At least two dozen wives of Palestinian political detainees held in Israel’s gulag of concentration camps and detention centers have had babies from their husbands’ sperm smuggled out of the brutal system which has been condemned with using torture.
By Mohammed Asad
The wives of Palestinian detainees in Israel’s large gulag detention system carry their babies who were born using invitro-fertilization and sperm smuggled from their husbands protest outside the offices of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip this week.
Israel’s occupation government illegally imprisons nearly 6,000 Palestinians in its prison gulag system in five detention camps that are in addition to Israel’s criminal prison system of 33 correctional facilities.
The five Israeli concentration camps have been accused of torture, abuse and deprivation, including water boarding, beatings, physical and mental abuse. Unregulated by outside agencies, nearly half of the population in this growing Israeli gulag detention camp system are political prisoners who are denied basic human rights.
Most of the illegally detained are denied legal representation, and have never been formally charged of any crimes in Israel’s larger penal system, where drug dealers, murderers and mainstream are allowed basic judicial representation. Israel often uses the due process given to criminals in its penal system, which includes many Israeli Jews, as a cover to hide the abuses that are committed in the gulag camps where Palestinian political prisoners are held in violation of international law.
About 24 wives of Palestinians illegally detained by Israel were able to have sperm smuggled out of the gulag system to conceive children in the last two years, sources said. Four of the new mothers live in the Gaza Strip and the rest are from the West Bank. Palestinian political prisoners are denied conjugal visits by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS).
In recent years, the political prisoner population has reached 10,000 and varies. Political prisoners are treated differently from Israel’s criminal correctional system. Since 1967, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been illegally arrested and detained by Israel without judicial process. Prior to 1967, between 1948 and 1967, Israeli occupation forces arrested and detained more than 500,000 Palestinians, most of whom were expelled or murdered in custody.
In recent years, as many as 10,000 of the political detainees have been children.
Much of the data on Israel’s political prisoners are considered state secrets and are difficult to obtain. But agencies including Israel’s human rights organization, B’Tselem, which has been viciously attacked by mainstream Israelis for exposing Israel’s military and settler crimes and misconduct, Addameer, and Amnesty International and the Mandela Institute for Human Rights Palestine.
(All photos (C) 2015 by Mohammed Asad. All Rights reserved. Some background text by Ray Hanania)
photographer Mohammed Asad's photo of Dalia Khalifa won an award in March 2015 at a competition organised by the UN.
'Unbreakable' - is the photo of 9yr old Dalia Khalifa, taken at Al-Shifa Hospital on Aug 9th, 2014. Dalia was badly injured in an Israeli air strike during Operation 'Protective Edge'.
'Unbreakable' is the Grand Jury Winner in the photography competition, organised by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Middle East and North Africa (UN OCHA).
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Mohammed Asad's home in Shujaiyya was destroyed by Israeli missiles, mortars and tank fire on Friday August 1, 2014 while he was documenting the Israeli massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip. He is now living in temporary housing as he scrambles to find Internet access to share his photographs when possible.]
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You read about what Israel’s brutal gulag system does to detainees and even to children held in these concentration camps but when you see the photographs, it beings it all closer to home to expose Israel’s concentration camp abuses. Mohammed Asad is a professional war correspondent and photographer.