Hunger Strikers Released

Study: Zionists Detain Thousands in Solitary Confinement Despite Health Risks

Date: 25 February 2022 - 22:33

News ID: ۱۰۰۳۸۲

WEST BANK (MEMO) –
Thousands of detainees are forced into isolation for years, including minors, by the Zionist regime’s prison service, according to the NGO Physicians for Human Rights.
Figures published by the prison service reveal 1,587 inmates had been held in complete solitary confinement in the first ten months of 2021, including 66 minors.
By the end of August of the same year, another 1,134 prisoners, among whom 53 were minors, were held in “individual seclusion” or “two-person seclusion”.
Forms of isolation are considered psychological torture prohibited under Article 1 of the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It is also inhumane and degrading behavior prohibited under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Palestinian prisoners and detainees are held in solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure, authorities claim. Some are forced to carry out large parts of their sentence in such detention.
The figures provided by the prison service also indicate how long prisoners were held in “seclusion.”
Of the 1,134 prisoners, 63 inmates were held for more than two months, reported Haaretz, 17 were held for a period of more than six months, 19 were held for a period between one and three years and 18 prisoners were held in seclusion for over three years.
The regime authorities have established special isolation units in many of their prisons, most notably Nafha Prison opened in 1980, Nitzan-Ramle opened in 1989 and in Beersheba, opened in 1992.
Anat Litvin, who oversees the department for incarcerated persons within Physicians for Human Rights, said, “The prison service is holding hundreds of inmates in solitary conditions, with full knowledge of the destructive impact it can have on their health.”
Frustrated at the lack of cooperation regarding the occupying regime’s prison service’s response to its freedom of information request, Litvin added: “Although the prison service said it had manually reviewed over 1,100 inmate files in its response to the request, it could not provide data as to the number of inmates held in solitary confinement.”
“They also could not determine who or how many among them suffer from psychiatric illnesses and are under psychiatric care, which would place them among one of the at-risk groups whose solitary confinement is banned by the United Nations.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian detainees Hisham Abu Hawash and Miqdad al-Qawasmi returned home on Thursday, after winning a battle against the Zionist regime’s prison service that saw them carry out hunger strikes for over 110 days.
Moments after being released, however, al-Qawasmi, who has been arrested by occupation forces several times and has spent a total of about four years in the regime’s prisons, was re-arrested by the regime’s troops. He was held for several hours before being allowed to return to his family.
Both former detainees, Wafa reported, received a celebratory welcome from their families and friends.