Adalah to Israel Prison Service: Lift Restrictions on Providing Prisoners with Arabic Language and International Literature and Educational Books
Despite the Israel Prison Service's (IPS) clear legal obligation to provide books to prisoners through prison sales centers (“canteens”), they continue to fail to make Arabic books available, particularly for political prisoners who are defined by the IPS as “security prisoners”. Following litigation initiated by Adalah against the IPS in 2009, the IPS pledged to provide a desired book within one month of a prisoner's request. However, some prisoners have still not received books they requested over one year ago. For example, last year, prisoners Walid Daka and Rawi Sultani respectively requested To Be an Arab Today by Dr. Azmi Bishara and Born Here, Born There by Palestinian poet Mureed Barghouti and neither has yet received their book.
In addition to undue delays, the IPS also denies books for prisoners due to their content, as was illustrated in the IPS's recent denial of Daka's request for the international bestseller No Logo by Naomi Klein. The authorities rejected Daka's request claiming that the content of the book, which is considered to be one of the most significant references of the anti-globalization movement, indicated that he was an extreme nationalist.
Such restrictions began in 2009, when the IPS issued new regulations censoring literature and preventing prisoners from receiving books or publications from their families during visits or by mail. In response, and relying on the prisoners' right to freedom of expression, Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker filed a petition demanding that the prison authorities allow the books to be delivered to the "security" prisoners. During hearings on the petition, the IPS proposed that the regulations be amended to allow prisoners to receive books through the prison canteens rather than from family members during visits. The court accepted this proposal.
On 28 October 2010, Adalah submitted a letter to the legal advisor of the IPS highlighting the numerous issues that prisoners continue to face in receiving literature and other kind of publications as a result of the new regulations. Some of these matters, such as limiting the number of books entering the prisons as well as requiring prisoners to purchase literature, are also part of a pending Supreme Court case brought by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).
Attorney Baker requested that the situation return to the pre-2009 status quo, whereby family members could provide the books and publications, and requested the cancellation of the new regulation for its lack of efficiency and the many challenges it creates for prisoners seeking to exercise their freedom of expression. Adalah noted that allowing prisoners to receive books from their family members is more practical and allows prisoners to practice their right to read without hindrance. Furthermore, selling books in the canteen does not provide a solution in regards to books not intended for sale, such as publications from human rights organizations, official government publications, or theoretical materials necessary for those prisoners enrolled in Open University courses.
Attorney Baker requested that the IPS allow family members to provide their relatives with books and publications during visits and by mail and to make Arabic books available for sale through the canteens within a reasonable amount of time. The letter also requested a systemic solution to the issue of receiving books and publications not intended for sale and to allow donations of books for prisoners.
