PA falsely claims that imprisoned Palestinians are “being murdered systematically by the prison guards” in “medical assassinations”
Headline: “The [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs launches the book ‘Why Don’t I See White?’ by prisoner Rateb Al-Hreibat”
“The [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs launched the book ‘Why Don’t I See White?’ by prisoner Rateb Al-Hreibat (PMW was unable to determine the details of his crimes –Ed.) today, Thursday [Sept. 24, 2020]. The book contains a collection of true stories about the pain and suffering through the eyes of the sick patients in the clinic of Ramle Prison.
Director of Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr said during a ceremony that the commission held in Ramallah: ‘Via the book, we notice that through their strong willpower the prisoners have succeeded in turning the prisons and detention camps from cemeteries of living people into schools and colleges. Through their books and novels, they have succeeded in enriching the literature of the national prisoners’ movement.’
Abu Bakr noted that the book tells of prisoner Al-Hreibat’s experiences in the clinic of Ramle Prison, where he spent four years and served sick and wounded prisoners…
He spoke about the means of abuse that the occupation’s Israeli Prison Service (IPS) is implementing against the sick prisoners, and about how it does not give them treatment and does not give them a proper diagnosis, but rather makes do with giving them pain relievers. He added that in many cases, [IPS] uses them as guinea pigs for the Israeli pharmaceutical factories, to the point that they have become victims of medical experiments (sic., Israel does not conduct medical experiments on prisoners)…
Fatah Movement representative Bakr Abu Bakr summarized details about the book and the culture of struggle that it contains…
He explained that the book is called ‘Why Don’t I See White?’ because when people enter hospitals they see doctors dressed in white, but in Ramle [Prison] the situation is completely different, as the sick prisoner does not see a doctor dressed in white but rather [another] prisoner.
[Host of official PA TV program Giants of Endurance] journalist Samer Taym gave prisoner Rateb Al-Hreibat’s speech, during which he emphasized that the book is a modest attempt to expose what is being carried out against the prisoners in the occupation’s prisons in general, and especially against the sick among them, as they are being murdered systematically by the prison guards. He noted that the last case of this was prisoner Daoud [Talaat] Al-Khatib (he died of a heart attack while serving an 18-year sentence; PMW was unable to determine the nature of his crimes), who died as a Martyr as a result of medical assassination, and not medical negligence…
He has been imprisoned since 2002 and was sentenced to 22 years.”