12 British people were stopped at Tel Aviv airport in July 2011. Five hours later they and 120 other people were in a high security prison in Israel.
One woman managed to smuggle out this hidden recorded video of their six nights locked up in the high security prison in Israel.The video clips shows how the women were forced to scrub the prison floors in exchange for coffee. Life inside the hot cells and tense interactions with the Israeli guards were all captured.
CANADIANS: Don't get smug and think this is only taking place south of the border. I have said all along that Harper is just another NWO stooge/patsy/servant/traitor. Do you not think he has similar intentions for his country of serfs? Why else is he so gungho on doubling the number of prisons in our "home and native land" when the crime rate has been dropping steadily for the past few years?
Remember, Harper serves the same organization as the American leaders, the fanatic Zionist group we know of as the Chabad Lubavitch, and we know what their Talmud says about us goyim. We are all chattel to be used as "our superiors" (meaning Zionist Jews) decide we are to be used and that includes in the businesses legal and illegal that keep them wealthy ~ and us sinking more into debt. These things our Prime Minister does not disclose.
By Noor al Haqiqa
Snippits and Snappits
May 27, 2011
In recent decades,
the United States prison system
has evolved into an enormous repressive infrastructure
that reflects the needs of American capitalism,
not the realities of crime.
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At last US industry has figured out how to compete with Third World wages right here at home.
Psssst. Hey you, corporate honcho. Tired of paying American workers five or six bucks an hour, and them still complaining that it's not a living wage? Well, how would you like to get some of those nice, compliant, super-cheap Third-World workers ~ without even having to move your factories to some Hell-hole in China or El Salvador?
Let me whisper two little words to you: “Prison Labour."
PRISON LABOUR ~
THE POLITICALLY CORRECT TERM
FOR BACK DOOR SLAVERY!
Prisons are the reinvention of slave labor. Importing anything into the USA that is made by slave labor or prisoners is illegal. However USA prisoners can be used legally to manufacture USA products. Since prisoners are made to work for just pennies a day, this allows USA corporations to cheaply produce products that are competitive with Mexican labor. That's why 1% of American adults are in jail ~ between 2 and 3 million of them. That's more than 1 in every 100 and many of them are in prison for trivial offenses! Any excuse will do to keep the cages full!
Commercialized prison labour has become big business. Writing in the Madison, Wisconsin Isthmus, investigative reporter Steven Elbow says convict-made goods will reach nearly $9 billion in sales by the year 2000.
1% of American adults are in jail.
That adds up to between 2 and 3 million.
That's more than 1 in every 100.
The USA has more of its citizens in prison than any other nation on earth. It has 148 prisoners per 100,000 population. That's more than 2 times as many as South Africa, 3 times as many as Iran and 6 times as many as China.
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The USA criminal justice system is a "3 strikes legal system based on the game of Baseball. Isn’t that great and just! If someone has had two offenses in their life (no matter how small), the third offense will get them a life sentence ~ no matter how trivial.
L. Andrea shoplifted 9 video tapes
and got 2 consecutive 25 year sentences.
Kevin Weber, age 26,
stole 6 chocolate chip cookies and got a life sentence
One in thirty men, ages 20 to 30, is in jail.
One in nine black men, ages 20-30, is in jail.
There are more black males in jail than in college.
WHO SAID THAT THE CIVIL WAR ENDED SLAVERY?
With 2.2 million people engaged in catching criminals and putting and keeping them behind bars, "corrections" has become one of the largest sectors of the US economy, employing more people than the combined workforces of General Motors, Ford and Wal-Mart, the three biggest corporate employers in the country. Correctional officers have developed powerful labour unions. And most politicians, whether at the local, state or national level, remain acutely aware that allowing themselves to be portrayed as "soft on crime" is the quickest route to electoral defeat.
In the past two decades, hundreds of "prison towns" have multiplied - places that are dependent on prisons for their economic vitality. Take Fremont County, Colorado, where the number 1 employer is the Colorado Department of Corrections, with 9 prisons, and number 2 is the Federal Bureau of Prisons with 4. Towns that once might have hesitated about bringing a prison to town now rush to put together incentive packages.
Abilene, Texas, offered the state incentives worth more than $4 million to get a prison. The package included a 316-acre site and 1,100 acres of farmland adjacent to the facility.
