visits for all detainees without distinction, adequate and timely medical health care and the right to education. Moreover, Addameer urges the international community to act immediately in order to stop the implementation of further sanctions against detainees identified with Hamas and Islamic Jihad as such measures constitute collective punishment.

• Calls for the immediate release of all child detainees held in Israeli custody. The international community should ensure that Israel abides by its commitments and obligations as included in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• Demands that a special nutritional diet be provided to pregnant prisoners, nursing mothers, women suffering from treatable diseases, and most importantly children held with their mothers until the age of two. Equally, Addameer demands that female prisoners have access to specialized gender-sensitive medical including counselling.

Everyone knows a prisoner

In Gaza

April 24, 2009, 5:12 pm
Filed under: political prisoners

I visited Anwar in his Rafah home last week, 2 days after April 17th Palestinian Political Prisoners’ Day.

Prison is a theme for all Palestinians living in occupied Palestine, whether they themselves have been abducted and imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces, or whether someone in their family (a brother, father, son, daughter, mother) is being held in one of Israel’s prisons.

So while the visit was to meet Anwar’s family, the prison theme was unavoidable.

Anwar spent 3 years in an Israeli prison after taking his then 3 year old son, Yousef, to Egypt for treatment for his cerebral palsy. He, his wife and children ha’d spent 2 months outside of Gaza, but when they returned in June 2004, Anwar was hauled away to Israeli prison for 3 years.

Prior to 2005, Israel still physically occupied Gaza (now Israel occupies Gaza militarily, controlling borders, airspace, water, and even the basic goods allowed into Gaza).

“When we arrived at the border, I was taken aside and questioned. ‘Why were you in Egypt? They accused me of being a weapons merchant.” He was sent to one of Israel’s most notorious prisons, the Nakab prison.

While in prison, he was not only cut off from his 3 children, but also missed out on the birth of his son Ibrahim. “My wife was pregnant with our 4th child then. I didn’t meet him until he was 3 years old.”Despite his unjust confinement and the substandard conditions of his incarceration, prison time eventually afforded Anwar much time for reading and, surprisingly, to develop his artistic side.

His home is filled with crafts made in prison –pillows, embroidery, even a multi-sailed sailboat, all branded with words of love for his wife and children.

“Riham is so strong, I’ve loved her since I was in my mother’s womb,” Anwar said adoringly of his wife, pointing to the embroidered initials ‘AR’–Anwar and Riham–which appear on many of the different crafts he made.

“This is al Khoba al Sakhara, the Dome of the Rock,” he explained, displaying a model of the revered golden dome in the al Aqsa mosque complex in Jerusalem, one of the most important sites for Muslims. Palestinians with Gaza or occupied West Bank ID cards are largely cut off from the holy site, particularly at crucial times, like the religious festivals of Eid. By nature of their West Bank IDs, even during non-holy times of the year, Palestinians outside of Jerusalem (and even those within Jerusalem at times) find it nearly impossible to visit the mosque.

Released three years later, Anwar finally re-aquainted with Riham and their children, including the son he had yet to meet.

Two days prior to visiting Anwar, in Gaza’s demonstration on Palestinian Political Prisoners’ Day I saw a blur of faces — mothers, wives, children–holding posters or small photos of their imprisoned loved ones. In Gaza the situation for political prisoners as well as their families has become unbearable, with visitation rights fully terminated, meaning families have gone one year, five years, or more, without seeing or talking with their imprisoned loved ones.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) describes how visitation rights have become worse to impossible after Israel began employing the term “enemy/illegal combattant” in reference to imprisoned Palestinians from Gaza:

Israel began to utilize the contested “illegal combatant” concept with respect to Gazan prisoners. The use of this concept grants the Army Chief of Staff the power to issue an arrest warrant against whoever it considers an “illegal combatant”. Classification criteria is determined by the Army Chief of Staff and the disclosure of evidence is not required.

Palestinian Political Prisoners’ Day honours the nearly 11,000 Palestinians, including 349 minors and 75 women (as of October 2008 ICRC statistics) held in Israeli jails and under the nefarious “administrative detention” category which enables Israel to hold prisoners indefinitely without sentencing them. Israeli rights group B’Tselem says:

Administrative detention is intended to prevent the danger posed to state security by a particular individual. Israel, however, has never defined the criteria for what constitutes “state security.”

