Rights Abuses By Israel Prison Medics Endanger Lives

[SherriMunnerlyn]

Rights abuses by Israel prison medics 'endanger lives' 4/12/2013 . JERUSALEM (AFP) -- "Human rights violations by medics working for Israel's prison service are endangering the lives of both Israeli and Palestinian inmates, especially hunger strikers, a watchdog said on Thursday. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel strongly urged the transfer of responsibility for prisoners' health from the Israel Prisons Service to the health ministry in order to ensure detainees' health was put ahead of "security considerations". "Medical ethics and human rights violations carried out by the IPS, specifically by prison medical practitioners... endangered the lives of prisoners and detainees on hunger strike," PHR said in a report. The abuses it cited included "preventing independent physicians from examining and monitoring the medical condition of hunger strikers... and blocking the transfer of prisoners on hunger strike to civilian hospitals. "The deteriorating health of several prisoners on long-term hunger strike in Israeli jails has prompted thousands of other prisoners to stage shorter-term fasts and sparked widespread protests on the Palestinian street. It also raised the recent death from cancer of a long-term Palestinian prisoner, whose demise sparked violent protests and prompted the Palestinian Authority to accuse Israel of medical negligence. PHR also expressed concern over the case of an Australian-Israeli national called Ben Zygier, a reported Mossad agent who was locked away in 2010 under top-secret conditions and later hanged himself in his cell.It said the prison medical service "operates according to political and security considerations rather than medical considerations... (and) worsens situations of dual loyalty, a problem already rampant among medical practitioners employed by the IPS."

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=584894

 

[docmauser1]

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- "Human rights violations by medics working for Israel's prison service are endangering the lives of both Israeli and Palestinian inmates, especially hunger strikers, a watchdog said on Thursday.

That dog won't hunt, of course.