In light of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 11,000 political
prisoners in Israeli jails are filing a suit against the Israeli
government at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. They are
calling for an official investigation into “abuse and serious
violations in Israeli prisons against life and humanity.”
The announcement came in a statement in preparation for the World Day for Human Rights, explaining that the number of Palestinians killed; those who have died in prison due to torture, mistreatment, and medical neglect since the beginning of the occupation, is high enough. The political prisoners are citing 187 recent Palestinian deaths.
Twenty five people have had cancer and did not receive adequate medical treatment. One thousand have had life threatening conditions and not received proper treatment. “This is the way it has become in a prison system that blatantly and purposefully lacks medical care,” the political prisoners' statement issued on Monday read.
Turning to Palestinian Prisoner Society research, the continued policy of torturing prisoners violates international law. The Israelis use methods that are internationally prohibited in order to extract confessions. The government of Israeli has made torture a keystone in its practices through a series of laws and legislation that it created for itself in order to allow the use of extreme violence and cruel treatment during interrogation.
Prisoner Society statistics indicate that 90 percent of Palestinians in Israeli jails have been subjected to severe torture, including minor children and the sick and wounded. That is in addition to sexual harassment and threats of rape used against children, and others, during questioning.
Also in the hoped-for case against Israeli forces is the use of Administrative Detention, which is a prison sentence without charge or trial. This has engulfed thousands of people into the prison system. Many others argue that even with a charge or trial the Israeli system is not legitimate under international law as it is the system of occupiers who do not have jurisdiction over the occupied.
Wives and mothers have been imprisoned as a means to pressure husbands and sons on the “wanted” list to surrender, as have children. Hundreds of families are not allowed to visit, and many of those who are become the subject of more humiliating treatment, including threats and strip searches.
The suit is to be filed in the Hague by Palestinian political prisoners also cites that hundreds of people become sick and injured once in the prisons and that conditions do not meet the bare minimum of humane treatment.
