RAMALLAH, October 10, 2011 (WAFA) – Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that Israeli occupation authorities must bear civil and criminal responsibility for the current and future conditions of Palestinian detainees, said a PRCS press release on Monday.
As a national humanitarian society guided by IHL and RCRC international movement principles, PRCS affirmed that the tragic conditions of the detainees, as well as the Israeli measures which have led to an open hunger strike, constitute a crying violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.
The PRCS press release said hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli detention centers started an open hunger strike on September 27, to protest against a series of oppressive measures depriving them of their basic human rights guaranteed by and enshrined in international treaties and International Humanitarian Law.
It said the conditions witnessed by around 6000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners are both cruel and degrading. Israeli occupation and prison administration authorities deny prisoners and detainees basic human rights such as access to healthy food, medical care, education, books and clothing while enforcing solitary confinement and preventing visits between detention center sections and cells.
Moreover, occupation authorities continue to deny around 2000 prisoners family visits. PRCS said that “650 detainees from the Gaza Strip have been deprived of family visits and contacts for more than five years, while 20 detainees continue to be held in solitary confinement and have been refused family visits for over 3 years.”
“Palestinian families who do manage to visit their relatives in Israeli detention centers have to face degrading and humiliating measures that violate their human dignity,” said the press release.
It added that the Fourth Geneve Convention stipulates that detainees shall receive the medical attention required by their state of health, enjoy conditions of hygiene sufficient to keep them in good health, enjoy complete latitude in the exercise of their religious duties, have the right to receive any spiritual assistance and have at their disposal premises suitable for the holding of their religious services.
“They also have the right to be visited by delegates of the Protecting Power and of ICRC and to receive at least one relief parcel monthly,” it said.
Moreover, daily food rations for detainees shall be sufficient in quantity, quality and variety to keep detainees in a good state of health and prevent the development of nutritional deficiencies.
Likewise, canteens shall be installed in every place of internment, with profits made by canteens to be credited to a welfare fund administered for the benefit of the detainees. Detainees shall be given all facilities to provide themselves with necessary clothing, footwear and change of underwear.
Medical inspections of detainees shall be made at least once a month. The Detaining Power shall encourage intellectual, educational and recreational pursuits, sports and games amongst detainees. Detainees shall have the right to present to the authorities in whose power they are, any petition with regard to the conditions of internment to which they are subjected.
The Convention also says that in every place of internment, the detainees shall freely elect the members of a Committee empowered to represent them before the Detaining and the Protecting Powers, ICRC or any other organization which may assist them (Articles 76, 85, 89, 87, 86, 90, 91, 94, 95, 101 and 102 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949).
PRCS called upon these Authorities to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which legally applies in the OPT.
PRCS also called upon the Israeli Authorities to facilitate the work of the ICRC and to enable it to fulfill its responsibilities in line with this Convention which is considered to be International Customary Law.
M.H./F.J.
