Graves for the Living: Palestinian Political Prisoners in Solitary Confinement
Yesterday, 03.07.2011, around 7000 Palestinian prisoners held captives in Israeli dungeons went on a one-day hunger strike to protest the repressive measures of the Israeli prison administration. According to the Palestinian ministry of prisoners’ spokesperson: “Palestinian prisoners in all Israeli jails were the target of an unprecedented terrorizing campaign of repression, isolation, and transfer from one prison to another over the past few weeks. He said that the campaign peaked with the beating of the oldest serving prisoner Nael al-Barghouthi, which prisoners condemned as a violation of all red lines, along with the isolation of many prisoners serving high sentences.”[1] The spokesman added that the strike was a warning action that might lead to further forms of protest. Some weeks ago, I came across a letter written by Palestinian political prisoner Hasan Salameh and published on various Palestinian sites. Salameh is locked up in Israeli dungeons since 1996 and is in solitary confinement since 7 years. In this letter, Salameh says: If I could buy your support for me and for the other prisoners with all that I possess, I swear I would not fall short. With these harsh words, Slameh addressed us. He addresses us from the isolation cell that separates him from his loved ones, that separates him from his friends and comrades, from the rest of the world. He addresses us from the grave in which he is buried alive. With these harsh words, he addresses us; we who go to work every day, who go to school and universities, who go to the market, who visit friends and family. He addresses us while he and thousands others are locked up inside Zionist dungeons. He addresses us while his life and that of thousands others are withering in the darkness, while they suffer in silence. Hasan Salameh, addresses us from his isolation cell and asks of us only one thing: that we remember him and the thousands of Palestinians held captives in Israeli prisons. He asks of us only one thing: not to forget those buried alive in Israeli dungeons. Hassan Salameh, from Khan Younis, is one among 50 Palestinian political prisoners locked up in isolation cells by the Zionist entity. Latest prisoner to be isolated is 54 years old Na’il Al-Barghouthi, who has been locked up in Israeli dungeons since 34 years, making him the oldest serving prisoner in the world. On 27.06.2011, Israeli prison jailors raided Section 5 of the Remon prison, caused havoc and destroyed the prisoners’ possessions. When Na’il refused to be strip searched, he was sent to an isolation cell. He had initially agreed to be strip-searched, but only in the WC. He was handcuffed and asked to take off his shirt, which he was unable to do because of being handcuffed, so the jailors beat brutally him. Upon hearing his screams, fellow detainee Hilal Jradat started shouting from his nearby cell. The jailors then locked up Na’il and Hilal in one cell and beat them brutally. In addition to being isolated as a punishment, Na’il was fined 500 NIS.
The Zionist entity, in yet another blatant violation of international law, uses isolation or solitary confinement as a method to undermine and break the will of Palestinian political prisoners. Currently, at least 50 Palestinian political prisoners are locked up in isolation cells, some of whom are in permanent isolation since their detention like Abbas As-Sayyed who has been in isolation since his detention in 2002. Isolation is used as a punishment for both the prisoners and their families who have to live daily with the fact that their child, parent, sibling or partner is held like an animal in a cage, in a matchbox. Being locked up in isolation cells constitutes not only physical and physiological torture but also a death sentence, an extra-judicial execution, where Palestinian political prisoners are left to die a slow, a painful and a silent death. Knowing that isolation kills the spirit, some political prisoners are transferred to isolation cells immediately after the end of their interrogation, others are punished with isolation for protesting Israeli inhumane treatment, for demanding their rights, for being political leaders or for no reason other than persecuting and harassing these prisoners. Justifications provided range from “causing a threat”, “being dangerous” to having “influence” on other prisoners. Female prisoner Latifa Abu Thra’ saw the Israeli special forces for “Suppression of prisoners” beat prisoner Sanabil Breek. When Abu Thra’ told them to stop beating Breek, the special forces started beating her. She defended herself and hit one of them back and was punished with isolation for 4 months in Ramleh prison and a further 2 months of isolation in Hasharon in a tiny cell with cameras observing her 24 hours. Palestinian female detainee Nili As-Safadi was locked up in an isolation cell for more than 45 days in Israeli detention center Bet Hatikva. The cell was dark, she didn’t get any proper food and wasn’t allowed to change her clothes for the length of her isolation. During the interrogation she was subjected to all forms of physical and psychological torture to force her into confessing. When she didn’t confess, her entire family and the family of her husband were detained. Later she was transferred to Hasharon prison in a journey that lasted 12 hours with her hands and legs bound and she wasn’t given any food or water.
There are two types of isolation: Individual isolation where one prisoner is locked up alone in a cell, and dual isolation where two prisoners share a small cell. Every 6 months or every year, depending on the type of their isolation, isolated prisoner go through mock trials, theatrical games for the sake of the media, which always end with the extension of the prisoner’s isolation without reason, and thus Palestinian prisoners who are placed in isolation remain so for many years. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club confirms the existence of “a phony court where the prisoner is taken every six months and in the event of their being two prisoners they are taken to it once a year. This court obeys the Israeli intelligence court orders “Al-Shabak” and the prisons administration “Al-Shabas”, and often requires the extension of the period that the prisoner is in isolation without giving reasons for it, and it also lacks the bare images and elements of a fair trial.”[2] Several Palestinian prisoners were subjected to solitary confinement more than once. This applies also to Palestinian female prisoners such as Latifa Abu Thra’, Abeer Amro, Abeer Odeh, Amnah Muna, Wafa’ Albis and Mariam Tarabeen. According to the latest reports, there are at least 50 Palestinian prisoners in isolation, including female prisoners Mariam At-Tarabin and Ahlam At-Tamimi. Ahlam At-Tamimi was isolated because as a punishment for writing the names of all Palestinian female prisoners on a piece of paper for her lawyer during a visit. Among Palestinian political prisoners, there are at least 12 prisoners who have spent over five years in isolation such as:
- Owaida Kallab: 16 years in isolation.
- Abdel Nasser Al-Halisy and Tayseer Samody: 15 years in isolation.
- Mu’taz Hijazy, Mahmoud Issa and Sameh Al-Shobaki: 10 years in isolation.
- Abbas As-Sayyed: 9 years in isolation.
- Jamal Abu Al-Haija, Ahmed Al-Mughraby, Hasan Salameh and Abdallah Al-Barghouthi: 7 years in isolation.
- Ahmad Shukri: 6 years in isolation.
In isolation, many Palestinian prisoners are subjected to all forms of physical and psychological suffering. Isolation cells have an area of only 1.8m x 2.7m, including the WC. These cells, unfit for animals, are damp and badly ventilated. They have an iron door that is fitted with an opening for passing food to the prisoner and one small window close to the ceiling causing high humidity. Neither fresh air nor natural light enter the isolation cells. Prisoners are expected to live, cook, sleep, shower and excrete in these cells. There is almost no room for movement and little space for personal items. Inside isolation cells, Palestinian prisoners are subjected to continuous harassment, provocation and violence, repeated inspections, naked searches and night raids during which they are beaten and their personal possessions confiscated or destroyed. They are only allowed one hour per day out of the isolation cell into the prison yard, known as fora, and are sometimes even denied this. This one hour exercise depends on the mood of the Israeli jailors, and Palestinian prisoners aren’t allowed to change the time of the fora or complain about it; for example a prisoner might be taken to a fora when it is raining heavily in the yard or when it is too hot, sometimes prisoners are awakened at dawn to go on the fora and if they decline because it’s too early, the fora is cancelled for that day. Some Palestinian prisoners are isolated in cells close to Israeli criminals who keep shouting and banging at the walls and doors, preventing the prisoner from sleeping. In one interview, Palestinian political prisoner Abbas As-Sayid said that if Israeli jails are the graves for the living, then isolation is like abusing the bodies of the martyrs, adding that isolation is considered one of the harshest policies of punishment against political prisoners, leaving them to live in complete isolation in a cell to which no sun enters and that lacks ventilation and the minimum requirements. He added that “Far away from the world, the forms of torture increase and the types of suffering are many, for the isolated lives 23 hours alone in his cell, and in case he was lucky and received the opportunity to get a fora, he spends it while his hands are bound and his feet shackled, and the isolated prisoner is deprived of family visits and meeting his fellow prisoners and is treated more harshly.”[3]
