An Israeli soldier standing over a Palestinian under arrest.
Today, the 17th of April, Palestinians commemorate
Palestinian Prisoners Day to remind both the international and the local publics
that thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of children, are currently
imprisoned in Israeli military jails, often following administrative
detention, and exposed to various forms of torture and inhumane treatments.
Every year on the 17th of April is used to raise awareness about the
situation of Palestinian prisoners.
The issue of Palestinian prisoners is a crucial one in Palestinian
society, directly affecting thousands of prisoners and their families psychologically,
socially and economically.
According to official human rights organizations working on the issue of
prisoners, such as the Mandela Institute, there are today approximately 11
thousand Palestinians prisoners detained in Israeli military prisons, all tried
in military courts and sentenced by military judges. These military prisons
inside Israeli territories were built in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention,
which obligates the occupying power not to deport prisoners from their land. Defendants
are often convicted on secret evidence and are sentenced to disproportionately
long sentences.
According to the Mandela Institute, 920 of the prisoners are at this
time under administrative detention. This form of detention, established by military
orders, allows the Israeli military to arbitrarily arrest and detain
Palestinian civilians for periods of six months. Every six month period can
then be extended for an additional six months without further explanation. This policy allows the military to exercise
broad and unchecked powers against Palestinian society. According to the
Mandela Institute, around 1,300 of these prisoners need medical care, which is
often not provided.
Eighty of the administrative
detainees are women and 340 are children, the latter being in violation of the International
Convention of the Rights of the Child (ICRC), which mandates that “No child
shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest,
detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and
shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate
period of time.”
Thirteen prisoners have already spent more than 25 years in jail and 32
are detained in al-Ramla Prison, where prisoners are often subject to inhumane
conditions in regards to food, health care and education. However, the gravest
policy the Israeli military uses to punish the prisoners is complete isolation
for long periods of time. Prisoners are held in very small cells before
interrogation, sometimes with only one square meter per prisoner, as a form of
torture and to apply psychological pressure on them, or sometimes merely as punishment.
In this way, the Israeli military prevents the prisoners from having any
contacts with the outside world. This is not only a serious violation of human
rights, but is something intended to negatively impact them emotionally and
destroy their human dignity. Confessions are often extracted under threats and torture.
This happens mostly with children, who are emotionally weaker than adults and
therefore more subject to manipulation.
Another grave violation of prisoners’ rights concerns visitations. Visits
are restricted to first degree relatives, who must request a permit prior to
visiting, and the subsequent bureaucratic procedure often results in very few
and sporadic visits allowed. This policy, together with the policy of
constantly transferring prisoners from one prison to another, is intended to
cut prisoners off from any meaningful social life.
A lack of adequate medical treatment often results in illnesses and even
death. Here we mention as an example the death of Fadil Shaheen, who died on 29
February 2008 in the A’shel prison in Be’er Sheva, due to a lack of medical
follow-up care.
Thousands of Palestinians have experienced the deprivation of freedom in
Israeli military jails.
Their life will be forever affected. They lost years of life, dreams,
education and projects, sometimes for no reason. The international community
should pressure Israel
on such a crucial issue, holding it accountable for its violations of international
law and human rights.
The indiscriminate Israeli policy of detaining Palestinians is an
ongoing process which prevents and will continue to prevent a real and just
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Collective punishment, torture
and violations act to increase the spiral of violence in the Palestinian
society.
Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on the 17th of April will each
year raise this vital issue that is rarely discussed, with demonstrations,
marches, campaigns, conferences and workshop programs being held throughout the
West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, to remind us of the suffering and conditions
of the Palestinian prisoners and to educate youth on how to deal with this
issue.
Palestinians
prisoners are not only a political matter but also a public one, etched in the
memory and the direct or indirect experiences of all Palestinians. Programs for
the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day will take place throughout the Occupied Palestinian
Territories starting today,
and continuing through all of the coming week.
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