Israel’s use of administrative detention blatantly violates these restrictions. Over the years, Israel has held Palestinians in prolonged detention without trying them and without informing them of the suspicions against them. While detainees may appeal the detention, neither they nor their attorneys are allowed to see the evidence. Israel has therefore made a charade out of the entire system of procedural safeguards in both domestic and international law regarding the right to liberty and due process.

As of February 2009, Israel is holding more than 560 Palestinians in administrative detention in facilities run by the Israel Prison Service (IPS).

Recognizing the thousands of unjustly imprisoned Palestinians, in and outside of Palestine, solidarity supporters held demonstrations calling not only for their release but for conditions within Israeli-run prisons to meet the minimum standards internally-recognized for prisoners, something which PCHR succinctly notes Israel consistently falls far short of, listing among many concerns on the treatment of Palestinian prisoners:

• Ill-treatment and poor detention conditions

Palestinian prisoners are detained in below minimum standard conditions. They are detained in narrow, overcrowded and poorly ventilated cells. Israeli jails dedicated for the detention of Palestinians lack necessary sanitation facilities, and Palestinian prisoners are denied access to personal cleanliness and hygiene. Israeli prison administrations do not provide enough food, in terms of quantity and quality, for the Palestinian prisoners. Detained Palestinian children and patients do not get food suitable to ensuring their physical wellbeing.

• denying visitation rights

IOF deny Palestinian prisoners their visitation rights via the imposition of different conditions that hinder or prevent visits of Palestinian families to their relatives in Israeli jails. These conditions include: linking visitations with the overall security situation, requiring that prisoners must not be security prisoners and that persons applying for visits must not have a security record, requiring that visitors be first-degree relatives and that brothers or sons applying for visits must be under the age of 18. Since 6 July 2007, families in Gaza have not been able to visit their relatives in Israeli jails.

• Medical negligence and denial of healthcare

Due to poor detention conditions, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are suffering ill health. Israeli jails lack specialized medical personnel and clinics. Israeli prison administrations have consistently refused the provision of medicines and medical equipment necessary for the treatment of some sick prisoners. In addition, these administrations ignore the dietary requirements of some detained patients.

• Torture

IOF subject Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons to numerous instances of torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Apart from using poor detention conditions as a means to exert psychological pressure and cause physical weakness, IOF also mistreat Palestinian detainees in order to extract confessions. Known methods include: preventing detainees from meeting with their lawyers, beatings, verbal abuse and insults, threats, the use of Shabhah, sleep deprivation, forcing detainees into the ‘frog crotch’ and the ‘banana’ positions, tightening handcuffs and shackles around hands and legs, suspending by legs, and so on. The isolation of prisoners in poorly-ventilated solitary confinement cells, where they are denied visitation rights and contact with other prisoners, is one of the cruelest punishments applied to Palestinian prisoners. Solitary confinement cells are narrow, poorly ventilated and highly humid; conditions that facilitate the spread of diseases.

IOF violations of Palestinian prisoners’ rights constitute serious violations of International Humanitarian Law. In particular, ill-treatment of prisoners, denial of visitation rights, medical negligence, torture and administrative detentions are violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 relative to the protection of civilians in times of war, and against the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

useful sites on Palestinian political prisoners:

Sumoud

Addameer

First Call out of the International Campaign of Solidarity with the Palestinian Prisoners

Dear everyone,

Please take a few minutes to read the call-out below from a broad
Gaza-based prisoner solidarity campaign made up of a coalition of
prisoner rights groups, local and international activists, prisoner
families and Ministry of Detainees
representatives in Gaza.

Friday April 17th is the international day of solidarity with
Palestinian prisoners. Just over 11,000 are behind bars in occupation
prisons inside the apartheid lines and outside the ghetto walls of the
West Bank and Gaza.

Prisoners are a community under siege which represents every faction in
Palestine. Solidarity between prisoners inside Israeli jails crosses all
political borders. They have sacrificed their individual freedom for
collective freedom.

