Activist: 25 arrested after Nakba protests

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Israel's army has arrested 25 Palestinians from the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Hebron in the aftermath of protests marking the Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe, officials said Thursday.

Jacqueline Al-Fararjeh, during a visit to Etzion prison, said Abed Al-Aziz Ash-Shuweiki and Amjad Husein Hadad were harshly beaten by more than 20 soldiers causing injuries in Amjad’s head.

Others were left without food or water for hours with their hands and feet shackled, she said.

Those detained from Bethlehem were identified as Raji Husein Suleiman, Naser Maher and Mazen Mahmoud Issa, Ahmad and Ma’mun Yasin Marzuq, and Nadim Adam Marzuq and Abdallah Jalal Shalash.

From Hebron: Ahmad Mohammad Babeyah, Abed Al-Fattah Jrewie, Ahmad Ash-Shuweiki, Ala’a Dweik, Fadi Shawer, Khalil A’wad, Awad Hadush, Musa Jabarin, Ahmad Mustafa, Mohammad Al-Jebri, and Mohammad Abu Madi, Hesham Jaradat, Ramzy Tabakhi, Abed Al-Fattah Mutawer and Raed Ash-Sharif.

Palestinian captives in Hawwara go on hunger strike

[ 24/12/2010 - 12:41 PM ]

NABLUS, (PIC)-- Palestinian captives at the Hawwara detention centre started an open ended hunger strike on Thursday to protest the harsh detention conditions they are kept under at the notorious centre. Raed Amer, director of the Palestinian Prisoners Society in the northern West Bank, said that this step was taken by the captives to protest the harsh conditions Palestinian captives suffer inside Israeli occupation jails and detention centres as they are not given the minimum of their rights, not even suitable water and food. This protest is part of a series of protest measures started by Palestinian captives in a number of Israeli jails, to protest their conditions and the escalation of the prison authorities against the captives in those jails.

National committee of prisoners: Shalit law is not frozen

[ 27/10/2010 - 11:38 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The higher national committee for the support of prisoners said that the Israeli prison authority still implements the law of Shalit which an Israeli government's committee approved in order to punish Palestinian prisoners especially from Hamas. Information director of the committee Riyadh Al-Ashqar stated Tuesday that Israeli media claims that premier Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the freeze of Shalit law because of alleged developments in the prisoner swap deal are lies aimed at misleading the international public opinion and organizations. Ashqar affirmed that Israel is really using this law against prisoners, where it still deprives them, for example, of family visits, education, reading books and newspapers, and watching television and steps up its policy of solitary confinement against them. He appealed for necessarily sending an international human rights delegation to visit Israeli prison to see closely the poor incarceration condition of Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli ministerial committee on legislative affairs had approved weeks ago a bill aimed at aggravating the conditions of Palestinian prisoners especially those from Hamas in a bid to pressure their Movement to accept the terms put by Israel for the release of its soldier Gilad Shalit. The bill was to be brought to the Knesset for a preliminary reading, but Hebrew media outlets claimed on Tuesday that Netanyahu decided to freeze this law because its approval would be determinatal to the efforts made for the release of Shalit and the talks with Hamas in this regard. In a related development, the Palestinian prisoner society said that the prisoners in Hawara jail suffer from a shortage of drinking water after it was suspended by the prison administration. The society reported on Tuesday that the prisoners complained to its lawyer that they used to receive intermittently smelly dirking water from Israeli soldiers before the suspension, but now they are provided with one and a half liters of bottled water. Hawara is a detention camp used by Israeli troops to detain Palestinian captives temporarily before transferring them to other prisons. The Israeli administration of Hadarim jail also declined the requests submitted by 20 prisoners to allow them to pursue their academic studies in prison, claiming there were security reasons for its refusal. The prisoners told the lawyer of the prisoner society that Hadarim administration approved the requests submitted by only five out of 25 detainees.

Palestinian prisoners in Negev complain of their incarceration conditions

[ 24/10/2010 - 11:14 AM ]

NEGEV, (PIC)-- Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli desert prison Negev have complained of their incarceration conditions after the Israeli prison administration tightened its repressive measures against them. In a message leaked out of jail on Saturday, the prisoners said that the administration serves them poor quantity meals and impure water in addition to blocking entry of new clothes for them. They also complained of poor medical treatment, adding that prison doctors treat all health complaints with the Acamol pill only as if it was the magic medication for all illnesses. The prisoners said that the prison jailors daily storm their wards under trivial security pretexts just to destabilize them. They said that they suffer scorching heat in summer and severe cold in winter, adding that they mostly fear the proximity of the Dimona nuclear reactor and the possibility of developing cancer as a result in future.

Palestinians in Megiddo prison say not shielded from rain

Gaza – Ma’an – Prisoners in Israel’s Megiddo detention center are reporting that their living situation is awful, the Hussam prisoners organization said on Sunday.

The group said it had been contacted by Palestinians held in the facility saying that wind and rainwater has been coming into their cells through cracks in the walls. They also reported that they were not provided with winter clothing, and that their drinking water was contaminated.

The Israeli prison administration has banned Palestinian families from giving clothes to the inmates in Megiddo, the organization added.

Three prisoners are suffering from kidney diseases, and the prison’s clinic lacks the appropriate equipment and supplies to treat them.

The prison’s yard, they report, is only large enough for seven people to stand in during designated times.

There are more than 10,000 Palestinians in Israel’s prisons.

Israeli lawmaker calls to reduce water supply to Palestinian prisoners

[ 17/07/2009 - 08:31 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The prisoners' study center has warned Thursday of the adverse call of the extremist rightist Israeli Knesset member Dani Danoun to reduce water supply to Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails.

The fanatic Israeli official alleged that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails leave water taps open during night time with the aim to "harm the Israeli economy".

In a statement it issued Thursday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC, the center described Danoun allegations as "old", adding that every time the Israeli community suffer shortage in water supplies they use such allegations in order to tighten the grip on the Palestinian captives, and to make their life more difficult.

Moreover, the center affirmed that the captives had been suffering from a shortage of water supplies for a long time, but the Israeli prison authorities paid no attention to their suffering, urging the IOA not to listen to such extremist calls that would be counter-productive especially after the Israeli prison authorities reduced bread rations for the Palestinian detainees.