Palestinian prisoners speak out on ICRC family visit cuts, pledge to boycott ICRC
by samidoun
The International Committee of the Red Cross
has announced that it plans to implement a 50% cut in family visits for
Palestinian men prisoners beginning in July 2016. Over the objections
of Palestinian prisoners' associations and international advocates, the
ICRC has used budget limitations in order to justify the cutbacks in
family visits. Palestinian prisoners are now announcing a
boycott of ICRC representative visits to the prison, demanding an end to
the cutbacks and the preservation of twice-monthly family visits. Also,
see below for two accounts by Palestinian prisoners, Wael Jaghoub and
Thaer Hanani, about the ICRC's role in the lives of Palestinian
prisoners and neglect of their concerns.
The
ICRC's involvement is necessary in order for most Palestinian families
to visit their imprisoned family members. Palestinians in the West Bank
need special permits to visit their imprisoned family members inside
Israel, where most prisoners are held in violation of the Fourth Geneva
Convention. These permits are often delayed or denied and take months to
process; if and when they are approved, Palestinians must visit on
special ICRC buses arranged twice monthly. The entire visit process
begins early in the morning and ends late at night for a 45-minute
visit; it is very difficult for young children and elderly parents.
Samidoun reiterates that
the International Committee of the Red Cross should be working to bring
an end to the Israeli obstructions of family visits, and the Israeli
violations of the Geneva Conventions, beginning with the location of
imprisonment for the vast majority of Palestinian prisoners, rather than
placing the weight of budget cuts on those most vulnerable and least
able to bear it – Palestinian prisoners and their families. Palestinian
families have no other means of securing family visits. The ICRC family
visit program is their only option – and this decision removes 50% of
Palestinian families’ access to this essential lifeline.
The Handala Center for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners
reported that Palestinian prisoners across political lines will soon be
issuing a united position on the ICRC visit cutback, noting that this
comes "within the framework of a tightening noose on the Palestinian
people and an attempt to liquidate their issues, whether the struggle of
the refugees or the prisoners." The center stated that prisoners are
discussing a boycott of the ICRC and its services in rejection of this
unjust action, saying that people must be mobilized around the world to
expose the ICRC's complicity with the Israeli state's repression of
Palestinian prisoners.
Tareq Abu Shalouf of Mohja Jerusalem Foundation said to Asra Voice
that Palestinian prisoners will boycott the ICRC by rejecting visits
with ICRC representatives in the prison, saying that prisoners'
organizations outside prison will be sending letters and holding
protests in rejection of the cuts.
Take Action! Support Palestinian Prisoners and their Families:
1. Sign and share the change.org petition
to the International Committee of the Red Cross urging them to change
this decision. Palestinian prisoners and their families need support –
not yet more roadblocks in the way of family life and family
connections!
2. Join or organize a protest at an ICRC office near you. Samidoun will protest in New York City on Friday, 17 June, demanding that the cutbacks to family visits be repealed. Join us! Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net to let us know about protests or actions telling the ICRC to reinstate full family visits for all Palestinian prisoners. See ICRC office locations here: https://www.icrc.org/
Two Palestinian prisoners have written their own commentaries on the ICRC visit cuts, which follow below:
The ICRC and Family Visits - by Thaer Hanani
I
was not surprised when I learned of the news of reduced visits, the
decision taken by the Red Cross, which is supposed to play an important
role in our lives as prisoners, based on its duties as an impartial,
independent international organization with an exclusively humanitarian
mission, to protect the lives and dignity of victims of wars and
occupation, as well as advancing international humanitarian law and
other humanitarian missions.
We
as prisoners and our families do rely on the Red Cross for its
humanitarian role towards us as prisoners, but rather than carry out its
duties and responsibilities, to push to increase our family visits,
here, the ICRC stands alongside the enemy to the point of identical
positions of the ICRC and the Israeli Prison Service, to reduce family
visitation. The ICRC knows very well that we as a movement fought long
battles and strikes to achieve two visits per month, and forgets all of
the pain and suffering of Palestinian prisoners for this achievement.
I
say this from my own personal experience with the Red Cross, as a
prisoner for 12 years. I did not hear that the ICRC visited our home, or
phoned me to reassure me that my family are present in Jordan. On the
contrary, when we communicate with them, they react with vague
statements that they are "working on it" or "will examine," and other
answers that will not feed hungry mouths. Here I will introduce some
experiences over my 12 years of imprisonment:
First,
I was allowed a visit once every six months for first-degree relatives,
but my father was excluded on the grounds that he was not a
"first-degree relative." The Red Cross did not lift a finger.
My
family lives now in Jordan. I did not hear anything from the ICRC; on
the contrary, they asked the ICRC more than once to provide some needs
such as clothing, photographs and other correspondence, but the ICRC did
nothing.
Upon
the death of my mother, I learned after the ICRC did not inform me that
there was a permission for my mother to visit me that had been approved
for a year!
Even
now my father has visited me twice only, and permitted to visit my
brothers Nidal and Jihad twice only. The ICRC has no comment.
All
that and more comes alongside the decision of the ICRC to reduce visits
at the same time that many, many prisoners are suffering from the
denial or lack of visits. I am one of the prisoners who is suffering
from this scarcity. So long as this happens, the ICRC does not respect
its most basic mission, but, on the contrary, colludes with the
occupation. There is an urgent need for the ICRC to understand its
humanitarian duties toward the prisoners, to look for ways to support us
to communicate with our people. I have written here of the problem with
visits from my point of view. If you ask any prisoner, of the thousands
of prisoners, about this topic, you will find that there are thousands
of anecdotes and stories in which the ICRC is failing to fulfill its
humanitarian responsibilities, if not plotting with the occupation.