From taking direct action to symbolic gestures (in the case if prisoner
campaigns, simple visual solidarity gestures drawing public attention to
the struggle of prisoners is always effective in keeping memories,
spirit and solidarity alive). Please take action this week! And email us
about it...

palestinianprisoners@gmail.com

http://palestinianprisoners.blogspot.com

April 17th is the international day of solidarity with Palestinian
prisoners. These over 11,000 men, women and children are ghost
prisoners, forgotten by the international community and media which has
focused on the systematic and physical psychological torture of
prisoners in high profile camps such as Guantanamo Bay but has largely
ignored the network of Israel's 'Guantanamos' inside 'Israel'.

This call comes from Gaza – recognized as a large open air prison and
place of punishment and exile for Palestinian prisoners from the West
Bank.

Maximum security facilities such as Nufha, Haderim, Jalamy, and Ashkalon
, and so-called 'black sites' which the Israeli government refuses to
aknowledge, hold thousands of Palestinian prisoners. These prisoners are
regularly and systematically tortured, denied access to legal
representation, family visits, education, shelter, light, essential
medical care and medicines.

The 'Israeli state' has a policy of administrative detention which means
any man, woman or child can be arrested at any time and in any place and
incarcerated without trial or access to any alleged evidence held by the
intelligence services, for an undetermined and extendable length of
time.

The majority of Palestinian men have been and will be arrested and
incarcerated at some point in their lives by Israeli occupation forces.
Under the Fourth Geneva Conventions, which Israel is a signatory to,
Palestinian prisoners should be treated by the occupying forces under
the rules applicable to the treatment of civilians in time of war.
Almost all the Palestinian detainees are held in jails away from the
West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip, in violation of
international humanitarian law, which bars the removal of detainees to
the territory of the occupying power. The 'Israeli' military and
security forces regularly violate international law and conventions
relating to prisoners.

Imprisonment and torture is an intergenerational experience for
Palestinians living in Gaza, 1948 Palestine ('Israel') and the West
Bank.

Imprisonment is a core element of the Israeli occupation's strategy of
collective containment and punishment of the Palestinian population –
both of those jailed, and their families who suffer their absence and
wait for their release. Military resistance fighters, as well as
non-militarily active political activists, community organizers,
paramedics, doctors, journalists, teachers, and students are regularly
jailed under an Israeli legal framework which criminalizes any form of
resistance to occupation.

The inhumane prison conditions that Palestinian prisoners endure are
steadily deteriorating. Following the Gaza massacres, the collective
punishment of prisoners from Gaza has accelerated, with prisoners being
denied the right to newspapers, radios, phone calls and visits from
legal representatives. Gazan prisoners are now being confined to their
cells for up to 23 hours a day and are being classified as "enemy
combatants" further stripping away any rights to legal defence.

Palestinian prisoners are a forgotten community behind bars, often
locally referred to as 'living martyrs'. The prisoner issue is a core
part of the Palestinian struggle, whose liberation is as integral to the
struggle for justice and peace as the return of refugees, Jerusalem and
stolen land.

In Gaza we will be holding a week of activities in solidarity including
a marathon through the streets of Gaza in solidarity with our jailed
loved ones, a conference of all prisoner advocacy organizations and
prisoners' families, a mass demonstration and a celebration of
Palestinian resilience, sacrifice and patience.

In the light of 'Israel's' further shift to the far right, unchallenged
impunity, and the intensified humiliation of Palestinian prisoners, we
call on the international community to take a stand.

We call for an end to double standards and for international pressure to
force 'Israel' to adhere to international law.

We call on national representatives, parliamentarians, human rights
organizations, trade unions, activists and people of conscience
throughout the world to recognize, remember, speak out and protest the
treatment of Palestinian prisoners this week.

We hope this week will be the catalyst that sparks long-term campaigns
and commitments towards solidarity with Palestinian prisoners.

http://palestinianprisoners.blogspot.com

palestinianprisoners@gmail.com

Unlawful Combatants The Violation of Gazan Detainees' Rights in Israeli Prisons

6-4-2009 Al Mezan

This report aims to give the reader an understanding of the legal status of unlawful combatants within international law as well as Israeli and US law. It examines Israel's Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, 5762-2002 (with amendments passed on 30 July 2008), as a way of abrogating the rights of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. The report compares the policies of Israel towards unlawful combatants' detainment to those of the United States. Ultimately the report examines the international community's obligation to condemn the current policies, which directly violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law, in the way that the US policies have been criticized.

