Israel has "agreed to let in the Palestinian prisoners’ canteen money," reports PLO

Text posted on the Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs

Posted text: “Following intensive efforts invested by the [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs and its legal teams, the occupation’s prison management (i.e., Israeli Prison Service) has agreed to let in the prisoners’ canteen money

In a report it issued on Wednesday morning [Oct. 7, 2020], the Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners’ Affairs announced that the occupation’s prison management has agreed to let the monetary transfers concerning the Palestinian security prisoners’ purchases, which are known as ‘canteen’ [money], into their accounts. This was following intensive efforts invested by the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs and its legal teams.

The commission explained that the occupation’s prison management had already prevented the canteen money from going into the prisoners’ accounts at the end of September [2020]. This step comes in order to bother them in all details of their daily lives, and to increase the pressure on them – particularly in light of the fact that the prisoners significantly rely on the canteen money that the PA transfers to them, which stands at 400 [Israeli] shekels a month, in order to meet their needs such as food, cigarettes, and the like.

[The commission] added that the prisoners in the different prisons already declared in the past on a plan of struggle as a sign of protest over the provocative policy of preventing the canteen [money] from coming in. [The plan] was expressed by returning meals for two days, but they suspended this step afterwards.

The commission directed [attention] to how the occupation’s prison management is aware of the significance of the canteen for the prisoners, and therefore it is using it as a means of exerting pressure, imposing sanctions on them, and holding negotiations with them if relations between them become strained. It should be assumed, in accordance with the international conventions, that [the prison management] would be the party responsible for providing the needs of the prisoners and detainees inside the prisons, but it is not [even] providing the minimum. In addition, the meals that are being given to the prisoners are of a low quality and quantity.”