Showing posts with label Palestinian Prisoners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palestinian Prisoners. Show all posts

Palestinian prisoners being attacked in Israeli Jails

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IPS special unit assaults Palestinian prisoners 
RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Soldiers of the Matsada, the Israeli prison service’s special unit, attacked Palestinian prisoners in Megiddo prison at night while offering Tarawih prayers.
Fuad al-Khafsh, the director of the Ahrar center for prisoner studies, said on Tuesday that Matsada unit soldiers broke into ward six of Megiddo jail, allocated for Hamas prisoners, on Sunday night and beat up the prisoners.
He said that altercations between the soldiers and the prisoners ensued after which the prisoners were forced out of their ward for search.
Khafsh stated that similar incidents took place on Monday night in a number of other prisons, adding that the Sunday night raid in Megiddo coincided with the Qassam Brigades’ declaration it had captured an Israeli soldier.
He said that Israeli special units stormed prisoner rooms in Negev, Nafha, and Raymond jails during which TV sets were confiscated.
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Alarm bells are ringing over prisoners of Israel and their health status

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RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The Palestinian Prisoner Society raised alarm bells over the deteriorating health status of Palestinian detainees Adnan Hamarsha,45, and Khalil Assi,32, due to medical negligence inside of Israeli lock-ups.
Lawyer of the Prisoner Society Maamoun al-Hashim quoted Hamarsha, incarcerated in Megiddo prison, as stating that he has become paralyzed due to a brain stroke.
The Israeli intelligence re-abducted Hamarsha from the hospital and dragged him to an Israeli detention center, paying no heed to the fact that the prisoner patient has undergone an open heart surgery just a few days before.
Hamarsha was arrested, along with his wife, on February 16, 2014 and was sentenced administratively to 6 months in prison. Hamarsha’s wife was sentenced to an 8-month-prison-term and a 25-thousand-shekel fine, lawyer al-Hashim added.
Health condition of Palestinian prisoner Khalil Mahmoud al-Assi, from Nablus and sentenced to 20 years in prison, has remarkably gone down due to the lack of appropriate medical care in Israeli jails.
Though the latter has been diagnosed with colon cancer 5 years ago, the Israeli prison authority has been turning blind eyes and deaf ears to his condition and denying him urgent medical check-ups.
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Administrative Detainees Continue Their Hunger Strike

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Held by Israel under arbitrary detention orders without charges or trial, 186 Palestinian detainees continued their hunger strike for the fourth day.

In a press release, Sunday, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) stated that the Administrative Detainees expressed that their hunger strike is their way to demand their legitimate rights, and called for wide public support.

On Thursday, the Administrative Detainees started their open-ended strike demanding their release as they are held in direct violation of International Law.

The detainees are also demanding Israel to stop this illegitimate policy, to stop the ongoing renewal of detention orders against them, or send them to court where the military prosecution will have to press charges.

There are around 186 Administrative Detainees illegally held by Israel, they are all participating in this hunger strike.

In a report about the Palestinian detainees held by Israel, the Palestinian Ministry Of Detainees said that more than 800,000 Palestinians, including children, have been kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel since 1967, while at least 5,000 Palestinians are currently held by Israel.

The number includes detainees held under Administrative Detention orders.

In its report, the Ministry said;

“Administrative Detention is the 'unknown enemy' which the detainees face, as it is a punishment without a charge, without an indictment.

Administrative detainees are held without trial. Neither they or their lawyers are allowed to defend themselves, simply because they face what Israel calls a 'secret file' that no one is allowed to see.

Each arbitrary Administrative Detention order is usually 1 to 6 months, issued by military commanders in the occupied Palestinian territories. Such orders target both men and women of different ages, young and old, including physicians, engineers, professors, teachers, journalists and elected legislators and officials.

Such orders are repeatedly renewed and, in many cases, just as the detainees are about to step out of prison, they are informed of a new order, often spending months and years under such orders without even knowing when, or if, they will ever be freed.”
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Israel denies EU request to meet with Palestinian prisoners: leaving many asking what are they hiding

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Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman refused to allow a delegation from the European Parliament to visit Palestinians jailed in Israeli prisons, a local newspaper reported Friday.
Yedioth Ahronoth said the European delegation had hoped to evaluate the prisoners’ conditions.
The paper reported that Elmar Brok, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the European Parliament, had asked Israel's ambassador to the EU to arrange a visit for the delegation.
But Lieberman responded by saying Israel would only allow such a visit if the EU would let an Israeli delegation visit prisons in Europe.
The report cited sources inside Israel’s foreign affairs ministry that the European request had been made in coordination Palestinian and international activists working to highlight the poor conditions inside Israeli prisons.
The news came one day after Israel refused to allow Palestinian refugees from Syria to return to the Palestinians territories, according to Palestinian Authority official cited by Ma’an news agency.
Fatah central committee member Mohammed Ishtayyeh told diplomats at a meeting organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation – a group affiliated with Germany’s Green Party – that they have been trying to help Palestinians in Syria escape the three-year-long war, but Israeli officials have rejected their pleas.
Around 1,500 Palestinian were killed during the Syria conflict, and 250,000 others have been forced to leave their homes, according to Ma’an.
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Palestinian Prisoner 'beaten' by jail doctor

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RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail claimed that he was assaulted by a prison doctor while in an infirmary.

