A Foreign Ministry spokesman said last night that Israel will ask the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv why it allowed a demonstration to go on for several hours at its consulate in East Jerusalem in support of Arab security prisoners now on a hunger strike at the Nafha jail in the Negev. The spokesman called it a “strange and unprecedented step.”
A consulate spokesman acknowledged that some 40 relatives and sympathizers of the hunger strikers were invited into the consulate garden where they met with a senior official and presented a petition. The consulate spokesman said that this had been agreed to in advance on the request of “prominent West Bank persons.” But he said the consulate was surprised by the large number of demonstrators who turned up. He said he could not say why the presentation took two to three hours. (See related story P.2.)
ARAB PRISONER DIES WHILE ON HUNGER STRIKE
Meanwhile, prison authorities moved 26 of the prisoners, who were still striking, from the prison near Mitzpeh Raman, to the Ramleh central prison. Thirty-eight of the participants in the hunger strike which began July 14 started eating last Saturday.
Of the 26 moved, 11 decided to start eating and 15 were fed intravenously but reportedly without the use of force. However, one of the prisoners identified as Ali Mohammed Shkaded Jaapri, 30, a Jordanian citizen, died yesterday when, during a convulsion, food he had been forced fed got into his lungs. Two other prisoners were hospitalized with pneumonia and reported in serious condition.
The news of the death and the cause was not reported until today by Chaim Levi, head of the prison authority. Interior Minister Yosef Burg has ordered an investigation.
Meanwhile, a group of Arab women marched through East Jerusalem today to protest the death. Police dispersed the demonstrators and arrested 19 of them. Families of some of the prisoners also staged a sit-in at the Red Cross headquarters in Jerusalem.
Felicia Longer and Leah Zemel, two leftwing lawyers who have frequently represented suspected terrorists, said some of the prisoners were in had shape and should be given medical treatment. Zemel had charged earlier that Nafha prison, which opened two months ago specifically for persons convicted for terrorist activities, had conditions worse than in other Israeli jails. She said some of the prisoners were beaten, a charge denied by the warden. She also claimed that prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor.
Prison authorities said the prison is no worse than others except that there is no communal dining room because that would present a security risk with a group of terrorists. There are also no television sets in the cells and the prisoners do not get home leave for good behavior as did those charged with ordinary criminal offenses. Prison authorities also charged that the hunger strike was political and directed from outside.
Joapri, the prisoner who died, infiltrated Israel from Jordan in 1968 and was involved in an attack on a settlement in the Jordan Valley.
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