Palestinian prisoners in Israel

Palestinian prisoners in Israel mainly refers to Palestinians imprisoned in Israel following apprehension resulting from the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Most prisoners are held after conviction by the Israel Prison Service, which is under the jurisdiction of the Internal Security ministry, while some are administrative detainees. The future of Palestinian political prisoners detained by Israel has long been considered central to progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.cite book|title=The Middle East and North Africa 2004|publisher=Routledge|author=Europa Publications|year=2003|isbn=1857431847, 9781857431841|page=554]

Number of prisoners

Between 1967 and 1988, more than 600,000 Palestinians were held in Israeli jails for a week or more. [ [http://www.pchrgaza.org/arrests_torture_stat.html Arrests, imprisonment and torture] , Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, retrieved June 27, 2008.] Verify source|date=September 2008 According to the guardian, approximately one-fifth of the population has at one time been imprisoned since 1967.Those arrested were subject either to trial or Administrative detention. [http://www.btselem.org/English/Administrative_Detention/Index.asp Administrative Detention] , B'Tselem, retrieved June 27, 2008.]

According to the Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH), from the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000 through to April 2003, more than 28,000 Palestinians were incarcarated in prisons or prisoner camps. In April 2003 alone, there were more than 5,500 arrests.cite web|title=Palestinian Prisoners in Israel: The Inhuman Conditions Being Suffered by Political Prisoners|author=Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH)|date=July 13 2003|url=http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article1894|accessdate=2008-09-12]

In 1998, the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention began to gradually decline and averaged less than 20 from 1999 to October 2001. However, with the start of the Second Intifada, and particularly after Operation Defensive Shield, the trend was reversed, and the numbers began to steadily climb. [http://www.btselem.org/English/Administrative_Detention/Index.asp Administrative Detention] , B'Tselem, retrieved June 27, 2008.] In 2007, the number of Palestinians under administrative detention averaged about 830 per month, including women and minors under the age of 18. [ [http://www.btselem.org/Download/200712_Annual_Report_eng.pdf 2007 Annual Report: Human Rights in the Occupied Territories] , B'Tselem, Special Report, December 2007.] By March 2008, more than 8,400 Palestinians were held by Israeli civilian and military authorities, of which 5,148 were serving sentences, 2,167 were facing legal proceedings and 790 were under administrative detention, often without charge or knowledge of the suspicions against them. The main prisons in which Palestinian prisoners apprehended by Israel are held are in the Ofer Prison in the West Bank and the Megiddo and Ketziot prisons in Israel. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5211930.stm Who are the Mid-East prisoners: Palestinian prisoners] "BBC News". 2008-03-31.]

On 17 April 2008, the annual day of commemoration for Palestinian Prisoners, Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, published a summary report of statistics noting that there were 11,000 Palestinian prisoners being held in prison and detention in Israel, including 98 women, 345 children, 50 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and 3 ministers of the Palestinian National Authority.cite web|title=Palestinian Prisoners in Israel's Prisons|author=Adalah:The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel|url=http://www.adalah.org/newsletter/eng/apr08/5.pdf|date=17 April 2008|accessdate=2008-09-12] Of these 11,000 Palestinian prisoners, 8,456 were from the West Bank, 762 from the Gaza Strip, 552 from Jerusalem, and 132 from within Israel itself.

Imprisoned politicians

There are several Palestinian leaders and politicians held in Israeli jails, including 47 Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, in addition to some ministers and the mayors and municipal council members of various towns and cities in the West Bank.

Marwan Barghouti

Marwan Barghouti a leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia and al-Mustaqbal political party, was arrested and tried by an Israeli civilian court for attacks carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. He was convicted on May 20 2004 on five counts of murder and sentenced to five life sentences and forty years.

Ahmad Sa'adat

Ahmad Sa'adat, the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is currently held by Israel. In 2002, he was tried, convicted and imprisoned in Jericho by the Palestinian National Authority, for his role in the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi on October 17 2001 by the PFLP. The Palestinian Supreme Court later declared his imprisonment unconstitutional. His imprisonment by the PNA, rather than extradition to Israel as required by the Oslo Accords, was negotiated between the PNA, Israel the US and the UK. Under the terms of that agreement, the imprisonment was to be monitored by US and UK observers. On March 14 2006, after both the American and British monitors, as well as the Palestinian guards of the Jericho jail abandonded their posts, Israeli forces surrounded the prison in Jericho and took Sa'adat. He has been held under administrative detention by Israel since then.