Isolated prisoners are further punished through depriving them of family visitation and contact with other Palestinian prisoners. They have no contact with the outside world, except with their jailors and torturers. Family members, who make the long and hard trip to the Israeli prisons, are often turned back without being allowed to see their loved ones. Also, those who have family members locked up as well inside Israeli jails are not allowed to see them. Ibrahim Hamid, 45 yrs old, from Silwad, was sent to isolation immediately after interrogation in 2006, and since then his family hasn’t been allowed to visit him. His wife was imprisoned as well and later deported to Jordan and when his brother in law died he wasn’t even allowed to call his wife to convey his condolences. His trial is still underway. Although Jamal Abu Al-Haija’s wife is withering with cancer, he isn’t allowed to see her and isn’t allowed to see any of his children, 3 of whom are detained by Israel as well. Also, lawyers of isolated prisoners are often prevented from visiting their clients under various pretexts such as that the prisoner has been moved elsewhere. Another very harsh form of punishing isolated prisoners is sending them to the snouk. The snouk is a small room of 180cm x150 cm with one narrow harsh mattress, making the cell not fit for sleeping, let alone walking as a form of exercise. The only facilities in the snouk are 2 buckets: one for drinking and one for urinating, and prisoners are allowed excretion only once a day, so they don’t eat much all day. Prisoners isolated in the snouk are not allowed to have a pillow or keep a watch, a radio or newspapers so they doesn’t know the time or the date, and aren’t allowed to buy any of the necessities they need, including food, from the prison shop known as the canteen. Mohammed Barash, who is blind and “suffers from the amputation of his left leg and other diseases in his body … was taken to the snooker and tied by his hands and foot to the bed, and during the night he suffered from suffocation and could not get up because of the restrictions, he had no choice but to scream to get the attention of the nurse.”[4]
Isolated prisoners are extra-judicially executed; they are destroyed both spiritually and bodily through isolation, torture, harassment, medical negligence and malnutrition. Since 1967, at least 198 Palestinian prisoners were killed while in detention, 70 as a result of torture, 71 killed in cold blood after being arrested, 50 as a result of medical negligence and 7 being shot dead inside prisons by Israeli jailors. Latest Palestinian prisoner to be murdered by Israeli interrogators is 30 years old Raid Abu Hammad who was in isolation. Ra’id Abu Hammad from Il-Izarriyeh (Bethany) was murdered on 16.4.2010 in the Israeli Beersheva prison. He had been in Israeli detention for five years and was in isolation for 18 months at the time of his murder. Abu Hammad was placed in solitary confinement in Eshel for causing damage to a TV set in the cell. The damage was not deliberate and Abu Hammad’s family applied to the prison authority to replace the ruined TV set so he be released from isolation, but the Israeli prison authority refused. According to the Palestinian Prisoner Society, “Abu Hammad was hit by Israeli interrogators on the center spine and the back of his neck, and died of his wounds in the cell. Forensic examination revealed that Abu Hammad was healthy and did not suffer from any health condition. He was also an athlete and in a strong body shape. The examination also revealed that Abu Hammad was tortured during interrogation and was struck on the center of his spine causing damage to the spinal canal in addition to being violently hit on the back of the head.”[5]. Often Palestinian prisoners take action to protest their baseless punishments, the ill treatment and isolation through measures such as hunger strikes. They are promised release from isolation to be isolated again after they end their hunger strike. Isolated prisoner Haitham Salhiyyeh is currently on his 13th day of hunger-strike. He went on strike to protest the Israeli prison authority’s policy of medical negligence. Despite his medical condition, Haitham does not get the needed medical treatment, in addition to being isolated. Mousa Dudeen went on a hunger strike for 25 days, his health deteriorated and he was promised an end to isolation if he ends his strike. He did that but was sent to isolation again after some time. Abbas As-Sayyid went several times on hunger strikes to protest his isolation and the inhumane treatment of Palestinian prisoners on the hand of Israeli jailors. On one such protest actions, in May, 2011, he went on hunger strike for 23 days, during which no lawyer was allowed to visit him. He was transferred to hospital after his health deteriorated, nonetheless he went on with the hunger strike. On 11.3.02003 six Palestinian female prisoners were punished by the Israeli prison authority with solitary confinement because they demanded the prison authority provide them with hot water for bathing during the cold season. Isolated prisoners are also often attacked and brutally beaten and bear traces of the beating on their bodies, such as Mu’taz Hijazi who is being isolated for the 10th years and was once beaten so brutally that he lost consciousness and had to be admitted to the intensive care unit at hospital.
