Harsh treatment of Palestinian women prisoners

[Classical_Liberal]

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. There are not enough ventilators, and often the electricity is cut off, so that even the existing ventilators do not work.

After falling down, Majed Nas had her swollen leg bandaged by a male nurse. Only two weeks later she was seen by a doctor and obtained a prescription, but the medication was not available in the prison. Dental care was even more difficult to obtain than regular medical care, but as of July the prisoners are supposed to have regular access to a dentist. Letters and newspapers are not distributed regularly, and sometimes even letters that bear an exact address are returned to the sender.

Zakya 'Awisah, an administrative detainee, who was released in July, had received many letters of support. The commander of the wing where she had been held, had threatened that if she continued to receive so many letters, she would not be allowed to write and receive any letters at all. 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. On behalf of the mothers and their babies, the lawyer of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Sonia Boulous, and of WOFPP, Taghrid Jahshan, are preparing an appeal against this condition........

For this, seven women were fined NIS 200.- (US$ 50) each, and three women among the seven were punished additionally by being deprived of their daily walk in the yard for one week, and of family visits for two months. After a bucketful of water got spilled on the foot of a warden, Maha El'ak was beaten, tied to her bed for a day and a half and not allowed to go to the toilet. She was held in solitary confinement for one month. After the assassination of the Palestinian leader in Gaza, El-Rantissi, some women returned the food and held a mourning ceremony by saying prayers. For this, eight women were fined. NIS 400.- (US$ 100) each, they were not permitted to have family visits for two months, and some of them were put into solitary confinement for a few days.......


http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3026.shtml

[number6]

1. kick

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[Djinn]

2. the real reasons for the hunger strike

it has been claimed in this forum that the strikers want mobile phones and visits without searches which kind of makes it all sound over the top - prisons all over the world are vile places to be - not teh 5 star hotels that rightwing talkback hosts bleat about - in places where there is an entrenched conflict as well the jails are hell on earth and inmates are treated differently depending on which side of the ethnic/religious/political fence they sit on. In UK prisons Irish republicans used to get far worse treatment than scottish/english or welsh murderers and rapists. The treatment of Palestinians (1500 of whom have never been charged) in Israeli prisons is appalling for a supposedly developed nation.