Jerusalem: The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society have strongly criticized the approval by the Israeli Knesset's National Security Committee of a bill that would prohibit representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross from entering Israeli prisons and visiting Palestinian detainees.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency, the two organizations have issued a joint statement calling the move an attempt to legitimize and legally entrench what they describe as grave violations against the Palestinian people. They consider Israeli prisons to be a primary arena for these violations amidst the ongoing genocide.
The organizations stressed that the bill's introduction reflects the occupation regime's intent to make permanent the exceptional measures imposed in prisons since the onset of the genocide. These measures, they argue, are being transformed into systematic policies and legislation.
Furthermore, the organizations highlighted that this legislative initiative seems designed to circumvent Israeli Supreme Court rulings, including a decision that reportedly found the denial of Red Cross prison visits to be unlawful.
The groups also pointed out that Israeli judicial decisions, within a legislative framework that is rapidly enshrining genocidal and punitive policies against Palestinians, lack real impact unless they are translated into binding enforcement measures.
They argue that this situation reveals the nature of the relationship between the legislative and judicial institutions in Israel, where some judicial decisions are used to enhance the legal system's image internationally. Meanwhile, legislation is enacted to entrench violations and provide them with legal cover.