Mass Palestinian Opposition To Hamas Before Israel’s Revamped Ethnic Cleansing Campaign

Geraldo Defends Palestinians And Schools Fox News On The Crisis … May 19, 2021 Nothing has changed, just gotten far worse

Geraldo Rivera schooled Fox News on the ongoing crisis.

Palestinian land stolen by Israel

The map 1

The map 2

Texas top court rules against woman who sought abortion for medical emergency

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/texas-woman-who-sought-emergency-abortion-court-will-leave-state-care-2023-12-11/

You can bet the state will go after, and try to go after the out of state doctors / facilities that help her.  Plus the republican fundamentalist die hard anti-abortions will sue for their mandatory 10,000 dollars regardless of what that would do to the family and her other two children.  Plus the way the law is written all court costs and lawyer fees are paid by the person getting sued even if they win, which is the reverse of how all other lawsuits go, the loser normally pays if they start the lawsuit.   This is totally about control over a woman, her body, and her sexual life.  This treats woman little different from breeding stock.  It was done to black women to get more slaves babies.   Ask why when the baby can not survive, and it endangers the health, life, and ability of the woman to have more kids, do these people still insist she carry it to birth?   Do they think that god will do a miracle and have the baby healed as soon as it is born? Do they think the doctors are lying?  That a woman that wants more children is lying to abort one?   Hugs.  Scottie


Dec 11 (Reuters) – The Texas Supreme Court on Monday overturned a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed a pregnant woman to get an emergency abortion under the medical exception for the state’s near-total abortion ban, granting a petition by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The unanimous ruling from the Texas Supreme Court came hours after lawyers for the woman, Kate Cox, said in a court filing that she had left the state to obtain the abortion, but nonetheless wanted to pursue the case. Cox has said her fetus had a fatal diagnosis and that her health was at risk if she continued the pregnancy to term, including her ability to have more children in the future.

 

The high court, whose nine justices are all Republicans, said in its unsigned opinion that a “good faith belief” by Damla Karsan, a doctor who sought to perform the abortion and sued alongside Cox, that the procedure was medically necessary was not enough to qualify for the state’s exception.

Instead, the court said, Karsan would need to determine in her “reasonable medical judgment” that Cox had a “life-threatening condition” and that an abortion was necessary to prevent her death or impairment of a major bodily function.

 

“A woman who meets the medical-necessity exception need not seek a court order to obtain an abortion,” the court wrote. “The law leaves to physicians – not judges – both the discretion and the responsibility to exercise their reasonable medical judgment, given the unique facts and circumstances of each patient,” the court wrote.

The case is a major test of the scope of the medical exception, an issue that is already before the court in a separate case brought by 22 women who experienced pregnancy complications, though none of those women was seeking an immediate abortion. Monday’s ruling appeared to reject a key argument by the plaintiffs in that case – that doctors’ good-faith belief should be enough to meet the exception.

 

“This ruling should enrage every Texan to their core,” Molly Duane of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a lawyer for Cox, said in a statement. “If Kate can’t get an abortion in Texas, who can? Kate’s case is proof that exceptions don’t work, and it’s dangerous to be pregnant in any state with an abortion ban.”

Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Denton’s city council meets to vote on abortion trigger law enforcement a low priority

A few abortion rights demonstrators remain in the crowd after hours of public comments and discussion as Denton’s city council meets to vote on a resolution seeking to make enforcing Texas’ trigger law on abortion a low priority for its police force, in Denton, Texas, June 28, 2022. REUTERS/Shelby Tauber/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

Cox’s fetus was diagnosed on Nov. 27 with trisomy 18, a genetic abnormality that usually results in miscarriage, stillbirth or death soon after birth.

 

Paxton had urged the Texas Supreme Court to quickly step in after District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble at a hearing in Austin last Thursday issued a temporary restraining order allowing Cox to have an abortion.

In his filing to the top court, Paxton’s office said Cox fell “far short of demonstrating” she met the criteria for a medical exception and warned that Texas courts were not intended to be “revolving doors of permission slips to obtain abortions.”

