Researcher claims that Israel experiments on prisoners, causes cancer

The Israeli occupation forces have been accused by a Palestinian Researcher of carrying out “thousands of experiments on Palestinian prisoners every year” which have lead to an increase in the number diagnosed with cancer. The specialist in Palestinian prisoners’ affairs, Abdul Naser Ferwana, himself a former prisoner of the Israelis, claims that “more than five thousand experiments using serious drugs put prisoners’ lives at risk”.

According to Ferwana’s research, dozens of former prisoners have been diagnosed with cancer months and even years after their release; some have died while others are living with the disease. He believes that the experiments prisoners have been exposed to in prison are the direct cause of the high incidence of cancer in this section of the population. Deliberate medical neglect by the prison authorities also cannot be ruled out, he added.

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Ferwana accused the Israeli Ministry of Health of granting permits for conducting clinical trials for certain medication on detainees. He also accused the Israelis of building prisons and detention camps in the Negev desert, in particular, to subject the prisoners to environmental experiments and determine the effects on the environment and human beings in close proximity to the Dimona nuclear reactor and its toxic waste buried nearby. In early January the Israeli Environment Ministry published a report which warned of the presence of toxic waste, including nuclear waste and asbestos – both are carcinogens in the Negev area in which the prisons of Nafha and Reymon, and the Negev detention centre, are situated. This may, advised the ministry, cause malignant diseases including cancer due to being in the vicinity of the Dimona reactor.

He explained that the former Chair of the Israeli parliamentary science committee, Dalia Isik MK, who now leads the Kadima Party in the Knesset, revealed as long ago as July 1997 details of one thousand serious experiments and medication tests which are conducted on Palestinian and Arab prisoners yearly. She confirmed that she had an equal number of permits from the Ministry of Health to conduct such experiments on behalf of Israeli pharmaceutical companies. This was confirmed by Amy Leftat, Chief of the Division of Medicines in the Ministry of Health, in the same Knesset meeting. It was added that there is an annual increase in the number of permits of about 15 percent.

Mr. Ferwana pointed out that if there were 1000 experiments 13 years ago, with a 15 percent annual increase ever since, “then today we’re talking about more than five thousand experiments a year”, something that the Israeli occupation authorities have not denied and clearly have no intention of stopping. Coupled with the rise in cancers amongst prisoners and ex-prisoners, this is, he said, a clear indication that the experiments are ongoing.
 
The evidence of a prisoner who has a degree in nursing suggests that prisoners in Ramla Prison Hospital are given doses of toxic substances. The authorities there, it is claimed, are “indifferent” to the effects on prisoners’ health.

According to statistics used by the researcher, the number of sick prisoners inside Israeli jails is now more than 1,500 with various illnesses, chronic and malignant, including dozens in need of urgent operations and special care. He pointed out that there are still an estimated 16 prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention camps suffering from various cancers. An accurate number can be ascertained if access is given to an independent medical research team in order to complete proper tests.

Source: Quds Press

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