Sunday, May 9, 2010

New Bill Reduces the Rights of Hamas Convicts in Israeli Jails

JERUSALEM - Israel Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich has withdrawn his opposition to a new bill that would cancel the numerous privileges that thousands of Hamas convicts incarcerated in Israeli jails currently enjoy.

Mr. Aharonovich yesterday held a meeting this week on this subject with a number of pertinent officials.

Likud Member of the Israel Knesset Parliament Danny Danon introduced a new bill to the cabinet stipulating that members of a terrorist organization that is holding an Israeli soldier without allowing him visitation rights would also be withheld visitation rights while in prison.

The bill was drafted after the Israeli media exposed the “summer camp conditions” that the Hamas convicts enjoy during their terms of incarceration in Israeli jails.

Many professionals said they believed that the most pressing and effective pressure that could be applied on Hamas would be to cut back dramatically on the privileges that the Hamas convicts receive in Israeli prisons.

It became evident that Hamas convicts receive numerous visits, are allowed physical contact with their children, have cable TV (at the tax-payers’ expense) in their cells, receive a regular supply of newspapers and magazines, and even pursue academic studies without any limitations while in Israeli prison.

They are due none of those privileges according to either international law or the Geneva Convention.


View this story in the Philadelphia Bulletin
View this story at Israel Behind the News

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