Cox, 31, of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, filed a lawsuit last Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order preventing Texas from enforcing its abortion ban in her case.

Cox’s lawyers have said her lawsuit is the first such case since the U.S. Supreme Court last year reversed its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which had guaranteed abortion rights nationwide.

Cox, who was about 20 weeks pregnant when she first sued, said in her lawsuit that she would need to undergo her third Caesarian section if she continues the pregnancy. That could jeopardize her ability to have more children, which she said she and her husband wanted.

Cox said in her lawsuit that although her doctors believed abortion was medically necessary for her, they were unwilling to perform one without a court order in the face of a lack of clarity in how the exception would be interpreted and potential penalties including life in prison and loss of their licenses for violating the state’s abortion laws.

Paxton warned in a letter sent shortly after Gamble issued the order that it did not shield doctors, hospitals or anyone else from prosecution or potential civil liability for violating Texas’ abortion laws. The letter was sent to three hospitals where Karsan has admitting privileges.

Last Friday, while the case was pending, a pregnant woman in Kentucky filed a new class action lawsuit challenging that state’s abortion ban.

Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Bill Berkrot and Leslie Adler

Read the full article. As I reported this weekend, one of the Texas justices that voted to block her abortion has been arrested 37 times while protesting outside abortion clinics.

 

I fully expect the Texas legislature to figure out some law that they can apply to charge the woman for getting the abortion in another state, and use that to throw her in jail, all because she wanted to save her own life! You can bank on it.

Hell, if she doesn’t return to Texas, count on them demanding her return through some sick & twisted legal theory bullshit, amounting to the fugitive slave act of the 19th century.

Woman are little more than slaves in tex-ass so that would be about right.

CA has passed laws to protect them (along w/ Trans kids).

 

So has Illinois

CT too

 

Fugitive pregnant woman act.

Missouri tried to claim fetuses as state citizens and claimed their right to protect the lives of their citizenry. It was also their excuse for attempting to block pregnant women (likely to be seeking abortions) from leaving the state.

 

So kidnapping as well as murder?

You know what? If they want to make Ken Paxton the national face of the GOP going into 2024 and make the whole election about abortion rights, then I say let them. Go right ahead, Republicans.

Already done:

The Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy includes an unusual measure designed to ensure the law is enforced: Residents of the state can sue clinics, doctors, nurses and even people who drive a woman to get the procedure, for at least $10,000.

https://www.cbsnews.com/new…

 

Yes, those that help. But there are so many rabid MAGAts out there, they will sue the husband, family members, the gas station where they might have filled up, etc. Even if she went alone and the husband stayed home with the kids, he has to defend himself and prove that in court. Even if he is found not guilty, there is no compensation for court costs, lost time from work, etc.

perhaps someone from out of state came and transported her.

I’m sort of expecting that, but I hope they (texas) just leave her the fuck alone. I doubt they will. That state, like christianity gets off on the pain and suffering they cause.

Remember who you’re dealing with here…. Paxton sued other states over how they handled their 2020 elections.

Yes, he’s fond of launching “lost cause” legal efforts for the publicity.

He’ll attempt to drag her back to Texas in leg irons to face prosecution. He’ll fail, but the attempt will make him a hero to the radical right which will only embolden others to try the same stunts.

The hypocrisy is sickening…

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Then the answer is obvious:

DEAD BABY CAKES!

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But that would apply to those “others” and they can’t be having that.

GOOD FOR HER !! There is no reason this woman’s life & health should be held hostage by a cruel, misogynist & sadistic gov’t seeking to only use this woman’s agony for their political gain.

Also, GOOD FOR HER to bring this intimate, private matter to a national audience. She’s very brave.

I do wonder how many women have been in the same situation over the past year but didn’t have the same media access.

Probably several, but it’s not media access that’s the issue. Going public to fight right-wing policies is a dangerous business these days, and if anyone is brave enough to try, the media will happily run with their stories.

Paxton is going to go after this woman, her husband and anyone who helped her after this. There’s no way he’s going to let her “win” by going around all the authority he believes he has in the state.

