Israel’s violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), which explicitly prohibits “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not” , not only has an impact on Palestinian prisoners’ detention conditions or access to legal aid, but also and most importantly hugely affects the communication and relationship with their families and broader social networks. Geographic isolation can be considered as a form of cruel and unusual punishment in the sense that it inflicts severe mental suffering on the prisoner and their relatives by severing ties between them.

Families of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, cannot visit them freely, or according to their own schedule as they are subjected to Israel’s system of closure and restrictions of movement imposed on the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). Family ties are thus dependent on the Israeli permit system. Upon the arrest of a Palestinian by the Israeli Occupying Forces, no information is usually provided to his / her family regarding his or her detention status and location, as prisoners are typically prohibited from notifying their relatives. Families hence immediately register with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in order to be updated on the place of detention and interrogation of their relative and possible transfers as well as to be included in the family visit program.

Only the nuclear family is allowed to visit prison. Such a rule not only reduces a prisoner’s chance for an easier reintegration upon release, but further isolates those prisoners without nuclear family. For every prisoner, only three adults and two minors are allowed to visit at the same time.

A Permit System
The process of family visits is different depending on the family’s registered place of residence and is hugely affected by the political process. For instance, the family visit program for Gazans has been completely halted since Israel declared the Strip “enemy entity” in September 2007. Currently, 900 Gazan prisoners are fully denied the right to family visits. Residents of the West Bank apply through the ICRC for permits. When Israel does not consider them a “security threat” they are granted the right to visit twice a month, on the same day of the week.

However, anyone who has once been arrested by the Israeli authorities for either a criminal offence or “security reasons” is automatically prohibited from visiting prison. Given that more than 700 000 Palestinians have been arrested since the Israeli occupation of the Territories in 1967 making it the highest incarceration in the world, the likelihood that at least one family member has been to prison is extremely high.

Such a rule not only obstructs these family members’ right to conduct visits, but also the right of other members – men and women – who neither have a criminal record nor have they ever been involved in military or political activities. Thus, in practice, in many cases only old and young relatives – under the age of 16, who do not require permits – are able to visit prison. Thousands of prisoners serve their entire sentence without seeing their siblings or parents even once.

The Journey
The journey from home to prison depends on the family’s residence as well as on their ID card. In order to see their relative for 45 minutes only West Bankers – the vast majority of visitors – travel anywhere from 14 to 20 hours, depending on their place of residence – village or city – and the number of checkpoints they have to cross. In many cases it involves waking up as early as 3:30 – 4:00 am, taking public transportation to the ICRC meeting point in a governorate city and then taking the ICRC bus to the nearest Green Line crossing. During this first part of the journey, visitors are subjected to random searches at checkpoints and ID controls. Once they arrive to the Green Line crossing, everyone is forced to walk through 7 to 10 sets of revolving doors and is subjected to lengthy personal searches, as well as scanning through X-ray machines. Bags are emptied and searched in separate rooms. The process usually lasts around 2 hours, after which families are directed to different ICRC buses, registered in Israel. Escorted by police vehicles, they continue their journey to prison.

Every month however, cases of visitors with valid permits who are rejected at a Green Line crossing by the Israeli authorities are reported.

The Visit
The visit lasts usually 45 minutes, but as some families claim, it can be at times shortened to a half hour only. Private visits are permitted only for children under the age of six. Other visits always take place in a room, which resembles a long corridor separated into two by a glass partition. Visitors and prisoners sit in front of it and communicate by talking to each other on the phone. On the family side usually only two phones are provided, and hence not everyone can partake in the conversation at the same time whenever there are more visitors.

As families are not allowed to wear watches inside prison, they do not know when the visit actually ends and in consequence might not have sufficient time to communicate what they had intended to.

Children under the age of 12, who visit prison alone – as their family members are not granted permits on the premise of constituting a “security threat” – usually express deep feelings of guilt due to their conviction of not meeting either the prisoner’s or the family’s expectations in terms of communication.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 11:38 am and is filed under Israeli Detention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.