25 March 2001
Prisoners in Ashkelon Prison announced the launch of a prison-wide hunger strike beginning on 25 March 2001. The strike will occur once a week every Sunday and is in protest against the Israeli Prison Administration policy of prohibiting family visits. Currently, families from the West Bank attempting to visit their sons in Israeli prisons are prevented from doing so unless they travel in Red Cross buses, even if they have a prior permit to visit. In the recent period, the Israeli Military Authorities have prevented Red Cross buses from picking up families of prisoners from the West Bank and families who have attempted to reach the prison themselves have been denied entry even if in possession of the necessary permits.
The prisoners have requested that the Red Cross place pressure on the Israeli Prison Administration to allow visits from families in the West Bank. These have been prevented since the beginning of the Intifada in September 2000 despite the fact that in the Gaza Strip the Red Cross has been coordinating family visits without problem.
The weekly hunger strikes are also being held to place pressure on the Telmond Prison authorities to separate juvenile prisoners from criminal Jewish prisoners. Prison authorities have refused to implement this separation despite demands from the prisoners themselves and their lawyers.
Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association views the current situation with great concern and considers the current situation of juvenile detainees as extremely dangerous. The placing of child prisoners with adult criminal prisoners is contrary to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rule s for the Treatment of Prisoners (Standard Minimum Rules) adopted by U.N. Economic and Social Council resolution 663C (XXIV), July 31, 1957, which provide authoritative guidance in interpreting principles laid out in documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Standard Minimum Rules apply to all persons in detention, for whatever reason. Among other things, the rules note:
The detention of juvenile prisoners with adult criminal prisoners has led to the following violations in the recent period:
In the recent period, Addameer has also documented the reintroduction of torture practices that were banned by the Israeli High Court in September 1999.
Nasser Ayad, detained in the Askelon Prison interrogation center since 29 January 2001, told Addameer's lawyer during a visit on 19 March, 2001, "I was interrogated for the first 14 days without a break except for 4-5 hours when I was placed in "zinzani"(small rooms 2 meters wide and 1 meter long). During the interrogation I was tortured by the interrogator who forced me to squat and then placed a chair over my thighs on which he sat while my arms were tied behind my back. I was forced to sit like this for up to half an hour at a time. The interrogators punched me and slapped me on my face, one of the interrogators "Abu Midhat" grabbed me by my neck and began to strangle me which made me feel as though I was going to choke to death. My arms and legs were handcuffed extremely tightly to the chair. The chair was made from wood on the seat and iron on the back. While I was tied to the chair, the interrogator would grab me from behind and pull me back from my shoulders so that the chair would lift off the ground. This placed extreme pressure on my back and stomach as my arms and legs were handcuffed to the chair. Sometimes he would pull me all the way to the ground.
Addameer has also recorded a large increase in the number of detentions, and also in the number of those detainees who are placed in interrogation centers. These arrests are occurring at checkpoints and from houses in areas under Israeli control. House arrests are accompanied with the breaking and smashing of furniture and household items. For example:
Marzook Abu Naim, from Limghayer village in the Ramallah area, was arrested from his house at the beginning of March 2001. Israeli soldiers surrounded his house and told his neighbor to enter the house and tell him to walk towards the soldiers with his arms raised. They then handcuffed him, placed him in a military jeep and removed his son and wife from the house. After entering the house they began to smash furniture and personal belongings and then dig up the ground around the house. They prevented anyone from entering the house during this period. After this, they brought the three back into the house where they placed them in separate rooms and began to interrogate and beat Marzook. This continued from 2am until 6am.
Addameer has made 14 visits and handled 32 cases of detainees in interrogation centers between 20 February 2001 to 20 March 2001. The prison administration has forbidden lawyer visits to many of these cases for periods of 10-30 days with the aim of pressuring the detainees through denying them any human contact except for the interrogator.
Lawyers are not told that they are prevented from visiting for thirty days straight, but rather in 2-3 day stretches. When the lawyer attempts to visit after this period, they are told the prevention order for legal visits has been extended for another 2 days. The use of these short prevention orders in effect makes it impossible for the lawyer to appeal the order through the Israeli High Court.
The Israeli General Security Services (GSS) has increased the practice of placing Palestinian prisoners in detention rooms with collaborators. The collaborators then attempt to extract information from detainees by claiming to be active in organizations outside the prison to gain the detainees trust.
The practice of " shabeh" (position abuse -a method of torture in which prisoners are tied up in painful positions, usually to small chairs that force them to contort and cramp their bodies for extended periods of time) is also being used during interrogation for periods up to 24 hours.
Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association demands the following: