[News] Israeli Prison Services Humiliate Palestinian Prisoners

[News at freedomarchives.org]

21/10/2004


PPS: Israeli Prison Services Further Humiliate Palestinian Prisoners



BEHELAHEM, Palestine, October21, 2004 (IPC)-- The Israeli prisons service 
in the concentration camps of Telmond, Megiddo and Maskobia, further 
humiliated Palestinian female and male prisoners alike.

In a report issued by the Bethlehem-based Palestinian prisoners society 
(PPS) and a copy of which was received by the IPC, prisoner Amna Mona, 
representative of 58 female prisoners being held in the Telmond prison, 
told the PPS's advocate, Raed Mahameed, that the Telmond's service has 
recently further humiliated the female prisoners.

Amna was quoted as saying " the stripped search being carried out by the 
Israeli wardens still goes on; the worshippers have been denied right to 
worshipping in groups in the prison; food supplies in time of Sahour 
(morning meal for fasting prisoners) have been ill-served.

The prisoners' representative further said that the ill prisoners are being 
humiliated by the Israeli wardens, who take them hand and foot-cuffed to 
the prison's clinic, where the general practitioner prescribes pain killers 
for most cases.

According to testimonies gathered from several prisoners like N'aeema 
Nakhla (needing special care) from the West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, 
Abeer Amro (backbone problems) from Hebron, and Maha Alka'ek (mentally 
ill), the prison's service offers only pain killers for most cases.

Abeer Amro, said that the prisoners suffer from the lack of blankets and 
winter clothes, books, and other things, calling on the Red Cross 
International to intervene to help meet such needs.

Megiddo Prison:
In the meantime, 900 Palestinian male prisoners of the Megiddo prison told 
advocate Mahameed that their conditions have recently considerably 
deteriorated.

Prisoner Nazeer Nassar from the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem, made 
clear that he, along with his fellow inmates, has been denied visitations 
by his family, asserting that the denial included at least 50 percent of 
the prisoners.

He also maintained that the prisoners have recently begun to buy things 
from the prison's canteen, due to shortage of foods supplies being offered 
by the prisons' service.

Nassar pointed out that insects have been spreading widely in prisoners' 
rooms due to improper sanitation by the Meggido's service; the prison lacks 
garbage containers, hot water is available only once a month, rooms are 
overcrowded, and medication for patient inmates is insufficient.

Mohammad As'ad Daqqa, from the Tulkarem refugee camp, on his part, called 
on the human rights and legal organizations to draw further attention to 
the Megiddo prison, particularlyat this time, as the holy fasting month of 
Ramadan enters its second week with inadequate food supplies and clothing.

The Maskobia Prison:
According to the PPS's report, prisoner Adnan E'biyat, from the West Bank 
City of Bethlehem, told the PPS's advocate for the Maskobia, Ma'moun 
Alhasheem, that the prisons' service offers prisoners extremely bad food, 
apparently expired dates, as the Ramadan month enters its second week..

Advocate Alhasheem said that the prisoner Feras Hassan Mareesh from the 
city of Hebron, who spent more than 64 days in solitary confinement cells, 
has already started a hunger strike for not being transferred from the 
Maskobia prison, despite the fact he has received permission for a transfer.

Mareesh told the PPS that he would continue his hunger strike, although he 
suffers from skin diseases due to lack of proper sanitation, as the 
confinement cell he has been placed in has no toilets.

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