Sunday 19 September 2010

Palestinian prisoners go on hunger strike to protest IPA abuse - Human rights centers concerned over violations in PA jails

Human rights centers concerned over violations in PA jails

[ 19/09/2010 - 10:05 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Palestinian human rights organizations said the PA security militia is adamant on the political arrest campaign in the West Bank against hundreds of Hamas activists and supporters, while showing concern that more violent methods of torture may be being used against detainees.

PA security militias have launched an extensive arrest campaign against Hamas supporters after Al-Khalil operation late last August which ended in the death of four Israeli settlers.

Human rights centers in Palestine said in a joint statement on Saturday that the PA continues to ignore Palestinian laws against political arrests ruling that suspects must be informed of the charges held against them and their families must be informed where they are being held.

According to researchers, more than 500 Palestinian prisoners are being held in PA jails. But there is no accurate figure of the actual number of detainees since a number of them were released and then rearrested immediately following the holidays.

Local sources in the West Bank said Sunday that the PA militia has arrested 14 Hamas supporters throughout Salfit, Al-Khalil, Nablus, Bethlehem, Jenin, and Tulkarem, including 12 prisoners who were released earlier.

An ex-prisoner released only a few days back was arrested in Saflit after his home was raided. Another man was arrested while in he Rafidia hospital while accompanying his son for a surgical operation.

Two men were rearrested in Al-Khalil after they were released before the Eid holiday.

One man from the Nablus village of Till was arrested after his home was raided.

A university student was again arrested in Nablus city.

A man from the Nour Shams refugee camp was arrested along with another man from Shweikeh after previously being arrested several times by the PA militia in the city of Tulkarem.

A university student from the Jenin village of Jaba and another from Jalbub were rearrested by the PA militia, as was the son of a captured Hamas leader.

A student at Jerusalem university was arrested as the PA targets members of the Islamic bloc in the university. Two other Islamic bloc members were arrested a few days back.

The PA militia arrested a man who spent ten years in Israeli prisons in Khadir, Bethlehem.

In a continued phenomenon of employment discrimination, the Qalqiliya department of education has refused to hire a woman from Imatein village despite her qualification for the job.

Palestinian prisoners go on hunger strike to protest IPA abuse

[ 18/09/2010 - 05:08 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Palestinian prisoners in all Israeli jails have announced they will go on hunger strike next Saturday Sept. 25 in protest of the heightened abuse they have recently suffered from the Israeli prisons authority (IPA).

“The IPA has launched an unprecedented campaign against prisoners since the direct negotiations started, which reflected the Israeli government’s lack of integrity in developing the so-called ‘just peace’ with the Palestinian people,” the prisoners said in a statement.

The brutal assault against the Ofer prisoners, usage of excessive force, and fierce means of repression, including dogs, batons, and tear gas without reasonable cause indicate that there is a plan targeting prisoners’ rights, the prisoners added.

They underscored in the statement that the IPA uses special forces to carry out provocative search campaigns, which include strip searches and other forms of humiliation, and transfers prisoners from one prison to another while holding other prisoners in solitary confinement.

The IPA has denied prisoners the right to visits, imposed fines on them, banned books and newspapers, and prohibited prisoners from purchasing needed foods during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Prisoners believe the IPA has kicked off an “open war” against their lives and rights without anyone to fight in their corner.

Gaza’s prisoner committee asked the international community to issue international resolutions to protect Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The IPA has a long time back set off an open war against prisoners using racist measures that are tantamount to war crimes that should be prosecuted in international courts, the committee’s media official Nashaat al-Wahidi said Saturday.

The transfer of sick prisoners from hospitals to prisons was an indication that Israel had begun an open war against prisoners as what happened recently in the Nafha, Ofer, and Hadarim prisons, Wahidi stated.

He said the prisoners’ committee in Gaza would back the hunger strike set to take place Sept. 25 for one day.

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