RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- An Israeli military court has renewed the administrative detention of Sheikh Saleh Al-Aruri, one of the prominent Hamas leaders in the West Bank, for the fourth consecutive time without indicting him.
The judge of the Ofer court approved the extension request filed by the Israeli general security apparatus the Shabak on Sunday depending on the so-called secret file, which the prisoner and his lawyer could not have access to at the pretext of protecting the source of information against Aruri.
The Israeli military prosecutor only mentioned that Aruri constituted a "threat to Israel's security".
Legal institutions condemned the illegal administrative detention, calling on the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) to immediately free Aruri especially when the administrative detention rule was in violation of international norms and doctrines.
The Israeli occupation forces kidnapped Sheikh Aruri on 26/6/2008 from his home after three months of his release from IOA jails where he served 15 years at the charge of establishing the armed wing of Hamas in the West Bank.
A new set of punishments have been issued against imprisoned Comrade Leader Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, following a nine-day hunger strike against the occupation's denial of prisoners rights, won through long struggle, and the policy of solitary confinement.
The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights sent an attorney to visit with Comrade Ahmad Sa'adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, on June 15, 2009.
The administration of Asqelan prison held a hearing following the hunger strike, which Comrade Sa'adat refused to attend. The hearing resulted in a severe set of sanctions directed at Comrade Sa'adat, extending his denial of family visits, denial of visits to the prison cateen, and a 200 shekel fine, as well as a week extension of solitary confinement. These punishments come in addition to an earlier set of draconian sanctions directed at Comrade Sa'adat as a result of his leadership in the prisoners' movement.
On May 7, 2009, the occupation forces issued a series of punishments against Comrade Sa'adat, including denying him messages from his family for a month, prevention of family visits until September 5, 2009, the extension of his solitary confinement until June 28, 2009 and the removal of all electrical appliances, newspapers and magazines. The attorney noted that Comrade Sa'adat was kidnapped from the Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho in March 2006, where he had been held under PA, British and US guard, and after a mockery of justice, sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Comrade Sa'adat continually rejected the trial as illegitimate and refused to participate.
The Al-Mezan center condemned the policy of isolation and solitary confinement, noting that this practice violates international standards and is classified as a form of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The center called for the international community to work to the utmost to gain immediate protection for the rights of Palestinian prisoners, won through long struggle, and for the release of all Palestinian prisoners from the jails of the occupation.
Comrade Khalida Jarrar, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP spoke on Sunday, June 14, 2009, summing up Comrade Sa'adat's nine-day hunger strike and detailing the methods of isolation used by the occupier, noting that there are 30 prisoners held in solitary confinement and that these men are held in single cells 23 out of 24 hours in the day. She noted that Comrade Sa'adat has been held in isolation since his transfer by the occupation authorities from Hadarim to Asqelan prison several months ago, and that his family has been barred from visiting him.
Abla Sa'adat, Comrade Sa'adat's wife, spoke about how she has not been able to visit her husband for three months and that her children have been barred from visiting him for the past three years. She demanded that human rights institutions act upon the issue of solitary confinement and isolation.
13 June 2009: Israeli forces have arrested 1 Israeli and 2 international solidarity activists in the West Bank village of Safa.
Around 7am, Palestinian farmers, accompanied by 15 international and 10 Israeli solidarity activists, attempted to access their land in the village of Safa to pick grape leaves. Located in the north Hebron hills, near the illegal Beit Ayn settlement, Safa is Palestinian owned land.
Settlers arrived at the scene and began to throw stones at the Palestinians. Border police were present and witnessed the stone-throwing but did not intervene. After 15 minutes at the site in Safa, the border police declared the area a Closed Military Zone. When the Palestinian, Israeli and international activists began to walk away, the settlers verbally assualted them. Two border police cars arrived and attempted to arrest an Israeli activist. Having failed to arrest the Israeli solidarity activist, the border police tried to arrest a Palestinian farmer.
Four international and two Israeli activists tried to prevent the arrest by surrounding the farmer and linking arms on the ground. The border police began to violently push and kick the activists. The soldiers pulled the hair of several activists, kicked them and yelled at them. Israeli forces also used a club to beat the activists.