It
is also worth mentioning the suffering endured by our people during
visits with no intervention from the ICRC, including visit denials,
lengthy inspections, delays, and abuse at checkpoints. Finally, the ICRC
should be fulfilling its duties to expand, not reduce, visits, not to
mention the many existing problems of our prisoners which the ICRC fails
to ameliorate, which include the denial of access to cultural and
scientific books, sports equipment, messages and letters, as well as the
suffering of sick prisoners and the medical file generally.
**
The ICRC, the prisoners and their families by Wael Jaghoub
For
several years, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been
working to reduce its services to Palestinian prisoners in the prisons
and detention centers, including reducing services previously provided,
such as the introduction of mathematical educational materials,
newspapers and cultural books, and entertainment media. This comes in
addition to reducing the support for family visits and the visits of
doctors to the prisons.
This
comes in the context of the ICRC's announcement to reduce the family
visits to prisoners to once monthly, which it has justified by citing
budget restrictions and the numbers of families able to visit their
children twice monthly.
It is necessary to clarify a number of things that seem to have bypassed the ICRC in this decision:
Since
the beginning of the aggression of 2014, sanctions have been imposed by
the prison administration on family visits, including the prisoners
belonging to Hamas and also those residing with them in the relevant
sections from the Popular Front, Islamic Jihad and the Democratic Front.
Nearly 2,000 prisoners were allowed only once monthly visits. We heard
nothing from the ICRC, neither in Geneva or in Palestine, to shed light
on this arbitrary action or to seek to bring it to an end.
The
policy of "security prohibition" of first-degree relatives from
visiting their family members in prison. This policy affects all
prisoners, there is no prisoner who is not impacted by bans prohibiting
visits by wives, parents, siblings, and children. There are hundreds of
prisoners prevened from receiving visits. The Red Cross does not address
this issue at all and stays completely apart from this systematic
denial of visits and visit permits.
Orders
denying prisoners family visits for six month periods, or the denial of
family visits as retaliation for prisoners' protests, defending
themselves and their dignity. These orders are carried out against
groups of prisoners as well as against individual prisoners, as which
happened with Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front,
who was prevented from family visits for years continuously. The ICRC
declined to issue a position on this policy.
The
torture and abuse suffered by families during visits, during
inspections at the prison gates, including the tearing up of visit
permits, and procedures which make family visits a true experience of
suffering. The ICRC has done nothing to stand by Palestinian families.
The
denial of introduction of shoes and other materials such as clothing
during visits, reducing the amount allowed, leaving the prisoners prey
to the "canteen," where Israeli companies define the prices of consumer
products with no restriction. The ICRC has said nothing about this
economic attack on the prisoners and their families.
The
prevention of "second-degree relatives" from visits, allowing only
first-degree relatives, is not considered by the ICRC to be a violation
of the rights of prisoners and a means to isolate and segregate them and
to engage in collective punishment against families. They are silent on
this matter.
The
prevention of any other means of communication aside from the visits,
including the prohibition of telephone calls for Palestinian prisoners.
The ICRC does not see this as a violation of the human rights of
political prisoners.
The
prevention of isolated prisoners from visiting their families; there
have recently over 20 prisoners in solitary confinement forbidden from
seeing their loved ones. The ICRC has issued no objection, complaint,
statement or report on this flagrant violation of rights.
The
visitation to prisoners from Gaza, prohibited for over five years,
resuming in 2012 following an open hunger strike of thousands of
prisoners for 28 days that won them visitation once every two months
with selected first-class relatives. The ICRC was silent on this issue
for years until forced by the action of the prisoners.
There
are dozens of mothers of the prisoners who cannot visit their children
due to ill health. the ICRC does nothing to provide an appropriate means
of transit or transfer or to pressure the occupation to move their
children to jails nearest their homes. The ICRC does not see this
suffering and does not act to provide means to overcome it.
Through
all these previous points regarding the visits and the procedures of
the ICRC concerning them, we look back at the offer of prison management
in 2013 to provide once monthly visits for all in exchange for
improvements in the conditions of daily life. This was rejected firmly
by the prisoners; and it was responded to by achieving visits twice a
month. This was an achievement through the suffering of prisoners and
months of strike, despite Israeli prison administration pratices against
them and santions imposed on them. Today we find that the ICRC complies
with the Israel Prison Service administration in regards to family
visits in the same manner that the IPS previously tried to impose. This
action directly serves the prison administration's policy of isolation
of prisoners and reduction of all forms of communication with the
outside world. There is also a questionable situation regarding the
timing of this action, which coincided with a fierce campaign by the IPS
against prisoners through inspections, and the transfer to special
sections in Ramon, Eshel, and Nafha prison, and the use of special
repressive units. The Israeli prison administration has confirmed that
this policy will escalate and include other actions.
It
should be noted here that these raids have occurred on visit days and
that the prison administration informed the ICRC, which postponed the
visits in advance, while saying that the delay was due to prison
administration decisions to conduct repairs in prison sections.
The
ICRC's decision is a step that requires us to confront it, through
public events before the ICRC headquarters, through petitioning, and
through official moves on the level of the factions, the PLO, and the
Authority. These arbitrary decisions by the ICRC must necessarily be
confronted by Palestinian steps. Following this decision, there will be
other decisions to follow, complementary to the targeting of the
prisoners' movement, the isolation of prisoners, and cutting their
limited communication. The ICRC must bear its responsibilities in this
phase amid a comprehensive targeting of Palestinian prisoners in the
prisons. Now we need a serious discussion and struggle for the
protection of prisoners.
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