Links to Two very good reports on prisoners below. One on Children on on Adults.
Bethlehem
Palestinian Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqi on Tuesday alleged that potentially fatal diseases such as cancer were going untreated inside Israeli prisons.
In a statement, Qaraqi attributed certain patients’ decline to the “Israeli prison service deliberately neglecting prisoners’ healthcare,” and its failure to release prisoners on humanitarian grounds.
Jailing some 25 prisoners with cancer “is a serious phenomenon which indicates that prisoners in Israeli jails do not get the minimum healthcare,” the minister added.
Qaraqi mentioned 22-year-old prisoner Hamza Tarayra, from Bani Na’eim near Hebron, who was released recently before completing his sentence because he has advanced cancer of the mouth.
The minister also mentioned prisoner Fayiz Zeidat who was also released before completing his term due to cancer. Qaraqi said that Zeidat was transferred to Jordan for medical treatment.
Qaraqi accused Israeli prison service medics of diagnosing prisoners with cancer at early stages, but deliberately ignore their treatment until their situation worsens.
He also stated that many released prisoners had died of cancer, such as Ziad Hamid, Musallam Ad-Duda, and Atif Abu Aker.
The statement concluded by citing a short list of Palestinian prisoners in Israel that Qaraqi said suffer from advanced diseases:
1. 36-year-old Raed Darabieh from the Gaza Strip, who is serving a lifetime sentence and suffering from bone marrow cancer.
2. Female prisoner Raja Al-Ghoul, who suffers from heart disease and badly needs a procedure.
3. 28-year-old Ahmad Awwad from Tulkarem who also suffers from heart disease and needs surgery.
4. Akram Al-Anteir who suffers from tumors that have left him paralyzed.
5. Akram Mansour from Qalqiliya who suffers from a blood allergy and has lost hearing.
6. Female prisoner Amal Jum’a from Nablus who has from cervical cancer.
Defence for Children International has a report on the treatment Children in Israeli prisons it an extremely disturbing report .It explains how they are coerced and tortured to get confessions.Much of what has been done to the children are in violation of :
Appendix I – UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
Ratified by the State of Israel in 1991
Appendix II – UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984)
Ratified by the State of Israel in 1991
Appendix III – International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)
Ratified by the State of Israel in 1992
Appendix IV – Fourth Geneva Convention (1949)
Ratified by the State of Israel in 1951
If this is any indication of how children are treated the adults who have been imprisoned are surely treated worse.
There are also some older reports here as well.
I also posted a story yesterday on a a demonstration at one of the prisons which hold over 11,000 Palestinians. Included in it was another Agency who has gathered information on the Treatment of Children and adults as well The youngest prisoner in Israeli custody is a year and half old.
Israel is in violation of Treaties in it’s treatment to adults as well.
They are breaking International Laws.
Just yesterday the
Israeli forces seize Bil’in teenager
Bethlehem
Israeli forces seized a young Palestinian early on Tuesday from the West Bank village of Bil’in, known for its vibrant nonviolent protests against Israel’s separation wall.
According to the village’s Popular Committee, four Israeli military jeeps, a truck, and some 50 soldiers entered the village shortly after 3am.
The soldiers raided three houses simultaneously, detaining Abed Baset Muhammed Abu Rahme, 19.
In the second house, the soldiers tried to arrest Yaseen Mohammed Ali Yaseen ,21, but he was not at home, according to the popular committee. The soldiers left a military order for him to turn himself in by 9am the next day.
The committee also said that international activists confronted the soldiers, filming and photographing the raid. The soldiers responded to this activity with tear gas and stun grenades, and trained a laser beam on the activists “as a means of intimidation.”
According to the committee, the soldiers withdrew at 4am. The committee released photos and a video of the raid on its website.
Bil’in is well known for its weekly demonstrations against the separation wall Israel is building on the village’s land. The Israeli military has launched a series of arrest raids in the village over the past several months, apparently targeting demonstrators and organizers.
If you protest you can and will be thrown in prison for as long as the Israeli’s feel like keeping you there. Children have no rights to have a lawyer present during questioning or even a parent. They are many times not even given a reason as to why they are arrested. Read the report and you will understand.
From the Report
Between January 2001 and December 2008, over 600 complaints were filed against Israeli Security Agency (ISA) interrogators for alleged ill-treatment and torture.
The Police Investigation Department of the Ministry of Justice, the relevant authority charged with investigating these complaints, did not conduct a single criminal investigation.
Also in reference to the Report
Israel ‘beats up children’
Jonathan Cook
June 17. 2009
NAZARETH // The rights of Palestinian children are routinely violated by Israel’s security forces, according to a new report that says beatings and torture are common. In addition, hundreds of Palestinian minors are prosecuted by Israel each year without a proper trial and are denied family visits.
The findings by Defence for Children International (DCI) come in the wake of revelations from Israeli soldiers and senior commanders that it is “normal procedure” in the West Bank to terrorise Palestinian civilians, including children.
