ISRAEL: Women Refuse Israeli Strip Search at Ofar Prison, Human Rights Organization Takes Case

The Israeli prison administration is forcing female visitors to strip completely before seeing family members at Ofar, a prison built on Ramallah lands.

The Adalah Center demanded this week in a letter to the Israeli Prison Authority and the Ofar Prison that they put an immediate stop to the “humiliating physical inspection of Palestinians, especially citizens of East Jerusalem, as a condition of entry to visit relatives with the prison.”

Attorney Abeer Baker issued a complaint on behalf of two women who were willing to come forward, blowing the whistle on the latest violations of human rights.

The women are citizens of East Jerusalem and were subject to “humiliating and degrading treatment” as the complaint reads, before being allowed to visit their family members in Ofar Prison.

“After having finished an invasive inspection, one of the guards asked them to go to an adjacent room where they were obliged to strip completely naked,” the Adalah Center reports today.

The room had windows that were difficult to see through, but it was possible to note the presence of a guard on the other side, reports the lawyer. But through a loudspeaker a guard ordered the two women to take off all of their clothes. The women rejected the request. As the report states, one of the guards then entered the room and told the women that they would be body searched after undressing and that this was a condition of entering the prison. The two refused in protest and returned home.

This is not the first such incident with women saying in the past that they prefer to miss the visit than to become naked in front of Israeli guards.

The two women exemplify what is being described as a widespread phenomenon affecting many Palestinian families from East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Many women are known to have had to succumb to this in order to visit their children.

Adalah says that by demanding strip searches, illegal in most cases, the Israelis are violating international law.