PA libel: Israeli doctors treating Palestinian prisoners are actually "Russian doctors who failed the doctors' bureau exams and are prepared to harm prisoners, give them inappropriate medicine, or test medicine on their bodies”
Official PA TV program Topic of the Day, on hunger striking prisoners
PA-funded Prisoners’ Club Spokesperson Amjad Al-Najjar: “How can it be that they are transferring Miqdad [Al-Qawasmi] (i.e., hunger striking Hamas terrorist; PMW was unable to determine the nature of his crimes) – after such a long time of hunger striking, and after the awful sight that we saw that he is like a skeleton – how are they transferring him to the clinic at Ramle Prison? This is a death clinic, a clinic about which it is known that dozens of prisoners died there as a result of medical neglect (sic., see note below regarding PA libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners). This is because there are no doctors there. Who are the doctors who work in the Israeli Prison Service who are capable of properly treating Miqdad or Kayed [Fasfous] (i.e., another hunger striker held under administrative detention; PMW was unable to determine the nature of his crimes)?
If Kayed and Miqdad remain in Kaplan [Medical Center] or Barzilai [Medical Center], at least there will be general supervision over them. There will be no direct supervision, because they [the Israelis] refuse to let them conduct medical checks on them as part of the attempts to break their [hunger] strike. But the doctors who work in the Ramle Prison clinic, who are they? They are Russian doctors who failed the Israeli doctors’ bureau exams; they bring them in from human resources companies, they receive very limited salaries, and they are prepared to harm the prisoners and give them inappropriate medicine, or they may give them medicine to test it on their bodies.”
Libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners - The PA claims that Israel abuses Palestinian prisoners through medical neglect, medical experiments, and by intentionally infecting them with diseases. However, the International Red Cross regularly visits these prisoners and has not documented or accused Israel of any of these claims. Likewise, lists of demands occasionally issued by the prisoners during hunger strikes—such as during one in 2011—include no demands relating to these claims. PMW has documented prisoners talking about how they "lack nothing" in the prisons and that "the worst thing about Israeli prison" is riding in a prison vehicle that has no padding on the seat. When PMW contacted the Israeli Ministry of Health in 2007 regarding PA claims of medical experiments on prisoners, the ministry responded: "Clinical testing on prisoners in prison was never approved, never performed, and is most certainly not taking place at present."