Like all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli captivity, isolated prisoners suffer from the wide-spread deliberate medical negligence. Most of the time, those suffering from severe pain, and even malicious diseases are treated with mere pain killers. Torture, brutal beatings combines with the high humidity and poor ventilation, the unhealthy, insufficient food and lack of exercise cause isolated prisoners all sort of bodily ailments and medical problems starting from problems of the respiratory to the nervous systems. Because of being held hostage in a small cell with a tiny window, many prisoners develop poor vision after spending 23 hours daily in the dark. Since 1967, at least 50 Palestinian prisoners were killed while in detention as a result of medical negligence, the latest victim being 37 years old Mohammad Abdeen, a father of 5 from occupied Jerusalem who was killed on 10.06.2010 while in Israeli detention. Abdeen was transferred from one Israeli prison to another, where he was interrogated and tortured. He was placed in solitary confinement in Eshel prison, then moved to Ramon prison and then to Majiddo prison, then to Mi’bar section of Ramleh prison, which is a detention center where prisoners are kept before their court sessions in Ofer military court. Abdeen had a court session on 13.06.2010, but he never made it to the court because he was murdered 3 days earlier. In addition to being tortured during interrogation, Abdeen suffered from bad health conditions and was denied medical treatment. His wife, who visited him in jail on 06.06.2010, only a few days before his death, noticed his deteriorating health and said she saw his hands shaking, his limbs could barely function, he could hardly talk, his body was weak and that he was in great pain. She is reported saying: “Mohammad was another person… his face was pale and it was obvious that he was very tired, and a female soldier used to come in the morning and the evening and give him a medicine which he didn’t know what it was or what for”[6]. Only some 2 weeks earlier, on 24.05.2010, his wife found him in excellent health. This drastic change in his health condition, the sudden pain and suffering that rushed his death only strengthens what a number of Palestinian experts on Palestinian prisoner’s affairs say about Israeli prison authorities using Palestinian detainees for medical experiments and as test objects for new Israeli medicines. When his body was later released for burial, the family noticed signs of beating on his neck and face. Another example is that of 65 year old Jum’ah Ismail Mousa from occupied Jerusalem who died on 23.12.2008 after collapsing at the Ramleh prison. Mousa, a father of 8 who had been in Israeli detention since 1993, suffered from a heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes and was denied proper and much needed medical treatment. Palestinian female prisoner Latifa Abu Thra’ was isolated more than once after she was “announced” in 2007by the Israeli prison authority as “dangerous to the security of the state of Israel”. She suffers from fibers in the uterus and was supposed to conduct medical tests at Tel Hashomer hospital, but because her hands and feet were chained, the nurse was unable to conduct the tests. After the accompanying policewomen refused to unchain her arms, Abu Thra’ unchained herself, upon which she was attacked by the prison guards and “announced” as “dangerous”. She was further punished with solitary confinement for two months and ten days in Ramleh prison, after which she was returned to Hasharon prison and isolated there. She didn’t get any medical treatment. Palestinian female detainees are also blackmailed by the Israeli prison authority, for example they demanded that Amnah Muna, who is need of an operation, sign a document in which she refuses medical treatment in return for not being isolated. Israeli interrogators used the stomach injury inflicted on Hasan Salameh upon his arrest to torture and pressure him. Despite his medical condition, he is being directly targeted by the prison administration which keeps moving him from one cell to another within the isolation sections.