Download File

The tragedy of the Palestinian Prisoners

THE TRAGEDY OF THE PALESTINIAN PRISONERS

Statistics

Since 1967, over 700,000 Palestinians have been detained - totaling approximately 20% of the total Palestinian population remaining within the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) . The majority of those detained are male, meaning that the number constitutes approximately 40% of the total male Palestinian population in the oPT.

The figures of Palestinian detainees vary between sources. In October 2008 the ICRC was following the cases of roughly 10,500 prisoners, (1) while according to the Israeli Prisons Service on 3^rd of February 2009 there were only 7951 cases. (2)

Deaths of Palestinians in Israeli jails

Since 1967 at least 197 Palestinians have died while in the custody of the Israeli Forces, 50 of these deaths were due to medical negligence and the rest due to other reasons including torture or even execution. (3)

Institutionalized torture and ill-treatment (4)

Up until 1999 almost all Palestinian interrogees were the victims of at least one form of torture during their interrogation. The tortures were based on the license of the Landau Ministerial Committee (1987) allowing "moderate physical & psychological pressure". Despite the Israeli High Court of Justice ruling of September 1999 which prohibited the use of several forms of torture, significant gaps were left that have allowed for the perpetuation of torture and ill-treatment in General Security Service (Shin Bet), police and army interrogations. In 2007 the Israeli High Court of Justice approved the use of controversial methods to interrogate Palestinians in several cases.(5) The ill treatment of Palestinian detainees begins with the denial of their right to have contact with the outside world, particularly with attorneys and family members, often for extended periods of time. It continues with arbitrary transfers and separation of family members inside prison. (6) Often detainees are held in tents and subject to extreme weather conditions without appropriate protection.
Torture and ill treatment include:

· "Routine" methods such as sleep prevention, binding to a chair in painful positions, beatings, slapping, kicking, strip searching (7), threats and verbal abuse.

· Special methods such as bending the body into painful positions, manacling from behind for long periods of time, intentional tightening of handcuffs, stepping on manacles, the application of pressure on various parts of the body, forcing the interrogee to crouch in a frog-like position ("kambaz"), choking, shaking and other violent and degrading acts (hair-pulling, spitting etc.).

· Torture and ill-treatment in solitary confinement including sleep prevention, exposure to extreme heat and cold, permanent exposure to artificial light, detention in sub-standard conditions that are contrary to the basic standards set by the UN (including cells with roaches, mice, sub-standard hygienic conditions, proximity between food and a hole used as a toilet, lack of hot water, prevention of a change of clothes, and constant artificial light).

· Various forms of psychological torture such as threats and exploitation of family members.

Detention at the territory of the occupying power

Almost all the Palestinian detainees are held in jails away from West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip, in violation of international humanitarian law, which bars the removal of detainees to the territory of the occupying power. (8) This fact also infringes the right of the detainees to receive family visits as these are at best very difficult and more often than not impossible. The majority of residents from the West Bank are denied entry into "Apartheid Israel" even for a short visit; and all visits for families from Gaza to their relatives detained in Israeli prisons have been suspended since June 2007. (9)

Administrative detention

In Israel, Administrative detention is a kind of detention where someone can be held for an extended period of time without trial or charges. It is in clear contravention of international and human rights law, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention. Administrative detention was originally based on British Mandate Defense (Emergency) Regulations of 1945. The decision to place someone in Administrative detention is based on confidential materials kept from the detainee and their lawyer. The confidential materials determine the period of detention and its extension thereafter. The administrative detainee is allowed an appeal before a court martial but the confidentiality of the materials on which the detention is based makes the trial nominal or false. Experience has shown that the real decision-maker in the appeal is the intelligence services. (10) Palestinian detainees have been held under administrative detention orders from periods ranging from 6 months to 8 years. (11) Currently there are at least 564 administrative detainees (IPS- 3/2/2009) (2)

New status of "unlawful combatant" (12)

