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Testimonies from Rakevet prison likely to show ‘a glimpse of what is taking place’ there
Basil Farraj, an assistant professor in the department of philosophy and cultural studies at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank’s Ramallah, says testimonies from Israel’s Rakevet prison reflect a wider pattern of abuse in Israeli jails.
The study by a group of lawyers, citing the testimonies in question, revealed that dozens of Palestinian and Lebanese nationals are detained in the Rakevet facility below the Nitzan prison in Ramla, which was closed in the 1980s after conditions were deemed inhumane.
Farraj said the testimonies are likely to show “just a glimpse of what is taking place” in the hidden prison.
“We anticipate that the conditions are even worse,” he said, adding that the Israeli government even turned regular, unhidden prisons and detention centres “into locations of violence and torture, in which more than 81 Palestinians have been killed”.
The academic stressed that the secret centre is a symptom of the broader Israeli phenomenon of treating Palestinians “in an extremely brutal way that denies and neglects all of their rights”.
More details emerge of Israel’s ‘brutal’ treatment of Palestinian detainees
Dozens of Palestinian prisoners are being held indefinitely in an underground Israeli detention facility, deprived of sunlight and subjected to extreme violence.
Lawyers for Palestinians held at Rakevet, an underground wing of the Ramla (Nitzan) prison complex in central Israel, say their clients have been assaulted, starved, and denied medical care despite serious injuries.
“When the prisoners arrive for the interview [with their lawyer], their faces show what they’ve endured,” lawyer Nadia Daqqa told Al Jazeera. “Particularly in this prison, prisoners are afraid to talk.”
Despite that, Daqqa and other lawyers have collected testimonials from prisoners held at Rakevet.
One detainee, referred to by the initials YH, had a broken jaw, shoulder and ribs yet received no medical treatment. Another, known as KHD, said Israeli prison guards punish the prisoners “by breaking their thumbs”.