Alaa al-Hams, who is at Eshel prison, said that on Dec. 2 he suffered from severe pain in the stomach, was unable to move his limbs, and started foaming from his mouth.

Al-Hams was then transferred to the prison infirmary where the doctor repeatedly beat and threw him on the ground, he said.
He added that the incident happened between 10 and 11 a.m., and was recorded by a camera in the room.

Al-Hams, who started a hunger strike on Jan. 6, said he suspended the strike after they agreed to transfer him to Ashkalon prison in order to receive proper treatment.

A prisoners’ society lawyer who visited al-Hams said he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2012, and received intensive treatment for six months, which resulted in several complications including swelling in the lymph nodes as well as stomach and nerve problems.

Al-Hams says he is facing a slow death, in constant pain, and his health is deteriorating.

Al-Hams, 40, has served five years of his 29-year sentence. 

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Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi who went on hunger strike for 266 days is freed

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Alex Kane


Samer Issawi, whose 266-day hunger strike drew attention to the plight of Palestinian prisoners and Israel’s policies of jailing people without charge, has been freed to his home in East Jerusalem.
His release has sparked celebrations at his house in the neighborhood of Issawiya, though Israeli authorities reportedly told his family that any public celebrations in the area would be "banned."  Israeli forces also twice raided his home in the days before his release.
"I wanted to protect the rights of Palestinian prisoners and deter Israel from re-arresting more Palestinians who had been freed in the Shalit deal," the thirty-three year-old told Palestinian reporters today, according to Reuters.
His release marks the latest high-profile Palestinian prisoner to win freedom after waging a hunger strike in protest of his re-arrest and administrative detention, the term that refers to the Israeli practice of jailing people with charge or trial.  Issawi faced 20 years in prison–the remainder of his original 30-year sentence when he was first arrested by Israel–on charges and evidence the Israeli military did not disclose, though Israel also charged him with violating the terms of his release. He was sentenced to 17 months on that charge. He was held for over 20 days without access to a lawyer,according to the prisoner rights’ group Addameer.
Issawi was freed from a prison in northern Israel, in violation of the international legal prohibition against transferring prisoners from the occupied territory where they are arrested.
Issawi, who is affiliated with the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was first arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 30 years in prison forattempted murder and possession of explosives.  While he was freed as part of the deal to get back Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit in 2011, Issawi was re-arrested in July 2012.  Israeli forces claimed that Issawi violated the terms of his release because he entered the West Bank, a claim challenged by his family, who said he stayed in Jerusalem. On August 1, he began to refuse food and only took in water and vitamins until April.  He lost half his body weight while on strike and came close to death.  Issawi was beaten in court in December 2012.
Issawi’s hunger strike electrified Palestinian society, who held numerous protests in his support.  Israel, fearing that his death could spark unrest in the occupied territories, ultimately struck a deal with Issawi after the prisoner refused to capitulate to Israeli demands that he be deported to Europe or Gaza after his release.  In April, Issawi agreed to a deal where he would be released in eight months.


Source 
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Israel Prisoner Release Sparks Re-arrest Fear

