IPS: Palestinian inmates' demands examined

[Jefferson23]

On backdrop of hunger strike launched by hundreds of Palestinian prisoners protesting incarceration conditions, Prison Service chief Franco meets their leaders, including Barghouti at Hadarim jail. PA: Rest of prisoners will join strike if demands not met

Elior Levy, Raanan Ben-Zur

Israel Prison Service Commissioner Aharon Franco spoke with representatives of Palestinian prisoners, led by Marwan Barghouti, Ynet reported Monday.


The IPS stressed that the meeting at Hadarim Prison was not planned and was conducted during a routine visit to the jail.

snip* The Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Ministry said Franco told the representatives that a "special committee set up to examine the prisoners' requests has completed its work and will submit its response within 10 days."

in full: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4222833,00.html

[Scurrilous]

1. Israel admits: Administrative detention unnecessary

<snip>

"Less than three weeks after at least 1,400 Palestinians in Israeli prisons launched a widespread hunger strike, Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Thursday made several astounding admissions regarding Israel’s use of administrative detention. In private meetings with security officials, Aharonovitch called for reducing Israel’s use of the practice, applying it “only if there is a need and not in all cases,” according to a Haaretz report.

He was in effect admitting that the practice is being used even when it is not necessary, if one accepts that it is ever necessary. Furthermore he seemed to be conceding that Israel uses administrative detention instead of carrying out thorough criminal or intelligence investigations.

In a presentation to Israel’s Defense Ministry, Justice Ministry, the IDF, Shin Bet and Prison Service, Aharonovitch recommended that authorities “exhaust investigations and evidence collections” in order to allow the application of criminal proceedings against Palestinian arrestees, a principle that shouldn’t need advocating in a democracy.

The official public explanation of the use of administrative detention - the practice of arresting and holding persons without trial or informing them of what crimes they are suspected – is that doing so in open court could reveal sensitive intelligence collection methods and the identities of informants. Administrative detentions are usually secret orders for six-month periods of incarceration, which can be renewed indefinitely. In some cases, prisoners have been held without charge or trial for several years.

Earlier this year, two Palestinian detainees, Khader Adnan and Hana Shalabi, were released from custody after holding prolonged hunger strikes in protest of their administrative detentions. As a result of intensive social media activist campaigns by young Palestinians in Palestine, Israel and overseas, the mainstream media eventually began covering the case and Israeli authorities cut a deal to release the two."

http://972mag.com/israel-admits-administrative-detention-unnecessary/44673/

[oberliner]

2. Not true

Typical 972mag to create a headline around a manipulated quote that, in fact, says the opposite of what the headline states.

Here's the actual article that 972mag is "reporting" on:

Israel should reduce use of administrative detentions for Palestinians, top official says

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/israel-should-reduce-use-of-administrative-detentions-for-palestinians-top-official-says-1.428118