Democratic Palestine : 30 (ص 14)
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- Democratic Palestine : 30 (ص 14)
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tion as a kind of «military
kidnapping.» She further points out,
«Once the practice of detaining youth
indefinitely at an army camp is ac-
cepted, there is the danger that other
Israeli army camps, and even set-
tlements, could easily be turned into
temporary prisons where, under the
wide powers of the army and settler
‘defense’ forces, youth could disappear
for days at a time without the family,
Red Cross or lawyers being able to
ascertain their whereabouts. Certainly
there seems to be no logical reason for
the persistence of irregular detention
camps like Ansar II and Fara’a except
as a way to extend the already gon-
siderable powers of Israeli military
law.» Even before the uprising, there
were reports that settlers and Shin Bet
plainclothesmen were involved in ar-
rests and beatings in Ansar II.
While detainees in Ansar II increased
to about 800 with the advent of the
uprising, Ansar III was established at
Ketziot in the desert of the Negev
(Naqab-South Palestine) to house the
bulk of the new detainees, as mass ar-
rests and administrative detention
became the norm.
At least 10,000 Palestinians are
presently in Israeli jails. Roughly half
of them were detained under the upris-
ing. For the first time, the arrest of
women has become widespread, with
Palestinian lawyer Walid Fahoum
estimating that 90 of 4,500 detained as
of late July were women. About half
the prisoners of the uprising are under
administrative detention, whereas the
pre-uprising average at any one time
was fifty persons. This reflects how
widespread the current Zionist deten-
tion policy is; even before the official
banning of the popular committees,
about 300 Palestinians had been ar-
rested simply for membership in them.
In May, Knesset member Dedi
Zucker of the Citizens Rights Move-
ment revealed that one in eighty
Palestinians over 16 years of age was in
jail. A sample study of 330 prisoners
showed that 15% were between 16-21
years of age; 58% between 21-30; 27%
older than 30, while the oldest detainee
was a man 75 years old. Of the
prisoners, 35% were agricultural
workers, 25% students, 6% profes-
sionals, 6 journalists, 7% skilled
workers or technicians (and
miscellaneous). Over half had
previously been under administrative
THE TOLL OF ISRAELI
HUMAN RIGHTS
VIOLATIONS
_ The Database Project on Palestinian
Human Rights released the following
‘Statistics on Human Rights Violations
u sre e during the uprising,
tiod of December 9,1987
beaten / electrocuted: 17
_ teargassed: 55
due to settlers or collaborators: 16
JS INJURIES: 6,000
anent damage and/or re-
rehabilitation;
000 injuries
1d of medical treat-
which might be treated locally by
1 committees or medical per-
ADMINISTRATIVE DETEN-
TIONS (new orders): 2,500 - official
number given by the Israeli army in|
early June.
DEMOLITIONS AND SEAL-
INGS: 144 (This figure includes both
collective punishment and the demoli-
tion of unlicensed buildings.) _
DISPLACED PERSONS:
1,500 +
UPROOTING OF FRUIT AND
OLIVE TREES: 30,000+ (in addi-
tion to other destruction of crops and
settlers’ destruction of trees and crops).
CURFEWS: «Curfews and area
closures have been so frequently im-
posed during the uprising that our usual |
system of
them has proved |
Database Project Updates can be ob-
tained from the Human Rights
Resear i Education Foundation, 1
Quincy Court, 1308, Chicago, Illinois |
detention.
Whereas since 1967, administrative
detention had been applied to the
Palestinians of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, under the impact of the
uprising, the Zionist authorities have
again resorted to imposing this on
Salestinians living in the 1948 occupied
territories. Four Palestinians of
1948-occupied Palestine were put under
administrative detention in the first
phase of the uprising. In the early
summer, several more were put under
six-months detention orders without
trial; they were members of the Sons of
the Village, suspected of setting fires in
‘Israel’. On July 13, the respected
patriot, Salah Baransi, head of the
Palestinian Heritage Society in Taibeh,
was put under six-months ad-
ministrative detention.
Fhe biggest single concentration of
the prisoners of the uprising is at Ansar
III; mosi have not been charged and
about haif are under administrative
detention. It seems obvious that the site
for this concentration camp was quite
deliberately chosen for being far
removed not only from the centers of
the uprising, but from population
centers in general, to keep the condi-
tions there away from prying eyes.
Also, the desert climate provides many
opportunities for ongoing torture, as
was evidenced by the appeal which the
detainees managed to smuggle out in
May (see box).
Testimonies of those released and
lawyers’ reports provide additional
facts about the savage treatment and
humiliation practiced by the Israeli
army against Ansar III detainees. Most
recently, a news conference was called
in Jerusalem by the Israeli League for
Civil and Human Rights which is
chaired by Israel Shahak. A 16-year-old
Palestinian testified how he had been
forced to strip naked, cover himself
with paint and stand in the sun for
hours, before Israeli soldiers hit him
with clubs to make the paint fall off,
along with parts of his skin. The youth,
Walid Sayfi of Jerusalem, said this was
done because he stared at a guard; he
testified that prisoners are regularly
beaten and humiliated.
Shahak, himself a survivor of the
Bergen Belsen concentration camp, also
spoke, noting that «Some of the or-
dinary things done in Bergen Belsen
were exactly what was done in Ansar
III... Ansar III and others should be
called Nazi-like concentration camps.» - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 30
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