A Parliament of Prisoners

[Violet_Crumble]

by Toufic Haddad
February 05, 2006

Most attention surrounding the 25 January 2006 election has focused upon the sweeping victory of Hamas at the polls, and with good reason. But there are other aspects to this year’s election that will also leave permanent impressions upon the future of Palestinian national activity. Among the 132 Palestinians who won seats in the Legislative Council, 15 of them are prisoners. 14 are imprisoned in Israeli jails, and one sits in a Palestinian administered jail in Jericho, with CIA and British Intelligence oversight. 11 of them are affiliated with Hamas, 3 with Fateh, and one with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Prisoners and the prisoner issue play a major role in Palestinian politics. Palestinians are proportionally one of the most detained nations on earth. Of the Occupied Territories’ present day 3.6 million population, over 600,000 have been held in Israeli jails for periods ranging from one week to life, since 1967. That experience has also been particularly traumatic: the Israeli Human Rights organization Btselem estimates that 80% of Palestinian prisoners are tortured, while the Palestinian Prisoner Society counts no less than 106 Palestinians who have been killed or died during interrogation, hunger strike or as a result of poor medical treatment. While historically the prisoner issue is something the whole of Palestinian society can relate to, it is important to acknowledge that prisoners also hold significant political and social stature in the national movement, given that they represent some of its most dynamic, charismatic and radical elements. The 15 members of parliament just elected are no exception to that rule. A brief summary of them provides valuable insight into the new geography of political forces that compose the Palestinian national movement in the wake of the recent Hamas victory. This applies to the faces which emerged as part of the Hamas list itself (and who are less known to English language readers), in addition to certain unifying political characterizations we can acknowledge amongst all prisoners who won PLC seats in this year’s election.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=9674

[bemildred]

1. Sort of like living in Compton or Watts.

Fewer explosions, but I think we may have them beat with the incarceration rate. The "drug war" has proven to be a very effective excuse for throwing people in jail. Oh, well, back to the topic ...