The current hunger
strike by security prisoners is attempting to paint the conditions of prisons
in Israel negatively. In reality, the conditions in Israeli prisons are better
than those in the Palestinian Authority, Gaza, in the Arab World and even in
the West.
Here is the truth about the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in
Israeli prisons.
Palestinian
security prisoners in Israel regularly attempt, and especially now during their
current hunger strike, to present Israeli prisons in a negative way. The
prisoners participating in the strike, terrorists responsible for the deaths of
many Israelis, complain of the "harsh conditions" in Israeli jails
and are demanding "critical" benefits such as public telephones in
prison wings and the ability to receive college education. Anyone who knows the
Israeli prison system knows that the conditions of security prisoners meet a
very high standard. Prisoners in the Palestinian Authority, Gaza, and even in
the Western world, can only dream of the benefits that prisoners in Israel
receive.
So,
what are the conditions for security prisoners in Israel?
As
of March 2017, there are 6,100 security prisoners in Israeli jails, most of
them between the ages of 18 and 25. According to the definition, security
prisoners in Israel are those convicted of an offense that involves harm to the
State of Israel or a nationalistic motive. Over 2,000 are serving their
sentences for being directly responsible for the murder of Israelis. Security
prisoners are spread throughout different prisons in Israel. Ketziot Prison
houses the largest amount of security prisoners, over 1,700, while Ofer Prison
being the second housing over 1,000 inmates.
Security
prisoners in Israel are entitled to a number of basic rights, as well as
receiving additional benefits. Under the basic conditions, inmates are entitled
to meet with an attorney (within a professional framework), receive medical
treatment, religious rights, basic living conditions (such as hot water,
showers and sanitation), proper ventilation and electric infrastructure. They
also receive regular visits from the Red Cross and education as well.
Apart from these basic conditions, security prisoners in
Israel's are entitled to receive newspapers, send and receive letters and read
and keep their own books. Prisoners are even permitted to buy goods from the
prison's canteen, which is run by the inmates themselves. If that is not
enough,relatives of prisoners can deposit money for them at the post office's
bank. As a part of the living conditions, prisoners receive family visitations,
television watching hours and even electrical appliances, such as kettles and
mosquito killers. On top of it all, many security prisoners receive monthly
salaries, which can sometimes reach up to 12,000 NIS a month, from the
Palestinian Authority for carrying out their murderous crimes. COGAT recently
posted a report describing the funding by the Palestinian National Fund to
Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails. This report can be found here.
Using this
information, it can be determined that it is better to be behind Israeli prison
bars than it is to be in the streets of Hamas controlled Gaza. Israel grants
all these rights to prisoners who, more often than not, attempt even from their
prison cells to carry out attacks against Israel's citizens.
The conditions in Israeli prisons stand out
as exceptionally good when contrasted to Hamas' prisons in Gaza, where inmates
are regularly executed without trial. Further, according to media reports,
Hamas keeps secret prisons, where they hold and torture political opponents.
The UN, Foreign Governments, the EU and International Human Rights
Organizations have condemned on many occasions the executions by Hamas and have
called for an end to the death penalty in the Gaza Strip.
The conditions in Israeli prisons stand out even when being
compared to the poor conditions of the Palestinian Authority's prisons. It was
reported in the past years that many inmates are tortured in the PA's prisons.
Electric shocks, club beatings, psychological torture, sleep deprivation and
even torturing prisoners wives are all part of the arsenal. In an interview
with the Palestinian newspaper, a Hamas member who was an inmate in both
Israeli and PA jails described the situation in Palestinian prisons as
"brutal and barbaric, especially in comparison to Israel."
Upon close examination, the facts are clear- the conditions
in Israeli prisons are significantly better than conditions in prisons in the
region and even than many Western countries. The Israeli Prison Services cares,
protects the rights, and respects prisoners in Israeli jails. But, apparently,
for those security prisoners on strike, it is not enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment