Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan announced Jan. 2 a series of new restrictions on Palestinians serving time in Israeli prisons for security-related offenses. Erdan convened a news conference to report that he was accepting the recommendations of a team appointed to examine the conditions of Palestinian prisoners, and planned to implement them. “The party is over,” Erdan declared. Among the new measures are limiting the stipends provided by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to prisoners for the purchase of goods in prison canteens (coffee, tea, sugar, cigarettes, etc.) and significantly reducing their water consumption. Erdan claimed the prisoners use “an insane” amount of water in what is essentially a form of protest against the state.
One of the more significant measures he announced, which could significantly alter the Palestinian inmates’ incarceration, was to revoke what he called “the autonomy” they enjoy. Erdan was referring to long-standing arrangements allowing prison authorities to effectively deal with the record number of Palestinians jailed in the first Palestinian uprising (1987-1993) and the second intifada (2000-2005).
The decisions adopted over the years by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) in consultation with the Shin Bet domestic security agency were designed to ensure a calm routine within the wings housing thousands of Palestinians. With this in mind, the authorities maintained a strict separation between members of the Islamist Hamas movement and those of the Fatah movement. The separation may be convenient for the prisoners themselves, but it is also in the interests of the IPS in order to avoid power struggles between the two rival organizations influenced by the highly charged relationship between the sides outside the prison walls. Hamas prisoners are considered more militant than those belonging to Fatah and their lifestyle as strictly observant Muslims is different.
Israel instituted the separation during the first intifada following a wave of Hamas member arrests. The decision was adopted in consultation with Fatah prisoner leaders, who saw the new inmates as undesirable interlopers. It is therefore unclear what Erdan hopes to achieve by revoking the separation and how the IPS will deal with this order from above that will oblige jailers to intervene in clashes likely to break out between the rival groups.
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