(Your Voice in a World where Zionism, Steel, and Fire have turned Justice Mute)
Below you shall find a report sent to the Free Arab Voice (FAV) by supporters of ADDAMEER, an organization concerned with the condition and rights of Palestinian prisoners under the Zionist occupation, with an urging to publicize it through the FAV and chiding us for not following this pivotal issue closely enough. However, while we consider the dissemination of information on the suffering of Palestinian prisoners an integral part of our mission, we disagree vehemently with some of the political assumptions underlying the report itself. For example, we regard the legal separation of Palestine in the report below into “Israel”, i.e., the part of Palestine occupied in 1948, on one hand, and “the Palestinian Occupied Territories”, i.e., the part of Palestine occupied in 1967, on the other hand, completely artificial and a dangerous pitfall which serves no useful purpose as far as the Palestinian struggle for liberation is concerned. On the contrary, the implicit admission of “Israel” in Palestine can only undermine the very cause many Palestinian political prisoners are languishing in jail for. This is not to mention that the majority of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, do not in any shape or form recognize “Israel’s” right to exist. Hence, this is not even a separation that is acceptable to the people who are bearing the brunt of Zionist oppression. And what for? For the sake of scoring a tactical point about how “Israel” is moving Palestinian prisoners outside “the Occupied Territories”?!
In fact, all of Palestine is occupied. And any jail for Palestinian political prisoners in Palestine is no better or worse than any other jail for Palestinian political prisoners in Palestine. That’s because all of Palestine is in jail. The suffering of Palestinian political prisoners, hence, is merely one of many manifestations of the original problem: the occupation of Palestine, ALL of Palestine. In our opinion, this is the crux of the matter that can’t be tackled except with the total and complete destruction of Zionism in Palestine, where Zionism is, by definition, the project of establishing a “national” homeland for followers of the Jewish RELIGION in Palestine!
But do not let these remarks keep you from reading and spreading the information in the report below. On the contrary, we wouldn’t have posted it in FAV if we didn’t think that it contained a well-documented and objective appraisal on the condition of Palestinian political prisoners under the Zionist occupation. Indeed, this appraisal brings to the fore the brutality of that occupation. It includes material that can be used time and again in debates in the English language over Palestinian rights and Zionist violations. But most importantly, we insist that viewing the issue of Palestinian prisoners solely from an amorphous humanitarian perspective negates its very essence as A POLITICAL ISSUE THAT IS INEXTRICABLY TIED TO THE OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE AT LARGE. Surely, there will be those in the West who would sympathize with Palestinian prisoners solely on humanitarian basis, and that’s more than fine. But the humanitarian approach cannot possibly stand on its own. If we are not able to make that humanitarian approach a spiritual link to the more crucial political issues, if we are not able to explain that Palestinians are in horrendous jails because they are embracing a just cause, if we are not able to explain what that cause is, if we do not explain that SPECIFIC Zionist practices are merely part of the OVERALL Zionist effort to subdue the Palestinian liberation movement, then what is to stop anyone from viewing Palestinian suffering in Zionist jails as an excess that is no different from that experienced by any career criminal, murderer, or robber, in any bad prison system anywhere?! In fact, what is to stop a sympathizer with the suffering of Palestinian prisoners from CONDEMNING the cause Palestinian prisoners are lying in jail for?! That is where the liberal approach on Palestinian prisoners, adopted allegedly to win over public opinion in the West, breaks down. Hence, the political angle on Palestinian prisoners reigns supreme.
But not just any political angle! Mimicking the mainstream in the West on the Palestinian cause does not do Palestinian prisoners any good. As we pointed out above, it only serves to undermine the cause which Palestinian prisoners embrace. Admitting “Israel’s” right to exist, echoing the line of the Western media on the need for negotiations, coexistence, and the Palestinian “statelet”, and holding the hollow shield of “international legitimacy” while sweeping under the carpet the connection between the suffering of Palestinian prisoners and the struggle for LIBERATION, is neither our political line nor that of Palestinian prisoners in general. Of course, there are those Palestinians who believe that we have to talk a political language that the West can accept to get our cause accepted. But we do not think so. We think that accepting what the West accepts means accepting what is NOT good for us. We believe instead that we simply have to tell the truth about our cause, and that we should defend what we stand for any which way we know how, then the world will eventually come around if we struggle hard enough.
Thus, we made three sets of changes to the report by ADDAMEER below:
1) we moved to the end of the text their introduction rife with mainstream terminology like “negotiations”, “Palestinian state”, etc… and replaced it with this one instead. No other omissions to the body of the text itself were made.
2) we encased all references in the text to “Israel” in quotations. In fact, “Israel” is what settler-invaders call their state. The correct description for it is Occupied Palestine or the Zionist entity. We believe that using “Israel” without quotations endows a certain amount of legitimacy to that occupation. Hence the need for quotations. For more on this, please go to: http://www.freearabvoice.org/yesWeSupportPeace.htm
3) we added comments between brackets that were referenced to FAV where the report discusses the land occupied in 1948 and the land occupied in 1967 as if they were two separate legal entities.
In one word, we tried to couch the issue of Palestinian prisoners in revolutionary, as opposed to mainstream, terms.
We think the suffering of our Palestinian sisters and brothers in Zionist jails is too important to be left in liberal contexts. We think that their suffering should give us instead the added impetus to struggle and sacrifice more for the cause which they have been suffering for.
Thus, we advise all to use the information below to incite, mobilize, and organize revolutionary action for Palestine. We don’t need anyone’s sorrow, and are not pleading for anyone’s mercy.
Use the material below for what it deserves to be used for. And do not let the size of the text throw you off. In fact, the first seven pages are the main report, while the rest is appendices for those concerned.
General
Background Information on the conditions of detention of Palestinian detainees
in “Israeli” prisons and detention centers
The mass arrest campaigns conducted by the “Israeli” Defense Forces (IDF) beginning March 2002, within just a few months, resulted in the detention of approximately 15 000 Palestinians, mostly men, but also women and children. In a blink of an eye, entire villages were emptied of all men over the age of 15. “Israeli” imposed curfews also prevented those whom had been released from reaching their families for several days, leaving many families unsure as to whether their loved ones had been released, rearrested or killed.
Arrest can happen anywhere and everywhere: at
home (often followed by the ransacking of family homes, threats against family members and
sometimes the destruction of the house), on streets or roads, at “Israeli” checkpoints, and, as
was witnessed during the most recent “Israeli” invasions, in any public or private place.
Upon arrest, detainees are usually handcuffed and blindfolded. They are not informed of the reason for their arrest, nor are they told where they will be taken. Physical abuse and humiliation of the detainee by “Israeli” forces is common. Based on numerous sworn affidavits, detainees have reported that they have been submitted to attempted murder, rape, thrown down stairs while blindfolded, amongst many other forms of physical abuse.[1] During the arrest, detainees have often been forced to strip in public before being arrested. Family members have also been forced to remove their clothes in house to house arrest campaign raids.
Regulations Governing Detention and Arrest
The “Israeli” Prison Ordinance (revised 1971) consists of 114 clauses. However, there is no clause or sub-clause defining prisoners’ rights. The Ordinance provides a legally binding set of rules for the Minister of Interior, but the Minister formulates these rules himself by administrative decree. There is no provision stipulating obligations incumbent upon the authorities, nor is there a clause guaranteeing prisoner’s minimum standards of life.
In “Israel”, it is for example legally permissible to intern 20 inmates in a cell no larger than 5m long, 4m wide and 3m high. This space includes an open lavatory. The minimum standard in American and European prisons is 10.5 square meters per detainee. Prisoners may be confined indefinitely to such cells for 23 hours a day.
The Shabas – “Israeli” prison service – is in charge of investigating cases of abuse in prison but it is difficult to determine whether their intervention helps or worsens the situation.
There are approximately 20 detention centers in which Palestinian political prisoners are held in “Israeli” custody, scattered throughout “Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories” (that is, occupied Palestine – FAV). Some of these detention centers are buildings, while others are merely tents erected within military camps. Archaic prisons from the British mandate period have been reopened, such as the Ketziot Military Detention Camp in the Negev desert. Old, threadbare tents have been set up within this detention camp, exposing detainees to extreme weather conditions. Zinc huts house rudimentary hygiene facilities. At Ofer Military Detention Camp, located south of Ramallah, oil soiled hangars formerly used for military vehicles serve as holding areas for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Negev, Ofer and Megiddo are all infested with flies, parasites, rats and other vermin.
All of these detention centers are extremely
overcrowded. Detainees sleep on wooden
planks covered by thin mattresses.
Covers are rare and often provided by the families of detainees and
human rights associations when items are allowed to enter the detention
facilities. Electricity is sparsely
provided and all movement is prohibited after sundown.
Detainees are usually in charge of preparing their own meals with very little kitchen facilities and utensils. Only wooden and plastic spoons are allowed. The food is of poor quality and provided in small quantities. Until May 2002, detainees were provided with frozen food that they were only able to defrost by sunlight. Hot drinks and meals are very rare. Basic food necessities such as olive oil, coffee, and sugar, are provided by detainees’ families and human rights associations, when possible. Getting these supplies through “Israeli” checkpoints is extremely difficult, and it is often lawyers who are able to carry these items in with them to detainees.
Palestinian minors and women are served meals prepared by other detainees. This has resulted in numerous protests from Palestinian women who are being detained with “Israeli” criminal prisoners.
There are no special dietary considerations
made for detainees who suffer chronic illnesses such as diabetes or high blood
pressure. Other detainees often share
their portions in order to provide them an adequate diet to meet their specific
needs.
Detainees are not provided a change of clothing by the prison administration. Those injured during their arrest are forced to stay in blood-soiled clothing for several months, and those who were detained in their night clothes or underwear also do not receive a change of clothing. Soap is rationed by the prison administration, and other personal hygiene items are offered infrequently and are often unsanitary. Hot water is seldom available. Each section of 120 detainees receives on bar of soap each day, and none on Friday and Saturday.
Mattresses used to sleep on are extremely
worn, often from second hand military equipment, with some infested with
vermin. Supplies to clean prison
sections are offered infrequently and are insufficient. Garbage is removed irregularly, and the
sewage system is in extreme disrepair.
A large number of detainees currently imprisoned are either wounded or ill. Many detainees taken in the arrest campaigns starting in March 2002 were injured by bullets during their arrest, particularly those held in Ofer Military Detention Camp. Prison clinics have become renown for offering only aspirin for all health treatments and physicians within the clinics are all soldiers. Health examinations are conducted through a fence, and any necessary surgery or transfer to hospital for additional medical treatment is usually postponed for long periods of time. Demands made by “Israeli” organizations to provide health care to detainees have consistently been refused, in addition to petitions made by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
As a result of the substandard conditions of
detention, detainees who are released are often faced with chronic health
problems such as skin diseases, weakness, kidney pain and ulcers.
For two years, all family visits to detainees from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV) have been prohibited by “Israel” (i.e. in the land occupied in 1948). All Palestinian citizens of the West Bank and Gaza Strip require special permits to travel within the 1967 borders of “Israel” (that is, the land occupied in 1948 – FAV). No such permit has been issued to families of detainees in the past two years. Several petitions have been submitted to the “Israeli” High Court, but have been systematically rejected. The ICRC has organized group visits in the past, but with great difficulty. In some instances, for example recently with detainees in Ketziot prison, the ICRC has refused to comply with “Israel’s” restrictions on visits and therefore has not been able to organize these visits.
Palestinian detainees are isolated from the
outside world, with access to books, TV, and radios usually prohibited. Mail is strictly controlled.
As a result of their visible activity in the current Intifada, women have not escaped the mass arrest campaigns. Palestinian women in detention are often faced with maltreatment on a daily basis and are often held in cells and section with “Israeli” criminal prisoners. Regular body searches are performed with brutality by prison guards; sexual harassment occurs frequently; the right to elect a representative for their collective demands is not recognized as in other prisons; solitary confinement is often used; detainees are prohibited from going outside or of using the canteen; cell searches and confiscation of personal belongings is a common practice, in addition to attacks on women by beating or firing tear gas into cells. There are currently over 47 Palestinian women held in “Israeli” prisons and detention centers, including at least 4 juveniles.
