[Ppnews] Palestinian political prisoners taking Israeli government to the International Court of Justice

[Political Prisoner News]

Palestinian political prisoners taking Israeli government to the 
International Court of Justice
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1187

(Bethlehem) Najib Farag
Monday, 11 December 2006

In light of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 11,000 
political prisoners in Israeli jails are filing suit against the 
Israeli government in the International Court of Justice in the 
Hague. They are calling for an official investigation into "abuse and 
serious violations in Israeli prisons against life and humanity."

This comes in a statement in preparation for the World Day for Human 
Rights, explaining that the number of Palestinians killed; those who 
have died in prison due to torture, ill-treatment, and medical 
neglect since the beginning of the occupation, is high enough. The 
political prisoners are citing 187 recent Palestinian deaths.

Twenty five people have had cancer and not received adequate medical 
treatment. One thousand have had life threatening conditions and not 
received proper treatment. "This is the way it has become in a prison 
system that blatantly and purposefully lacks medical care," the 
political prisoners' statement issued on Monday read.

Turning to Palestinian Prisoner Society research, the continued 
policy of torturing prisoners violates international law. The 
Israelis use methods that are internationally prohibited in order to 
extract confessions. The government of Israeli has made torture a 
keystone in its practices through a series of laws and legislation 
that it created for itself in order to allow the use of extreme 
violence and cruel treatment during interrogation.

Prisoner Society statistics indicate that 90 percent of Palestinians 
in Israeli jails have been subjected to severe torture, including 
minor children and the sick and wounded. That is in addition to 
sexual harassment and threats of rape used against children, and 
others, during questioning.

Also in the hoped-for case against Israeli forces is the use of 
Administrative Detention, which is a prison sentence without charge 
or trial. This has engulfed thousands of people into the prison 
system. Many others argue that even with a charge or trial the 
Israeli system is not legitimate under international law as it is the 
system of occupiers who do not have jurisdiction over the occupied.

Wives and mothers have been imprisoned as a means to pressure 
husbands and sons on the "wanted" list to surrender, as have 
children. Hundreds of families are not allowed to visit, and many of 
those who are become the subject of more humiliating treatment, 
including threats and strip searches. The suit to be filed in the 
Hague by Palestinian political prisoners also cites that hundreds of 
people become sick and injured once in the prisons and that 
conditions do not meet the bare minimum of humane treatment.


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