Ramallah: The Israeli Prison Service has launched an investigation after a Palestinian prisoner in solitary confinement used a smuggled mobile phone to conduct an interview with a Gaza-based radio station.
The Israeli media on Sunday reported the case of Abdullah Al Barghouti, who is serving 67 life terms in an Israeli prison, who was interviewed by a Hamas radio station in Gaza via the cellphone.
The Voice of Israel radio station said prison officials have no explanation as to how Al Barghouti, who is in Ramon Prison, got his hands on the phone.
Al Barghouti who was arrested in an Israeli military operation in 2003 in Ramallah is the longest serving Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail and has been a major source of concern for the Israeli Prison Service. He has had several prison transfers to limit his activism.
Addressing the Gaza audience, Al Barghouti said Hamas and its cadre should be patient and determined. “God is with us and we will continue to survive even if we are liberated in another 1,000 years,” he said, referring to the Palestinian people.
He urged the Islamist movement Hamas not to hastily sign a prisoner swap deal with Israel.
Smuggling sperm
The Israeli media have criticised the Israeli Prison Service over the events, noting that the service is unable to control solitary confinement and other sections in Israeli jails. It said that given the way Al Barghouti managed to obtain a mobile phone, he and other prisoners could clearly also have access to drugs and explosives.
The issue of smuggling mobile phones has been a major worry for Israeli authorities.
A senior official from the Palestinian Prisoner Association said Palestinian prisoners act independently and manage to get whatever they need. “The prisoners call their families almost daily and despite the daily inspection campaigns the Israeli Prison Service conduct to seize such devices, the Palestinian prisoners get replacements,” the official told Gulf News. “The prisoners are smuggling their sperm to their wives on the outside in clean and sterilised packages and this has resulted in the birth of dozens of new babies.”
A released prisoner told Gulf News that Israeli soldiers themselves can be the source of these smuggled cellphones. He said during tough times (when the subject is being investigated by Israeli authorities), the price of a single cellphone can be as high as 50,000 shekels (approximately Dh47,421), but in normal circumstances the price of a phone ranges between 5,000 to 10,000 shekels.
The prisoner, who was freed after serving 12 years in an Israeli jail, said that Palestinian prisoners’ families, usually do not feel their relatives’ absence due to the existence of the cellphones.
