'Israel ignoring Palestinian prisoners’ urgent need for medical help'

Ramallah: The Palestinian Prisoners Club, an organisation working for the welfare of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, has accused the Israeli authorities of intentionally neglecting the medical needs of the Palestinian prisoners in order that they eventually die of their diseases.

The club on Tuesday urged international humanitarian and legal organisations to intervene immediately in the situation and help the Palestinian prisoners who needed medical help.

Ragheb Abu Diak, who heads the club, said the Israeli authorities should be pressurised to provide the Palestinian prisoners with all necessary medical help or give the Palestinian health authority the chance to provide assistance for the prisoners in Israeli jails.

He said the Israeli authorities were willfully ignoring the medical needs of the Palestinian prisoners in a “slow death policy”, despite knowing the urgency of the medical needs of hundreds of prisoners.

Abu Diak said the latest victim of the Israeli authorities’ neglect was 45-year-old Sitan Al Wali from Al Jolan who had served 23 years in an Israeli prison and was granted conditional release only after the Israelis were sure he was dying. Al Wali breathed his last shortly after his release; he was suffering from a tumour in his kidney.

Abu Diyak said the first quarter of 2001 was the worst for ailing Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. A total of 200 Palestinian prisoners died due to the failure of the Israelis to provide them with medical help.

According to figures compiled by the club, at present 20 Palestinian prisoners have cancer, 88 prisoners have diabetes, 25 suffer from kidney failure, 20 suffer total disability and three are paralysed.

Moreover, Abu Diyak added, many prisoners have lost their sight and many others suffer psychological problems and need urgent assistance. He said the Israeli authorities purposefully look the other way when it comes to providing any kind of treatment to these prisoners and allow them to die slow and painful deaths.

This bad situation has only got worse with the newly adopted Israeli procedures, which do not punish Israeli forces for neglecting ailing prisoners, Abu Diyak said.

The lives of many prisoners are in danger and the international community should act quickly to protect them, he added. Israeli prisons claim to have a serious shortage of doctors, he said, but this could not be held as the reason for not treating those Palestinian prisoners whose conditions had grown serious enough through neglect to require hospitalisation and specialist care.

The Palestinian Authority has urgently demanded that the Palestinian prisoners get the necessary medical attention to save their lives, Abu Diyak said.