Canteen allowances for prisoners amount to 3 million shekels per month
“The [PA] Finance Ministry and the [PLO] Authority of Prisoners’ and Released Prisoners’ Affairs emphasized that the prisoners’ canteen allowances for the month of August [2014] have been transferred to the banks in keeping with the usual procedure. The Finance Ministry and the Prisoners’ Authority emphasized in a joint press release today, Tuesday [Sept. 9, 2014], that they are working, in consultation with the prisoners and all relevant factors, to fix the canteen [allowance] payment system. In addition, they are working to create a new system that will ensure preferable alternatives to answer the prisoners’ needs, protect their honor and prevent anyone from exploiting them. In addition, they emphasized that the government will not avoid the payments related to prisoners in prison, [including] canteen [allowances], despite the state’s severe financial crisis. The announcement read [as follows]: ‘The understandings [we] have had with the Israel Prison Service and the Israeli DDS company, and which are applicable today, stipulate that there must be equality between the regular criminal prisoners and the fighter security prisoners. In addition, it should be noted that these understandings, which drain the treasury, have unfair repercussions, as they exclude the prisoners from Jerusalem and the prisoners of 1948 (i.e., because they are Israeli Arabs and not considered citizens of the PA).’ [The announcement] added: ‘The sum total of the canteen [allowances], which is close to 3 million shekels a month, includes 800,000 shekels a month for criminal prisoners, meaning 9 million shekels a year. The sum total over the past 10 years reached approximately 90 million shekels.’”