Palestinian woman speaks of jailhouse abuse…and health situation declining for Palestinian prisoners

A female Palestinian detainee gave an account on how she was under continuous interrogation, intimidation, and abuse for 14 days by "Israeli" soldiers and interrogators.

Najwa Awni Abdul-Ghani told a Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) lawyer that on July 21, 2009, "Israeli" soldiers searched her family's home for three hours. They caused a lot of damage to property, terrorized the family, and kidnapped her and her brother Salah.

During the search operation, the soldiers forced the family, including children and her elderly parents, out of their home in Saida town, near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Later, soldiers took her and her brother forcibly in two separate vehicles, she said, adding that she did not know the whereabouts of her brother.

She stated that she was taken first to the Sharon Prison and later to the al-Jalama interrogation center where she was interrogated, intimidated, and abused for 14 days.

She told the PPS lawyer that she was deprived of sleep and proper food. "The living conditions in the cells are very bad; the cells are dirty, smelly, lack ventilation and proper mattresses," she said.

After 14 days, she was loaded, handcuffed and in leg-irons, onto a military vehicle and transferred to the al-Damoun prison, she added.

On a related topic, a Palestinian Authority minister said "Israel" was not doing enough to maintain the health of Palestinian detainees.

Prisoner Affairs' Minister Issa Karaki was quoted by the Palestinian Ma'an news agency that the recent discovery of cancer in 25 Palestinian detainees "was a troubling phenomenon which indicates the decline in Palestinian prisoners' health conditions and the lack of minimal medical care." 

Karaki mentioned a 22-year-old detainee who was released from prison after falling ill with a tumor in his mouth. He said the case was the second case of the same cancer in the space of a few months, and that in the first case the prisoner was also released due to his disease.

The Palestinian minister accused doctors in the "Israeli" Prison Service of knowing that the detainees were ill but waiting until their conditions worsened. He also said that many Palestinians released from "Israeli" prisons die of cancer.

"There are 1,500 [prisoners] who are in urgent need of medical treatment," he said. He further added that, "as exposed in "Israeli" media," "Israel" was conducting experiments on Palestinian prisoners. He called on the international community to intervene on behalf of the Palestinian prisoners and on the World health Organization to investigate the decline in the health of prisoners in the occupied territories.