Ramallah- On its website, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the Occupied Territories says that one of its activities is “visiting detainees in Israeli and Palestinian detention facilities and spares no effort to maintain family ties through the family visits programme.”
On the ground, this international committee did not visit any Palestinian prisoner, facilitate visits to any of the prisoners’ families, or even issue a statement explaining the reason. Rather, it remained silent since the start of the aggression against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian sources.
Today, Sunday, prisoners’ institutions, national and Islamic forces, federations, unions, and activists called for participation in mass vigils in Palestinian city centers, while the government announced the suspension of the work of its departments as of 11:30 local time to allow employees the opportunity to participate in it, in response to calls to make December 1 “A central national day in support of Gaza and the prisoners.”
Why silence?
In a video clip on its Facebook page, the Red Cross Committee answers the question: “Why are you silent? In wars and in light of the atrocities committed, we are not silent, but rather we speak in an undeclared way.”
She adds, “What we are most keen on is saving lives,” noting that she focuses on humanitarian relief and stands with civilians, and that she constantly engages in dialogue with the parties to the conflict, and that her failure to condemn one party or another “does not mean public or implicit approval of what it does.”
Then she says, “We can do this (condemnation) when all other means of influence and change fail, if we are unable to fully act, and if civilians, the sick, the wounded, and the detained stand to benefit.”
But, does the last paragraph apply to Palestinian prisoners? What about the soldiers and Israelis captured in Gaza?
Regarding the prisoners and detainees in Gaza, the head of the committee, Mirjana Spolijaric, issued a statement about a month after the outbreak of the war, following her meeting with the head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, the late Ismail Haniyeh, in Doha, which stated, “The International Committee has not ceased its call for the immediate release of the (Israeli) hostages.” It insists on the necessity of allowing our teams to visit the hostages to ensure their safety, provide the necessary medicines, and provide the hostages with the opportunity to contact their families.”
The International Committee renewed its call for the “release of the hostages” in a second meeting with Haniyeh last March.
Press coverage During the weekly vigil, the families of the prisoners in Tulkarm call on the Red Cross and international institutions to visit their children in prisons and provide their necessities in light of the winter, cold, and harsh occupation policies. pic.twitter.com/poZbxZYRFF
– Quds Network | Prisoners (@asranews) November 26, 2024
Explicit accusation
As for the case of the Palestinian prisoners, more than 14 months after the war, the calls of the prisoners’ families – and their vigils in front of the headquarters of the Red Cross Committee in the West Bank, and the statements of the human rights institutions concerned with prisoners’ affairs, which amounted to screams – did not reach the committee, not to demand a conviction, but rather with a statement saying that it She is prevented from visiting prisoners, if she is prevented, and raising this issue in international forums, according to prisoner affairs researcher Munqith Abu Atwan.
Abu Atwan, who is also Director General of the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority (governmental), added – in his interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that the failure of the Red Cross to play the role requested by the prisoners’ families and institutions is considered “a response to the request of the Israeli prison administration, which prohibits visits, without condemning this shameful behavior.” Or what happens to the prisoners.”
The Palestinian researcher holds this international committee “responsible for the partnership in the killing and liquidation of prisoners through its silence and its failure to clarify the truth of what is happening to the world, and its failure to issue a statement from its headquarters in Geneva condemning and explaining the Israeli measures and preventing it from visiting prisons.”
Abu Atwan denounced “the Red Cross Committee’s keenness on the freedom of the kidnapped people in Gaza, without addressing in any statement the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners.” He even believes that “dealing with the Palestinian prisoners stopped at the initiative of the Red Cross, in response to the kidnapping in Gaza.”
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip are holding dozens of Israelis and soldiers captured during Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” in army camps and settlements around the Gaza Strip.
What is going on and what is required?
According to Abdullah Al-Zaghari, President of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (Ahli), for more than 14 months, the Red Cross Committee “has not played any of the roles assigned to it as an international humanitarian human rights organization towards visiting prisoners inside Israeli detention centers, or revealing the daily attacks they are subjected to.” From the Israeli occupation system.