There are approximately 350 Palestinian child detainees between the ages of 12 and 18. Although the majority of child detainees are held in Telmond Prison, along with “Israeli” juvenile criminal detainees, they are also held in a variety of other detention centers. There is no procedure to separate children from adult detainees, and they are effectively treated as adult detainees, submitted to the same torture, humiliation and arbitrary trials as adults are.[2]
Palestinian minors are considered adults by
“Israeli” law from the age of 16, but in practice, at the age of 15.[3]
The “Israeli” authorities offer no provisions for education to Palestinian minors detained in “Israeli” prisons. The administration doesn’t allow books for Palestinian juveniles into prison. However, “Israeli” criminal juvenile offenders are allowed to continue their education while in detention.
Palestinian adult detainees are permitted to study through designated open university programs. However, the choice of topics is restricted, with a recent restriction placed on the following topics:“Democracy and Dictatorship”, “History of the Middle East from the New Historians”, “Democracy and National Security”, “Mass Communication”, etc.
The ruling of the “Israeli” High Court of Justice on 6 September 1999, following a petition
by human rights organizations to ban the use of torture during interrogation, does not forbid
the use of torture but rather allows that interrogation methods deemed as torture may be used in
the “necessity of defense” and in situations where a detainee is deemed a ‘ticking bomb’. At most, it offers the victim of torture a small
opportunity to submit a complaint if an abuse can be clearly proved.
As “Israel” can legally hold detainees incommunicado for several weeks,
GSS interrogators are able to use methods of torture without impunity. Legalized
torture includes for example, sleep deprivation and shackling for extended periods of time, amongst others.
In practice, Palestinian detainees are submitted to the following forms of torture:
1. Routine : sleep deprivation, shabeh (position abuse), in which detainees are shackled to a chair in painful positions, squeezing of handcuffs, beatings, slaps, kicks, physical and psychological threats and humiliation;
2. Special methods: the body tied in a contorted and extremely painful position, pressure on different parts of the body, strongly shaking the detainee after being shackled for a long period of time, head covered with a filthy, soiled sack, strangulation and other means of suffocation, pulling of hair, multiple humiliations;
3. Inside the cells: sleep deprivation, handcuffed to the bed, exposure to extreme temperatures, prolonged and continuous exposure to artificial light, solitary confinement, tear gas inside the cells, inhuman detention conditions.
GSS agents can act with full impunity. If a complaint is lodged, investigations are confidential and led by a GSS agent under the authority of the State Attorney. No agent has been charged since the responsibility for investigations was transferred to the Ministry of Justice in 1994.
Other bodies like the IDF, Border Police,
Police and others also use torture and inflict ill treatment upon detainees
during arrest, interrogation or detention.
Military Order 1500, issued on 5 April 2002 allows for detainees to be held for an initial 18 days from the day of their arrest without offering a reason for the arrest, allowing a lawyer to meet with the detainee, or the detainee being brought before a judge. Following these 18 days, the detainee can be held for an additional 8 days without being afforded the above rights. The army is also not obliged to inform the detainee’s family of their arrest or the location of their detention.
After or within this period, the person is sent to an interrogation center, placed in administrative detention, or held in custody awaiting a charge sheet and trial.
According to “Israeli” legislation, interrogation can last for up to 180 days. After the period of interrogation, military judges can extend the detention for the time needed for the public prosecutor to provide charges against the detainee. What can follow is either the judgment of the detainee, or more frequently, his/her transfer to administrative detention.
In the case of administrative detention, lawyers and detainees face charges based on secret evidence. These secret files are prepared by the GSS. This element violates International Law and Human Rights Charters but is congruent with the legislation in force in the State of “Israel”. In these conditions, it is impossible to exercise the right of defense. Theoretically, administrative detention can be extended indefinitely. Detainees do not know when they will be released and or why they are being detained. In many cases, arrest and detention are renewed at the prison’s gate. Palestinian detainees have spent up to 8 years in prison without being tried under administrative detention orders. The current longest serving Palestinian detainee in administrative detention has been held for three years without charge or trial.
Deportation, abroad or to another region of
the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV),
following detention can be ordered as a result of either a military or High
Court ruling or as a political compromise, as was the case with the 13
Palestinians who were deported to various European countries and 26
Palestinians deported to Gaza in a political negotiation to end the siege on
the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Military orders are the main components of “Israeli” legislation in force in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV) that govern Palestinian detainees and prisoners, and are issued by the “Israeli” military commander of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV). Within the courts, military orders always take precedence over “Israeli” and International law. “Israeli” military courts refuse to apply international laws and conventions, and no legal claim whatsoever is possible in order to protect individuals under military occupation.
All Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV) are submitted to “Israeli” military courts, even in the case of civil incidents, such as a car accident involving an “Israeli”. Military courts of appeal are the last instance. The case of Marwan Barghouti is unique in that is taking place within a civil court.
Military courts apply legislations in force
in an arbitrary manner, with no consistent application of regulations. The military legislation in itself is
discriminatory. Confessions made under
torture, for example, are enough to sentence a child to several years of
imprisonment.[4]
A Palestinian can be held in custody for 8 + 18 days before being brought before a judge. An “Israeli” citizen, however, can be held in custody for only a maximum of 48 hours before being brought before a judge. A Palestinian can be held without charge, by order of a jurist-judge, for an initial period of 30 days, which can be extended for 6 months by the legal advisor for the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV), via a military court of appeals (this does not include the possibility of administrative detention, in which case no charges are brought against the detainee who will never be tried). An “Israeli” citizen can be held without indictment for an initial period of 15 days, which can be extended for only another 15 days.
Lawyer visits can be prohibited for up to 90 days after the day of arrest for a Palestinian detainee[5]. The meeting between an “Israeli” detainee and his attorney can be delayed for a total of 15 days.
The maximum allowable civilian sentences are considerably less severe than those allowable in the military tribunals, a major reason for the significant differential in sentences passed upon “Israelis” and Palestinians. For example, a Palestinian convicted of manslaughter by a military tribunal is subject to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, while an “Israeli” convicted of manslaughter in a civilian court faces a maximum of 20 years.
The difference in sentencing structures is reinforced by regulations in the two penal systems regarding the early release of prisoners. Under the “Israeli” penal code, prisoners may be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence. The military orders under which Palestinians are judged do not allow for early release for any reason.
Separated and unequal before the law, the
different penal codes under which Palestinians and “Israelis” are governed
takes place in different courts; application of the law is systematically
discriminatory.
Comparative Case Studies
Sanaa, 14 years old, from Hebron was arrested after her older sister had attempted to stab a settler in the street. She was found guilty of planning to stab a settler, however the court agreed that Sanaa did not carry out her plan and, in fact, at the time of her arrest was standing alone and unaware of what was happening around her. Five months after her arrest, a three-judge court, after 3 hours of deliberation, sentenced her to 1 year in prison with an additional 4 years suspended sentence if she should commit any offence during the next 5 years. The court did not take into account her age or the fact that she did not carry out any violent act. During the whole day at the courtroom, she was not given food and her legs remained shackled. Her hands were handcuffed whenever the judges left the room. Her father was not allowed to speak to his daughter. (DCI-PS)
Nahum, 37 years old, from the illegal settlement of Bitar Ilit, was sentenced to 6 months of community service for the brutal slaying of an 11-year-old Palestinian boy. According to the eyewitnesses, Nahum brutally assassinated the boy by kicking him in the head and beating him with the butt of his rifle. Originally acquitted by the District Court of Jerusalem, the “Israeli” Supreme Court found him responsible for the vicious murder after an appeal by the prosecutors. However, Nahum received a sentence of only community service and a fine of $17,000 US.
Between December 1987 (the beginning of the first Intifada) and March 2001, “Israeli” settlers killed 119 Palestinians, including 23 children under the age of 17, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV). From the serious deficiencies evidenced in investigations, or merely the lack of investigation itself, to the low sentences passed by courts, the complicity of the “Israeli” legal system in the cases of murder of Palestinians becomes evident. Of 89 cases monitored by B’Tselem over this period, only 22 were convicted: 6 of murder, 7 of manslaughter, 7 of negligent homicide, and 2 charged with firing in a residential area and possession of a weapon without permit. Only 3 convictions resulted in life sentences, from which 2 were reduced to 13 and 11 years respectively of imprisonment. Although the expected sentence for manslaughter is 20 years, the 7 settlers convicted received sentences ranging from 6 months to 7 and half years of imprisonment. While the normal sentence for negligent homicide is 3 years, of the 7 cases mentioned above, 5 received community service sentences and 2 received 5 and 18 months prison sentences. 39 files were closed without legal actions.
Between December 1987 and March 2001, 115
“Israelis” have been killed by Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV). In each case, an
investigation has been opened. Only 10
cases have been closed. 33 Palestinians
were convicted of murder and all received life sentences, without the
possibility of clemency or reduction of their sentence. One Palestinian was
convicted for complicity of murder. No
Palestinian was convicted for manslaughter or negligent homicide, rather than
murder. No Palestinian was acquitted because he had acted in self-defense.
“Israeli” security forces killed 15 suspects before they were brought to trial.
In 22 cases, in addition to the prison sentence, suspect’s family house has
been demolished or sealed.
In addition to administrative detention allowing in practice the detention of every Palestinian, to the free interpretation of « security reasons » and the application of the law ruled by arbitrariness, acts defined as crimes in “Israeli” legislation also provide wide possibilities for sentencing and imprisonment. For example, participating in an exhibition to benefit a charity organization linked to Hamas is a crime of « terrorist association ». Carrying or placing a Palestinian flag is a crime in itself. Removing the rubbish put in the middle of a road by “Israeli” soldiers after they have left is another crime. Fire in the air during a wedding, as is the tradition, constitutes a danger for “Israel’s” national security, although it happens in the autonomous territories (area A). A student of a Hamas Koranic school can be sentenced to 14 months of prison for his participation at the lesson. Participation in a demonstration is a case of disrupting public order. Pouring coffee for a member of a declared illegal association is support to a terrorist organization. Palestinian national security forces are an illegal association.
· Human rights activists, in the current situation, faces the risk of arrest by “Israeli” occupation forces;
· The obstacles to freedom of movement within the West Bank, Gaza Strip and outside it, curfews and other forms of collective punishment inflicted upon the Palestinian society by the “Israeli” military occupation considerably hinders everyone’s work, among others, to collect information concerning human rights violations and verify them.
· Organizations are not allowed to enter the prisons, nor are they allowed to visit prisoners;
· The number of lawyers is limited to defend an increasing number of detainees;
· Palestinian lawyers can only defend their clients before military courts located in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV); for the High Court they must be members of the “Israeli” Bar association;
· The difficulties faced by lawyers in the exercise of their work are mainly related to occupation, arbitrariness and impunity.
· Very often, lawyers are not informed of the date of a hearing.
· Their access to the prisons is limited and they are searched there.
· The use of confessions made under torture (under legal as well as other forms of torture) and of submission of secret files allows only a purely superficial defense.
· The refusal to implement and abide by international laws diminishes all possibilities of ensuring the respect of basic rights.
From the beginning of the military reinvasion of the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian Authority has been removed of the little authority conceded to them after the Oslo Agreements, and has no real legal system in practice today. Its prisons have nearly all been demolished, apart from one in Jericho and one in Gaza that are still functioning. There are a number of unknown areas in which political detainees are held. The use of torture has been reported, but there is no existing legal research nor recourse possible in these circumstances at this time. The over 35 000 members of the police forces are usually the first target of “Israeli” military actions and, therefore, have vanished from the streets of the occupied cities. Although a Palestinian court is still active in Gaza, there is no comprehensive legal structure in effect for cases of violations of criminal laws committed by a Palestinian whose victim is a Palestinian.
The most prominent case of Palestinian Authority detention at this point in time is that of the six political detainees held in Jericho prison. As part of a political agreement to lift the siege on President Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters in April 2002, details of which were never made public, four Palestinians were tried in a kangaroo-court by the PA, sentenced to between 1 to 18 years in prison, and then transferred to Jericho Prison. The four were accused of involvement in the assassination of the “Israeli” far-right Tourism Minister, Rehavam Ze’evi.
They were tried in an impromptu Palestinian military court that violated all established Palestinian and international laws guaranteeing a fair trial with proper legal representation. Referring to applicable laws in Palestine, no legal reference can be found in order to disregard civilian courts and justify the creation of a specific military court. Furthermore, the court consisted of three people without any legal training or background. The only material presented before the court were notes written by unidentified individuals from discussions held with the four defendants while they were imprisoned in Ramallah before the siege. Yasser Arafat ratified the court decision immediately. No appeal was permitted.