Shortly thereafter, the border police arrested a German activist, a Scottish activist and an Israeli activist. The Palestinian farmer was released.
They were taken to the police station in Gush Etzion settlement and then transferred to the police station in Kyriat Arba settlement. They are still being held and accused of assaulting the soldiers.
Al-Amarna calls out Human Rights organizations to release her daughter
Ibrahim AL-Amarna, Isra’s father, called out local, Arabic, and international human rights organizations to put pressure on Israeli forces to carry out Israeli court decision.He asked forthe circumstances and excuses beyond reserving her daughter without legal excuses. Isra’ AL-Amarna was detained from her house on 31st, January 2008.She is a student at Polytechnic university, studies Graphic and worksin photography and press field .
Ibrahim AL-Amarna clarified that the Israeli court issued an innocence decision for Isra on 5th November but the general attorney required detaining her because of waiting the decision of Appellate court. When the Appellate court conducted, the judge refused giving any decision belongs to Isra’ and her daughter is still detaining till now without ruling her. He confirmed that Israeli forces dealt with her daughter as criminal not
as human being and they used psychological torture to break her spirits and shake her self confident as informing her that you will release in 2010 at times and at other times you will release after one hundred days .
Isra’s father said that her daughter suffered from teeth pain due to medical negligence and not completion ofteeth reform . Wa’ed society considered what happened to isra’ as recklessness of human rights in a state called a democratic state. Israel stateis the only state which legitimize torture against detainees . Wa’ed explicated that administrative detention policy is an illegal weapon which Israeli occupation used without any humanistic and legal considerations. A administrative detention infracted all of an international human rights covenants. Therefore, the administrative detention affects negatively detainees psychology and mood and makes them thinking about un known fate.
Ramallah / PNN – The nonviolent resistance of Ahmad Sa’adat has garnered a vengeful response, a prisoner affairs expert said today.
Abdel Nasser Ferwana says that the life of the leftist leader is in danger at the hands of the Israeli prison administration.
A week ago Sa’adat, the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, ended a nine day hunger strike from his isolated cell in Israeli prison. Sa’adat has been in solitary confinement for three months. Communication is so difficult that the news of the end of his hunger strike did not surface until days later. He has not been allowed to see his children for four years.
Sa’adat was imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority in Jericho as part of a deal with the Israelis who stormed the eastern West Bank jail and kidnapped him in 2006.
Abdel Nasser Ferwana, a leader in the political prisoners’ movement, said today that the reprisals against Sa’adat for his hunger strike are criminal.
“This is political and out of revenge for the fact that they have been unable to undermine his will or steadfastness during months in the interrogation chambers,” noted Ferwana. “The latest is a series of punitive measures in response to a hunger strike.”
Palestinian officials and human rights groups have issued numerous calls during the past week holding the Israeli administration fully responsible for Sa’adat’s life and for the lives of his colleagues.
Five other members of the leftist resistance engaged in the strike.
Ferwana said, “This is not new, this position of the occupation against Sa’adat and the resistance. The kidnapping of Sa’adat from the Jericho prison and into the harsh conditions of Israeli jails where he is subjected to various kinds of torture and military trials and continued detention, are political retaliatory actions.”
The prisoner affairs official continued to talk about Sa’adat as a symbol of Palestinian resistance.
He is accused by the Israelis of organizing the killing of their tourism minister in response to the assassination of PFLP Secretary General Abu Ali Mustafa.
GAZA, (PIC)-- The ministry of prisoners in Gaza on Sunday called on the popular and official institutions to organize wide campaigns in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails against the Israeli violations of their rights especially the attempts to force them to wear the orange uniform.
In a press release received by the PIC, Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the information director at the ministry, stressed that the prisoners must not be left alone especially by the media or else the Israeli occupation would dare to violate their rights further and apply its own arbitrary laws against them.
Ashqar added that the state of silence towards what happens to Palestinian prisoners encouraged Israel to commit further violations of international law against them, so it is necessary to intensify events and activities that highlight their poor incarceration conditions and the injustice inflicted on them and not just organize weekly sit-ins in front of the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza.
