Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails spoke of physical and psychological torture they were subjected to inside Israeli jails at the hands of Israeli doctors who were supposed to treat them during their arrest and interrogation. By doing do these doctors acted like Nazis serving the goals of the Israeli occupation against Palestinian prisoners.
In a report obtained by the PIC on Saturday 4 March 2017 the prisoners and ex-prisoners commission said the Israeli prison service’s doctors and Israeli doctors working for security forces and those working inside the Israeli army camps torture Palestinian prisoners by psychologically pressuring and neglecting them and leaving them alone to face illness invading their bodies with no regard to the manner and teachings of medicine and the international and humanitarian laws in this regard.
The report asserted that many prisoners testified to the collaboration between doctors and interrogators in subjecting Palestinian prisoners to torture and that doctors presented reports stating that Palestinian prisoners have the ability to endure torture and physical and psychological exhaustion and refused to provide needed medication for wounded Palestinian prisoners while being questioned at interrogation centers.
The report stated that the doctors didn’t object to the Israeli interrogators’ bargains to offer Palestinian prisoners medication in return for confession which asserts their involvement in torture.
The report published by the prisoners and ex-prisoners commission revealed that the fact that Palestinian prisons have to wait for a long time which extends to years sometimes to be moved to hospitals for medical tests is a crime committed by doctors working at the Israeli prison service.
Some prisoners died and later it was revealed that their death was due to medical negligence for not providing them with the needed early tests to identify their illness and to provide them with the needed medication.
Systemic Conspiracy
The report revealed that the doctors at the Israeli prison service didn’t carry out their responsibilities regarding conducting basic medical examinations for prisoners and didn’t object moving prisoners in Bosta vans not ambulances to hospitals and that they presented no reports regarding the suitability of conditions of imprisonment for Palestinian prisoners’ health.
The report added that there is an absolute silence and complicity from doctors which makes them accused of violating all principles and laws related to medical service as they abandoned their responsibilities related to providing healthcare for prisoners and protecting them from harsh humiliating and inhuman treatment.
The report noted “There is a planned supervision by these doctors over the needs of Palestinian prisoners which is related to prisoners’ healthcare food and cleanliness. Many of these doctors remained silence when Palestinian prisoners were ill-treated such as exposing them to beating teargas attacks and banning them from family visits.
The report said that Israeli doctors did not reveal the results of autopsy of dead Palestinian prisoners and did not hand them over to the official Palestinian bodies in addition to hiding information about medical mistakes and examinations conducted on Palestinian prisoners.
The report said the doctors at the Israeli prison service were complicit with the political position of the Israeli government as well as that of the Israeli security apparatus in many cases such as writing reports rejecting early release for sick and wounded Palestinian prisoners claiming that their medical condition was good in addition to creating many obstacles to deny other doctors’ access into jails to conduct necessary medical examinations for Palestinian sick prisoners.
Nazism at large
The report mentioned a number of examples which clarified the Israeli prison service’s doctors’ complicity in neglecting Palestinian prisoners who suffered from serious illnesses:
– A number of Palestinian prisoners passed away and later it was revealed that they suffered from many diseases including prisoner Maysara Abuhamdia Fadi Al-Darbi Zuhair Lubadda Yasser Hamdouna Mohammed Al-Jallad Ashraf Abu Zreei Zakari Issa and others.
– The doctors’ reluctance to intervene in the case of prisoners suffering from psychological and mental issues due to placing them in solitary confinement.
– The doctors’ silence over medical mistakes prisoners had gone through such as what happened to prisoner Samer Abu Diak who suffered from poisoning during a surgery to remove tumor in the stomach in the Israeli hospital of Soroka on 3 September 2015. He then slipped into a coma. Another instance was what happened to prisoner Thaer Halahli who suffered from Hepatitis E after seeing the dentist on 16 April 2013 who used polluted medial tools in Askalan prison’s clinic and what happened to prisoner Othman Abukharj who was given an injection ‘by mistake’ at Shata prison in 2007 which resulted in the prisoner’s suffering from Hepatitis E.
– The doctors’ silence over the continuing detention of sick prisoners at Al-Ramla prison clinic which is worse than prison itself and the lack of all humanitarian and health requirements.
– The doctors’ silence over the force-feeding of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike with all what that entails of health risks and violation of the dignity and rights of hunger strikers.
– The doctors’ silence over making sick prisoners pay for their medical bills especially when it comes to installing artificial limbs for handicapped prisoners.
– The doctors’ silence over forcing prisoners to confess under torture and threats especially for minors and refraining from providing information about prisoners who were subjected to harsh treatment during their interrogation and detention.
The report said the Israeli prison service’s doctors and the Israeli security forces violated the Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners of 1955 related to food cleanliness and medical care given to prisoners.
Israeli doctors violated the World Medical Association document of 1956 which stated that the basic task of doctors is to protect health and to save lives.
Israeli doctors also violated the Tokyo declaration of 1975 which explains the role of medical teams in protecting prisoners and detainees form torture even if authorities try to force them to be part of it and that it is their duty to provide the prisoners and detainees with the health and mental protection and to treat their illnesses with the same quality of healthcare given to non-prisoners and detainees.
