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Saturday, May 23, 2009
Israeli troops wound Palestinian elderly woman, arrest 9 Palestinians in the West Bank
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Friday, May 22, 2009
Israeli forces arrest 6 Palestinians in West Bank
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Prisoners’ Society reports on worsening conditions in Israeli prison, including being closed in box
Ramallah / PNN – Conditions for the approximately 11,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons are known to be subhuman in many cases and in contravention to international human rights standards.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reports on just one case of the current situation in Jalame interrogation facility.
Extended periods of isolation in closed boxes described as being “like graves” is the latest torture to befall Palestinian political prisoners. The Israeli administration admits to a policy of torture to extract confessions and to keep control, despite campaigns by international and local prisoners’ and human rights organizations.
The PPS in the West Bank reports the conditions of political prisoners confined in Jalame are “very bad,” saying, “Detention is a threat to their lives with the continuing policies of torture and long periods of isolation in closed boxes akin to graves.”
Based on the testimonies of many of the prisoners recently released, Israeli investigators and the prison management has held at least 15 people captive in these cells as a form of psychological pressure to extract confessions, real or created.
“There are no legal regulations being referred to as all ban this inhuman act. Most in the isolated cells have completed their 40-day periods of investigation but are still isolated from the outside world without any regard to their health, psychological or physical,” reports the Prisoners’ Society.
In solitary confinement meals are restricted and cigarettes unavailable. Using a bathroom is rare and the negative affects on mental and emotional health are prevalent, say PPS staff. “The risk of death is high due to continued daily torture.”
International and human rights organizations are asked to immediately and urgently intervene to release these people from isolation in order to save their lives.
Between 40 and 90 Palestinians are currently held in the Jalame interrogation center in the northern West Bank’s Jenin Governorate within an Israeli army camp called Kishon.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reports that roughly 85 percent of all Palestinians who have entered there have been subjected to various forms of torture and beatings.
IOF Gunboats Shell Rafah Beach, Detain Two Fishers
20-5-2009
Al Mezan
At app. 9.30 on 20 May 2009, IOF gunboats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats at Rafah beach. They also detained khalil Abdullah An-Najjar, 20, and his brother Ibrahim, 17, while they were on a boat in the open sea and took the to an unknown destination.
Wa'ed accuses the IOA of killing Palestinian captives slowly
| [ 19/05/2009 - 11:49 PM ] |
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GAZA, (PIC)-- The Wa'ed society for prisoners and ex-prisoners' affairs have called on the IOA to immediately and unconditionally release Palestinian captive Waleed Akel, accusing it of slowly killing captives through deliberate medical neglect. Wife of Akel, who is living in Gaza Strip and who was denied by the IOA from visiting her husband, telephoned the society on Tuesday, and informed them that her husband's health was continuously deteriorating, and that he should be released on human considerations as her husband, according to Waed's records, suffers high blood pressure and of diabetes. She was quoted by Wa'ed as saying, "He sleeps most of the time, and wakes up only for short period of time where he asks his comrades to take care of his wife and children if he passed away in the jail". Akel was denied family visits for three years now, and his family knows the information about him through the feedback coming from relatives of other Palestinian captives from the West Bank. She also asked the IPA to allow her husband's first cousin Khamis Akel, who is detained in the same jail, but a different section, to be with her husband in order to attend for his needs, calling on the IPA to allow her husband talk to his children even through phone. "I believe that this is one of the simplest rights of a captive," she underscored. According to the society, number of the sick Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails increased noticeably after the IPA used them as guinea pigs for testing new drugs produced by the Israeli factories, in addition to the inhuman policy of deliberate medical neglect against the captives. The society urged the international community to immediately pressure the IOA into releasing and giving proper medical treatment to Akel, and to other sick Palestinian captives in Israeli jails who number 1600 captives, 250 of them need surgical operations. Akel, who has three daughters and one son, was arrested in 1991 and sentenced to 16 life terms. |
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Ministry of prisoners: Israel deliberately kidnaps and maltreats children
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian ministry for prisoners’ affairs in Gaza said Tuesday that the IOF troops deliberately kidnap Palestinian children under age 18, physically attack them and use violent ways to interrogate them.
In a statement received by the PIC, the ministry underlined that the international conventions prohibit the detention of children except in limited special cases on condition that they are well treated and given their rights provided for by international law.
The statement highlighted that Israel does not respect any of these conventions and systematically kidnap children as many as it can from their homes, schools or during their presence on the streets and at the checkpoints.
The kidnapped children, according to the statement, are exposed to severe beatings and threats by IOF troops in order to inflict psychological harm on them so that they cannot think of resisting the occupation when they grow up.
The statement pointed to the kidnapping of six Palestinian children a few days ago in one of Ramallah villages, saying that they were maltreated and interrogated for 14 continuous hours without allowing them to eat, drink or use the toilets.
The statement also noted that the number of children in Israeli jails rose to more than 430 prisoners, many of them are less than 12 years of age, adding that those children suffer from deliberate medical neglect, and are forced to wear orange uniform and sleep on the ground.
