PLO: Israel "allowed Coronavirus to infiltrate the Damon Prison not by accident, in contempt for Palestinian prisoners' lives"

Headline: “The [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ [Affairs] demanded that the Red Cross send a medical team to the Damon Prison to treat the female prisoners who are sick with the Coronavirus”

“The [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ [Affairs] demanded that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urgently send a medical team to the Damon Prison to treat the female prisoners who are sick with the Coronavirus…

In a statement yesterday, Friday [Jan. 14, 2022], the Commission of Prisoners’ [Affairs] held the occupation’s Israeli Prison Service fully responsible for their lives and said that they allowed the virus to infiltrate the Damon Prison not by accident, and that this is proof of the contempt for their lives (sic., see note below regarding the PA libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners).”

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."