The official pointed out that what happens inside Israeli jails is much worse and more brutal than the atrocities committed in Guantanamo prison, but the different media outlets failed or did not play a strong role to highlight the barbarism and war crimes taking place in Israeli prisons as was the case with Guantanamo.
The official appealed to all media outlets in the world to necessarily give greater attention and priority to the issue of Palestinian prisoners in their programs and media coverage in order to reveal the true face of Israel and thus pressuring it to stop its violations of prisoners’ rights.
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority has extended the administrative detention of Sheikh Khaled Al-Haj, the Hamas spokesman in Jenin, for the fourth consecutive time.
The Sheikh's family said that Haj, 45, was held in administrative custody, without trial or charge, after he completed his sentence almost one and a half years ago.
Meanwhile, the IOA also extended the administrative detention of Hashem Al-Zamuti, 44, the director of education in Qabatia, and Sheikh Mustafa Abu Ara, 50, the Akaba municipality chairman, for the fifth time running.
Relatives of the detainee Ismail Abed, 30, appealed to legal institutions to intervene and help convince the IOA to let him undergo a surgery in his leg, warning that any delay in the surgery would worsen his health condition.
They explained that Abed was hit with bullets when the Israeli occupation forces arrested him seven months ago. He also suffers from stomach ulcer and pain in the back, they added.
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Different Israeli media outlets broadcast videotaped abuse scenes showing Israeli soldiers humiliating and maltreating Palestinian civilians.
One televised scene showed a Palestinian young man being forced by a number of Israeli border soldiers to slap himself and sing words glorifying border guards while these soldiers were hysterically laughing at him. This 43-second scene was posted on Youtube website.
This was not the only scene broadcast, but there were others illustrating different acts of abuse and humiliation against Palestinians. Faces of Israeli soldiers in these shows are mostly blurred or hidden and it is difficult to specify the places where these abuses took place.
In another context, Palestinian sources in Jerusalem reported Thursday that dozens of Jewish extremists physically assaulted a Jerusalemite called Mohamed Al-Hallaq near street number one located between west and east Jerusalem as he was on his way home using blades and sticks which led to a fracture in one of his arms.
A number of Palestinian citizens said that Israeli policemen and troops stopped a number of Jerusalemite worshipers as they were heading to the Aqsa Mosque for dawn prayers through the gates of the old city in Jerusalem.
They added that the Israeli policemen and soldiers deliberately confiscated the worshipers’ ID cards and handed them instead other cards by which they can take back their IDs, provided that they should leave the Mosque immediately after finishing the prayers.
In Ramallah city, the IOF troops kidnapped four Palestinian citizens during raids on a number of homes in Bir Zeit town, Al-Jalazone refugee camp and Kafr Malik village in the city.
Such raids and kidnappings are carried out on a daily basis by the IOF troops in different West Bank cities and towns especially at the checkpoints, but they are difficult to know and document.
West of the central city of Ramallah, dozens of Palestinian protesters and foreign activists suffered from gas inhalation when Israeli troops attacked the weekly anti-wall protest in the villages of Bil'in and Ni'lin on Friday afternoon.
RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Liberated prisoner Sumud Al-Qan drew the attention of all those concerned with the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation authority jails to the plight of prisoner Amal Juma who is suffering from cervical cancer.
Qan, 23, said that Juma, who is serving an 11-year-term, has been suffering from bleeding for the past five years, recalling that Juma has so far spent six years in IOA jails.
The liberated prisoner said that the Israeli prisons authority was offering only tranquilizers to Juma.
Qan, who served five years in IOA jails and was only released a few days go, told the prisoners' center for studies that the Palestinian women prisoners were experiencing harsh incarceration conditions.
She noted that the IPA delayed her scheduled release for two days, which negatively affected her and her family.
She warned that the same would be made with prisoner Sana' Amr, from Al-Khalil, who is scheduled to be release on 22/6/2009.
Speaking about the prisoners' suffering in Damon jail, she said that the prison is full of rats and cockroaches and that the administration was barring them from buying their needs such as fans and shoes.
