Palestinian Lawyer Shadi Younis reports that the sanitary conditions and the state of detention for Palestinian political prisoners in solitary confinement in Israeli prisons is deteriorating.
Shadi Younis was speaking of many political prisoners, including leaders from the Hamas party who were taken prisoner after the movement took office in the Legislative Council elections held on 25 January 2006 and those who were arrested before that time.
Younis said, “The policies and practices of the prison administration, which took away all rights from the detainees, deprived them of visits and isolated them absolutely from the outside world, are deplorable.”
Younis issued an appeal on behalf of the political prisoners for intervention from humanitarian institutions. He is asking for international action and pressure to be applied to the Israeli authorities to at least provide medical care.
The lawyer was able to meet with four “life sentence” Palestinians in solitary confinement in Jalboua. In several prisons he met with political prisoners from Jerusalem, Hebron, Jenin, Ramallah and even Jordan.
Younis expressed serious concern for the life of Sheikh Jamal Abu Al Hija from the Jenin Refugee Camp. The Israeli military court sentenced him to nine times life. Younis reported, “Sheikh Jamal lives in complete isolation in solitary in Askelon Prison."
He cannot care for himself since his hand was amputated after being shot, and the administration refuses to allow other prisoners to help him and they also refuse to allow him treatment, despite the deterioration of his health and the need for several surgeries.” It has been four years since the Israeli administration has allowed the Sheikh's family to visit him and his solitary confinement sentence has been renewed for another year. “This contravenes international laws and conventions,” the lawyer Shadi Younis said.
Younis met with Mahmoud Issa from Jerusalem in a detention facility where he has been in solitary confinement for five years. Another man from the northern West Bank's Tubas said that the abuse handed out by the Israeli administration has led to abysmal conditions, including health-wise, and in the most basic rights, particularly, the Tubas man said, in the provision of basic needs.
The lawyer is also calling on the Red Cross to get the political prisoners removed from solitary confinement.