UN torture watchdog demands access to secret jail
- 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
Israeli army reservists pressure Barak to resume prisoners' swap negotiations
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli army reservists have called on war minister Ehud Barak to revive the issue of Gilad Shalit, who has been captured by Palestinian resistance factions more than three years ago and held in Gaza.
Hebrew media quoted army sources as saying that a meeting was held on Monday between Barak and a number of those soldiers and officers who handed him a memo asking the government to resume contacts aimed at freeing Shalit.
The reservists stressed that efforts should be resumed to conclude the prisoners' exchange deal.
Barak, for his part, said that the former government failed in finding a solution to the issue of the captured soldier and that he shoulders the responsibility in his capacity as army minister.
A number of those reservists had demonstrated in front of Barak's home last month asking the government to go ahead in the exchange deal.
The Hebrew media noted that the issue of Shalit had topped the questions discussed during Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak a few days ago in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Meanwhile, Barak retracted his permission to the national union party to organize a march in Al-Khalil city, citing security concerns after the inhabitants of Al-Khalil said they would stand up to the marchers.
The Israeli military injures two and kidnaps 9 from the West Bank on Tuesday
Two civilians were injured and nine others kidnapped during military attacks in several parts of the West Bank on Tuesday at dawn.
Israeli troops kidnapping a Palestinian civilian in Hebron � Photo by IMEMC's Ghassan Bannoura -File 2008
Two Palestinian workers sustained moderate wounds when soldiers manning a checkpoint near Hebron shot them. Local sources said the two workers were coming back from Nagev where they work. Five civilians were kidnapped when troops attacked and searched homes in Hebron city during a pre dawn invasion on Tuesday. Meanwhile another two were kidnapped during a similar attack targeting nearby Bethlehem City. The last two were taken during a morning invasion targeting Ramallah city.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Campaign to release the Palestinian activist arrested in al-Ma’sara
15 May 2009
The Al-Ma’sara Committee against the Wall and Settlements has been organizing and participating in demonstrations against the confiscation of their land for the past two and a half years. Participants and committee members are known for their strict adherence to non-violent tactics in demonstrations. While the protesters maintained their usual tactics on 1 May 2009, Israeli forces escalated their attempt to suppress the non-violent resistance by arresting several demonstrators. A new military commander, stationed in the area two months prior, had announced his intentions to end the resistance and implemented tactics such as night invasions of organizer’s homes, destruction of property and threats.
During the demonstration on 1 May 2009, the Israeli army arrested three members of the Al-Ma’sara Committee against the Wall and Settlements; Hasan Bergia, Mohammad Bergia and Mahmoud Sawahre. Additionally, Israeli forces arrested Mustafa Fuara; a resident of Al-Ma’sara, Azmi Ash-Shyukhi; a resident of Hebron, Haggai Matar; an Israeli solidarity activist and Tom Stocker, a British national volunteering with the Holy Land Trust.
The army alleged that the arrested demonstrators were involved in rioting, interfering with police work, assault of soldiers and policemen, and the destruction of military property.
The Israeli activist Matar and British volunteer Stocker, were released the same day on 1,500 NIS bail with conditions of not entering the West Bank for two weeks. Azmi Ash-Shyukhi; Mustafa Fuara; and Mahmoud Sawahre, were released on bail (50,000 NIS all together) after being held in military prison for almost two weeks on 13 May 2009.
Hassan Bergia and Mohammad Bergia, members of the Al-Ma’sara Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, are still being held.
Mohammad Bergia’s lawyer will appeal for his release and letters of support can help shed light on the injustice of his arrest. Show support for Mohammad Bergia and help apply pressure for his release by signing and sending the sample letter below to haggai@hotmail.com.
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It May Concern,
I was disturbed to learn that Mr. Muhamad Bergia, a member of the Popular Committee of the village of Al-Maasara in the West Bank, was arrested for peacefully demonstrating against Israel’s separation fence on May 1st, 2009 and is still being held in prison. Over the past two and a half years Mr. Bergia and his associates have displayed an unshakable commitment to non-violence and to dignified action.
Mr. Bergia in particular is well known for his commitment to the struggle for peace through non-violent means and for his willingness to work in partnership with Israelis. He is a respected member of the community; Bergia is the secretary of the local council village and a teacher in the village. I am impressed with his honesty and commitment to non-violence. My understanding of Israeli law is that the right to demonstrate peacefully is protected. Mr. Bergia should be commended and not punished for his efforts.
I hope and trust that Mr. Bergia will be allowed to return to his family, including his young daughter, and community without further delay and that his name be cleared of all accusations.
Sincerely,
Youth camp memorializes Al Nakba, cleans cemetery and sees Al Aqsa Mosque, 5 students arrested
Maisa Abu Ghazaleh / PNN exclusive – The Palestinian people are still living with the calamity that befell them 61 years ago.