In addition to the four, two Palestinian civilians, Ahmad Saadat and Fuad Shubeiki, were also transferred to Jericho under the supervision of US and British guards. The two were never put on trial, nor have they been charged or found guilty of an offence. Yet they remain incarcerated in Jericho, despite a Palestinian High Court Ruling for the release of one of the detainees. The foreign guards are charged with ensuring that these six detainees remain in continuous custody.
Is this what is meant for the Palestinian,
“Israeli”, US and British authorities by “reform” of the Palestinian Authority,
“democracy” and the “rule of law”?[6]
THOUSANDS
OF PALESTINIAN DETAINEES IMPRISONED IN INHUMAN AND LIFE-THREATENING CONDITIONS
Following the most recent “Israeli” invasion of Palestinian cities that began on March 29, 2002, the “Israeli” military has undertaken a widespread campaign of arbitrary, mass arrest of Palestinian civilians. Addameer has been following cases of those arrested and detained through visits to detention camps and prisons, as well as collecting statements from those who have been released. The conditions that detainees face violate every principle of international law and present a real threat to the lives of detainees. Addameer has collected many affidavits that reveal a conscious process of torture and maltreatment to which thousands of detainees have been exposed. The information in this report is based upon affidavits from detainees and lawyers who have visited these detention camps and prisons (see selected case studies below).
Addameer estimates that at least 5000
Palestinians have been arrested since 29 March 2002. From these arrests,
currently between 1500-2000 people remain in detention camps. Around 1000 of
these detainees have received administrative detention orders, meaning they are
detained without charge for periods up to 6 months.
Detainees are held in various “Israeli” military camps around the West Bank during their interrogation. The main camp is Ofer Detention Camp, located near Ramallah in a closed military zone. Currently around 1200 Palestinians remain detained in Ofer. Detainees in Ofer are held in tents distributed in 10 sections. Each section contains four tents that hold 25-30 people. The conditions in Ofer are extremely poor and present a threat to the life of the detainees. This includes the following:
Detainees are subject to severe physical abuse during arrest, periods of transfer to interrogation, meeting with lawyers or to other prisons. One detainee, currently detained in Ofer, provided a sworn affidavit to Addameer that soldiers were intending to kill him during his arrest (see Case Study 1 below). The abuses to which detainees are exposed include beating with clubs and fists, being severely kicked as well as verbal abuse and threats. Addameer has received a sworn affidavit from one detainee who was subject to attempted rape during transfer (see Case Study 2 below).
Many detainees were injured during their arrest or suffer from chronic illnesses for which little or no medical attention has been provided (See Case Study 3). Addameer was informed by one detainee who has a leg injury that when he went to the clinic he was given some tablets. After returning to his tent he was about to take the tablet but when he checked the expiry date he discovered that the medicine was two years over its expiry date. He gave the medicine to the Red Cross who informed the administration of the military camp. Following this incident the clinic is now giving detainees medicine in a white box with no expiry dates marked.
The food is not fit for human consumption and is provided in very small quantities. Until 13 May, the detainees were not provided with any hot meals or beverages. Instead, the detainees were given frozen schnitzels, which they had to place in the sun to defrost. They were provided with powdered coffee and tea bags and told to take hot water from the bathroom in order to make drinks. Each 10 prisoners were provided 1-2 cucumbers and a couple of pieces of fruit. A small tub of yoghurt was also given to each 10 prisoners. Detainees who suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes and blood pressure problems were not given any special food, so other detainees gave them their food portions in order to ensure an adequate diet for these sick detainees. Following the 13 May, detainees were provided with hot meals but the quantity and quality of this food is unknown.
The detainees are not provided with clean clothes or adequate cleaning supplies. The clothes of many prisoners remain bloodied from injuries sustained during their arrest. Each section (around 120 detainees) is provided with one bar of soap each day. On Friday and Saturday they are not provided with any soap. Each section has only three showers for the 120 detainees and hot water is not always available.
The detainees are completely isolated from the outside world. They have absolutely no access to books, TV, radio or newspapers and family visits are completely forbidden. The “Israeli” military has refused to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to enter books, clothes and other personal items. There is no electricity available for the detainees and movement is forbidden within a section following nightfall.
Lawyers attempting to represent the
detainees are faced with severe restrictions on their movement and access to
their clients. Detainees are brought to meet their lawyers with their hands
tied and sometimes their eyes blindfolded. They face trial in a military court,
which is presided over by a military judge and is often held in the middle of
the night. These trials take place on the basis of “secret evidence” which
neither the detainee or their lawyer has access to. The detainees often face
this court with no legal representation because lawyers were not permitted into
the court or informed of the trial. Some lawyers have been forced to wait
outside the military camp for hours and were allowed in only when the trial has
been completed. Because of these illegal restrictions on lawyers, and due to
the fact that lawyers have been exposed to invasive body searches before
entering the court, lawyers from Palestinian human rights organizations and the
Palestinian Bar Association are discussing steps including the option of
boycotting “Israeli” military courts until they are allowed free access to
their clients in accordance with international law.
Detainees are given administrative detention (a 3-6 month period of detention without charge or fair trial) on the basis of a so-called “secret file” presented to the military judge by the “Israeli” General Intelligence Service (Shin Bet). Detainees are kept in limbo for weeks following their interrogation while they wait for a military court to pass a sentence on them. According to “Israeli” law, administrative detainees are supposed to have access to books, radio, clothes, weekly family visits and other rights which are not provided to them by the Ofer military administration.
On 12 April, the “Israeli” government re-opened Ketziot, a notorious prison camp in the Negev desert. This prison was used during the first Intifada and was renowned for its inhuman conditions. Fifty-six prisoners from Megiddo Prison were transferred to Ketziot following its re-opening. In addition, hundreds of detainees from “Israeli” detention camps who have received administrative detention orders have also been transferred there in recent weeks. Currently around 500 detainees are incarcerated in Ketziot of which 300 have been given administrative detention orders. It should be noted that in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids transfer of prisoners outside occupied territories, Ketziot is located outside the West Bank. Some of the severe violations that detainees in Ketziot face are as follows:
Prisoners are kept in old tents and are forced to sleep on thin sponge-mattresses only a few centimeters thick.
For the first two weeks following the opening of Ketziot, there was no hot food or kitchen available for detainees and, as in Ofer, they were provided with frozen food of poor quality and small quantity. Detainees in Ketziot are provided with one bar of soap each week for 20 detainees. There is no other cleaning equipment available to the detainees.
Several detainees in Ketziot have serious medical conditions and are not provided with adequate medical services or medications. Detainees report that when they go to the clinic they are not given medicines and doctors are sometimes several days late in visiting patients. One detainee, B., told Addameer that he fell unconscious and it took four hours before he received medical attention.
As with all “Israeli” detention camps and
prisons, detainees are not permitted family visits.
Addameer stresses that the current situation facing detainees and their lawyers is the most grave witnessed since the beginning of the Intifada. These detainees are being held as hostages to the political process in the most degrading and inhuman conditions. “Israeli” practices towards Palestinian detainees violate a myriad of international human rights norms and resolutions. Addameer calls upon all international organizations and concerned individuals to demand the unconditional and immediate release of all Palestinian political detainees. Addameer also calls on the ICRC to ensure that the “Israeli” government allows it to fulfill its mandate in protecting detainees.
Case
Study 1: Detainee G., Sworn Affidavit
given to Addameer lawyer on 12 May, 2002 at Ofer Detention Camp
I was arrested from my house on 4 April, 2002 at approximately 11am. The soldiers acted well and took me to the Luluat Al Manara Buiding in Ramallah. There, they took me to the ground floor and kept me there until 8:30pm. The whole time I was alone with the soldiers. Two soldiers then came and untied my hands and wanted to give me food and cigarettes.
At around 12pm, they tied my hands and blindfolded me. I heard one of the soldiers ask, “What’s his status?” and the answer, “There is blood on his hands.” One of them beat me on my left leg with a club. I felt as though my leg had broken and I started screaming and he began to beat me heavily with the club. After that the soldier left.
After approximately 10 minutes, they began to hit me again. They repeated this around seven or eight times. Then one soldier arrived and began to strangle me with an old sheet while the other soldiers kicked me all over my body especially in the chest and the kidney area. They did this 4 or 5 times, and one time I passed out. When they hit me on the head I gained consciousness again.
At one point another soldier came, he seemed new, and he asked the soldiers why they were beating me. They replied “He has blood on his hands.” This soldier began to beat me hysterically and loaded a gun that he was carrying and pointed it at my head. One of the soldiers yelled, “Don’t do it” and dragged him away with force. Then the soldier hit me on the head with the gun. He repeated this sequence several times.
I was kept in this situation until approximately 8:15pm. I heard one of the soldiers say they had found many people in another building and a large number of soldiers left and a small number remained with me.
I heard one of them say, “How about we kill him?” Another soldier replied, “It’s better if we smash his skull and we should make sure that the nurse is here.”
At this moment a bus arrived and soldiers
took me to the bus before they could kill me. The soldiers had to carry me so
that I could get into the bus. The bus took me to Ofer Detention Camp next to
Beitunia. This is what happened to me when I was arrested.
A. had been sentenced to 9 months imprisonment and was incarcerated in Nafha prison. On 28 April he was brought to Ofer Military Camp because he had an appeal court in the nearby Beit El settlement. He arrived at 10pm and an officer and policeman took him behind a caravan. The police officer was wearing gloves and he asked me to take off my pants. He was shouting, “I will do you”. I refused to let him take off my pants. So the officer told me to take off my pants and T-shirt. He tied my hands with handcuffs behind my back and asked the police man to go. He put Vaseline on the gloves and he tried to take off my pants. I started to shout. He started to beat and hit me severely. I fell on the ground. Another officer came and the officer who tried to rape me claimed that I attacked him. I told the other officer what happened. The officer asked me not to talk about what happened. My hand was broken from the beatings and the kicking and I received a medical report. There are bruises on my body and back. I told the Red Cross who made a report. The next day the deputy head of Ofer Military Camp came and told me there was an investigation and a committee to investigate the case.
I was arrested on 31 March on Sunday from Ramallah near the Cairo Amman Bank at 11am. As I came down from the Taboun building I was wounded by “Israeli” snipers who were nearby. I was hit in the kidney area on the left side of my body with a 250-bullet. For 2 to 3 hours I was lying on the ground bleeding. Some of the people with me called an ambulance but it couldn’t reach me because the whole place was filled with tanks. The people with me carried me to a nearby house. An hour later, “Israeli” soldiers came into the house to search it. They took me in an armored personnel carrier (APC) and they severely beat the owners of the house. They even beat the women, girls and children.
After they put me in the APC I was transferred to Beit El Settlement from there they transferred me to Hadassah Hospital in an ambulance. I’m not sure what time it was. They put me in an emergency section with “Israelis” who were injured in a suicide bombing. I was still in my police uniform. In the hospital I was attacked by settlers who beat me. It took one hour for the hospital security to come and rescue me from them. I lost consciousness and I think I stayed in coma for around 48 hours.
When I gained consciousness I found my hands and legs had been cuffed. In the hospital I stayed in this situation for four days with my hands and legs cuffed to the bed. After that I was transferred to Ofer Military Detention Camp and was kept for two days still cuffed and my eyes blindfolded. They did not give me any food or drink in this time.
After that they moved me to a military hangar that was used to store vehicles. My injury was still bleeding and it took four days before a doctor came to change the bandages. The conditions inside the hangar were unsanitary so they moved me outside and the doctor started changing the bandages without cleaning or examining the injury. Later, my wound opened and it took them ten days before they replaced the stitches. All that time they gave me no medicine except for painkillers. No special food was provided for me, and I received no milk or hot meals. I spent the time sleeping on a wooden board without a mattress and only two blankets. At that time the weather was raining and very cold and this made my wound hurt severely. At Ofer I was kept 27 days in the same clothes that I had been brought in from the hospital. I wasn’t allowed to shower or clean my wound and my clothes were soaked with blood. After 19 days in Ofer I was told that I would be released. They called me for interrogation and I was interrogated for 2 days. During the interrogation they beat me on my wound, which caused severe pain and opened the wound again. They stitched it again. During interrogation they beat me all the time on my wound and tried to get information from me concerning two soldiers who were killed in Ramallah at the beginning of the Intifada even though I was serving in Jericho at that time. Then they tried to pressure me while beating me on my injury to work for them and become a collaborator. After 48 hours interrogation they brought me back to the hangar. Eight days after the interrogation they released me. They brought me to the Ram area at 12 noon. I got to Qalandya checkpoint where they had informed the soldiers that I was coming. They kept me at the checkpoint until 2am the next morning while my physical condition was very bad. Finally I arrived at Ramallah and was treated in Ramallah hospital.
