Ktzi'ot Prison
Encyclopedia
Ktzi'ot Prison is an Israeli detention facility
located in the Haluza sand dunes region. It is Israel's largest detention facility in terms of land area, encompassing 400000 square metres (98.8 acre).
During the First Intifada
, Ktzi'ot was the location of the largest detention camp run by the Israeli army. It held three quarters of all Palestinians held by the army, and over half of all Palestinians detained in Israel. According to Human Rights Watch
, in 1990 it held approximately one out of every 50 West Bank and Gazan males older than 16. Amongst Palestinians it was known as Ansar III after a similar prison camp
set up in South Lebanon by Israel during the South Lebanon conflict (1982–2000). Ktzi'ot camp was opened in March 1988 and closed in 1995. It was re-opened in 2002 during the Second Intifada.
established a fortified settlement, Ktzi'ot, overlooking the al-Auja junction. Despite housing soldiers in civilian clothes and engaging in little farming activity the Israelis maintained it was a pioneering farm settlement which did not break the Egyptian-Israeli Armistice Agreement relating to the 145 km2 Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) around al-Auja. The remaining members of the 'Azazme
tribe, who depended on the well at al-Auja, were attacked and driven across the border into Egypt.
On 6 October 1954 a member of the Ktzi'ot kibbutz drove a water truck across the border into Egypt and gave himself up to the Egyptians at Abu Aweigila. When questioned in the presence of a UN military observer he said that all the inhabitants of the kibbutz were soldiers: one captain, four NCOs, 65 men soldiers and fifteen women soldiers. They were armed with rifles, sub machine guns, light machine guns, mortars and anti-tank weapons.
In early 1956, prior to Israel taking full control of the al-Auja DMZ, Ktzi'ot included twelve squad tents and had a small runway with light aircraft visiting almost daily. Later that year the DMZ was used as the point of entry for the IDF invasion of the Sinai Peninsula
. It served the same function in 1967.
On 18 March 1988, around 700 prisoners were transferred from prisons in the Gaza Strip to the newly prepared prison camp. Four days later, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin
announced that 3,000 Palestinians were under arrest and that a new prison had been opened in the Negev desert.
Three weeks later the Palestinian Human Rights group al-Haq quoted a Gaza lawyer, Raji Surani, as describing conditions in the camp as "harsh and inhuman".
(HRW) visited the camp in August 1990. It was under the command of Colonel Ze'ev Shaltiel and held 6,216 prisoners. The camp was divided into sections. Each section contained two or more tents and was surrounded by ridges of sand and gravel blocking visibility between sections. The tents, each 50 square meters in size, contained 20–30 men each. Prisoners were confined to the tents for most of the day with three daily counts. In addition, there was a section surrounded by 3 meter walls and divided into subsections covered in steel netting. There was also a building containing four 3x3 meter punishment cells which, at the time of the HRW visit contained 23 prisoners.
The HRW report concluded that the camp was "in clear violation of the IV Geneva Convention forbidding the transfer of incarcerated persons from occupied territories to the territory of the occupying power."
It also found that:
The report recorded a number of violent incidents. A few weeks before their visit deputy commander, Major Avi Chasa'i, ordered the firing of tear gas into one of the sections after prisoners refused to stop praying outside their tent. Shortly after the camp was opened, on August 16, 1988, two inmates were shot dead in a riot involving 1,000 prisoners. The camp commander at the time, Colonel David Tsemach, fired the shots that killed at least one of the victims. He was cleared of wrong doing by an army investigation headed by Colonel Mordechai Peled.
At the time of the HRW visit, 3,802 of the prisoners had been sentenced; 1,442 were Gazans under trial or awaiting trial. There were 877 administrative detainees
. Gazan prisoners were kept separate from those from their West Bank counterparts.
Up to the time of the visit, 21 prisoners had been killed by fellow prisoners, accused of being collaborators.
The Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem
visited Kt'zi'ot prison 30 May 1991 and 20 Feb 1992. On their first visit there were 6,049 prisoners of whom 710 were administrative detainees; nine months later there were 5,080 prisoners with 250 being administrative detainees.
The report comments that the first reaction of visitors to the prison is one of shock: its large size, one of the largest prisons in the world, and its makeshift appearance; the loudspeakers broadcasting the Arabic station of "Voice of Israel"; the smell of fuel oil
. Conditions were very much harsher than in other Israeli prisons. The report suggests that this was due to the military's lack of experience and that the camp was regarded as temporary. It was noted that the Commander, Ze'ev Shaltiel, broke judicial rulings and was using solitary confinement as a means of punishing prisoners. Some prisoners were being held in isolation for longer than the two weeks maximum stipulated.
The report describes the camp as being divided into 60m x 60m plots patrolled by armed soldiers. The plots contained 2 to 4 tents, each holding 20-26 individuals. The tents had no furniture. There was no privacy for prisoners. In summer the temperature rose above 40 degrees, in winter it could fall below freezing. The tents flooded when it rained. Each plot had 3 or 4 half-barrels for garbage, which overflowed causing smell and health problems. Mosquitoes abounded. The only medical help was from physicians on reserve duty doing a one month tour of duty. There were many cases of skin diseases.
Other issues raised included:
- prisoners forbidden to wear watches.
- no radio or TV.
- no access to outside physicians.
- no laundry.
- studying forbidden.
- two hours of volley ball were allowed a day, but only for ten prisoners at a time.
Up to B'Tselem's 1992 visit 28 prisoners had been killed by their fellow inmates.
The report states that "conditions in the facility were illegal and inhuman" and described the solitary confinment area as "human chicken coops." B'Tselem called for the entire camp to be closed down. The 1992 visit was the last time the human rights group was allowed to see inside any Israeli prison.
(DCI), the prison reopened in April 2002. It consisted of four sections made up of four units, with another half section opened in October 2002. Each unit was surrounded by a five meter wall and contained three tents. The tents were designed for under twenty men but usually contained more. Each unit had three toilets and was issued with 1 liter of chlorine every 20 days.
According to DCI, the main problems were:
The prison, up to 2003, contained around 1,000 prisoners, mostly administrative detainees and including 30–60 boys under 18 years.
The ICRC visited "Qetziot military detention camp" twice in 2005, and twice in 2006.
Ktzi'ot prison is currently run by the Israel Prison Service
. Its security systems were installed by G4S Israel (Hashmira).
Incarceration facility (Israel)
An incarceration facility is the official name given by the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Prison Service to one of several prisons in Israel used to hold Palestinian prisoners - either under sentence or under administrative detention....
located in the Haluza sand dunes region. It is Israel's largest detention facility in terms of land area, encompassing 400000 square metres (98.8 acre).
During the First Intifada
First Intifada
The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem....
, Ktzi'ot was the location of the largest detention camp run by the Israeli army. It held three quarters of all Palestinians held by the army, and over half of all Palestinians detained in Israel. According to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, in 1990 it held approximately one out of every 50 West Bank and Gazan males older than 16. Amongst Palestinians it was known as Ansar III after a similar prison camp
Ansar, Lebanon
Ansar or Insar is a village in the Nabatieh Governorate region of southern Lebanon between Nabatieh and Tyr. During the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s it was the location of a detention camp for suspected Palestinian terrorists and allied Muslim militiamen captured by the Israeli military in...
set up in South Lebanon by Israel during the South Lebanon conflict (1982–2000). Ktzi'ot camp was opened in March 1988 and closed in 1995. It was re-opened in 2002 during the Second Intifada.
Background
On September 28, 1953 the Israel Defense ForcesIsrael Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
established a fortified settlement, Ktzi'ot, overlooking the al-Auja junction. Despite housing soldiers in civilian clothes and engaging in little farming activity the Israelis maintained it was a pioneering farm settlement which did not break the Egyptian-Israeli Armistice Agreement relating to the 145 km2 Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) around al-Auja. The remaining members of the 'Azazme
'Azazme
A Bedouin tribe whose grazing territory used to be the desert around the wells at El Auja and Bir Ain on the border between Israel and Egypt.In 1948 the 'Azazme numbered around 3,500. During 1950 the entire tribe was driven from the area around El Auja. In a series of raids the IDF burnt tents and...
tribe, who depended on the well at al-Auja, were attacked and driven across the border into Egypt.
On 6 October 1954 a member of the Ktzi'ot kibbutz drove a water truck across the border into Egypt and gave himself up to the Egyptians at Abu Aweigila. When questioned in the presence of a UN military observer he said that all the inhabitants of the kibbutz were soldiers: one captain, four NCOs, 65 men soldiers and fifteen women soldiers. They were armed with rifles, sub machine guns, light machine guns, mortars and anti-tank weapons.
In early 1956, prior to Israel taking full control of the al-Auja DMZ, Ktzi'ot included twelve squad tents and had a small runway with light aircraft visiting almost daily. Later that year the DMZ was used as the point of entry for the IDF invasion of the Sinai Peninsula
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
. It served the same function in 1967.
On 18 March 1988, around 700 prisoners were transferred from prisons in the Gaza Strip to the newly prepared prison camp. Four days later, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
announced that 3,000 Palestinians were under arrest and that a new prison had been opened in the Negev desert.
Three weeks later the Palestinian Human Rights group al-Haq quoted a Gaza lawyer, Raji Surani, as describing conditions in the camp as "harsh and inhuman".
Conditions in 1991
Members of Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
(HRW) visited the camp in August 1990. It was under the command of Colonel Ze'ev Shaltiel and held 6,216 prisoners. The camp was divided into sections. Each section contained two or more tents and was surrounded by ridges of sand and gravel blocking visibility between sections. The tents, each 50 square meters in size, contained 20–30 men each. Prisoners were confined to the tents for most of the day with three daily counts. In addition, there was a section surrounded by 3 meter walls and divided into subsections covered in steel netting. There was also a building containing four 3x3 meter punishment cells which, at the time of the HRW visit contained 23 prisoners.
The HRW report concluded that the camp was "in clear violation of the IV Geneva Convention forbidding the transfer of incarcerated persons from occupied territories to the territory of the occupying power."
It also found that:
- Access between lawyers and their clients was very restricted. Meetings took place in the open across a double fence. No documents were allowed to be exchanged. A maximum of 20 lawyers were allowed daily, each lawyer restricted to meeting 15–20 prisoners. Meetings were limited to 15 minutes.
- Prisoners in tents were exposed to extreme weather conditions.
- There were no family visits.
- Mail was backlogged and heavily censored. The camp had only four censors.
- Few books were allowed into the camp. Rejected books included Lord of the Rings, HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, The Cancer WardThe Cancer WardCancer Ward is a semi-autobiographical novel by Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first published in 1967, and banned in the Soviet Union in 1968....
, a biography of TolstoyTolstoyTolstoy, or Tolstoi is a prominent family of Russian nobility, descending from Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy who served under Vasily II of Moscow...
and a book on Constitutional LawConstitutional lawConstitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
in Hebrew. - Group sports were prohibited.
The report recorded a number of violent incidents. A few weeks before their visit deputy commander, Major Avi Chasa'i, ordered the firing of tear gas into one of the sections after prisoners refused to stop praying outside their tent. Shortly after the camp was opened, on August 16, 1988, two inmates were shot dead in a riot involving 1,000 prisoners. The camp commander at the time, Colonel David Tsemach, fired the shots that killed at least one of the victims. He was cleared of wrong doing by an army investigation headed by Colonel Mordechai Peled.