Buckeye, 35 miles west of Phoenix, was a sleepy little desert outpost with a population of about 5,000 until it competed successfully for a major state prison. After that the state upgraded the road leading to the town and the population began to explode. A new movie theatre and a $2.5 million swimming complex opened. Because Buckeye was sitting on ample supplies of water, it suddenly became prime real estate. Mayor Dusty Hull reckons the town will reach 35,000 in five years.
According to the Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, 245 prisons sprouted in 212 rural counties during the 1990s. In West Texas, where oil and farming both collapsed, 11 rural counties acquired prisons in that decade. The Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest regions in the country, got 7 new prisons.
Appalachian counties of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky built 9, partially replacing the collapsing coal-mining industry. If the prisons closed, these communities would quickly collapse again.
When states try to cut prison budgets, they quickly come up against powerful interests. In Mississippi in 2001, Governor Ronnie Musgrove vetoed the state's corrections budget so he could spend more money on schools. The legislature, lobbied by Wackenhut, overrode the veto. In fiscally distressed California, about 6% of the state budget goes to corrections. Yet no senior politician, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has dared challenge the power of the 31,000-member California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which pours 1/3 of the $22 million it collects each year in membership dues into political action committees.
Even efforts by some states to speed up the release of nonviolent offenders are unlikely to reduce the total prison population by much. The Bureau of Justice Statistics has found that 2/3 of those released from prison on parole are re-arrested within 3 years.
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Even efforts by some states to speed up the release of nonviolent offenders are unlikely to reduce the total prison population by much. The Bureau of Justice Statistics has found that 2/3 of those released from prison on parole are re-arrested within 3 years. Released prisoners face institutional barriers that make it difficult for them to find a place in society. Welfare reform legislation in 1996 banned anyone convicted of buying or selling drugs from receiving cash assistance or food stamps for life. Legislation in 1996 and 1998 also excluded ex-felons and their families from federal housing.
Tens of thousands of US inmates are paid from pennies to minimum for everything from grunt work to firefighting to specialized labor.
So these free enterprising companies not only get labour for minimum wage or, more often, less from the state, but they also provide no health care, no pensions, no vacations, none of those other frills that pampered softies on the outside are always crying about. Plus these jailbirds always show up on time for work, they don't call in "sick" to go to a ballgame, if they talk back to you, have them thrown in solitary, and they darn sure won't be joining some pesky union.
Most companies pay the minimum wage, but many get away with paying far less ~ AT&T, for example, paid only $2 an hour for its imprisoned telemarketers, and Honda got its convict-made car parts from the Ohio prison at $2.05 an hour. The prisoners typically get to keep only 20% of the paycheque, with the state government grabbing the rest, which is why the states are all for it.
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Most inmates leave prison with no money and few prospects. They may get $25 and a bus ticket home if they are lucky. Studies have found that within a year of release, 60% of ex-inmates remain unemployed. Several states have barred parolees from working in various professions, including real estate, medicine, nursing, engineering, education and dentistry.
The Higher Education Act of 1998 bars people convicted of drug offenses from receiving student loans. Prisoners are told to reform but they are given few tools to do so. Once they are entangled in the prison system, many belong to it for life. They may spend stretches of time inside prison and periods outside but they are never truly free.
It's the next best thing to having slaves ~ maybe better, since the company doesn't even have to feed and house them. You don't even run ads or go to the unemployment agency for workers ~ you go to your state prison!
Just check out this SHORT list of “Made in America” goods that infiltrate the marketplace and lower the standard of living of Americans everywhere.
Starbucks subcontractor Signature Packaging Solutions has hired Washington prisoners to package holiday coffees (as well as Nintendo Game Boys). Confronted by a reporter in 2001, a Starbucks rep called the setup "entirely consistent with our mission statement."
In the mid-1990s, Washington prisoners shrink-wrapped software and up to 20,000 Microsoft mouses for subcontractor Exmark (other reported clients: Costco and JanSport). "We don't see this as a negative," a Microsoft spokesman said at the time. Dell used federal prisoners for PC recycling in 2003, but stopped after a watchdog group warned that it might expose inmates to toxins.