Mayors

Several Palestinian mayors and members of municipal councils have been detained. In 2005, three members of Nablus's municipal council including the mayor Adly Yaish, Qalqilya mayor Wajih Qawas, Beita mayor Arab Shurafa, [Daraghmeh, Ali. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/23/AR2007052300297.html Israeli Troops Round Up Hamas Lawmakers] "Associated Press". Washington Post. 2007-05-24.] and two members of the Bani Zeid municipal council — all members of Hamas were arrested.

Prisoner exchanges and releases

Israel has released Palestinian prisoners in prisoner exchange agreements concluded with various Palestinian militia factions. For example, in 1985, Israel released 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in exchange for three Israeli POWs being held by Ahmed Jibril.cite book|title=Psychological Warfare in the Intifada: Israeli and Palestinian Media Politics and Military Strategies|author=Ron Schleifer|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|year=2006|isbn=184519134X, 9781845191344|page=38|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=VT3YSkxgO94C&pg=PA38&dq=palestinian+prisoners+israel+1948&lr=&sig=ACfU3U23v6E5a7JDjCLEaR_9mm-m7NBQwQ]

The 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (also known as 'Oslo 2') calls for the release of Palestinian detainees, in stages, as part of a series of "confidence-building measures."cite book|title=The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid|author=Roane Carey and Noam Chomsky|publisher=Verso|year=2001|isbn=1859843778, 9781859843772|pages=pp. 198-199|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=B7hZCPEYzysC&pg=PA198&dq=palestinian+prisoners+history&lr=&sig=ACfU3U2QTGok2kx6CdvwpbDbUgQeoPWo3A#PPA198,M1] Because the accords fail to call for the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners, they have been criticized by for being out of step with the Geneva Conventions, which note that when an occupier withdraws from a given territory: "Protected persons who have been accused of offences or convicted by the courts in occupied territory, shall be handed over at the close of occupation, with the relevant records, to the authorities of the liberated territories."cite book|title=The Political Economy of Middle East Peace: The Impact of Competing Trade Agendas|author=Jerry W. Wright|publisher=Routledge|year=1999|isbn=0415183952, 9780415183956|page=p. 132|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=0sjFWyTBNycC&pg=PA132&dq=geneva+conventions+%22palestinian+prisoners%22&sig=ACfU3U1_ngO6u05xXmJeLCNiJq1BiX8L4Q] Upon the Israeli withdrawal from populated Palestinian centers in 1995, many of the Palestinian prisoners in military jails were transferred to jails inside Israel, in breach of articles 49 and 76 of the Geneva Conventions prohibiting deportations. From the signing of Oslo through to 2001, an additional 13,000 Palestinians were arrested, tried and/or convicted, and because there is no clause in Oslo prohibiting or pertaining to arrests made after the signing of the accords, those arrested after the signing of Oslo II in 1995 are excluded from the conditions outlined in the agreements to follow.

The 1998 Wye River Memorandum specified that Israel was to release 750 Palestinian prisoners, some 250 of which were released by the time of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum in 1999.cite book|title=The Palestine Yearbook of International Law 1998-1999|author=Academie de Droit Internationale, Anis F. Kassim|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|year=2000|isbn=9041113045, 9789041113047|page=p. 257|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=C3NlRejwfUwC&pg=PA257&dq=%22palestinian+prisoners%22+%22hunger%22&lr=&sig=ACfU3U0iDocQADUlFE4gbg5XUp26kPkfpg] Europa, 2004, p. 555.] Wye 2 reduced the number of those who were to be released from 500 to 350, and these were freed by mid-October 1999. Israeli pledges to release an undetermined number of prisoners at the beginning of Ramadan were met, albeit belatedly, when 26 'security' prisoners,On page 252 of "Politics and Sociolinguistic Reflexes", "security prisoners" is defined as a term used to refer to "Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails under the charge of being involved in acts that endanger the security of Israel."] half of whom had a few months left to serve were released on 29 December. An additional seven prisoners from East Jerusalem were released the day following after protests from the Palestinian Authority, who had expected more. Further releases of Palestinian prisoners by Israel in 2000 included 15 in March 2000 and 3 in June 2000, as a "goodwill gesture".

