Buthaina Doqmaq
Posted on | October 28, 2008 | No Comments
Chair of Mandela Institute for Human Rights
More than 380 Palestinian children under 18 years of age are in Israeli prisons. They need to be educated—not tortured, abused inside prisons, deprived of their parents’ visits. The Israelis tour the world demanding the release of one abducted soldier. I demand the international community intervene to free prisoners who are seekers of freedom and peace. We want our detained children home with their families.
There are more than 11,000 detainees at Israeli jails, including female prisoners—with no less than 28 prisons, detention centers, and interrogation centers. I’d say the start of detention is the most difficult for those who undergo immediate interrogation. It goes on for long hours and long nights with the detainee on a chair with his or her hands and feet tied and seven or eight interrogators. The detainee is often blackmailed by arresting one of their family members, especially the wife: “We arrested your wife. She is with us now, and you must talk.”
They use the polygraph as a torture, repeating it for three to four hours at a time without the detainees knowing what it is. But worst are the solitary confinement cells, with cockroaches, insects, mice—and lacking all basics of human life. I asked a woman who had been in solitary confinement since September 2006, “What do you do?” She said, “I read a book four or five times. Then I wash the walls.”
Tell us about your organization, The Mandela Institute, the kinds of detainee cases you work on.
The Mandela Institute was founded in 1989, after the first intifada by a group of lawyers, religious Christian men, and doctors. Its task is to follow up on the cases of the detainees at Israeli prisons. We follow up on the cases of the administrative detainees, who are detained without charges. We investigate detention conditions, send in doctors, and arrange visits by detainees’ families.
We also deal with cases of solitary confinement. There are currently more than 30 detainees locked up in solitary confinement in Al Ramla prison. They are allowed a break of only one hour a day, in which they leave their cells handcuffed. For women, solitary confinement is especially hard.
Sick detainees are also under our wing. We face complex situations when we send doctors to detention centers especially to treat wounded detainees who become wounded during arrests by Israeli troops. The Israelis’ delays in providing medical care have caused the deaths of many detainees. We estimate that more than 190 deaths have been caused by medical negligence in Ramallah.
What is the situation for women detainees?
On average there are six female detainees to a cell. Some cells have two female detainees, some as high as 12 female detainees. They sleep on the floor next to each other with the latrine next to them. Some of the females have husbands who are also detained. Their children must choose between visiting their mothers or fathers.
We have women who gave birth to babies while handcuffed. A woman would deliver and spend two days at hospital, and then be taken back with the baby to jail. Imagine when the baby enters prison after the hospital! It doesn’t just live with its mother in prison but with the rest of detained women who want to get up and move around and turn on the radio. This affects the baby. It lives a life of noise and deprivation.
The process of giving birth as a detainee is terrifying. I have a photo of one of our detainees who had gone into labor, getting off of an Israeli police vehicle, handcuffed and with her legs tied. She was carrying her things with her. She was admitted to the operations theater after two hours. It was her first baby, she had to undergo a caesarean section and they delayed the process of bringing her mother to her. Such issues have a deep, terrifying effect within the female detainee’s psyche.
It’s also terrible for women whose children are outside jail. Imagine a mother with eight or nine children, who gets up every morning, dresses her children, feeds then, and sends them to school. Suddenly, she is in prison without being guilty of anything or because her husband or son are wanted.
A detained woman always thinks about outside prison as if she lives outside of it. She thinks more about her children than herself.
Tell us other cases about forms of torture employed on prisoners.
The processes change from one person to another. A person can be arrested from his or her home violently. The Israeli troops might break into a home and terrorize children. Look at the destruction, the handcuffing, the blindfolding, and the dragging to the vehicles that takes place in so many instances. A detainee might be beaten at the military vehicle.
I consider the process of interrogating a detainee for long days and nights while he or she is tied to a chair as torture. Solitary confinement for female detainees or arresting wives of detainees and forcing them to look through a keyhole at their spouse being interrogated, are also forms of psychological torture.
It’s a big concern for you that important services, like contact with families and medical care, are not available to prisoners.
At Al Ramla prison alone, there are 13 to 14 cases of wounded detainees who use crutches or have spinal injuries. Some detainees carry bags for defecation and urination. The situation is unnatural.
There are many cases of prisoners who have cancer, diabetes, and hypertension. Not only are prisons far from hospitals, it takes a long time and a lot of effort by law and human rights groups for the prison administration to decide whether a prisoner needs hospitalization or not.
We ask to allow detainees to at least be able call their families when they lose a parent. The prison administration may accept or refuse. They might insist on showing a death certificate; however, this does not secure a permission to make a phone call. With prisoners who are in solitary confinement, no communication is allowed. It’s difficult to even send them a lawyer or get them treatment.
What else makes you sad?
Going to Al Ramla prison hospital to visit the wounded people. Some have lost a limb or are paralyzed, or a young man needs a bag for urination or defecation, and the bag is delayed. Or a man who used to be proud and free now has his freedom restricted. Even if a person lived in a five-star hotel, he would want his freedom.
In what other ways are children of the detainees impacted?
Children often face a dilemma when both their parents are detained; they must choose between visiting their mothers or their fathers.
They also experience psychological pressure during the visits. A mother can only hold the visiting child and keep him or her by her side for ten minutes if the child is under six years of age. If the child is older by even a month or two, they can’t have contact.
Such irrational rules have great psychological impact on the child and the mother. It makes me really sad when I see children suffer along with their detained parents.
Is there any happiness in your work?
I am happy when a prisoner is released and a mother sees her imprisoned child after a long time. I am happy when I tell a mother that her son says “hello” and he is all right. The mother will be happy in an indescribable way. I have comforted many mothers.
Since co-founding the Mandela Institute in 1989, Doqmaq has been fighting for the release of political prisoners through legal arguments. Currently more than 11,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons. Doqmaq is on the board of Jerusalem Pharmaceuticals Company and has founded several investment companies. She has been the liaison between Arab prisoners and their families in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