The administration told the internees that they would have to wear an orange costume but they adamantly refused, which temporarily aborted the step, Qan underscored.
She said that the IPA was planning to move the Palestinian female prisoners from Hasharon prison to Damon jail early next month, adding that the 26 prisoners in Damon were crammed in three rooms.
The liberated prisoner appealed for an end to the Palestinian rift, describing national unity as the dream of all prisoners. She said that the division had negatively affected the prisoners' conditions.
Construction on Israel's first privately run prison is nearly complete, but one thing stands between the empty block of prison cells and the 800 prisoners who could be detained there: an injunction issued by the High Court of Justice. On May 18, the High Court of Justice, with an expanded nine-justice panel headed by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, issued the injunction against any further progress on the private prison facility until the court's final ruling.
OPPONENTS OF the private prison would be fine with the plan if only the guards remained employed by the state. In photo: IPS guard on duty. Photo: Courtesy
Attorney Lila Margalit from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel argues that the state, in handing over its authority to hold people behind bars to an organization whose primary motivation is financial gain, is in effect entrusting one of its fundamental functions to a private body that does not necessarily have the public's, or the prisoners', interests at heart.
Prison privatization could potentially lead to poorer prisoner discipline and thus rehabilitation, and could even lead to increased numbers of people being convicted of criminal offenses due to the profit motives for having people behind bars, according to Efy Michaely, a member of the team of lawyers from the Ramat Gan Academic College of Law, one of the bodies that petitioned the High Court of Justice against prison privatization.
Supporters of privatization contend that private prisons could alleviate overcrowding in Israel's state-run facilities and provide an economical alternative to government-run prisons, though the actual amount of "savings" to the government has been disputed.
Metro investigates how Israel's private prison, located in Beersheba, would operate, whether privatization would really save taxpayers' money and what human rights are at stake. There are two models of privatization:
1. Partial transfer of authority to private organizations. Management of prison facilities is contracted out, while the state remains in charge of the sentencing and punishment of prisoners.
LOWER SALARIES lead to a lower quality of personnel and a higher staff turnover, which means running the risk of having a constant inflow of new and inexperienced guards.
2. Full transfer of authority to private groups, including from central authorities, with state supervision.
ISRAEL INITIALLY favored the first model, which is used in France. The government was to run the prison and outsource logistical services to the private sector.
A Central Tenders Committee, headed by a representative of the Finance Ministry Comptroller-General and comprising representatives of the Public Security Ministry, the Israel Prisons Service and the Finance Ministry Budgets Division, was appointed to implement the decision. The committee visited prisons in France, Scotland and England. The members discovered that a combination of private and public authority over a single prison could lead to mutual recriminations over any malfunctions, which would result in less effective management.
The committee then recommended that Israel adopt the second model, which Britain and the US use with varying degrees of government supervision and control. The Israeli plan that was finally accepted is a modified version of the British one, which transfers less authority to private hands than the American model.
Under the selected model, a private subcontractor will be responsible for all prison services, including the kitchen, medical and cleaning services, rehabilitation programs and psychologists, but not the right to employ force. The IPS Chief Supervisor ("comptroller") will retain authority over its operation and management via supervision. IPS Spokesman Col. Yaron Zamir says that a further 13 supervisors under the comptroller's authority will also monitor the daily activities of the concessionaire.
That concessionaire, ALA Management and Operations, in which Africa Israel and Minrav have equal holdings, won the tender approximately six months after the Ramat Gan Academic College of Law - which runs a department on human rights law and offers programs in human rights, criminal law and criminology - first appealed against the Knesset's 2004 amendment of the Prisons Order (Privately Operated Prisons), in 2005.
The prison is intended to hold low- to medium-level security prisoners. The IPS alone will determine which prisoners are assigned to the private facility, as it currently does with non-private prisons. The concessionaire will have no authority to interfere with IPS decisions on this matter.
According to Michaely, the key issue in prison privatization is the transfer - from the government to a private facility - of the right to use force on prisoners. Michaely argues that a two-way agreement exists between citizens and the state, whereby citizens entrust the state with the right to use force on their behalf. When the state hands over that right to a private facility, it infringes on the state's sovereignty and contravenes the Basic Law on Government. The petitioners also claim that privatization could lead to potential violation of prisoners' rights, which would violate the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty.
