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Camp 1391 is a controversial Israel Defense Force prison for "high-risk" prisoners. [1] The existence of the camp and its inmates was completely unknown to the public until 2003 and details of its nature are still not entirely clear.
The location of the camp was accidentally discovered by an Israeli historian called Gad Kroizer. He stumbled on a 70-year-old map drawn by a government architect while researching old British police buildings. He found on the map 62 British police compounds in Palestine in the late 1930s and early 1940s where both Arab and Jewish militants against the British occupation were interrogated. A camp called Meretz did not appear on any of the modern Israeli maps. In 2004, Kroizer published an article in an academic journal and referred to the prison location in a footnote. Some days later he received a phone call from Israel's military censor asking why the article had not been submitted for inspection.[2] Camp 1391 is situated on the main road between Hadera and Afula in northern Israel.[3] The HaMoked, an Israeli human-rights group, has petitioned the High Court of Justice to close the facility down.[2]
According to Leah Tsemel, an Israeli lawyer who specialises in advising Palestinians, "Anyone entering the prison can be made to disappear, potentially for ever, it's no different from the jails run by tinpot South American dictators."[4]
Dubbed "the Israeli Guantanamo"[4][5][6], the secret was kept in such a manner as to be even unknown to Prof. David Libai, justice minister in Yitzhak Rabin's government and member of the secret services related ministerial committee.[5]
According to accounts of former captives the detainees are led into the facility blindfolded, and kept in cells (most are 2 m × 2 m) with no natural light. Two smaller cells (1.25 m × 1.25 m) with heavy steel doors and black or red walls, and almost no light, are used for solitary confinement. Some of the cells do not have adequate toilet facilities and the guards control the running water. Mustafa Dirani, a Hamas commander [7] who was captured by the Israelis in May 1994 and released in 2004 as part of a prisoner swap [8], has filed a suit in Tel Aviv's district court claiming he was sexually abused in the camp.[5] It has been acknowledged by the state attorney's office that an interrogator may have "threatened perform a sexual act on the complainant." [3]
Visits from the Red Cross are not allowed[1] not is any other independend organisation[6] and the prisoners are not told where they are, nor are their families or lawyers.[5] In 2003, government lawyers claimed that while the location was secret, that Palestinians who are incarcerated there have their rights safeguarded, can meet with lawyers and Red Cross at an off-site location.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Israel court lifts prison secrecy BBC News, December 2, 2003
- ^ a b Ephron, Dan. Secrets of Unit 1391: Uncovering an Israeli jail that specializes in nightmares, Newsweek (28 June 2004 Issue). Accessed 27 February 2008.
- ^ a b McGreal, Chris. Facility 1391: Israel's Secret Prison, The Guardian (14 November 2003). Accessed 27 February 2008.
- ^ a b * Cook, Jonathan. Facility 1391: Israel's Guantanamo, Le Monde diplomatique (November 2003), reprinted in CounterPunch (12 November 2003)[1] Accessed 27 February 2008.
- ^ a b c d Lavie, Aviv. Inside Israel's secret prison, Haaretz. Accessed 27 February 2008.
- ^ a b The other Guantanamo Bays, New Internationalist (June, 2004)
- ^ Middle East Times, Israel holding Hamas commander as a "bargaining chip"AFP, September 11, 2007
- ^ Schattner, Marius Hezbollah hands over letter from missing Israeli airman Middle East Times, AFP October 22, 2007
