Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights confirmed, today, Thursday, that the Israeli occupation ignored human rights demands submitted by it, along with other institutions, regarding the conditions of prisoners and the conditions of their detention in light of the spread of the Corona virus.
The Center said in a statement on the eve of the commemoration of the Palestinian Prisoner Day, which falls on the seventeenth of April of each year, that he submitted on the tenth of last month an urgent request to the Director General of the Israeli Prison Authority, to clarify about the preventive measures taken in the face of the Corona pandemic, and highlighted The problems encountered in the announced procedures, by the administration, which do not provide adequate protection and protection against the risks of spreading the disease among Palestinian detainees.
He stated that he called for the provision of precautionary measures during the movement of Palestinian (middle) detainees, and to reduce the overcrowding of detainees, and precautionary measures for mixing between detainees and other personnel in the administration of the Prison Authority.
The Center pointed out that, on the twenty-fourth of last month, it was received by the Prison Authority administration, a loose response note that does not provide answers to the questions that came in the urgent request.
He explained that on the twenty-sixth of last month, he presented, along with 5 Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations, an urgent petition to the Supreme Court demanding that Palestinian detainees be allowed to make phone calls to their families, in light of a total ban on family visits, as part of the battle against the spread of the Corona Virus, and stressed the petition The most important importance of telephone communications for underage detainees.
A court decision was issued to allow underage detainees to contact their families for 10 minutes every two weeks, and it has not yet decided with regard to adults.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights warned of the spread of the Corona virus among prisoners, in light of severe overcrowding in prisons, noting that the nature of the Israeli measures taken raises fears of its spread, especially in light of the lack of follow-up procedures, and not to alleviate the accumulation situation existing in the numbers of detainees inside Prisons.
Al-Mizan Center´s follow-up shows that the occupation authorities hold about 8 Palestinian detainees inside a single room, while the number of Israeli prisoners does not exceed four per room.
It was also clear that the Israeli Prison Authority Administration adopts the Hebrew language in awareness and guidance publications for Palestinian detainees, which impedes their better understanding of the detainees, especially the new ones, calling on the international community to put pressure on the occupation to take all preventive and remedial measures in favor of the prisoners.
Al-Mezan Center pointed out that the number of Palestinian prisoners amounted to the end of February, about 5 thousand male and female prisoners, including 34 women, 180 children, and 430 administrative detainees.
He said, "The suffering of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons is compounded in light of the lack of the essentials in the right to health care and services, and the persistence of a policy of medical neglect, which poses a serious threat to their lives, and raises the alarm in light of the lack of information about their conditions due to the measures taken to prevent family and oversight visits taken by them." The management of the Israeli Prison Service, in addition to the insufficient measures and preventive measures that it has taken to protect them from the risks posed. "
The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights affirmed that the occupying power, as the occupying power, is in accordance with the rules of the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of the Civilian Population in 1949, and in accordance with the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice issued on 9/7/2004, which emphasized the applicability of the agreement to the Palestinian case Accordingly, it is obligated to respect the rules for the treatment of detainees, especially the right to health care, in addition to being a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which imposes on them an explicit commitment to respect the right to health and its four elements adopted by the Committee The Covenant in its general comments, in particular the quality component as well as making it available, accessible and acceptable.
The Center called on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities towards the residents of the occupied Palestinian territories, and the high parties that signed the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, to play its role in ensuring respect for the rules for the treatment of detainees contained in the agreement, especially ensuring the provision of appropriate health care.
He also called on the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to urgently intervene and put pressure on the occupying Power, to observe the global standards for protecting detainees from the dangers of the Corona virus.
