Riots erupted Tuesday in at least four Israeli prisons following the death of an inmate from terminal esophageal cancer. Security reinforcements were sent to the Ramon, Nafha, Ketziot, and Eshel prisons to counter the riots, which saw prisoners banging on cells and throwing objects. Outside of the prisons, dozens of Palestinians threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at IDF forces in Palestinian towns.
Maysara Abuhamdia was a Hamas terrorist serving a life term after having been convicted of attempted murder, membership in a terror organization, and possession of weapons for his role in a 2002 terror plot to blow up a Jerusalem cafe. He had been receiving chemotherapy since his February diagnosis for cancer, and was being processed for early humanitarian release when he succumbed to the disease. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the Israeli government for the death by cancer and declared Abuhamdia a martyr:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday for the death of a security prisoner suffering from terminal cancer. “The Palestinian presidency holds the government of Netanyahu responsible for the martyrdom of prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh today in the prisons of the Israeli occupation,” Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement.
Abbas’s condemnation comes on the same day as Hamas leaders blasted the Palestinian leader for imprisoning Hamas operatives and denying them access to the outside assisstance.
Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that Palestinian Authority figures in general, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in particular, have been inciting violence in the West Bank. Abbas and the PA have particularly emphasized their demands that Israel release jailed Palestinian terrorists. There are worries that Abbas will lose control of the situation, and that violence will spiral beyond his control.
Palestinian efforts to pressure Israel over Jerusalem’s treatment of prisoners have been hampered by evaluations to the effect that Israel’s prison system is considered among the most advanced and humane in the world:
The words “Israeli prison” probably don’t conjure images of meditation rooms or petting zoos, but a new episode of MSNBC’s “Lockup: World Tour” introduces viewers to these and other “glowing” aspects of Israel’s prison system… Jews and Israeli-Arabs are housed in the same facilities, and sometimes share a cell as roommates. Israel has its fair share of white-collar crime and auto theft, but national rates for homicide, rape and other violent crimes are lower than in most developed countries…
Israel’s prison system owes much of its current status to improvements undertaken during the 1990s, following passage of Israel’s Basic Law for Human Dignity and Liberty. The so-called “rights revolution” and an activist High Court helped transform Israeli prisons into facilities with relative harmony and ample rehabilitation opportunities, as well as places to which fewer inmates return for second stays.
“An enlightened society is judged by the treatment of its prisoners,” said then-High Court President Aharon Barak. “The prisoner has committed a crime and has been punished accordingly; his liberty has been taken away, but the human essence still remains. The prison walls must not come between the prisoner and human dignity.”
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