Strip Searches in Israeli Prisons
Wednesday - September 27, 2023
The Israeli occupation has intensified its measures that demean the dignity of Palestinian prisoners, exploiting a domestic situation preoccupied with internal disputes and factional conflicts.
Organizations concerned with prisoners’ affairs, along with former prisoners, reported to Al Jazeera Net that prison authorities continue to use degrading strip searches against prisoners, including women, in ways that violate basic human decency. They also persist in employing administrative detention to crush the spirits of prisoners and their families.
According to informed sources and former prisoners, strip searches are conducted from the moment of arrest at home, during transfers to interrogation centers and detention facilities, upon arrival at prison sections, and whenever prisoners leave or return. These searches are conducted in a humiliating manner without exception.
Amjad Najjar, director of the Prisoners’ Club in Hebron, stated that prison authorities have crossed all boundaries by forcing female prisoners to strip under the pretext of security checks. Refusal to comply results in solitary confinement for a duration determined by an internal prison court.
Najjar added that male prisoners are also forced to remove all their clothing, particularly during transfers to interrogation centers. Police officers search sensitive areas of their bodies by hand or with electronic devices, showing no regard for their dignity.
A former prisoner, identified as A.J., recounted how, during his transfer to the interrogation center in the Russian Compound (Moskobiya), an officer forced him to strip completely. When he initially refused, he was threatened with having a female officer conduct the search. He ultimately complied.
He added that he was left completely naked in a small room for 15 minutes and was forced to turn and crouch while his private areas were searched in a humiliating manner, leaving him wishing for death. Upon completion of interrogation, he was transferred to a central prison, where he underwent a similar search.
Former prisoner Maisoon Abu Aisha confirmed that the same degrading methods are applied to female prisoners. Their rooms are sometimes raided at night while they sleep, with no regard for their status as Muslim women.
Sima Ahed, a former prisoner and volunteer with the Prisoners' Club in Tulkarm, shared an incident involving prisoner Maryam Tarabin, who was shackled at both her hands and feet to her cell bed for three consecutive days, denied even basic self-care. She was forced to scream for water whenever she became thirsty.
Ahed added that another prisoner, Amina Mona, has been in solitary confinement for nearly a year. Meanwhile, another female prisoner suffered a brutal beating that resulted in a broken arm, and due to medical negligence, a third prisoner’s kidney failed completely.
The Israeli occupation also uses administrative detention without charge, often extending the detention periods at the very moment prisoners prepare for release.
Amjad Al-Masri, who was released after five years of detention, recalled being arrested in 2002 and sentenced to six months of administrative detention. This sentence was extended more than ten times for periods ranging from four to six months, eventually totaling five years.
He described how he would be informed of the extension while preparing to leave prison, just as his family was preparing to welcome him home, sometimes only hours before the scheduled release. This created a sense of despair and caused many prisoners to experience shock.
Source: Al Jazeera