Essam Bakr: Ben Gvir's Decision to Replace Prison Monitors Reflects the Actual Implementation of the Death Penalty Law

SadaNews - Essam Bakr, Secretary for Foreign Relations and Media in the Supreme Committee for the Follow-Up of Prisoners and Freed Prisoners, considered the decision of the so-called Minister of Internal Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, to replace the monitors in prisons with relatives of those killed in resistance operations as a direct operational translation of the death penalty law passed by the Israeli Knesset last March. This comes amidst the tightening of measures in prisons and detention centers and a severe violation of the most basic human rights standards and international conventions.

The coordinator of the national and Islamic forces in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate stated in a press release earlier today, "Saturday," for immediate action at the popular, official, and legal levels to put an end to this occupation’s transgression in light of international silence and the lack of any real steps to hold the occupation accountable. Since October 7th, 104 martyrs have fallen due to policies of starvation, deliberate medical neglect, torture, and degrading practices against human dignity by prison administrations, including crimes of harassment, sexual abuse, and rape. Bakr added, "This racist decision, which represents further cruelty towards detainees, is a true testament to what is happening in the prisons," alongside the serious violations of even the most basic rights guaranteed by international law.

Bakr emphasized the importance of expanding popular campaigns and participations to support female and male prisoners in the occupation’s prisons, and also to move on the level of the United Nations and its institutions to stop the ongoing slow killings and executions faced by the prisoners. This decision aligns with a racially prepared environment amidst the rising preparations for elections in Israel, where Ben Gvir wants to garner votes from voters through more campaigns of abuse and oppression against prisoners. Appointing monitors from the relatives of the victims of operations is a green light for implementing broader, harsher, and more violent operations compared to what is currently happening in the prisons to begin another phase against them.

Bakr warned of the consequences of continuing these practices and turning them into reality, calling for a serious official investigation into the crimes of the occupation and what is happening in silent extermination inside the prisons, accompanied by ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Jerusalem, where powers are granted to settler gangs to carry out bloody massacres against villages and towns and escalate colonial settlement efforts aimed at ending the Palestinian existence and ethnically cleansing the land of its owners.

He renewed the demand for providing protection for female and male prisoners, sending international investigative committees, and immediately criminalizing the disgraceful actions of the occupation against female and male prisoners, and working to take legal actions according to international agreements and laws to punish the occupation. They must undertake serious actions that go beyond placing the occupation on the list of shame for sexual abuse, despite its significance, leading to decisions for summons and official arrest warrants against the pillars of the occupying government responsible for extermination, crimes of murder, torture, and flagrant violations of international law and humanitarian law.