Prisons Service takes punitive measures against security prisoners following kidnapping
IPS spokeswoman: "They have less access to TV than they did before, but the measures are not a violation of their human rights or rights as prisoners."
By BEN HARTMANMan in prison 370(photo credit: Courtesy)
The Israel Prisons Service has slashed TV privileges and cut access to prison commissaries for security prisoners following the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in the West Bank last week.The IPS announced this on Wednesday in response to a report that it is banning the prisoners from watching the World Cup.IPS spokeswoman Sivan Weitzman said that the measures are part of a package of means that it has been ordered to carry out over the past week.The IPS “isn’t the one who makes the decisions on this. These are made on the governmental level, we’re just the body that carries them out,” she said.Weitzman added that at no point did the IPS confiscate televisions or appliances or cancel television privileges altogether, and that no such step will be taken.She did say, however, that “they [prisoners] have access to a lot less television channels than they did before, but regardless, the measures we’re taking do not constitute a violation of their human rights or rights as prisoners.”Earlier this week the IPS announced that family visits for security prisoners have been canceled, though it said that it was not a punitive measure, but rather that the security situation in the midst of the IDF operation in the West Bank would not allow for it.The kidnapping took place over a month after a hunger strike was launched by 90 security prisoners jailed without charge on administrative detention.The 90 administrative detainees were joined in solidarity by approximately 200 other security prisoners, but the number has since steadily declined and as of Wednesday there were 90 prisoners still on hunger strike. Of these, 80 are being treated in Israeli hospitals.