In a meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh in February 2005, Israel pledged to release another 900 Palestinian prisoners of the 7,500 being held at the time.cite book|title=The Road Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003|author=Tanya Reinhart|publisher=Verso|year=2006|isbn=1844670767, 9781844670765|page=p. 77] By the spring of 2005, 500 of these had been released, but after Qassam rocket attacks on Sderot on May 5, Ariel Sharon withheld the release of the remaining 400, citing the need for the Palestinian Authority to reign in militants.cite book|title=A Global Agenda: Issues Before the 60th General Assembly of the United Nations|author=Angela Drakulich, United Nations Association of the United States of America|publisher=United Nations Publications|year=2005|isbn=1880632713, 9781880632710|page=79|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=Nn41RSRpoaIC&pg=PA79&dq=palestinian+prisoners+israel+1948&lr=&sig=ACfU3U13VjjeF0ow1zHRFRD3GE63NMlvag#PPA79,M1]

On August 25 2008, Israel released 198 Palestinian prisoners in a "goodwill gesture" to encourage diplomatic relations and support Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/26/israelandthepalestinians1 Israel releases 198 Palestinian prisoners] , The Guardian, Tuesday August 26 2008.] The Israeli government has also offered to release 450 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip since June 2006. [http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i45iGFWnwxD0TbdcneAJ5Q_mUo3A Israel PM willing to free 450 Palestinians in sw
] , AFP, August 29, 2008.]

Accusations of human rights abuses

The IDF has been accused by several organisations of abusing Palestinian prisoners. [ [http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2258018920080622?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true Israeli army abuses Palestinian prisoners: group] , Reuters, June 22, 2008.] [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/994837.html Report: Soldiers routinely abuse Palestinian prisoners] , Haaretz, June 22, 2008.] [ [http://www.btselem.org/Download/200705_Utterly_Forbidden_eng.doc Utterly Forbidden: The Torture And Ill-Treatment Of Palestinian Detainees] , B'Tselem & Hamoked, May 2007.]

In a July 2003 report by the FIDH that was presented to the UN Human Rights Committee, it was noted that "Israel does not recognize Palestinian prisoners as having the status of prisoners of war." In practice, it is the Israeli military that controls the conditions of detention and the administrative detention system allows for the imprisonment of an individual for up to 6 months, and this detention can be extended without the approval of a judge. The FIDH report also notes that, "In the case of administrative detention, the necessary conditions for the execution of a fair trial are far from being achieved given that the lawyers do not even have access to the evidence."

Physical torture

Until 1999, "moderate physical pressure" was permitted in the interrogation of suspects by the Israeli General Security Services (GSS), as outlined in the Landau Commission report of 1987. Btselem reports that the methods of interrogation included several techniques, such as "depriving the interrogee of sleep for a number of days by binding him or her in painful positions; playing loud music; covering their head with a filthy sack; exposing the interrogee to extreme heat and cold; tying them to a low chair, tilting forward; tightly cuffing the interrogee's hands; having the interrogee stand, hands tied and drawn upwards; having the interrogee lie on his back on a high stool with his body arched backwards; forcing the interrogee to crouch on his toes with his hands tied behind him; violent shaking of the detainee, the interrogator grasping and shaking him; using threats and curses, and feeding him poor-quality and insufficient amounts of food."Cite web|title=Torture: Background on the High Court of Justice's decision|url=http://www.btselem.org/english/Torture/Background.asp|publisher=Btselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories|accessdate=2008-09-12]

In 1997, the United Nations Committee Against Torture found that such methods constituted torture and were in breach of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, a convention ratified by Israel in 1991. In September 1999, a ruling by Israel's High Court repudiated the Landau Commission's position, stating that the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) does not have legal authority to use physical means of interrogation that are not "reasonable and fair" and that cause the detainee to suffer. While the court noted that a reasonable interrogation is likely to cause discomfort and put pressure on the detainee, this is lawful only if "it is a 'side effect' inherent to the interrogation," and not aimed at tiring out or "breaking" the detainee as an end in itself.Cite web|title=Torture: Torture and ill-treatment as perceived by Israel’s High Court of Justice|publisher=Btselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories|accessdate=2008-09-12|url=http://www.btselem.org/english/Torture/HCJ_Ruling.asp]