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By Dalia Hatuqa – Ramallah, West Bank
In 2011, when Palestinian detainees were released from Israeli prisons as part of a prisoner exchange deal, the West Bank and Gaza Strip were overcome with jubilation. Similar celebrations are expected in the coming week, when 26 Palestinians, most of whom have been languishing in Israeli prisons for more than 20 years, will be released.
As part of an agreement inked between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel, 104 detainees will be set free, having been incarcerated since before the Oslo Accords were signed in 1994. The 26 prisoners to be released this week will be the first batch, with the remainder being released at later stages in the negotiations. The agreement came as peace talks between Israel and the PA restart, following intensive shuttle diplomacy by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has visited the region six times since March.
This time around, however, there is trepidation – even fear – among Palestinians, that some of those slated for release will be re-arrested soon thereafter by Israel. Reasons for this fear, Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups say, lie in past agreements – such as that made in 2011 when Corporal Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held by Hamas since 2006, was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.
“In the aftermath of the prisoner release of October 2011, several of those released in exchange for Shalit were re-arrested,” said Randa Wahbe, an advocacy officer at Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ support organisation. “Today, there are 12 who are currently back in Israeli prisons.”
Ibrahim Abu Hijleh was one those released during the Shalit prisoner exchange, only to be re-arrested eight months later. Abu Hijleh had served nine years of a 24-year sentence on charges of belonging to a military cell of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
“We were beyond ourselves with happiness when he was released,” said Abu Hijleh’s wife, Tha’era, in her Ramallah home. “When my husband was jailed, my younger son was nine years old. His father was released when he was 18, so you can only imagine what it was like to have him back with us.”
For months, well-wishers would stream into their home and, according to Tha’era, Abu Hijleh had barely begun to enjoy his newfound freedom when he was re-arrested in June 2012. Israeli soldiers came to their home at 4am and took Abu Hijleh back to prison for allegedly violating the terms of his release. “The painful part is that my husband didn’t know he would be met with this same fate again,” she said.
Today, Abu Hijleh is facing the prospect of serving out the rest of his original sentence – 15 years. Tha’era said her husband was never clearly told the precise terms of the agreement signed between the parties involved in the prisoner release – Hamas, Egypt, and Israel – in 2011. “What he understood was that he wasn’t allowed to engage in any political activity,” she said. “This is very vague. Going to a symposium here can be misconstrued as a political act.”
Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said: “The former convicted prisoners were re-arrested by the Israel Defence Forces for violation of the terms of their release or for committing additional criminal activities. The IDF will continue to operate to safeguard the State of Israel and its civilians.”
According to one poll, 85 percent of Israeli Jews oppose the upcoming prisoner release. Israeli authorities called it a bitter pill to swallow, but one that was necessary to return to the negotiating table.
“It’s not easy for the cabinet ministers, and it is not easy for the bereaved families, whose feelings I understand,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week as the cabinet prepared to vote on the release. “But there are moments in which tough decisions must be made for the good of the nation, and this is one of those moments.”
Addameer expects that, with this new round of prisoner releases, some detainees will either be re-arrested, deported or internally displaced to the Gaza Strip. “Prisoners don’t have amnesty and could be re-arrested and made to serve out the rest of their sentence,” Wahbe explained.
Palestinian detainees released as a result of political agreements are not pardoned, they are merely released on parole. Under Article 186 of Israeli Military Order 1651, a special committee can determine whether a released prisoner can be made to serve out the remainder of his original sentence if it rules they violated the terms of their release, based on, among other things, secret evidence to which the prisoner is not privy.
In February, Addameer petitioned Israel’s High Court against this order, calling it “completely unjustified and undermin[ing of] the protection of prisoners and ex-prisoners”.
The group’s Randa Wahbe said that, if the past were any indication, “Israel’s policy of arrest and detention will continue, despite the prisoner releases”.
Between October 18 and December 15, 2011, some 470 Palestinians were arrested, reports Addameer, around the same time that 477 others were released in Phase I of the Shalit prisoner swap.
“This military order ensures that detainees are sent back to prison for the most trivial of reasons,” Tha’era said. Her husband has been re-incarcerated for 13 months so far, and he is still waiting to find out whether he will serve out the rest of his original sentence. Tha’era is preparing for the worst, reliving what she calls a miserable memory.
“I will go back to the 12-14 hour journeys to get to the prison where my husband is being held, only to see him for 45 minutes, twice a month.”
While Tha’era supports the upcoming release of the pre-Oslo detainees, she said the Palestinian leadership should have exhausted every effort to release all prisoners. Today, there are 4,827 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, according to Military Court Watch, a monitoring group. “One-hundred four prisoners is a small price for Israel to pay to go back to negotiations,” Tha’era said. “There are women and children in prison, there are sick detainees. One set of prisoners shouldn’t be favoured over the other. They are all worthy of freedom. I would have preferred they all be released.”
Addameer said that detention and arrest throughout prisoner releases have been occurring since the start of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel. “After Oslo I was signed, 1,000 prisoners were released. In April of that same year [1994], some 2,700 Palestinians were arrested,” Wahbe said, adding that there were expectations that in the upcoming prisoner release, some detainees would be deported.
“In 2011, there were over 200 cases of deportations and forced displacement. We are expecting that this would happen this time around,” she said.
“There are no guarantees that all prisoners will be able to go back to their original homes. The implications are huge, and mostly they cause a fragmentation of society.”
- Follow Dalia on Twitter: @daliahatuqa. (This article was originally published in Al Jazeera – www.aljazeera.com)
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Releasing Palestinian prisoners is welcomed, but long overdue

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UFree Network to defend the rights of Palestinian political prisoners and detainees welcomed the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners. The network considered the step as late, long overdue that is used to cover up its the Israeli ugly image perceived worldwide through showing “real” intention of peace seeking.