California’s correctional system has become a one-stop-hiring hall for corporations: San Quentin inmates do data entry for Chevron, Macy's and Bank-America; Folsum inmates work for both a plastics manufacturer and a brass faucet maker; and Aveala inmates run an ostrich-slaughtering facility for an exporter that ships the meat to Europe.
Each month, California inmates process more than 680,000 pounds of beef, 400,000 pounds of chicken products, 450,000 gallons of milk, 280,000 loaves of bread, and 2.9 million eggs (from 160,000 inmate-raised hens).
At California's prison dental laboratory, inmates produce a complete prosthesis selection, including custom trays, try-ins, bite blocks, and dentures.
In the 1990s, subcontractor Third Generation hired 35 female South Carolina inmates to sew lingerie and leisure wear for Victoria's Secret and JCPenney
Ohio prisoners have produced car parts for Honda; prison labourers in Oregon make uniforms for McDonalds
Prison call center in Arizona
Venturainmates take telephone reservations for TWA (yes, this does mean callers are unwittingly giving their credit card numbers to criminals, and, yes, there have been "incidents"
Kmart, and Eddie Bauer are getting such products as jeans, sweatshirts, and toys made by prisoners in Tennessee and Washington State
Prisoners in for burglary, battery, drug and gun charges, and escape helped build a Wal-Mart distribution center in Wisconsin in 2005, until community uproar halted the program. (Company policy says, "Forced or prison labor will not be tolerated by Wal-Mart.")
IBM, Texas Instruments, and Dell Computer all get circuit boards made by Texas prisoners.
In Texas, prisoners make officers' duty belts, handcuff cases, and prison-cell accessories. California convicts make gun containers, creepers (to peek under vehicles), and human-silhouette targets.
Texas and California inmates make dorm furniture and lockers, diploma covers, binders, logbooks, library book carts, locker room benches, and juice boxes.
Texas inmates produce brooms and brushes, bedding and mattresses, toilets, sinks, showers, and bullwhips. Bullwhips?
Honda has had car parts made in Ohio prisons, AT&T has hired telemarketers in Colorado prisons, and Spalding gets golf balls packed in Hawaii prisons
Prison slave laborers produce: most of the military needs ~ helmets, bags, badges etc.; 93% of domestically produced paints; 36% of home appliances; 21% of office furniture; and much more.
Federal Prison Industries, a.k.a. Unicor, says that in addition to soldiers' uniforms, bedding, shoes, helmets, and flak vests, inmates have "produced missile cables (including those used on the Patriot missiles during the Gulf War)" and "wiring harnesses for jets and tanks." In 1997, according to Prison Legal News, Boeing subcontractor MicroJet had prisoners cutting airplane components, paying $7 an hour for work that paid union wages of $30 on the outside.
Convict labour is not totally free enterprise, but it's as close as it gets. And remember, 20¢-an-hour labour also helps push down wages for all other American workers. So here's to you corporate honchos and your politicians for making America even more like a Third World nation.
Oh, and here's the best part of all: You can slap a Made-in-the-USA label on every product they make for you!
In 1997, a California prison put two men in solitary
for telling journalists they were ordered
to replace "Made in Honduras" labels on garments
with "Made in the USA."
Convict-made goods are expected to reach nearly $9 billion in sales by the end of the decade as the prison population swells; as more companies discover the scam, and as more state politicians learn to cash in on it.
Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, never one to pass up a chance to exploit someone's misery, has been especially adept at huckstering his state's prison force: "Can't find workers?" a state mailing asks corporate executives all across the country. No problem, proclaims the brochure, "A willing workforce waits" ~ conveniently incarcerated for you in Wisconsin.
Participating firms everywhere sing the praises of this locked-up labour. In an article in Nation magazine, Bob Tessler of DPAS company in San Francisco gushes:
"We have a captive labour force, a group of men who are dedicated, who want to work. That makes the whole business profitable."
That, plus the fact that California taxpayers also give Tessler a 10% tax credit on the first $2000 of each inmate's wages. Cheap prison labour and a subsidy ~ if that won't restore your faith in the working of the free market, nothing will! It is such a steal of a deal that Tessler has shut down his operation in Mexico, moving his data processing work inside San Quentin.