On 20.06.2011, it was reported that Israeli prison administration at Asqalan have held Palestinian political prisoner Atef Wreidat, 45 from Ad-Dahriyyeh, in solitary confinement. Wreidat is sick and suffers from heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes, and desperately needs an operation. He went on a hunger strike and refused to take his medication to protest the continuous delay of the heart surgery he desperately needs, the inhumane treatment and arbitrary measures against him by Israeli prison administration and “the prison’s policy of medical neglect and his transfer to Ashkelon prison, a move that would be adverse to his health condition.”[7] According to Wreidat’s lawyer, “imprisoning Wreidat in solitary confinement, while he is going on a continuous hunger strike and refusing to take medicine is a death sentence.” Adding that the “the prison’s administration held Wreidat in solitary confinement, which is a very narrow unsanitary poorly ventilated cell, which has a foul odor, putting his life in real danger; he cannot stand up and suffers from dehydration, cracks in the tongue and lips as well as from vomiting.”[8] He was transferred to Ramleh prison hospital after his health deteriorated as a result of the hunger-strike. On 27.06.2011, Atef ended his hunger strike when the Israeli prison administration promised to end his isolation and transfer him to another prison, only to resume it 2 days later after being tricked by the Israeli prison administration. “..instead of transferring him to another prison, as promised, the Israeli prison administration imposed sanctions on him after he ended his hunger strike, which included a 4-month ban on family visits, a 2-year ban from pursuing education in prison, a 1-month ban from using canteen services and more than $500 fine. It also said it will keep him in Asqalan prison for a month and place him in solitary confinement for three weeks.”[9] As a result of the conditions prevailing in isolation cells, a number of isolated prisoners are in need of urgent medical treatment but do not receive it. A report of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club mentions:[10]
- Hasan Salameh: suffers from an injury in the stomach inflicted on him upon his arrest, suffers from hemorrhoids.
- Mohammed Jaber Abdoh: suffers from urinary tract problems.
- Mu’taz Hijazy: suffers from the brutal assault on him, because of which he was transferred to the intensive care unit. – Yehya As-Sinwar: in need of medical treatment.
- Owaida Kallab: suffers from mental and physical illnesses, and general weakness.
- Jihad Yaghmoor: suffers from severe pneumonia and from cases of suffocation at night.
- Abdel Nasser Al-Halisy: suffers from a difficult mental disorder.
- Hisham Ash-Sharabati: suffers from pains in the muscles, neck and leg.
- Jamal Abu Al-Hayja: suffers from a medical condition and bad vision.
- Atef Wreidat: suffers from heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes.
- Haitham Salhiyyeh: suffers from severe headache, chest pain, ear pain, numbness in his left hand and leg.
- Mansour Ash-Shahateet: suffers from a heart disease, headaches, amnesia.
Being held captive under these inhumane conditions, cut off the rest of the world, the health of prisoners deteriorates slowly and many suffer from depression. According to many studies, solitary confinement causes severe mental damage to prisoners that include paranoia, hallucination, depression, sleep disorder, anxiety and cognitive disorder. Prisoners with psychological problems have no chance at all of getting any medical assistance. One example is prisoner Abdel Naser Al-Helsi from occupied Jerusalem who is imprisoned for life. “Abdel Nasser suffers from critical psychic problems as a result of the 21 years imprisonment of which 8 years were in solitary confinement. The tough situation experienced in this section besides the continuous beating and torture collaborated to undermine his psychic condition.”[11] Another example is Owaida Kallab from the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, also imprisoned for life and has already spent 20 years in jail. Kallab lost his memory after years of isolation: “The many years of isolated confinement has caused him such severe psychic disorders that he refuses to see his family during visitation time in addition to many other physical diseases. He is also so physically weak that he does not have the strength to make himself a cup of tea. Previously, the Palestinian prisoners in the other sections used to cook his meals but the ruthless jail administration barred passing food or any stuff between the prisoners in different sections despite Owaida’s extremely bad condition and the prisoners’ repeated demands to treat him with mercy.”[12] Faiz Al-Khour is another prisoner who suffers from severe mental disorder as a result of his isolation and Mansour Ash-Shahateet suffers from amnesia caused by his long isolation.