Israel enacted the unlawful combatant law in 2002. The law legalized the detention of Lebanese and Arab prisoners without sufficient evidence for trial. Following the redeployment of Israeli Occupation Forces from Gaza Strip in 2005 and in order to substitute Administrative Detention, the unlawful combatant law began to be applied to Gazan prisoners. This law gives the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army the right to request that any citizen from the Gaza Strip be deemed an "unlawful combatant". This request need only be based on secret information from Shin Bet, and not on conventionally acceptable evidence sufficient for a regular trial. This law also gives the Israeli court the power to issue a decision to detain Palestinians for an indefinite period. The unlawful combatant Law constitutes a gross violation of international humanitarian law (IHL), particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population. Currently there are at least 19 Palestinians imprisoned under the unlawful combatant law (IPS – 3/2/2009) (2)

Negligence of medical treatment / Sick prisoners

Dozens of detainees are currently facing death as they need urgent medical attention (13), and hundreds are denied proper medical treatment (14), by the Israeli prison administration. Among the prisoners denied their right to proper medical care in recent years were patients suffering from cancer (15), paralysis (16) or in need of kidney transplant.(17)

Prohibition of visits / Humiliation during visits

Israeli authorities frequently deny visiting permits to relatives of Palestinian detainees on unspecified “security” grounds. The prohibition often appears to be entirely arbitrary, with the same relatives being allowed to visit on some occasions but not on others. Many parents, spouses and children of detainees had not been allowed to visit their relatives for more than four years. Since June 2007 , the Israeli authorities have suspended all family visits for hundreds of detainees from the Gaza Strip. No Israelis serving prison sentences were subjected to such restrictions. (8) After the Al Aqsa Intifada there were reports that prisoners and their relatives were submitted to humiliating treatment during the visits.

Children prisoners

The Israeli Army has kidnapped a total of 7,600 Palestinian children, males and females, since the year 2000. (18) Some of the children were as young as 12 years old. (18,19) According to the Israeli Prisons Service on 3^rd of February 2009 there were 374 Palestinian children prisoners, 50 of them under 16. (20) Palestinian children from the age of 16 years are considered adults under Israeli military regulations governing the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This contradicts the Convention on the Rights of the Child (to which Israel is a signatory) and the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty where a child is defined as every human being under the age of 18 years. Administrative detention is also applied to children (at least 200 since the year 2000 and currently about 5) (18,20). Palestinian children prisoners are often:

· Tortured during the interrogation period.

· Forced to sign confessions

· Held in sections with criminal prisoners

· Suffering attacks by Israeli criminal prisoners, including threats and stabbings.

· Subjected to sexual, physical and verbal harassment. Sexual harassment has been practiced against a number of child prisoners and threats of beatings if the child reports the incident to the administration. One child prisoner who complained to the administration about sexual harassment was attacked by Israeli criminal prisoners with knives and injured in his leg

· Deprived of the necessary medical care.

· Deprived of family visits, with the subsequent psychological impact on child prisoners.

· Deprived of continuation of education whilst in detention.

· Deprived of the psychological care and counselors within the prison.

· Feeling alone and isolated from the outside world.

· Suffering attempts to coerce them to work as collaborators with Israeli security agencies.

· Suffering thefts of personal belongings, including phone cards, shoes and foodstuff that is purchased from the prison canteen.

· Deprived of entertainment, cultural items, newspapers and recreational facilities. (21)

Women /mothers prisoners (22)

Currently there are at least 63 female political prisoners in Israeli jails - mostly in Hasharon Prison (Tel Mond) and in Damoon Prison (Carmel Mountain). Some of them are only 14 year old children. Female political prisoners are submitted to harsh and humiliating treatment during their arrest, imprisonment or transfer to the court, including strip searching, sometimes in the presence of men (7). The prison authorities ensure that many women either do not receive letters sent to them by their family or get them months after they were sent. The prisoners from the Gaza Strip are particularly harmed by this policy, as their families are not allowed to visit them and letters are the only other form of contact possible with their families. Recently, the prison authorities have prevented the female prisoners' families from handing over handicraft materials. The prison authorities also prohibit the female political prisoners to give their families handicrafts that they have made. Sometimes Palestinian mothers are held in Israeli jails, including those who give birth inside the prison and their children live the first years of their lives in jail. Sometimes Palestinian female prisoners are arrested as a means of putting pressure on their husbands. (23) The Israeli Army has kidnapped more than 10,000 Palestinian women since 1967. 800 of them were kidnapped during the al-Aqsa Intifada. (24)

