August 16, 2005

Apartheid within these walls

This Amara Hass article in Ha'aretz (10/8/2005) shows how Israel's apartheid system operates, not just between Israel "proper" and the occupied territories but how it discriminates between Jews and Arabs within Israel itself and even within its prison walls. Thanks to Treeplanter.
the murderer Ami Popper, who has the blood of seven Arab laborers on his hands: his life sentence was reduced to 40 years, he was permitted to marry, have conjugal visits, bring five children into the world, visit them, go on furlough and phone home daily. Security prisoners who are Israeli citizens and residents of Jerusalem cannot make use of the public pay phone, are not permitted to go on leave with their families, not even when a parent or other relative is dying or has died, are allotted fewer hours than criminal inmates for walking in the prison yard, their family visits take place behind iron grates and plastic and glass divisions, and they are forbidden even to hug their children and touch their wives.
Hass gives many more examples of such discrimination so please read the article in full.

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