At the time of the HRW visit, 3,802 of the prisoners had been sentenced; 1,442 were Gazans under trial or awaiting trial. There were 877 administrative detainees
Administrative detention
Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial, usually for security reasons. A large number of countries, both democratic and undemocratic, resort to administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism, control illegal immigration, or to protect the...
. Gazan prisoners were kept separate from those from their West Bank counterparts.
Up to the time of the visit, 21 prisoners had been killed by fellow prisoners, accused of being collaborators.
The Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
visited Kt'zi'ot prison 30 May 1991 and 20 Feb 1992. On their first visit there were 6,049 prisoners of whom 710 were administrative detainees; nine months later there were 5,080 prisoners with 250 being administrative detainees.
The report comments that the first reaction of visitors to the prison is one of shock: its large size, one of the largest prisons in the world, and its makeshift appearance; the loudspeakers broadcasting the Arabic station of "Voice of Israel"; the smell of fuel oil
Fuel oil
Fuel oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. Broadly speaking, fuel oil is any liquid petroleum product that is burned in a furnace or boiler for the generation of heat or used in an engine for the generation of power, except oils having a flash...
. Conditions were very much harsher than in other Israeli prisons. The report suggests that this was due to the military's lack of experience and that the camp was regarded as temporary. It was noted that the Commander, Ze'ev Shaltiel, broke judicial rulings and was using solitary confinement as a means of punishing prisoners. Some prisoners were being held in isolation for longer than the two weeks maximum stipulated.
The report describes the camp as being divided into 60m x 60m plots patrolled by armed soldiers. The plots contained 2 to 4 tents, each holding 20-26 individuals. The tents had no furniture. There was no privacy for prisoners. In summer the temperature rose above 40 degrees, in winter it could fall below freezing. The tents flooded when it rained. Each plot had 3 or 4 half-barrels for garbage, which overflowed causing smell and health problems. Mosquitoes abounded. The only medical help was from physicians on reserve duty doing a one month tour of duty. There were many cases of skin diseases.
Other issues raised included:
- prisoners forbidden to wear watches.
- no radio or TV.
- no access to outside physicians.
- no laundry.
- studying forbidden.
- two hours of volley ball were allowed a day, but only for ten prisoners at a time.
Up to B'Tselem's 1992 visit 28 prisoners had been killed by their fellow inmates.
The report states that "conditions in the facility were illegal and inhuman" and described the solitary confinment area as "human chicken coops." B'Tselem called for the entire camp to be closed down. The 1992 visit was the last time the human rights group was allowed to see inside any Israeli prison.
The reopened prison
According to information gathered by Defence for Children InternationalDefence for Children International
Defence for Children International is an independent non-governmental organisation set up during the International Year of the Child to ensure on-going, practical, systematic and concerted international and national action specially directed towards promoting and protecting the rights of the...
(DCI), the prison reopened in April 2002. It consisted of four sections made up of four units, with another half section opened in October 2002. Each unit was surrounded by a five meter wall and contained three tents. The tents were designed for under twenty men but usually contained more. Each unit had three toilets and was issued with 1 liter of chlorine every 20 days.
According to DCI, the main problems were:
- Lack of family visits
- Overcrowding
- Poor food
- No supplied clothing
- Attacks and theft by guards
- No medical care
- Exposed to harsh weather
- No child-specific procedures for those aged 16 and 17
- No educational material
- Rodents
The prison, up to 2003, contained around 1,000 prisoners, mostly administrative detainees and including 30–60 boys under 18 years.
The ICRC visited "Qetziot military detention camp" twice in 2005, and twice in 2006.
Ktzi'ot prison is currently run by the Israel Prison Service
Israel Prison Service
The Israel Prison Service , commonly known in Israel by its acronym Shabas , is the prison service of Israel. It is responsible for maintaining civilian prisons in Israel, as well as detention centers for security prisoners. It is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Security...
. Its security systems were installed by G4S Israel (Hashmira).