Monday, October 05, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
There are thousands of articles and reports about how terribly Israel treats Palestinian prisoners.
But there is practically zero about Palestinian prisons and prisoners.
Except for an occasional NGO writing up about torture in Palestinian prisons, there is a black hole of information about how the Palestinian penal system works.
How many prisoners are in Palestinian prison (both Hamas and PA)?
How many women?
How many children?
How many for political reasons?
How many are subject to the death penalty?
How many have been tortured?
How many have died in custody?
How many prisoners have COVID-19? What precautions are being done to protect them?
All of this information is easily available from the Israel Prison Service, but not from the Palestinian prison bureaucracy.
This is not only a problem with a lack of transparency from the PA and Hamas on their penal systems. It also shows how little interest ostensibly pro-Palestinian NGOs have in Palestinian prisoner rights. It shows how little interest Palestinian media has in their own people in prison. And it shows how little interest the media, both Palestinian and international, have in looking into this story.
We do know that there is torture. We do know that some prisoners die in custody. Yet there is very little interest in uncovering the details behind these facts.
It is yet another example of how Palestinian lives only matter when Jews can be held responsible for them.