On 29 August 2002, two Palestinian detainees were severely beaten by 5 “Israeli” soldiers at the military occupation court of Beit El, located in Beit El settlement North of Ramallah. The two detainees attacked were Omar Abu Sneineh (21), arrested on June 26 during the last military invasion of Hebron, and Ussama Salahat, from the Bethlehem area.
Both detainees have been held in detention since their arrest waiting to be
charged; Abu Sneineh was being held at Asqalan prison (renown for its brutal
interrogation center) and Salahat was being held at the Ofer military detention
camp.
On the day of their military court hearing, the detainees had their hands and legs bound and were escorted by 5 “Israeli” soldiers to Beit El. When detainee Abu Sneineh tried to get closer to the fence separating detainees from their families, who have been prevented from seeing their relatives since their arrests [1], a soldier struck him with the butt of his rifle in the neck, causing him to fall to the ground. The second detainee was then pushed to the ground while the soldiers began pummeling both chained prisoners to the extent that one of the soldier’s guns was broken. All this took place in full view of the detainees’ families, lawyers and court officials.
After more than half an hour, a military ambulance arrived on the scene to attend to the two shackled detainees who had been left to bleed on the ground. Abu Sneineh was taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem by a civil ambulance, while Salahat was sent back to Ofer detention camp, whose clinic is infamous for offering only aspirin for all medical problems.
Witnesses to the beating also reported seeing one of the soldiers who had participated in the beating, and had done so in the most enthusiastic manner, later carried out by another ambulance following a meeting between the military judge and the officer responsible for transferring detainees. Addameer has probable reason to suspect that the soldiers’ evacuation by ambulance was nothing less than sheer paegentry designed to enable the use of an “Israeli” self-defense plea, thus eliminating all chances for any prosecution of the guilty parties.
Fearing for the lives of their clients, lawyers of Palestinian detainees with court hearings in Beit El refused to participate in any military court hearings for the rest of the day. The lawyers argued that the court magistrates are responsible for the security of the detainees and that the court is negelgent and/ or complicitous in security breaches against their clients. The court, however, shrugged off this responsibility.
A complaint was immediately lodged in the names of Omar Abu Sneineh and Ussama Salahat with the Military Police in Jerusalem. Soon after the filing of the complaint, however, an additional complaint was lodged against the two detainees introduced by the “in-patient” soldier.
Addameer’s experience in similar cases of abuse and maltreatment of detainees during their transfer, including the well-known case of the Bus 300 affair where two Palestinian detainees were killed in custody, justifies grave concerns for the well-being of Palestinian detainees and the complicity of the “Israeli” legal system in covering up these abuses.
We call upon all people of conscience to raise awareness within their communities concerning the grave conditions and the threats to personal security of Palestinian detainees and the negligence and complicity of the “Israeli” occupation’s military system.
This press release is based on sworn affidavits.
[1] family visits to Palestinian detainees
have been prevented since September 2000.
Appearances before military courts are the only way in which families
may see from afar their detained relatives.
M, a 16 year old Palestinian girl, was arrested on her way to school on 13 June 2002 at 8 am and taken by “Israeli” soldier to the military base at Ein Etzion. She was made to wait outside in the sun, with her hands cuffed, without water or food until 2pm. She was then brought to the Etzion police station and interrogated by a single policeman.
At 2:30 pm, she was offered food but refused to eat it, being too frightened to eat. She was then forced to sign a statement saying that she had refused to eat. At that point, she was prepared to sign anything in order to be released.
Under these constraints and fears, aware of what treatment the soldier can inflict upon arrested Palestinian, she signed a document written in Hebrew containing confessions used by the prosecutor in her case.
The next day, M was moved to Al’Ramla prison were all Palestinian women and girls (47 including, 2 minors) are detained with “Israeli” criminal prisoners and only separated from them by a fence.
From the first day of her arrest, her lawyer, provided by Addameer, attempted several times to visit her at the detention center. The first time, after having to go through an extensive body search, the authorities told the lawyer that it was too late for visits. Two days later, he tried again and after waiting for many hours, was told that she was at court. However, due to the absence of the legal counsel, the hearing was postponed for 4 days.
On 20 June, M was brought before a judge once more. Her detention was extended for an additional 5 days and she was to be brought before the court again on 25 June. Her lawyer was able to visit her during these 5 days
On the 25 June, the police decided not to take her to her court hearing, and she remained in her cell.
The lawyer reacted immediately against this legal failure and the police agreed by phone to release her. Everything had been arranged with the ICRC for her release as the lawyer was told she would be released around midnight. The entire West Bank at that time was under strict curfew and the police wanted to drop her at a checkpoint. The arrangements made with the ICRC was that they would wait for her at the checkpoint, find her a safe place to spend the night and bring her home the next day. All this was cancelled when the police called again saying they would release her only the next morning for security reason.
But the next morning, instead of releasing her, she was brought to a judge who renewed her detention yet again. Between 25 – 26 June, M was being detained illegally. In 2 hearings, without informing the lawyer in advance, they read the list of charges against her and decided on her detention until the end of the trial.
On the 25 June, M’s father was at the court. He hadn’t seen his daughter since her arrest. Upon the lawyer’s insistence, he was only allowed to shake her hand without saying a word to her.
Another hearing took place on August 11 in the presence of an American lawyers delegation. Their presence made it possible for the mother to hug her crying daughter for a few seconds.
On 22 September, M was again brought before the court without her lawyer being informed. The hearing was again cancelled due to the lack of legal counsel
On the 13 October, Addameer received a phone call from Ofer’s military court saying that M was there and that they were waiting for the lawyer. Not informed in advance, the lawyer was busy in another court and impossible to reach. However they wrote in the protocol of the court that he was informed of the hearing in advance. The lawyer submitted an official complaint against this.
The military prosecutor requested over 3 years
of imprisonment in regards to M’s case.
The next hearing is scheduled to take place on 6 November. Great pressure is being placed on the lawyer
to shorten the period of his plea, disregarding the life of this young
girl. Her charges are based on illegal
confessions, and the requested sentencing does not take into consideration her
status as a child, in contravention of the Convention of the Rights of the
Child.
Conditions of detention
As is the case for all Palestinian minors in “Israeli” jails, M is detained together with adults. She is usually placed in a cell with another detained minor but this often changes. The wardens can come at any time, often in the middle of the night, and take detainees to other cells. She is only allowed outside the cell for half an hour a day, in a bird-cage-like wired yard of around 50 meters square.
She is denied any access to education, and is not offered any items of entertainment.
In addition to the violation of the International rights of the child inflicted upon all Palestinian minors, she is facing the same harsh detention conditions as other Palestinian women: no family visits, no contact with the outside world except expired newspapers, no adequate health care, current humiliations and ill-treatments, etc.
To address the issue of the abuse of their basic human rights, female detainees began a hunger strike in August for 15 days, drinking only lightly sugared water throughout this period. The response of the prison authorities was harsh, with M being placed in solitary confinement for a period of 3 days.
The American delegation of lawyers who were present in one of her hearings, were extremely shocked by M’s conditions of detention and have begun a campaign for her release.
The Imprisoned Palestinian National Movement in the “Israeli” Occupation Prisons calls upon all Arab and Palestinian prisoners to boycott “Israeli” courts refusing to recognize their legitimacy.
They also call upon all concerned organizations and citizens to implement actions to support them.
All the prisoners representative committees from all prisons and detention centers form the Imprisoned Palestinian National Movement in the “Israeli” Occupation Prisons. These committees have in charge to defend the prisoners’ demands before the prison administrations and to coordinate the prisoners’ actions if demands are not fulfilled. The representatives are elected by the prisoners.
In accordance with the Imprisoned National Movement, Marwan Barghouti was the first to act: he refused to stand up in court and closed his ears.
Tens of prisoners, approximately 30 at this time, have done the same: several refused to stand up during their hearings at the military court, others handed to the judge a letter explaining their position.
Prisoners have been threatened with an additional 2 years sentence for offences against the court. All pending hearings have been delayed and the follow-up actions are unknown as of yet.
Widespread support of this action is extremely important at this time as it is the beginning of a coordinated position against arbitrary and illegal procedures against Palestinian detainees. A first solidarity demonstration took place today, on the occasion of Marwan Barghouti’s trial, in the centre of Ramallah. Another solidarity demonstration is scheduled on Saturday at 7pm, also in the central Manara area of Ramallah.
In order to keep the prisoners informed of activities and to centrralise support, please inform Addameer of any follow up activities you will take at:
ADDAMEER – Prisoners support and human
rights association, Office : Alesra’Building, Ramallah, Mail : PO Box 17338,
Jerusalem, Ph : +972 2 296 04 46, Fax : +972 2 296 04 47, Addameer@planet.edu
In The Name of God
A
press release from The Imprisoned Palestinian National Movement in The
“Israeli” Occupation Prisons -
Announcement Number 1
We, the imprisoned Palestinian National Movement in “Israeli” occupation prisons announce our absolute objection to the indictments presented against us, as well as to the simulated trials that “Israel” practices against more than 8000 Palestinian prisoners. These trials aim to criminalize our national struggle and our right to resist the “Israeli” occupation, and to portray and treat us as terrorists. We also declare that we consider these arrests, investigations, and indictments illegal due to the illegality of occupation law in the first place. Our position on this is consistent with the Fourth Geneva Convention, according to which we should be considered prisoners of war who must not be interrogated or brought to trial, particularly those who are political leaders and elected officials.
Accordingly, as prisoners of war, we declare that we boycott all trials conducted by the occupation forces and call upon each prisoner to abide by this declaration, requesting lawyers of detainees to announce this decision before each court appearance.
We also ask the following:
1) We call upon all the political, representative, and leading bodies in the Palestinian society to support our position by communicating with Arab and International organizations in order to coordinate an effort to hold a Security Council meeting to discuss the legal, political and human aspects of the prisoners issue.
2) We call upon the Arab Lawyers Organization and the Human Rights Committee to publish a clear announcement regarding this issue, and to take all necessary steps to support us.
3) We ask the International Red Cross to announce clearly their position towards the “Israeli” occupation’s mass arrests and trials, particularly in the case of administrative detention and the arrest of minors, in addition to the continued prevention of family visits to Palestinian detainees for the past two years.
The occupation is terrorism. The occupation army, which commits crimes against humanity everyday, and the army’s political and military symbols are those who should be brought to justice. Our struggle is both legal and legitimate according to the right of a nation to self-determination, through which we can fulfill our national right to establish our independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Our people struggles to live in peace and security like every other nation in the world. We want peace and freedom; we do not want destruction and war.
A
message from the Prisoners of freedom to those who demonstrate this evening in
solidarity with Palestinian prisoners:
We, the sons of the Imprisoned Palestinian Movement in the “Israeli” occupation prisons send you the deepest and sincerest greetings, gratitude and appreciation for your actions to support us. Particularly at this time, when we are suffering the worst forms of humiliation and horror inflicted by the prison guards of the “Israeli” Minister of Defence, Uzi Landau, and the “Israeli” Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, the renown butcher of our people in Qabia, Sabra, Chatila, Jenin, Gaza…
From our pain and our suffering as a result of the plight of our people, whether in “Israeli” occupation prisons or in the larger prisons that have become our cities and villages, we call on you, the knights of the Intifada, to fulfill your responsibilities, first before God, and second before history.
To fulfill your responsibilities to your imprisoned sisters, brothers and children in Nafha, Askelan, Ansar, Al’Ramle, Hadoriym, Beer Sheva, Naqab, Megiddo;
To fulfill your responsibility to your daughters and sons in Telmond.
To do everything in your effort to free all detainees as one of the first priorities of our Intifada.
This Intifada, that would not be were it not for the blood shed by those who have been martyred, nor those thousands who have been injured, or the struggle of the prisoners and their mothers.
We prisoners long for the day of our release, when we can join the caravans of lions in the march for freedom and independence.
We promise you that we will continue in our path of struggle until the Zionist colonizer relinquishes our land.
The Imprisoned Sisters and Brothers of Freedom in the Zionist occupation prisons.