Similar to many Palestinian prisoners locked up in Israeli dungeons, those in isolation suffer from malnutrition and what little they get is insufficient and often inedible. Israeli jailors also time the supply of water and food in a manner that no more food or water is provided after 19:00. Prisoners who can afford it have to buy what they need from the prison canteen for very high prices, the rest have to do with the inedible, out-dated, often poisonous food they get causing many malnutrition and diseases of the digestive system. Other prisoners aren’t allowed to buy vegetables for isolated prisoners and isolated prisoners who don’t have enough money aren’t allowed to buy their needs using the Palestinian prisoner’s general account. In addition to that, if a prisoner is transferred directly to isolation after interrogation, he will have no time to buy what he needs or get his possessions from the regular cell. Israeli prison authority prohibits exchanging supplies between isolated prisoners and “regular” prisoners and prohibits the exchange of items or necessities between isolated prisoners. They aren’t allowed to borrow stuff from other isolated prisoners such as blankets and cooking utensils. In one of several examples, “the jailers’ inhumanity exceeded all limits when they reacted to Malssa’s attempt to pass a prayer rug to Hamed by accusing him of defying the regulations. He was charged with contraband and was sent to the punishment areas (called Snouk) for nine days in addition to a penalty of 200 shekel.”[13]
Some weeks ago, I came across a letter written by Palestinian political prisoner Hasan Salameh. Salameh is locked up in Israeli dungeons since 1996 and is in solitary confinement since 7 years. In this letter, Salameh addresses all of us (a rough translation):
You who live in that large world we hear about but don’t see…
My place… a small world in which we live the bitterness of detention and isolation… in this confined space … which becomes more and more narrow… how much we like to remember the time that has passed, which might be the most beautiful image that we still carry in our hearts and in our minds …
How I wish the return of that beautiful time when we were young and innocent and knew no hate … our respect for the elders was something sacred, like a verse from the Qur’an … I remember when we used to come back home from school and the search campaign for tidy books and copybooks would begin and I was always the most orderly …How I wish to return back to my home, my streets and my city … we miss everything… I’m not only isolated, but also deprived of living with any friend from my area with whom to talk about Gaza or Khan Younis… or about childhood memories … I look older, and my beard has grown grey but I live like I was a child .. I yearn for and I miss everything
O loved ones, they want to isolate my memory… to remove me out of the human world and put me in the world of the dead so after so many years they bring some of us to a new memory that has nothing to do with human beings… This letter of mine is my only means to maintain myself … moments of happiness in this isolation are when I wrote a letter or receive one from outside… I sit like a little child on my bed and crush myself in a corner and read a letter that came from the world of the living, the world of humans… how did it arrive?? by what means … it does not matter .. the important thing is that it arrived… and once I receive it I feel I still belong to you, I feel I’m still alive, I read every word and every letter as if I am drinking the elixir of life that brings me back to life and lifts me from amongst the dead … so are your letters and hearing your voice… I Look for ways to help keep me alive and breathing and by God, and by God you are the oxygen through which I breathe… if I receive it I breath and thrive and if it was cut off me I turn back into a corpse among corpses walking like in movies bout dead people who move by particular factors but without a spirit and without soul, only a body walking and moving… Nine continuous years during which I moved between one grave to another … I stay in the grave 23 hours and leave for one hour to a larger grave… But I’m still strong, thanks to God, and I have a strong will and all that I am going through [in isolation on hands of jailors] is to destroy this will using the latest psychological findings… in front of me and beside me are friends who were so beautiful and have become mad and have become in a pitiful state… and believe the strength and resolution I am in is thanks to the grace of God… never do I have credit for it… only He stands with me… even you whom I love are busy with your concerns and problems to stay connected with me even for moments that are to you only few minutes each week, but are to me life, the whole world, the challenge, the Oxygen .. When one of you gets bored you go any place or visit a childhood friend to talk to so what do you say to someone who is forced to speak to himself and to live with memories he so much yearns for… I held my pen so to talk to you and I found myself like someone who is hungry or is thirsty to say what’s on his mind… and my problem is that I do not cry and I hold back my tear so it bleeds blood in my heart …I have started enjoying the bleeding of the heart and I feel that the tears of the heart sterilize my wounds and at the same time I leave them to increase my pain… because I don’t want to forget the pains… I don’t want to forget my sufferings…. I want it to hurt every minute … it’s a volcano which I want to erupt every day so I never forget who I am and who they are… so I feel I am still a human being and I am still alive…
How much time will it cost one of you if you speak for a few minutes every week or every two weeks or wrote a letter and sent it with a lawyer or through the post, knowing that it will strengthen and help an isolated prisoner to whom this letter is a new life
If I could buy your support for me and for the other prisoners with all that I possess, I swear I would not fall short
These are but words uttered by my pain over this time
To the people of the other world… the one we hear of but don’t live in
From the bottom of my heart I wish you luck and I will love you even if you forgot me, for my consolation is that there is a God who is generous and will not forget me …. God is very beautiful and I live according to this beauty in everything in my life even in my isolation and despite my suffering and the difficulties of life and its catastrophes.
