What
is it called when one sees possibility in the plight
of one unfortunate person that might bring
awareness to the many made miserable by similar
and worse circumstances? In my heart I am optimistically
opportunistic towards those forgotten souls who
are women and political prisoners, living under horrific
conditions in Israel's detention centers and prisons.
From
what I know of Tali Fahima, she would neither object
nor resent carrying the extra emphasis on human
rights issues for the other political prisoners
who are women and who suffer especially in these
Israeli prisons, Neve Tirza and Hasharon.
Tali Fahima is an Israeli woman being held in solitary
confinement under administrative
detention. The rumors about her that have been
perpetuated in irresponsible tabloid style medias
and are in some ways similar to those begun against
Mordechai
Vanunu while he was still in prison and towards
the end of his seventeen and a half year sentence.
And although he is presently in libel lawsuit against
the media, Yedioth Aharonoth, including questioning
the prison authority who seems to have grievously
maligned him as a maker of bombs, the damage has
already been done to his name and image and only
adds dispersion to the threats made on his
life while he is still held under the administrative
restrictions that prevent him from leaving Israel.
Tali
Fahima is a 28 year old independent solidarity activist,
now, political prisoner. She was taken into administrative
detention under false accusations which have yet
to be ascertained and she is being kept in
confinement under barbaric conditions and without
lawful conviction. She embodies the spirit of a
growing number of Israeli women in outrage and dissidence against a
government's past and present practice of bellicose
zionism. For all of Israel and for all of
the free world, she is the current gauge of
how Israel punishes a free woman in democratic practice
of her civil rights and liberties as an Israeli
citizen.
And although she has been shackled and interrogated
and treated well below decent levels and
standards, her brave spirit remains strong
while the Shinbak has yet to supply adequate justification
against her. She is presently being further punished
for demanding her rights in prison. And for this
last rebelliousness, she is now under disciplinary
process which includes solitary confinement in a
room with a toilet in the floor that often flows
upwards and into the same space wherein she sleeps.
She is not permitted books, newspapers, visits and
does not have access to personal hygiene supplies
required for minimal standards of health and wellness.
How odd and contradictory, that the only democracy
in the Middle East is further punishing a citizen
and a woman, for expressing herself about her civil and
human rights. How demonstrative of the level of
democratic free speech are the people kept in prisons
for having it. "Nothing can be more abhorrent to
democracy than to imprison a person or keep him
in prison because he is unpopular. This is really
the test of civilization." Winston
Churchill
For
those who are concerned with Israel's image,
every moment of her punishment, every moment of
her "stay without charges" leads to a deeper reflection
and pressing insight into the treatment
of all the women and children who exist in the Israeli
prison system:
Draconian prison conditions and worse exist for
these other women in Tirza and Hasharon prison who
are Palestinian. In considering Tali's Fahima's
plight, one must consider an obligation
to discover how Israel treats those even less desirable
citizens than such as Tali Fahima or conscientious
objector, Laura
Milo . There are serious indications and
testimonies, especially from WOFPP The
Women's Organization for Political Prisoners
that Israel imposes gross disrespect for the human
rights of non-Israeli prisoners. The Women's Organization
for Political Prisoners ( WOFPP) is an Israeli organization
that has worked in support of women in Israel's
jails since 1988. At the time of its conception,
its primary concern was over torture.
This August,
on the eve of the Political Prisoner Hunger Strike,
Neve Tirza and Hasharon Prison held 100 Palestinian
women as political prisoners . According to WOFPP
the youngest detainee recently arrested is a 14
year old girl. Please note that no differential
treatment is allotted to Palestinian children within
the Israeli prison system and often times children
are held with adult criminals, as are also the political
detainees. DCI-Pal Defense
of Children International- Palestine tells us
of specific conditions that children suffer
under Israeli prison authority.
The Palestinian prison leadership involved in this
past hunger strike wished to exclude the
children because of the further toll upon their
immediate safety and health, but it is not clear
if the children's immediate safety and health conditions
have gotten worse. Many of the children
are kept in prison camps that have very little protection
from the elements. Those physically locked in actual
prison buildings are made to suffer in different
ways. DCI-Pal reports:
"Palestinian
children are also detained in the Telmond Compound
and Ramle Women�s Prison which are administered
by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS). Here, detainees
are locked in their cells for hours on end with,
in some cases, only 45 minutes outdoor exercise
permitted every two days. Many are forced to sleep
on the floor due to overcrowding. Windows are
boarded up with iron panels, which block out the
light and intensify the heat in the rooms. Access
to hot water is often cut and the prison guards
routinely and arbitrarily beat and humiliate Palestinian
detainees."
The
physical conditions under which children and women
exist are far removed from what one would consider
civilized and humane treatment by a democratic state.
These conditions must be addressed by those in Israel
and those outside of Israel who maintain that Israel
warrants monetary and economic support because of
its democratic ideologies.
Despite the reports of flagrant violations
of prisoners� rights, many Israeli officials refuse
to acknowledge any awareness or responsibility towards
the rights and well-being of women and children
in prison. On August 13 Israel's Public
Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi announced that
as far as he was concerned the prisoners could "strike
for a day, a month, even starve to death ".
Dostoevsky's
words continue to haunt and point towards those
who are responsible; those who ignore the symptoms
of a diseased justice and prison system:
those who remain silent when they need be
speaking: those who are complicit in either willful
ignorance , unquestioned doubts or by
actual knowledge and acceptance of what goes on
in these horrible prisons where the women and children
are forced to live on sub human levels:
WOFPP
also continues in its huge effort to try and
reveal to those living in Israel and abroad what
these conditions are like for women and girls. WOFPP
sends lawyers to all of the prisons and detention
facilities in which female political prisoners are
held. The prison authority makes this more difficult
each time. WOFPP sends letters and newsletters in
various languages that include French, Hebrew, Spanish
and Japanese. And the organization attempts to directly
assist women prisoners desperate for contact with
families.
MIFTAH,
a Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global
Dialogue and Democracy is "a non governmental non-partisan
Jerusalem based institution" that also continues
to relay information out of the prisons and into
the free world. MIFTAH asks for help and support for
these daughters, sisters, wives and mothers.
Everyday
in such prisons as Neve Tirsha and Hasharon, Palestinian
women struggle to maintain their human dignity as
well as solidarity with one another. They have been
tortured as well as verbally, physically and sexually
abused. These are the souls of women and girls routinely
and rather purposefully forgotten in prison. But
even with little reportage and coverage, their
spirit continues to shine forth:
"I
was as a gem concealed; Me my burning ray revealed."
(Koran)
Lawyers
are often the only direct contact that a woman
or child detained in prison has and they are often
themselves targeted, even placed under detentions.
On February 21 2003, one such lawyer Dauod
Dirawi was personally challenged when
he was arrested in Jerusalem without charges. From the
details of his experience one dares
to imagine what it might be like to be a child
or a youth in such a captivity And
although he is back on the case on behalf of the
children and their human rights, he
was held in illegal administrative detention without
any formal charges, until January 29 2004 , when
he was released in a prisoner exchange of Hezbollah.
His
horrific history as a detainee makes clear Israel's
intentions with regard for international
agreements concerning children's rights and the
rights of political prisoners in general. Mr Dirawi's
abuse did not however halt his effort nor
his determination to collect information on behalf
of the youngest of political prisoners and
also to expose, via the children's testimonies,
the motivations at work of the Israeli General
Security Services (GSS or Shabak) who reports
only to the Israeli Prime Minister:
�
To threaten and intimidate those who are active
against the Israeli occupation. Since Israel occupied
the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in
1967, the Palestinian population in these areas
has struggled against this occupation. By conducting
widespread arrests, imposing harsh punishments
and maltreating prisoners, Israel is attempting
to discourage Palestinians from engaging in struggle
against the occupation. This political intent
of arrests is indicated by the fact that length
of sentencing, and the general manner in which
children are treated in detention, depends mostly
on the political situation not upon objective
standards.
� To obtain confessions which incriminate others.
It is clear from DCI/PS documentation that a large
number of children are forced to sign confessions
that they cannot read (as they are written in
Hebrew, a language Palestinian children do not
understand). These confessions are also extracted
under conditions of torture and maltreatment.
In 1981, Israel implemented a Military Order that
allows for the conviction of someone based solely
on the evidence of another person. Thus, a major
goal of arresting children is to obtain names
and information about other people who can then
be arrested.
� To hold children as "bargaining chips" with
the aim of pressuring the population as a whole.
When children are arrested it is not only the
detainees themselves who are punished but their
parents and families as well. Family members are
often prevented from visiting their children in
prison for long periods of time and in cases where
children are sentenced to pay a monetary fine,
this cost - often running into hundreds of dollars
- is borne by the parents of the child. It should
be remembered that currently 64% of Palestinians
live below the poverty line of US$2.10/day.
� To recruit future "collaborators" with the Israeli
occupation forces. One of the most insidious practices
of the Israeli detention system is the use of
threats to force children to work as informers
for the Israeli Occupation Authorities once they
are released from prison. Thus, children are told
that they will not be released or they will be
killed unless they agree to work as collaborators.
General
Security Services that "report only to the Prime
Minister" brings some understanding, but
not excuse as to why there are Knesset members,
Israeli citizens, American representatives and
American tax payers, who know very little, if
anything, of what actually takes place in
these prisons where women and children are held
by a General Security Service that only answers
to a Prime Minister who has, himself, been
accused of war crimes.
Without
responsibility and enforcement, the
Convention
on the Rights of the Child is a useless document.
The obligation should now be clear. It is this
obligation and responsibility that inspired Tali
Fahima to go from obedient Zionist to
free thinking Israeli who then went in the direction
and pursuit of seeking and discovering real truths
about life lived under continuous occupation. She
is now making further discoveries that challenge
the prison system in how it treats political detainees. Her
example serves to make further case for each of
us to find out more and to express ourselves with
regards to these human rights violations and the
other wretched souls who continue suffer for it.
Last January 18, 2004 half of the women prisoners
in Neve Tirtza were moved to Hasharon prison. A
lawyer by the name of Taghrid
Jahshan reported these
conditions to WOFPP as going from horrible to totally
unacceptable. Sonia Boulous, a lawyer from The Association
for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), along with
the WOPFF lawyer, requested urgent action
on behalf of the young mothers with babies, because
all of the cells were "damp, dark, very dirty and
infested with cockroaches and mice". It was also
reported that windows were kept covered with little
light or air allowed. Taghrid Jahshan has
made a more recent (August 2004) report. Many
of the women's names are the same and so are conditions,
if not worse.
It appears that the ONLY solution upheld by the
GSS, under the auspices of the Prime Minister, is
less frequent lawyer visits and that includes making
it as difficult as possible for the lawyers to
actual make a visit in order to report about it.
This is not an acceptable solution for the
women whose lives are challenged by prison
conditions and brutal beatings under harsh conditions.
The
Red Cross comes every two to three months and families
and prisoners are subjected to the whim of the warden,
as to whether gifts, including necessary health
supplies can be accepted. Handiwork and needlework
coming out of the prison is often the only means
a women prisoner has of "earning" money for canteen
articles. This money is frequently confiscated
by the prison authority in the form of disciplinary
fines. Disciplinary fines are given out as punishment
and can cost a woman most if not all of her money
on the whim of the warden. Where do these monies
go?
It is difficult to get much information. Secrecy
about prison conditions should always serve
as warning and is cause for alarm. I
have had a few newsletters over the course of the
year 2004. The lawyer mentioned previously, Taghrid Jahshan, made a report that was seen in Maariv. Rarely
do Israeli newspapers published reports about women
and children in prisons. Since then, WOPFF has sent
updates and urgent requests concerning individuals
and/or groups of women. The violations in these
reports are frequently repeated. The awful
things that happened to women and girls in prisons
in the beginning of the year 2004 apparently are
continuing to take place routinely and even daily.
Wardens conduct strip searches and one woman who
disputes this violation is often dragged
off to solitary confinement, similar to the one
Tali Fahima presently is in. Prisoner, Amne
Muna over the years, has been so often beaten
by the prison authorities for her objections to
these strip searches that it does not matter which
report one reads this past year. Her name is constantly
in them and in association with severe punishments
for just such offenses as resisting the male
wardens.
