British website: What are the backgrounds of the occupation's efforts to stop funding the treatment of Palestinian prisoners?

On Thursday, the Israeli parliament approved the first phase of a bill to stop funding "unnecessary" medical treatment for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

A report published by Middle East Eye revealed that the authors of the bill (which was supported by 42 Knesset members) described Israel's current prison policy as "unreasonably lenient" towards Palestinians.

The site quoted the Israeli "Kan" channel as clarifying that the lawmakers say that "the medical services provided by the government to prisoners should not exceed basic medical care," but they did not clarify what they consider "unnecessary medical treatment."

punitive action

The website said the move was a punitive measure against the Palestinians, and quoted Zaher Birawi, head of the civil society organization Europal Forum, as saying the legislation aims to "slowly kill Palestinian prisoners."

Birawi added that such policies have been implemented against Palestinian prisoners for decades, but now they take "legal status" through the Knesset.

Since beginning to work with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government late last year, Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has vowed to change the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, whom he claims are "well treated".

Recently, Ben Gvir ordered the closure of bakeries run by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Middle East Eye quoted the head of the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, Qaddoura Fares, as condemning this step as a violation of international laws that guarantee the "right of prisoners to treatment and health care" by the occupation authority.

Yonatan Toval, an analyst at the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, told MEE that this new policy comes within the framework of harassing Palestinian prisoners with the aim of negating "a broad public perception that Palestinian prisoners enjoy relatively good treatment in Israeli prisons."

protests

According to Middle East Eye, Palestinian prisoners have started a series of mass protests to denounce the new punitive measures.

It is expected that these protests will culminate in a general hunger strike at the beginning of the next month of Ramadan, according to what the prisoners revealed last month.

And in the middle of this month, the Palestinian Prisoners Club Association confirmed that hundreds of Palestinian detainees in "Nafha" prison in southern Israel had embarked on a disobedience, as a protest against measures aimed at harassing them.

The Israeli occupation prison administration had informed the prisoners earlier that it was about to implement a procedure to determine the amount of water a prisoner is allowed to use daily for his natural needs, and to reduce the shower period so that each section (120 prisoners) has one hour per day.

This measure comes within the framework of a series of retaliatory measures issued by the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, aimed at depriving the prisoners of their most basic rights.

These retaliatory measures - which are expected to include 2,000 prisoners until next March - include working to enact a law to execute Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis, and to prevent Arab Knesset members from visiting Palestinian prisoners.

This is in addition to carrying out arbitrary transfers of prisoners from one prison to another, preventing them from eating fresh bread by closing the ovens inside Rimon and Gilboa prisons, and establishing a section dedicated to isolating Palestinian female prisoners.