[prisoner-rights] Palestinian prisoners refuse to attend court

Thursday, January 02, 2003

LAW today has learned that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and
detention centers are refusing to attend Israeli courts in an open-ended
strike.

The strike comes after Palestinian prisoners at the Ofer detention center
complained of Israeli border police beating them while being transported
from the detention center to the courts. On December 31, 2002,
Palestinian prisoners at Ofer went on strike.

Today, Thursday, January 2, 2003, Palestinian prisoners in other
detention centers joined the Ofer prisoners in their strike. LAW's
lawyer, Jawad Imawi noted that the strike has been declared open-ended,
until Israel's prison administration finds a more humane way of
transporting prisoners.

Complaints of poor treatment and medical negligence at Israeli prisons
are common. On December 26, LAW's lawyers were forced to chase from
prison to prison to find their client, who was consistently 'moved,' to
avoid contact with his lawyers. LAW is presently putting forward a case
to allow a blind prisoner to be moved to a jail that sits on one level,
as is appropriate to his health condition. On November 7, a Palestinian
prisoner told LAW of being denied appropriate medical treatment. The
prisoner had sustained serous injures after being shot in the stomach and
leg during the April siege in Hebron. Another prisoner was denied an
operation to remove a large swollen lump on his neck.

On November 21, LAW reported the case of a blind prisoner denied
necessary services and repeatedly placed in solitary confinement. On
October 31, LAW reported of a prisoner being tortured and of 6 girl-
children being imprisoned. Other woman prisoners told of extremely poor
living conditions. Meanwhile, on October 20, LAW put forward a complaint
to the police investigations section at the Israeli Ministry of Justice
on behalf of a Palestinian prisoner who was beaten by an Israeli nurse, a
police officer and several others, while his hands were restrained with
handcuffs and his feet with leg cuffs.

Israel's treatment of Palestinian detainees does not meet the United
Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Body
of Principles for the Protection of All Persons Under Any Form of
Detention or Imprisonment, and the Basic Principles for the Treatment of
Prisoners. These instruments are binding on Israel to the extent that the
norms set out in them explicate the broader standards contained in human
rights treaties. LAW further calls on the Israeli government to ensure
that the rights of detainees are protected in accordance with
international human rights and humanitarian law.

LAW emphasizes principle 1 of the UN Principles of Medical Ethics, which
provides that medical personnel have a duty to protect the 'physical and
mental health' of prisoners and detainees and provide them with 'the same
quality and standard of treatment as is afforded to those who are not ...
detained' and principle 2 which states that 'it is a gross contravention
of medical ethics ... for health personnel, particularly physicians, to
engage actively or passively in acts which constitute ... complicity
in ... cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.'

LAW is gravely concerned about the fate of thousands of Palestinian
prisoners and calls on the Israeli government to ensure that the rights
of detainees are protected in accordance with international human rights
and humanitarian law.

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LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the
Environment is a non-governmental organization dedicated to preserving
human rights through legal advocacy. LAW is affiliate to the
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the International Federation
for Human Rights (FIDH), and the World Organization Against Torture
(OMCT).

LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the
Environment, PO Box 20873, Jerusalem, tel. +972-2-5833530, fax. +972-2-
5833317, law@lawsociety.org, www.lawsociety.org.