He’s a revenge machine now that he’s been acquitted.

Yep. In TX we’re going to see just a tiny, insignificant taste of what a Trump presidency will be about 100% of the time if Dems don’t get out that vote.

Not only does he feel it “violates his authority & (faux) morality,” but it serves as a distraction from all of his previous crimes & corruption. He knows this helps to firm up support of the Christofascist right. “Sure, he’s dirty, but he supports our beliefs.”

I wonder how many abortion his mistress needed.

She’s going full Rosa Parks in the face of Paxton et al’s ongoing rampage against her – what guts

fascist fucks, you are going to LOSE this war

I hope that she sues the state of Texas for reimbursement of all costs plus millions and millions of dollars in damages.

These fucking Bible-toting yahoos, have no right to risk the lives of American women.

The point is and always has been CRUELTY Delayed suffering is their objective These are all males who know so fuckung much about child birth MUST control a woman’s body Abortion should be on every states ballot and it, above much else would sink the GOP For this singular reason alone No woman should vote Republican

I wouldn’t be surprised if she is not immediately arrested and jailed upon re-entry into Texas. I mean, the cruelty dictates that.

Fugitive Slave Act, Part 2

It’s absolutely disgusting that this woman and her husband are being forced to have what is probably one of (or the) most difficult and personal things they’ll ever deal with play out on the national stage. Fuck the Christofascists.

This shit would end fast if that cell cluster could be reimplanted into a man’s abdomen. Nope buddy, you got to carry it full term, even if it kills you. No backsies, your law, you deal with it.

Disgusting she should have to add this crap on top of the heartbreak of losing a child.

This is the new normal for women in certain states. Tell me again how republicans should, in any way or any race, be seriously considered for elected office.

It should be an automatic disqualification. Disgusting misogynist Nazi fucks

She probably didn’t want any of this, just wanted to take care of her own health.

The final takeaway: Texas has no legal exemptions. If you think you do, you will be litigated to hell, until the abortion is no longer viable.

She better set up house in a new state. Paxton will try to put her and anyone with her in prison for decades. He will probably try to prosecute the doctor and nurses who perform the abortion.

 

The Insane Fearmongering Over Retail Crime Was ALL BULL$*%#

Bomb Threat Shuts Down Maryland Drag Brunch

So the haters again got what they wanted.  This is terrorism.  They got something they hate / dislike shut down even though it was not harming anyone.  Plus tell me how it is “protecting the children” to threaten to blow them up?  I think we need to stop giving in to the threats.  The bomb threats always turn out false, no bomb, and yet the events get cancelled.  I am an atheist, a few weekends ago a church sent squads of believers in to our park without permission and they went door to door bothering people.  Does that give me the right to threaten their church or them? This attempt to control what other people can do, see, hear, places they can attend, and how they dress is Taliban shit.  It is horrible.   Why?  So a group of regressive people can be happy by forcing the world to be just like them?   Hugs.  Scottie

—————————————————————————————————————– 

Washington DC’s NBC affiliate reports:

A popular restaurant and bar in Takoma Park, Maryland, received bomb threats on Saturday morning over a drag brunch and story time event. The restaurant, Motorkat, bills itself as “a safe space for people of all orientations and backgrounds.

Motorkat was forced to cancel the drag brunch to keep its patrons safe, the restaurant said in the release. Those with tickets will get a full refund.

Police were emailed a bomb threat toward attendees at the restaurant’s drag event, and the police department and a bomb squad “swiftly responded to the threat, ensuring the safety of both patrons and staff,” Motorkat said.

Read the full article.

 

 

Because drag brunch and story hours harms children but threatening to kill children, their parents and drag queens does not. How the warped conservative mind works.

It is strange the universities are getting push back on genocidal speech when calls for our elimination will be permitted because “religion.”

But religion vs. religion is unacceptable?

The threat was emailed to the police, not the restaurant, that is odd…and probably from a local source. Email should be easy to trace. Even if sent from a public library computer, time stamps and security cameras everywhere will help identify the terrorist. But if a maga police officer receives (or even sent) it will the electronic trail be lost like a rape victim’s DNA kit?

