Israeli Prisons Are Basically Political Prisons
By Crystal Robert
The inmates are mostly Palestinians suspected, accused, and too often –based on coerced confessions- “convicted” of planning, abetting, or carrying out acts of resistances, whether peaceful or armed. Statistics for the total prison are unavailable, but the amount of inmates in maximum-security prisons serving long-term sentences is approximately 3,000; thirty Palestinian women are held in Neve Tertza. Lawyers estimate that until the recent uprising, some 20,000 Palestinians were jailed every year.
There are ten prisons within the pre-1967 borders:
· Kfar Yonak
· Ramle Central Prison
· Shattah
· Damun
· Mahaneh Ma’siyahu
· Tel Mond (for juveniles)
Nine prisons are located in the post-1967 Occupied Territories:
· Gaza
· Nablus
· Ramallah
· Bethlehem
· Fara’a
· Jericho
· Tulkarm
· Hebron
· Jerusalem
There are regional detention centers at:
· Yagur (Jalameh)
· Atlit, near Haifa
· Abu Kaber, in Tel Aviv
· Moscobya in Jerusalem (Russian compound)
There are also police headquarters in Haifa, Acre, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv. The eighteen police stations throughout the state and the forty police outposts in the Occupied Territories are also used to detain suspects for interrogation and torture. Other military installations all over the country also serve as interrogation and torture centers. All prisoners agree that the worse of these is Armon ha-Avadon, known as the “Palace of Hell and “Palace of the End;” it is located at Mahaneh Tzerfin near Sarafand.
Detention camps with only tents for shelter have been erected to contain the large population of Palestinian prisoners brought from Lebanon during the 1982 invasion and the youths caught during the current resistance. Three detention centers have become notorious for their inhumane conditions and daily routine of torture.
No matter where the prisons are located, the conditions are pretty much the same. The Israeli prison authorities keep a rigorous segregation between people held on criminal charges and others convicted of “security offences”, the political prisoners.
Because only a small amount of Jews qualify as political prisoners, and only a small amount of Palestinians, especially those from the Occupied Territories are criminal offenders, this separation entails de-facto segregation between Jewish prisoners and Palestinian prisoners. No contact or communication is allowed and they are either in separate prisons or different wings of the same institution.
Distinctions are made between Palestinian detainees from the Occupied Territories post-1967 and “Israeli-Arab” inmates, who are Palestinians and Druzes residing in pre-1967 Israel and holding Israeli citizenship. The conditions of detention for inmates from the West Bank and Gaza are a lot worse than those of pre-1967 “Israeli” inmates.
Not all detainees from the pre-1967 Israel are allowed a bed or mattress. About 70% of these Israeli prisoners enjoy this privilege. They also are allowed to receive a visit every two weeks and send two letters every month. They get three blankets in summer and five in winter. As for the prisoners from the post-1967 Occupied Territories, they sleep on the floor, even during winter. They are allowed a rubber mat ¼” [0.5cm] thick, one visit and one postcard a month.
In European and American prisons, the average living space per inmate is 112.5 square feet [10.5m²]. For Palestinians detained in the West Bank and Gaza, the living space is one tenth of this area, or 16 square feet [1.5m²] per prisoner.
The Israeli prison bureaucracy is a law unto itself. When a citizen enters an Israeli jail, he loses all rights and becomes subject to wholly arbitrary authority of people selected for their harshness.
Among the 114 existing clauses in the Prison Ordinance (revised 1971), not a single clause or sub-clause defines prisoners rights. What the Ordinance provides is a legally binding set of rules for the Minister of the Interior. These rules are formulated by administrative decree, by no other than the Minister himself!
No provision stipulating obligations incumbent upon the prison authorities exists, or does any clause guaranteeing prisoners a minimum standard of living. In Israeli prisons, it is legally acceptable to cram twenty inmates in a cell no bigger than 15 feet [5m] long, 12 feet [4m] wide, and 9 feet [3m] high. The space includes an open lavatory, and inmates spend twenty-three hours every day in such cells!