He added – in his speech to Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that this “puts a question mark on the role of the Red Cross, especially since they did not come out to speak when they are prevented from carrying out their role and what the prisoners are exposed to inside the prisons.”
He continued, “We made several criticisms of the committee through its offices. We asked it to play this role, especially with the significant increase in the number of prisoner martyrs, and the increase in the rate of arrests, medical crimes, and starvation inside prisons, or to declare a clear position, especially since it is an international organization with more authority than all the Palestinian institutions.” “.
Al-Zaghari said that the failure of the International Committee to carry out its role creates “a state of great anger among the families of the prisoners in particular, and among the various Palestinian human rights institutions,” noting that it has been called “several times for the need for it to hold a press conference announcing the reasons for preventing it from carrying out its role inside the prisons, but nothing has been issued.” No statement, and they did not respond to our messages to them.”
The President of the Prisoners’ Club explained that officials in the International Committee of the Cross say – during bilateral meetings with Palestinian institutions – that the occupation prevents them from carrying out their role, “and the most we ask is that they issue a statement announcing this.”
Al-Zaghari stressed that this international committee is required to move urgently to put real pressure on the occupation prison administration through the international system to do its part and visit the prisoners in detention centers, bring clothes for the prisoners and enable them to transport blankets and special clothes with the onset of winter.
He continued that this international committee must exert pressure to provide the basic needs of prisoners, including cleaning materials, especially with the spread of diseases, including scabies, treat prisoners, transfer patients to hospitals, conduct prison visits and document prisoners’ testimonies.
Regarding the role of the International Committee of the Cross before the aggression, he pointed out that it was organizing visits to prisoners inside prisons and documenting testimonies from prisoners, but now “we are not aware of visits even to released prisoners or families of captured martyrs.”
Al-Zaghari pointed out that since the beginning of the war, the International Committee of the Red Cross has stopped issuing what is known as “Cross Certificates,” which include basic information about the date of the prisoner’s arrest and release and the period he spent in prison.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club warns of the increasing number of deaths among Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, following the continuation of systematic crimes against them.
For more: pic.twitter.com/Bx4Lm0sSzM
– Aljazeera.net • Tel Aviv Tribune Net (@AJArabicnet) November 30, 2024
Legal opinion
In turn, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (a non-governmental organization) confirms that “since the outbreak of war, Israel has prevented Red Cross visits to prisons and military detention centers.”
Last March, this association referred on its website to a “secret letter” at the beginning of November 2023 published by the Israeli Prisons Commissioner, in which the International Committee of the Cross reminded it “of Israel’s obligations to ensure appropriate prison conditions and the access of the organization’s representatives to all facilities where prisoners are located.” . The Commissioner’s response was not to allow entry to the prisons “as long as there are Israeli kidnappers in Gaza.”
According to the Israeli association, international law stipulates that “even if one party to the conflict violates its obligation to allow Red Cross visits to detained civilians, this does not relieve the other party of this obligation.”
She referred to the text of Article 143 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that “Representatives of the Red Cross have the right to go to all places where they enjoy protection, especially places of imprisonment (..) and these representatives have complete freedom to choose the places they wish to visit.”
She also pointed out that Israel’s commitment to allowing Red Cross visits is proven in international law and in Israeli legislation as well.
According to data from the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority, the number of arrest cases recorded in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of this war has reached 11,900 Palestinian detainees, including 435 Palestinian women, 775 children and 136 journalists.
This statistic does not include the Gaza Strip, where the number of detainees is estimated at thousands, and the occupation hides data about their number and conditions of detention, according to the Palestinian Authority.
At least 45 prisoners whose identities were revealed and announced were also martyred during the same period, including 27 martyrs from Gaza detainees, in addition to dozens of Gaza detainees who were martyred in prisons and camps and the occupation did not disclose their identities and the circumstances of their martyrdom, in addition to dozens who were subjected to execution. The field.