On 3 October 2002, the Palestinian detainee Moamar Mohamad Jomaa Jamous from Nablus, was severely beaten by “Israeli” soldiers. In a sworn affidavit, Jamous stated that:
“On 3 October, I was on the “Israeli” prison administration bus that was transferring Palestinian detainees from Ofer Detention Camp to the Negev Desert Prison. When the bus reached the prison’s sectretariat, I tried to light a cigarette inside the bus. It is understook that detainees are forbidden from smoking throughout the transfer trip, which may extend to five hours, but are allowed to smoke when they reach the prison borders. One of the soldiers said to me “If you are a man, just light your cigarette.” So I did, and then the same soldier told me to put it out. I refused to. The soldier then raised his M16 at me and brutally pushed me out of the bus. As soon as I fell out of the bus, he shoved me down to the ground, and two other soldiers started to beat me. One of the soldiers hit my head with the butt of his rifle. I was also hit along my front, my head and my chest.”
It is important to note that the detainee was beaten while he was handcuffed, and so was unable to protect himself from the blows he received.
Jamous went on to state that “they stopped beating me because another detainee intervened and started shouting to try and stop this aggressive act. After they stopped, they quickly took me to the prison’s medical clinic, where the doctors stitched my head, gave me a medical report, and then sent me to the prisoner’s section.”
Palestinian
Women in Detention
The “Israeli” occupation forces continuously violate
international human rights standards through their practices in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV), in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which stipulates
the treatment of civilians in times of war. In the case
of arrest and detention, “Israel” has violated numerous protocols, in particular the transfer of prisoners from the
occupied land to prisons of the occupying army, the use of torture, arbitrary detention, and the constant humiliation of
detainees.
Women detainees, like male detainees, are being exposed to extremely harsh conditions within “Israeli” prisons and detention centers. Detainees are tortured and oppressed by their jailers, and deprived from their basic rights as detainees, rights that are enshrined in international laws and treaties.
Prior to the start of the current Intifada
in September 2000, there were not more than five Palestinian female detainees
within “Israeli” prisons. Since the
beginning of this Intifada, that number has risen dramatically to 47 female
detainees, including at least 4 who are juveniles ranging from the age of 14 –
17 years old.
During the present Intifada, Palestinian women are placed in administrative detention in a way that was not evidenced in the previous Intifada. Two women, for example, Tahany Ahmad Issa Altiti (23 year’s old) from Al-Aroub refugee camp and Intesar Al-Ajory (28 year’s old) from Askar refugee camp, were issued administrative detention orders for six months.
Palestinian women in detention are continuously confronted by substandard conditions of detention and humiliation by the “Israeli” authorities, including isolation, strip searches, forbidden medical treatment, prohibited family visits, or allowed to go outside of their prison cells for daily walks. Many of those detained are mothers, with their children left with family members to care for them.
In particular, women in Al-Ramla are humiliated daily, forced to strip search in front of prison guards whilst handcuffed, placed among “Israeli” criminal prisoners who are being held for such crimes as murder, robbery, drug use and prostitution. This situation creates serious tensions amongst detainees, as they should be afforded special status as political prisoners, separated from criminals, and afforded adequate standards of detention.
Food is usually distributed first to “Israeli” prisoners, with Palestinian detainees offered their remaining food.
Because of the Palestinian detainee’s insistence to organize themselves within the prison, the prison administration has often punished their activities. For example, Palestinian women detainees were accused of conducting military exercises while they were having aerobics classes.
At the end of July 2002, Palestinian women detainees began a hunger strike in protest of the ill treatment they had faced. The strike began when a water pipe in the prison was damaged, leaking water into one of the cells and the passageway connecting cells, causing the area to flood and a strong stench to ensue and creating an unhygienic environment in the prison. The prison authorities did nothing to repair the problem after detainees complained. Detainees began shouting at the guards, to which the guards responding by firing tear gas canisters inside their cells, and sealing the entire section until the morning. The next morning, “Israeli” soldiers attacked the section holding the detainees, a number of the detainees were transferred from Ramla prison to Al-Jalama and Al-Maskobia interrogation centers, and others were transferred to other prisons. The remaining detainees were placed in solitary confinement as a punishment for asking for their basic rights.
What happened in Al-Ramla prison evoked the anger of all Palestinians in detention centers an prisons. In protest and solidarity with the women prisoners, other detainees in a number of prisons also began a hunger strike, protesting the attacks by the prison administration.
Although the situation of Palestinian female detainees is tragic, they continue to endure and resist under extremely harsh circumstances, playing a large role in the epic of patience and refusal to submit to injustice, an epic that has been playing itself out in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for over 50 years (Good Freudian Slip. More than fifty years of occupation is exactly right – FAV).
As of 23 October 2002, there are approximately 1050 Palestinians being held under administrative detention orders in “Israeli” prisons and detention centers. Administrative detainees are held primarily in both Ofer Military camp in the southern region of Ramallah, and Ketziot (Ansar 3) Prison in the Negev Desert. Administrative detention orders continue to be renewed on a regular basis. In the current renewal process taking place this month, approximately 40% of those in administrative detention have received orders renewing their detention for an extended period of time. It is important to note, however, that although others have been released during this period, new detainees are taking their place as the “Israeli” authorities continue to conduct arrest campaigns throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV).
The “Israeli” authorities have arrested approximately 15000 Palestinians since September 2000. There are approximately 4000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners currently in “Israeli” prisons and detention centers. The breakdown is as follows:
|
“Israeli” prisons, detention and interrogation centers |
Number of Palestinian detainees |
Remarks |
|
Ofer Military Camp |
500 |
--includes 100-150 administrative detainees --tents and hangars --under military administration |
|
Ketziot (Ansar 3) Negev Desert |
1050 |
-includes 850 administrative detainees -includes 200 sentenced detainees -tents -military administration |
|
Megiddo |
1100 |
- no administrative detainees (transferred to Ketziot) -tents and cells -military administration |
|
Shatta |
138 |
-”Israeli” prison authorities |
|
Nafha |
660 |
-”Israeli” prison authorities |
|
Telmond |
70 |
-only minors under 18 -”Israeli” prisons authorities |
|
Hadoriym |
88 |
-”Israeli” prisons authorities |
|
Kfar Yuna |
1 |
-”Israeli” prisons authorities -Lebanese detainee |
|
Neve Tritze |
47 |
-”Israeli” prisons authorities -only women |
|
Askelan |
600 |
-”Israeli” prisons authorities |
|
Ramle Hospital |
25 |
-”Israeli” prisons authorities |
|
Ephraim Detention Center |
34 |
-collection and dispatching center, including a police
station -military administration -lot of movement |
|
Etzion Detention Center |
17 |
Idem |
|
Erez Detention Center |
21 |
Idem |
|
Al Majnouneh Detention Center |
11 |
Idem |
|
Beit El Detention Center |
22 |
Idem |
|
Muscobiyeh Interrogation Center |
25-30 |
-theoretically under police control for the detention purposes,
but under Shabak’s (*) control in cases of interrogation (**) (ambiguous) |
|
Askelan Interrogation Center |
20 |
Idem |
|
Petakh Tikva Interrogation Center |
15 |
Idem |
|
Al Jalame Interrogation Center |
20 |
Idem |
|
Huwwarah Interrogation Center |
-- |
Idem |
· Shabak is the “Israeli” secret service
** A
signed confession has to be a police document to be used in a court, the Shabak
prepares the secret files used for administrative detention.
According to a recently released detainee, the following is a description of the general living conditions at Ketziot (Ansar 3) prison in the Negev Desert, where the majority of administrative detainees are being held.
The prison is divided into four sections, section A, B, C and D. Each section consists of four units, each of which consists of three prisoners’ tents. Each of the prison tents holds approximately 20-22 detainees, with a total of 60-66 detainees being held in each of the 4 units within a section. However, this number increases irregularly as new detainees are brought in and as many as 70 detainees have been in a tent at one particular time. On 16 October 2002, a new half section was added to the prison.
The prison tents which shelter detainees are those that existed when the prison was in use in 1988 during the first Intifada. The tents themselves are in extremely poor condition, with thinning material and holes. The prison tents are approximately 3 meters wide and 5.5 meters long. On 20 October 2002, additional used tents were brought in from a military camp by the prison administration and placed on top of the tents, with an additional thin layer of plastic atop the newer tents. However, during the coming winter months, this will be insufficient shelter to protect detainees from the harsh desert weather.
Each detainee is given a wooden shipping plank and a thin outdoor mattress to sleep on. The wooden planks are approximately 60 cm wide and 1.60 meters long, with gaps every 5 cm along the length of the plank. The plank is raised approximately 7 cm from the ground. The outdoor mattress is approximately 2 cm thick.
Each detainee is given three thin blankets. However, the blankets are often not long enough to cover the length of the detainee, and as there are no pillows given by the military prison administration, one of the blankets is usually folded up and used as a pillow.
The area of the tent itself can accommodate
approximately 18 planks laid side by side in two rows. Therefore, additional planks are placed
within areas used as walkways in order to fit as many planks as possible within
the space.
Previously, there were no electrical facilities available for the prison tents. Detainees filed a petition in the “Israeli” High Court of Justice regarding this issue, in addition to other pressing issues. The high court ruled that the military prison administration was to review the possibility of electrical facilities, as the administration of Ketziot prison is under military rule as opposed to the Prison Administration. Approximately a month and a half ago, the military prison administration allowed 220 V electrical cords to be placed in each of the tents. However, the time of use is restricted from 11 pm in the evening until 6 am, and discontinuing electrical supply has been used frequently as a punitive measure by the military administration. The first television was allowed in three weeks ago, with one television available to each of the four sections.
A head count of detainees is conducted three times a day, at 8 am, 2 pm and 7 pm. Detainees are told to exit their prison tents and made to sit in rows on the ground in the prison courtyard. A large force of armed soldiers administers the counting, with detainees made to shout out their assigned numbers whilst rifles are pointed in their direction. Head counts can take anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour, throughout which detainees are made to sit outside in the desert heat. Detainees are currently trying to negotiate with the administration to conduct headcounts within the prison tents, particularly as the winter months are approaching.
For each of the four units, one toilet facility made up of three makeshift toilets is available for over 60 detainees each. The toilet consists of an open dug out channel and one of the toilet areas includes a shower. Outside of the toilet area, there are 12 water faucets, which are also for laundry. Detainees are free to use the toilet at any time, but the conditions of the area are extremely unsanitary. One 1 liter bottle of Chlorine is given to each unit every 20 days for cleaning purposes.
The military prison authority provides one bar of soap for every ten detainees, in addition to toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a shaving razor that is returned and replaced once a week. Detainees are not given a change of clothing and remain in the clothes they were wearing when they were arrested. Lawyers have been prevented from bringing any personal effects for detainees from family members.
The military prison authority provides detainees with basic food rations once a month. The provided rations do not meet necessary daily requirement, both in terms of quality and nutritional value. For example, one bag of sliced bread was allowed for 12 detainees (this ration has now been changed to one bag per 4 detainees, after much protest from detainees), 1 small container of yoghurt was allowed for 8 detainees, and, very rarely, limited fresh fruits and vegetables. No sweets are provided. Special dietary needs are also not considered by the military authorities. There are 56 detainees who require special meals due to previous conditions, including ulcers, diabetes, lactose intolerance, etc.
Detainees are responsible for cooking their
own food (see below), and each detainee is given a metal food tray and plastic
spoon for food distribution. Steel
spoons have been forbidden for security reasons and it is extremely difficult
to replace broken plastic spoons. There are no burners provided for boiling
water in the prison tents, and detainees have often resorted to taking apart
parts of their plank beds, clothing, etc. to make small fires for heating
water.
Eating times are set by the military guards,
as food must be distributed under military escort. Often, if there are not enough soldiers to do this, meals are delayed
for extended periods of time until more soldiers are available. Detainees are
forced to eat in the prison tents, on their beds, as there is no designated
eating area.
One kitchen tent is designated for the entire prison, with 14 detainees assigned to cooking duty. Detainees are not allowed to move freely within the tent as they are under constant military supervision. Old pots and pans (left over from the period when the prison was last used in 1988) are made available for cooking purposes. Many of them have holes and are rusted. There is a very old gas stove with 8 burners, too few to quickly cook for the entire prison population. The sanitary conditions of the kitchen tent are extremely poor.
There are minimal cooking utensils, other than wooden spoons, etc. and knives and forks are prohibited. It is extremely difficult to obtain hot water from the military authorities, and there are too few burners available to use for both water and food. Condiments and spices available are limited, as a number of items are prohibited (such as sodium bicarbonate) for security reasons.
Random searches take place from time to time. Detainees are forced to come out of their tents and wait outside as soldiers conduct their searches. Detainees have refused body searches, so are scanned with a metal detector before being allowed to reenter their tent.
