RAMALLAH: Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, long accused of inflaming Jewish-Arab tensions, has set his sights on one of the conflict’s most sensitive issues: Palestinian prisoners.
Since joining Israel’s new government led by veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late last year, Ben-Gvir has pledged to ensure Palestinian inmates are not being treated too comfortably.
After a visit to Nafha prison in the Negev desert last month, he told Israeli media he had wanted “to ensure that the murderers of Jews are not getting better conditions” as a result of the construction of new cells.
Ben-Gvir has also said he would make sure Palestinian prisoners — “terrorists,” according to him — no longer received “fresh pita (bread)... every morning, as if they were in a restaurant.”
“Not on my watch,” he vowed, ordering the closure of what he said were bakeries being run at two Israeli jails, speaking after a Palestinian gunman killed seven people outside a synagogue in annexed east Jerusalem last month.
Israel’s prison service declined to comment on whether such facilities exist or indeed make daily pita for prisoners.
While there is doubt over whether Ben-Gvir’s claims about Palestinian prisoner life match reality — and over his capacity to implement some of his proposals — his incendiary statements have provoked strong reactions.
In the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, protesters have waved placards reading: “Ben-Gvir, go to hell.”
In a letter addressed to Jerusalem-based foreign diplomats seen by AFP, the militant group warned that moves to curb prisoners’ rights “crossed all red lines” and labelled the issue “a detonator.”
“Every family in the West Bank has at least had one person who was detained, arrested, or brought before a military court system,” said Milena Ansari, an advocacy officer at prisoner support group Addameer.
“So it’s an issue that deeply hits the core of the Palestinian identity,” she told AFP.
Addameer estimates that some 800,000 Palestinians have been through Israeli prisons since the occupation of Palestinian territories following the 1967 Six-Day War.
Ben-Gvir, who heads the Jewish Power party, has been convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization over his ties to a banned Jewish extremist group.
Earlier in his career, he called for Arabs to be expelled from Israel.
He has also called for Palestinians convicted of terrorism to face the death penalty — a matter that falls outside his portfolio responsibilities.
Some 4,700 Palestinian prisoners are currently in Israeli jails including 190 who are under 18, Addameer has reported.
Basil Farraj, a researcher who specializes in Palestinian prisoners, said jail fostered unity between members of different groups, including Hamas and president Mahmud Abbas’s secular Fatah movement.
Farraj said what unites the prisoners is their shared “resistance against Israeli policies” and that Ben-Gvir “wants to dismantle that sense of political organization.”
The son of jailed Marwan Barghouti — an inmate who often tops opinion polls as the most popular Palestinian leader — told AFP it had been three months since he was allowed contact with his father.
Barghouti was sentenced to multiple life sentences over his role in orchestrating attacks on Israelis.
“The Israelis like to create symbols and destroy these symbols to create the illusion of victories,” Qassam Barghouti told AFP.
But he warned: “Whatever they do to him will only increase his support among Palestinians.”
Far-right Israeli minister Ben-Gvir targets Palestinian prisoners
https://arab.news/2sjtc
Far-right Israeli minister Ben-Gvir targets Palestinian prisoners
- Ben-Gvir has pledged to ensure Palestinian inmates are not being treated too comfortably
Iraqis cover soil with clay to curb sandstorms
- Dust storms have cloaked cities and villages in an endless ochre haze
BAGHDAD: Deep in Iraq’s southern desert, bulldozers and earthmovers spread layers of moist clay over sand dunes as part of a broader effort to fight increasingly frequent sandstorms.
Iraq has long suffered from sand and dust storms, but in recent years they have become more frequent and intense as the country falls prey to the effects of climate change.
Sand and dust storms — driven by severe drought, rising temperatures and deforestation — have cloaked cities and villages in an endless ochre haze, grounded flights and filled hospitals with patients suffering from breathing difficulties.
Iraqi authorities have warned that these suffocating storms will intensify further, adding urgency to address the root of the problem.
In a relatively small area between the cities of Nasiriyah and Samawah, not far from ancient Sumerian ruins, laborers are working hard to stabilize the soil by applying a layer of moist clay 20-25 centimeters thick.
The project also includes planting heat-tolerant seedlings like Prosopis and Conocarpus to further stabilize the soil.
“The main goal is to reduce the impact of transboundary dust storms,” said Udai Taha Lafta from UN-Habitat, which is leading the project to combat sandstorms with Iraqi expertise.
“It is a vital area despite its small size, and will hopefully help reduce dust storms next summer,” Lafta said.
A short-term objective is to shield a southern highway where many traffic accidents have occurred due to poor visibility during dust storms.
The Ministry of Environment estimates that Iraq now faces about 243 storms per year, and the frequency is expected to increase to 300 “dust days” by 2050 unless drastic mitigation measures are adopted.
In 2023, Iraqi authorities teamed up with the UN-Habitat and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development in areas that have been identified as major sources of sandstorms.
The project has been implementing several methods in three southern areas, including digging water canals and supplying electricity to pump water from the Euphrates river, preparing barren lands for vegetation.
One of the project’s ultimate goals is to increase green spaces and for farmers to eventually sustain the lands after droughts and chronic water shortages have drastically reduced agricultural areas.
Qahtan Al-Mhana, from the Agriculture Ministry, said that stabilising the soil gives agricultural efforts in sandy areas a chance to endure.
He added that Iraq has extensive “successful” experience in combating desertification and dust storms by stabilising sand dunes.
Since the 1970s, the country has implemented such projects, but after decades of turmoil, environmental challenges have largely fallen by the wayside.
With the severe recent impact of climate change, “work has resumed,” said Najm Abed Taresh from Dhi Qar University. “We are making slow but
steady progress.”
