Press Briefing - March 31, 2002
Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association
Defence for Children International / Palestine Section
 
The last 19 months has seen an unprecedented closure on the Palestinian Occupied Territories making family visits to Palestinian detainees almost impossible. Families are forced to obtain a special permit in order to visit their relatives in prison. These permits are extremely restrictive and visits are often cancelled because of the closure. Families are forced to wait long periods of time for special Red Cross buses to take them to the prisons. These buses are frequently stopped and searched by the Israeli authorities on the way to the prison.
 
At the prison itself, there are no waiting rooms, seats or bathrooms, and families are forced to wait for long hours in the cold or under the hot sun. One relative of a detainee told Addameer,
“It was around 9am when we arrived at the outer gates of Megiddo Prison where we waited for three hours. It was extremely hot - there were no waiting rooms or seats - and nothing for us to stand under to protect us from the sun. Some of sat on the dirt or on whatever bags that we had with us. Some of us tore apart the bags so we could sit on the dirt. The children cried a lot, there was no water or shade and there was not even a single soldier to meet us on the front gates. There was one toilet but we couldn’t use it because it was so dirty.”
Visitors are often cursed at, beaten and subject to humiliating body searches including strip-searches. Another relative of a detainee reported to Addameer, “We were thirsty, tired and the water bottles that we had brought with us when we began our journey at 2am were empty. We passed through two tents, linked to each other. They checked our permits and then we lined up for a personal search. One of the female soldiers searched very deliberately and slowly and we had to stand still for a long time. After we finished the body search we moved to another tent where we found the items that we had brought for the visit thrown on a long table and on the ground. Bags were opened, and emptied on the dirt. Many of the clothes had disappeared and the rest covered with dirt.”
 
It should be pointed out that visitors to regular Israeli criminal prisoners do not experience the same humiliation as those of Palestinian political prisoners. Israeli criminal prisoners are entitled to visits without a wire grill between the visitor and the prisoner; they are also permitted phone calls and home visits in special cases such as the death of a loved one.