There are approximately 60 detainees being held at Ketziot prison who require medical attention that has, as of yet, not been provided to them. Many of those who require medical attention were arrested during the “Israeli” invasions in April 2002 and sustained injuries during raids and mass arrest campaigns.
There is a makeshift medical clinic in the
prison, comprising of the passenger cabin of an old “Israeli” military jeep,
which offers general first aid care.
However, detainees who have reported medical conditions have rarely
received the necessary treatment.
Detainees, until recently, have been transported to and from Ketziot to the military court at Erez to appear before the military judge for a review of their administrative detention orders. The buses leave from Ketziot at 6 am, with detainees handcuffed and their legs bound, to travel the 3 hour distance to Erez. Detainees have reported being beaten by “Israeli” soldiers whilst on route to Erez. During the waiting period between the military tribunals, detainees are placed in a small isolation room. Often, the hearing of all detainees is not completed until 12 am, after which they are then handcuffed and legs bound again for the 3 hour journey back to Ketziot.
As of 20 October 2002, all military court
proceedings take place at Ketziot detention center, and lawyers, if they are
informed in time, must travel approximately 5 hours from the central West Bank
to the detention center to be present during the tribunal.
Since the re-opening of the Ketziot detention center, family visits to detainees have been systematically denied. During this past week, military prison authorities informed detainees that family visits were allowed, but they must be coordinated with the ICRC and a permit obtained from the “Israeli” District Command Office. Without this coordination, visits are prohibited, including family members who hold Jerusalem identity cards and do not require travel permits to reach the detention centers.
However, family members have reported to Addameer that the ICRC has refused to accept new restrictions placed on coordinating family visits and is currently negotiating with the “Israeli” prisons authorities. The restrictions placed on visits, in addition to the usual problems of family visits, include the following:
1. Any visitor must have a full body search before entering the detention center;
2. All ICRC buses that transport family members must have an “Israeli” military escort from the point of departure to the detention center and back to the point of origin;
3. All passengers on ICRC buses must get off the bus at any “Israeli” checkpoint and walk across the checkpoint, regardless of the fact that they hold valid permits;
There is no further information on the
ongoing negotiations between the ICRC and the “Israeli” military
authorities. No family visits to
Ketziot have as of yet taken place.
Appendix
8: Torture during Interrogation and
arbitrary arrest – Press Release, 8 November 2002
Palestinian Detainee ends 10 day hunger
strike in protest of conditions of detention and torture
Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association is concerned for the
safety and well being of Palestinian detainee ‘Adel Jamil Al Hidmeh, who today
ended a ten day hunger strike in protest of his conditions of detention and the
inhumane treatment he was subject to while under interrogation by the “Israeli”
General Security Services (GSS). ‘Adel began his hunger strike on
30 October 2002 in the Netzan section of Ramle Prison, protesting his illegal
detention in a prison cell amongst criminal prisoners where he was being
physically threatened by his cellmate. This followed a period of 29 days in
interrogation at the Russian Compound (Muscobiyeh) Interrogation Center, where
he was tortured by interrogators from the GSS, and then issued a 6-month
administrative detention order. On 8 November 2002, ‘Adel’s attorney
Mohammad Na’amneh was informed that the “Israeli” State Attorney and the GSS
submitted a letter to the “Israeli” Minister of Defence to transfer ‘Adel to a
different prison. ‘Adel ended his hunger strike when he was informed of
the decision for transfer. However, his health remains weak following 10 days
of hunger strike and the effects of the physical torture he was subjected to
during his interrogation.
’Adel Jamil Al Hidmeh, a 41 year old Jerusalemite, was arrested by “Israeli”
special forces from his home in Wadi Al Joze on 25 September 2002 at 11
p.m. Special forces units arrived at his home after spending an hour
conducting house-to-house searches within his neighborhood. ‘Adel was
arrested at the door of his house, handcuffed and blindfolded while still in
his pajamas, and then transported directly to the Russian Compound (Muscobiyeh)
Interrogation Center in Jerusalem, where he was immediately interrogated.
On 26 September 2002, after his detention was renewed for 10 days, ‘Adel was
informed by his interrogators that they had obtained permission from the
Director of the GSS to use “all means of torture during his interrogation
because he had been classified as a ‘ticking bomb’” and that the decision was
based on the “submission of
secret evidence they had received in his case”.
For the first five days of his interrogation, ‘Adel was interrogated in 8-10
hour sessions, with a break during lunch time for no longer than half an hour,
and in the mornings for approximately 1 ˝ to 2 hours. Throughout his
interrogation, ‘Adel was prevented from sleeping, punched and slapped
forcefully on the face, hands cuffed and placed in front of his body. He
was forced to lie on the floor, placing his legs across the seat of a chair and
through the back of the chair, with his legs shackled to the side of the seat
back for several hours at a time. He was forced to squat (‘gambaz’) with
his hands cuffed behind his back for several consecutive hours. He
was also made to sit on a chair with his hands shackled and raised behind the
back of the seat and placed on a table behind him for 8 hours. On other
occasions, his interrogators shackled his arms just below his elbows and
squeezed the cuffs until the circulation to his lower arms was cut off.
On numerous occasions, ‘Adel would pass out as a result of the strain to his
body, only to be punched and slapped in the face while on the ground and at the
same time being told by his interrogators they would remove the cuffs only when
he would start talking about the accusations against him and work with his
interrogators. At one point, ‘Adel lost the ability to move his
left eye.
For several days after, ‘Adel’s interrogators began to psychologically torture
him, threatening that they would deport him, arrest his wife, seal and demolish
his home, revoke his Jersualem ID card, destroy his academic career at Hebrew
University and that of his other Arab colleagues, then inform them that their
lives had been destroyed because of him. Throughout his interrogation he
was told that he would be placed in administrative detention unless he
confessed to what they wanted. One of the interrogators threatened that
he would personally be responsible for working towards the destruction of his
life and the lives of his wife and children, personally ensuring that his
reputation would be tarnished to the point that he would want to commit
suicide. On another occasion, ‘Adel was informed that his wife had
been arrested and that she was being held in a prison amongst criminals.
He was taken passed a room where his wife was being held in order for him to
believe that she had been arrested. (His wife had been detained on two
occasions during his interrogation, but was not held overnight.)
During the next week, ‘Adel spent a period of five days in interrogation for 22
consecutive hours each day. Following this period, the time of
interrogation was shortened and he was placed in a small holding cell when he
was not being interrogated. On 22 October, he was taken from his cell and
into a waiting area, where several interrogators began to ask him if he knew
what had happened to his brothers, or his wife and children, and whether or not
he knew if his house was still standing, implying that some harm had come to
his family and home. They then took him into a car and drove towards the
old city of Jerusalem, questioning him about the areas they were passing, and
taking pictures of him in the car with them as he tried to cover his face.
‘Adel’s interrogation ended on 23 October 2002.
On 24 October, ‘Adel was taken to the Jerusalem District Court and formally
informed that he had been given an administrative detention order for a period
of 6 months, issued on 22 October 2002. He was then sent back to the Russian
Compound and kept in a small, inhumane cell in which he had difficulty
breathing as a result of poor air circulation and the unhygienic condition of
the cell. He remained in the cell until Sunday 27 October 2002, when he
was transferred to the Netzan section of Ramleh Prison. ‘Adel was placed
in a section of the prison holding criminals and prisoners awaiting trial,
contrary to the stipulated conditions of detention for administrative
detainees, which state that administrative detainees should be held in
protected sections and away from convicted criminals, those awaiting trial, and
habitual drug users.
’Adel was placed in a cell with another individual who claimed that he had just
finished a five-year sentence and was then placed in administrative detention.
This cellmate is a habitual drug user, continuing to take drugs while in the
cell, and has continuously threatened ‘Adel with physical harm. When
‘Adel initially protested to the prison warden that he was being threatened and
requested to be removed from the cell, he was informed that his cell placement
was ordered by the director of the prison and that the order had to be
obeyed. On 29 October 2002, ‘Adel was taken to the Jerusalem District
Court again to confirm his administrative detention order and discuss the
circumstances of his detention. His attorney lodged a complaint during the
session, requesting that his client be transferred as he was being held in a
criminal section of Netzan prison and was being physically threatened by his
cellmate. The court recorded the complaint and the presiding judge
ordered that the prison administration must abide by the regulations of
administrative detention and ensure the appropriate conditions of detention.
Upon returning back to the prison, ‘Adel spoke with one of the prison wardens
to draw his attention to the content of the court’s administrative detention
order and the order that the prison administration must comply with the text of
the law and move him from the criminal section. However, the warden
responded by shackling ‘Adel’s hands, forcefully dragging him from the holding
cell and shoving him back into the cell with the same cellmate.
‘Adel sustained injuries to both his arms and underarms, in addition to his
wrists as a result of tightening of his shackles. He remained shackled in
the room for an hour and a half.
On 30 October 2002, fearing for his life, ‘Adel began a hunger strike in
protest of the prison administration’s refusal to abide by the court’s decision
and their disregard for his safety. On 5 November 2002, Attorney
Mohammad Na’amneh prepared to submit a petition to the “Israeli” High Court of
Justice, but was informed by the Jerusalem District State Attorney that, based
on the complaint made on 29 October, the GSS, in coordination with the General
State Attorney, had submitted a request on 3 November for ‘Adel’s transfer to
another prison, and that the request had gone to the Minister of Defence on 5
November for his approval. On 7 November, ‘Adel’s attorney was informed
by the Jerusalem District Court that his case had been re-examined and that his
place of detention would be changed to a protected section of another prison,
Kfar Yona, and that the transfer would occur once the Minister of Defence
signed the recommendation. However, no date was set for his transfer in the
court decision.
Attorney Na’amneh visited ‘Adel this afternoon in order to inform him of the
decision, after which ‘Adel wrote a letter to the prison administration stating
that he had decided to end his hunger strike based on the court’s decision, and
forwarded the court orders along with the letter.
’Adel Al Hidmeh is the father of two young children, aged 3 and 5, and works in
the harmacology Department of Hebrew University’s Hadassah Ein Kerem
Campus. He has been a student at Hebrew University since 1993, and has a
remaining 3 months to complete a PhD in Pharmacology, which he has been unable
to complete whilst in detention. ‘Adel is one of over
1000 Palestinians whose lives and the lives of their families have been torn
apart as a result of “Israel’s” most recent wave of arbitrary detentions.
Administrative detention is detention without charge or trial, based on
military orders that allow for an individual to be detained for periods of up to
6 months. These orders can be extended indefinitely, with no set maximum time
period stipulated for administrative detention. Detention is based on secret
evidence, which neither the detainee or his/her lawyer are able to view, making
a farce of the judicial process employed to issue such orders in closed
military tribunals. Detainees do not know why they are being detained, nor do
they know how long they will remain in detention.
”Israel’s” use of administrative detention is illegal under international and
humanitarian law, as it does not conform to the restrictions placed on this
form of detention. It has been used against Palestinians over decades as
a form of collective punishment, in many instances to silence politically
active individuals, suppressing the right to freedom of opinion and derogating
the right to liberty and due process. Administrative detainees are not
criminals, as they have not been charged with a crime, and by law their
conditions of detention must reflect their status. This includes being
placed in protected detention centers, away from convicted criminals, and
causing the least disruption to the life of detainees by affording those items
necessary to conduct their lives. However, the over 1000 Palestinians currently
being held in administrative detention are being held in substandard
conditions, including exposure to extreme heat and cold, overcrowding, poor
quality and insufficient food, extremely poor hygiene, inadequate access to
medical treatment and denial of family visits.
The practice of administrative detention is a breach of the prohibition on
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, therefore constituting a violation of
Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture. It is but one method of
torture used by “Israel” against Palestinian detainees. “Israel” remains
one of the only countries in the world to have legalized torture within its
judicial system. Although a decrease in the use of extreme forms of torture was
documented following a1999 “Israeli” Supreme Court decision prohibiting the use
of torture in most cases, a loophole remained within the law that allowed for
the use of torture in particular cases. Since the “Israeli” invasions
into the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 -
FAV) in March 2002, the use of physical and psychological torture against
Palestinians detained in the wave of mass arrest campaigns conducted as part of
“Israeli’s” military operation has particularly increased. Article 2, Paragraph
2 of the Convention against Torture provides that no exceptional circumstances
whatsoever, whether a state of war or threat of war, internal political
instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of
the use of torture. In direct contravention of this basic precept of human
rights law and despite continued resolutions specifically prohibiting and
condemning “Israeli” policy in this regard, “Israel” continues to use
systematic torture against Palestinian detainees with impunity.
