Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a leading scholar on Arab culture, called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to take action to remove Amiram Ben-Uliel from the isolation he has been in for the past few years, and transfer him to a religious wing.
In a new video released by the 'Justice for Amiram' protest organization, Dr. Kedar says that in the case of Ben-Uliel, solitary confinement is another punishment imposed on him even though the court did not sentence him to such a punishment.
"I, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, am asking the Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Netanyahu, whose office the ISA is subordinate to, to immediately order the transfer of the life-sentence prisoner Amiram Ben-Uliel to the religious wing of the prison. It is unthinkable that a person sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison would stay in solitary confinement, cut off from everyone," said Kedar.
According to him, "Isolation is intended to deal with disciplinary problems among the prisoners or to protect state secrets. In the case of Amiram Ben-Uliel, isolation is an additional punishment that is imposed on him without being sentenced to this punishment by the court."
"As it turned out in retrospect that Zadorov and Baranes were in prison for many years by mistake, and because there are those who doubt Amiram's sentence since the court convicted Amiram Ben-Uliel based on his confessions given after severe torture, and the confirmation of their existence was given only based on incorrect and misleading information, as if it were In something known as a 'ticking bomb'. Therefore, as long as Amiram is in prison, he should be allowed to be in a normal prison, in the company of people, and no additional punishments should be added to him beyond the prison sentence imposed on him by the court", said Dr. Kedar.
His comments join the support of other rabbis and public figures in the call to transfer Amiram Ben-Uliel to the religious wing, including Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Rabbi David Pandel, Professor Talia Einhorn, Jonathan Pollard, Daniela Weiss, Dr. Hanna Katan and more.
"We call on Israel Prison Service Commissioner Kati Perry and all the relevant parties to order as early as today the termination of Amiram's disgraceful conditions, and his transfer to a religious wing until a fair trial is held in his case - like for Burns and Zadorov," the protest organization commented.