Israa Ja’abis is a 33-year-old Palestinian woman originally from Jabal al-Mukabber in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city, occupied by Israel. She is the mother of a 10-year-old son and has been languishing in an Israeli prison for more than three and a half years now.
Sha has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for attempted murder on israeli soldiers, according to the Israeli Military Court.
Israa’s story is a human tragedy caused by occupation, racism, oppression and injustice: she was arrested in October 2015 near a military checkpoint at the entrance of Jerusalem in dramatic circumstances and suffered severe burns.
Israa holds an identity card for Jerusalem but her husband and son have identity cards for the West Bank. Israa learnt that she might lose her right to residence in Jerusalem - as part of the Israeli policy of the systematic reduction of the number of Palestinian residents in Jerusalem. By going back to live there she was forced to live apart from her husband and son.
Reminder: since 1967 Israel has revoked the residence permits of more than 14,000 Palestinians, thus forcing them to leave Jerusalem.
In order to preserve her residency right in Jerusalem and try to obtain permits for her husband and son, she rented a new apartment there.
On 11 October 2015 Israa took her car to move some belongings from Jericho to Jerusalem. According to her father-in-law the car struggled to start but after several attempts she managed to get it going. However, in the centre of Jericho the car stopped again. People helped to push it and she was able to set off once more.
A few hundred metres away from a checkpoint to the east of occupied Jerusalem, she lost control of her car which zigzagged across the road until it stopped on a bus lane on the right.
While Israa was trying to restart the car an Israeli policeman indicated her to stop, walked over to her and asked her why she stopped there. The difficulty of trying to explain was increased by the fact that the policeman spoke Hebrew and Israa spoke Arabic, so they didn’t understand each other’s language. She tried to explain the car breakdown and the difficulty to restart. At the same time, smoke started seeping from the vehicle and into the passenger compartment. Panicked, Israa opened the door of the car and tried to get out but the policeman pushed her back in, slamming the door hard on her hand. She wasn’t able to reopen the door quickly although a fire had started inside the car, apparently caused by a faulty electrical connection. The policeman, unscathed, moved away to control the traffic, leaving Israa trapped in the burning car. According to witnesses a driver of the Israeli bus cooperative "Egged" even tried to shoot at her saying that she was planning to blow up the car.
Over 60% of Israa Ja’abis body was burned, especially her face and hands. Eight of her fingers were amputated in the hospital. She was transferred to Hasharon prison before the end of her treatment.
Despite initial reports establishing that it was an incident in a traffic lane, the Israeli police later accused Israa of attempting to carry out an operation with a car bomb against the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint. The Israeli media in turn reported that it was an operation targeting Israeli soldiers.
Three months later Israa, who still couldn’t receive visits, was subjected to difficult interrogations and various forms of pressure, even physical and psychological torture, despite her condition and injuries.
She was then transferred to Ramleh prison, then back to Hasharon prison before finally being moved to Damon prison where she is serving an 11 years sentence for attempted murder.
October 11th 2015 will remain engraved in her memory for ever; that day her life descended into terror, pain and suffering, taking away her dreams and her hopes of reuniting her little family. Her history combines the terror of imprisonment with the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem and violence against Palestinian families.
Since she was arrested Israa is greatly suffering from the burns that have caused bodily deformities. She can’t lift her arms, her movements are limited and make her physically dependent as the skin is welded to her arm pits, her right ear is practically non-existent and she is often subject to serious infections, her nose is burned on the inside - so that she has to breathe through her mouth - her eye, her gums and broken teeth make her suffer. She needs urgent medical care but the prison administration doesn’t pay any attention to her suffering and do not provide her with the necessary therapeutic care. The Israeli prison authorities still refuse to let her have access to an appropriate hospital treatment for the burns which cover most of her body and this has been going on for more than three and a half years now.
Israa’s case is particularly serious but dozens of female prisoners and hundreds of male prisoners who suffered gun wounds when they were arrested are suffering amid the indifference and scorn of the prison guards of the occupation.
The Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, formerly the Ministry of Prisoners, stated that detainee Israa Ja’abis has been subjected, since her arrest, to systematic medical negligence and has been left to face her suffering alone. She suffers a lot, both physically and psychologically, and would need more than 8 urgent surgical interventions. The delay in treatment will of course cause her state of health to deteriorate even more.
« Decent treatment and adequate medical care are fundamental rights for prisoners » the Commission declared, underlining that Palestinian prisoners are deprived of their rights in Israeli prisons in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention which imposes on the occupier the duty to respect the hygiene of prisoners and to provide them with all the necessary medical care.
The Palestine Association for Prisoner Support and Human Rights (ADDAMEER) reports that there is a systematic policy of medical negligence in Israeli prisons where prisoners like Israa Ja’abis are denied appropriate healthcare and periodical medical visits.
During her visit to the wounded prisoner in Damon prison, the Israeli Lawyer Léa Tsemal launched a call for help to save Israa and testifies to the seriousness of her condition. She called for emergency care to relieve her suffering.
« Being in an Israeli prison is like a slow death process where life is removed from every living vein in your body while your eyes are wide open» (al-Forkane newspaper).
Sources: Maan, Addameer, Al - Jazeera, Quds Press International, Journal al-Forkane.
Translation and synthesis of documents : M. C.
Traduction et synthèse des documents: M C
AFPS working group on Palestinian political prisonners