Uri Davis writes that the Supreme Court ruling of 1999 came after 50 years of silence "in the face of systematic torture practiced in Israeli jails and detention centers against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, as well as other prisoners."cite book|title=Apartheid Israel: Possibilities for the Struggle Within|author=Uri Davis|publisher=Zed Books|year=2003|isbn=1842773399, 9781842773390|page=pp. 196-197|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=Qxo55svQBNUC&pg=PA196&dq=palestinian+prisoners+israel+1948&lr=&sig=ACfU3U2soC80zeYjBvfJMsK4xXYCF1E6Tw#PPA196,M1] However, Davis also notes that after the Supreme Court ruling, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel reports that "torture has, in most cases, ceased."

In 2000, an official Israeli report has acknowledged that the Israeli security service tortured detainees during the First Intifada. The report said that the leadership of Shin Bet knew about the torture but did nothing to stop it. Human rights organisations say some detainees died or were left paralysed. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/637293.stm BBC - Israel admits torture] ]

Psychological torture

Human rights groups accused Israel of using psychological torture against some Palestinian detainees by faking the arrest of close relatives or taking family members into custody on questionable charges. [http://uk.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUKL1317681120080413] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7345025.stm]

Political & social mobilization

Yezid Sayigh writes of how the "inadvertent consequence" of Israel's internal security measures was to contribute to the social mobilization of Palestinian society. The high number of students and youth to enter the prison system from the mid-1970s to early 1980s, meant that the prison population "tended to be young, educated, and familiar with the tactics of civil disobediance and unarmed protest." In prison, they were exposed to political indoctrination and instruction in security and organization from veteran guerillas. Prisoners organized themselves according to political affiliation and ran education programmes for one another, making the prisons "unsurpassed 'cadre schools'". Many youth upon finishing their prison terms would go on to become leaders of students movements in Palestinian universities and colleges in the territories.cite book|title=Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993|author=Yazīd Ṣāyigh, Institute for Palestine Studies (Washington, D.C.)|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1997|isbn=0198296436, 9780198296430|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=xTi_UKhBzGYC&pg=PA478&dq=%22palestinian+prisoners%22+hunger+strikes&lr=&sig=ACfU3U1QGtqnir8jPeWALZFY9UnJwii9ZA#PPA478,M1|page=478]

In "Confronting the Occupation", Maya Rosenfeld, notes that in the 1980s, "Under the conditions that prevailed in the West Bank, the option of armed resistance was completely blocked, while organized political activity was completely obstructed by clashes with the military rule and took place under the permanent shadow of threat of arrests. The prisons, where so many were to undergo their punishment, were a 'sanctuary', if only because it was no longer possible to threaten their inmates with incarceration." Rosenfeld's research among Palestinian refugees in the Dheisheh camp in Bethlehem found that the politicization process of young men from the camp underwent a qualitative transformation during their period of imprisonment, which she attributes largely to the internal organization practices of Palestinian prisoners and the central role of studies and education.cite book|title=Confronting the Occupation: Work, Education, and Political Activism of Palestinian Families in a Refugee Camp|author=Maya Rosenfeld|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2004|isbn=0804749876, 9780804749879|page=265|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=a-TVxjP63xEC&pg=PA263&dq=%22palestinian+prisoners%22+%22hunger%22&lr=&sig=ACfU3U0e88Pxx7-6yYyKg6iWM5JBZdaI3g#PPA265,M1] An Israeli investigation among Palestinian prisoners in the early stages of the First Intifada found that their political mobilization was not so much ideologically-based, as it was a function of repeated humiliations at the hands of Israeli forces.cite book|title=Growing Up Palestinian: Israeli Occupation and the Intifada Generation|author=Laetitia Bucaille and Anthony Roberts|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2004|isbn=0691116709, 9780691116709|page=159|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=dAOTBfWM2B8C&pg=PA159&dq=palestinian+prisoners+israel+1948&lr=&sig=ACfU3U3HKHDD3isgUbWCxfKHTjEWt3iJ7g]

