Prison Report: Palestinians in Israeli Detention during Covid-19

Abstract

This first-person account, written by the partner of a Palestinian prisoner, brings to life detention conditions in Israeli prisons that have been well documented by human rights and other organizations. It highlights the particular dangers these carceral facilities pose to the men, women, and children being held—many in so-called administrative detention, without trial or charge—during the Covid-19 pandemic. Part reportage and part cri de coeur, this testimonial touches on the most immediate and existential aspects of imprisonment for Palestinians in Israeli prisons: poor sanitary conditions and insufficiency of Covid-19 mitigation measures, as well as systemic medical negligence, such as the withholding of medical care at a time of heightened threat and greater vulnerability.

• Palestinian prisoners
• detention
• medical negligence
• punitive measures
• Israeli prisons
• Corona
• Covid-19
• carcerality

Notes

1 Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, “Statistics,” June 2020, http://www.addameer.org/statistics.

2 Addameer, “Addameer's Statement on World Health Day,” 7 April 2020, https://www.addameer.org/news/addameer%E2%80%99s-statement-world-health-day.

3 Human Rights Watch, “Covid-19 Prisoner Releases Too Few, Too Slow,” 27 May 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/27/covid-19-prisoner-releases-too-few-too-slow.

4 International Federation for Human Rights, “On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, Civil Society Calls for Urgent Release of Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees in Israeli Prisons,” press release, 17 April 2020, https://www.fidh.org/en/region/north-africa-middle-east/israel-palestine/on-palestinian-prisoners-day-civil-society-calls-for-urgent-release; Defense for Children International – Palestine, “UNICEF Joins Call to Release Palestinian Children in Israeli Military Detention,” 13 May 2020, https://www.dci-palestine.org/unicef_joins_call_to_release_palestinian_children_in_israeli_military_detention.

5 Times of Israel staff, “Israel to Send Some 500 Prisoners to House Arrest to Reduce Jail Virus Threat,” Times of Israel, 20 March 2020, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-send-some-500-prisoners-to-house-arrest-to-reduce-jail-virus-threat/.

6 Basil Abu Laila, “Allah yenajjina min al-ati: Risala min sijn ‘Ofer,” (Lord keep us from what is to come: Letter from Ofer Prison,” Al-Adab Magazine, 4 April 2020, https://bit.ly/3fXu8b5.

7 See Maram Humaid, “Fears over Most Vulnerable Palestinian Prisoners amid Coronavirus,” Al Jazeera, 17 April 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/fears-vulnerable-palestinian-prisoners-coronavirus-200417031432823.html?fbclid=IwAR3D7KoQwXrsgLrdxcDeQvPoBTsB1iE-K0MTrBMWKXPeoFEN6OJTiMItsQo; Stuart Winer, “Health Ministry Raises Flag over Suspected Virus Spread in Prisons,” Times of Israel, 14 July 2020, https://www.timesofisrael.com/health-ministry-raises-flag-over-suspected-virus-spread-in-prisons/?fbclid=IwAR3BEbskzYN-2UWSKLKnV-GkiCr4o9AtHfwS84_OK9SgA5T-bDOtZmveHEw.

8 Since family visits were suspended on 8 March 2020 due to the Covid-19 crisis, I've gone through arduous and repeated attempts to communicate with and pressure the U.S. embassy in Israel for updates on Ubai's health. On 30 April, I received an email stating the following: “Earlier today, a Consular Section employee spoke with your husband by phone. The call was arranged through the Israel Prison Service and the Prisoners’ Officer at Ofer Prison. Each prisoner now has his own mask, which they received on April 15.”

9 Issam A. Adwan, “Palestinian Prisoners amid Covid-19 Outbreak,” Jadaliyya, 16 May 2020, https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/41106?fbclid=IwAR3BEbskzYN-2UWSKLKnV-GkiCr4o9AtHfwS84_OK9SgA5T-bDOtZmveHEw.

10 I have only provided initials for those prisoners whose identities have not otherwise been made public.

11 Addameer, “Medical Negligence,” January 2016, http://www.addameer.org/key_issues/medical_negligence.

12 According to his autobiography, Mandela “could walk the length of [his] cell in three paces. When [he] lay down, [he] could feel the wall with [his] feet and [his] head grazed the concrete at the other side.” See Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (Philadelphia, PA: Little Brown, 1994), pp. 384–85.

13 UN General Assembly, Resolution 70/175, United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), A/RES/70/175 (8 January 2016), https://undocs.org/A/RES/70/175.