DCI/PS calls on Israeli authorities to respect the rights of Palestinian child detainees

Defence for Children International/Palestine Section calls on
Israeli authorities to respect the rights of Palestinian child detainees

August 24, 2004

Today, Palestinian political prisoners detained inside Israeli prisons are
marking the tenth day of an open ended hunger strike in protest of the
inhumane conditions in which they are incarcerated. The prisoners are
demanding that the prison authorities respect internationally recognized
rules governing detention. They insist that the prison administrators move
immediately to improve general conditions on all levels inside the detention
facilities and that the prisoners’ basic rights be unconditionally
respected.

Embarking on a hunger strike is a measure of last resort. The decision to
strike follows repeated requests by inmates for an improvement in
conditions. These have been met with silence from prison administrations.

Despite the flagrant violations of prisoners’ rights, Israeli officials
refuse to acknowledge their responsibilities towards the prisoners’ well
being. Moreover, they have shown callous disregard to the danger the hunger
strikers face. Israel’s Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi announced on
13 August that as far as he was concerned the prisoners could "starve to
death".

Currently around 7,500 Palestinians are imprisoned inside Israel for
political offences, including several hundred children. Conditions inside
the facilities in which juveniles are held are exceptionally bad. In Megiddo
and Ketziot military prison camps, which are run by the Israeli army,
children are treated as adults and held in threadbare tents which offer
little protection against freezing winters and scorching summers. Bedding
consists of wooden pallets covered by a thin mattress and there are four
toilets and two showers for every section in which some 120 detainees are
held.

Palestinian children are also detained in the Telmond Compound and Ramle
Women’s Prison, which are administered by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS).
Here, detainees are locked in their cells for hours on end with, in some
cases, only 45 minutes outdoor exercise permitted every two days. Many are
forced to sleep on the floor due to overcrowding. Windows are boarded up
with iron panels, which block out the light and intensify the heat in the
rooms. Access to hot water is often cut and the prison guards routinely and
arbitrarily beat and humiliate Palestinian detainees.

Incarceration in prison inside Israel is usually the culmination of a
terrifying experience for Palestinian child detainees. Before being moved to
one of the IPS or military facilities, the children have been subjected to
an often violent and intimidating arrest. During interrogations carried out
by members of Israel’s armed and security forces, they are frequently
tortured, both physically and psychologically, and placed in solitary
confinement for prolonged periods in an effort to coerce them into
confessing.

Given the potentially serious toll such a strike could take on children’s
health, the Palestinian prison leadership is not calling on child detainees
to participate in this massive hunger strike. However, a number of children
have already joined adult inmates in refusing to eat. Children detained in
Telmond facility have submitted a list of demands to IPS officials. If these
demands are not met then the children have said they too will join the
strike.

The list of demands submitted by the Palestinian prison leadership at the
launch of the strike focuses on key rights violations committed routinely by
prison authorities and affecting Palestinian prisoners throughout the prison
system. There are a number of demands which are particularly relevant to the
situation of child detainees as follow:

Violence and Abuse

Palestinian child detainees report that they are frequently subjected to
arbitrary and often severe treatment by prison guards and military
interrogators. In some instances tear gas is sprayed into cells, or tear gas
canisters thrown into rooms in which the detainees are held with no means of
escape and little ventilation. Guards also intimidate inmates, entering
their cells armed with guns or in at least one case small electric shock
devices. In addition to being beaten, detainees complain that they are
severely humiliated by prison guards during transport between prisons or on
their way to and from trial hearings. In some instances detainees complain
they have been strip searched, and metal detectors are run across their
naked bodies.

Demands applicable to child detainees:

– Ending all aggressive policies by the prison authorities;

– An immediate end to all forms of collective punishment;

– Immediate cessation of strip searches.

Family Visits

Of the 350 Palestinian political child detainees, around 250 are held in
facilities within Israel itself. Given that very few Palestinian families
succeed in obtaining the permission to enter Israel required by the Israeli
authorities, many children have no family visits during the entire period of
their detention. The Israeli authorities have placed a complete ban on
families visits for prisoners from the Gaza Strip and Nablus, but many
families from other West Bank towns have their application for visits turned
down with no reason. Family visits are made all the harder as many children
are detained in prisons far from their place of residence. As a result those
families who do have permission usually have to spend most of the day
traveling to spend only 30-45 minutes with their child. During the visit,
inmates must sit behind a thick glass screens and metal mesh, through which
it is impossible to touch family members and difficult to communicate.

Demands applicable to child detainees:

– Removal of glass/plastic barrier between prisoners and visitors;

– Increase visit time to one hour;

– Allow all family members and relatives to visit;

– Relocate prisoners to facilities near their place of residence;

– Cessation of the policies of restricting family visits as a form
of punishment;

– Installation of public phones in holding sections and yards.

