Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar faces slow death in Israeli solitary confinement
Khalida Jarrar
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports on 30 August 2024:
To compel Israel to stop the slow and deliberate killing of Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar, who has been in Israeli solitary confinement for 17 days, the Working Group on arbitrary detention and UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Al-Salem, must take effective and immediate action. They must demand her immediate release and an end to Israel’s use of arbitrary detention, including administrative detention, against Palestinians.
In an urgent letter to the Working Group on arbitrary detention and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has detailed the conditions of Jarrar’s arbitrary detention and cruel solitary confinement in an Israeli prison intended for female criminal detainees. The letter also includes a complaint received by Euro-Med Monitor from Jarrar’s husband, Ghassan Jarrar.
In the complaint that he sent to the Euro-Med Monitor team, Ghassan Jarrar said that the Israeli Prison Service has been isolating his wife in solitary confinement in Neve Terzia Prison for 17 days in harsh conditions. According to the complaint, the human rights activist, who has been in administrative detention for over eight months, was placed in isolation for unknown reasons, as there was no legal basis for her to be removed from the prison where she was being held. Additionally, Israeli authorities did not notify her when she was being moved to the new prison; it became evident to her, however, that she was placed in solitary confinement in a prison meant for female offenders, Neve Terzia.
Ghassan Jarrar clarified that his wife is being held in a 2.5 by 1.5-metre cell, with only a concrete bench to sleep on and an open toilet without a curtain. He said that the Israeli prison authorities have cut off the water to the toilet and are delaying the delivery of food to his wife, even though she needs to eat on a regular basis as she takes five different types of medication for blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol.