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Book Details
Abstract
Palestinian prisoners charged with security-related offences are immediately taken as a threat to Israel's security. They are seen as potential, if not actual, suicide bombers. This stereotype ignores the political nature of the Palestinian prisoners' actions and their desire for liberty.
By highlighting the various images of Palestinian prisoners in the Israel-Palestine conflict, Abeer Baker and Anat Matar chart their changing fortunes. Essays written by prisoners, ex-prisoners, Human rights defenders, lawyers and academic researchers analyse the political nature of imprisonment and Israeli attitudes towards Palestinian prisoners. These contributions deal with the prisoners' status within Palestinian society, the conditions of their imprisonment and various legal procedures used by the Israeli military courts in order to criminalise and de-politicise them. Also addressed are Israel's breaches of international treaties in its treatment of the Palestinian prisoners, practices of torture and solitary confinement, exchange deals and prospects for release.
This is a unique intervention within Middle East studies that will inspire those working in human rights, international law and the peace process.
An imperative illustration of how the Israeli Occupation has imprisoned the political voices of the Palestinian people. Featuring a spectrum of authors with a range of expertise, this volume offers readers a refreshing insight into and documentation of Israel's revocation of Palestinians' right to justice'
Mustafa Barghouti
'A timely and urgent volume that brings to the fore the systematic injustices endemic to the Israeli imprisonment of Palestinians'
Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor, Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley
'Offers not only nuanced information and unconventional insights, but also the feasibility of an anti-occupation, anti-colonial life of action, developed together by Palestinians and Jews'
Amira Hass, journalist
'No one reading this book will come away without new insight into one of the key areas of Israel's on-going distortion of Palestinian society by the removal of so many men and women key to its development'
Victoria Brittain
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | Cover | ||
| Contents | v | ||
| Preface: The Palestinian Prisoners: Politicization and Depoliticization (Abeer Baker and Anat Matar) | vii | ||
| Notes on Contributors | xii | ||
| Part I: Analyses | 1 | ||
| 1. The Centrality of the Prisoners’ Movement to the Palestinian Struggle against the Israeli Occupation: A Historical Perspective (Maya Rosenfeld) | 3 | ||
| 2. Towards a Materialist Reading of Political Imprisonment in Palestine (Esmail Nashif) | 25 | ||
| 3. Who Is a Security Prisoner and Why? An Examination of the Legality of Prison Regulations Governing Security Prisoners (Alon Harel) | 37 | ||
| 4. The Security Risk as a Security Risk: Notes on the Classification Practices of the Israeli Security Services (Yael Berda) | 44 | ||
| 5. Palestinian Women Political Prisoners and the Israeli State (Nahla Abdo) | 57 | ||
| 6. Prison Policy and Political Imprisonment in Northern Ireland and Israel (Alina Korn) | 68 | ||
| Part II: Arrest, Interrogation, Trial, Release | 81 | ||
| 7. The Arrest and Persecution of Elected Political Leaders—Interview with Sheikh Muhammad Abu Tir (Interviewed by Abeer Baker and Anat Matar) | 83 | ||
| 8. My Arrests, My Interrogations (Osama Barham) | 91 | ||
| 9. Colonel and Major (Avigdor Feldman) | 105 | ||
| 10. Welcome to Shin Bet Country (Avigdor Feldman) | 107 | ||
| 11. A Decade after the High Court of Justice “Torture” Ruling, What’s Changed? (Bana Shoughry-Badarne) | 114 | ||
| 12. The Mysteries of Administrative Detention (Tamar Pelleg-Sryck) | 123 | ||
| 13. Reframing the Legality of the Israeli Military Courts in the West Bank: Military Occupation or Apartheid? (Sharon Weill) | 136 | ||
| 14. Are There Prisoners in This War? (Smadar Ben-Natan) | 149 | ||
| 15. Institutional Schizophrenia: The Release of “Security Prisoners” in Israel (Leslie Sebba) | 163 | ||
| 16. Prisoner Exchange Deals: Between Figures and Emotions (Mounir Mansour) | 175 | ||
| Part III: Inside Prison | 181 | ||
| 17. Female Prisoners and the Struggle: A Personal Testimony (Ittaf Alian -Hodaly) | 183 | ||
| 18. Devil’s Island: The Transfer of Palestinian Detainees into Prisons within Israel (Michael Sfard) | 188 | ||
| 19. Family Visits to Palestinian Prisoners Held Inside Israel (Sigi Ben-Ari and Anat Barsella) | 201 | ||
| 20. Isolation and Solitary Confinement of Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees in Israeli Facilities (Sahar Francis and Kathleen Gibson) | 212 | ||
| 21. The Impact of Isolation on Mental Health (Ruchama Marton) | 225 | ||
| 22. Consciousness Molded or the Re-identification of Torture (Walid Daka) | 234 | ||
| Index | 255 |