"Here we don't have a problem with the language, we have better control of our work and, because it's local, we have a quicker turnaround time."
Timothy Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato Institute's project on criminal justice, states that prison labour is a worthy idea, but says that such programs often fall short of their goal of helping prisoners gain marketable skills. This is because
while they often put inmates to work producing products that states or federal agencies need ~ producing machine-made furniture, for example ~ the work does not provide the workers with skills, such as carpentry and plumbing, that are applicable to widely available jobs. Such programmes, he says, do not fulfill their primary mission.
A 1998 study from the University of California, Berkeley, found that state-run prison factories and farms were responsible for more than $150 million annually in direct sales to the states on a range of products ranging from silk-screened clothing to fine-ground optics. And, yes, the incarcerated workers also made state license plates.
The researchers found that prisoners lined up for the chance to work at a pay scale ranging from 30¢ ~ 95¢ per hour. But critics point to the tax dollars used to prop up such systems as proof that the economic impact of these programs is not what proponents make it out to be.
A 1996 investigation by the California Bureau of State Audits found that over the 13-year history of the state's Prison Industry Authority, the program had lost more than $33 million ~ money that was made up with infusions from state coffers.
Here we learn about the camps of the past as well as who, what , when and why they were occupied. Just a bit of Canada's unspoken history. Nope, Canada is not the perfect country we grew up believing it to be. It is much better than most, but still there were victims In the case of the Chippewas at what is now Camp Ipperwash in Eastern Canada there are still unresolved issues.
By world standards Canada is a country that respects and protects its citizens’ human rights. That has not always been true, however. Many people are familiar with the story of the internment of Japanese-Canadians in BC during World War II. But not many people are aware that the Japanese were not the only Canadians imprisoned during wartime simply because of their ethnic origin. The history of Canada includes more than one shameful incident in which the Canadian government used the law to violate the civil rights of its own citizens.
THE WAR MEASURES ACT
The War Measures Act was enacted on 22 August 1914, and gave the federal government full authority to do everything deemed necessary “for the security, defence, peace, order and welfare of Canada”.
It could be used when the government thought that Canada was about to be invaded or war would be declared, in order to mobilize all segments of society to support the war effort.
The Act also gave the federal government sweeping emergency powers that allowed Cabinet to administer the war effort without accountability to Parliament, and without regard to existing legislation.
It gave the government additional powers of media censorship, arrest without charge, deportation without trial, and the expropriation, control and disposal of property. This Act was always implemented via an Order in Council, rather than by approval of the democratically elected Parliament.
WORLD WAR I
After Great Britain entered the First World War in August 1914, the government of Canada issued an Order in Council under the War Measures Act. It required the registration and in certain cases the internment of aliens of “enemy nationality”.
This included the more than 80,000 Canadians who were formerly citizens of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. These individuals had to register as “enemy aliens” and report to local authorities on a regular basis.
Twenty-four “concentration camps” (later called “internment camps”) were established across Canada, eight of them in British Columbia. View a list of World War 1 Concentration Camps.
The camps were supposed to house enemy alien immigrants who had contravened regulations or who were deemed to be security threats. In fact, the “enemy aliens” could be interned if they failed to register, or failed to report monthly, or traveled without permission, or wrote to relatives in Austria.
Other less concrete reasons given for internment included “acting in a very suspicious manner” and being “undesirable”.
By the middle of 1915, 4000 of the internees had been imprisoned for being “indigent” (poor and unemployed).
A total of 8,579 Canadians were interned between 1914 and 1920. Over 5,000 of them were of Ukrainian descent. Germans, Poles, Italians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Turks, Serbians, Hungarians, Russians, Jews, and Romanians were also imprisoned.
Of the 8,579 internees, only 2,321 could be classed as “prisoners of war” (i.e. “captured in arms or belonging to enemy reserves”); the rest were civilians.
Upon each individual’s arrest, whatever money and property they had was taken by the government. In the internment camps they were denied access to newspapers and their correspondence was censored. They were sometimes mistreated by the guards.
One hundred and seven internees died, including several shot while trying to escape. They were forced to work on maintaining the camps, road-building, railway construction, and mining. As the need for soldiers overseas led to a shortage of workers in Canada, many of these internees were released on parole to work for private companies.
