PA official spreads libel about Israeli abusing Palestinian prisoners
Official PA TV News
Official PA TV newsreader: “What are the occupation’s mechanisms and policy that it is willfully implementing to spread diseases in the bodies of the prisoners before their release in order to kill them in their communities (sic., see note below regarding PA libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners)?”
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Chairman of the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club Qadura Fares: “The process of harming the body and mind of the prisoner begins from the first moment he is arrested, from this barbaric storming of the home, afterwards the torture in interrogation, and after that the disease inducing environment that Zionist minds planned so that the prison would change from a place of detention to a place of punishment. In other words, they do not make do with the unjust punishment that is imposed by a legitimate court- an illegitimate military court, but rather the prison becomes a daily punishment. First and foremost, the idea of a prison is for the sake of removing freedom and not abuse or oppression [regarding] food, ventilation, lighting, disturbing sounds, the repeated storming [of prison cells], laying gas [grenades] in places, and generally spraying gas. In other words, sometimes we found grenades that were written on- in other words, that had not exploded, you find them in a corridor or inside the room.”
Newsreader: “Following instances of storming [prison cells]?”
Qadura Fares: “Following instances of storming, and it is forbidden to use [them] in closed areas, and they used them in the closed areas without caring that there are people who are sick with lung diseases, or who have breathing problems or blood pressure problems, or who are elderly or children…
The only solution to deal with this occupation is to fight this occupation, to fight this occupation until it leaves with its despicable crimes and laws, and regarding fixing the picture relying on a certain international organization or international alliance in the sense that they will act gently with this poor people – this will not happen, therefore fighting this occupier is the only solution.”
Libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners - The PA claims that Israel abuses Palestinian prisoners through medical neglect, medical experiments, and by intentionally infecting them with diseases. However, the International Red Cross regularly visits these prisoners and has not documented or accused Israel of any of these claims. Likewise, lists of demands occasionally issued by the prisoners during hunger strikes—such as during one in 2011—include no demands relating to these claims. PMW has documented prisoners talking about how they "lack nothing" in the prisons and that "the worst thing about Israeli prison" is riding in a prison vehicle that has no padding on the seat. When PMW contacted the Israeli Ministry of Health in 2007 regarding PA claims of medical experiments on prisoners, the ministry responded: "Clinical testing on prisoners in prison was never approved, never performed, and is most certainly not taking place at present."