Long-term prisoners

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have served more than 15 years in prison and dozens have served more than 20 years. In August 2008 a Palestinian prisoner was released after 31 years in prison. (25)

Palestinian Prisoners with "Israeli citizenship"

Israeli repression affects also Palestinians with "Israeli citizenship". Recently more than 700 of them were detained, over half of those minors under the age of 18, in an effort to repress protests against the onslaught on Gaza. (26) Others were arrested during protests against the nomination of extreme-rightwing Israelis as heads of one of the election centers in Um elFahm, the second biggest Arab city in the "Apartheid Israel". (27) There are also long-term political prisoners arrested before the First Intifada. (28) Among the prisoners are also Palestinian Druze conscientious objectors (29) and Bedouins.(30)

Prisoners' resistance

Palestinian prisoners have a long history of political organization and resistance inside the Israeli jails. Hunger strikes protesting violent attacks, denial of visits, medical negligence and harsh conditions is the most usual way of struggle and in some cases thousands of prisoners have participated. (31) Sometimes the Palestinian prisoners' response to severe violations of their rights is even stronger with riots erupting. The Israeli response is brutal as in the case of October 2007 in Ketziot prison when a 30year old Palestinian was murdered. (32) Palestinian prisoners through hunger strikes are also showing their solidarity with the rest of the Palestinian people during hard times as in January 2009 (War on Gaza) (33) or July 2006 (War on Gaza and Lebanon). (34) Finally the Palestinian Prisoners are playing a key role in the efforts to restore unity between Palestinian factions. Their most prominent recent initiative is the National Conciliation Document of the Palestinian Prisoners (May 2006). (35)

INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PRISONERS

http://palestinianprisoners.blogspot.com/

Sources: Addameer, AIC, Al-Dameer, Amnesty International, B'Tselem, IMEMC, Ma'an, Palestine Monitor, PCATI, PCHR, PHR, PIC, PNN, Sumoud, Waed, WOFPP

Footnotes:

(1) Palestine Monitor fact sheet http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article9 The first sentence is attribute to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Human Rights Situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab Territories. Available Online at: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/402/29/PDF/G0840229.pdf?OpenElement. January 2008.

(2) B'Tselem "Statistics on Palestinians in the custody of the Israeli security forces" http://www.btselem.org/english/statistics/Detainees_and_Prisoners.asp

(3) The numbers are given from Palestinian researcher and specialist in detainees’ affairs, Awni Abdul-Naser Farwana as cited in the article "Palestinian Detainee Dies Due to Medical Negligence in al-Ramah Israeli Prison", IMEMC 24/12/2008 http://www.imemc.org/article/58140 But I added another death according to "Medical negligence suspected in prisoner's death" PCHR 5/3/2009 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9371.shtml

(4) Most of this chapter is based on the reports of PCATI: Torture in Israel 1990-1999 http://www.stoptorture.org.il/en/skira90-99 and Torture in Israel 1999 to present http://www.stoptorture.org.il/en/skira1999-present

(5) "Report: High Court permits torture of Palestinians" PCATI 30/5/2007 http://www.stoptorture.org.il/en/node/777

(6) "Report: Palestinian prisoners face numerous kinds of suffering in Israeli jails" PIC 11/3/2009 http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7nMYFv82YDKZrrSD9fMq2wsIBuZLlcJXzCirI5gTjvBD1c1Y5WTYusvU6xvwvJyX9J0aOE3R4PZNapbBk2y9ILSkpXzyuY0JjWx8PNMKEcf4%3d where as source is cited a report of the Palestinian center for prisoners' studies.

