Ministry of Health dismisses responsibility for hunger-striking prisoners shackled to their hospital beds day and night

17/06/2014

On 16 June 2014, the Ministry of Health responded to Adalah’s urgent letter sent on 12 June which called for an immediate end to Israeli hospitals’ shackling of Palestinian hunger-striking prisoners to their beds by their hands and feet 24 hours a day. This prevents prisoners from moving at all and further complicates their already deteriorating health status. On 12 June 2014 alone, more than 80 Palestinian prisoners were transferred to hospitals after being on hunger-strike for more than 50 days.

Adalah’s letter demanded the end to all dangerous restrictions imposed on the prisoners that impede on their most basic humanitarian needs, such as going to the bathroom, especially at night when staff claim that there are not enough wardens to accompany them to the toilet. The prisoners are only drinking water during their strike, which makes going to the bathroom an even more frequent and vital need. During one of Adalah’s visits to the prisoners, one prisoner said that most of them preferred to stay in jail than to stay in the hospitals.

In the letter, Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher wrote: “The physical condition of the shackled hunger-striking prisoners does not allow them to move naturally, and therefore the restraint against them is used as an instrument of revenge and punishment. It is another attempt by Israel to try and break the strike.”

In response to Adalah’s letter, the Ministry of Health said that the Ministry and its doctors are not responsible for the decision to handcuff the hunger-striking prisoners to their hospital beds, but that the decision was made by the Israel Prison Service (IPS). The Ministry also said that, medically speaking, the shackling of the prisoners 24 hours a day does not affect their health and does not violate their rights.

The Ministry of Health did not address Adalah’s complaint against the prevention of prisoners from leaving their hospital beds in order to go to the bathroom during the late hours of the night, claiming they had no knowledge about this issue. The Ministry claimed that if there were any complaints in this matter, they would investigate it.

Commenting on the Ministry of Health’s response, Attorney Zaher said: “Handcuffing the prisoners and restricting their movement, especially restricting their access to a bathroom, is a form of torture and degrading treatment that leads to the deterioration of the prisoner’s health status, exacerbates their health risks, and is internationally forbidden. The fact that the prisoners are under the auspices of the IPS does not mean that the responsibility of the hospitals and doctors in securing the prisoner’s rights, especially their right to receive proper medical attention and their right to dignity, is absolved. It is also in accordance with Israeli law, various international conventions and charters of medical ethics, that the rights of the patient forbid doctors to participate or remain silent about punitive actions taken against any of the hospital patients.”

The “medical treatment” in such circumstances greatly contradicts the ethical obligations of the hospitals and medical doctors, most importantly in their commitment to protecting the patient’s dignity and basic rights in accordance with the law and with medical ethics that are set by the World Medical Association. These regulations would terminate the employment of any worker in a medical institute that partook in punitive, brutal and humiliating practices against a patient, which Israel is today applying against the hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners. These practices unequivocally fall within the framework of illegal “torture” and contradict the UN Convention Against Torture.

Update: Adalah will file a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court against the policies of shackling prisoners in hospitals and restricting their access to the bathroom.