Exactly my thoughts! How dumb do you have to be to email a threat? It could easily be traced back to the sender. But on the other hand, right-wingers are not known for their intellect.

Technically, it can be traced back to the IP address from which it was sent, not the person. That said, it’s not 100% true that an email can always be tracked back to the actual IP address, either. (And yes, I used to be a tech guy who worked with people occasionally tasked with tracking the source of an email – which usually led to some student spoofing the identity of a person of authority.)

They prolly thought no paper to leave fingerprints on. /s

Takoma Park and the rest of Montgomery County are fairly liberal areas right up against D.C. I’m worried that there aren’t “safe places” anymore. Maybe the concept was always an illusion.

This is my neighborhood, ate there last week. Every waiter I’ve had is gay which may be why it was targeted. Didn’t know they had a drag brunch.

On the on hand, nothing is 100% safe, ever. On the other hand, our “reasonably safe spaces” require protecting…enhancing.

Perhaps a few high profile prosecutions and harsh prison sentences will convince people that making terrorist threats doesn’t qualify as “free speech”?

Takoma Park is as blue as it gets. It’s probably Indigo. If a drag brunch is threatened by a bomb, shows that this is a very serious threat to the LBTQIA community.

On the other hand, it’s super easy to call in a bomb threat, just to fuck with us and keep us in fear for our lives.

I just watched an upsetting movie on Netflix last night about Americans turning on each other. So, one of my first thoughts was “did the email come from outside the police station or inside?”

Remember just a few years ago when this wasn`t a thing. Then the Repugs told the non-thinking rubes it was a thing, a very important thing along with CRT and “saying Gay”, etc. Though the rubes may have always disliked some of it most of it was stuff they never even thought about as being important until they were told it was. In fact now it is so important that a certain percentage of the rubes are willing to kill you over it to save our society. While they wait to be told what the next important thing is of course. It`s the time honored way the Repugs have always operated. Be afraid, be very afraid, only we can save you. You don`t need to think about it or ask why (as if you would anyway) drag shows are bad so get to work. Keeps the rubes occupied and keeps their votes and always works.

I think it has more to do with hatred and fear of transgender people than it does with drag. The ignorant dimwits involved in the protests and threats don’t understand that they are not the same thing. They think that drag queens=trans and that they are “promoting transgenderism” when they appear in public.

Grown adults, simply dressing up in whimsical, flamboyant costumes on a Saturday morning and trying to have some fun and help others do the same while they enjoy a meal. Sure, why not call in a bomb threat? That sounds just awful and depraved. Save the children! Christ on a cracker.

Yes, I personally feel like Putin has had more direct responsibility with these recent flare-ups of homophobia and transphobia than Trump himself, not that Trump was totally innocent. Also, the willingness of big sports stars and sports associations/leagues to sell out to Qatar, Bahrein, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other sponsors/venues which are effing horrible for women’s rights and LGBT rights. This has been a big social back-sliding moment.

 

School Days Florida Style – A Ron Desantis Parody | Freedom Toast & Cinebot Video

A possibly disturbing, but very accurate Parody about Ron Desantis’ version of public education. Lyrics and production work by The Freedom Toast – Video design and editing by Cinebot Video. Created for Parody Project Executive Producers for Parody Project Don Caron and Jerry Pender

Palestinian child prisoners in Israel

Ahed Tamimi was released from the prison. But there are still nearly 300 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons. We explain how they end up there.

Palestinian children face intimidation and attacks on their way to school

Hundreds of Palestinian children are being intimidated and attacked by Israeli troops on their way to school in the occupied West Bank

IDF officer who raped Palestinian was not dismissed for earlier sexual offenses

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-officer-who-raped-palestinian-was-not-dismissed-for-earlier-sexual-offenses/

At a time when Israel is on a full court media press to look like the aggrieved party, with the Anti-Defamation League paying for commercials touting that what we all need to remember right now was how badly Israeli was attacked and abused.  They want us to ignore the 15,000 Palestinian deaths, 1/3 of those are children.  They want us to ignore the abuse of Palestinians in the West Bank who are being killed, having their property destroyed and taken, and being treated like prisoners by Israeli settlers backed up by the IDF.  Now the world is seeing the Israeli government for what it truly is.    Hugs.  Scottie

Ynet said that just a few months after he convinced the IDF that he should remain in the military, the soldier began to commit the series of serious sexual offenses against Palestinians from 2013 to 2015.

