Prisoner Speaks Out From Israeli Jail

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Written by Mel Frykberg Mel Frykberg

Published: 19 November 2010 19 November 2010

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Date posted: November 13, 2010
By Mel Frykberg

Hamdan is serving a nine-year sentence in Ketziot prison in the Negev desert for membership of an "illegal organisation".

"In the end you admit to stuff even if you didn't do it just so that the beatings and abuse will stop," Hamdan, a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) told IPS. "I was only 17 at the time of my arrest and very afraid as I wasn't sure how to deal with the interrogation."

Hamdan said he is only allowed to see his mother once a month for 45 minutes, and his father every four months. But his mother doesn't take the long and tiring journey every month - it takes hours to travel from her village in the northern West Bank to the prison by Red Cross bus through several Israeli security checkpoints.

"Sometimes, when my family brings clothes or educational books, I'm not allowed to receive them. It depends on the mood of the soldiers," Hamdan said. "The soldiers also regularly abuse the prisoners, and clashes break out periodically."

Hamdan spoke to IPS on a mobile phone that he says was smuggled into his cell by a corrupt Israeli soldier. Several other phones have been smuggled into Israeli prisons by soldiers who sell the phones for up to ten times the market value.

"In 2007, the Israeli police and soldiers raided our cells at midnight to search for mobile phones and other items which are banned," Hamdan said. "This was despite a previous agreement between prisoner representatives and the Israeli authorities that there would be no midnight raids."

The ensuing clashes between prisoners and police made international headlines after beds were set on fire and a prisoner was shot dead.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) pays a sum into the bank account of every prisoner each month. The prisoners depend on this money for their survival. "We are not given sufficient quantities of food, and the quality of the food is very poor. We have to use our own money to buy food from the prison canteen," says Hamdan.

Hamdan shares his cramped cell with five other prisoners. The bunk beds they sleep in have one thin, dirty mattress. But he says his conditions are dramatically better from the cell where he spent a month under interrogation.

"I was interrogated day and night and deprived of sleep. During interrogation I was handcuffed and beaten. A foul-smelling sack was placed over my head. In between interrogation sessions I was placed in solitary confinement in an underground cell where a fluorescent light was on 24 hours daily. I was not allowed a change of clothes nor was I able to shower. A bucket served as a toilet and was emptied only periodically."

Last week two Israeli human rights organisations released a report based on the testimonies of 121 Palestinians held in an Israeli detention facility, which accused Israeli authorities of gross abuses of the prisoners.

B'Tselem and the Hamoked Centre for the Defence of the Individual said detainees were subjected to continuous handcuffing, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, beatings and disgraceful hygienic conditions, amongst other severe human rights violations.

"The violations begin from the moment of their arrest and continue until the detainee's transfer from the facility," the report said.

The human rights organisations reported that despite hundreds of complaints by the detainees to Israeli prison authorities, no criminal investigations or charges had been pursued.

Saeed Al-Haj from the Palestinian Prisoners' Society in Ramallah told IPS, "The abuse of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention has been an ongoing issue for decades.

"Some prisoners are placed in solitary confinement for months at a time. We have one female prisoner, Wafa El Biss from Gaza, who has been in isolation, handcuffed around the clock, for nearly two weeks. She is only permitted limited toilet visits during the day and has to wait until the wardens come to uncuff her hands. She has to sleep with the lights on."

Most of the cells in which the detainees are incarcerated are underground. Bright fluorescent lights are left on 24 hours per day, disorienting the prisoners and causing eye pain, vision problems, and headaches, the report says.

Thirteen of the 121 detainees in the report spoke of sleep deprivation that lasted more than 24 hours. In all 36 percent of the detainees said they were humiliated and cursed by their investigators; 56 percent reported threats, and nine percent said they were treated violently

Israel arrests 13 activists attempting to help Palestinian farmers access their land

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Written by Adam Horowitz Adam Horowitz

Published: 18 November 2010 18 November 2010

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[See orginal article for video . . .]

