The latter, including those known as the Bat Ayin group and others, have been hunger-striking for 11 days, in protest of their "unfair treatment and conditions" - and now some of them have been punished by being separated and dispersed to other prisons.
Yitzchak Pass, who is in prison on charges of being in possession of several sticks of dynamite, and Tzuriel Amior have been removed from Ayalon Prison in Ramle, which has a ward for the religiously observant, and sent to HaSharon Prison between Netanya and Raanana, which does not.
Pass, Amior and the others began their protests against the prison conditions of Noam Federman, who is being held - in proximity with Arab terrorists - on a six-month administrative detention order. Federman has been on a hunger strike for several weeks, except for the short recent holiday period during which his conditions were improved. "Now he is back to the 'regular' conditions," his wife Elisheva said today. "No phones, no radio, no visits, etc. - he is being held under the worst conditions that can be given to a prisoner, even though as an administrative detainee, who has not been convicted of anything, he is supposed to receive better conditions, not worse."
Mrs. Federman explained that Noam's "crime" was that he "helped the other prisoners to find lawyers and the like, and therefore the GSS wants to get back at him. The prisoners themselves told me that the GSS investigators showed so much hatred for him that they [the prisoners] feared for his life... The other prisoners started hunger-striking in protest of Noam's conditions, and so the GSS struck back at them: no friends or second-degree relatives may visit them; their privilege of receiving a rabbi once a month has been arbitrarily removed, etc. The GSS is simply fighting back at them - at the orders and behest of the GSS... The head of Ashmoret Prison himself told me that the reason Noam can't have certain privileges is because of 'orders from above.' "
Dozens of people demonstrated last night outside Ashmoret Prison, demanding improved conditions for Federman and the other Jewish security prisoners. The prisoners' families issued a statement: "This is a continuation of the harassment and the attempt to break them. Let's see the Prison Service take the same measures against terrorists in prison." Elisheva Federman added, "All they want is their basic privileges, and once they are restored, the prisoners will revert to their peaceful ways."
Yitzchak Pass, who is in prison on charges of being in possession of several sticks of dynamite, and Tzuriel Amior have been removed from Ayalon Prison in Ramle, which has a ward for the religiously observant, and sent to HaSharon Prison between Netanya and Raanana, which does not.
Pass, Amior and the others began their protests against the prison conditions of Noam Federman, who is being held - in proximity with Arab terrorists - on a six-month administrative detention order. Federman has been on a hunger strike for several weeks, except for the short recent holiday period during which his conditions were improved. "Now he is back to the 'regular' conditions," his wife Elisheva said today. "No phones, no radio, no visits, etc. - he is being held under the worst conditions that can be given to a prisoner, even though as an administrative detainee, who has not been convicted of anything, he is supposed to receive better conditions, not worse."
Mrs. Federman explained that Noam's "crime" was that he "helped the other prisoners to find lawyers and the like, and therefore the GSS wants to get back at him. The prisoners themselves told me that the GSS investigators showed so much hatred for him that they [the prisoners] feared for his life... The other prisoners started hunger-striking in protest of Noam's conditions, and so the GSS struck back at them: no friends or second-degree relatives may visit them; their privilege of receiving a rabbi once a month has been arbitrarily removed, etc. The GSS is simply fighting back at them - at the orders and behest of the GSS... The head of Ashmoret Prison himself told me that the reason Noam can't have certain privileges is because of 'orders from above.' "
Dozens of people demonstrated last night outside Ashmoret Prison, demanding improved conditions for Federman and the other Jewish security prisoners. The prisoners' families issued a statement: "This is a continuation of the harassment and the attempt to break them. Let's see the Prison Service take the same measures against terrorists in prison." Elisheva Federman added, "All they want is their basic privileges, and once they are restored, the prisoners will revert to their peaceful ways."