Translated by: Saed Bannoura
Hanan Al-Khatib, a lawyer at the Palestinian Prisoner society, visited a number of female detainees in Al-Ramla detention camp, which includes 45 female detainees, who told her their stories of continuous suffering, and daily humiliations, and torture.
Ritab Ghazi Radi is an 18 years old girl, from Nablus, who was arrested in 19/6/2004, after army attacked the home of her family during early dawn hours, while she was studying for her final grade exams.
She was blindfolded, assaulted and taken to Huwwara detention, shortly after arresting her and due to interrogation and bad treatment, she got sick, but soldiers refused to take her to the clinic in the detention, they kept her standing while handcuffed all night longs, then she was transferred to Betah Tikva interrogation camp, and forced her to remove her veil covering her hair, paying no attention to her religious beliefs.
Now, Ritab is in a tiny cell with a very bad ventilation system, law light and no windows, no bath, just a small hole in the ground, and a very bad smell filling the cell.
She suffers from continuous headache and pain in several parts of her body, yet denied medication.
After twenty days in detention she was transferred to Al-Ramla detention, where daily attacks, searches and assaults are a continuous scene.
“The most humiliating thing, is when they force us to strip under claims of searching us, then they start humiliating usâ€Â, Ritab said.
Majd Nasser Al-Kakhn is a 15 years old detainee, who was arrested on 16/6/2004, after midnight.
She is a school student at her tenth grade, and described her arrest as a provocative and brutal act, in addition to the curses humiliations she encountered in the military jeep after her arrest.
After she was transferred to Betah Tikva detention, she was under a huge pressure by the interrogators, who took shifts while she was interrogated for a long period without any chance to rest.
“everything there is bad, the food is bad, even animals can’t eat it, mattresses and covers are so dirty and rotten, we have no cleaning tools, we aren’t even allowed to get our internal clothes from our parents of the specialized institutionsâ€Â, she said.
Majd, is one among many female detainees, including under-aged detainees like her, who have dreams and hopes for their future,
“We want to go back home, we are worried about our destiny and future, we want to continue our education, we need our parents…†Majd said.
During the last three years, approximately 500 Palestinian women were arrested and detained in one of the biggest arrests ever conducted since 1967.
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
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…
The suffering remains, and the detainees are still subjected to different sort of torture, in addition to bad treatment, abuse and medical neglect.