Col Itai Virob, commander of the Kfir Brigade, disclosed last month that to accomplish a mission, “aggressiveness towards every one of the residents in the village is common”. Questioning included slaps, beatings and kickings, he said.
As a result, Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the armed services, was forced to appear before the Israeli parliament to disavow the behaviour of his soldiers. Beatings were “absolutely prohibited”, he told legislators.
Col Virob made his remarks during court testimony in defence of two soldiers, including his deputy commander, who are accused of beating Palestinians in the village of Qaddum, close to Nablus. One told the court that “soldiers are educated towards aggression in the IDF [army]”. Col Virob appeared to confirm his observation, saying it was policy to “disturb the balance” of village life during missions and that the vast majority of assaults were “against uninvolved people”.
Last week, further disclosures of ill-treatment of Palestinians, some as young as 14, were aired on Israeli TV, using material collected by dissident soldiers as part of the Breaking the Silence project, which highlights army brutality.
Two soldiers serving in the Harub battalion said they had witnessed beatings at a school in the West Bank village of Hares, south-west of Nablus, in an operation in March to stop stone-throwing. Many of those held were not involved, the soldiers said.
During a 12-hour operation that began at 3am, 150 detainees were blindfolded and handcuffed from behind, with the nylon restraints so tight their hands turned blue. The worst beatings, the soldiers said, occurred in the school toilets.
According to one soldier’s testimony, a boy of about 15 was given “a slap that brought him to the ground”. He added that many of his comrades “just knee [Palestinians] because it’s boring, because you stand there 10 hours, you’re not doing anything, so they beat people up”.
The picture from serving soldiers confirms the findings of DCI, which noted that many children were picked up in general sweeps after disturbances or during late-night raids of their homes.
Its report includes a selection of testimonies from children it represented in 2008 in which they describe Israeli soldiers beating them or being tortured by interrogators.
One 10-year-old boy, identified as Ezzat H, described an army search of his family home for a gun. He said a soldier slapped and punched him repeatedly during two hours of questioning, before another soldier pointed a rifle at him: “The rifle barrel was a few centimetres away from my face. I was so terrified that I started to shiver. He made fun of me.”
Another boy, Shadi H, aged 15, said he and his friend were forced to undress by soldiers in an orange grove near Tulkarm while the soldiers threw stones at them. They were then beaten with rifle butts.
Jameel K, aged 14, described being taken to a military camp where he was assaulted and then had a rope tightened around his neck in a mock execution.
Yehuda Shaul, of Breaking the Silence, said soldiers treated any Palestinian older than 12 or 13 as an adult.
“For the first time a high-ranking soldier [Col Virob] has joined us in raising the issue – even if not intentionally – that the use of physical violence against Palestinians is not exceptional but policy. A few years ago no senior officer would have had the guts to say this,” he said.
The DCI report also highlights the systematic use of torture by interrogators from the army and the secret police, the Shin Bet, in an attempt to extract confessions from children, often in cases involving stone-throwing. Islam M, aged 12, said he was threatened with having boiling water poured on his face if he did not admit throwing stones and was then pushed into a thorn bush. Another boy, Abed S, aged 16, said his hands and feet were tied to the wall of an interrogation room in the shape of a cross for a day and then put in solitary confinement for 15 days.
Last month, the United Nations Committee Against Torture, a panel of independent experts, expressed “deep concern” at Israel’s treatment of Palestinian minors.
According to the DCI report, some 700 children are convicted in Israel’s military courts each year, with children older than 12 denied access to lawyers in interrogation.
It adds that interrogators routinely blindfold and handcuff child detainees during questioning and use techniques including slaps and kicks, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, threats to the child and his family, and tying the child up for long periods.
Such practices were banned by Israel’s Supreme Court in 1999 but are still widely documented by Israeli human rights groups.
In 95 per cent of cases, children are convicted on the basis of signed confessions written in Hebrew, a language few of them understand.
Once sentenced, the children are held in violation of international law in prisons in Israel where most are denied visits from family and receive little or no education.
Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, reported in November that soldiers rarely faced disciplinary action over illegal behaviour.
Army data from2000 to the end of 2007 revealed that the military police had indicted soldiers in only 78 of 1,268 investigations. Most soldiers received minor sentences.
Please read the report on children
The adults have many bogus crimes logged against them as well.
This is one example from the report on adults who have been charged and incarcerated by the Israeli Military Courts.
Faiza Dib Foda, Education Consultant
and Kindergarten Instructor
Faiza Dib Foda, an Israeli citizen, was born in Acre in 1955. She
is a resident of Doha near Bethlehem and works in Bethlehem.
Faiza was arrested on 30 October 2006 for violation of the Prevention
of Terrorism Ordinance21 and accused of membership
and activity in the Islamic Jihad. This organization was designated
an unlawful association on 22 June 1969. The allegation of
terrorist activity refers to her educational and administrative work
in a Bethlehem kindergarten, which involved soliciting donations
for the kindergarten.
