Israeli jailers in the Ramon desert prison on Sunday obstructed visits for dozens of Palestinian families at the pretext that their detained relatives had participated in the mass hunger strike which was suspended recently following a deal with the Israeli prison service (IPS).
Informed sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that many families who headed for Ramon jail to see related prisoners were surprised by the Israeli decision to cancel their visits as a punitive measure against their relatives who joined the mass hunger strike last April to demand basic rights.
Consequently other families who were allowed to see their relatives protested the discrimination against their compatriots and decided not to enter the visit area in the jail unless those denied visits were also allowed in.
Later all the families were able to see their relatives in the jail.
The PIC was also told that Knesset member Osama al-Saadi from the Joint Arab List contributed to enabling all the families to visit their relatives in the jail after he intervened with the competent Israeli authorities.
Such an Israeli attempt to bar families from visiting their relatives indicated that the IPS gave the hunger strikers a fragile agreement in order to end their hunger strike without intending to honor its pledges about improving the incarceration conditions in its jails.
