[Pnews] The Economic Exploitation of Palestinian Political Prisoners

[Prisoner News]

http://www.addameer.org/sites/default/files/publications/final_report_red_2_0.pdf



Check out Addameer's latest report titled "The Economic Exploitation of 
Palestinian Prisoners, 
<http://www.addameer.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=229&qid=293987>" 
which includes an overview of economic exploitation in Israeli prisons, 
including the trajectory of privatization of the prisons, forced labor 
of Palestinians and the establishment of prison canteens as a way to 
exploit Palestinian prisoners.

*Economic Exploitation of Palestinian Political Prisoners*

Executive Summary

Economic exploitation is a key facet to entrenching military occupation 
and administering a colonial regime to control, exploit and quell 
rebellion among the subjects. The Israeli regime is no different in this 
regard and economic exploitation pervades all facets of the occupation.

Palestinian families whose homes are given demolition orders are 
required to pay for their demolishment. The family of an extrajudicial 
executed Palestinian is required to pay a bail in order to have his or 
her body returned for burial. In this regard, arrest and detention of 
Palestinians is further central to the systematic economic exploitation 
of Palestinians.

This report addresses to the economic aspects of the imprisonment of 
over 800,000 Palestinians since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza 
in 1967, with a particular focus on the role that prisons play in the 
maintenance of the regime of occupation, from 1985 until the present.

The historical period covered here is marked by many important events 
relevant to the issue of Palestinian prisoners. These include the two 
Intifadas (each leading to mass arrests), the privatization of prison 
canteens and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which 
also holds Palestinian prisoners (some of whom might have been 
imprisoned by Israel had the Palestinian Authority not been founded). 
Although historically, Palestinian political prisoners have been 
imprisoned in military as well as IPS facilities, following the year 
2000, the vast majority of facilities, barring a small number of 
interrogation facilities, were brought under the control of the IPS, 
which currently oversees almost all of Palestinian political prisoners 
(No Legal Frontiers, 2012). After the prisoner exchange of 2011, dozens 
of the released prisoners were re-arrested by Israeli forces and 
continue to be. Mass hunger strikes by Palestinian prisoners in the 
years 2012 and 2013 against administrative detention, ill-treatment, 
solitary confinement, and restrictions on family visitation also sparked 
protests throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, drawing the 
attention of international media to prisoners’ issues.

This paper concerns itself with the economic exploitation of Palestinian 
political prisoners It relates how Israeli authorities and private 
companies economically exploit Palestinians in Israeli detention and 
traces the social impacts of direct and indirect exploitation on 
prisoners and their families. The report is based on research conducted 
over several years that includes extensive interviews and the 
implementation of surveys.

This paper will also detail Israel’s legal obligations towards the 
imprisoned population under international human rights and humanitarian 
law.

One implication of Israel’s failure to meet these obligations is that 
the prisoners, their families and political organizations in the OPT 
have been to provide funding to prisoners to help them survive. Israel’s 
negligence of the rights of the prisoners puts extreme pressure on 
individual prisoners with particular needs to look for a solution to 
their specific problem, rather than to see their individual problem 
within the context of the collective plight of all Palestinian 
prisoners. This reality threatens to transform the economic needs of the 
prisoners from a collective issue into an individual problem, through 
which the systematic damage to the Palestinian economy is obscured. This 
is part of Israel’s sophisticated system of control put in place in 
order to break apart Palestinian resistance.

The paper includes a historical overview of economic exploitation in the 
prisons, including the trajectory of privatization of the prisons, 
forced labor of Palestinians, and the establishment of prison canteens 
as a way to exploit prisoners. Through our interviews with prisoners 
regarding money paid for food and hygiene products, disciplinary fines, 
medical care and education, our research finds that the Israeli 
authorities systematically economically exploit Palestinian prisoners.

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