At its meeting on 24 August 2004, the Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People expressed grave concern at the systematic violation of the rights of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, detention and interrogation centres, and is alarmed at the growing number of prisoners who are on an open-ended hunger strike. Over 3,000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds of ailing prisoners, are now on the hunger strike, which is in its tenth day. Read more about UN Committee expresses grave concern at conditions Palestinian prisoners
Today, Palestinian political prisoners detained inside Israeli prisons are marking the tenth day of an open ended hunger strike in protest of the inhumane conditions in which they are incarcerated. The prisoners are demanding that the prison authorities respect internationally recognised rules governing detention. They insist that the prison administrators move immediately to improve general conditions on all levels inside the detention facilities and that the prisoners’ basic rights be unconditionally respected. Embarking on a hunger strike is a measure of last resort. The decision to strike follows repeated requests by inmates for an improvement in conditions. These have been met with silence from prison administrations. Read more about Child rights group: "Israel should respect rights of child detainees"
Right-wing Israelis and many Palestinians have at least one thing in common: Both fear the disastrous ramifications of Sharon’s Disengagement Plan. Of course, one viewpoint is an expansionist one that seeks to drive Palestinians from their land, while the other one comes from the very real fear that Sharon will show flexibility on Gaza only in order to entrench the occupation in the West Bank. To date, the Bush administration has failed to grapple meaningfully with the Gaza Disengagement Plan in the context of its being a first step within the scenario of a full withdrawal from the Occupied Territories. Read more about Gaza Disengagement: Palestinian concerns ignored
On Sunday, August 15, 2004, the Palestinian prisoners kept inside the Green Line started a hunger strike in protest of the living conditions inside Israeli jails. They were joined by the 120 political prisoners who are citizens of Israel. Testimonies of prisoners and reports from lawyers and human-rights groups reveal shocking accounts of physical and psychological torture, which appear to be part of a systematic policy rather than exceptions due to individual misconduct. The prisoners’ daily routine is dominated by medical negligence, unsanitary conditions, beatings, position torture, sleep deprivation, strip searches and the denial of contact with family members and friends. The inhumane conditions of Israel’s prisons are reflected in the demands the Palestinian detainees put forward as a condition to end their hunger strike. Read more about "Let them starve to death"
There are now altogether approximately 100 Palestinian women political prisoners. On 13 June one group, about half of the women, was transferred back to Neve Tirza from Hasharon Prison. The rooms are dirty and infected with mice and cockroaches. The heat is unbearable, The windows are closed and covered so that hardly any air or daylight can enter. The food is insufficient, of inferior quality or even spoilt, it is dirty, often containing insects and worms. Mothers with babies are living in the same cells with other prisoners. Contrary to what is an accepted custom in the section of the criminal prisoners, the doors of the political prisoners’ cells where small children live are not permitted to remain open during daytime. Read more about Harsh treatment of Palestinian women prisoners
Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians, including two children. Five Palestinians were killed in a failed Israeli extra-judicial execution. Israeli forces demolished 13 homes in Rafah and razed 170 donums agricultural land in the south of Gaza City. Israel continues to impose a total siege on the occupied Palestinian territories and construction of Israel’s apartheid wall continues despite international consensus against the wall. Palestinian and Arab prisoners initiated a hunger strike in Israeli prisons with a call to improve conditions of their confinement, seeking respect for minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners. Read more about Weekly report on human rights violations
Today thousands more Palestinian and Arab detainees have joined this strike. The strike began in four Israeli prisons on the 15th of August in an attempt to exert pressure on the Israeli authority to improve the conditions of confinement. The detainees announced that their intention was to refrain from consuming all solid food but that they would continue to drink liquids. The Israeli prison service started to impose harsh measures on the prisoners from the moment the detainees declared their intention to strike, including the transfer of 120 leaders from Nafha prison in the Negev desert, solitary confinement, placing them with Israeli criminals, and prohibiting visits. Read more about Palestinian and Arab prisoners continue with hunger strike
On 17 August 2004, Adalah submitted a pre-petition to the Attorney General’s Office demanding that they issue an order to the authorities of the Israeli prisons in which political prisoners have opened hunger strikes, obligating them to return fluids and salt to the prisoners’ cells. After the announcement of the hunger strike, the prisons’ authorities entered the prisoners’ cells and removed all fluids, such as milk and fruit juice, and salt. The aim of these confiscations was to exert pressure upon the prisoners to abort their strike. Palestinian prisoners began hunger strikes on 15 August 2004. The number of hunger-striking political prisoners reached 2,200 prisoners on 18 August 2004. The prisoners’ strike is a protest against their poor daily living conditions. Read more about Adalah: "Fluids and salt must return to hunger-striking prisoners"
Israeli prison authorities have declared they are ready to weigh prisoners every day, and force-feed them if necessary. On August 17, it was reported that prison guards would use “psychological warfare” to break the strike, including holding large barbeques in jailhouses. While Jarrar is not concerned about the BBQs, she’s more worried by the threat of force-feeding prisoners.”In 1980,” she recalls, “two prisoners [Ali Ja’fari and Rasem Halawi] in Nafha prison were force-fed after a lengthy hunger strike. When they put the tubes down, they put them in the wrong place, and they ended in their lungs.” Ja’fari and Halawi both died. Read more about Hunger strike "final avenue" for prisoners
The World Organization Against Torture is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Alaa Kapisha, given reported ill-treatment and torture to which he has been subjected, and the risk of further treatment of this type that he faces will in detention. OMCT calls on Israeli authorities to guarantee his personal integrity and to immediately release him in the absence of legal charges that are consistent with international law and standers. OMCT reiterates its grave concern over the use of incommunicado detention by Israel, through the issuing of Orders Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel, as this represents a violation of the detainees’ rights under international law. Read more about Administrative detention and torture