We first met Faiza at her remand extension hearing on 9 November
2006. Her lawyer requested that she be released until the
trial, suggesting that she reside with her sisters in Acre until then.
The judge thought otherwise. In his decision, he wrote:
“…the defendant is charged with membership and activity
in a hostile organization… I am satisfied that there are
reasonable suspicions and perhaps credible evidence
supporting the allegations. This is a serious charge warranting
detention, which will allow the prosecution to present
an indictment.”
Since the investigation had been completed, the judge ordered
remand extension for eight days and immediate transfer of the
file to the military prosecution. In the indictment the offense is discussed in terms of Sections 84 and 85 (1) (a) of the Defense
(Emergency) Regulations – 1945.22
During the above-mentioned period the defendant was
a member of Bethlehem Alnakaa Association, which is
an unlawful association. The defendant served as educational
director of the Alnakaa School. As a member of
the association, she often approached members of the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to solicit money needed
to pay debts incurred by the Bethlehem Alnakaa Association,
which is an unlawful association. PIJ activists responded
to her pleas and on several occasions sent her
sums ranging from 1,900 dollars, 2500 dollars, to 20,000
shekels.
Alnakaa operated unimpeded for seven years. On 30 January
2005, the Military Commander signed a declaration outlawing the
association, but failed to inform the children, the parents, and the
teachers of the change. The kindergarten continued to operate
undisturbed for two more years.
In October 2006, Ms. Foda was arrested on charges of membership
and activity in a terrorist organization. The prosecution
did not submit any proof that the association aims to commit violent
acts or threatens public safety. Although the court accepted
the defendant’s claim that she was not aware of the decree outlawing
the association, and that she innocently assumed that she
was working with women and young children, the GSS assertion,
backed by a signed decree of the Minister of Defense outlawing
the association, was sufficient to press charges against her.
The indictment states that the defendant was an education
instructor at the Alnakaa School. Two witnesses for the prosecution were GSS interrogators who had taken Ms. Foda’s statements.
Fifteen months later, on 23 January 2008, we saw Ms.
Foda again. The trial had not taken place and, according to her
attorney, it had been postponed several times, with the penalty
increasing each time. At the time of her arrest, the punishment
for the offense she was charged with was sixteen or seventeen
months. Subsequently, according to her attorney, it was changed
to 30 months. On a cold January day, she was brought in from
Sharon Prison, and was forced to wait a whole day in a metal
cage where prisoners are kept before trial at Ofer Military Camp.
Her trial took place at 16:00, lasted a few minutes, and was to be
continued on 5 March 2008.
On 5 March 2008, a year and half after her arrest, the sentence
was handed down, after a plea bargain agreed to by both
sides. Faiza Foda, 53 years old, educational instructor and administrator
of a kindergarten in Bethlehem, was sentenced to
eighteen months in prison starting with her arrest (which means
that she would be released in two weeks), and a fifteen- months
suspended prison sentence for two years, starting on the date of
her release. At the sentencing session the prosecutor stated:
”From our perspective, the defendant is someone who
was sentenced for four years in jail in 1991 for aiding
and abetting the enemy. Not only has the defendant not
changed her ways, but she actively helped restore a proscribed
organization, held a senior position in it and did
her utmost to further the cause of the organization even
though she knew full well that it was illegal.”
Note that the activity in question relates to pedagogical counseling
in a kindergarten. The defense reminded the court that beyond
the military phrases such as “aiding and abetting the enemy,” the
defendant is a middle-aged woman, who suffers from asthma
and has a paralyzed left leg. The Alnakaa (Purity) Association is
a non-profit women’s organization devoted to the advancement of
women, running a school and a medical center. The edict outlawing
the association was not publicized and was never brought to
the attention of the defendant who was preoccupied with education
and administration. Apparently, the military court regards the
teaching of Arab children as an activity that undermines security
in the region. The defendant was sentenced to eighteen months
in jail. She was released on 20 April 2008.
For the Report on the adults who were charged and incarcerated check here
Seems they just keep throwing you in jail or other means which may include torture, until you plead guilty.
A quote from the report.
The very conduct of trials in the military court determines their outcome. Almost 100% of defendants are found guilty of all, or some, of the charges brought against them;
For example, organizations
intent on and capable of harming the State of Israel, such
as the military division of Hamas, on the one hand and, on the other, administrative agencies of the Palestinian Authority (parliament, legislative council), political parties, religious schools, students’ associations, charity organizations, kindergartens, daycare centers, clinics, summer and sports camps, orphanages,
students’ clubs and support groups for families of prisoners incarcerated in Israel.Very rarely have we heard a judge ask, what
exactly is that organization to which the defendant is supposed
to have links, and whether that particular organization, in fact,
appears on the list of proscribed associations. When an organization is not included in the list but is referred to by the prosecution as a hostile organization, the court never bothers to check that the goals and activities of that organization, in fact, constitute a threat to security. SourceMore Reports from the same site.
Did You Know 