The ministry said there are 43 Palestinian women prisoners serving their terms in the prisons of Al-Damon in the Haifa area and the Hasharon (Telmond), a central Israeli prison located between Tel Aviv and Netanya.
It added that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) “refuses to place the married women with their husbands in accordance with the Israeli law which allows the prisoner to meet his jailed wife every six months.”
The ministry said that Irena Sarahneh, of Ukrainian origin, is barred from meeting her husband Ibrahim Sarahneh. Irena is serving a life sentence for assisting her husband Ibrahim and a suicide bomber to carry the 2002 attack in the Israeli town of Rishon Lezion. Ibrahim is serving three life sentences in Al-Damon prison for driving the bomber to the site.
The ministry said that Ahlam Al-Tamimi is also barred from meeting her husband Nizar Al-Tamimi who is serving a life sentence. It added that the Nilli Al-Safadi is also barred from meeting her blind husband Ali Bilal in Majido prison.
According to the ministry, Iman Ghazawi, who is serving a 13-year prison term, is also barred from being placed with her husband Shaher Barakt who is serving a 20-year prison term.
The ministry said that the IPS also refuses to put Palestinian siblings in the same prison.
The women prisoners said that they would petition the Israeli courts to be allowed to be with their husbands.
The also called on local, international human rights organizations and media agencies to “highlight their issue.”
Ten days ago, the Palestinian woman prisoner Lanan Abu Ghilmeh suspended her twenty-day hunger strike to protest the Israeli decision not be placed in the same prison with her sister Taghreed.
Issa Qaraqi, the Palestinian Minister of Detainees and Ex-Detainees, said Lanan ended the strike after the IPS “agreed first to end solitary confinement and isolation of Lanan and then to place her with other Palestinian women prisoners in Al-Damon prison.”
According to the recent Palestinian statistics, there are 6,700 Palestinians currently held in 10 prisons and 3 detention camps in Israel and in the West Bank. There are 300 prisoners under the age of 18. Israel also holds 43 women and 11 Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Traditionally, Israel has refused to release prisoners “with blood on their hands,” which always means those who Israel says have killed Israeli civilians or soldiers and those who have helped perpetrate the attacks.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly said the Palestinians will not sign any final peace agreement before Israel shuts down all its prisons and releases all the Palestinian prisoners, a demand Israel has rejected.