Adel Jamil Al Hidmeh’s arbitrary detention and torture is but one painful story
from an ongoing saga of continuous human rights violations that make up the
daily life of every Palestinian living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
(i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV). Everyday, at least one
Palestinian is detained by the “Israeli” occupation forces. Everyday, the
possibility of torture and arbitrary detention, separation from loved ones for
unknown periods of time, is a part of the daily reality for every
Palestinian. It is a phenomenon that has affected every Palestinian
family living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied
in 1967 - FAV). Addameer documents but one aspect of human rights
violations that form a part of the overall systematic collective punishment of
an entire nation in the name of occupation. Until that occupation comes
to an end, and its illegal policies no longer ravaging the lives and hopes of
an entire population, there can be no just basis for negotiations, solutions or
reforms that will have a lasting impact on the region.
For more information on ‘Adel Al Hidmeh’s case, or for further information on
the use of torture and administrative detention, please contact Addameer at addameer@planet.edu.
Ketziot
Military Prison Authorities Endanger the Lives of Palestinian Detainees: Detainees Protest Attack and Continuing
Human Rights Violations
Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association is deeply concerned with the escalating violation of detainees’ rights within “Israeli” prisons and detention centers. In particular, recent events in the Ketziot (Negev) Military Detention Center indicate an intensification of tensions between the military administration and detainees, and are a further affront to the rights of Palestinian detainees being held in the military detention camp.
On Thursday 24 October 2002, the Ketziot military detention camp administration informed three prisoners from Section D/4 that they would be transferred from Ketziot to Nafha Prison, without informing them of the reason for their transfer. The prisoners refused to voluntarily comply with the decision. As a result, the administration of the military camp met to plan a response to their refusal. When it became known that the administration was planning a response, the three prisoners informed the administration, by way of the Prisoner’s Representative, that they would comply with the order so as to avoid collective punishment of all the detainees in the section.
However, despite this, in the early evening of that same day a large force of “Israeli” soldiers, armed with automatic rifles, teargas and sound grenades, surrounded the sections of the detention camp. Soldiers fired teargas and sound grenades into all the sections and, in particular, into Section D of the prison tents. Tents in the section D/4 caught fire, burning down the tents themselves, detainees’ mattresses, blankets and other items within the tents.
Each of the four sections contained within Ketziot Military Detention Center consists of four prison tents each surrounded by 5 meters high walls. All 60 detainees from Section D/4 were trapped in the fire, unable to flee from the force of the flames because of these walls, whilst simultaneously being attacked with tear gas and sound grenades. The detainees were eventually able to force a hole through one of the walls separating the sections to escape the fire. At least one detainee sustained injuries from the fire. A number of prison tents in the other sections, A, B and C, also suffered damage from sound grenades that were fired at their tents, which could have easily caught fire as well.
In protest of the attack, detainees of Section D/4 refused to be relocated to other tents and slept outside on the asphalt pavement, refusing to have new tents erected until an investigation committee was formed and came to the section to take evidence of the incident.
In an attempt to ensure the safety of detainees and collect information regarding the incident, two representatives from the Association for Civil Rights in “Israel”, Advocate Lila Margalit and Hava Matras-Irron, accompanied by Advocate Tamar Peleg from Hamoked, visited the detention center on 31 October 2002 in order to take affidavits from detainees and to view the section in which the fire occurred. However, the delegation was only allowed a period of fifteen minutes to visit with each of the five detainees interviewed, only one of which was from section D, where the majority of the attack took place. They were also not able to visit the area in which the incident took place.
This incident is but one symptom in a system of continuous violations of Palestinian detainees’ rights that, if left unchecked, will be aggravated by increasing tensions within the prison itself. The “Israeli” military administration used unreasonable force against detainees and placed the lives of at least 60 detainees in danger in an act of collective punishment. Furthermore, the conditions of detention within Ketziot, an outdoor military detention center located in the middle of the Negev Desert and isolated from nearby cities, remain in violation of basic standards of internationally recognized norms of internment.
Ketziot (Negev) Military Detention Camp is the primary location of the majority of Palestinian administrative detainees. There are currently approximately 850 administrative detainees being held in the prison camp, with an additional 200 prisoners. Detainees are held in four sections, each of which is divided into four units containing 3 prison tents. Each of the prison tents holds approximately 20-22 detainees, with a total of 60-66 detainees being held in each of the 4 units, in old tents that can accommodate only 18 individuals and which do not provide sufficient shelter against the harsh desert weather. Detainees sleep on wooden shipping planks, covered by a thin mattress and thin covers, one of which is used as a pillow. Each unit shares three unsanitary makeshift outdoor toilets and one shower between over 60 detainees.
Food rations provided to detainees do not meet necessary daily requirement, both in terms of quality and nutritional value, and those with special dietary needs are not offered proper meals. Detainees are afforded insufficient basic necessities such as soap, toothpaste, etc. (e.g. one bar of soap for every 10 detainees) and have not been given a change of clothing, forced to wear the clothes they were wearing when they were arrested. Lawyers have been prevented from bringing any personal effects for detainees from family members. Electrical facilities for the tents were only recently permitted, following a petition submitted to the “Israeli” High Court of Justice, with electricity now available only from 11 p.m. until 6 am, making it impossible to read, watch TV, etc. until very late in the evening. Random searches take place from time to time and head-counts are conducted three times a day outside of the tents in often severe weather conditions. Inadequate health attention is offered, with approximately 60 detainees being held at Ketziot prison requiring immediate medical attention that has, as of yet, not been provided to them. Many of those who require medical attention were arrested during the “Israeli” invasions in April 2002 and sustained injuries during raids and mass arrest campaigns.
Detainees have reported being beaten on occasion by soldiers while being transported to military courts, held in isolation cells for entire days whilst awaiting trial, and hands and legs bound during journeys. As of 20 October 2002, all military court proceedings take place at Ketziot detention center, and lawyers, if they are informed in time, must travel approximately 5 hours to and from the central West Bank to the detention center to be present during the tribunal. Family visits have been systematically denied by the “Israeli” military administration since the opening of the detention camp.
Addameer is gravely concerned with the deteriorating condition of Palestinian detainees being held within “Israeli” prisons and detention centers. Addameer demands an immediate investigation committee to be formed to investigate the attack on Palestinian detainees in Ketziot Military Detention Camp in order to ensure the safety of detainees and that violations do not continue to occur with impunity. Furthermore, basic standards of life must be afforded to detainees and their rights ensured as stipulated in international human rights and humanitarian law.
For more information, please contact Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association at addameer@planet.edu.
The situation of
Palestinian political prisoners has increasingly deteriorated over the past two years,
in particular during the “Israeli” invasion of West Bank cities in March 2002. The
“Israeli” authorities have arrested over 15,000 Palestinians since the beginning of the
current Intifada in September 2000. As of 23 October 2002, there are approximately
4000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners currently in “Israeli” prisons and detention
centers. Of that number, approximately 1050 Palestinians are being held under
administrative detention orders, detention without charge or trial for extended
periods of time (also known as ‘internment’), in “Israeli” prisons and detention
centers. Administrative detainees are held primarily in both Ofer Military camp in the
southern region of Ramallah, and Ketziot (Ansar 3) Prison in the Negev Desert. Administrative
detention orders continue to be renewed on a regular basis. In the current
renewal process taking place this month, approximately 40% of those in
administrative detention have received orders renewing their detention for an extended
period of time. It is important to note, however, that although others have been
released during this period, new detainees are taking their place as the “Israeli”
authorities continue to conduct arrest campaigns throughout the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV).
Since
1967, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem have been illegally occupied
by the “Israeli” State in violation of numerous United Nations resolutions.
Despite the so called peace process between “Israelis” and Palestinians and
surrounding Arab countries, initiated by the signing of the Oslo Agreements in
1993 and the subsequent implementation of part of those agreements, “Israel”
continued to enforce military regulations in the majority of the Occupied
Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV), effecting all
spheres of Palestinian life. In
particular, with the start of the second Intifada in September 2000, following
Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the Al Aqsa compound and over a decade of
continued “Israeli” occupation despite peace processes, Palestinian Territories
which were under preliminary Palestinian Authority rule were physically
re-occupied by the “Israeli” military and military regulations re-imposed over
all areas of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in
1967 - FAV). This restoration of
“Israeli” military control further intensified the obstructions to free
movement of Palestinians and divided the West Bank into 64 dis-contiguous
zones, one separated from the other by over 91 “Israeli” military checkpoints.
The
legal system imposed by the “Israeli” army within the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV) is extremely oppressive and
violates basic precepts of human rights and humanitarian law. As relates to imprisonment of Palestinians,
military regulations arbitrarily allow for the detention, torture and
collective punishment of an entire people, criminalizing almost all aspects of
civil and political life.
From
September 2000 to March 2002 approximately 2 850 Palestinians were detained by
the “Israeli” police and army, including 600 children. “Israel” is in violation of the Convention
of the Rights of the Child in its designation of a child in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV) as under the
age of 16, rather than the internationally recognized age of 18, and can charge
children as young as 12 with offences considered criminal under “Israeli”
military regulations. The number of
Palestinian detainees was dramatically increased during the “Israeli” invasion
of West Bank cities in March 2002, and that number continues to grow
daily. Palestinians have been subjected
to a continued campaign of mass arbitrary arrest, whereby they are illegally
detained without charge or trial for extended periods of time, some subjected
to torture, as “Israel” is the only country in the world which has legalized
the use of torture within its judicial system, and brought before military
tribunals and “Israeli” judges, many of whom are not lawyers and are not
adequately trained to be lawyers.
Political detention by “Israeli” occupying forces is one of the most
urgent and damaging issues that the Palestinian community is currently
facing.
When
a human rights organization is informed of an arrest, the first point of
procedure is to locate the person.
There are approximately 20 detention centers scattered throughout the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, often making it difficult finding where an individual
has been detained. In some cases, the
prison authorities do not inform family members or lawyers where the individual
may be. Once the detainee is located,
the lawyer will attempt to visit him/her, as the first 48 hours of arrest are
crucial, with detainees often sent to interrogation immediately after arrest.
According
to the “Israeli” legislation, the interrogation process can last for 180 days.
Torture during interrogation is currently used by the “Israeli” authorities,
and is allowed by law. This can
include:
1. Shabeh, or position abuse, which may be suspension of the prisoner by their feet, or other painful positions, for extended periods of time;
2. Sleep Deprivation
3. Food Deprivation
4. Beating
5. Violent Shaking
6. Exposure to extreme temperatures
7. Isolation
In
1999, as a result of international pressure by a number of human rights
organizations, a petition was filed with the “Israeli” High Court of Justice to
ban such forms of interrogation constituting torture. As a result, the court limited the use of torture, determining
authorized forms of torture and the cases in which they can be used. However, this
ruling is not reflected in the reality of interrogation, and at most
constitutes a legal base allowing lawyers to act in cases of abuse.
In
many cases, a detainee’s lawyer is prevented by the military authorities to
visit his client. The lawyer must then
introduce proceedings before the “Israeli” High Court of justice to revoke the
prevention of legal counsel.
After
the interrogation period, the military judge can extend the detention for the
time needed for the public prosecutor to provide charges against the detainee.
What can follow then is either the trial or most frequently, the transfer into
administrative detention, which can be extended indefinitely. Administrative
detainees do not know when they will be released, and even if they are released,
their detention may be immediately renewed. By way of administrative detention,
political prisoners can spend up to 8
years in prison without charge or trial.
At present, the longest held administrative detainee has been imprisoned
for 3 years, without any hope of trial.
In
the framework of administrative detention, detainees are kept in prison by way
of secret evidence, which neither the detainee nor the lawyer has access
to. This practice is in violation of
international law, yet is legalized within the “Israeli” judicial system,
making a mockery of the justice system.
Regular
visits to detainees is an important aspect in the arrest process in order to
ensure adequate conditions of detention, the health of detainees, and to
protect against any abuse that may occur whilst in detention and file petitions
in the case of such abuse.
Over
the last two years literally thousands of Palestinians have been arrested by
the “Israeli” military in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The majority of those
arrested face some form of torture and are incarcerated in inhuman and
illegal conditions.
The
arrests accelerated dramatically following the first concentrated wave of
“Israeli” invasions into Palestinian cities in March 2002. As part of these
invasions, the “Israeli” military launched an unprecedented campaign of
arrests, rounding up and detaining thousands of Palestinian males, including
significant numbers of Palestinian children. This practice continued with the
second wave of invasions, beginning on 29 March 2002. The detainees have been
repeatedly denied access to attorneys and information regarding their exact
whereabouts is most often unknown by their families and human rights
organizations.
