Palestinian prisoners in Ofer jail have threatened to go on hunger strike if the Israeli prison service persists in using the security cameras in women’s section in Hasharon prison.
The prisoners decided to take this protest step in solidarity with the female prisoners in Hasharon who refuse to spend their daily leisure time in the prison courtyard in order to pressure jailers to turn off the security cameras in their section.
According to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) six prisoners in Ofer jail told the prison administration that they would stage an open-ended hunger strike if the Israeli prison authorities did not remove or switch off all the security cameras in women’s section in Hasharon jail.
They also told their jailers that more fellow prisoners would join their hunger strike if their demand was not fulfilled and gave them until Wednesday afternoon to respond to their demand.
The Palestinian women detained in Hasharon jail have been refusing for over 40 days to take their daily walk in the main prison courtyard in protest at the reactivation of internal security cameras.
They recently rejected all suggestions made by the prison administration such as giving them pledges to watch security camera recordings only in case of incidents and to shut them down for two hours a day.
According to the PPS the security cameras in Hasharon jail were covered several years ago after female prisoners protested their presence inside their section.
However the administration operated them again in early September at the behest of a committee appointed by Israeli security minister Gilad Erdan which visited the prison.
There are still 34 Palestinian women in Hasharon jail and 20 others in Damon.