The First World War ended in 1918, but the forced labour program was such a benefit to Canadian corporations that the internment was continued for two years after the end of the War.
WORLD WAR II
During World War II the War Measures Act was used again to intern Canadians, and 26 internment camps were set up across Canada.
In 1940 an Order in Council was passed that defined enemy aliens as “all persons of German or Italian racial origin who have become naturalized British subjects since September 1, 1922″. (At the time, Canada didn’t grant passports and citizenship on its own, so immigrants were “naturalized” by becoming British subjects.)
A further Order in Council outlawed the Communist Party. Estimates suggest that some 30,000 individuals were affected by these Orders; that is, they were forced to register with the RCMP and to report to them on a monthly basis. The government interned approximately 500 Italians and over 100 communists.
In New Brunswick, 711 Jews, refugees from the holocaust, were interned at the request of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill because he thought there might be spies in the group.
In 1942, the government decided it wanted 2,240 acres of Indian Reserve land at Stony Point, in southwestern Ontario, to establish an advanced infantry training base. Apparently the decision to take Reserve land for the army base was made to avoid the cost and time involved in expropriating non-Aboriginal lands.
The Stony Point Reserve comprised over half the Reserve territory of the Chippewas of Kettle & Stony Point. Under the Indian Act, reserve lands can only be sold by Surrender, which involves a vote by the Band membership. The Band members voted against the Surrender, however the Band realized the importance of the war effort and they were willing to lease the land to the Government.
The Government rejected the offer to lease. On April 14, 1942, an Order-in-Council authorizing the appropriation of Stony Point was passed under the provisions of the War Measures Act.
The military was sent in to forcibly remove the residents of Stony Point. Houses, buildings and the burial ground were bulldozed to establish Camp Ipperwash.
By the terms of the Order-in-Council, the Military could use the Reserve lands at Stony Point only until the end of World War II. However, those lands have not yet been returned.
The military base was closed in the early 1950′s, and since then the lands have been used for cadet training, weapons training and recreational facilities for military personnel.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942, the government passed an Order in Council authorizing the removal of “enemy aliens” within a 100-mile radius of the BC coast. On March 4, 1942 22,000 Japanese Canadians were given 24 hours to pack before being interned.
They were first incarcerated in a temporary facility at Hastings Park Race Track in Vancouver.
Women, children and older people were sent to internment camps in the Interior.
Others were forced into road construction camps.
There were also “self-supporting camps”, where 1,161 internees paid to lease farms in a less restrictive environment, although they were still considered “enemy aliens”. Men who complained about separation from their families or violated the curfew were sent to the “prisoner of war” camps in Ontario.
The property of the Japanese Canadians ~ land, businesses, and other assets ~ were confiscated by the government and sold, and the proceeds used to pay for their internment.
In 1945, the government extended the Order in Council to force the Japanese Canadians to go to Japan and lose their Canadian citizenship, or move to eastern Canada. Even though the war was over, it was illegal for Japanese Canadians to return to Vancouver until 1949.
In 1988 Canada apologized for this miscarriage of justice, admitting that the actions of the government were influenced by racial discrimination. The government signed a redress agreement providing a small amount of money compensation.
COULD THIS HAPPEN TODAY?
The War Measures Act was repealed in 1988. It was replaced with the Emergencies Act.
The Emergencies Act allows the federal government to make temporary laws in the event of a serious national emergency. The Emergencies Act differs from the War Measures Act in two important ways:
1. A declaration of an emergency by the Cabinet must be reviewed by Parliament
2. Any temporary laws made under the Act are subject to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Thus any attempt by the government to suspend the civil rights of Canadians, even in an emergency, will be subject to the “reasonable and justified” test under section 1 of the Charter.
Restrictions and limitations on freedom were inevitable during times of war. To the Canadian government, internment during both World Wars was a practical solution to a perceived security problem.
However the terms of the Orders in Council, and the methods used to carry them out, reveal that the government was influenced more by racial discrimination and anti-immigrant sentiments than by any real threat to national security.
The stories of the internees are a reminder of how human rights are vulnerable in situations of crisis.
