[News] Israel's Abu Ghraib

Sun Aug 15 11:29:58 EDT 2004

<http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/703/re4.htm>http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/703/re4.htm

Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Israel's Abu Ghraib

An open-ended hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, due 
to begin next week, aims to expose appalling conditions and systematic 
abuses, writes Jonathan Cook

<http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/703/_re4.htm%20>
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<http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/703/_re4.htm%20>Click to view caption
Palestinian women gather in Nablus holding pictures of scores of sons and 
relatives held in Israeli jails. Starting 15 August, thousands of 
Palestinian detainees will stage an indefinite hunger strike in protest 
against prison conditions

In a last-minute attempt to head off a mass hunger strike among Palestinian 
political prisoners, Israel partially reversed this week its policy of 
blocking most family visits to inmates. Prison authorities declared that an 
extra 600 prisoners would be allowed to see close relatives.
Yaakov Ganot, head of the Israel Prison Service (IPS), instructed the 20 
Israeli jails holding Palestinian security prisoners to compile lists of 
those who had been denied visits for more than a year.

Ganot took his decision after Palestinian prisoners submitted 57 demands 
for improvements in detention conditions, with the restoration of visiting 
rights top of the list. A hunger strike is due to begin next week.

The plight of the 8,400 Palestinian political prisoners has attracted 
little attention outside Israel, even though there have been warnings from 
human rights groups about the dire conditions they endure and reports of 
abuse at the hands of guards, including a widespread policy of strip 
searching and severe beatings for those who refuse.

The number of security prisoners being held since the outbreak of the 
Intifada in September 2000 has risen from 800 to more than 8,000, with 
Palestinian detainees evenly split between military holding centres and 
Israeli jails. One in eight prisoners is being held under administrative 
order, without trial or even charges being laid.
The huge surge in prison population has overwhelmed Israel's jails, leaving 
many inmates sleeping on cell floors or in makeshift accommodation such as 
tents. In the Russian Compound in Jerusalem up to 16 prisoners are crowded 
into four metre by four metre holding cells. There are regular reports of 
rat and insect infestations, hygiene conditions are often deplorable, 
recreation facilities are non-existent and access to open-air yards is 
rarely offered.

Prisoners' basic rights are largely ignored. Lawyers are barred from 
talking with their clients for long periods, in several prisons the 
authorities have refused to provide a building for prayer and inmates have 
been blocked from using the Open University.

In June, Ganot ordered that all security prisoners still studying for their 
Palestinian Authority matriculation be barred from taking the exams.
But even the publicity surrounding the trial of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade 
leader Marwan Barghouti, which ended with his receiving five life sentences 
in June, failed to ignite interest in the subject of the conditions in 
which he and thousands of other inmates are held.

Attempts to publicise prisoners' problems have been severely hampered by a 
series of crackdowns by the Israeli police on the main organisation 
promoting the interests of security prisoners, Ansar Al-Sajin (Friends of 
the Political Prisoners).

Their lawyers are regularly blocked from meeting with prisoners, and the 
group's head offices, based in the Galilean village of Majd Al-Krum, have 
been repeatedly closed down with the director, Mounir Mansour, arrested.

Behind the scenes, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been 
putting pressure on Israel to abide by its international obligations, 
especially on ensuring family visits.

Israel violates the Geneva Conventions by transferring many prisoners from 
the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza into Israel. In many 
cases authorities then refuse to issue permits to families of prisoners, 
claiming they pose a security threat to Israel. Without such permits 
Palestinians are barred from entering Israel.

Every week the Red Cross tries to arrange visits for a handful of families, 
although any members aged between 15 and 50 are normally refused permits.
According to the prison authorities, a revised set of conditions for 
assessing the threat posed by family members means the entry prohibitions 
on 600 families will be cancelled. "Wherever we can accommodate the 
inmates, we do our best to," said Sharon Gutman, a Prison Authority 
spokeswoman.

But the decision is unlikely to halt the hunger strike. Many hundreds of 
prisoners will still be refused family visits, and even those who are 
allowed to see their relatives will have to do so separated by a glass 
partition.

Many prisoners have complained to their lawyers that even when their 
families are allowed to see them -- often after being held up for many 
hours at checkpoints -- they are strip- searched, offered no visitor 
facilities and allowed only a few minutes of contact.

Apart from partially relenting on the harsh visiting restrictions, the IPS 
has refused to countenance other reforms. "The Prison Authority will not 
budge in conceding to these demands because the security of Israel is at 
risk," Gutman said.

A key demand is that an extensive system of monetary fines for prisoners is 
ended. At the moment, the authorities dock hundreds of shekels from each 
prisoner every time he commits one of a long list of "offences". These 
include singing inside a cell, hanging a picture on the wall, being late 
for roll calls, not reporting a crack in a cell wall, having a pen or 
letter on one's person or not shaving.