Michaely argues that prison guards employed by a private facility would face conflicts of interest and that any use of force on the wardens' part would never be for the public's sake alone. There are two main reasons for that, he says: Prison guards employed by the government know they have the state's backing for their actions, just like soldiers and police, so long as their actions are demonstrably logical and reasonable. However, guards working for a private facility cannot take it for granted that the facility will stand behind them and thus might take extra consideration before exercising use of force. Extra consideration in real-time judgment might result in failure to take action when required.
According to Michaely, guards who work for a private facility must worry about their job security and salary prospects more than guards employed by the government. This can cause ulterior motives to come into play when exercising force, other than the sole "justifiable" concern of "What's good for the public as a whole?"
Another key issue in prison privatization is that private facilities can save money on staff salaries and social services, like pensions. Michaely says that the government currently offers guards the option of retiring at a comparatively young age while receiving a pension for the rest of their lives. But a private company would not be expected to offer these employment terms. "We want guards in our prisons who know that being a guard is their role from now until the end of their life. Nothing should interfere with their work: no concern for future job security in a private company and no personal interests," says Michaely.
Margalit of the ACRI contends that lower salaries lead to a lower quality of personnel and a higher staff turnover. As a result, instead of having the same people running the prison over a long period of time, developing a certain level of expertise, private prisons are at risk of having a constant inflow of new and inexperienced employees.
THE PUBLIC Security Ministry acknowledges the concern that the quality of service to prisoners might suffer from a private company's desire to maximize profits - for example, by the company recruiting low-grade staff and spending the minimal amount on living conditions and prisoner care - and offers three layers of supervision and control to avoid this: legislation, external oversight bodies from the IPS, and internal audit. This would include the State Comptroller's right to examine any aspect of the concessionaire's operation of the prison, with the exception of its commercial activities; an external advisory committee would be set up to monitor prisoners' rehabilitation, health and welfare; a special inspection team set up by the IPS would be permanently stationed in the private facility; and the IPS would retain oversight over the training and certification of prison officers in the privately-run facility. In addition, the ministry says that "a judicial supervisory mechanism will remain in place whereby prisoners have the right to appeal to the courts (at no cost) if they feel their rights have been violated."
Michaely counters that inspection committees are not as effective as having trained, professional guards when it comes to ensuring guards' behavior when exercising real-time judgment, because oversight is only conducted in retrospect.
Michaely says that the number of people convicted in criminal offenses in the US has risen since the country first introduced private prisons, and asserts that this is not wholly to do with actual increased crime rates, but rather with an increase in the amount of criminal prohibitions. That is, that people are more readily sent to jail now, owing to the link between number of prisoners and money earned by the prison.
In the recent "kids-for-cash" scandal, reported in the New York Times, two US judges pleaded guilty to tax evasion and wire fraud in a scheme that involved sending thousands of juveniles to two private detention centers in exchange for $2.6 million in kickbacks.
According to CNN, one of those juveniles was 14-year-old Phillip Swartley, who was caught stealing change from unlocked vehicles one night to buy chips and soft drinks. Swartley's mother said there was no need for a lawyer because she thought that at worst the judge would give him a fine or community service. Instead, Swartley was sent to a youth detention center, followed by nine months in a boarding school for troubled teenagers.
Another teen in a similar situation was 15-year-old Hillary Transue. According to a report by Times Online, Transue published a spoof article on the MySpace social networking Web site mocking the assistant principal at her high school. The teacher complained, Transue was charged with harassment and after a brief court hearing was sentenced to three months in juvenile detention.
Michaely charges that in the US there is a strong lobby to send more people to jail, because "in the US they pay per head. So the more prisoners in the facility, the more money [the prisons] receive."
