Israel No. 1 in Violating Prisoners’ Rights, says Group

VIENNA, October 8, 2011 (WAFA) – “Israel is classified as the first country in the world that violates the international law and human rights resolutions of the Prisoners,” Friday said Friends of Humanity International in a press release.

“Since 30 months, conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been deteriorating at all levels,” as the Israeli prisons administration had “adopted new harsh physical and psychological techniques to oppress and torture prisoners,” said the organization.

It warned that what is really happening inside the Israeli jails against the Palestinian prisoners is “an ongoing catastrophe resulting in an unlimited number of dead, sick or harmed prisoners.”

According to the press release, the techniques included taking away from the prisoners more than 70 achievements the Palestinian prisoners movement had gained over the years, increasing solitary confinement and isolation of prisoners, halting university education, prohibiting books especially the Holy Quran, switching off and stopping satellite channels, and banning family visits for long periods to the extent they banned more than 800 visits.

Friends of Humanity International said it was watching “with profound concern the slow death of the Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails as they have been observing a hunger strike.”

The strike started on September 26 with an aim to force the Israeli authorities to recognize all prisoners’ rights and end all measures against them that are against international laws and human rights resolutions.

“What actually worries all is the ignorance of the Israeli authorities to such a legal strike and to the demands of hunger strike. The prisoners were forced to hold this hunger strike to force the Israeli prison authorities to pay attention to their basic rights,” noted the press release.

Friends of Humanity International called on the Israeli government to stop all sorts of violations and humiliations against the Palestinian and Arab prisoners in its jails, as well as to comply and accomplish all legal and humanitarian requests and demands of the Palestinian prisoners.

It also called on the international community, represented by the United Nations, to put the Palestinian prisoners question into its priority consideration and agenda “since the prisoners are suffering by the hour for decades.”

Palestine News & Info Agency - WAFA