The latest wave of mass hunger strikes continue for the 14th day as Palestinian prisoners demand the end of the policy of administrative detention. Administrative detention is a procedure in which Palestinians are arbitrarily arrested and detained without charge or trial based on a secret file. There are currently 183 Palestinians under administrative detention, 9 of them members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. On 24 April 2014, the administrative detainees announced a mass hunger strike to demand their freedom. Detainees will periodically continue to join the hunger strike if the demands are not met. There are currently 95 detainees on hunger strike in Ofer, Megiddo and Naqab prisons. It should be noted that Ofer and Megiddo prisons are provided services by the British-Danish company G4S, which installed cameras and surveillance equipment used to control the Palestinian prisoners. According to one hunger striker who spoke with Addameer lawyer Mahmoud Hassan, the detainees in the Naqab Prison have all been transferred to an isolated section, separate from the other prisoners. The cells are covered in sand. They have been ill-treated; suffering from daily searches of their cells and being permitted to change their undergarments only twice since the beginning of the strike. They are bound and handcuffed in their cells for ten hours a day. Three of the hunger strikers in Naqab prison, Fadi Hammad, Fadi Omar and Soufian Bahar, are now in solitary confinement and one detainee, Ahmad Abu Ras, was transferred to an undisclosed location. Furthermore, the IPS has been denying the hunger strikers salt for the last two weeks. Prisoners who engage in hunger strikes still take liquids and salt, as they are essential for survival. Denial of salt is a continuation of the punishments against hunger strikers, and despite the grave danger it imposes on the lives of the detainees, has been institutionalized by the Israeli Supreme Court. In 2004, the Israeli Supreme Court denied a petition by Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and several other Palestinian and Israeli NGOs that demanded the IPS provide salt on a daily basis to hunger-striking prisoners as its denial breaches the constitutional rights of the prisoner. The hunger strikers can potentially face harsher punishments if the IPS’s most recent proposed bill to legalize force-feeding is approved in the Knesset. The memorandum is currently up for public critique. In addition, 42 hunger strikers have been transferred to Ayalon / Ramleh Prison, including Abd Al Rizziq Farraj and Salem Dardasawi. On 4 May 2014, their cells were raided and the hunger strikers beaten. Mohammad Maher Badr’s finger was broken during the attack and Mohammad Jamal Al-Natsheh had to be hospitalized for the injuries sustained from the attack. The prisoners are in overcrowded isolation cells, with seven hunger strikers in each. They are in their cells at all times and denied recreational hours in the yard. Addameer maintains that the Occupation’s authorities are solely responsible for the lives of the hunger strikes. Addameer also demands that all contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention pressure Israel to immediately release all administrative detainees and cease the use of administrative detention.
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association can confirm the launch of a mass open-ended hunger strike involving over 100 Palestinian political detainees. All those involved are being held under administrative detention, which is a procedure whereby detainees are held without charge or trial.
Today’s hunger strike can be traced back to May 2012 when an agreement was reached between the Israeli Prison Service and representatives of the prisoners, which brought an end to a mass hunger strike involving approximately 2,000 political prisoners. As part of this agreement Israel agreed to limit its use of administrative detention to only exceptional circumstances. However, since then Israel has reneged on the agreement and has continued to use administrative detention on a systematic basis leaving the detainees with little choice but to launch a fresh strike.
The strike is currently taking place in Ofer, Megiddo and the Naqab Prisons and there are plans to escalate the strike should the striking detainee’s demands not be met. The general demand of the hunger strikers is an end to the use of administrative detention. The hunger strikers are also specifically demanding that extensions to administrative detention orders are limited to one extension only.
As of 1 March 2014 there were 183 Palestinians being held without charge or trial under administrative detention, including 9 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) members. This number has been steadily increasing over the last year. In 2014 alone, Israel has used administrative detention against 142 detainees, including renewing existing orders and issuing new orders.
Addameer lawyer Samer Sama’an today visited a number of administrative detainees, including PLC member Yasser Mansour, at the Naqab Prison. It was confirmed that 55 administrative detainees being held in the Naqab Prison have launched a hunger-strike. All striking detainees were immediately isolated by the Israeli Prison Service from the rest of the prison population and are currently being held in tents.
As mentioned administrative detainees are held without charge are trial. They are detained on completely ‘secret evidence’ and neither they nor their lawyers have access to such evidence. Some detainees have spent over eight years in prison, never knowing
what was contained in the ‘secret evidence’. While administrative detention is legal under international law, it must be used in very specific circumstance and on a case-by-case basis. This is clearly not the case given Israel has used administrative detention against tens of thousands of Palestinians.
