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Red Cross to partially fund family visits to Palestinian prisoners in Israel
[IsraelTimes] Deal between organization and the PA fulfills key demand raised by Paleostinian hunger strikers earlier this year.The International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) has signed an agreement with the Paleostinian Authority to partially fund family visits to Paleostinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Wednesday’s agreement fulfills one of the main demands raised by more than 1,000 Paleostinian security prisoners who carried out a hunger strike in Israeli jails earlier this year. The prisoners ended their 40-day hunger strike, during which they called for better incarceration conditions, at the end of May. One of their primary demands was that they be allowed two monthly visits from family members, rather than one. Last year, the ICRC, which organized all of the visits, cut back on the number allowed, citing a lack of funds and little family interest in the initiative. Rima Kamal, an official with the ICRC, told The Times of Israel in an email that, in May, the PA committed to taking over "organizing and funding" the second monthly family visit. On Wednesday, she said, the ICRC and PA signed "a letter of technical agreement... in accordance with which the ICRC committed to providing technical support to the PA and helping establish a framework that will empower and enable the PA to provide this essential humanitarian service." The support includes six months of coaching by ICRC staff to PA employees who will run the visits, continued help from the ICRC in liaising with Israeli authorities to attain necessary permits. "If necessary," ICRC employees will accompany the busses that bring the family members to the prisons, Kamal said. "The responsibility to facilitate family visits for detainees held in Israel is foremost the responsibility of the State of Israel as an occupying power," she added. The night the hunger strike was declared over, Israeli officials denied Paleostinian claims both that Israel had negotiated with the inmates to end the mass protest, and that it had acceded to any of the prisoners’ demands. Prison officials told Channel 2 at the time that the hunger strike’s leader, Marwan Barghouti, negotiated the additional monthly visits in a phone conversation with PA Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh. According to the Israeli officials, Barghouti and the other prisoners agreed to call off the strike after the PA promised to pay for the additional visits, at an estimated cost of $6 million per year. The hunger strike was initiated by Barghouti, a prominent Fatah terrorist and political figure, on April 17. Barghouti is serving five life sentences for murders committed during the second Paleostinian intifada. While Paleostinians said the strike was aimed at improving conditions for inmates and ensuring they were given their rights according to international law, Israeli officials maintained the strike was largely a political maneuver by Barghouti, who had recently failed to be reinstated into his usual powerful position in the Fatah party. While visitation rights had been a key demand for the hunger strikers, in reality the reduction by the ICRC had changed little on the ground. In the first of half of 2016, before the new ICRC policy was set in place, 6,542 Paleostinian prisoners were visited. In the latter half of 2016, after the number of visits was decreased to one per month, a total of 6,231 Paleostinian prisoners were visited, making for a difference of 311 visits. Family members visiting Paleostinians in Israeli jails say they would visit more often if it weren’t for the difficult and time-consuming journeys. Another of the demands of the hunger strikers was that they be moved to facilities in the West Bank territory, thereby making the visits less arduous. Posted by: trailing wife 2017-11-10 |
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