End Isolation And Solitary Confinement !

Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh
called upon prisoners’ organisations and human rights organisations to launch
an international and legal campaign to end isolation and solitary confinement,
which he said was akin to execution.
Abu Ghoulmeh was abducted along with Ahmad Sa’adat from Jericho prison in 2006,
and is currently held in isolation.

Abu Ghoulmeh said that the Israeli prison management reneged on its promises
to the prisoners in October 2011, when it promised to end isolation in exchange
for the prisoners ending their open-ended hunger strike,
which had lasted for twenty days at that point.
The prisoners’ main demand was an end to the policy of isolation and solitary confinement; however, immediately after the strike had been ended,
the prison administration officially renewed the isolation of Sa’adat,
Hassan Salameh, and others.

Abu Ghoulmeh emphasised that this action exemplifies the complete lack of any
commitment by the government of Israel to any agreements with the prisoners,
including those stated to be included in the prisoner exchange.
For example, the occupation stated its commitment to end arbitrary punitive measures
against Palestinian prisoners that had been used during the holding of occupation soldier
Gilad Shalit as a prisoner of war; however, those measures have not only continued,
but have escalated.
Abu Ghoulmeh is in isolation in Ashqelon prison; he has been sentenced to life imprisonment
and has been denied family visits, books and newspapers.

Khalida Jarrar, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP, also called upon
Palestinian lawyers to take up legal challenges against isolation within all courts of law,
and to take legal steps to protest this policy which is contrary to international human rights standards.
Jarrar’s statement came during a visit with the family of Abu Ghoulmeh,
including Wafa Abu Ghoulmeh, Ahed’s wife and prisoners’ rights activist, in Ramallah,
in a delegation including Bashir Khairie, Nael Khalil, Fuad Hadli, and
PA Minister of Prisoners Issa Qaraqe.

Qaraqe concurred that the policy of isolation is one of the most serious
violations of prisoners’ rights, and is a policy of slow death, as it has been termed by the prisoners.
There are currently 16 Palestinian prisoners in isolation; some have served nearly ten years. 

They are:
*Ahmad Sa’adat;
*Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh;
*Jamal Abu Hija;
*Walid Khalid;
*Hassan Salameh;
*Mansour Shahatit;
*Bajis Nakhleh;
*Dirar Abu Sisi;
*Mohammed Jibran;
*Abdullah Barghouti;
*Mohammad Arman,
*Ahmad Maghrabi;
*Mahmoud Arda;
*Mahmoud Issa;
*Ibrahim Hamad; and
*Abbas Sayyed