While the world celebrates Mothers day; 80 women are still detained, including 9 mothers, 2 infants

Translated by: Sa’ed Bannoura, IMEMC

Mother’s day is a significant day celebrated in every country in this world including Palestine, but the fact remains clear… 80 women are still detained in Israeli detention centers.

The eighty women were transferred 45 days ago from Al-Ramleh detention camp to Telmond Hasharon. They include nine mothers and two children- Wa’el, the son of the detainee Mervat Taha, and Nour, the son of Manal Ghanem. Six of the female detainees in Israeli custody are under the age of 18.

During the last three years, approximately 500 Palestinian women were arrested and detained in one of the biggest arrests ever conducted since 1967.

The detainees suffer from several kinds of aggression, torture, gassing, solitary detention and they are denied visitations.

In the latest appeal, the detainees appealed to human rights organizations to aid them in their inhumane and cruel conditions they face. The detainees said, “We do not know how to describe our jailors, even if we describe them as monsters… it won’t be enough…

They beat us, force us to strip when they claim they want to search us, all sorts of indignation…they try to impose upon us.”

The detainees said in the appeal that Su’ad Abu Hammad was attacked while she was sleeping, tied up and dragged [along the floor]. When the rest of the detainees objected, soldiers used water cannons against them.

Yet the detainees wonder, “How do Palestinians and Arabs agree to this? How do they allow the enemies to attack and insult their honor? Why doesn’t anybody ask about Nour, the five months old baby, or Wa’el the one year old baby? What about Suna Al-Ra’ey, who spent six years so far in detention without having any chance to see her baby girl?”

The appeal added, “nothing good comes out of the marches or the words of the leaders on Satellite stations. Even the Red Cross does not seek to really know how are we doing. TV stations and Radios never conduct special programs about us… to know what is going on with us over here.”

The female detainees lack the basics of life: no furniture, clothes are insufficient, no books or educational materials, no visitations for most of the detainees. Day by day the problem gets worse and the administration does not provide the detainees with what they need.

Several times they protested and announced hunger strikes but the administration had a different reply… assaulting, beating, isolating, and banning them from their visitations… even from meeting their lawyers.

The Israeli government still refuses to treat them as detainees…they are considered terrorists. Normally, the sentences of mothers who give birth in detention are reduced by one-third, but this is not applied in their case; Hanan Taha gave birth to her son Wa’el while she was in detention, yet her sentence increased instead of being reduced.

In many cases lawyers have to wait hours before they meet the detainees, visitations have to be previously arranged with the Israeli authorities.

Many detainees are sick and are denied medication. Others want to study, but the administration refuses to allow them be tested.

The detainees have recently decided to take a strong position against installing glass blocks in the visitation rooms and they are still demanding that the blocks be removed.

The representative of the detainees, Amneh Mousa, was sent to solitary confinement after being attacked, since the administration tries not to recognize any representative, any rights, nor any demands. The clear aim of the administration is to break the unity among the detainees, separate them, and separate their united positions.

Wasfiyya Abu-Ajmeyya, a former detainee, spoke about medical neglect, bad food, and assaults conducted against the detainees in Hasharon detention camp. She said, “the administration is ready to use any method in order to make us surrender and beg for mercy!”

Now, during Mothers’ Day, no flower reaches the imprisoned mother. No kiss, no visit. She is all alone there. The shouts and screams of the imprisoned mother shakes the ground, her voice yet floods as the suffering remains…