Last
year she was visited in the hospital because of
the continued beatings and tear gas sprayed directly
into her eyes. In February she was tied to a bed
for twenty hours and not permitted to go to the
toilet. Only the other prisoners,
sisters in spirit, speak out for her
and for their objections, the rest of these prisoners,
were drenched with cold water . This added
to the miserableness of their already damp cells.
In their solidarity and protest of one or anothers'
treatment such Amne's chronic beatings and hair
pulling , the other women prisoners are beaten as
well. Samar
Bader, Amia Damaje, Jala`a Abu-Ajmiyeh, Ghada
Jadalla and Aishah Abayat have all suffered on behalf
of one another and the others who names I do not
know. Camaraderie becomes an act of heroic
proportions for these women.
Health conditions deteriorate in prisons without
proper medical treatments. There are women with
severe medical and psychological problems that range
in severity and generally are not made better by
prison life. In June, the transfer of
women and girl prisoners from one prison to
the other lost them their belongings and
what small comforts or livelihoods from handicrafts
that did not come with them. One woman, Marwat Taha
has a baby who lost all of his small toys in this
transfer. Letters from families and friends
are sent with exact names and addresses are sometimes
never received by the prisoners.
Zakya 'Awisah, an administrative detainee, who was
released in July reported that the commander of
the wing where she was held threatened to
cut off all of her letters if she continued to receive
as many as she did.
The High Court expressed an opinion on 21 July that
standing for matriculation exams is not a privilege
but a basic right and recommended and that prison
authorities should take this into consideration.
Out of sixteen women only five were given permission.
The prison authorities have stated that standing
for these exams is a privilege based upon their
decision and criterias.
Su'ad Ghazal, in prison since age
fifteen for the length of seven years and
who must at this point be somewhat of an authority
on the dark spectrum of life in the Israeli prison
system as a minor, was recently punished for writing
about details of her prison life to a French human
rights group. Her money was taken and she is not
allowed family visits for two months.
Su'ad
Abu Hamed turned off the light in her cell at
4 o'clock in the morning. She was taken to
solitary and her money was taken. Again, the
other women show their bravery and solidarity for
one another, knowing only too well that their
efforts will illicit punishment for them as well.
Amne Muna was punished and her money was taken because
she tried to intervene on behalf of Su'ad Abu Hamed.
Their spirit will not be broken.
I wish I had more names. There are about 100.
The
treatment of women and girl prisoners in Israel
violates International and Israeli laws and all
laws of decency as well. The Hunger Strike
and the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian
Prisoners has since come and gone (September 4,
2004) The women continue to barely manage
to survive each day with any hope of relief from
the threat of violence enacted upon them on the
whims of the wardens.
More
lawyers are needed; more effort to turn shock and
disbelief into further effort and action on behalf
of the political prisoners, especially including
children. It is my intent in writing a person's
name in this article that you know that these are
real women, but also most important is that THEY
might somehow know that someone other than family
and lawyer are aware of them and how they are made
to suffer.
Women
like Tali Fahima have come to join them.
Women of conscience like Laura Milo come.
I am "optimistically opportunistic" about Tali
Fahima's very bad experience having impetus for creating
energy and a dynamic of concern for all women
political prisoners.
Every
punishment she receives represents punishments
that the other women and girls have received and
continue to endure. I am hopeful that every
person who reads this will find motivation
and duty to pursue what they do not know or what
they find difficult to believe. American
representatives and Israeli representatives must
make every effort to monitor these hideous
practices that so far have little or no control
level in mis use of authority.
No United Nations should have to tell these things
to Israel. Israel should monitor itself via its
own representatives who must not only be
rigtheous but also courageous, in order to
further press for monitoring those representatives
of their government who do not reflect a civilized
society to the free world.
No
United States should EVER cover for Israel by using
veto power to block any kind of investigations into
human rights violations. The United States should
help its "friend" Israel investigate any and all
charges in order to set the record accurate
about such violations and to put in place immediate
changes and improvements.All other action , or rather
lack of action is complicit in its association with
gross injustice and negligence about self monitoring.
Until
that time, women like Tali Fahima and Laura Milo
continue to do what our governments do not have
conscience to do.
