Democratic Palestine : 18 (ص 11)
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- Democratic Palestine : 18 (ص 11)
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Palestinian Women in Neve Tirza
The situation of Palestinian women political prisoners has deterio-
rated to the point that the Zionists can no longer maintain their
media black-out on the appalling conditions. A case in point is Neve
Tirza women’s prison which houses thirty political prisoners, as well
as Israeli common prisoners.
On June 21st, Israeli television
broadcast that a fight had broken out
between Israeli criminals and Palesti-
nian ‘security’ (i.e. political) prisoners
in Neve Tirza. Due to the incident, some
of the ‘security’ prisoners were moved
to Abu Khabir prison in Jaffa. After
extensive efforts, Charlie Biton, former
Knesset member and head of the
Democratic Front for Peace and Equa-
lity, was able to get permission from the
authorities to visit the Palestinian
women prisoners on June 26th. He
spoke with seven of them. The following
is based on what these prisoners told
him, as it was printed in Al Mithaq
(Palestinian newspaper published in
occupied Jerusalem).
THE FACTS OF JUNE 21
Mariam Rajoub, who works in the
prison kitchen, tells what happened on
June 21st: ‘‘While I was busy taking
food to the other prisoners, I saw five
Israeli prisoners beating a 16 year old
Palestinian prisoner. I and another
Palestinian prisoner, who is 17 years
old, screamed for help. The guards
came and locked us in our cells. We saw
the guards pulling the young girl by her
hair, although the administration
knows that she suffers from severe
headaches. She was forced into her cell,
yet she continued to scream. The guards
came back and carried her away by her
hands and legs, and locked her in soli-
tary confinement’’.
‘‘Suddenly she stopped screaming.
We were worried about her and
demanded to meet with the prison
director, but our demands were denied.
The guards came and sprayed our cells
heavily with tear gas, even though the
administration knows that one prisoner
in our cell suffers from asthma. She was
suffocating and would have died if it
hadn’t been for the help of a fellow pri-
soner, a nurse, who gave her mouth-to-
mouth resuscitation. Later we were
allowed to find out what had happened
to the young prisoner: She stopped
screaming suddenly because she was
injected with valium.”’
GENERAL HARASSMENT
The Palestinian political prisoners
told about their conditions in detail, and
exposed the inhuman practices used
against them by the prison administra-
tion and the Israeli criminal prisoners.
At Neve Tirza, the 30 political prisoners
are kept in two wards. Ward A is desig-
nated for detainees, whereas Ward B is
for those who are sentenced. ‘‘But this
division was only made for publicity and
the media,’’ said one prisoner. ‘‘I was
sentenced and will soon be released, but
I spent my sentence in the detainees’
ward.”’
The Palestinian political prisoners
demand to be separated from the Israeli
common prisoners. In Neve Tirza, the
Israeli prisoners are mainly those sen-
tenced for offenses against public
morals, such as prostitution and drug
dealing. Their behavior is often very
disgraceful and they are constantly
harassing the political prisoners, with
the encouragement and protection of
the prison administration. In May, as
soon as some of the political prisoners
were released from solitary confine-
ment, the Israeli prisoners poured boi-
ling water on them, causing severe
burns. On another occasion, the Israeli
prisoners threw garbage on Palestinian
prisoners. In neither case did the prison
administration or guards move to stop
them.
The prison administration gives
priority to the Israeli prisoners in a
number of matters in the daily life in the
prison. The Israeli prisoners go first at
the lunch break. The Palestinian priso-
ners always have to eat standing up,
because by the time they are allowed to
go eat, all the seats are taken. The Israeli
prisoners also have priority at the prison
canteen. When the Palestinian prisoners
are finally allowed to buy things, it is
usually empty except for left-overs.
DISCRIMINATION AND
DEPRIVATION
Palestinian prisoners don’t get decent
medical treatment. Another form of
discrimination occurs through lan-
guage. Hebrew is not only the official
language in the prison, but it is the only
language used by the administration.
The Palestinian prisoners boycott the
prison meetings, because the adminis-
tration has rejected their demand to
have the proceedings translated into
Arabic. All announcements and bulle-
tins are in Hebrew. Thus, it can take
months for the Palestinian prisoners to
find out their contents which deal with
their daily life in prison.
There are no Arabic newspapers in the
prison. Palestinian prisoners have
found Arabic newspapers in the gar-
bage, which means that the administra-
tion receives them, but does not distri-
bute them to the prisoners. Although
each prisoner is entitled to have a small
radio, there are only three radios bet-
ween the thirty Palestinian prisoners.
The administration does not allow the
prisoners’ families to bring them radios,
but insists that these be bought from the
canteen. However, months pass before.
the canteen has radios for sale.
Moreover, the administration confis-
cates the Palestinian prisoners’ radios
for months at a time, as a form of
repression. _
The Palestinian prisoners do not
receive the aid given them by the Red
Cross and Red Crescent, such as clothes
and games. The administration has kept
the basketball given by the Red Cross on
the pretext that they decide the time for
recreation. Furthermore, the adminis-
tration prevented Palestinian prisoners,
who have Israeli ID’s (i.e. residents of
occupied Jerusalem), from receiving
any form of aid from the Red Cross.
The administration gives the Palesti-
nian prisoners the break to which they
are entitled at midday, when it is extre-
mely hot. The prisoners come out of
dark rooms into a yard where there is no
shade at all. Breaks thus became a form
of torture. As a result, the prisoners
have boycotted the breaks for months.
HUNGER STRIKE
In the face of constant repression, the
Palestinian women in Neve Tirza have
developed a high degree of internal
solidarity and collective action.
Recently, they demanded that the
administration move a psychologically
disturbed prisoner to a room where she
could receive special help; they offered
to take care of her. The administration,
however, moved the disturbed prisoner
into a cell with three Palestinian teena-
gers. The disturbed prisoner beat the
young girls. The administration reacted
with collective punishment against the
three teenagers, putting them in solitary
confinement. The rest of the political
prisoners protested by going on a four-
day hunger strike, June 9-12th. They
demanded the immediate release of the
three young girls from solitary confi-
nement.
A Jewish holiday came one day
before the Muslim holiday at the end of
Ramadan. The prison administration
designated only one day for the priso-
ners’ families to bring sweets and
holiday gifts. This one day ‘happened’
to be on the Jewish holiday, which
meant it fell on the last day of the
Muslim fasting, not the holiday. Thus,
the Muslim prisoners were forbidden to
see their families on their holiday or
receive gifts. @
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