43 Palestinian women currently languish in Israeli jails, according to a statement issued by the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) to mark Women’s International Day.
Shorouq Dwayyat, from East Jerusalem, and Shatila Abu Ayyad, from the Arab village of Kafr Qassim, situated inside Israel, have the highest jail sentence among female prisoners, as they are both serving jail times of 16 years.
Reports confirmed that Palestinian female prisoners get shot during their arrest. They are also subjected to strip searches, Shabeh, sleep deprivation, blackmail, denial of lawyers and family visits, beating, and punitive measures against their families. pic.twitter.com/Qbxhyo8kv1
— The girl of Gaza (@ThegirlofGaza1) March 7, 2020
The prisoners include 16 mothers. Among them, there is Israa Jaabis, 34, who was arrested in October 2015 after a faulty cooking gas cylinder in her car burst into flames 500 meters from an Israeli checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.
#Palestinian Prisoner Khalida Jarrar in her own Words: The Age of #Freedom Will Come https://t.co/w56Zjd2PlW via @PalestineChron pic.twitter.com/h9lfkyvxJ0
— Ramzy Baroud (@RamzyBaroud) February 21, 2020
Jaabis was severely wounded in the blaze, suffering 65 percent burns across her body. Israeli occupation forces accuse her, who has a ten-year-old son, of attempting to harm Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near the site of the explosion.
On #InternationalWomensDay.. Palestinian female prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons yearn for dignity and freedom. pic.twitter.com/9Qujdhv1X6
— Shaimaa M (@shaimaaMtab) March 8, 2020
Four female prisoners are held under administrative detention, including Palestinian feminist, lawyer, and lawmaker Khalida Jarrar, who was rearrested last October, just a few months after her release.
The oldest-serving female prisoner is Amal Taqatqa from Bethlehem. She was arrested on December 1, 2014, and she is serving a 7-year sentence.
In its statement, the PPC said that Israel has arrested over 16,000 Palestinian women since 1967, adding that Palestinian female prisoners are frequently subjected to torture.
#Palestinian heroine Khalida Jarrar's last write up before being rearrested by #Israeli occupation forces https://t.co/wxo1CJpyJt #Palestine #somoud pic.twitter.com/erAJdKBRU5
— Ramzy Baroud (@RamzyBaroud) March 1, 2020
“The struggle of Palestinian prisoners epitomizes the struggle of all Palestinians,” wrote Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud.
“Their imprisonment is a stark representation of the collective imprisonment of the Palestinian people — those living under occupation and apartheid in the West Bank and those under occupation and siege in Gaza,” Baroud added.
(Palestine Chronicle, QNN, Social Media)
