From: arens@ISI.EDU (Yigal Arens)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: DEMANDS PALESTINIAN HUNGER STRIKERS IN ISRAELI PRISONS
Date: 9 Oct 92 00:00:36 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: USC/Information Sciences Institute


Forwarded from another list:

From: Gert van Velzen <gertv@ooc.uva.nl>

DEMANDS PALESTINIAN HUNGER STRIKERS IN ISRAELI PRISONS AND
DETENTION CENTRES

GENERAL DEMANDS

- To put an end to the solitary confinement policy --
specifically by closing the solitary confinement section in
Nitsan and returning those in isolation to regular cells. This
is due to the hard circumstances and miserable conditions
which these individuals are currently living under and which
do not sustain the simplest humanitarian conditions or legal
standards.
  To end the harassment policy of threatening isolation.

- To improve the conditions of medical treatment and to put an
end to the policy of health negligence which is practiced
against us. This is accomplished by urging the performance of
surgical operations for the many cases which require it.
  To stop transferring sick prisoners by prison cars since the
absence of an ambulance adversely affects their health.
  To bring in specialists, and to allow an Arab or foreign
medical committee to visit the prisoners.
  To have a special room inside the clinic to tend those who
need comprehensive medical care.

- To release elderly people and those who have served long
periods in detention.

- To increase the space of the exercise yards and the time
allowed for such recreation, so that we can be exposed to the
light, sunshine, and pure air that are necessary for human
existence.

- To stop the policy of physical violence and the random
searches which serve only to humiliate us.
  To end the policy of collective punishment.

- To allow us to visit other sections of the prison daily so
that a father can meet his son, a mother--her daughter, a
brother--his brother, a sister--her sister, and friends can
visit one another.

- To remove the concrete, thin sheet or asbestos covering the
windows. These materials are preventing air and sunlight from
entering.

- To put an end to overcrowding inside the cells. Currently it
is extremely difficult to find one room where at least one
person is not sleeping on the ground.

- To have an assured and continious supply of hot and cold
water. Current policy provides that water can be put off
arbitrarily and for extended periods of time. Skin dideases
prolofirate in such an environment and, thus, contribute to
the unbearable conditions facing the internees. This situation
has also resulted in fromidable difficulties in terms of
cooking, as there is on occasion an insufficient supply to
perform this task.

- To allow for cotinued education inside the prison
facilities. We are requesting that we be allowed to
participate in an open-education correspondence program. In
particular we ask that the tests for the third preparatory
class be made available to us that those in at the pre-tawjihi
and tawjihi levels may also continue with their studies.

- To permit us to receive pictures every six months.

- To stop interfering through force and threats upon the
occasions of national and religious celebrations.

- To allow the prisoners' representatives to wander relatively
freely within the sections of the prison so that s/he may
follow-up the situation of the whole prison population.
  To cease the practice of prison authorities selecting these
representatives.

- To tile all of the rooms and to provide a drain inside the
cell. This is because holes in the floor and the absence of an
escape passage for water aloows dirty water to stagnate--
providing a continous mildewy smell, the increase in insects
and the proliferation of disease.

- To improve the circumstances of the family visits through
removing the net separating prisoners and families so that we
may kiss our children and hug our family members. The waiting
areas for families additionally warrant vast improvement, so
that they will protect members from the cold of winter and the
heat of summer.
  To allow these visits to take place on a weekly basis.
  To halt the humiliating search procedure that family members
are forced to undergo prior to each visit.
  To be permitted to smoke during these visits.

- To improve the quality and quantity of foof, and to make
available to us the list of supplies in order that we know
what amount we should be receiving.

- To insure that our clothes are of good quality and quantity
as is not currently the situation. In addition to have these
clothes of colors other than brown.
  To provide us with hygienic supplies without limiting them
or threatening to eliminate them.

- To allow us to receive presents from our families like
radio, cigarettes, sweets, cassette recorders, etc.

