There are, at present, about 120 women political prisoners in the Israeli jails. In Hasharon Prison (Tel Mond) about 95, the rest in Neve Tirza Prison (Ramle), in Ayalon Prison (Ramle), in Kishon Detention Center (Jalame near Haifa), and several more in other detention centers.
The policy of transferring the prisoners from one prison to another is continuing.
As before, the prison authorities do not inform either the prisoners' families or the lawyers. The families and lawyers learn about the transfer after coming to visit the prisoners but not finding them. Only then, they are informed that the prisoner in question has been transferred. For example:
Su'ad Abu Hamad: On 23 November members of her family came to visit her in Neve Tirza Prison (Ramle) and were informed that she had been transferred again to Kishon (Jalame). A month ago, her family was informed about the transfer to Ayalon Prison only after they had come to Kishon (Jalame) in an attempt to visit her.
In the last two months, Su'ad has been transferred four times:
1. From Hasharon (Tel Mond) to Kishon (Jalame),
2. from Kishon to Ayalon Prison (Ramle),
3. from Ayalon Prison to Neve Tirza Prison (Ramle),
4. from Neve Tirza Prison to Kishon (Jalame).
Many prisoners still cannot make purchases in the canteen because their canteen accounts have been blocked by the Postal Bank. There are also new prisoners who cannot open an account because the Postal Bank refuses to do so. The prisoners who can buy in the canteen share with the others.
The lawyers Taghreed Jahshan (WOFPP) and Sonia Bulus (ACRI – The Association for Civil Rights in Israel) are preparing an appeal to the High Court concerning the canteen accounts.
About blocking prisoner accounts
When the authorities take the prisoners from prison to court, the prisoners have to go through a long and complicated procedure: They are collected from various prisons by a special unit whose members humiliate the women. Often, they have to remain for long hours without food or drink and no possibility to use the toilet.
Neve Tirza Prison (Ramle)
The prisoners who were transferred from Hasharon Prison to the various jails and detention centers and could not take all or part of their belongings with them, have received their clothes and some of their other belongings, after advocate Taghreed Jahshan intervened with the prisons authorities.
Shireen Swidan, from Kalkilya, mother of two children, arrested on 7 September 2006, was detained in Petah Tikva Detention Center for five days of interrogation.
All her family members are prevented by the Israeli authorities from visiting her in prison.
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Ayalon Prison (Ramle)
A prison officer told the women that they are in Ayalon Prison temporarily but for a long period.
The fact that they are watched during 24 hours by a camera is an unbearable situation for them.
The women's winter clothes and other belongings that were supposed to be brought from Hasharon Prison have not yet arrived in Ayalon Prison.
Kishon Detention Center (Jalame)
On 24 November, WOFPP's lawyer Taghreed Jahshan came to visit the prisoners. A prison officer prevented her from entering the prison on the pretext that on Fridays there ar no lawyers' visits. In the previous month, October, Taghreed visited the women in Kishen (Jalame) on Friday, and nobody told her that it was against the rules.
Hasharon Prison (Tel Mond)
In Hasharon Prison fines are still taken from prisoners' accounts as punishment. Recently, fines of a total of NIS 3000 were imposed on prisoners who had been transferred. The prison authorities took the amount of NIS 3000 out of accounts belonging to other prisoners.
'Etaf 'Alyan's daughter, Aysha, was handed over to the child's father. All the members of 'Etaf's family are prevented from visiting the prison; therefore there is nobody to bring the child to visit her.
Dr. Rifqa elJa'abari: Her administrative detention was extended on 15 November.
New Prisoners
Wurud Qasam, 20 years old, an Israeli citizen from Tira. She was arrested on 4 October 2006 at her working place in a supermarket in Ra'anana where she had worked for a long time. The arrest took place while she was serving a customer. She was detained for interrogation at Petah Tikva Detention Center. Her family was informed by Wurud's sister-in-law who saw the arrest. The family has not been allowed to bring her winter clothes.
A Hebrew-language newspaper, "Al Hasharon" that appears in the region of Ra'anana, Tira and nearby towns, published an article of incitement against her.
Faiza Fuda, 43 years old, from Acre. She had been a political prisoner during four years in the 1990s.
On 26 October 2006 she was requested to come to the Mosqobiyeh Detention Center for an investigation. On arrival she was told by the investigator that she should come in two hours' time and was sent outside into the streets of Jerusalem. She preferred to remain in the Compound. After two hours, when the investigation began, the investigator told her that she is under arrest because she is a danger to the public. Following her arrest on 26 October, she was forbidden to meet a lawyer. Upon the appeal of her lawyer, Ahmed Amara, he could visit her after eight days.
She was in solitary confinement under very harsh conditions: Her cell was very dirty, vermin-infested, the toilet a hole in the floor.
She suffers from asthma since her first imprisonment. During one of the interrogation sessions at Mosqobiyeh Detention Center she had an asthma attack.
On 19 November she was transferred to Hasharon Prison.
Mosqobiyeh Detention Center, Jerusalem (Russian Compound)
Amani Jaghameh, 36 years old, from Ramallah, mother of four children, whose husband is wanted by the Israeli authorities, was arrested on 13 October 2006. Israeli security forces came to arrest her before dawn in the village of Ein Yabroud. She and her four children had come to visit the family. They searched the house inside out. Having found nothing, they took each child separately to a neighbouring empty flat to interrogate them about their father: When and where they had last seen him. They wanted - or pretended to want - to arrest her 15-year-old daughter. Amani objected and was beaten by the soldiers.
For more than 30 days she was forbidden to meet a lawyer. After a determined legal struggle by her lawyer, Tamar Peleg, from "HaMoked - Center for the Defense of the Individual" she met her on 16 November.
Amani Jaghameh was released on 23 November 2006.
More about Amani Jaghameh
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