2400 prisoners in hunger strike in Negev prison

August 16, 2006

Ramallah - Ma'an – Over 2400 Palestinian prisoners at the Negev desert prison have, on Tuesday morning, started a hunger strike to protest the new policy of "naked inspection" of both prisoners and visitors which the Israeli prisons' authority has started to follow.

The prisoners have told the Prisoners Media Center that all prisoners started to refuse to take meals as a protest against the prison police searching visiting family members, including females, naked. These searches took place during the last visit of families from the Qalqilia, Salfit and Bethlehem areas.

Detainees reported that a sister of a detainee from Qalqilia refused to undress, and so was prohibited from visiting her brother. The same thing happened to both Wiliam Jalal from Salfit, and Khalid 'Asakra from Bethlehem. For further humiliation, the police used their dogs to more closely inspect the visitors.

In addition, the strike protests the decision taken by the prison administration at the end of last March to forbid those prisoners who are preachers to perform their weekly Friday preaching.

Also, in a decision unprecedented over the past six years, the representatives of the prisoners have been forbidden to move between the different divisions of the prison so as to settle disputes between detainees and the administration. Prisoners threatened to take more serious measures in case the administration insists on depriving them of the rights they have fought years to achieve.