A military court permitted news outlets to report on Wednesday that the soldier was imprisoned for the rape, as well as committing sexual assault against other Palestinian women and a man and extorting them for sexual favors, among other crimes, ending a years-long gag order on the case.

In addition, the officer was found guilty of multiple counts of sexual harassment for repeatedly asking a Palestinian man and an acquaintance of his to have sex.


Soldier had reportedly faced disciplinary committee over sexual harassment of female officers, but convinced military to allow him to remain in service

 
Illustrative: An IDF soldier sits in a military court. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
Illustrative: An IDF soldier sits in a military court. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
 

An Israeli Defense Forces officer who has been imprisoned since 2017 for multiple sexual offenses, including the rape of a Palestinian woman, had faced dismissal from the military months before the attacks over his sexual harassment of female officers, it was reported Thursday.

The Ynet news site, which first broke the story of the serviceman’s sexual offenses, said the officer, whose name remains barred from publication, came close to dismissal from the military after two incidents in which he sexually harassed female soldiers.

Although he was found guilty in a disciplinary case on the matter, he managed to convince the military that he should remain in the army, presenting letters of recommendation from his officer and certificates of excellence he had received during his service.

 

A disciplinary committee also found that the soldier slapped a female soldier in 2005, propositioned another soldier and watched pornography with a group of soldiers.

Additionally, Ynet said the committee was told that he was involved in three other incidents “of a sexual nature, verbal sexual harassment and even physical,” but was not prosecuted for those.

Ynet said that just a few months after he convinced the IDF that he should remain in the military, the soldier began to commit the series of serious sexual offenses against Palestinians from 2013 to 2015.

In his defense, the officer claimed that the details of the sexual harassment were taken out of proportion. He said that he did not slap the female soldier, but it was a slight touch and he apologized for it. The officer was held in a military prison for a week for striking the soldier. He denied all other charges and has said he was not warned he was in danger of dismissal, Ynet reported.

A military court permitted news outlets to report on Wednesday that the soldier was imprisoned for the rape, as well as committing sexual assault against other Palestinian women and a man and extorting them for sexual favors, among other crimes, ending a years-long gag order on the case.

The Israel Defense Forces’ Court of Appeals decided to rescind the gag order on the affair, which was considered to have potentially serious security ramifications due to its dramatic nature, following an appeal by the Ynet news site and years of legal battles. In a statement, the military said the gag order had been deemed necessary, in part, “to preserve national security.”

The officer served in the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which is tasked with overseeing the day-to-day management of the West Bank. The officer, a major, was responsible for issuing permits for Palestinians to enter and work in Israel, a position of power that he repeatedly exploited in order to receive sexual favors from Palestinians.

He was first indicted in early 2016, but the case was subjected to a strict gag order, allowing news outlets at the time to report only that he had been charged with “serious sexual crimes and other crimes of moral turpitude.”

He was convicted nearly a year later, in December 2016, and sentenced two months later to 11 years in prison. The major was also stripped of his rank and summarily dismissed from the military.

In addition, he was forced to pay NIS 18,000 ($5,600) in damages to the women he raped and NIS 9,000 ($2,800) to the woman he sexually exploited.

At the time of his sentencing, the Israel Defense Forces said he had been convicted of “sexual offenses, sexual harassment, bribe-taking, fraud, breach of trust and exceeding his authority to extent of posing a national security risk.” Few other details about the cases were permitted to be published at the time.

