[The following article appeared in the January 29-30 issue of the French Trotskyist daily Rouge. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
On December 11, 1976, all the Arabs jailed in the Ashkelon prison because of their activities in the Palestinian resistance movement went on a hunger strike. They are still on it. They are not even demanding to be treated as political prisoners, or prisoners of war. In protest against their inhuman conditions of detention, they are demanding the same treatment as the common-law prisoners. While living conditions of common-law prisoners are absolutely deplorable, they are still much better than those of the political prisoners.
Kept in dark, damp, overcrowded cells (twenty to thirty in a cell, the Palestinians have even been denied a separate room to eat in. Since the diet they get is very scanty and poorly balanced, lacking in fresh fruits or vegetables, most of the prisoners are continually undernourished and suffer from ulcers. Their families have been prohibited from bringing them fresh fruits and vegetables. Along with this, the amount they are permitted to spend each month in the prison store to buy dried fruit has been reduced from thirty to twenty Israeli pounds [about US$2.30].
On their arrival, the prisoners get two sets of used clothing which are neither changed nor replaced throughout their imprisonment. Their one change of underwear per year is provided by their families.
There is no work they can do. The only job they are offered is repairing the camouflage nets used by the Israeli army—a humiliating task which of course they refuse to perform. The prisoners spend twenty-three hours a day locked up in their cells; they only get a chance to "go for a walk" for one hour in a dark hallway.
In violation of the law, the prisoners are forbidden to study or enroll in correspondence courses. Likewise, they can receive only a limited number of books. Anything on political, economic, or social subjects is, of course, banned. They are allowed to read only the press of the [Zionist] Labor party and the Israeli right wing.
Medical care is virtually nonexistent. The prison doctor sees up to fifty prisoners in a quarter of an hour, although the great majority are suffering from ulcers and rheumatism caused by the conditions of their imprisonment. Some have been left handicapped by "rigorous questioning." The prison administration has opposed letting the prisoners get decent medical care even by paying for it out of their own pockets. Omar Shalabi, a twenty-four-yearold Syrian suffering an attack of nerves, was reportedly beaten to death by the head guard.
After the eighth day of the hunger strike. 59 prisoners-the leaders—-were transferred to the Kfar Yona prison, where 55 of are continuing their action. On them January 19, after another 150 prisoners had been transferred, the prison administration was able to announce that the thirty-five-day-old strike was over-once there were hardly any prisoners left in Ashkelon! This, however, has not stopped the prisoners' struggle from being carried on in their "diaspora."
The prison administration has begun to force-feed the prisoners, but they are being given only forty grams of milk a day instead of half a liter, which is usual in such cases. As a result, some of the prisoners have lost up to thirty kilograms since the beginning of the month
The Palestinians are enduring even worse conditions in the prisons where they are now being held. Some have been placed in a special wing, one that a report published a few years ago declared to be unfit for human beings. They are crammed into three cells, with no heat or ventilation; their only bed consists of a few blankets. Walks are prohibited.
Increasing pressure is being applied by the prison administration to force the prisoners to call off their hunger strike. They are not even allowed to receive visits from their lawyers. "I was informed of this
Just Another Slip of the
No doubt Federal Trade Commissioner Paul Rand Dixon expected the businessmen in his audience January 17 to be sympathetic when he called consumer advocate Ralph Nader a "son-of-a-bitch and a dirty Arab." However, one of the businessmen listening to Dixon happened to be-like Nader-of Arab descent, and word of Dixon's remark leaked out.
When his slur was pointed out publicly, Dixon expressed "deep regret" for a remark "which could be interpreted as a derogatory reference to Mr. Nader's ethnic background or to others of Arab descent." While he was not quite sure, Dixon expressed the opinion that "there may be a hell of a lot of good Arabs" who might have taken offense.
Nader, however, was different. "I don't intend to apologize to Ralph Nader, Dixon asserted. The consumer advocate had characterized Dixon as notoriously situation by two of my clients, Nadim Hamed Darwish and Abdul Aziz Ali Shahim," Leah Tzemel, one of the political prisoners' lawyers, told us.
"I had to file a complaint in the High Court of Justice against the warden of the Ashkelon prison, who refused to allow me to meet with my clients. The judge issued an injunction ordering the two directors of the penitentiary commission to let me visit my two clients. When I arrived in Ashkelon, the warden prevented me from seeing them. I was left with no alternative but to go back to the High Court and demand another injunction against the warden, who was refusing to comply with the court's decision. It was only at the end of this long, drawn-out process that I was able to meet with my clients.
"At the Ramleh prison, several of them informed me of the recent death of one of their comrades owing to the lack of medical care, as well as the death of Hassan Sawart from El Harish, who died from the effects of a prolonged kidney disease. Several prisoners had offered to donate a kidney, but the prison administration opposed this.
"The Ramleh prisoners have complained about being hit with penalties after going on a hunger strike in solidarity with the other prisoners. One prisoner from East Jerusalem, sentenced to life imprisonment, has been suffering such severe headaches in the aftermath of an 'intensive interrogation' that he is unable to speak, read or write. These headaches have not received any proper medical attention."
Tomorrow [January 31], the hunger strike will go into its fiftieth day.