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Prisonniers palestiniens face à un Etat qui ne respecte pas ses engagements (ndlr)

The Israeli occupation tries to renounce prisoners’ agreement to void it from its content

Jeudi, 7 juin 2012 - 9h06 AM

jeudi 7 juin 2012

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UFree Network | Media Centre

On 17th April and by pursuant to an agreement signed by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) and the Palestinian prisoners, the open hunger strike, which lasted for 28 days, was ended.

Strike reasons

The suffering of the prisoners culminated. Arrests for young men, women, elderly and even children are daily made. Such brutal practice is accompanied with abusive procedures such as ; torturing, terrorism and suppression. In addition to other actions, which are taken by the occupation against the prisoners as solitary confinement, depriving of education and forbidding their families to visit them, to despise their dignity. These inhumane acts forced the prisoners inside jails to launch their strike under the slogan « Hunger Strike for Dignity »

Solidarity and support

The news of this strike received large responses at all levels including the Palestinian, Arab and international ones. Solidarity tents were pitched up and other events were remarkably conducted as UFree Network’s petition in solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners and Detainees in Israeli jails which received support from activists across Europe and a letter campaign was conducted which reached many European members of Parliament.

Fair demands

UFree Network, which followed up all stages of the strike through its special sources, took a view of the prisoners’ major demands to end their strike. These demands represented in :
· End the policy of solitary confinement
· Terminate Shalit’s law including the right to education
· Set back the conditions inside the prisons to its normal before the Intifada in September 2000.
· Limit administrative detention policy
· Follow up the status of patient prisoners to provide them with necessary medications.

Renounce attempts

During the third week of the strike, an assigned committee from the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) studied the prisoners’ demands. After that, it responded to the demands of the Palestinian prisoners at Hadrim and Shata jails related to improving their living conditions and subsequently, the prisoners discussed the Israeli responses. The responses of the IPS divided into two sections, accepted demands and suspended ones until reviewing them within a short time.

Observing and following up the strike form the beginning up to the end

UFree Network observed the responses of the Israeli Prison Service to some demands and it reported that the IPS approved the following demands since the first week :

· Allow telephone calls for the prisoner once a month.
· Increase canteen amount to be 400 Israeli Shekels instead of 300.
· Reinstall three TV channels (BBC – Abu Dhabi – Rotana Cinema)
· Permit taking photographs with families once every five years instead of once in the whole life.
· Allow putting brothers or fathers with their detained prisoner in the same jail.
· Permit open visits for humanitarian cases without any barrier.
· Allow visits for any security prisoners
· Improve the condition of the prison canteen through providing the missing supplies as fruits and vegetables and form a committee to check prices to achieve appropriateness between market and the canteen prices.
· Permit taking photographs inside prison cell once a year.
· Form a committee to examine the status of West Bank prisoners who are not allowed to receive visits to find solutions for them.
· Recommend transferring patient prisoners by ambulance instead of the « the Boaster », which is a bus with miserable humiliating conditions used to move the Palestinian prisoners form one jail to another, or from the jail to courts and back, and approve the report of the prison doctor about such cases.

While, the Israeli Prison Service rejected the following demands :
· Right to education
· Refuse to stop renewing the administrative detention.
· Visits for the prisoners from the Gaza Strip
· Solitary confinement
· Shalet’s law

Until the end of the forth week, both the strike and the public, formal and international interaction with the case continued, while the prisoners were undergoing sever health conditions.

In the 28th day of the strike, IPS complied with the demands of the prisoners and agreed on the abovementioned banned requests, besides the following :

· End solitary confinement policy and release and move 19 prisoners to group detentions.
· Stop renewing the administrative detention for more than 320 prisoners.
· Allow Palestinian prisoners form the Gaza Strip to receive visits. It was agreed that on June 1, 100 Gaza prisoners will be visited and other visits will be through batches.
· Assure that the situations inside the prisons will be the same before September 2000.
· Terminate Shalet’s law, which includes collective punishments for prisoners such as deprive them from their right to education.

Israeli Violations

Through observing the situation inside Israeli prisons and evaluating the experience of prisoners in their battle (Hunger Strike for Dignity), UFree Network reported that Palestinian prisoners, with pride and honor, succeeded in gaining some of their rights and there is no any sign of failure for this strike. However, through renouncing the signed agreement under the Egyptian mediators and violating its items, the Israeli occupation tried not to show its weakness before the steadfast prisoners and their victory in the « Empty Stomachs » battle. That action led some Palestinian prisoners in Negev jail to issue statements to warn the occupation of the consequences of any escalation inside the prisons and disowning the agreement. Moreover, they threatened to re-launch an open hunger strike.

These violations are :

1. During May, UFree Network reported more than 350 arrests ; include 35 children in the Palestinian territories. This action is inconsistent with the item related to alleviating arrest policy followed by the Israeli army.

2. Solitary confinement policy for prolonged periods did not stop despite that the last agreement clearly stated that such illegal action must be terminated and all prisoners must be released and moved to group detentions. IPS retained solitary confinement for Derar Abu Sisi and Awad Elsaedi without any justification.

3. The administrative detention, which is detaining Palestinians in the jails without any specific charge and for prolong periods without trails, contradicts with the international laws, especially Geneva Convention for human rights. Yet, the occupation still arrests more than 320 Palestinians in the administrative detention and this procedure breaches the signed agreement. It is worth mentioning that the Israeli courts renewed the administrative detention for 10 prisoners.

4. Shalet’s law, which is endorsed after capturing the Israeli soldier (Jilad Shalet), forbids and violates many rights given to the prisoners by virtue of the international conventions related to living conditions, magazines, newspapers, education and TV channels. This law was not terminated by IPS, where it did not allow the Palestinian prisoners to resume their education and it represents obvious evidence that the occupation renounces the agreement.

5. The transfer of prisoners from one jail to another, in addition to sudden provoking frisks for the families of (1948) prisoners during their visits were occurred in an inhumane way to despise their dignity.

6. IPS continued the medical negligence policy for the Palestinian prisoners. They did not receive the suitable medical care, which later caused the death of Zuher Lubada (52 years) after a week of leaving Al Ramla prison hospital.

Recommendations :

Upon the intensive follow up for these actions, it is undoubtedly that the Israeli side still disowns and delays the agreement signed after 28 days of the hunger strike. Therefore, we stress on the following :

1. The Egyptian mediators should undertake its role as the guardian of the agreement.

2. The European governments should take actions against the inhumane Israeli practices inside the jails.

3. All local and international human rights organisations should exert pressure on the Israeli government and support the Palestinian prisoners until they gain all their human rights and demands.

4. Human rights and media activists should reveal the brutal polices of IPS in their reporting and activities.

5. In case the conditions inside the Israeli prisons are not changed according to the prisoners’ demands, this unquestionably will lead to re-launch another strike to force the IPS to bind itself to the signed agreement.

UFree Network | Media Centre
media@ufree-p.net
www.UFree-p.net

UFree is an independent European-wide human rights network ; set up to defend the rights of Palestinian political prisoners and detainees.