Illustrative: Israeli soldiers check a Palestinian woman as she waits to cross the Qalandiya checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, April 23, 2021. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)

This week, some four and a half years later, the IDF Court of Appeals — effectively the military’s internal supreme court — ruled that additional details could be published about the case, including the specific offenses of which the officer was convicted.

In their ruling on removing the gag order on the case, the panel of three judges from the IDF Court of Appeals wrote: “There is no dispute that there is a public interest in publicizing the details of this case, which has severe implications for the wider public.”

The officer was found to have raped one Palestinian woman, who had come to him to receive a permit to work in Israel, on at least two occasions. He also repeatedly sexually harassed her, trying to get her to have sex with other people as well.

The military court, based in part on audio recordings that the woman made, determined that in the first instance of rape, the officer had forced her to have sex with him and then made her clean up the floor afterwards, before giving her the work permit.

A few days later, he called her and told her that he had rescinded the permit and again forced her to have sex with him in order to get it back.

In both cases, the Palestinian woman refused his demands for sex, and in both cases, he threatened to take away her work permit if she told anyone about the rape.

He was also convicted of receiving a bribe by forcing another Palestinian woman to have sex with him multiple times in exchange for a work permit. Despite the clear power imbalance, this was not deemed to have been rape as the victim did not explicitly refuse his demands for sex.

In addition, the officer was found guilty of multiple counts of sexual harassment for repeatedly asking a Palestinian man and an acquaintance of his to have sex.

In a somewhat separate case, the officer was also convicted of sharing intelligence gathered by the Shin Bet security service with two Palestinian women who had asked him for work permits.

In March, the officer appealed his sentence to the IDF Court of Appeals. The court upheld his 11-year sentence but overturned the lower court’s decision to discharge him from the military, instead demoting him from major to private.

It was largely a procedural decision, as the officer had anyway been fired from the military. The punishment of dismissal from the military is generally reserved for crimes that more directly harm national security.

The officer was sent to a civilian prison to carry out his 11-year sentence.

Hurt, scared but free now. Palestinian boy recalls abuse in Israeli prison

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/29/beaten-humiliated-palestinian-boy-recalls-israeli-detention-abuse

Israel is preventing any celebration of the freed children and adults from Israeli prisons, at the same time the Israeli media along with the world has splashed the joyous reunions of Israeli families with the captives that Hamas released.  See again how degrading and subhuman Israel treats Palestinians.  No Palestinian / Arab family can rejoice that their child is home will whole towns hold parades for the Jewish / Israeli children coming home.  It is sickening to me, and again creates more hate and ill will.   Hugs.   Scottie

In another fuck you to the Palestinians, Israel arrested all most as many as they released.  Over the same days that it released some 150 Palestinian detainees, Israel arrested 133 people, nearly as many, from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian prisoner associations. Since October 7, Israel carried out 3,290 arrests in the same areas, which it has occupied since 1967.


Mohammad Salhab Tamimi, 18, was returned to his family on Tuesday as part of an ongoing prisoner exchange deal.

Mohamed Salhab al-Tamimi
Mohammad was relieved and happy, yet subdued and traumatised by what he had been through [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera]

Hebron, occupied West Bank – After eight months in Israeli prisons without being charged or processed, 18-year-old Mohammad Salhab Tamimi was finally able to return to his family as part of an ongoing prisoner exchange deal.

His boyish face was serious as he embraced his parents and stood, slightly bewildered, as if he was unsure whether to speak to the press or not.

He had been through a lot in the past eight months of uncertainty, torment that only increased since the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7.

The last thing he was told by the forbidding Israeli prison guards was that he would be rearrested and put back into the limbo of administrative detention if his family and friends showed any signs of celebrating his return.

“’Tell your friends [they said]’… If we have a big celebration, I will return to prison,” he recalled.

Wary of the Israeli military checkpoint and illegal settlement next to their home, his family kept their happiness on mute, with only the immediate family and some uncles present.

Shackled, kicked around, humiliated

Luckily for the family, smiles don’t make any noise, and nobody could stop the smiles on his mother Fatima and father Murshid’s faces as they held tightly to their “little boy”.

