Israel’s prison authorities have severely restricted prisoner rights of Jewish security prisoners in what appears to be the result of an administrative decision in connection with the government’s policy of destroying Jewish communities in the West Bank. 

The prisoners, deemed security prisoners by the authorities who consider them a threat to the security of the state, have repeatedly petitioned the courts to implement their right to furloughs and to receive a third off their sentences for good behavior but prisoners said their requests are routinely denied by the authorities, leading one prisoner to embark on a hunger strike. 
 
Ofer Gamliel, father of seven, who has served six and a half years of a 15 year sentence for conspiring to set an explosive in an Arab school, began a hunger strike in late September to protest the authorities’ refusal of his right to receive 48 hour furloughs. On Sept. 16, the Jerusalem District Court granted Gamliel a furlough but Israel’s Internal Security Service [ISS] immediately petitioned the Supreme Court which then overruled the lower court. 
   
Prison authorities then penalized Gamliel by first placing him in solitary confinement in the Ayalon Prison where he shared a wing with other religiously observant prisoners and then transferring him out of Ayalon to the Beersheba prison. 
   
“They [Arabs security prisoners] are very organized and the prisons find it very difficult to deal with them,” Naftali Wurtzburger, an attorney who has defended Jewish security prisoners, said. “They [Arabs] have a lot of autonomy and, in general, the authorities don’t want to start with them. Jewish security prisoners are more individual so they are more vulnerable and able to be harmed more easily. The ideological Jewish prisoners are considered security prisoners and they are treated much more harshly than other prisoners, even if the other prisoner had attacked a woman during an armed robbery.” 
   
On Sept. 4, the Tel Aviv District Court rejected a petition for a furlough by Mordechai and Elitzur Harel Levenstein, two brothers sentenced to two and half years and three and a half years respectively for planning to set alight a vehicle on a main Tel Aviv thoroughfare to protest the government’s expulsion of 10,000 Jews from Gaza and the northern West Bank in Aug. 2005. 
   
The court cited the fact that the brothers are Jewish prisoners, who have been convicted of ideological crimes and are therefore deemed security prisoners and decisions in their cases fall under the jurisdiction of the ISS. 
  
In late July another Jewish security prisoner serving a two and half year sentence had his visitation rights curtailed and two other Jewish prisoners lost their conjugal visits for six weeks and two months respectively over a pair of pants. 
   
“Adam [not his real name] had torn his pants,” Miriam [not her real name], Adam’s mother said, “and we received permission to bring him new pants.” 
   
But Miriam said that when they arrived at the prison, the guard refused to allow the pants in and another visitor offered to wear them inside. 
  
“I had permission to bring in the pants,” Miriam said. “It took about three to four weeks but when we arrived at the prison, the guard said that we did not have permission. They tell you that you have permission. That’s another game. Each time I fell for it. One time I brought pajamas and a blanket but I was told that you are not allowed the color blue in prison.” 
   
Adam’s mother also complained that the prison board regularly rejected requests for furloughs and petitions from Jewish security prisoners for cancellations of a third off the sentence for good behavior. 
   
“It’s a catch 22. If you don’t have a date [for a specific request], you don’t get an answer,” Miriam said. “If you give a date, they say you have ‘chutzpah’ and how can you tell us what to do. He’s [Adam] been in prison for two years and he’s had 12 hours off,” Miriam said. “He was at his brother’s wedding and we had to bring him back at 5.00 am the next morning. He’s so dangerous that every extra minute he’s out is a danger to the whole country. They look for ways to torture you. Only one bible text in the cell at a time and this is a religious [Torani] wing. On Holocaust memorial day, they didn’t allow the Jews to attend the ceremony, they only allowed the Arabs.” 
 
The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, neither approves nor is informed off decisions which affect hundreds of Jewish security prisoners convicted of what are deemed ideological crimes by the justice system. These decisions include regular furloughs, reduction of sentences, visitation rights and distribution of special Kosher food, among others. 
   
“Those kind of regulations don’t require the committee’s approval,” Valeria Gazpoz, Knesset Internal Affairs Committee spokesperson, said. 
   
But Gazpoz refused to comment on allegations that prison authorities have changed visitation rules beginning Aug. 10, limiting family visits to one half hour every two weeks. 
   
“I will check into it,” Gazpoz said. 
   
The prison authority’s spokesperson also denied that visits had been cut and denied that there were different regulations for Jewish security prisoners but she admitted that the prisons were examining this possibility. 
   
“The visits are as usual but the issue is being examined,” Prison Authorities Deputy Spokesperson Yarona Linhard, said. 
   
Prison sources said the decisions made by the prison authorities are often seem to deliberately discriminate against Jewish security prisoners like the decision to allow prisoners a furlough of just 24 hours instead of the usual 48 hours and decisions to cancel furloughs and restrict prisoners during their furloughs from entering Jerusalem or other parts of the West Bank, where they live, and relegate them to house arrest from 18.00 in the evening. 
   
Prison sources also said that it was difficult to obtain the special kosher meals that inmates in the religious or Torani wings requested. 
   
“It’s very difficult to get the glatt [extra] kosher food in the prison,” prison sources said. “It’s more expensive for the prison so the rabbi who authorizes the meals restricts them. People often have to wait for a year until they get authorization for the meals.”

(IsraelJustice.com)