For a Bit of Air, the Palestinian Lawmaker Lies Down on the Floor, by the Crack Under the Cell Door - Gideon Levy
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/twilight-zone/2024-08-30/ty-article-magazine/.premium/for-a-bit-of-air-the-palestinian-lawmaker-lies-down-by-the-crack-under-the-cell-door/00000191-9e54-d453-ab9f-fedc4e610000
After being imprisoned during Israel’s mass arrests of West Bank Palestinians a few months after the war broke out in Gaza, Khalida Jarrar has been ordered to remain behind bars for yet another six months, again under administrative detention – without charges and without a trial.
The No. 1 female Palestinian political prisoner – whom Israel alleged is a member of the political leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which it considers a terrorist group – was snatched from her home eight months ago and has been incarcerated ever since. Until two and a half weeks ago, she was held with other female security prisoners in Damon Prison, on Mount Carmel outside Haifa. Then, suddenly, with no explanation, she was transferred to Neve Tirza, a women’s prison in central Israel, thrown into a tiny cell of 2.5 x 1.5 meters and left in total isolation 24/7.
Her cell has no windows. There is no air, no fan, only a concrete bed and a thin mattress as well as a toilet that has no water most of the day. This week she told her lawyer that in order to breathe a bit, she lies down on the floor and tries to draw in a bit of air from the crack under the cell door. She doesn’t drink much, in order to avoid having to use the toilet, which emits a horrific stench.
This is how Israel holds its political prisoners: without charges or trial, under inhuman conditions that are illegal even according to High Court of Justice rulings (such those relating to cell crowding, which the prison authorities ignore).