By Diana Breti
Centre for Education, Law and Society (CELS)
Simon Fraser University
Vancouver, British Columbia
The numbers vary, but range at any time from over 7,000 to 12,000 or more. In April 2008, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel cited 11,000, including 345 children and 98 women. Over 1,000 suffered from chronic or other diseases. Around 150 were seriously ill from heart disease, cancer, and other diseases, and 195 or more Palestinians died or were killed in prison since 1967.
As of January 2009, Adalah said about
"22,500 individuals were imprisoned or detained in Israeli prisons; around 70% (or 15,750 are) Arabs." Included are 9,735 Palestinians, nearly 80% classified as "security." Of these, 570 were administrative detainees, uncharged by order of an administrative official, not a judge.
Another 20 were so-called "unlawful combatants" under Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law (UCL), saying they're not entitled to POW status under international law because they either took part in hostilities against Israel (directly or indirectly) or belong to a force carrying them out. No proof is needed, only "a reasonable basis for believing" the designation is accurate, and under UCL, detentions can be permanent, without trial or judicial fairness.
According to the Addameer Prisoners' Support and Human Rights Association, since 1967, "over 650,000 have been detained by Israel," about 20% of the total Occupied Territory (OPT) population and 40% of the male population. Most are held in Palestine, but many thousands in Israeli civil and military prisons, in violation of numerous Fourth Geneva provisions, including Article 49 stating:
"....forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons (including prisoners) from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive."
This applies to OPT prisoners, most of whom are political victims of militarized oppression, or in other words, guilty of being Palestinian. In addition, Fourth Geneva states protected persons shall be detained in the occupied territory and, if convicted, serve their sentences therein.
OPT arrests and detentions come under about 1,500 military regulations for the West Bank and over 1,400 for Gaza. The IDF commander issues orders, but new ones aren't revealed until implemented because they're issued any time for any reason, often arbitrarily and capriciously.
Israeli prisons and military detention facilities are mainly located within Israel's 1948 borders. They include five interrogation centers, six detention/holding facilities, three military detention camps, and about 20 prisons where OPT Palestinians are held.
Israeli policemen beat and arrest women at a demonstration held by the feminists who were in support of six activists from the group who were arrested from their homes by the police.
A secret Facility 1391(Israel's Guantanamo) at an unknown location is notorious for using severe torture. Gilboa Prison, north of the West Bank, is also believed to administer extreme treatment.
"The location of prisons within Israel and the transfer of detainees to locations within the occupying power's territory is illegal under international law and constitute a war crime."
On June 7, 1967, Military proclamation No. 1 justified them "in the interests of security and public order," weasel words meaning anything. Since then, over 2,900 orders were issued, gravely harming Palestinians' welfare. "These orders serve as justification every time the Israeli authorities arrest a Palestinian...."
They can be held for extended periods, interrogations lasting up to six months, during which time torture, abuse and other degrading treatment is commonplace, against the great majority in custody.
Unless they know Hebrew, most have no idea of what is being said to them and that continues into the trials should they have one. Add torture and chances are good the young one, or adult, will admit to a crime they had no knowledge of. This is a frequent occurrence. Also, because the Jewish custom is to have a Bar or Bat Mitzvah which makes the child an adult, around 12 or 13, Palestinian children over that age are automatically treated the same as adults.
Muslims are very private about their bodies.
This is an example of humiliation and degradation by Islamic standards.
After interrogation, Palestinians can be detained administratively without charge or tried in military courts where "military orders take precedence over Israeli and international law."
Under Military Order 1530, months may elapse between being charged and trial. The entire process is structured to deny due process and judicial fairness, unlike for most Jews in civil courts.
Activists, protesters and human rights defenders are especially at risk. In July 2008, Israeli authorities, by military order, closed the Nafha Society for the Defense of Prisoners and Human Rights. It's one of several organizations representing Palestinian detainees in Israeli courts and advocates for them in prisons and detention centers.
Mother and wife with a photo of their detained loved one.
Currently, Israeli security forces, politicians and extremist groups are targeting ISRAELI human rights groups in response to their support for the Goldstone Commission report. All computers and files are confiscated, often people arrested and time to serve, although t not under so severe conditions as the Palestinians. This includes many teens who refuse to serve in the army. These all need our support and admiration for standing tall in such an extremely repressive society. Among those affected are:
PCHRcondemns the continued persecution of international human rights defenders in the West Bank....and the deportation of international activists from the country."
