Not a hoax: Palestinian human rights group demands prisoners be enable to
run terror operations

PRESS RELEASE

[IMRA: It would appear that PHRMG puts the human right (sic) of Palestinian
prisoners to smuggle weapons and run terror operations over the human rights
of Israelis not to be murdered.]

August 27, 2004

The PHRMG expresses its maximum solidarity supporting Palestinian
Political Prisoners

On Sunday, August 15, 2004, Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli
detention centers have begun an open-ended hunger strike in order to
complain the harsh conditions in the Israeli prisons.

Palestinian detainees have submitted demands particularly focused on:

- improving of medical care facilities in the Israeli prisons;
- ending prohibitions of and restrictions on family visits,
particularly prevented by the presence of a glass screen between the
prisoner and the visitors;
- stopping the humiliating daily strip searches;
- improving minors and women's condition in the prisons,
separating them from Israeli common law criminals;
- allowing the prisoners to have free access to public
telephones;
- ending all the restrictions upon educational issues such as
the prohibition to be enrolled in any Arab university or the bar to take
courses in Political Science or Sociology considered as a "threat of
security";
- ending the awful solitary confinement as well as the arbitrary
and indiscriminate beatings perpetrated by Israeli soldiers during the
interrogations and inside the cells.

Palestinian political prisoners indeed consider the ongoing hunger
strike as the last option to protest against: the systematic policy of
torture and inhuman harassment applied by Israeli authorities in the
detention centers; the deprivation of basic rights; the tight
restrictions imposed on prisoners regarding family visits, food
supplies, medical treatments and recreational activities. They regularly
undergo frustrating and deplorable treatments such as humiliating strip
searches, while they are naked, before leaving their cells, including
when they are going to meet with the doctor of the center or their
lawyers. Additionally, Israeli prison guards deny any kind of physical
contact between Palestinian detainees and their small children during
the visit time, creating such a frustrating mood. On the contrary, all
the Israeli prisoners are entirely free to meet their relatives without
any type of restriction.

On this basis, the PHRMG is extremely concerned about Palestinian
prisoners' conditions in the Israeli detention centers and expresses its
maximum solidarity to them, totally supporting their humanitarian
demands.

Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967, more than 650,000
Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli authorities. Nowadays, there
are approximately 7,500 Palestinian political prisoners being held in
Israeli detention centers, suffering inhuman treatments and daily
ongoing humiliations. Furthermore, over 750 of them are detained under
the so called "administrative detention" procedure, allowing Israeli
authorities to arrest Palestinians without any charge or trial for
indefinite periods of time, just claiming unspecified "security
reasons".

The PHRMG strongly criticizes the application of such a completely
unfair system, clearly in violation of the Art. 9 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states that:
Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall
be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived
of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such
procedure as are established by law.

Furthermore, Israeli methods used in the detention centers represent
grave violations of several international rules.

In particular, the Art. 10 of the United Nations International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Israel in 1991, states that:

"All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity
and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person".

Moreover, the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners,
adopted in Geneva in 1955 and approved by the Economic and Social
Council in 1997, states that:

"Prisoner shall be allowed to communicate with heir family and reputable
friends at regular intervals, both by correspondence and by receiving
visits; prisoners shall be kept informed regularly of the more important
items of news by the reading of newspapers or periodicals and by hearing
wireless transmission".

The Fourth Geneva Convention, adopted in 1949, explicitly considers as
illegal the confinement of Palestinian political prisoners in the
detention centers outside the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The
Article 47 explicitly affirms that:

"Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied
country, and if convicted, they shell serve their sentences therein".

As a form of psychological torture, barbecues have been set up by
Israeli guards near the cells of Palestinian security prisoners in an
effort to undermine their aim of keeping striking. Prisons Service
guards have also confiscated cigarettes and candy and removed pens and
newspapers. In addition, all family visits have been entirely denied
with the aim of combating the ongoing strike.

The PHRMG calls upon the Israeli Government to stop the wide-spread
violations perpetrated in the detention centers, respecting the
Palestinian prisoners' rights of strike as well as starting recognizing
their basic rights in accordance with the International Law.

The PHRMG also strongly condemns the shocking statement issued by
Israeli Minister of Interior Security, Tsahi Hanegbi, in relation to the
Palestinian prisoner's strike. The refusal to hospitalize detainees
whose medical status has deteriorated because of the ongoing hunger
strike, on the basis that they are all terrorists, is completely
deplorable, inhuman and inexcusable. Such a behavior disqualifies Israel
as a democratic country.

On this regard the PHRMG calls on the medical personnel in the Israeli
detention centers to supply any medical care and assistance to the
Palestinian prisoners in need and calls upon the Israeli Minister of
Interior Security to retract his unacceptable declarations, respecting
the prisoners' right of expression.

Moreover, the PHRMG calls upon the members of the International
Community to immediately take any possible action preventing Israel to
keep perpetrating collective abuse and punishment against Palestinian
political prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

Finally, supporting the voice of detainees, their families and the whole
Palestinian civil society, the PHRMG urgently demands to the Israeli
authorities:

1) The end of any form of collective punishment perpetrated by Israeli
personnel against Palestinian political prisoners;
2) The improvement of medical care facilities in the detention centers;
3) The installation of public telephones in the prisons;
4) The removal of the glass partitions separating prisoners from
visitors;
5) The end of all the humiliating and frustrating daily strip searches
perpetrated against Palestinian political prisoners.

________________________________________________________________________

The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) is a Palestinian,
independent, non-governmental organization working to end human rights
violations committed against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip,
and East Jerusalem, regardless of those responsible. The members of the
Monitoring Group believe that the strength of democracy and civil
society in Palestinian society will be determined by the Palestinian
people, through their defense or neglect of human rights.

Ragheb Nashashibi Street 5
Sheikh Jarrah-Jerusalem
P.O. Box 19918
East Jerusalem 91198
www.phrmg.org
tel. 972-2-582-3372/3
fax. 972-2-582-3385

from their cells

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