New pictures of their plight are coming to the foreground particularly in places like Jerusalem where the strategic policy of driving them away is not dissimilar to the creation of the Israeli state. Now in Jerusalem families and entire neighborhoods are handed demolition orders and forced to leave at gunpoint. In 1947 and ’48 there were no orders, but the outcome was the same.
On Saturday the Israeli police arrested five young men and women who took part in a camp called “Jerusalem First” on the occasion of the anniversary of Al Nakba. Their efforts include working with academic organizations and those that care for Islamic sanctities, including cemeteries and mosques.
Camp director Ibrahim Hijazi explained to PNN today that the camp was held in Jerusalem after 61 years of Al Nakba because the city is under a new policy aimed at the expulsion and displacement of the population. Saturday’s program is in response to that and is a “call of duty and conscience for the homeland.”
Some 750 Palestinian students and parents participated in the camp, cleaning up graves and cemeteries, and visiting emptied and overtaken villages within the current Israeli boundaries, among them Deir Yassin and Ein Kerem. Events were also set up for students inside the Al Aqsa Mosque compound.
Hijazi condemned the Israeli obstacles that have prevented the implementation of some camp activities, including the confiscation of the identification of some of the participants followed by the arrest of several youths during their trip into Al Aqsa Mosque.
Chairman of the Southern Wing of the Islamic Movement inside the Green Line, Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsour called for the immediate release of the detained youth while later in the day’s program Palestinian official Masoud Ghaniam denounced the “Israeli Zionist project that is continuing the confiscation of historic Palestine.”
Israeli police arrest students marking Nakba in East Jerusalem | |||
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Saturday, May 16, 2009
Wa’ed: Israel practices the ugliest torture methods in secret prisons
| [ 16/05/2009 - 04:42 PM ] |
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GAZA, (PIC)-- The Wa’ed society for detainees and ex-detainees reported Saturday that all information available indicates that Israel practices the most heinous methods of torture against Palestinian prisoners in its secret jails, expressing disappointment at the Red Cross’s failure to visit these prisons where hundreds of Palestinians are locked up. In a statement received by the PIC, the Wa’ed society added that the Israeli intelligence imposes a news blackout on the incarceration conditions of Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in secret jails, noting that some prisoners no one knows their whereabouts such as prisoners Hasan Salama and Abdullah Al-Barghouthi. The society also said that the families of Gaza prisoners are prohibited from visiting their sons and daughters in Israeli jails for nearly two years in addition to a large number of West Bank prisoners who are deprived from their families’ visits. The society appealed to all international organizations concerned with human and prisoners’ rights to urgently intervene to stop the Israeli violations against the Palestinian prisoners and their families, pointing out that it had already met with the Red Cross but did not sense any serious move towards ending the restrictions imposed on prisoners' visits. |
PLC members visit Hamas affiliate released from Israeli jail
Date: 16 / 05 / 2009 Time: 15:38 | |
The members of the Palestinian Legislative Council visited Al-Ay at his house near the At-Tufah neighborhood in Gaza City on Saturday.
Among the PLC members were deputy head of the bloc Ismail Al-Ashqar, Salem Salamah, Musheer Al-Masri, Jamal Iskiek and Imad A’fanah, general manager of the bloc in Gaza City.
In a statement, the delegates expressed their joy for Al-Ay’s release after 17 years of imprisonment, having moved from one Israeli jail to another throughout the sentence.
According to Al-Ay, the Hamas affiliates have continued to reject wearing orange prison uniforms, which he said amounted to an Israeli attempt to pressure Hamas' political leadership to give up conditions for a prisoner swap for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held in Gaza since 2006.
Israelis arrest Palestinian man in his 30s at Salfit checkpoint
Date: 16 / 05 / 2009 Time: 14:19 | |
The arrest occurred at a flying checkpoint at the eastern entrance of the district, near Iskaka bridge, the sources added.
According to witnesses, Israeli soldiers forced the driver, Shadi Kazaf Shahin, to get out of his taxi before he was blindfolded and hands were tied behind his back. He was then taken to an undisclosed location.
Others said that soldiers removed the checkpoint following the arrest.
Report: Israel kidnapped more than 2,500 Palestinians last year
| [ 16/05/2009 - 08:06 AM ] |
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GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian center for human rights on Thursday reported that the IOF troops kidnapped more than 2,500 Palestinians last year, most of them from the West Bank. In its annual report, the center said that the vast majority of these prisoners were arrested during raids on cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip or at military checkpoints. The report emphasized that until the end of 2008, more than 9,000 were still in Israeli jails including 248 children and 69 women. It added that more than 900 prisoners are administratively detained in Israeli jails without trials, noting that two prisoners died in 2008 as a result of the medical neglect policy pursued by Israel against Palestinian detainees. The report pointed out that there are still about 40 Palestinian lawmakers imprisoned by Israel including PLC speaker Aziz Al-Dweik, adding that an Israeli military court sentenced Dweik to three years. It accused Israel of providing its intelligence officers, who tortured Palestinian prisoners, with immunity, saying that hundreds of complaints about torture cases were neglected or ignored by Israeli courts except in rare situations where judges issued lenient sentences against officers. |