In a press statement dispatched Tuesday evening, August 13, 2013, UFree stated that it is watchfully waiting to see the outcome of the Palestinian prisoners’ release deal between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel. It asserted that the deal is not enough and that all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees should be released unconditionally.

The network confirmed that it welcomes any steps which may help Palestinian political prisoners and detainees obtain their stolen freedom. It would like also to celebrate the joy of their families, who are longing to see their beloved ones.

In the same time, UFee Network announced its rejection of using the basic human rights of prisoners as a negotiation tool in order to blackmail Palestinian political prisoners and their rights.

“The standards of releasing prisoners should have been different. Some of those will be released in the first dispatch of prisoners are due to end their imprisonment sentences. Meanwhile, four prisoners spent more than three quarters of their sentence in the jail and at least one prisoner spent 12 years in the jail.  This standard is approved unilaterally by Israel” said the statement  

Additionally, the Palestinian absent role in preparing and naming the lists of prisoners intended to be released makes Israel the dominant power to decide the names of prisoners intended to be released.  The current release of prisoners is not based on any human right standard; this is obvious as Israel refuses to release prisoners from occupied territories of 1948 and Jerusalem.

For his part, chairman of UFree Network, Mohammad Hamdan welcomed the step of releasing any Palestinian political prisoners and detainees.

“We are happy to see some prisoners are released today, yet the step comes too late as it should have happened 20 years ago. All prisoners should be released as they have the basic right to be free and not charged. We don’t accept the Israeli attempts to use them as a negotiation tool. International community should bear its responsibility by pressuring Israel to free all prisoners as it will help achieving peace” added Hamdan 

UFree Network | Media Centre 
UFree Network is an independent European-wide human rights network; set up to defend the rights of Palestinian political prisoners and detainees
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The Lives Of Palestinian Patient Prisoners In Israeli Jails Hangs In The Balance

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GAZA, (PIC)– Palestinian patient prisoners in Israeli jails suffer deliberate Israeli medical negligence and lack of medical care where they risk death at any moment.
Riad al-Ashqar, prisoners’ ministry media director, stated that the number of patient prisoners has escalated in Israeli jails due to the Israeli medical negligence and the bad detention conditions in addition to the continued pressures and repression.
About 1700 prisoners out of 4600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails suffer health problems including 75 prisoners suffer chronic diseases.
The liberated prisoner Omar al-Bardawil (29) who was released recently, stated that the Palestinian patient prisoners’ health situation is getting worse as part of the Israeli Prison Administration’s policy to liquidated them.
Al-Bardawil, who served 8 years behind Israeli bars, pointed out that the patient prisoners are facing death at any moment due to the Israeli harassments and medical negligence particularly the hunger strikers.
He called for a real and firm position behind the patient prisoners in Israeli jails who suffer shortage of medicines and medical care.
Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails have declared hunger strike since early May protesting their difficult detention condition where their health situation has deteriorated in Ramle prison in light the Israeli deliberate medical negligence.
Meanwhile, Fidaa group to support prisoners in Israeli jails denied Israeli claims that the hunger striker Abdullah Barghouthi is clinically dead.
Anas Abu Khudair, Fidaa group’s director, confirmed that Barghouthi is still alive however he suffers sharp health deterioration due to his hunger strike since more than 70 days.
He pointed out that Barghouthi is kept alone in Afula prison, while the 4 other Jordanian prisoners are held in Soroka Hospital.
Jordanian prisoner in Israel Abdullah Barghouthi is serving the longest term in the world as he was sentenced to 67 life terms. He has been in jail for 10 years after he was arrested by Israel when he entered the West Bank to visit relatives there.
On May 2, six Jordanians began their own “battle of empty stomachs” following Palestinian peers who managed to secure their freedom and attracted worldwide attention to their plight over the past months.
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Israel injecting dangerous viruses into Palestinian prisoners

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A Palestinian released from Israeli jails, Rania Saqa, has brought to light that the Israeli regime injected detainees that are out of prisons with dangerous viruses.

 Noting that Palestinian prisoners suffer from serious and chronic diseases such as bladder cancer and liver disorders, Rania has revealed that the Tel Aviv regime injects prisoners with dangerous viruses before releasing them.

The released prisoner  has asked the many institutions and the international community to examine them carefully.

Most former inmates die after being released from Israeli jails.

Saqa Rania criticized the neglect of the Palestinian state to the situation in which the prisoners and their families find themselves and added that "the prisoners are subjected to the most cruel tortures."

A suspiciously large number of Palestinian prisoners are suffering from incurable diseases or permanent disabilities as a result of the critical situation in prisons that they suffer at the hands of Israeli regime.

Recently, the International Solidarity for Human Rights Institute warned that the Israeli regime uses and abuses Palestinian prisoners to test their new drugs, and this contradicts international medical and moral principles.