(7) About strip searching see "Israeli Strip Searches: A Partial List" Compiled by Sarah Tiglao
If Americans Knew http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/strip-searches.html

(8)Amnesty International Report 2008

(9) Palestine Monitor fact sheet http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article9 As source is cited: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL. Human Rights Situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab Territories. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967m John Dugard. 21 January 2008. P. 20, para 47. http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/402/29/PDF/G0840229.pdf?OpenElement

(10) "Administrative detention" ADDAMEER http://www.addameer.org/detention/admin_deten.html

(11) ADDAMEER Fact Sheet: "Palestinians detained by Israel" http://www.addameer.org/resources/reports/factsheet.html

(12) This chapter is mainly based on "Israel treats Gaza Prisoners us unlawful combatants" Al-Dameer 5/3/2009

(13) "Waed Society: "Sick prisoners facing death due to medical negligence"" IMEMC 3/3/2009 http://www.imemc.org/article/59090

(14) "Political prisoners suffer medical neglect in the cold, pray for Gaza" PNN 18/1/2009 http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4546&Itemid=1

(15) "Life of cancer-stricken Palestinian prisoner at risk due to medical neglect" 27/1/2007 http://sumoud.tao.ca/?q=node/view/860 PIC cited as source

(16) "Paralyzed detainee facing slow death" IMEMC 7/7/2008 http://www.imemc.org/article/55886

(17) "IPS must pay for a Palestinian prisoner´s transplant" PHR 1/10/2007 http://www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=500&catid=57&pcat=46&lang=ENG

(18) The numbers are given from Palestinian researcher and specialist in detainees’ affairs, Abdul-Naser Awni Farwana as cited in the article "Report: “Amy kidnapped 7,600 children since 2000, 246 remain behind bars”" IMEMC 19/2/2009 http://www.imemc.org/article/58929

(19) Palestine Monitor fact sheet http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article9

(20) B'Tselem "Statistics on Palestinian minors in the custody of the Israeli security forces" http://www.btselem.org/english/statistics/Minors_in_Custody.asp

(21) "Palestinian Children Political Prisoners" ADDAMEER http://www.addameer.org/detention/children.html

(22) Newsletter February 2009 WOFPP http://www.wofpp.org/english/february9.html

(23) "Palestinian Women Political Prisoners" ADDAMEER http://www.addameer.org/detention/women.html

(24) "Farawna:' March 8th a day of solidarity with Palestinian female detainees' " IMEMC 6/3/2009 http://www.imemc.org/article/59170

(25) "Palestinian prisoners in Guinness book of records" Ma'an 23/12/2007 http://maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=26863

(26) "Over 750 Palestinian Citizens, Residents of Israel Detained by Israel Since Beginning of Attacks on Gaza" Written by Connie Hackbarth, Alternative Information Center (AIC) 19/1/2009 http://www.alternativenews.org/english/1687-over-750-palestinian-citizens-residents-of-israel-detained-by-israel-since-beginning-of-attacks-on-gaza-.html 

(27) "Free Comrade Samieh Jabbarin!" Abnaa elBalad (Children of the Land) Movement condemns: The political detention of Comrade Samieh Jabbarin and calls for International Solidarity 23/2/2009 http://sumoud.tao.ca/?q=node/view/1218

(28) "Hamas adds names of Arab detainees from the north to the list for Shallit swap" IMEMC 18/2/2009 http://www.imemc.org/article/58920

(29) "More Druze refuseniks despite Israeli threats" IMEMC 6/7/2007 http://www.imemc.org/article/49363

(30) "Israel Arrests Two Bedouin Palestinians as Al-Qaeda Members" http://sumoud.tao.ca/?q=node/view/1046 (articles from Haaretz)

(31) For example see "Palestinians end hunger strike" by Laila El-Haddad 3/9/2004 http://sumoud.tao.ca/?q=node/view/120 or "2400 detainees in the Negev on Hunger Strike" IMEMC 16/8/2006 http://www.imemc.org/article/20884

(32) "What is not being said about the Ketziot prison raid" http://palsolidarity.org/2007/10/2746

(33) "Palestinian detainees on Hunger Strike in protest to Israeli attacks in Gaza" IMEMC 28/12/2008 http://www.imemc.org/article/58181

(34) "Detainees in the Negev on Hunger Strike protesting attacks in Gaza, Lebanon" 31/7/2006 http://sumoud.tao.ca/?q=node/view/732 PNN cited as original source

(35) "The full text of the National Conciliation Document 'Prisoners Document' " 11/5/2006 http://www.elections.ps/template.aspx?id=330