In another development Mr. Sama’man reported that prisoners and detainees being held at the Naqab Prison wishing to meet their lawyers are forced to wait for long periods of time in tiny cells which lack any sort of ventilation. As a result many are choosing not to meet with their lawyers due to the humiliating procedures that the Israeli Prison Service has imposed on them.
Addameer holds the Israeli authorities solely responsible for the health of all hunger strikers. Addameer also demands that all contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention pressure Israel to immediately release all administrative detainees and cease the use of administrative detention. Furthermore, Addameer calls on global civil society to mobilize without delay in support of the striking detainees and 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners currently being held in Israeli prisons.
11th April 2014 | Corporate Watch, Tom Anderson and Therezia Cooper | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Akram Salameh holds up a picture of himself in prison uniform, taken inside Ramleh prison hospital – Photo taken by Corporate Watch, Gaza City, November 2013
Corporate Watch has been investigating the companies involved in the Israeli prison system and interviewing ex-prisoners. This interview is part of a series of articles to be released over the coming months that we hope will serve as a resource for action against companies providing equipment and services to the Israeli Prison ‘Service’ (IPS).
Palestinian organisations are calling for action on 17 April, the international day of solidarity for Palestinian political prisoners, against G4S, a British-Danish multinational company working with the IPS, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major investor in G4S. Click here to find out more.
The Israeli police arrest Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and then transfer them to prisons and interrogation centres inside Israel’s 1948 borders, against the stipulations of the Geneva Conventions. According to the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Organisation: “Palestinians from the OPT are currently held in a total of four interrogation centres, four military detention centres, and approximately 17 prisons. While the four military detention centres are located inside the OPT, all the interrogation centres and prisons—except for one prison, Ofer—are located within the 1948 borders of Israel, in violation of international humanitarian law. The location of prisons within Israel and the transfer of detainees to locations within the occupying power’s territory are illegal under international law and constitute a war crime. The Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly states that “Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein” (Article 76).”
The Hussam Association, a Gaza based organisation of current and former Palestinian detainees states that there are currently 5,200 Palestinian prisoners in the 17 Israeli prisons. 200 of them are imprisoned in ‘administrative detention’ without charge. According to Addameer nine of them are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. 430 people from Gaza are currently in jail inside Israel’s 1948 borders. According to the Palestinian section of Defence for Children International there are currently 230 Palestinian children under the age of 18 in Israeli prisons. 36 of them are under the age of 16.
According to the Hussam Association there were nearly 1,200 sick detainees. 24 of them were suffering from cancer and 170 were in urgent need of surgery. Addameer estimates that since 2000, 17 Palestinians have died as a result of medical negligence and the organisation has documented 178 cases of medical neglect.
Corporate Watch interviewed Akram Salameh in November 2013 at the government’s Ministry of Detainees in Gaza City. He had been arrested in Gaza and imprisoned in Israel for over 20 years. He was released in October 2011 from Ketziot prison in the prisoner swap that exchanged 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for the release of the captured soldier, Gilad Shalit.
G4S has been providing services to the Ketziot prison since 2007.
Akram had been a student nurse before his arrest. During his imprisonment he worked for 13 years as a representative for sick inmates at Ramleh’s infamous prison hospital. He told Corporate Watch:
“Before I was arrested I was studying nursing in Khartoum in Sudan. I was arrested while returning from university, coming through the Rafah crossing [from Egypt into Gaza]. I was accused of being a fighter for the Hamas movement and a member of Hamas. They did not accuse me of involvement in any particular Hamas operation but my party membership was used against me. I was sentenced to 30 years. I spent 22 years in prison in total in Ramleh [Ramla], Nafha, Shikma [Ashkelon], and Ketziot [all prisons inside Israel’s 1948 borders, click here to see a map].”
According to Akram, far from providing care to people who need it, the hospital simply goes through the motions of looking after the prisoners: “Legally when you have a prison you should have a medical centre. So the hospital is a cover they use in the courts, a facade of legality. The IPS gives basic treatment but seeing a specialist or having an operation may take years.”
Akram gives the example of a prisoner named Moatassem Raddad who “has been waiting more than four years years for treatment for intestinal cancer.” According to Akram this is one of the ways that the IPS goes through the motions of providing care while withholding life saving treatment. Akram tells us that patients are put on the waiting lists for treatment but never receive it. Moatassem “was promised an operation five years ago” but was still waiting in November 2013.
