Palestinian Female Prisoners Allege Torture

Mick // Female Palestinian inmates have complained of abuse from their Israeli prison guards, including “humiliating” internal body searches. Sabreen Abu Amara, who spent six years in prison, told Al Jazeera she lived in constant fear of the degrading treatment.

Ten prisoners have contacted a lawyer and are collecting evidence to lodge a formal complaint. While the Israeli prison authority told Al Jazeera that the searches were conducted according to regulations, some wonder whether they constitute torture.

The director of a treatment and rehabilitation centre for victims of torture in Ramallah, Dr Mahmoud Saiwail, said that they searches were actually a torture technique.

“What worries us is not the immediate consequences of torture, [it's] the remote consequences of torture [that] might appear after many years in the form of social and family problems.”

Because the prisoners are being held in Israel, not the West Bank or Gaza, they are classified as a different kind of prisoner, and have less rights, according to Leah Tsemel, a lawyer who represents the Palestinian prisoners.

“They are being shifted from their places in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip into Israel, which is totally in contradiction to international conventions, such as the Geneva convention.

“People in occupied territories should be held in their own territories.

“They are also being brought to trial inside Israel and not in the occupied territories as they should according to the Geneva convention,” she said.