Al-Ahram Weekly Online
April 18-24, 2002

A Shameful Legacy Returns by Jonathan Cook

Seven years after its last inmates, from the first
Intifada, were freed the Ketziot prison has been
pressed back into service by Ariel Sharon. Jonathan
Cook visited the notorious camp.
Convoys of Israeli army buses were crossing the dusty
plains of the Negev desert this week to a high-security
military base near the Egyptian border. Inside was a
human cargo -- hundreds of Palestinian prisoners,
blindfolded and handcuffed.

The reopening of the Ketziot prison camp is the first
proof that Israel intends to imprison long term
thousands of Palestinian men rounded up since the
invasion of West Bank towns and villages began two
weeks ago.

Ketziot can hold up to 7,000 prisoners in several
blocks of tents and is likely to fill rapidly, human
rights groups warn. The army, which has been continuing
house-to-house searches, is holding more than 4,000
Palestinians at temporary detention centres.

Ketziot, nicknamed Ansar III by Palestinians after two
notorious Israeli army prisons in south Lebanon and
Gaza, is Israel's version of America's Camp X- Ray at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Its new inmates, according to
Sharon, are the foot-soldiers of the Palestinian
"infrastructure of terror."

Keeping it open will be a huge drain on Israeli
resources, both financially and in terms of manpower.
Thousands of reservists are likely to be called up to
run it.

Hassib Nashashibi, of the Palestinian legal rights
group, LAW, said the revival of the prison was the
death blow to the Oslo peace process. "We are back to
the mass arrests policy of the first Intifada; it's
reoccupation by other means."

Even before the latest invasions Israeli security jails
were bulging. The prison population has soared as
hundreds of Palestinians, mainly labourers, have been
arrested trying to cross into Israel.

The new wave of arrests will set Israel a far bigger
challenge. Jails such as Nafha, also in the Negev, have
already been cleared of criminals to make way for
Palestinian detainees.

Many of the men, aged between 14 and 45 who have
surrendered or been arrested in West Bank towns and
villages have reported being forced to strip to their
underwear.

After interrogation, most have been quickly released.
Stories from these captives that they were beaten
during questioning have been confirmed by the
testimonies of at least one Israeli soldier working at
the Ofer interrogation centre near Ramallah.

Leo Yavner, of the influential Israeli human rights
organisation B'tselem, said it had presented evidence
to the courts last week of torture, but the judges had
refused to take action. "The guard told us that he had
witnessed several men having their fingers and toes
broken to extract information," he said.

The new inmates at Ketziot are being held in tent
compounds hidden from view behind high earth
embankments. A checkpoint on the approach road and
heavily armed watchtowers deter uninvited visitors.

Both the United Nations and the US State Department
called for the closing of Ketziot during the first
Intifada, pointing out that the transfer of prisoners
out of their own country contravened the Geneva
Convention.

The camp was also condemned for its dismal hygiene and
health provisions, for making family visits almost
impossible and for using tents unsuitable for desert
conditions.

In addition, the UN Commission on Human Rights warned
that Ketziot was a training ground for armed
Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
It is a view confirmed by former inmates.

Jawad Natshee, 35, from Hebron, a member of Yasser
Arafat's Fatah organisation, was held in Ketziot in the
summer of 1990. He said: "On arrival, each new inmate
would be assigned to a tent with people from our group.
The Israeli guards never interfered.

During the day there was nothing to do so Fatah, Hamas,
Jihad and the other groups would hold educational
classes and debates in the tents. Group leaders would
teach the less experienced men about Palestinian
history and the armed struggle. We forged life-long
bonds."

Other inmates describe the harsh living conditions of
Ketziot.

Auni Jabran, from Beit Sahour, who was arrested in 1988
aged 16 for belonging to Fatah and held for a total of
18 months, said: "The extremes of temperature make it a
difficult place to live for months on end. Sometimes we
would be made to stand outside in the desert sun for
several hours. And at night, especially in the winter,
the temperatures would plunge to below freezing. But we
were provided only with light summer clothing all year
round."

Jabran and Natshee, like many of Ketziot's inmates,
were administrative detainees, imprisoned without a
trial and on secret evidence.

Allegra Pachecho, a lawyer living in Bethlehem, said
the first batches of prisoners sent to Ketziot included
the 280 administrative detainees currently being held
by Israel. She expects the number imprisoned without
trial to rise sharply as Ketziot fills.

Others are worried by emergency measures hastily
introduced by Israel to prevent prisoners from meeting
a lawyer.

Hannah Friedman of the Public Committee against Torture
in Israel says a collective military order issued last
week gives the army and police the power to hold
prisoners for 18 days without a hearing or access to a
lawyer.

"It is the first time such an order has been used in
Israel and erodes all the safeguards against abuse of
power," she said. "In the current climate, however,
there is not much chance of successfully challenging it
in the courts."

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