On February 7, PCHR learned that Israeli security forces entered Ramallah and al-Bireh, storming an al-Bireh apartment building and arresting Spanish journalist Ariadna Jove Marti and Australian student Bridgette Chappell.
The resilient Palestinian spirit in action.
They were taken to Ofer Prison pending their deportation, citing expired visas as pretext. The two women are International Solidarity Movement activists known, according to an IDF spokesman, "for being involved in illegal riots that obstruct Israeli security operations."
Other activists were also arrested, Israel now issuing tourist visas only to 150 selected NGOs operating in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including Oxfam, Save the Children, and Doctors Without Borders. However, they'll be excluded from Area C under Israeli control, comprising 60% of the West Bank, thus hampering their work and imposing additional hardships on Palestinians.
PCHR condemned the action and recommends that international civil society and human rights organizations, bar associations, and international solidarity groups continue exposing suspected Israeli war criminals and pressuring their governments to prosecute them according to provisions of international law.
The extremist Netanyahu government won't tolerate criticism or censure nor its expansionist West Bank plans, including making all Jerusalem exclusively Jewish. His cabinet introduced a Knesset bill prohibiting organizations from receiving funding from foreign political institutions unless registered with the Registrar of Political Parties.
They must then provide details about all "foreign political entity" donations, the source, amount, purpose, commitment made for its use, and more, as a way to harass and make the process more cumbersome.
The bill's supposed purpose is to:
"increase the transparency and to correct lacunas (empty spaces or missing parts) in the law regarding the funding of political activity in Israel by foreign political entities (where such activity is defined as being) aimed at influencing public opinion in Israel or one of the branches of government in Israel regarding any element of Israel's domestic or foreign policy."
In fact, it's to stifle free expression,
dissent and activism,
the way police states do it,
how Israel always treats Palestinians,
now increasingly toward outspoken Jews
and international human rights organizations as well.
Saadi Al-Najar, a 25-year-old Palestinian held without trial or charge has lost eyesight in his left eye due to deliberate medical neglect
Conditions in Israeli Prisons
Israel willfully and systematically violates international humanitarian law, including Common Article 3 applying to the four Geneva Conventions, requiring:
"humane treatment for all persons in enemy hands, specifically prohibit(ing) murder, mutilation, torture, cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment (and) unfair trial(s)."
Fourth Geneva's Article 4 calls "protected persons" those held by parties to a conflict or occupation "of which they are not nationals." They must "be treated with humanity and, in case of trial, shall not be deprived of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed by the present Convention." They're entitled to full Fourth Geneva rights. Prisoners of war under Third Geneva have the same rights and those under Common Article 3.
Israel willfully denies them. Under the 1971 Israeli Prison Ordinance, no provision defines prisoner rights. It only provides binding rules for the Interior Minister who can interpret them freely by administrative decree. For example, it's legal to intern 20 inmates in a cell as small as five meters long, four meters wide and three meters high, including an open lavatory, and they can be confined there up to 23 hours daily.
An April 2009 PCHR press release said thousands of Palestinians "continue to suffer in Israeli jails" under horrific conditions, including:
~ severe overcrowding;
~ poor ventilation and sanitation;
~ no change of clothes or adequate clothing;
~ sleeping on wooden planks with thin mattresses, some infested with vermin; blankets are often torn, filthy and inadequate; hot water is rare and soap is rationed;
~ at the Negev Ketziot military detention camp, threadbare tents are used, exposing detainees to extreme weather conditions; in summer, vermin, insects, scorpions, parasites, rats, and other reptiles are a major problem;
~ Megiddo and Ofer also use tents; in addition, Ofer uses oil-soiled hangers;
~ for some, isolation in tiny, poorly ventilated solitary confinement with no visitation rights or contact with counsel or other prisoners;
~ no access to personal cleanliness and hygiene; toilet facilities are restricted, forcing prisoners to urinate in bottles in their cells;
~ inadequate food in terms of quality, quantity, and dietary requirements;
~ poor medical care, including lack of specialized personnel, mental health treatment, and denial of needed medicines and equipment; as a result, many suffer ill health; doctors are also pressured to deny proper treatment, some later admitting it;
~ extreme psychological pressure to break detainees' will;
~ widespread use of torture, abuse, cruel and degrading treatment;
~ women and children are treated the same as men;
~ NGOs like Physicians for Human Rights ~ Israel and the ICRC are deterred from aiding detainees;
~ denied or hindered access to family members and counsel;
~ imposed conditions link visits:
"with the overall security situation, requiring that prisoners must not be security prisoners and that persons applying for visits must not have a security record, requiring that visitors be first-degree relatives and that brothers or sons applying for visits must be under the age of 18."
