In August of last year, the then-head of the Hostile Terrorist Activities Dept. visited Gilboa and Megiddo prisons, where he met with several spokesmen from Hamas and Fatah and received various requests from them, some regarding moving prisoners. Among other things, a spokesman for one group of prisoners in Gilboa prison asked to transfer a Hamas prisoner to another prison. Instead of transferring the man unilaterally, the Israel Prisons Service turned to the leadership of Hamas prisoners in the southern prisons and asked for their approval.
The document summarizing the visit which was obtained by Kan 11 news reads: “The case of [security prisoner’s name] has been examined by the Hamas leadership and as far as they are concerned, he can go to any prison in the south.”
The same document reportedly also shows that the IPS was engaged in efforts to strengthen the leadership of Fatah prisoners inside Megiddo prison, at the request of the prisoners. The reason? The Fatah prisoners in Gilboa prison were troubled by the weakness of the organization’s leadership in one of the wings of the Megiddo facility, which was so weak that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine prisoners tried to recruit three Fatah prisoners into its ranks.
The Fatah security prisoners asked the IPS to transfer a dominant prisoner from among their ranks “to save the sinking ship, as they defined it,” as the document reportedly puts it.
Sure enough, the head of the Hostile Terrorist Activities Dept. issued a request to the district intelligence officer for her to “recommend the transfer of one of the more dominant prisoners in Gilboa in order to help the leadership of Fatah in Megido.”
Incoming National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who will be in charge of the IPS, said late Tuesday: “This is a disgrace. The control of the Hamas leadership over the prisons must end. The prison service should not coordinate the transfer of prisoners between prisons with the leadership of the terrorist organization Hamas. Instead of a summer camp with an all-inclusive service that does not deter the terrorists, conditions at the terrorists’ prisons must be made more severe.”
This is not the first time that the IPS’ weaknesses regarding moving security prisoners have been revealed. Most recently, the culprit was Ben Gvir’s predecessor, Minister Omer Barlev. Last Thursday, Reshet Bet Radio revealed that Barlev halted in August the transfer of security prisoners from one wing to another that had been planned by the IPS –– for fear of a hunger strike and the escalation of prisoners’ violence.
Barlev made the decision that was contrary to the security protocol designed to prevent escapes from prisons after a discussion with IPS chief Major-General Katy Perry and division heads in the Shin Bet and the National Security Headquarters after the prisoners threatened a hunger strike if the transfer was carried out.
Last July, Kan 11 News revealed that according to the prisoner cards of the six terrorists who escaped from Gilboa prison a year ago, they stayed in the same cell for nine months, despite the IPS protocol that states that prisoners who are at high risk of escaping may not remain in the same cell together for more than six months.
The IPS actually found a way to fool its own system, as was recorded by the prisoners’ cards, by transferring them once a month to different cells – for a few hours.
What can I say, Minister Ben Gvir has his work cut out for him. He is about to take over a corrupt prison service with years of catering to the terrorist prisoners’ every wish for the sake of industrial peace. Now, if he imposes a tougher policy, this will inevitably lead to the absolute loss of all manner of industrial peace which, also inevitable, would lead to violence and many dead prisoners. That, in turn, will start fires outside the prisons, in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip.
The patient known as the Israel Prisons Service is very sick and healing it will involve great pain. But it must be healed.