The money is deducted from the prisoners' "canteen", a pot to which an 
inmate's family, friends, charities and even the Palestinian Authority 
contribute and which pays for his toiletries, cigarettes, clothes, 
stationery, blankets and extra food. Families are not allowed to bring any 
food into the jails.

According to statistics revealed in the Knesset by Arab member Azmi Bishara 
in June, some 50,000 shekels ($12,000) were deducted from the 360 inmates 
of Shatta prison in the Lower Galilee in the first six months of this year.

Another major grievance concerns the authorities' refusal to provide proper 
medical services to inmates. There has been a steady flow of reports of 
seriously ill Palestinian detainees being denied access to doctors, or of 
prison doctors refusing to treat them.

Ghanim Baransi, a 24-year-old from the Israeli-Arab town of Taibeh near 
Tulkarem, is trying to sue prison authorities after his hand had to be 
amputated. He was refused treatment for six months after being shot by 
police who mistook him for a suicide bomber.

Baransi, who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, is at least able to turn 
to Israel's civilian courts. Other security prisoners are less lucky.
After visiting detention centres, Arab Knesset member Abdul-Malik Dehamshe 
has raised several cases of sick inmates. In February Dehamshe protested 
that Raed Saadi, a prisoner in the Negev desert tent encampment known as 
Ketziot, was losing sight in his right eye because he had been denied 
surgery. In June Dehamshe asked for the early release of a long-standing 
prisoner, Mikdad Khatib, a diabetic from the Balata refugee camp, who had 
lost 20 kilogrammes since his incarceration.
Another elderly prisoner, 70- year-old Wasfi Mansour, who suffers from 
heart disease and diabetes, was moved without warning from Shatta prison 
after his case was taken up by Friends of the Political Prisoners. The 
group's lawyer was subsequently prevented from seeing Mansour.

But the most inflammatory grievances concern the authorities' refusal to 
install public telephones inside jails and the related policy of 
strip-searching inmates.
Deprived both of family visits and access to telephones to maintain contact 
by other means, prisoners have been smuggling small mobile phones into 
jails. As a result, prison authorities have been strip-searching inmates to 
find the phones.

Authorities claim the phones are being used to authorise and plan attacks 
by militant groups. Inmates say that if Israel installed prison phones 
their calls could be controlled and even monitored and that the need for 
the trade in mobile phones would end.

Strip-searching has resulted in an increasingly hostile environment in many 
jails and several violent attacks by guards on prisoners. The worst 
incidents have occurred in two neighbouring prisons in the Lower Galilee, 
Shatta and Gilboa jails.

Last month the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel decried an 
incident, following a fight between an inmate and a guard, in which a 
special unit, the Nachshon, stormed a ward in the Gilboa prison and sprayed 
tear gas into the cells. The ward's prisoners were forcibly removed from 
their cells, they had their hands tied behind their backs and were forced 
to kneel in the yard in the midday sun. Severe beatings with batons 
resulted in more than a dozen prisoners being badly injured.

Another disturbing incident, which occurred in January, only came to light 
recently after the mother of one of the inmates concerned was able to visit 
her son.
Diana Hussein, aged 44, found out that her 18-year-old son, Rabiah, and two 
other prisoners had been left unconscious by a beating from guards after 
they refused to undergo a strip search in Shatta jail during a Muslim 
religious festival. According to reports, the guards then attempted to rape 
the three inmates.
Rabiah was placed in isolation for several weeks and refused access to a 
doctor. Unable to walk, he had to be carried to the bathroom for many days 
by other inmates. His mother says he is still in severe pain and has 
difficulty moving. "The doctors are refusing to treat him and giving him 
only Acamol [a mild, paracetamol-based pain killer]," she said.

Rabiah, from Deir Hanna in the Galilee, is one of 120 Palestinian citizens 
of Israel who are security prisoners. His mother therefore enjoys visiting 
rights denied to most other prisoners' families. Under threat from prison 
staff, Rabiah tried to conceal the attack from her. She only learnt of it 
after a letter was smuggled out of the jail and published in the Arab press 
identifying the hometowns of the three victims. Rabiah is the only 
political prisoner from Deir Hanna.
"I lost my mind when I read the story," she said. "I knew it must be him 
but I had to wait another 10 days till I was allowed to visit him. I sent 
letters to every Israeli official I could think of but none of them replied."

Diana says the scandal of Israel's prisons should be properly investigated.

"I see the row about what went on with the Americans in the Abu Ghraib 
prison in Iraq, but no one seems to care about the abuses of prisoners 
inside Israeli jails."
·

The Freedom Archives
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