Women demonstrating for the right to see their loved ones.
Treatment of Gazans Arrested
During and After Operation Cast Lead
On January 28, 2009, a complaint to Israel's Military Judge Advocate General, Brigadier General Avichai Mandelblit, by seven Israeli human rights organizations, cited degrading and appalling conditions in which detainees, including minors, were held.
Before transfer to the Israel Prison Service, they were held for many hours or days in pits dug in the ground, handcuffed and blindfolded, under extreme weather conditions. No sanitation was provided and limited amounts of food. Some, in fact, were held in combat areas, in violation of international law prohibiting their exposure to danger.
After removal from pits, some were held overnight in a truck, handcuffed, with one blanket for two people in winter. Others were kept for extended periods in the rain with little food or water. Incidents of extreme violence and humiliation were also reported that continued after prison transfers.
"Israel's indifference to its moral and legal obligations to detainees is particularlyobjectionable in view of the fact" that the IDF completely ignored "the basic rights of the detainees and captives" under international law, violations committed against every detainee held.
Since July 2007, Gazan families have been denied access to their relatives in Israeli prisons. Non-Israeli Palestinian lawyers can't represent them in military courts. Travel restrictions impede all lawyers. Meetings with their clients aren't confidential, and most prisoners have no access to an attorney.
This "arbitrary and disproportionate policy not only infringes the right to family visits, it also results in violation of other rights and principles of international humanitarian and human rights law, as well as domestic Israeli law."
In January 2010, Adalah addressed the same issue stating:
On December 9, 2009, "Israel's Supreme Court (HCJ) decided that the state has no obligation to allow family visits for Gazans detained in Israel."
Writer Grietje Baars, a UK lawyer, said the HCJ rejected petitions by detainees, their relatives and Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, claiming that "Israel's rights as a sovereign state" lets it deny "foreigners" entry in violation of international law ~ a clear act of persecution.
Under Article 7(g) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (HCJ), crimes against humanity include:
"Persecution (meaning) the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity."
In a previous decision, the HCJ held that:
"It is a firmly established precept that the human rights to which a person is entitled simply by being human remain even when he is detained or imprisoned, and the fact that he is incarcerated cannot serve to deprive him of any right."
Denying them defies that ruling, and the fact that hundreds of Gazan detainees in Israel are held indefinitely without trial, are in virtual isolation, and can only send their families occasional messages through ICRC representatives.
"No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties....are prohibited."
Doing so (along with torture and other forms of abuse) aims to break their spirit to get them to cooperate or confess to crimes they didn't commit.
Baars concluded:
"Aside from the right to have their rights hououred and protected, and to live their lives in dignity and freedom, the Gazans and the Palestinians in general, have the right to an effective judicial remedy. Without domestic enforcement of international law, the onus is on the international community to fulfill these rights and uphold the rule of law, internationally, for the benefit of all."
The international community's failure to comply with international law lets Israel violate its provisions freely. Unless changed, Israel's lawlessness will continue unchecked, a no longer to be tolerated grim prospect.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
Reader, please note that the Israeli government is beginning to come down hard on any Israelis who show a desire to go against the party line. As I have said again and again to those who label the foolish antisemitic charge at me, as with ANY race or culture, there are good, bad, indifferent, artists, poets, healers, murderers, etc etc.
It is the nature of the culture itself which type is nurtured and which is downtrodden. And so it is with Israel. Israel is not labeled an international bully for nothing, but that does not mean every single Israeli agrees with the status quo any more than every American supports its huge war machine. I have said again and again, what and who I am against are Zionists, Talmudists and those who support them, whether through action or complicit silence.