“I was a prisoners’ representative in Ramleh from 1997–2011”, Akram said. “I lived in the prison hospital which is a part of Ramleh prison. I was a point of contact between the Israeli prison authorities and the prisoners and I helped with things like translation. There are over 1,000 sick Palestinian prisoners and the majority of them are imprisoned in Ramleh. There are many prisoners there who are completely paralysed. Ramleh prison hospital has a floor set aside for Palestinian political prisoners.
“Ramleh prison is reliant on cameras. Cameras are all over the place and they have replaced the soldiers who previously had a much bigger presence there. Since 1994 you hardly saw any soldiers at all. The modern technology makes it more difficult for prisoners: the cameras see everything and microphones record everything. To get back to my cell from where I worked as a representative I had to go through 22 automated doors. At each door you had to speak to a soldier through a speaker system. If a prisoner placed his hand over the camera lens to get some privacy he would be punished.
“The prison is supposed to be a hospital but if a prisoner needs medical help the cameras cannot help him. If someone needed help I had to get the soldier’s attention by waving at the camera but if he is not looking then what can I do? We had many martyrs because of this.
Doctors can ‘switch in a second’
“When the prison doctor takes a round of the building he is accompanied by soldiers. The doctors can switch in a second to become soldiers themselves. It is very easy for them to attack or oppress the sick prisoners. Some prisoners are paralysed and it is difficult for the soldiers to strip-search them so they are strip-searched by the doctors.”
Akram showed us pictures of several paralysed prisoners who were regularly strip-searched by the prison doctors.
‘Dual loyalty’
According to Addameer “primary obligation” of the prison doctors is “towards the State and the Israeli security apparatus, rather than the patient. Doctors working in detention and interrogation centres often fail to report incidents of torture and ill-treatment to the relevant legal authorities for fear of losing their jobs. Similarly, physical signs of torture and abuse are rarely reported in the detainees’ medical files, making it almost impossible for the victims to seek justice and compensation. Doctors also often advise Israeli Security Agency officers on the health condition of a detainee held under interrogation and as such, they become complicit in the practice of torture and physical and mental abuse.
There is no medical reason to conduct a strip search and in doing so doctors are doing the prison guards’ jobs for them. Conducting these strip searches of prisoners on behalf of the prison authorities makes doctors complicit in the imprisonment of Palestinian political prisoners in contravention of international law.
Prisoners released when close to death
According to Akram, “I think the IPS releases prisoners just before they die in order to avoid being held legally responsible for their deaths.” This was the case for Rabee Ali. Akram said: “I got to know Rabee because he was very ill and I used to support him by feeding him and taking him to the toilet.
Mukarram Abu Alouf from the government Ministry of Detainees holds up two pictures of Rabee Ali, one before he was arrested and one on the day he was released. Rabee died soon after his release – photo taken by Corporate Watch, Gaza City, November 2013
“He was shot in the back during his arrest and had developed blood poisoning.” The Independent Middle East Media Center reported in 2008 that Rabee was being denied medical attention. He was given early release due to his condition but died a week after.
Another prisoner, Ashraf abu Dhra had muscular dystrophy. He was arrested in 2006. His condition quickly deteriorated while he was in prison. Akram said: “Ashraf was brought to Ramleh after his interrogation. Before he was in prison he was having regular physiotherapy. The doctors in Ramleh refused to do anything for him apart from feed him, clothe him and take him to the toilet and his condition got worse and worse.”
Akram showed us a picture of Ashraf before he was imprisoned and an emaciated picture of him on the day of his release. Physicians for Human Rights filed a request to the Israeli District Court for Ashraf to receive physical therapy and this request was granted. However, the authorities at Ramleh refused to give Ashraf the therapy he needed, saying that it was unnecessary. According to Akram: “He was released three to four months ago after serving his sentence. After one week he fell into a coma. He died 40 days after his release.”
Take action
Palestinians hold a vigil to support prisoners in Israeli jails at the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza City – Photo taken by Corporate Watch in November 2013
In addition to the April 17 call for action action against G4S and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, action has also been called for against Hewlett Packard (HP), a US based company that provides IT services to the IPS. According to Who Profits? HP holds a contract worth tens of millions of shekels to provide printers and maintenance of HP systems and central servers until 2016.
There is also an international call for action in solidarity with the Hares boys – five Palestinian teenagers from the village of Hares in the West Bank. They are currently imprisoned and are facing life sentences for attempted murder for allegedly causing a car accident by throwing stones onto a settler road. The boys deny any such charge and are reporting torture during interrogation. Click here for more information.