'G,' a senior government-appointed official who spoke to Metro on condition of anonymity, pointed out four reasons why a private prison in Israel would not pose similar problems:
1) The concessionaire is not affected by the number of prisoners it detains, since it would receive a fixed payment from the state for the amount of available incarceration space and not for the number of prisoners. Whether the prison stood at full or partial occupancy, the profit would be identical;
2) The concessionaire will profit from efficient planning, establishment and operation - for which it receives a fixed payment. The company would receive additional bonuses for parameters that are important to the state, including prisoner rehabilitation and education;
3) The concessionaire would have no say or influence on which prisoners were held in the facility or on early release of prisoners. According to the Public Security Ministry, the state would retain the exclusive power to determine a prisoner's sentence, the facility in which the sentence is served, and any administrative release or reduction of the duration of his imprisonment;
4) There is no intention to privatize the entire IPS, rather just one or two prisons. The Public Security Ministry and the Israel Prisons Service have promised the government that there will be no more private prisons established until they have analyzed the results of this one.
BUT CAN one private prison alleviate the overcrowding and bad conditions in the country's existing facilities? Is it really a cost-effective alternative?
Some numbers show that the establishment and operation of a prison is 20-25% cheaper in the private sector, but these numbers may be optimistic. According to G., this prison will hold 40% of its prisoners in two-man cells and 60% in four-man cells, with an average of 5.28 square meters of living space per prisoner, instead of the current IPS average of 3.4 square meters.
G. said that the private prison would offer better education programs and more vocational training hours than those currently offered by the IPS. In addition, it will have computers available for the prisoners' usage. As such, says G., not only will the facility be cheaper to run, it will offer better value for money.
However, an internal IPS document states that the cost to the government of operating the private prison will be 20% more than the cost of a public facility, which contradicts initial estimates of a 15% savings. The results of the IPS study were presented to the Knesset in a letter from MKs Shelly Yacimovich (Labor) and Arie Bibi (Kadima) dated May 13, 2009.
Michaely noted that the initial estimates of privatization costs were inaccurate, largely due to a failure to include the costs of external supervision of the private facility.
G. argues that the cost of supervision accounts for 10% of the total savings and is almost immaterial compared to the greater benefits of a private prison. As such, G. maintains, the initial omission of the supervision costs should not affect whether or not the government goes ahead with the privatization.
The total savings were initially estimated at NIS 350 million over 25 years for the one 800-prisoner facility. After that time, the prison would be transferred to IPS management. This calculation was made immediately after ALA won the tender and is a guaranteed price that has been indexed. "It refers to a direct saving that does not take into account the influence on IPS, which is hard to quantify," said G. There have been no updated calculations, despite possible omissions.
Michaely stated that the cost of incarceration in an IPS facility has declined since initial cost comparisons were conducted, but G. denies hearing about any such decreases, saying that the main cost of prison operation lies in its staff. And G. is not aware of any decreases in salaries since 2006, nor any radical changes in the operation or building standards since the time of the initial estimate.
Operation costs are not the only area in which the private prison is expected to save money. According to G., it has saved money and time in the building stage. Michaely responds that the state has less expertise in building and infrastructure than a private company, and that research shows that when the government puts out tenders it receives offers at least 20% higher than the market prices. "A private company negotiates with and has existing business relationships with suppliers and thus attains lower prices," he said.
The commissionaire in this case fulfilled its side of the contract three months before it was obliged to do so, whereas most public sector projects are delayed, said G., who also points to worldwide statistics which show that in 70-75% of cases, the public sector spends more than the private sector and deviates from timetables.
Because of this, "Even if the price [of privatization] was the same or even higher in terms of money, [privatization would still be a better alternative]," said G.
Nevertheless, Michaely points out, "We do not [fully] oppose privatization, end of story. We are [against] total privatization. Partial privatization - like the French model - is possible and perhaps correct. [We are asking the government to] take the plans it has made until now and make one central change: make the prison guards in the private prison employees of the government, not of the commissionaire. Leave all the other things as they are," said Michaely.
This change would make the privatization "reasonable," he said. "On one hand, it improves the conditions for the prisoners, makes the rehabilitation potentially more successful, and on the other hand allows decision-making regarding exerting physical strength to remain a consideration of the state," he added.