According to latest reports, currently there are around 6000 Palestinian political prisoners locked up in Israeli dungeons, including 37 women, 245 children and 180 administrative detainees. Among those there are at least 50 prisoners who are locked up in isolation cells, some of whom are in permanent isolation since their detention. Following is a preliminary list of isolated Palestinian political prisoners (incomplete, collected from several sources):
- Owaida Kallab: from Gaza, in isolation since 16 years.
- Abdel Nasser Al-Halisy: from Jerusalem, in isolation since 15 years.
- Tayseer Samody: in isolation since 15 years.
- Sameh Al-Shobaki: in isolation since 10 years.
- Mahmoud Issa: from Anata, in isolation since 10 years.
- Mu’taz Hijazi: from Jerusalem, in isolation since 10 years.
- Abbas As-Sayyed: from Tulkarim, in isolation since 9 years.
- Hasan Salameh: from Khan Younis, in isolation since 7 years.
- Ahmad Al-Mughrabi: from Dheisheh RC, in isolation since 7 years.
- Abdallah Al-Barghouthi: from Beit Rima, in isolation since 7 years.
- Jamal Abu Al-Haija: from Jenin RC, in isolation since 7 years.
- Ahmad Shukri: from Jerusalem, in isolation since 6 years.
- Ibrahim Hamid: from Silwad, in isolation since 5 years.
- Hisham Ash-Sharabati: in isolation since 5 years.
- Mohammad Jubran Khalil: in isolation since 5 years.
- Salih Dar Mousa: from Beit Liqia, in isolation since 5 years.
- Mohammad Jamal Al Natsha: from Hebron, in isolation since 5 years.
- Mohammad Jaber Abdo: from Kufr Ne’ma, in isolation since 3 years.
- Mhawish N’eimat: in isolation since 2008.
- Ahmad Saadat: from Ramallah, in isolation since 2009.
- Atwah Al-Amour: in isolation since 2009.
- Iyad Abu Hasna: in isolation since 2009.
- Mariam At-Tarabin: in isolation since 2010.
- Ahid Al-Ghalmeh: in isolation since 2010.
- Yahya As-Sinwar: from Khan Younis, isolated several times (12 years in total) and is in isolation since 2010.
- Thabit Mirdawi: in isolation since 2010.
- Eid Misleh: in isolation since 2010.
- Salah Al-Awawdah: in isolation since 2010.
- Muhannad Shreim: in isolation since 2010.
- Raed Mohammad Darabyeh: in isolation since 2010.
- Ubadah Bilal: in isolation since 28.5.11.
- Mahmoud ‘Irman: in isolation since 28.5.11.
- Zaher Jabarin: from Salfit, has been held in isolation several times and is currently isolated.
- Haitham Salhiyyeh: has been held in isolation several times and is currently isolated.
- Mansour Ash-Shahateet: from Hebron.
- Osama Al Einaboosi: from Tobas.
- Walid Aqel: from Gaza, isolated several times (15 years in total) and is currently in isolation.
- Ahlam At-Tamimi.
- Jihad Yaghmour: from Jerusalem.
- Raed Al Sheikh: from Jabalia RC.
- Atef Wreidat: from Ad-Dahriyyeh.
- Raid Abu Maghseeb: from Deir Al-Balah.
- Kifah Al-Hattab.
- Murad Abu Rukab: from Ramallah.
- Dirar Abu Sisi: from Gaza.
- Mahmoud Al-‘Ardah: from Arrabah.
- Bajis Nakhlah.
Source:
www.palestinebehindbars.org
www.alasra.ps
www.ahrar-pal.info
www.paltoday.ps/
www.mandela-palestine.org
www.sabiroon.org
www.ppsmo.org
www.imemc.org
www.english.wafa.ps
www.palestine-info.co.uk
[1] http://tinyurl.com/5so7dgk
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