Currently, about 5,000 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, are crowded in the jails of the regime in Tel Aviv. Most have not been tried and some have no formal charge against them, a strategy that the Israeli regime called "administrative detention."

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voicing deep concern over what he called the "rapidly deteriorating condition" of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody who are on hunger strike, urged a solution to the matter be reached without delay.

"International human rights obligations towards all Palestinian detainees and prisoners under Israeli custody must be fully respected," Mr. Ban's spokesperson said in a statement that also underlined the importance of full adherence by all sides to previous agreement on the issue, including the implementation of prisoners' family visitation rights.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights came in into force 23 March 1976. Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that any person deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and dignity.  The article imposes a requirement of separation of prisoners in pre-trial detention from those already convicted of crimes, as well as a specific obligation to separate accused juvenile prisoners from adults and bring them before trial speedily.  

There is also a requirement that the focus of prisons should be reform and rehabilitation, not punishment. These provisions apply to those in prisons, hospitals (particularly psychiatric hospitals), detention facilities, correction facilities or any other facility in which a person is deprived of their liberty. The article compliments article 7 of the Covenant, which bans torture or other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, by guaranteeing those deprived of the their liberty with the same conditions as that set for free persons.

Translated from the Spanish version by:

Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru
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We are fighting for all Palestinians

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In jail, my fellow hunger strikers and I are doing battle against the Israeli occupation that humiliates our people.



My story is no different from that of many other Palestinian young people who were born and have lived their whole lives under Israeli occupation. At 17, I was arrested for the first time, and jailed for two years. I was arrested again in my early 20s, at the height of the second intifada in Ramallah, during an Israeli invasion of numerous cities in the West Bank – what Israel called Operation Defensive Shield. I was sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges relating to my resistance to the occupation.
I am not the first member of my family to be jailed on my people's long march towards freedom. My grandfather, a founding member of the PLO, was sentenced to death by the British Mandate authorities, whose laws are used by Israel to this day to oppress my people; he escaped hours before he was due to be executed. My brother, Fadi, was killed in 1994, aged just 16, by Israeli forces during a demonstration in the West Bank following the Ibrahimi mosque massacre in Hebron. Medhat, another brother, has served 19 years in prison. My other brothers, Firas, Ra'afat and Shadi were each imprisoned for five to 11 years. My sister, Shireen, has been arrested numerous times and has served a year in prison. My brother's home has been destroyed. My mother's water and electricity have been cut off. My family, along with the people of my beloved city Jerusalem, are continuously harassed and attacked, but they continue to defend Palestinian rights and prisoners.
After almost 10 years in prison, I was released in the Egypt-sponsored deal between Israel and Hamas to release the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. However, on 7 July 2012, I was arrested again near Hizma, an area within the municipality of Jerusalem, on charges of violating the terms of my release (that I should not leave Jerusalem). Others who were released as part of that deal were also arrested, some with no declared reason. Accordingly, I began a hunger strike on 1 August to protest against my illegal imprisonment and Israel's violation of the agreement.
My health has deteriorated greatly, but I will continue my hunger strike until victory or martyrdom. This is my last remaining stone to throw at the tyrants and jailers in the face of the racist occupation that humiliates our people.
I draw my strength from all the free people in the world who want an end to the Israeli occupation. My weak heartbeat endures thanks to this solidarity and support; my weak voice gains its strength from voices that are louder, and can penetrate the prison walls.
My battle is not just for my own freedom. My fellow hunger strikers, Ayman, Tarik and Ja'afar, and I are fighting a battle for all Palestinians against the Israeli occupation and its prisons. What I endure is little compared to the sacrifice of Palestinians in Gaza, where thousands have died or been injured as a result of brutal Israeli attacks and an unprecedented and inhuman siege.
However, more support is needed. Israel could not continue its oppression without the support of western governments. These governments, particularly the British, which has a historic responsibility for the tragedy of my people, should impose sanctions on the Israeli regime until it ends the occupation, recognises Palestinian rights, and frees all Palestinian political prisoners.
Do not worry if my heart stops. I am still alive now and even after death, because Jerusalem runs through my veins. If I die, it is a victory; if we are liberated, it is a victory, because either way I have refused to surrender to the Israeli occupation, its tyranny and arrogance.
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After Palestinian dies in Shin Bet hands, time to question the interrogators

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Here is another excellent exposé  article by Israeli journalist Amira Hass. Published in the Israeli daily Haaretz.Ed Corrigan


For years, Palestinian detainees and prisoners have complained about sleep deprivation, painful and prolonged handcuffing, humiliation, beatings and medical neglect. By international standards, this is torture.
By Amira Hass

