Democratic Palestine : 16 (ص 17)
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- Democratic Palestine : 16 (ص 17)
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Prisoners’ Day
In mid-April, there were demonstrations, school strikes and public
meetings throughout occupied Palestine, in solidarity with the politi-
cal prisoners in the Zionist jails. Over 2000 Palestinian prisoners and
detainees went on a one-day hunger strike, while youth in camps
and villages threw stones at the occupation troops.
Zionist jail
On the occasion of Prisoners’ Day,
the Committee for the Defense of Pales-
tinian Political Prisoners in Israeli Jails
issued a memorandum. Following are
some basic and current facts about the
Zionist occupation’s policy of imprison-
ing Palestinian citizens, as stressed in
the memorandum:
“Since the 1967 Israeli occupation of
the West Bank and Gaza Strip, over
320,000 Palestinian citizens have been
subject to interrogation and detainment.
This included men, women, children and
old people. The period of their detention
ranged from a few months to life impri-
sonment. The occupation authorities
acknowledge only 170,000 detentions,
as stated by Rafi Suissa, head of the
Israeli prison administration, to Al
Hamishmar newspaper in December
1985.
* The number of Palestinian prisoners in
Israeli jails is, on an average, 3,500 at
any given time. This does not include
administrative detainees, or those
arrested for preventive detention. This
number usually multiplies in periods of
mass uprisings.
* In most of the world, a sentence of life
imprisonment is counted as 20-30
years. However, according to the Israeli
law, it is 99 years for political prisoners.
* According to official Israeli figures, the
number of those detained during the first
six months of 1984, on charges of stone-
RRs SOS ee ees
throwing, was 800.
* In September 1985 alone, 102 persons
were detained. In November and
December of 1985, prison sentences
and fines were passed on 388 citizens.
The sentences ranged from a few
months to life imprisonment, while the
fines imposed totalled 73.5 million Israeli
shekels. In January 1986, fines were
imposed on 151 citizens, totalling 14.7
million shekels. In February 1986, this
number rose to 185 citizens with fines
totalling 17 million shekels. This indi-
cates the escalation of the oppressive
measures taken by the occupation
authorities against Palestinian citizens.
*In the light of the problem of over-
crowding in the jails, Amnon Shahak,
commander of the central region, issued
an order in July 1985, to build a tempor-
ary prison of tents on a hill near Jnaid
prison in Nablus, to accomodate new
prisoners. Shahak issued a_ similar
order, for making a tent prison for chil-
dren, near Al Fara’‘a.
On July 24, 1985, the Israeli news-
paper Davar reported that the Israeli
Prison Administration is building a new
prison for Arabs arrested for the first
time, whose sentences exceed five
years. In August 1985, the Ministry of
Police and the Prison Administration
applied for additional funds for building
more prisons, because the current ones
cannot absorb the increasing number of
political prisoners.
On January 13, 1986, Israeli radio
reported that the prison administration is
currently considering moving 500 Pales-
tinian prisoners to special sections in the
army’s military prisons. This would be in
tents, aiming at absorbing 1000 Palesti-
nian prisoners who make the prisons
overcrowded. It was also reported that a
new prison will soon be built in northern
Palestine.
Israeli «law and order»
In the summer of 1985, the occupa-
tion authorities again began applying the
law of administrative detention which is
based on the British Emergency Laws of
1945. This law permits the military
authorities to detain any citizen for six
months, renewable any number of
times, without specifying charges. There
were more than 120 administrative
detentions from June to September
1985, according to official Israeli reports,
but the real number is much higher.
On March 21, 1986, the Israeli
newspaper Hadashot wrote about the
arrest of children, from 12 to 18 years of
age, whereby they are faced with the
worst kinds of torture. It is reported that
there are now approximately 200 Pales-
tinian youngsters in Al Fara’a alone. The
newspaper added that, according to the
military laws in force in the occupied ter-
ritories, it is possible for a military judge
to impose a sentence of six months on
anyone aged 12 to 14, and one year for
those aged 14 to 16, while there are no
limits for sentences passed on those
above this age.
Earlier a law was issued, known as
the Tamir law, which stipulates that a
conviction can be made on the basis of
the testimony of witnesses, in the
absence of a confession from the
accused, regardless of the fact that the
witnesses might be children, police or
soldiers in the occupation army.
81 dead under torture
The memorandum also enumer-
ated the new methods of torture being
practiced by the Zionist interrogators,
and the prisoners’ demands for improve-
ment of their drastically deteriorating
conditions. (See Democratic Palestine
no. 14.) The memorandum concluded
with the names of 81 Palestinian martyrs
who have died under torture in Zionist
jails, been shot on the pretext that they
were trying to escape, or murdered
slowly by deprivation of needed medical
treatment, since the 1967 occupation of
the West Bank and Gaza Strip. e@
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