But the Public Security Ministry and the Israel Prisons Service say the French model would be complicated to operate, "given the need to arrive at collaborative management and administrative arrangements, to define the performance standards expected from the entrepreneur without any mechanism to ensure that they are met, and to divide authority and responsibility between the IPS and the private operator, especially in security matters," a ministry document on prison privatization stated.
THE ISSUE of prison privatization is particularly controversial because it raises a constitutional problem regarding the Basic Law. "As early as 2006, when Justice Aharon Barak was at the head of the court panel, it was clear that there was a serious problem at hand and that an injunction was required in order to clarify this legal question," said Michaely. That was before the concessionaire began construction.
"Then the state came and requested that the injunction not be passed, so that they could begin construction in the meantime and that before they begin to operate it they would notify the courts, at which stage it would be relevant to impose an injunction. The court told the state that they would lose money. But the state said they wanted to go ahead [with construction] and assumed the court would not reject the law [allowing privatization, which was passed in 2004]. Now that the prison is about to be opened, the court [finally] had to impose the injunction," said Michaely. "We were really angry that the court didn't impose an injunction then, when it knew it would impose one [down the track]," said Michaely.
The commissionaire's contract already outlines compensation mechanisms in case the High Court rejects the law. This includes compensations for expenses incurred and loss of profit.
"Now more than ever the [High Court] is investigating the [issue]. There's pressure on the court to [form a decision]. Everyone's waiting for a verdict," said Michaely.
Two Palestinian citizens, and one Israeli peace activist were injured in assaults by the Israeli Occupation Forces and extremist Jewish colonizers in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, south of the West Bank.
Palestinian Solidarity Movement activist, Mohammad Awad, said that the two the Palestinians injured, one of whom was a Photojournalist, Amer Abdeen, and the Israeli activist were injured during he weekly anti-colonization demonstration.
Awad added that seven international and Israeli activists were arrested by IOF, who prevented demonstrators from reaching lands threatened of being seized.
Israel's army arrests seven, injures three at Hebron protest
Date: 20 / 06 / 2009 Time: 19:35
[Ma'anImages]
Hebron – Ma’an – Israel's army arrested seven peace activists demonstrating near the illegal West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin on Saturday, according to local sources.
Witnesses also said that three people were injured after soldiers attacked the demonstration, which is a weekly sit-in gathering near the entrance of the settlement north of the Hebron-area village of Beit Ummar.
The injured were identified as a photojournalist, a local resident, and an activist.
Settlers were also reported to have attacked some of the demonstrators, in addition to Israel's army, according to witnesses, one saying that "the settlers from Bat Ayin were accompanied by soldiers and beat a number of participants at the sit-in."
The seven participants, affiliated with a solidarity movement, were arrested while trying to hold a sit-in on private Palestinian land, reportedly belonging to Abdallah and Hammad Jabber Sliebi, which is facing confiscation for the settlement's expansion.
Meanwhile on Friday, Israeli soldiers broke into and ransacked homes belonging to Hebron residents Adel Al-Juneidi, Mohammad Salhab and Ayman Juweiles, before arresting them.
On June 1, ACRI petitioned the Tel Aviv District Court on behalf of three female inmates from the Neve Tirza Prison against new regulations, which prevent prisoners from receiving books and CDs from visitors, and sets a limit of one book and ten music CDs allowed for each inmate to hold in her cell.
ACRI Attorney Lila Margalit stated that the regulations, which came into effect in recent months, force inmates to rely on the limited collection of books in the prison library. Neve Tirza Prison holds at present some 1,000 books, of which 80% are in Hebrew, and only 18% in Russian and 2% in Arabic.
"These severe restrictions on access to books and music violates the fundamental right to freedom of expression and the right to attain education and knowledge", said Margalit. "In addition, it goes against the public interest of rehabilitation of prisoners. The restriction is not only about the quantity but also about quality, as it forces prison inmates to rely on books chosen by the Prison Authority. The small number of books in Russian, Arabic, and other languages entails discrimination against those who cannot and do not wish to read in Hebrew".
GAZA, (PIC)-- Ex-prisoner and specialist in prisoners' affairs Abdul Nasser Farwana has warned that the Israeli occupation authority might liquidate the detained MP Ahmed Saadat, the secretary general of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine.