Beit Ommar, Southern West Bank, 10:00am: 13 Israeli, international and Palestinian activists were arrested at 10 am this morning while accompanying farmers to their land in the Saffa region of Beit Ommar. A group of nearly 30 activists accompanied Sheik Mohammad Aady to his land near the Bat Ayn settlement, which is marked for annexation by the Israeli military. After working on the land for half an hour, soldiers emerged from the Bat Ayn settlement and surrounding hills and detained the group.

A number of sound bombs were shot at those working on the land before the arrests. Amongst those arrested was Biet Ommar National Committee member and cameraman Mohammed Ayyad. As of 1 pm the group was still being detained in the police station in the Gush Ezion settlement.

Upon leaving the nearby village of Beit Ommar, soldiers fired from their military vehicles around 25 canisters of tear gas at a group of children who were throwing rocks. The tear gas spread throughout the residential area.

In the past two weeks there have been 33 detentions of farmers and activists in Saffa. The military claims that the land is “state land,” indicating their unequivocal intention to annex it to the Bat Ayn settlement. All of the farmers have documents proving their ownership of the land.

Settlers frequently attack the farmers and land in Saffa. Two nights ago settlers set fire to 70 olive trees on the hillside near Bat Ayn, and three Palestinians were arrested as they tried to extinguish the fire. Three more Palestinian activists who went to take pictures the next day were also detained.

Israelis insist they have US backing to build in East Jerusalem

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Written by Associated Press Associated Press

Published: 18 November 2010 18 November 2010

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Israel says US has agreed to allow building in East Jerusalem but Washington has yet to produce letter showing it has agreed

Israel yesterday insisted it would keep building homes in the disputed East Jerusalem area, threatening to stall a US-proposed building moratorium aimed at reviving peace efforts.

Despite Washington having agreed to exclude the eastern part of the city from the 90-day moratorium, according to Israeli officials, it had still not sent a detailed letter on the understanding. Palestinians want building to halt in the West Bank and in Jerusalem, which they claim as their state. The US hopes a renewed moratorium will let Israel and the Palestinians work towards a deal on their future borders.

Today, however, a day after the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said a deal was imminent, the US still had not sent a promised letter detailing the understandings on the proposed moratorium.

Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, would not discuss details of the talks between the two governments. But he said any moratorium would not apply to Jerusalem, whose eastern sector was annexed by Israel in 1967 in a move not recognised by the international community.

He noted that an earlier settlement slowdown, whose expiration in September led to the current impasse in peace efforts, did not include Jerusalem.

"Israel makes a clear distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem," Regev said. "Jerusalem is our capital and will remain as such. The previous moratorium did not apply to Jerusalem … If there is a future moratorium, it will similarly not apply to Jerusalem."

Palestinians want buildingto halt in both areas, which they claim for their future state along with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. They have not said whether the partial freeze being brokered by the US would be enough to draw them back to the negotiating table.

Read more: Israelis insist they have US backing to build in East Jerusalem

Safed rabbi faces suspension for calling on Jews not to rent apartments to Arabs

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Written by Jewish Telegraph Agency Jewish Telegraph Agency

Published: 18 November 2010 18 November 2010

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November 18, 2010

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The chief rabbi of the northern Israeli city of Safed may be suspended for calling on Safed's Jews not to rent apartments to non-Jews.

Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman on Wednesday asked Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to suspend Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu as the municipal rabbi, a position paid by public funds. Braverman said in a letter to Neeman that Eliyahu was harming the social fabric between Jewish and Arab residents of the Galilee and that he was taking advantage of his public position to make such pronouncements, Haaretz reported.

"Moreover, as an appointee of the state, the rabbi is obligated not to work against it. His continued incitement against the Arabs in the Galilee does not serve the needs of the state," Braverman's letter said.

Braverman also charged that Eliyahu, who he said has been inciting against Arabs for several years, could light a "fire that could lead to war between the Jews and the Arabs of the Galilee."

A group of rabbis last month signed on to the letter calling on Jews not to rent to non-Jews in the northern Israeli city.