Mohamed Salhab al-Tamimi with his parents
Mohammad with Fatima and Murshid, beaming with joy, but quietly [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera]

Their boy was among the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Ofer prison near Ramallah in the small hours of Tuesday overnight. Up to the last minute, he had not been sure what was happening to him.

At 7am (05:00 GMT) on Monday, November 27, a guard at Rimon Prison demanded that Mohammad get ready to be transferred to Ofer Prison. That was all; nothing about the reason why he was being moved. Just told to strip off completely, put on just a grey prison sweatsuit, and gather all his belongings.

“I put my clothes in one of those plastic envelopes and walked to the cell door where they cuffed my hands and forced my head down so I was looking at the ground.

“The officer then kicked me, hard. His boots have steel in them, so it felt like he crushed my feet, it really hurt.

“He dragged me to the prison yard but, as he was dragging me out of the prison, he stopped to take my clothes from me and threw them into a garbage pail. Then, cursing me with obscene language, he dragged me out,” Mohammad recalled haltingly.

Mohammad was loaded into a prisoner transfer vehicle known as a “bosta” – a van with blacked-out windows and tight cells with metal seats, to which prisoners are chained.

Bosta rides can take 12 hours or more. There are no rest stops, food, or toilet breaks. “I was kept in the vehicle cell without anything to eat or drink until after midnight,” said Mohammad.

Mohammad showing his grey prison sweatsuit
Mohammad was made to strip down and wear only a grey prison sweatsuit. All his other belongings were thrown away by a prison guard who was beating and cursing him at the same time [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera]

His father and uncle were standing there outside Ofer, waiting for him, when he was finally released in the wee hours on Tuesday so they could drive him home to Hebron in the south of the occupied West Bank.

A decision to humiliate

Things were more unpleasant than usual in prison after October 7, which was when Hamas launched a surprise attack from Gaza on southern Israel killing some 1,200 people.

People held in several institutions have reported severe beatings, denial of medical attention, lawyer and family visits, yard time, electricity, water, and hygiene essentials from the prison shop.

At least six Palestinian prisoners died or were killed in Israeli custody since October 7, including some shortly after their arrest.

Israel’s relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip after the Hamas attack lasted 48 days and killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, including more than 6,000 children.

On the 49th day, Friday, a four-day “humanitarian pause” negotiated by Egypt and Qatar began. Both sides said they would release captives – Hamas would release batches of people it took captive on October 7 in return for three times as many Palestinians held – with and without cause – in Israeli detention facilities.

As the exchanges continued and optimism rose, the truce was extended by two days to keep the exchanges going.

Mohamed Salhab al-Tamimi kisses his mother Fatima
Mohammad was very happy to see his mother, Fatima, again [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera]

Over the same days that it released some 150 Palestinian detainees, Israel arrested 133 people, nearly as many, from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian prisoner associations. Since October 7, Israel carried out 3,290 arrests in the same areas, which it has occupied since 1967.

Mohammad is not the first released person to say that there is extreme overcrowding in Israeli prisons.

“There were 10 prisoners shoved into cells that only had six beds. We used to have to spread blankets or something on the floor to sleep,” he said.

The amount of food they were given was insufficient, as it was also for six prisoners, not 10. The cellmates had to ration what food they got carefully.

Several prisoners were injured one day as well, Mohammad said, when prison guards attacked two sections of Rimon Prison

Aside from injuries and the reported deaths, Mohammad said: “The [Israeli] occupation had pretty much decided that they would humiliate the prisoners, ever since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Storm.”

Cut off from any news of the outside world, the detainees found themselves stripped of almost everything, including all possessions that were in their cells like utensils and appliances, they used to make things a little more pleasant. They were deprived of buying hygiene supplies, including laundry detergent, and barred from using the washing machines to wash their clothes.

Prison authorities also kept the prisoners away from their only outlet to let off some steam – the “fora”, or prison yard, and prevented them from making any noise.

“I used to love making the call to prayer from inside my cell so the whole section could hear, but that too was forbidden.

“It felt like they didn’t want us to even breathe.”