An Israeli actor is seen demonstrating one of several standard torture techniques reportedly used by the Shin Bet. Photo by AP
Arafat Jaradat, 30, died while under interrogation by the Shin Bet security service. Every week dozens if not hundreds of Palestinians start down the road he began on February 18.
Dozens of Israelis whose names are unknown are on a parallel track: the soldiers who make the arrest in the dead of night, the military doctor who examines the new detainee, Shin Bet interrogators in their changing shifts; Israel Prison Service guards, workers at the prison clinic, and the judge who extends the remand.
True, thousands of others take this road or sometimes a longer and harder one – and stay alive. This is probably what the Shin Bet and the prison service will say in their defense. But from the Palestinian perspective, every stop on the road of detention and interrogation involves enormous physical and psychological pain that the army, the police, the Shin Bet and the prison service inflict intentionally.
This goes well beyond the suffering that should be caused by taking away a person’s liberty and issuing an indictment. For years, Palestinian detainees and prisoners have complained about sleep deprivation, painful and prolonged handcuffing, humiliation, beatings and medical neglect. By international standards, this is torture.
Jaradat was not a ticking bomb. He was arrested on suspicion of throwing stones and an incendiary device at Israeli targets. After three days of interrogation the police asked the court (in the name of the Shin Bet) to extend his remand for another 15 days for questioning. The remand hearing took place on Thursday, February 21, at the Shin Bet’s Kishon interrogation facility, in front of a military judge, Maj. David Kadosh. The judge ordered the remand for 12 days.
Unclear confession
Kamil Sabbagh, an attorney for the Palestinian Authority’s Prisoner Affairs Ministry, asked the police investigator at the hearing whether there were other suspicions against his client; he was told there were not. He asked whether Jaradat had confessed, and the police investigator answered: “partially.” Sabbagh concluded that Jaradat had confessed to throwing stones.
Experience shows that the additional days of interrogation – many, considering the minor nature of the offenses – were not intended merely to extract more confessions, but to get Jaradat to implicate others or to gather personal information, even of an embarrassing nature, to use in the future. From reports by detainees to their attorneys, it's clear that sleep deprivation combined with painful and prolonged handcuffing is very common. As we learn at military court and elsewhere, people confess to things they haven't done or implicate others falsely, only to be allowed to sleep.
In the short time Jaradat and his attorney had before the remand hearing, Jaradat, who was suffering from a herniated disc, was able to tell Sabbagh that he was in pain from prolonged sitting. Judge Kadosh knew about the pain from a secret report he had been shown.While the judge was writing his decision, Jaradat told Sabbagh that conditions were difficult for him in isolation and he wanted to be moved to another cell. Sabbagh had the impression that Jaradat was under severe psychological stress, and told the judge this.
The judge then added to his decision: “The defense attorney requests the court’s permission to present the matter of the suspect’s mental health while in a cell alone, and his concerns about psychological damage. He requests that the suspect be examined and properly attended to.”
The role of informants
The remand hearing took place at 10 A.M. Thursday. As of Sunday, Sabbagh did not know when Jaradat had been moved to Megiddo Prison, where he died. Palestinian organizations representing prisoners say one possibility is that he was placed in a cell with informants at Megiddo.
Unlike Shin Bet interrogations, which are documented in memos, the existence of informants is not officially acknowledged by the authorities. Informants use various means to extract information, whether true or false. They boast about their exploits as members of Palestinian organizations, they suggest that the detainee is a collaborator because he does not discuss his actions with them, and they threaten him.
The investigation of Jaradat’s death must go through all phases of his detention and interrogation – and those of thousands of others. But any interrogation will be flawed from the outset because, by authorization of the High Court of Justice, Shin Bet interrogations are not filmed.
Only two weeks ago, on February 6, justices Asher Grunis, Hanan Melcer and Noam Sohlberg turned down a petition by four human rights groups demanding the annulment of a 2003 law letting the police forgo the filming or audiotaping of security suspects' interrogations. The organizations also asked the court to require the Shin Bet to visually document the questioning of suspects. The justices said that because the law was now under scrutiny, “the time has not yet come to examine the petitioners’ arguments themselves.”
The Palestinians do not need an Israeli investigation. For them, Jaradat’s death is much bigger than the tragedy he and his family have suffered. From their experience, Jaradat’s death isn't proof that others haven't died, it's proof that the Israeli system routinely uses torture. From their experience, the goal of torture is not only to convict someone, but mainly to deter and subjugate an entire people
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Over 120 Protesters In West Bank Detained Since Start of War on Gaza