He warned in a statement on Friday that Saadat was in real danger in the IOA jails, opining that the Israeli prisons authority backed by political and security parties were acting out of vengeance against him.
Farwana said that the abduction of Saadat from PA-controlled Jericho prison, his torture during interrogation then his trial reflected a kind of political revenge.
Solitary confinement falls in line with this policy, he said, adding that other harsh measures would be taken against Saadat.
GAZA, (PIC)-- The ministry of prisoners’ affairs in Gaza expressed its dismay on Friday at the Red Cross for appealing to the Hamas Movement to allow Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to write to and receive letters from his family regularly while there are hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who are deprived of their rights.
In a statement received by the PIC, the ministry underlined that the Red Cross was powerless to pressure Israel to lift its ban which has deprived many prisoners of seeing their families or writing and receiving letters from them for more than two years, and claimed more than once that it was unable to pressure Israel in this regard.
“Did the Red Cross condemn the Israeli occupation for its daily violations of the international law against the (Palestinian) prisoners and for depriving them of all their human rights provided for by the least fair international treaties?" the ministry rhetorically questioned.
“Where was the Red Cross, which sheds tears for Shalit and his rights, when the (Israeli) prisons authority refused to allow Gaza prisoners to contact their families during the war and following the massacres perpetrated by the occupation against the Gaza Strip population?” it added.
It explained, “They (the prisoners) lived in anxiety and fear for their families after they received news about the large number of martyrs and the size of destruction inflicted on the Strip.”
The ministry also noted that despite the policy of medical neglect practiced by Israel against Palestinian prisoners in its jails, the Red Cross had expressed blatantly its satisfaction at the medical services provided by the Israeli prisons authority and ignored that there are still more than 1,600 patients in Israeli jails who do not have access to appropriate medical treatment.
The ministry asked the world community and its legal institutions to stop the policy of double standards, and urged Hamas not to respond to any demands regarding Shalit before the incarceration conditions of Palestinian prisoners are improved and their rights are fulfilled.
In another related context, Ual Shalit, the eldest brother of the captive Israeli soldier, appealed in an interview conducted by Maariv newspaper on Thursday to the Israeli premier and the Knesset to get his brother released.
Shalit expressed fears that the issue of his brother could become similar to the issue of Ron Arad, the pilot who went missing in Lebanon more than 20 years ago.
Israeli sources reported that Israeli war minister Ehud Barak would visit Cairo Sunday to discuss with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak the issue of prisoner Shalit.
Wa’ed Society for detainees and liberated, a delegation from Hamas affiliated Change and Reform Block and Public presence welcomed Mohamad AL-Aye who was released after 17 years of imprisonment .Mohamad Al-Aye is from Al-Tufah neighborhood in Gaza city.
He is a leader of captive movement in the Israeli prisons. He was sentenced for 17 years accusing him of committing resistance acts. Fawzi Barhoum, Leader in Hamas movement, congratulated Mohamad’s family on his release from Israeli prison ,praised his steadfastness and confirmed Hamas consistency on the requirementsto accomplish prisoners swap .
He added also we celebrate
Mohamad’s release today, thousand prisoners soon andwe stood on our demands to release last detainee from Israeli prison during a highly impressive and an official celebration. In a statement, Mohamad promised detainees to continue the way of resistance in order to release the rest of detainees from Israeli prison I. He praised the steadfastness of resistance and its achievement in Al-Forqan war andtalked about the detainees suffering and Israeli cruel acts against detainees. The spoke man of the society, Abd Allah Kandeel, expressed his great pleasure towards releasing Mohamed Al Aye and he gloried in detainees’ steadfastness and insistence to continue struggle and resistance way.
Sabr is a blog created by international activists while they were in Gaza Strip in 2009 in order to raise awareness on the issue of Palestinian prisoners.It regularly compiles articles from various sources on Palestinian prisoners (and foreign prisoners for the Palestinian cause) in Israeli (or foreign) jails.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in articles reproduced from other sources, do not necessarily reflect the ones of Sabr