In Israel to call someone "a beautiful soul
" (Yeffei Nefesh) can imply a certain degree
of contempt with derogatory sarcasm for those
souls beautiful enough to enact gestures of concern
and caring. The title is generally used towards
sympathizers and advocates of human rights who make
such gestures in protests and/or demonstrations,
especially towards the people who live under Occupation.
Uri Avnery writes "One division is between the sentimental
and the political wings. To the former belong people
who look mostly inside. What's really important
to them is their moral stance. Somebody once joked
that after every peace demonstration some of them
look into the mirror and exclaim: "My, how beautiful
we are!" People mock them as "Yeffei Nefesh"
("Those who have a beautiful soul") and coined the
phrase "They shoot and weep".
I contend that moral stance when there is hardly
any should be recognized and commended for its existence
and from its Source.
The Beautiful
Soul should be welcomed as Beloved and as Blessed:
Tali Fahima,
your name is like a poem to me
your name is a prayer for others
you are a beautiful soul that shines its light in
darkness
Mary La Rosa, October 1 2004
With Acknowledgment of Rav Avraham Isaac Kook
The
Song of Songs
There is one who sings the song of his soul,
discovering in his soul everything -- utter spiritual
fulfillment.
There is one who sings the song of his people.
Emerging from the private circle of his soul --
not expansive enough,
not yet tranquil -- he strives for fierce heights,
clinging to the entire community of Israel in tender
love...
Then there is one whose soul expands
until it extends beyond the border of Israel,
singing the song of humanity... his spirit spreads,
aspiring to the goal of humankind, envisioning its
consummation...
Then there is one who expands even further
until he unites with all existence, with all creatures,
with all worlds, singing a song with them all.
There is one who ascends with all these songs
in unison -- the song of the soul, the song of the
nation, the song of humanity,
the song of the cosmos -- resounding together, blending
in harmony, circulating the sap of life,
the sound of holy joy.
Chief
Rabbi of Palestine 1865-1937
*****************
From
the Families of Palestinian Prisoners Committee:
Please
register your protests by letter, fax, email, or
telephone to the officials listed below. Ask them
to stop the harsh treatment of Palestinian political
prisoners and to accede the demands of the striking
prisoners so that the conditions under which they
are imprisoned are consistent with international
norms of human rights and basic decency.
Also, please register your protest with your own
political representatives and governments ministers.
Please send a copy of your protest message to alhureih@yahoo.com
Messages
of support from organizations would also be appreciated
by the prisoners and their families.
Please
send them to the same address with some details
of the organization.
With much appreciation for your valued support,
Mahmoud Ziadi, General Secretariat,
Families of Palestinian Political Prisoners
PO Box 2151, Ramallah, Palestine.
****************
List of Israeli government officials: see
Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon (Likud)
Office
of Prime Minister
3
Kaplan Street
PO
Box 187
Jerusalem
91919, Israel
Fax
+972-3-6962757/ -691 7915
Minister
of Defense, Shaul Mofaz
37
Kaplan Street
Tel
Aviv 61909, Israel
Minister
of Justice Yosef Lapid (Shinuii)
29
Salah al-Din Street
Kiryat
Hamemshala
POB
18182
Jerusalem
91010
Minister
of Interior Security
Here
are Knesset members, including women to write to:
Addresses
of Israeli embassies worldwide can be found at www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel1.htm
or go to the Government of Israel website at www.info.gov.il/FirstGov/
US
Officials and Representatives
Us
Dept of State http://www.contact-us.state.gov/
US
Congress
US
Senate
Permanent
Missions to the United Nations
http://www.un.int/missions/webs.html
Many
of e-mail addresses of UN missions are formatted
as follows:
france@un.int,
germany@un.int,
india@un.int,
ireland@un.int, italy@un.int, uk@un.int, etc.
Embassies
in different countries: www.mfa.gov.il/
Committe
of struggle against barbarism & arbitrary,
777 bd des nations unies,
13300 SALON, france
www.ifrance.com/CLBA-laconscience
mail to: laconscience@wanadoo.fr
Mary
La Rosa is an American artist and librarian whose responsibility
has been made clear by the voices of brave friends
and strangers, close and far from her home
in NY
The
ones that know
the ones that do not know
the ones that should know
the ones that do not want to know
now know so that
you know:
silence
= complicity
