Rearrested Palestinian prisoner Ihsan Dababseh was ordered to six months in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, by the Israeli occupation military on Sunday, 5 March. Dababseh, 31, had been seized by occupation forces in a pre-dawn raid on her home in the town of Nuba south of al-Khalil on Monday, 27 February.
Her story is featured in “For the Love of Palestine: Stories of Women, Imprisonment and Resistance,” created by members of the Prison, Labor and Academic Delegation to Palestine. Dababseh had been released on 10 July 2016 after 21 months in Israeli prison. She had been imprisoned since 13 October 2014 on charges of membership in a prohibited organization, in her case the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. Dababseh is engaged to Osama Mohammed Hroub of Jenin, currently imprisoned in the Negev desert prison.
She previously spent two years in Israeli prison from 2007 to 2009 on similar charges. All major Palestinian political parties are labeled prohibited organizations by the Israeli occupation. During her imprisonment she had been isolated with four other Palestinian women as punishment for raising the Palestinian flag on the anniversary of the Nakba. During her prior arrest from 2007 to 2009, the Israeli occupation soldiers who had arrested and blindfolded her made a video of themselves dancing around her as she was blindfolded and held against the wall, which they distributed.
Dababseh is one of approximately 600 Palestinian prisoners held without charge or trial under administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable in periods of one to six months. Two administrative detainees, Mohammed al-Qeeq and Jamal Abu Leil, are on open hunger strike for 28 and 18 days, respectively, against administrative detention.
As Dababseh was ordered imprisoned without charge or trial, he Israeli prison administration transferred 16 Palestinian women prisoners from HaSharon prison to Damon prison, stating that renovations are being done on Section 11 of HaSharon. Prisoners have filed dozens of complaints demanding that something be done about the unacceptable conditions of both Damon and HaSharon prisons.
There are approximately 51 women prisoners, for whom the living conditions worsen daily, said Amina al-Tawil of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies, who said that the women prisoners are denied basic necessities of life within the prisons.
Dr. Raafat Hamdouneh of the Prisoners Studies Center said that Palestinian women’s sections are overcrowded and denied appropriate cleaning materials and appropriate, healthful food, especially for injured or youth prisoners. He noted that the rooms are often infested with insects and have little ventilation.
Among the prisoners who were transferred to Damon prison are Aisha al-Afghani, Ansam Shawahneh, Falasteen Najm, Ghadeer al-Atrash, Asmaa Balawi and others.
Among the women prisoners are 12 injured, often with severe injuries from live ammunition, as well as 13 minor girls under the age of 18.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, 4 March, Rawan Shyoukhi, 21, was released from detention but ordered forcibly transferred from the city of Jerusalem and held in home imprisonment in Nazareth for six months. Shyoukhi’s brother, Ali, was killed by Israeli occupation forces on 11 October 2016 as he protested in Silwan. He was left to bleed and denied access to medical care for three hours before his death, despite the presence of Palestinian ambulances and medical crews demanding access. Rawan and Ali’s brother Mohammed is currently serving a 10-months sentence in Israeli prison.
Diana Khuwaylid, 19, was released on Wednesday, 1 March from Damon prison after 15 months of imprisonment, welcomed back to her home in Tulkarem. Upon her release, she urged support for all of the prisoners in Israeli jails against the attacks od the prison administration.