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 A total of 120 Palestinians or more were arrested for participating in protests in solidarity with the people of Gaza since the beginning of the war on the Strip, said a report by the Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs.
The report said that most of the participants in the protests were minors. They were heavily beaten up by Israeli soldiers and detained in detention centers.
Prisoners’ Affairs Ministry lawyer Jamil Sa’adeh said that a number of prisoners detained in Huwara military camp went on a hunger strike to protest the inhuman treatment by the Israeli soldiers.
“They were placed in solitary confinement and humid cells filled with waste water and insects,” he said.
One of the protesters, who were detained at Huwara checkpoint, said that he was heavily beaten at his genitals.
Sa’adeh said that prisoner Ayah Hujer from Nablus was arrested at Huwara checkpoint, beaten up at Ariel detention center and was later transferred to HaSharon women prison.
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ACTION ALERT: UFree Network condemns renewed solitary confinement of prisoner Abu Sisi

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The European Network to Support Rights of Palestinian 
 Prisoners (UFree) expresses its profound condemnation
 over the ruling of an Israeli occupation court to renew the 
solitary confinement of Palestinian-Ukrainian prisoner 
Dirar Abu Sisi, 42, for further 6 months.

An Israel occupation court in the city of Bi’r Al Sab’,
 decided on, Thursday the 1st of November 2012, 
to renew the illegal solitary confinement against Abu 
sisi. It also ruled that Dirar Abu sisi should be banned
 from talking to other Palestinian political prisoners in jail. 
 
It is noteworthy that Abu sisi is being placed in solitary confinement cell in Israeli occupation jails since his
 abduction from Ukrainian territories in Europe 
on the 18th of February 2011.

UFree clarified that the ruling is a desperate
 attempt from Israeli occupation authorities to blur the details of the terrorist 
abduction operation. According to UFree it aims to cover up on those partners
 who participated in the crime in fear they will be exposed and presented to court. 
 
The network reiterates the fact that Ukrainian government as well as
 European Union are responsible for the abduction of Abu sisi.
 
“They are also responsible for transferring him to the occupation state of Israel.
 Let alone, they failed to provide him a protection whereby European laws, 
residents shall be protected within European territory. Add to this, there is wired
 silence from those two parties over the abduction affair and the reports that came 
up hint that some European intelligence could be complicit” stated UFree Network 
 
An international campaign has just been announced by UFree on the
 16th of October 2012 to support political prisoner Abu sisi. It aims to pressure on
 the occupying state of Israel to release him.
 
Dirar Abu Sisi, 42, a family man was kidnapped by Israeli intelligence from Ukraine, and then transferred to Israeli jails where he is being tortured.  He was snatched by force
 and under gun threatening while taking the train from Kharkov city to Kiev in Ukraine.
 
In press statements dispatched by the UFree, it asserted that its petition in support
 of Dirar is going on and that the ruling of the court will make the network adamant to
 expose the flagrant and illegal inhuman practices exerted by Israeli authorities.  
 
* UFree Network launched a campaign in support of Dirar Abu Sisi, 
click here to show your support
 

UFree Network | Media Centre 
UFree Network is an independent European-wide human rights network; set up to defend the rights of Palestinian political prisoners and detainees. 
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Take action: Free Palestinian human rights defender Ayman Nasser + hunger strikers Sharawna, al-Issawi and al-Barq!

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Take action: Free Palestinian human rights defender Ayman Nasser + hunger strikers Sharawna, al-Issawi and al-Barq!


One year after the historic prisoner exchange in which 1,000 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli prisons, concluding a 14-day mass hunger strike in the occupation prisons, Palestinian prisoners continue under siege. Human rights defender Ayman Nasser of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association was seized by Israeli occupation forces on October 15, while hunger strikers Ayman Sharawna and Samer al-Issawi – both re-arrested after their release in the prisoner exchange – continue their heroic fasts for freedom. Samer al-Barq, who recently concluded a 123-day strike, has resumed his strike after Israel dishonoured their agreement. Click here to act now to demand the release of Nasser and freedom for Sharawna, Issawi and al-Barq!
Palestinian former prisoners – a number of whom were displaced to Gaza from their homes elsewhere in Palestine at their release – both celebrated their freedom on the anniversary while demanding that those inside Israeli prisons be freed to join their brothers and sisters outside. Meanwhile, Nasser, a key prisoners’ rights advocate, was himself seized and detained behind bars in an Israeli occupation prison.
Addameer reported that staff researcher and longtime prisoner advocate Ayman Nasser was abducted from his home by occupation forces early on October 15. On October 18, he appeared in a Jerusalem military court, where his interrogation period was extended by seven days. Ayman addressed the court directly: “I believe that every human being has opinions and positions and if it’s not violating the law he can freely think and speak these opinions. I am a human rights defender who supports the Palestinian prisoners and I represent my opinions in the public media. My thoughts are not secret, they are public, and everyone knows them.”
Like many Palestinian prisoners, Ayman is subject to medical neglect – he is currently only receiving two out of the five medications that he requires daily. Addameer reported, “The judge ruled that based on ‘secret evidence’ he would extend Ayman’s interrogation period for another seven days and referred the situation of the medicine to the doctor at Moskobiyyeh detention center.” Moskobiyyeh, where Ayman is now held, is one of the most notorious detention centres in the Israeli occupation system; he was interrogated for 10 hours straight on October 17 and his interrogation has continued with similar intensity since that time.