Another way to act in solidarity with sick prisoners is to support calls for the Israeli Medical Association’s expulsion from the World Medical Association over its complicity in Israeli militarism and apartheid. For more details see www.boycottima.org.
Click here for a full list of companies that holds contracts with the IPS.
Click here for details of Palestinian Prisoner’s Day events in London and Manchester.
27th March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
(Photo by Rosa Schiano)
On Monday, at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza City, the weekly rally in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails saw the participation of many prisoners’ families, released prisoners, and international and Palestinian activists.
Each week, the rally focuses on certain topics, ranging from administrative detention to the health condition of sick prisoners, women prisoners and ill-treatment, to the prisoners on hunger strike.
Many women show photographs of their detained children, grandchildren, husbands or relatives.
On Monday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine protested to demand the release of its general secretary, Ahmad Sa’adat, on the eight anniversary of his abduction by Israeli forces.
Eight years ago, on 14-15 March 2006, Israeli forces surrounded the Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho, where Sa’adat was held with his comrades Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Majdi Rimawi, Basil al-Asmar and Hamdi Qur’an. The Israeli forces attacked and destroyed the prison, kidnapping the Palestinian prisoners held inside. United States and British guards, under whom Sa’adat and the other prisoners were held, left the prison in advance, knowing it would soon come under attack from the Israelis.
Eight years after his abduction, Sa’adat is considered a leader in and out the prison, and protests for his release, as well as broad international support, are the proof.
There are 5,200 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
Many of them suffer from diseases, included cancer. Due to medical negligence, their conditions worsen day by day.
Prisoners on hunger strike have also suffered punitive measures by the Israeli Prison Service in response to their strikes. These measures include solitary confinement in small and cold rooms with no blankets, denial of the right to take showers, denial of family visits, investigations and searches during the night.
Israel continues to arrest Palestinian children and apply administrative detention, arresting Palestinians without charge or trial. Yesterday an Israeli court has extended the detentions of Shireen, Medhat and Shadi Issawi, siblings of former Palestinian hunger striker Samer Issawi.
Updated 16th March: The Nabi Saleh three have now been freed from Ofer prison. Thank you for all your support, Jihad, Mahmud, and Rami Tamimi are now at home with their families. However, Israeli forces yesterday arrested Baha and Oday Tamimi also from Nabi Saleh, we hope you can continue your support for those now imprisoned. More information about these new arrests will be posted as soon as it is available.
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Updated 13th March: $1500 are still needed to cover the bail for the release of Jihad, Mahmud and Rami Tamimi from Israel’s Ofer prison.
Please write to Bassem Tamimi at ba.tamimi@hotmail.com specifying the amount, so we can allocate it directly for the release of the Nabi Saleh three. Please follow the link to make your donation!
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Jihad, Mahmud and Rami, residents of Nabi Saleh, have been imprisoned for three weeks now and need your support to be released.
Jihad Tamimi
An Israeli military judge ruled that six demonstrators who were kidnapped from their homes three weeks ago, could be released on bail of 2500 shekels each. With the help of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee and the villagers, three of the prisoners, Fadel Tamimi (54) Mohammed Tamimi (24) Basel Tamimi (16) have already been released. We need your help to raise the remaining 7000 shekels to release Jihad Tamimi (25) Mahmud Tamimi (21) Rami Tamimi (36). Any amount will help.
The six have been accused of throwing stones at the Israeli military. The “evidence” presented against them is edited pictures of them participating in a demonstration- not throwing stones- and a testimony of a solider who says “the people who we took pictures of threw stones.” They were arrested the 18th of February when the villagers of Nabi Saleh were awakened once again by about a hundred soldiers invading their village.
Since residents of Nabi Saleh began demonstrating against the confiscation of their land and spring by the illegal Israel settlement of Halamish, five years ago, such night raids have become a regular occurrence.
Since the protests started, 155 people have been arrested for demonstrating, including fifty children and fifteen women. 500 people were also injured, 45 per cent of them children. Two of the demonstrators Rushdie and Mustafa Tamimi were murdered by the Israeli military in Nabi Saleh and Muaataz Washaha who participated in the demonstrations in Nabi Saleh and was executed in Beir zeit last month.
Please, donate for the Nabi Saleh three to be released. You can do it through PayPal or by bank transfer to: Basem Tamimi bank of Jordan Al Bireh branch Iban number PS13BJOR005010023012014133000.