The inmates are mostly Palestinians suspected, accused, and too often –based on coerced confessions- “convicted” of planning, abetting, or carrying out acts of resistances, whether peaceful or armed. Statistics for the total prison are unavailable, but the amount of inmates in maximum-security prisons serving long-term sentences is approximately 3,000; thirty Palestinian women are held in Neve Tertza. Lawyers estimate that until the recent uprising, some 20,000 Palestinians were jailed every year.
There are ten prisons within the pre-1967 borders:
· Kfar Yonak
· Ramle Central Prison
· Shattah
· Damun
· Mahaneh Ma’siyahu
· Tel Mond (for juveniles)
Nine prisons are located in the post-1967 Occupied Territories:
· Gaza
· Nablus
· Ramallah
· Bethlehem
· Fara’a
· Jericho
· Tulkarm
· Hebron
· Jerusalem
There are regional detention centers at:
· Yagur (Jalameh)
· Atlit, near Haifa
· Abu Kaber, in Tel Aviv
· Moscobya in Jerusalem (Russian compound)
There are also police headquarters in Haifa, Acre, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv. The eighteen police stations throughout the state and the forty police outposts in the Occupied Territories are also used to detain suspects for interrogation and torture. Other military installations all over the country also serve as interrogation and torture centers. All prisoners agree that the worse of these is Armon ha-Avadon, known as the “Palace of Hell and “Palace of the End;” it is located at Mahaneh Tzerfin near Sarafand.
Detention camps with only tents for shelter have been erected to contain the large population of Palestinian prisoners brought from Lebanon during the 1982 invasion and the youths caught during the current resistance. Three detention centers have become notorious for their inhumane conditions and daily routine of torture.
No matter where the prisons are located, the conditions are pretty much the same. The Israeli prison authorities keep a rigorous segregation between people held on criminal charges and others convicted of “security offences”, the political prisoners.
Because only a small amount of Jews qualify as political prisoners, and only a small amount of Palestinians, especially those from the Occupied Territories are criminal offenders, this separation entails de-facto segregation between Jewish prisoners and Palestinian prisoners. No contact or communication is allowed and they are either in separate prisons or different wings of the same institution.
Distinctions are made between Palestinian detainees from the Occupied Territories post-1967 and “Israeli-Arab” inmates, who are Palestinians and Druzes residing in pre-1967 Israel and holding Israeli citizenship. The conditions of detention for inmates from the West Bank and Gaza are a lot worse than those of pre-1967 “Israeli” inmates.
Not all detainees from the pre-1967 Israel are allowed a bed or mattress. About 70% of these Israeli prisoners enjoy this privilege. They also are allowed to receive a visit every two weeks and send two letters every month. They get three blankets in summer and five in winter. As for the prisoners from the post-1967 Occupied Territories, they sleep on the floor, even during winter. They are allowed a rubber mat ¼” [0.5cm] thick, one visit and one postcard a month.
In European and American prisons, the average living space per inmate is 112.5 square feet [10.5m²]. For Palestinians detained in the West Bank and Gaza, the living space is one tenth of this area, or 16 square feet [1.5m²] per prisoner.
The Israeli prison bureaucracy is a law unto itself. When a citizen enters an Israeli jail, he loses all rights and becomes subject to wholly arbitrary authority of people selected for their harshness.
Among the 114 existing clauses in the Prison Ordinance (revised 1971), not a single clause or sub-clause defines prisoners rights. What the Ordinance provides is a legally binding set of rules for the Minister of the Interior. These rules are formulated by administrative decree, by no other than the Minister himself!
No provision stipulating obligations incumbent upon the prison authorities exists, or does any clause guaranteeing prisoners a minimum standard of living. In Israeli prisons, it is legally acceptable to cram twenty inmates in a cell no bigger than 15 feet [5m] long, 12 feet [4m] wide, and 9 feet [3m] high. The space includes an open lavatory, and inmates spend twenty-three hours every day in such cells!
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