Medical Treatment

Conditions in the prisons in which Palestinian political detainees are
held are particularly unhealthy, with the result that many suffer all manner
of medical problems from constipation and diarrhea to skin infections and
degenerating vision. Pre-existing medical conditions worsen as children are
denied access to the necessary medicine while other inmates are not treated
for injuries sustained either during arrest or beatings administered by the
prison guards themselves.

Demands applicable to child detainees:

– Prisoners be given access to adequate medical treatment and that the
withholding of necessary medications cease immediately;

– Develop and expand prison clinics and equip them for emergency
cases;

– Ensure a practicing physician is present at the clinic seven days a
week;

– Carry out prescribed operations immediately.

Food

The quality and quantity of food available vary from prison to prison, but
in general standards are exceedingly low. Girls in Telmond prison reported
they were given a plate of spaghetti and an apple almost every day for two
months in early 2004. In Ketziot military prison camp in the Negev, prison
guards leave meals standing in the sun for as long as two hours before
serving it to the prisoners, with the result that the food is turning bad by
the time it is eaten. Detainees in Ketziot also complain of a serious
shortage in fresh fruit and vegetables.

Demands applicable to child detainees:

– Prepare and define a list of quantities of all food that prisoners
have the right to receive;

– Improvement in fruit and vegetable supply and cessation of all
reductions.

Financial Penalties

In addition to harsh beatings and confinement to isolation cells, prison
authorities regularly fine child detainees as a form of0punishment. The
amount is withdrawn from what is often referred to as the "canteena" - a
bank account into which individuals and organizations are able to deposit
money for prisoners. Detainees use funds from the canteena to buy items
that go a very small way towards improving their situation in prison, such
as extra food rations. The canteena is also used for buying necessities such
as soap and sanitary towels. Fines are imposed on detainees for any behavior
or act to which the guard takes exception. Since the prison administration
has control over the canteena account, the detainees are unable to refuse to
pay, even if the reasons for the punishment are spurious. Moreover, since
the prisoners are not always aware of the balance of the account, the
administration does not always inform the detainees that money has been
deducted for a penalty. In April, th
e girls in Telmond prison estimated that the prison authorities had
confiscated around 15,000 NIS ($3,000) from them for reasons often as
arbitrary as looking a guard in the eye or praying loudly.

Demands applicable to child detainees:

– Cessation of imposition of fines;

– Cessation of the policies of confiscation of personal effects
and the restriction of family visits;

– Cessation of collective punishments.

Education

Despite a 1997, Israeli High Central Court decision ruling that
Palestinian child prisoners are entitled to education according to the
Palestinian curriculum, only Palestinian child detainees in one facility
within the Telmond compound receive formal education. However there is only
one teacher for all of the boys, and a lack of books and study materials
make it difficult to teach and to study.

In other Israeli detention facilities, the right to education is denied
Palestinian child prisoners. While around 60% of children in prison are
awaiting trial, only those who have been sentenced are allowed to sit their
matriculation ’Tawjihi’ exams. However, in 2004, seven boys who were
sentenced were refused permission to take the exam, while 11 detainees that
were able to only received the necessary study materials three days before
the exam was held.

Demands applicable to child detainees:

– Immediate end to the punishment of restriction of access to
education.

Personal Items

There is little consistence in prison regulations regarding what items
prisoners may possess and receive during prison visits. Prisoners held in
Ketziot and Ofer are prevented from having any means of accessing news from
outside such as televisions, radios and newspapers. In other prisons these
items may be confiscated from prisoners without reason or warning. Child
detainees complain that clothes supplies provided for them by, among others
institutions the International Committee of the Red Cross, are not
distributed in full, and that some of the items are given to Israeli
criminal detainees.

Demands applicable to child detainees:

– Cessation of confiscation and/or destruction of personal effects
during searches;

– Compensation for items that were damaged intentionally during raids
on cell-blocks.

– Rules on items that prisoners can receive from families be
consistent from visit to visit and not changing on the whim of the guard.

Given the current detention conditions, DCI/PS demands the following:

that the Israeli government act immediately to improve the situation for
Palestinian child detainees held in violation of international law in
Israeli prisons.

that the international community intervenes to put pressure on the Israeli
government to improve conditions for Palestinian children inside the prisons
and to safeguard the well-being of their rights

that UNICEF takes action in support of the child prisoners’ demands,
including the undertaking of practical steps such as visiting and monitoring
detention facilities during and after the hunger strike

that human rights and medical organizations be given free access to the
prisons during the period of the hunger strike to monitor the health and
well-being of Palestinian child detainees, and that the ICRC conducts
intensive visits with medical personnel

DCI/PS holds the Israeli government responsible for any deterioration in
the health and well-being of Palestinian juvenile detainees that might
result from the strike

DCI/PS condemns the callous announcement of the Israeli Public Security
Minister regarding the strikers and believe that his comments reflect an
inherent racist disregard to the well-being of Palestinians that exists
within Israeli penal institutions

For further information, please contact

Defence for Children International/Palestine Section

George Abu Al-Zulof: 052 2 436 289

dcipal@palnet.com

http://www.dci-pal.org