While Nasser‘s detention was being extended, and on the anniversary of his own release in the historic prisoners exchange of 2012, hunger striker Ayman Sharawna, who is now on his 114th day of hunger strike, was transferred to solitary confinement in Ramle prison. 

Tadamun foundation reported that Sharawna was transferred after refusing medical services in Ramle hospital. He has lost 80% of his vision in his right eye (while already having lost vision in his left eye) and is now almost completely blind. He suffers from severe kidney problems as well as back pain, for which he is denied treatment so long as his hunger strike continues. Sharawna has been detained without charge or trial since he was re-arrested January 31 after a few short months of release.
Samer Issawi has been on hunger strike since August 1 and is now on his 83rd day of hunger strike. Issawi was also freed in last year’s prisoner exchange, and re-arrested on July 7, 2012, accused of leaving Jerusalem, to where he is restricted under the terms of his release. As reported in the Electronic Intifada, the prisoners initially refused this condition but signed to it under assurances from Egyptian officials that it was a mere formality.  The International Committee of the Red Cross and prisoner support and human rights groups have been denied access to visit him; he is committed to continue his strike until freedom and has refused deportation.
Samer al-Barq, who previously ended his 123-day hunger strike on September 21 following a commitment by the Israelis to deport him to Egypt, where he sought to reunite with his Pakistani wife, resumed his own hunger strike on October 14 after the agreement was not honoured by Israel. Al-Barq has resumed his strike and is demanding his freedom. He has been held without charge or trial since 2010.
Click here to take action to demand freedom for the hunger striking heroes!

Act now!
1. Click here to send a letter to Israeli officials demanding the immediate release of Ayman Nasser and an end to the persecution of Palestinian human rights defenders.
2. Click here to send a letter to Israeli officials demanding the immediate release of hunger strikers Ayman Sharawna, Samer al-Issawi, and Samer al-Barq!
3. Tweet #FreeAyman to draw attention to his case. Click here to see sample Tweets developed by OccupiedPalestine.
4. Join a protest or demonstration outside an Israeli consulate for Palestinian prisoners. Many groups and organizations are holding events – join one or announce your own. Organizing an event, action or forum on Palestinian prisoners on your city or campus? Use this form to contact us and we will post the event widely. If you need suggestions, materials or speakers for your event, please contact us atsamidoun@samidoun.ca. 
5. Contact your government officials and demand an end to international silence and complicity with the repression of Palestinian political prisoners. In Canada, Call the office of John Baird, Foreign Minister, and demand an end to Canadian support for Israel and justice for Palestinian prisoners, at : 613-990-7720; Email: bairdj@parl.gc.ca. In the US, call the office of Elizabeth Jones, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs (1.202.647.7209). Demand that Elizabeth Jones bring this issue urgently to her counterparts in Israel.
6. Join in the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Boycott Israeli products, and academic and cultural institutions until all Palestinian rights (including the right of refugees to return, to be free from occupation and for full equality) are fulfilled – including freeing the thousands of Palestinian prisoners behind bars.
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Israeli military court system is “kangaroo court”, implements Israeli intelligence agenda

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The family of, Abdulfattah Soubhi Dola, a Palestinian detained eight years ago and convicted for twelve years, appeals through UFree network to the International community and human rights organisations to intervene to stop injustice practiced by Israeli military courts.

Israeli military courts sentenced, Dola, on the 11th of October 2007 for seven years.  Later, he was tried again upon an order from Israeli military prosecutor, although the appeal period has ended. The new trial before Military Court of Appeals sentenced Dola for another extra 5 years on the 28th of February 2012, lengthening his sentence to 12 years in total.

UFree Network pointed out that Israeli occupation authorities and military courts don’t abide by law, regulations or orders; although such laws and regulations violate the basic principles of human rights.

Mohammed Hamdan, UFree chairman, states that, "there is no proper court system in the occupying state of Israel. Courts judges and individuals are from the Israeli military in addition to the Israeli intelligence officers. All those personas are dedicated to issue untrue and unjust judgments against Palestinian prisoners.”

"The issue of the Abdulfattah Dola reveals the falsehood of these military courts” said Hamdan

Dola was detained on 1st of July 2004 under the pretext of participating in Alaqsa Intifada “uprising”. He was born on 1978 and is a father of two children. His father has died nearly a year ago before he was able to meet the son.

Israeli occupation forces stormed Dola’s family home in Beitunia town east of Ramallah city several times and sabotaged the home despite that the son was in the prison.


UFree Network| Media Centre
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