The
process of arrest passes through a number of stages. Firstly, “Israeli”
soldiers are continuing to carry out mass, arbitrary arrests of thousands of
Palestinians from their homes. This arrest is carried out by heavily armed
“Israeli” troops who often terrorize families and destroy property in the
process of arrest. Following arrest, the detainees are blindfolded and
handcuffed and taken to a detention center located in an “Israeli” settlement.
Upon arrival, the detainees are verbally informed that they are being held
under an Emergency Regulation order, dating from the time of the British
Mandate on Palestine.
While
in the detention centre, the detainees are brought before a military judge who will
decide on the basis of “secret evidence” whether to formally issue an
administrative detention order, which determines whether the prisoner will
remain or be released. This secret evidence is not made available to the
prisoner or his lawyer and they have no legal representation.
The
“Israeli” military commander for the West Bank issued a new military order (No.
1500) on 5 April 2002, which allows for “Israeli” soldiers to arrest any
Palestinian from the West Bank without providing a reason and without a
warrant. Moreover, the military order decrees that these detainees can be
arrested for a period of 18 days before any legal proceedings take place. The
new military order builds on previously issued orders requiring detainees to be
brought before a judge within eight days. At present, detainees can be held for
18 days, as decreed by military order no. 1500, and then for an additional
eight days, as decreed by previous military orders. Military order no. 1500 is
retroactive, applying to all detainees arrested since 29 March 2002.
According
to Palestinian human rights institutions, over 1000 Palestinian prisoners have
been placed in administrative detention, a form of imprisonment wherein the
prisoner is not charged, but simply held for indefinite periods of time. The
Administrative Detention order can be renewed repeatedly with no reason
provided.
Another
disturbing development is that the “Israeli” authorities have reopened Ketziot
prison in the Negev desert, a notorious desert prison that was used to hold
thousands of detainees during the first Intifada. In April 2002, all
administrative detainees held in Megiddo (around 70 people) and 150 prisoners
who were sentenced in Megiddo prior to the recent “Israeli” invasions were
transferred to Ketziot. In addition, over 150 of those prisoners arrested in
the March/April arrest campaign were also transferred to Ketziot and issued
administrative detention orders. The remaining prisoners in the detention
centres are awaiting their turn to appear before the military judge.
Testimonies
provided to human rights organizations repeatedly confirm beyond any doubt that
detainees are subject to systematic abuse and severe mistreatment in the
detention centres. This abuse includes violent beating, being handcuffed and
blindfolded for long periods of time, severe lack of food, no access to medical
treatment, forced to sleep outside with shortages of bedding and repeated
psychological and physical abuse. Furthermore, following release, detainees are
taken to outlying areas in the middle of the night where they are left in
dangerous situations without means of getting home.
Human
rights associations working within the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e.,
the land occupied in 1967 - FAV) have found themselves handling an overwhelming
amount of human rights violations against the Palestinian community as a whole,
including targeted assassinations, military attacks on homes and cities,
targeted killings, arbitrary arrest, house demolition, lack of freedom of
movement, endless “Israeli” imposed curfews, the inability to move freely from
city to city as a result of “Israeli” military checkpoints, lack of access to
education, amongst many other violations.
Yet the most striking of these violations, which touches almost every
Palestinian family in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land
occupied in 1967 - FAV), has been arbitrary arrest. The capacity of human rights organizations to deal with mass
arbitrary arrest has been extremely pressed as the number of detainees
continues to rise and the lawyers to defend these detainees become more and
more stretched.
Areas
in which human rights associations face problems while dealing with arbitrary
arrest include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. Arbitrary application of “Israel” military regulations in force by military courts that handle cases of political prisoners.
2. Deplorable living conditions faced by political detainees in “Israeli” detention camps and prisons and, in particular, those faced by child and women detainees.
3. Children (less then 18 years old) are detained in the same cells as adults and criminal detainees, increasing the possibility of crimes committed against them.
4. Palestinian women are detained in the same cells as “Israeli” women prisoners.
5. Limited number of lawyers to offer legal defence for the increasing number of detainees.
6. Extreme difficulties faced by lawyers in the exercise of their work.
7. Obstructions to freedom of movement for lawyers, human rights defenders and families inside the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
It is
particularly difficult during this period to meet the need of lawyers for the
number of detainees currently in prisons.
Palestinian lawyers with West Bank ID cards are limited in their ability
to travel to prisons because of curfews and “Israeli” imposed road blocks. The number of ‘“Israeli”’ lawyers needed to
file appeals and visit detainees within the green line is also extremely
limited. The “Israeli” legislation
does not allow lawyers from the occupied territories to work in “Israel”. They
can only defend Palestinian citizens from the occupied territories and only in
front of the “Israeli” military courts and the Palestinian courts. More lawyers
with “Israeli” citizenship is crucial at this stage, as the number currently
available is extremely limited. Around
14% of the “Israeli” population is Palestinian. It is within this community that lawyers can be recruited. The
alternative of recruiting non Palestinian “Israeli” lawyers is problematic
because they usually speak only Hebrew and not Arabic, making it impossible to
communication with their clients, which makes it impossible for them to
communicate with their clients; it is very difficult to recruit
non-Arab-”Israelis” to carry out this work; and Arab-”Israeli” lawyers usually
have more experience in the cases of political detainees.
In
order to ensure that the rights of Palestinian detainees are respected, and to
raise awareness of the arbitrary measures taken against Palestinians in this
area, a number of actions need to take place.
There are two main areas that need to be immediately addressed,
including:
1. Provide increased legal assistance to represent Palestinian political detainees;
2. Provide accurate and timely legal and situation information for increased advocacy work;
3. Offering increased donations to support ‘Canteen’ funds to detainees in “Israeli” prisons, so that resources of human rights organizations can focus on legal defence.
1. Initiate and support campaigns against arbitrary detention and boycotts of military tribunals, including working with institutions and associations to take a public position for the release of the prisoners and supporting specific solidarity activities (boycott, administrative detention, with organizations such as the Palestinian Bar Association, the ICRC, international human rights organizations, etc.);
2. Increase the capacity of human rights organizations to follow-up with the detainees, to defend their human rights and to respond to all the needs of detainees, their families or other human rights organizations;
3. Legally represent persons arrested by the “Israeli” army before military courts, appeal courts, the “Israeli” High Court and special military courts, as in the case of administrative detention;
4. Introduce proceedings against penitentiary and/or other competent authorities in cases of human rights violations against detainees (individually or collectively) and/or their family during the visits;
5. Advise detainees and their families about their rights as stipulated in the laws, especially referring to detention time, obtainment of travel permits and visits regulations;
6. Face more effectively the existing difficulties in “Israel” and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (i.e., the land occupied in 1967 - FAV) to defend Palestinian people;
7. Enable human rights defender to obtain further training to develop their capacity to address human rights violations, and to build on communication tools, building of targeted networks, and disseminating collected information from prisoners through prison visits, family members, lawyers, etc.;
8. Create expert working groups to elaborate legal arguments with lawyers, students, international law experts, etc. concerning prisoners of war/political prisoners in the framework of a national strategy, including addressing issues of the legitimacy of “Israeli” courts;
9. Prepare legal arguments for the defense of political detainees and especially for child detainees (violating international legislation and not recognizing children under 18 child).
10. Work on cases with precedents on the case-law.
11. Draft exhaustive and updated reports about detention conditions, including legal information, women and children in detention, case studies, regular statistics, etc. in order to ensure information is available to international human rights mechanisms.
12. Develop activities to aware the local and international communities of the plight of detainees, democracy issues and the rule of law inside the larger frame of self-determination.
Increase
meetings and partnerships with international organizations about the problems
faced in the “Israeli” legal system to defend Palestinian people in an effort
to place the issue of Palestinian prisoners on the international agenda,
including discussions within the United Nations.
The Introduction by ADDAMEER to the text above: A CASE STUDY ON HOW NOT TO POSE THE ISSUE OF PALESTINIAN PRISONERS
While the Israeli occupation forces commit brutal crimes against the Palestinian population on a daily basis, the world has lulled itself in the belief that political changes within Palestinian society can become a reality whilst under Israeli occupation. Whilst the Bush administration continuously presses for reform within the Palestinian Authority, Israel has silently pursued a violent strategy of imprisonment of any individual who may potentially disrupt the coming PA elections and the supposed peace talks that would follow such an election.
With more than 15,000 Palestinians detained since the beginning of the current Intifada in September 2000 and approximately 5000 Palestinian detainees still languishing in Israeli prisons and detention centres, the façade of reform is being carried out within a political vacuum. The majority of political and community leaders have been arrested during this last period, including activists from all sectors of Palestinian life. There is no doubt that, once released, they will contest all illegitimate political agreements. Reforms carried out by a one-party, one-leader, one-decision-maker system are destined to fail from the very beginning.
Throughout the decades of Israeli military occupation, Palestinians from all walks of life have been illegally detained by Israel. In addition to the almost 5000 Palestinians who are currently in detention and arrested during the past two years, a large number of Palestinians have been wallowing in Israeli prisons for a number of years prior to this. Ahmed Ibrahim Djbara, Abu Sukker, is 65 years old and the father of six grown children. He has spent the last 26 years of his life in prison. His crime was to fight to bring an end to the occupation. The most recent Palestinian detainees include Haytham Hammouri, arrested from his work at the YMCA office in Jerusalem, and Khaled Bakr, arrested from the house of his in-laws in Ramallah. They both received administrative detention orders for 6 months, which means imprisonment without charges for an unknown period, allowed to be extended indefinitely, with very limited legal recourse and superficial defense. Wives and children of these men, as thousands of others before them, live now in constant fear and agony.
For every Palestinian arrested, the story of a life is torn apart and an entire family broken. Why does the world community remain silent while Israel illegally detains Palestinians and tortures them? Is the world blind to the fact that there will never be peace in the Middle East as long as Palestinians are not afforded their inalienable, fundamental rights? Do US President George Bush and ordinary Israeli citizens believe that the sons and daughters of these thousands of Palestinians will one day forget what they suffered when their loved ones were thrown behind prison bars?
The Geneva Conventions, the International Convention for Political and Civil Rights and the Convention against torture and cruel and inhuman treatments, all prohibit the use of torture, inhuman and degrading treatments, without exception. Israel has consistently violated international laws in this regard. Detention conditions enforced by Israel do not conform to the UN Minimum Standard Rules of the Treatment of Detainees, nor to the Principles of the Protection of all persons under all form of detention or imprisonment, or the Basic Principles of Treatment of Prisoners. These legal instruments bind Israel as they form regulations to treaties to which Israel is a signatory. Instead of applying these laws formed by the community of nations, Israel blatantly continues in its systematic policy of torture of Palestinian detainees. Rather than hide this fact, it openly discusses it within its parliament, the Knesset. In addition, Palestinians are tried in military tribunals in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, according to military regulations governing the area, often by soldier judges who do not hold adequate legal experience.
In November 2001, UN Committee Against Torture reminded Israel that there is no justification for the use of torture in any circumstances. Use of torture is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention (articles 31-32, 146-147). Furthermore, the 4th Geneva Convention forbids the transfer of detainees outside the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Article 76 states that “all protected person accused of an offense must be detained within the occupied country and if they are sentenced, they have to serve the sentence within it.” However, Israel has continued to detain Palestinians in prisons throughout Israel, far from their families, who almost never obtain the necessary permits to leave the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which have become a large prison for the entire Palestinian community.
Thousands of Palestinian men, women and
children are in prison because of their refusal to accept foreign
occupation. They must be released and
allowed to rejoin their families in order to reintegrate their political and
social life within the Palestinian State-to-be. Anyone who holds that ‘reforms’ or political negotiations can be
effective without including all sectors of the Palestinian society fool
themselves into missing a historical opportunity to allow for real, lasting
reforms in Palestinian society. The
time has come to open the prison gates, and allow Palestinians to decide their
own future.
[1] See Appendix 1
[2] See appendix 3
[3] For more information about children visit the DCI Palestine website at http://www.dci-pal.org/
[4] See appendix 3
[5] Based on security reasons for the first 15 days or for the goal of interrogation, that can be extended for 15 additional days by a police officer and then for 30 more days by jurist-judge and once more for 30 days by the president of the military court, for regional security reasons.
[6] See Addameer’s website for more details on these cases at http://www.addameer.org/.