Addameer
Press Release: 17 April 2003
Special Report on the Occasion of Palestinian Prisoners
Day As we mark Palestinian Prisoners Day this Thursday,
17 April, Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are
being subjected to harsh and repressive conditions within
central prisons, detention centers and military camps run
by both the Israeli Prisons Authority and the Israeli
military, while Palestinians outside prisons continue to
suffer from repeated violations of their basic human
rights by Israeli occupying forces. Since the
beginning of the current Intifada in September 2000,
conditions of detention have reached unparalleled levels
of deterioration, as prisoners are forced to live in
inhuman conditions, are offered inadequate food,
prevented from having family visits, prevented from
recreational activities and subject to severe
restrictions on leaving their cells for fresh air,
insufficient medical attention, amongst many other
problems.
Since the beginning of the current Intifada in September
2000 until 8 April 2003, over 28,000 Palestinians have
been detained by Israel. There are currently 5123
Palestinians in Israeli prisons, in addition to 66 female
detainees. Arrest campaigns conducted by Israel
have, in particular during this past year, targeted
Palestinian political leaders and leaders within the
community, effectively imprisoning leaders of Palestinian
society and negatively effecting the development of the
community.
During the Israeli invasion and reoccupation of the
majority of cities in the West Bank in April 2002, many
Palestinians were subjected to acts of terror during the
process of arrest by Israeli occupying forces, including
physical and psychological threats, attempted murder, and
injuries as a result of indiscriminate attacks. Numerous
injured Palestinians were arrested without any medical
attention given to them while detained. Families of
those who were arrested were subjected to similar
attacks, including the destruction of personal property
and, in some cases, destroying the house itself,
threatening the lives of children and women by taking
them hostage and placing them in rooms within their house
for extended periods of time, often not allowing families
to obtain food or water and preventing them from using
the toilet.
Addameer, similar to many local Palestinian institutions
and NGOs during this time, has tried to offer support and
services to Palestinian prisoners despite the difficult
circumstances it finds itself in, ensuring contact
between prisoners and lawyers and the outside world,
continuing visits to prisons, detention centers and
military detention camps and attempting to minimize the
double isolation imposed on Palestinian prisoners during
this past year as a result of prevention of family visits
and the difficulties faced by lawyers in reaching prisons
and gaining access to detainees.
Based on visits by lawyers to detention centers, prisons
and military detention camps and affidavits from released
detainees, the following conditions offer an overview of
the current situation of Palestinian detainees held by
Israel:
1. Detention/holding centers: there are 7
detention/holding centers located throughout the West
Bank and Gaza Strip in which Palestinian detainees are
being held in extremely harsh conditions. For
example, at Beit El Detention Center, detainees are held
in small, filthy cells that lack basic amenities.
Toilets are located outside of the cells, with permission
often denied to use the toilets as a form of
punishment. Detainees at Huwara and Kadumim
Detention Centers recently declared a hunger strike in
protest of their conditions of detention, in particular
the fact that they have been prohibited from leaving
their cells and walking outside for fresh air (fora) and
prevented from using the toilet more than twice a day,
lack of medical attention and adequate food both in
quantity and quality. One detainee informed Addameer's
lawyer that they were allowed only one apple a week that
is shared with 8 detainees and every other day they are
offered a cup of tea. The detainees are held in cramped
cells, with ten detainees in a cell that accommodates 4
and are restricted in the amount of time they can spend
in other sections. The circumstances of detention for the
majority of detainees have led to serious medical
conditions, in addition to putting at risk the lives of
detainees on a daily basis. In mid-February, 3 female
Palestinian detainees declared a hunger strike in protest
of their conditions of detention at Beit El, where they
were prevented from using the toilet and changing their
clothing.
2. Central Prisons: 40 percent of Palestinian
prisoners are detained within 9 Israeli Central Prisons,
including Telmond for minors, and Ramleh prison for
female detainees. The majority of them are serving
long-term sentences, including life sentences.
There has been a significant increase in the passing of
long sentences since the beginning of the current
Intifada.
There has been a clear deterioration in the living
conditions and treatment of Palestinian prisoners held in
the central prisons, in clear violation of the Fourth
Geneva Convention. The most distressing
of these violations is the prevention of family visits to
prisoners for the past two years, which Israel claims has
been necessary because of the security situation.
In March, family visits were resumed for 3 districts in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, many
families who applied through the ICRC for visit permits
were rejected for 'security reasons', leaving only a few
family members allowed to visit. There is no reason
other than 'security' offered to families who apply for
the rarely obtained permits. In one instance, a
father of a detainee was informed that he was not allowed
a permit to visit because there was no relation between
him and the detainee. The conditions of the
visits are also distressing; for example, at Ofer
Military Detention Camp, families were made to wait for
hours before they were allowed near the prison, were
subjected to complete searches and items they had been
told were allowed, such as food, were confiscated.
