Israel bans jailed ex-MK from receiving book on occupation

The Israel Prison Service banned former Joint List MK Basel Ghattas from receiving a book on Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank, describing it as “contraband material”.

According to a report in Haaretz, Ghattas’ family brought him a copy of “Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation” at the ex-parliamentarian’s request. The book is authored by Eyal Weizman, a London-based Israeli professor and activist.

Israeli prison wardens, however, confiscated the book from Ghattas, who is currently being held in the security wing of Hadarim Prison. The wardens told his relatives that the book is “contraband material” and that Ghattas is forbidden from receiving it.

Weizman told Haaretz that he and his sister had met Ghattas before he went to prison, subsequently giving a copy of the book to Ghattas’ family to take to him.

Read: Israel confiscates 2,000 books from Palestinian prisoners

“Forbidding its entry into the prison is ridiculous,” Weizman said. “Is the occupation hidden from the prisoners? There is nothing secret there but an architectural-military analysis of the system of occupation, and not allowing it in is continued abuse of the prisoners.”

Ghattas is currently serving a two-year sentence after being convicted by an Israeli court of smuggling mobile phones to Palestinian prisoners during visits.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities also confiscated 2,000 reference and study books from Palestinian prisoners about a week ago at Hadarim Prison on the basis that the prisoners were “engaging in academic studies without going through the Palestinian Open University, which is forbidden by law”.

“Books were not confiscated at this stage. Books were collected and the material is being examined for their propriety,” the Prison Service commented.