After more than two weeks on a hunger strike, Palestinian prisoners have apparently met with some success. At least in Ashkelon Prison, the authorities have acceded to some of the strikers’ demands. Elsewhere, however, the hunger strike will continue until all the demands are met in all Israeli prisons.
The plight of some 8,000 Palestinian prisoners had, until recently, attracted little attention outside Israel even though there were warnings by human rights groups about dire conditions and reports of abuse at the hands of guards. The abuses include a widespread policy of strip searches and severe beatings for those who refuse. Then came Abu Ghraib and the international outcry that resulted. Then came the hunger strike by thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Evenly split between military holding centers and Israeli jails, their conditions are said to be appalling, overcrowded and unsanitary. They eat and sleep on bare, dirty floors, are tortured and stripped and placed in extended solitary confinement which can last for months. One in eight prisoners is being held without trial or even without charges.
Their plight led to the strike in which many of the inmates’ families participated, hoping that grievances would be heard and something done about them. Hundreds of prisoners, for example, are consistently refused family visits and those who do receive family members must to do so behind glass partitions and for only a few minutes.
Another major grievance is that the authorities refuse to provide proper medical services to inmates. There has been a steady stream of reports of seriously ill Palestinian detainees being denied access to doctors or of prison doctors refusing to treat them. The worst grievance concerns the authorities’ refusal to install public telephones inside jails. They claim the phones can be used to authorize and plan attacks but inmates give the logical reply that if Israel were to install prison phones, all calls could be easily monitored.
Israel’s reaction before Ashkelon had been utterly callous, its public security minister vowing Israel would not give in to their demands. But Israel has given in and more concessions are hoped for. Had it been following the law, there would have been no need for a strike. Under the Geneva Conventions which apply to the Palestinian territories, Israel is expected to provide the minimum of humane and sanitary conditions to Palestinian prisoners. Tel Aviv is also in defiance of the 1984 UN General Assembly resolution on torture — of which Israel itself is a signatory.
Israel’s total disregard for international law has led to a prison scandal of no less significance than Abu Ghraib which at one time looked as if it might bring down the US president or at least his defense secretary. It still might affect Bush’ chances for s re-election, depending on what other revelations are made public before Nov. 4. Could the Palestinian prisoner issue have a similar effect in Israel?
