Israel plans to strip Palestinian political prisoners of certain rights in order to pressure Hamas to accept a deal involving the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Palestinian prisoners are facing severe limitations on family visits, access to media, and transfers of money for use at the prison canteen. Prisoners may also be denied the right to take high school matriculation exams or take university correspondence courses.
Israel is seeking the release of soldier Gilad Shalit who was captured by in 2006. Hamas is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
The Israeli cabinet voted to adopt these tactics at a meeting on Sunday after being briefed by security officials and by Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann.
"It is true that we are the only democracy in the Middle East, but we can't let ourselves become the only suckers and we mustn't show weakness," Friedmann said, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Mounir Mansour, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Committee, said on Sunday that Hamas prisoners are considering a hunger strike in protest of the sanctions.
Mansour told Israel Radio that the Israeli prison administration has already begun to revoke prisoners rights, including cutting family visits and access to Arabic-language television. Some prisoners belongings were also seized, he said.
There are more than 11,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
No comments:
Post a Comment