Ref: 82/2012

On Thursday afternoon, 27 September 2012, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) concluded the activities of a seminar organized on accountability for violations of the international law in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) by a session titled "Palestinian Prisoners in the Israeli Jails."

The session was presided by lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL).  He explained that the session's title was set upon the request of the IADL’s delegation in the context of their interest in the prisoners' issue.  The session included a number of major presentations, the first of which was presented by Fu'ad al-Razem, a former Palestinian prisoner who served 31 years in the Israeli prisons.  Al-Razem said that the Palestinian people struggles for their rights and freedom, and the Palestinian struggle constitutes a form of legal resistance and cannot be classified as terrorism.  He added that Palestinians seek peace, but the Israeli occupation rejects it throughout its insistence to hinder the political process that began years ago with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA).  Al-Razem also addressed the conditions under which the Palestinian prisoners live inside Israeli jails, explaining the stages of detention inside prisons: interrogation, practices of all forms of torture and detention in cells where the minimum standards of living are not available.

In her presentation, Hanaa Shalabi, a former Palestinian prisoner who was transferred to the Gaza Strip, displayed her experience, as she went on hunger strike inside the Israeli prison until she was released and expelled to the Gaza Strip.  She addressed some inhumane practices by the Israeli Prisons Service against the Palestinian prisoners, including naked search, solitary confinement, renewable administrative detention and torture.

Representing the Palestinian prisoners' families, Um Ibrahim, the mother of a Palestinian prisoner, Ibrahim Baroud, talked about her personal experience that has been lasting for years.  She explained how she was denied visits to her son for 15 years under "security claims.”  She addressed the silence of the international community towards the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners in comparison to the reaction resulted from the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by the Palestinian resistance groups.  She stressed the continuing silence towards the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners and their families, who have been suffering from the threat of being denied family visitations although the program of family visitations for Gaza prisoners was resumed after being halted for 5 years.

Lawyer Evelyn Dur Mayer, an IADL member, addressed in her presentation the various rights of prisoners guaranteed under the international standards and human rights conventions.  Mayer elaborated that the international standards governed the detention matters and imposed several restrictions on the conditions of detention, prisoners' treatment and prosecution in a manner that guarantees their rights, the most prominent of which is the right to a fair trial, the right to know the charges against him/her and the right to a human treatment that maintains his/her dignity.

Lawyer Max Boqwana, an IADL's Executive Committee member, stressed the need for those staying out of prisons to be inspired by all the pain, suffering, oppression and bloods to take their rights back. Boqwana encouraged in his speech all the strugglers and fighters around the world to combine their efforts to make their dream of equality and justice come true.  He revealed that he believes in the Palestinian cause as a just one and that he dreamed to see free Palestine one day, living peacefully side by side with its neighbors. He also hoped that Palestinian children live in a safe environment looking forward to a promising future.

It should be noted that this seminar was convened with the participation of IADL's Executive Committee and in presence of a number of academics, lawyers and representatives of human rights, non-governmental and media organizations.   

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