- To end the cultural siege by allowing us access to all the
permitted newspapers, magazine and books.
  To allow us to produce our own cultural publications.

- To transfer the detainees to locations in their district.
This is necessitated by the continued practice of interning
individuals in sites far from their homes--providing severe
hardships for their families.
  To place father and sons in the same prison and to allow
family members of the opposite sex to visit each other between
facilities.

- To have a separate dining facility so that we will not be
forced to eat on the floors of our overcrowded rooms.

- To remove completely obscuring barriers from doors since
this prevents the adequate ventilation of the overcrowded
rooms.

- To have a central antennae. Despite the fact that the
Central Prison Authority has approved this more than two years
ago, nothing has been done to implement.

- To transfer the female political prisoners to facilities
within the West Bank.

- To allow us to have educational equipment--computers,
electronic translation sets.

- To allow us to phone our families on a weekly basis.

- To raise the salaries of the workers/prisoners so that it
fits with existing living circumstances for their needs and
also to guard against the possibility of work-related
injuries.

- To permit an internee who has had a death in his/her
immediate family to attend the funeral.

- To affirm all of these rights and not consider them
privileges which may be restricted or taken away.


SPECIFIC DEMANDS

AL-KHALIL (HEBRON) PRISON

- To improve the space of the exercise yards specifically
those for Sections D and H because of the hardships of
movement.

- To ventilate Sections 1 and 3 through opening the windows
and providing an air-circulating fan.
  To transfer the kitchen site or to provide for the door to
open in another direction as the current position directs all
of the smells and heat from the kitchen directly into section
1 and 3.

NABLUS PRISON

- To remove some of the toilets from inside the rooms to
improve sanitary conditions.

- To remove the iron doors in the eastern section corridor,
which makes it hard for the prisoners to move.
  To fix the toilets.
  To supply the rooms with antennaes.

- To increase the exercise space of the eastern section which
is not sufficient 100 prisoners to move about.

- To increase the number of those from the eastern section
wishing to pray on Fridays permitted to join those in the
western section.

- To alter the present sports system by allowing the prisoners
to exercise daily for one hour and from different sections to
be allowed to interact at this time.

- To close Room 1, Section A because of lack of ventilation
and space, overcrowding, and its location underground.

- To increase the visitation period to 45 minutes instead of
30.

- To accept workers without limitations and regardless of
their period of sentence.

- To have two additional workers in the corridor.

- To allow us to have an electronic mixer in the kitchen.

- To permit night visits between cells.

- To allow the entrance of tools in order to repair radios,
cassette recorders, etc.

- To give old-age and sick prisoners additional outside time.

- To lift the procedures of specifying the color of clothes
and covers which are allowed to enter.

- To implement practically and immediately the previously-
approved demands such as the paving of the western yard, the
tiling of corridors, the provisions for sinks in the
corridors, the placement of fans in Rooms 1, 8, 9, 11, the
strenghtening of the overhead lights inside the cells, the
painting of the prison, and the purchase of food supplies that
were omitted last year.

TEL MUND PRISON

- To have a separate kitchen for the political prisoners as
occurs in the other prisons.

- To provide for a female gynecologist for these women
prisoners.

- To have a full-time nurse in attendance.

- To remove the unnecessary in-section guard.

- To make Friday the visiting days since Monday is a problem
for working family members and school children.

- To provide for an adequate facility to store books.
  To increase the number of workers in the library.
  To provide two typewriters.

- To supply the initial needs to the newcomer--clothes,
toothbrush, a cup, a plate, and a spoon.
  To furnish the rooms with shelves, chairs, tables, and a
plastic water container.

- To have a singular, open account for the canteen.
  To allow a departing prisoner to transfer the money in her
account to other detainees.

- To allow honey, cheese, and fruits to be brought by the
families.
--
Yigal Arens
USC/ISI
arens@isi.edu