Inside Israel’s Prisons: 5,625 “Security” Inmates

According to data provided by the Israel Prison Service (IPS), as of August 2015 there are 5,625 “security” inmates incarcerated in state prisons: 3,696 sentenced prisoners, 1,585 remand detainees, and 344 administrative detainees being held indefinitely without charges having been filed against them (such administrative orders are renewable every six months without need for justification by the authorities).

These figures include a handful of Jewish prisoners (such as Yigal Amir), and a vast majority of Palestinian detainees – residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), permanent residents of East Jerusalem, and Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. The figures include all “security inmates” in prisons under the IPS jurisdiction, among them the Ofer Prison situated in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians incarcerated in an Israeli prison

Palestinians incarcerated in an Israeli prison (Photo: Ma’an)

Although prison walls limit the inmate’s freedom of movement, according to international law they must not deny the prisoner other fundamental human rights, with the exception of those explicitly enumerated by local law. However, the holding conditions of security inmates incarcerated inside Israel are different from those of “regular” inmates, and their rights to equality, dignity, family life, education, etc. are violated, in arbitrary breach of international law.

Furthermore, the holding of prisoners and detainees from the OPT inside Israel constitutes a blatant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, prohibiting the transfer of prisoners and detainees outside the occupied territory, and of basic human rights, enshrined, among other things, in Israeli law.