Families were behind a wire fence, more than 15 meters
away from another wire fence that separated the
detainees. They were allowed only five minutes to visit
with the detainees, and many were not able to identify
their children because of the distance. In protest,
detainees held in Ofer have refused to come out for any
other family visits until the circumstances of the visits
are changed.
Other punitive measures within Israeli prisons include
severely restricting the time detainees are allowed out
of their cells for fresh air, restricting detainees from
visiting other sections of detainees, and preventing
Prisoners Representatives from regularly following up
with prisons issues in different sections.
The health conditions within prisons has also
deteriorated, with extreme delays in medical services by
the Prisons Authority, delays in transferring serious
cases to hospital and for further examinations, in
addition to offering inadequate medical attention within
the prisons themselves. The Prisons Authority
continues to place obstacles before detainees who are
registered students at Israeli Open Universities, the
only opportunity for prisoners to study, by restricting
the required courses they are allowed to take. Clothing
for prisoners is restricted; with the Prisons Authority
allowing changes of clothing in only twice a year, on the
condition that prisoners return the clothing they
currently have in exchange for a new set of clothes
brought by their families. Hygiene supplies
are extremely limited, and in the past month, the Prisons
Authority has decided to no longer provide toilet paper
to prisoners.
3. Military Detention Camps: In addition to
Megiddo, the Israeli Military Commander of the region
reopened last year both Ofer Military Detention Camp in
Ramallah and the Ketziot Military Detention Camp in the
Negev Desert. All of these military detention camps
were originally opened during the first Intifada, with
Ofer and Ketziot closed down shortly after the Oslo
process began.
The situation in Israeli military detention camps is
particularly worrying, with detainees held in old tents
in extreme weather conditions, subject to inhumane living
conditions, including lack of adequate food both in
quantity and quality, prevention of family visits,
prevented from receiving items such as books, clothing,
except on very rare occasions when items are allowed in
coordination with lawyers.
Detainees are often subjected to attacks within the
military detention camps, with tear gas thrown into tents
or being sprayed with high-pressure water hoses. A
great number of the detainees suffer from medical
conditions, in particular those who were injured during
their arrest in the Israeli invasions of April
2002. Many have yet to receive medical attention,
and those who have had medical treatment have had to wait
for a very long time, with the treatment often
inadequate.
There are currently approximately 3000 Palestinian
detainees being held in these military detention camps,
over 1000 of who are being held under administrative
detention, detention without charge or
trial.
The issue of Palestinian Prisoners is not a new
one. Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation
of Palestinian territories in 1967, over 650,000
Palestinian have been detained by Israel. This
forms approximately 20% of total Palestinian population
in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Considering the fact that the majority of those detained
are male, the number of Palestinian detainees forms
approximately 40% of the total male Palestinian
population in the OPT.
Addameer stresses that the recent deterioration of prison
conditions are a direct result of Israeli policies and
arbitrary measures that threaten the stability of the
situation within prisons and will lead to an increase in
acts of protest within prisons. Israeli
authorities must abide by international standards and
laws in the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, and
respect treaties and agreements to which it is a
signatory. The systematic use of administrative
detention against Palestinian detainees as a form of
collective punishment, illegal under international law,
must also come to an end. Addameer calls on
international and local human rights organizations and
individuals to work towards ensuring the protection of
Palestinian and Arab prisoners, and to bring to an end
the policy of political detention, and the terror it
entails.
_____________________________________________________
ADDAMEER - Prisoners' Support and Human Rights
Association PO Box: 17338, Jerusalem.
Ramallah, West Bank.
Tel: +972-2-2960446 Fax: +972-2-2960447 E-mail: addameer@planet.edu
URL: http://www.addameer.org/
AND NOW THE AMERICANS IMITATE THE ISRAEL
DEFENCE FORCE:
On 25 April
2003, the newspaper Dagbladet (Norway) published photos of
armed US soldiers forcing Iraqi men to walk naked through
a park.
On the chests of the men had been scrawled an Arabic
phrase that translates as "Ali Baba - Thief."
A military officer states that the men are thieves,
and that this technique will be used again.
No word yet from the newly liberated Iraqi people
about some of them being summarily found guilty of theft,
forced at gunpoint to strip, having a racist phrase
written on their bodies, and then made to walk naked in
public. No doubt the Arab/Muslim world is impressed by
this display of "democracy,"
"freedom," "due process," and
"no cruel or unusual punishment."
We wonder if the soldiers will be using this technique
on their comrades who stole
$13.1 million in Iraq. Or the journalists who
looted Iraq's art.
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