November 1992, Page 50, 51
Special Report
All-Prison Hunger Strike by Palestinian Political Prisoners Ignites Widespread Demonstrations
Palestinian prisoners from major Israeli detention facilities began an open hunger strike on Sept. 27 to protest deteriorating conditions of detention imposed on them by Israeli authorities. The strike was formally announced by prisoners in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Sept. 25. In the letter, prisoners said they had "exhausted all other means of negotiating, without success" and were turning to a hunger strike as a means of last resort.
"The prison authorities are depriving us of practicing our religion, stealing out food, denying us medical care, refusing to perform needed surgical operations for detainees. . . banning visits within and between sections of the same prison, forbidding prisoner representatives to move between sections and denying us reading materials," the prisoners wrote. "They are also not providing us with necessary materials for cleaning, subjecting us to collective punishments, banning family visits for long periods, and tear-gassing."
Prisoners' Demands
The prisoners specifically called for a halt to the policy of long periods of solitary confinement, the closure of special underground punishment units where dungeon conditions prevail, reinstatement of adequate food rations, a halt to overcrowding, access to proper medical treatment, and an end to beatings and tear-gassings in the cells and demeaning strip searches.
Other demands included the release of very young and elderly prisoners, mothers with young children, and ill and long-term prisoners. The prisoners cited particularly the cases of seven Palestinian prisoners held for more than 20 years under extremely poor conditions, and of at least 10 prisoners from Lebanon who completed their sentences several years ago but have not been released by Israeli authorities.
Over the past year, prisoners have reported to human rights organizations about a deterioration of already inhuman conditions prevailing in Israeli prisons: food rations have been reduced, attempts by prisoners to negotiate with prison authorities for better conditions have been treated harshly and prisoner representatives beaten or transferred to other prisons. Conditions have become more repressive, on the pretext of security, during family visits. Even supervised visits, limited to 30 minutes every two weeks, with no physical contact, often are denied by prison administrators to punish or pressure detainees.
Since 1989, the Israeli Prison Services Organization has used a policy of isolating prisoners in small, unventilated cells, far below standard minimum conditions, in Ward 8 of Roni Nitzan detention center in the town of Ramle and in Bir Saba' prison. In both prisons, some prisoners are handcuffed and shackled at all times when they are outside their cells.
A Serious Deterioration
Similar demands have been made in repeated strikes in individual prisons during the intifada, and especially after the current commissioner of prisons, Gabi Amir, took office in 1991. However, this was the first all-prison hunger strike by Palestinians in Israeli prisons since March 1987, and indicates a serious deterioration in conditions. An estimated 12,500 Palestinians currently are being held in Israeli detention centers and prisons. An additional 500 to 1,000 prisoners are being held under short detention orders and are not registered in detention centers or police lock-ups. An Israeli military spokesman said last May that two-thirds of the prisoners are incarcerated in military detention camps operated by the Israeli army and military police, where they can be held for several years in tents or other temporary structures. The remaining one-third are held in prisons operated by the civilian Israeli Prison Services, under the authority of the Ministry of Police, where they are locked in small cells for 21 to 24 hours per day. Cells are typically filthy, overcrowded and lack adequate ventilation. Jewish and Arab criminal prisoners in Israeli detention facilities are accorded better conditions and treatment than Palestinian political prisoners.
The prisoner strike soon spread outside the prisons themselves. Initially, Palestinian women, the mothers and wives of detainees, held sit-ins in front of Red Cross offices in Gaza, Hebron, Bethlehem and Nablus. The sympathy strikes soon spread throughout the occupied territories. The upsurge of activity was reminiscent of the early days of the Palestinian intifada, that began in December 1987.
When, in mid-October, Israeli authorities agreed to consider their demands, the prisoners suspended their hunger strike. Tensions remained high, however, and demonstrations outside the prisons continued at reduced levels throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
Both the Israeli promise to investigate, and the reduction in Palestinian demonstrations of solidarity seemed motivated largely by the desire to avoid recriminations for disrupting the seventh round of Middle East peace talks, scheduled to resume in Washington on Oct. 21. Observers predicted that failure of the talks very likely would lead to a resumption of violence, with casualties recalling the deadly first two years of the Palestinian intifada.
