A PALESTINIAN prisoner who has been in solitary confinement for eight years in Israeli jails has recently been suffering a psychological and neurological disorder, according to the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs.
Karem Ajwa, an attorney with the Commission, said 33-year-old Mohammad Jubran Khalil from Ramallah has in recent months been suffering an increasing psychological and neurological disorder due to his solitary confinement in Asqalan prison. Khalil has also been denied family visitations for over nine months.
Khalil was detained in November 2006 and is serving a life sentence. According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, solitary confinement ‘causes mental and physical suffering amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’.
Detainees in solitary confinement in Israeli jails are held in empty cells containing only a mattress and a blanket, and rely on the Israeli Prison Service to address all other needs. Adalah, a Haifa-based human rights group, says that ‘solitary confinement of Palestinian political prisoners who are classified as “security prisoners” is doubly harsh because of the restrictions imposed on their contacts outside of prison, even when they are not held in isolation.
‘All types of solitary confinement in prison should end, given its severe impact on the physical and psychological health of prisoners. ‘Solitary confinement constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment and thus violates the International Covenant Against Torture (CAT) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Israel Medical Association and Ministry of Health should strongly oppose its use as a method of imprisonment.’
Meanwhile, Israeli forces on Wednesday demolished around 25 structures in al-Khdeirat Bedouin community, outside the village of Jaba, near Jerusalem, which shelter and serve 11 families, leaving a total of 100 people homeless, including about 70 minors, some of whom began the school year a few days ago.
In a story published by B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, al-Khdeirat community, which is located east of route 60, between the Palestinian village al-Jaba and the Israeli settlement Adam (also known as Geva Binyamin), is home to around 50 families, numbering around 500 people.
‘This morning’s operation is the culmination of a wave of demolitions by the Civil Administration during August, that totalled around 50 residential structures housing Palestinians in Area C,’ stressing, ‘this figure is close to the entire number of residential structures demolished in the first half of 2015.’
These demolitions take place in the context of efforts by the military and the Civil Administration to push Palestinian communities out of Area C, said B’Tselem. It stressed that these expulsion plans violate international humanitarian law, which prohibits the forcible transfer of protected persons, unless carried out for their own protection or for an imperative military need.
‘Even when the transfer meets these criteria, it must be temporary. Moreover, as the occupying power, Israel has an obligation to work for the benefit and welfare of the residents of the occupied territory. The plan to expel these residents from their homes as well as impose living conditions on some that would undermine their livelihood violates this obligation,’ B’Tselem concluded.
An OCHA weekly report covering the period between 18 and 24 of August 2015 stated, Israeli forces demolished 42 Palestinian-owned structures during the third week of August, all of which were located in Area C, under full Israeli military control, citing the pretext of unpermitted construction. It said the demolition of the 42 structures, which OCHA described as the highest number of demolitions conducted in one week in the past six months, left around 54 Palestinians displaced, including 33 children.
It said in 2015 alone, Israel demolished a total of 417 structures in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, displacing at least 495, including 277 children. According to media outlets: ‘The Israeli authorities in the West Bank have ruled that legal proceedings must be seen through before a Bedouin community east of Jerusalem can be evicted from prefab housing deemed illegal.’
However, in a meeting of the settlement subcommittee at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, MK Orit Strock suggested the Civil Administration ‘show creativity’ regarding procedures for demolishing Bedouin structures that would limit the possibility of petitioning the High Court. OCHA said: ‘Thousands of Palestinians throughout the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) have been forcibly displaced or are at acute risk of forced displacement as a result of multiple factors, including policies and practices related to the ongoing military occupation and recurrent hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups.’
It stressed: ‘Forced displacement has a series of immediate and longer-term physical, socio-economic and psycho-social impacts on Palestinian families. It deprives them of their home and land – often their main asset – and frequently results in disruption to livelihoods, a reduced standard of living and limited access to basic services. The impact on children can be particularly devastating.’
Elsewhere, Israeli authorities on Wednesday ordered the construction of a school in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, to stop, according to Rateb Jabour, a local activist. Jabour said staff from the Israeli Civil Administration broke into the Sha’b al-Batm locality in Masafer Yatta and ordered the school’s administration to stop the ongoing construction of the school.
The school is already composed of caravans, but its administration had earlier this year decided to build a concrete-sealed building to replace the caravans. This came only two weeks after the new school year started in the West Bank and Gaza. Masafer Yatta is a congregation of about 19 Bedouin localities located about 24 kilometres to the south of Hebron.
Located in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli administrative and military control, the area has been subject to repeated Israeli violations by settlers and army soldiers targeting their main source of living; livestock. Operation Colomba, Nonviolent Peace Corps, has reported on multiple violations by the Israeli authorities in the area, including house demolitions, demolition of animal barns and other health facilities.
The congregation is surrounded by four illegal settlements: Ma’oun, Karmae’l, Yaqoub Dali, and Lifna. It has therefore been a frequent target of almost weekly attacks by Israeli Jewish settlers.
Nearby Israeli military checkpoints and bypass roads allocated to Israeli settlers have restricted local Palestinians’ access to their land, workplaces and market.
Israeli settlers on Wednesday damaged the main power pole that supplies the village of Kufr Qadoom with electricity, causing a power outage that lasted for hours. Coordinator of the popular resistance committee in the village, Murad Ishtawi, said that this is the second time settlers from the nearby settlement of Kedumim, built illegally on the village’s land, have damaged the power pole.
Head of the village council, Hamza Joma’a, said that the settlement guards, along with Israeli soldiers, prevented the council’s electricity technician from accessing the power pole, which he stressed is a step intended to cover up for settlers’ attacks committed against Palestinians. He further noted that this incident comes as part of settlers’ retaliatory measures against the Palestinian locals for holding weekly demonstrations to demand Israel reopen one of the village’s roads, which Israel has closed for the past 13 years.
Also on Wednesday an Israeli settler attempted to run over a Palestinian shepherd while he was grazing his sheep in Masafer Yatta to the south of Hebron. The settler also drove his car toward the sheep, killing at least seven, and causing injuries and fractures to three others. However, the shepherd, Issa Abu Irram, managed to find shelter, only sustaining bruises throughout his body.
Regarding settlers’ attacks against Palestinians, OCHA, in a weekly report covering the period between August 19 and 24 of 2015, said that five Israeli settler attacks resulting in injury to Palestinians and damage to their property were recorded, including a stone-throwing attack against a six-year-old child.
Settlements are illegal under international law as they violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of the occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory. In many cases of settlers’ attacks against Palestinians, forces offer protection to settlers and turn a blind eye to attacks committed against locals.
‘The existence of settlements leads to violations of many of the human rights of Palestinians, including the rights to property, equality, an adequate standard of living and freedom of movement. ‘In addition, the radical changes Israel has made to the map of the West Bank preclude any real possibility of establishing an independent, viable Palestinian state as part of the fulfilment of the right to self-determination,’ said B’Tselem.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said: ‘The failure to respect international law, along with the lack of adequate law enforcement vis-à- vis settler violence and takeover of land has led to a state of impunity, which encourages further violence and undermines the physical security and livelihoods of Palestinians.’