'Prison education' programmes

In the years following the occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967, Israeli authorities had initially banned Palestinian prisoners from using pencils and paper while serving their terms. After a number of hunger strikes, the Israeli authorities gradually allowed Palestinian prisoners access to pens, pencils, paper, books, newspapers and a certain amount of carefully monitored radio broadcasting. Palestinian prisoners soon established a library in every prison, and "organised literacy classes, language courses, awareness-raising sessions, political discourse and orientation workshops, as well as classes for young prisoners to prepare them for the General Secondary Examination."cite book|title=Children of Palestine: Experiencing Forced Migration in the Middle East|author=Joshua A. Fogel et al.|publisher=Berghahn Books|year=2005|isbn=1845451201, 9781845451202|page=138|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=Em-tWhsUVR0C&pg=PA138&dq=%22palestinian+prisoners%22&lr=&sig=ACfU3U1hKqhyWtXMtTzDveBlnDyGZDu_UA#PPA138,M1] In "Language and Communication in Israel", it is noted that, "Thousands of Palestinian prisoners learned Hebrew in Israeli prisons."cite book|title=Language & Communication in Israel: Studies of Israeli Society|author=Hanah Hertsog and Eliezer Ben-Rafael|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2000|isbn=1560009985, 9781560009986|page=277]

Hunger strikes

In 1998, there were nine hunger strikes conducted by Palestinian prisoners in different prisons in Israel.

On 1 May 2001, almost 1,000 of the 1,650 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons at the time participated in a month-long hunger strike, in protest against "arbitrary treatment by prison officials, substandard prison conditions, prohibitions on family visits, use of solitary confinement, poor medical care, and Israel's refusal to release all the categories of prisoners specified in its agreements with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)."cite book|title=World Report 2001: The Events of 2000|author=Human Rights Watch|publisher=Human Rights Watch|year=2001|isbn=ISBN 1564322548, 9781564322548|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=JnXcpYPqvZwC&pg=PA394&dq=%22palestinian+prisoners%22+hunger+strikes&lr=&sig=ACfU3U2iWOlE3qPoyUonnNG0lXdNMY-x2Q|page=394] Cite book|title=The Middle East and North Africa 2003|author=Europa Publications|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=1857431324, 9781857431322|page=896|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=4CfBKvsiWeQC&pg=PA896&dq=%22palestinian+prisoners%22+%22hunger%22&lr=&sig=ACfU3U1vC5nOZout0WJqcmgnAgA8e6kJYQ] Mass demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners erupted throughout the areas of Palestinian self-rule in the days following, culminating in a mass protest on May 15 (the anniversary of the Nakba) and ending on May 18 with 7 Palestinians fatalities, 1,000 injuries and 60 Israeli wounded.Cite book|title=The Middle East and North Africa 2003|author=Eur|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=1857431324, 9781857431322|page=896|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=4CfBKvsiWeQC&pg=PA896&dq=%22palestinian+prisoners%22+%22hunger%22&lr=&sig=ACfU3U1vC5nOZout0WJqcmgnAgA8e6kJYQ] The hunger strike was ended on May 31 after Israeli prison authorities promised to review the complaints and ease restrictions on visitations. A report by the Israeli government released in June 2001 on conditions in the Shatta prison noted that the living conditions were "particularly harsh" in the wing where prisoners from the Occupied Palestinian Territories were held, and concluded that the exposed tents and filthy bathrooms in which prisoners were housed and bathed were unfit for human use.

Palestinian Prisoners' Document

Five Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails, affiliated with Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), authored the Palestinian Prisoners' Document in 2006. The document outlined 18 points on the basis of which negotiations with Israel should proceed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attempted to use it as a basis for his negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, but Olmert refused. [ [http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=330&fArticleId=3286997 "Olmert's Mission"] , "Cape Times", June 11, 2006.]

ee also

* Arab–Israeli conflict
* Fatah–Hamas conflict
* Lebanese prisoners in Israel

External links

* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu//sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20080709+ITEM-015+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN 9 July 2008 Debate in the European Parliament on the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israel]

Notes