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</font><font face="arial" size=2><a href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/703/re4.htm">http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/703/re4.htm</a><br>
<br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=1 color="#333333">Published in Cairo by
AL-AHRAM established in 1875<br><br>
</font><div align="center"><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#333333"><b>Israel</b></font>'s
Abu Ghraib</h1></div>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#333333">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 <b>Jonathan
Cook</b> <br>
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<a href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/703/_re4.htm%20"><img src="cid:6.1.0.6.2.20040815082617.01f46770@66.103.156.66.3" width=180 height=121 alt="19933d.jpg"></a><a href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/703/_re4.htm%20"><font face="arial" size=1 color="#333333">Click
to view caption<br>
</a></font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#333333"><b>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 <br>
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<br>
</b></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2 color="#333333">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.<br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
In June, Ganot ordered that all security prisoners still studying for
their Palestinian Authority matriculation be barred from taking the
exams.<br>
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.<br><br>
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).<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Israel</font>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2 color="#333333">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.<br><br>
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.<br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br><br>
But the most inflammatory grievances concern the authorities' refusal to
install public telephones inside jails and the related policy of
strip-searching inmates.<br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br>
"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."<br><br>
Diana says the scandal of Israel's prisons should be properly
investigated.<br><br>
"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."<br>
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