Israel using tents to accommodate Palestinian prisoners

A human rights organisation has reported that the Israeli prison administration is due to move so many Palestinian prisoners to and from Megiddo Detention Centre that they will be accommodated in tents.

In a statement issued on Monday, June11, the International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights said that around 250 prisoners from the north and south of the country will be moved soon to Megiddo. The authorities will reopen section 7 of the prison, which is tented accommodation, to hold administrative detainees and those with less than three months of their sentence left.

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Due to all of the prisoners movements, said Ahmed Betawi, a researcher at the foundation, “Megiddo prison’s management punished section 8 prisoners”. Around 120 prisoners, alleged Betawi, were prevented from having gifts sent by their families and their children were banned from family visits. Furthermore, the prison administration punished the prisoners’ representative in section 8, Wagdi Al-Gallad from Tulkarem, who is serving 22 years, along with Nemer Al-Attarah, who represents prisoners belonging to Fatah. Both men have been placed in solitary confinement on a charge of smuggling mobile phones into the prison during family visits. They deny the charge categorically.

According to the International Solidarity Foundation’s statement, one of the prisoners moved to Megiddo recently is Hamas leader Sheikh Rafat Nasif, who has been held without charge or trial under an administrative detention order since March 2009.