Prisoner's mother angry at pervasive Israeli discrimination
Palestine, Politics, 10/27/1997

It was a difficult moment for Sumayya Tewfiq Abu Much when she heard of Israeli extreme right-wing killer Ami Popper who was granted a 12 hour-leave from prison to attend Jewish celebrations of the Day of Tabernacle.

Popper was sentenced to seven life imprisonment terms for killing seven Palestinian workers and injuring ten others on 20 May 1990. None of Popper's victims was related to Abu Much yet she was extremely angry. Abu Much's son, Rushdi, who has so far spent 12 years of his life sentence term for security-related offenses. "We have knocked all doors. Applied to all officials we could reach to. We even tried to involve the president himself to intervene and accord our son at least a few hour leave but we have received no response at all," she said.

Abu Much said she wanted her son to go out of prison to attend his sister's wedding, but her request was entirely ignored. Later, she said, her brother died and she again requested that Rushdi be allowed out of prison "even for one hour only to take a final look at his uncle before he is buried but it did not work either."

"Why would Jewish terrorists be allowed out of their prison and granted permission even to get married behind bars while Palestinian prisoners are totally denied this privilege," she exclaimed with a tone of anger explicitly felt in her voice. She added that even phone calls are not easy to obtain with her son, or with most of the Palestinian security prisoners from inside Israel.

Racial discrimination against Arabs in Israel has spread to cover even our prisoners behind bars, she said. She noted that many Israeli prisoners convicted of killing Arabs had their sentences commuted and were granted permission to leave prison and attend many family events. "Only Arabs are not treated equally here in this country, and I wonder till when," she said.

Until today, none of the Arab Palestinian security prisoners had been released prior to the end of his term though many of them are in a serious health conditions, said the Association of Prisoners' Friends in Nazareth in a statement it published a few days ago. The association described as a "prize to terror" a presidential clemency issued to four Israeli terrorists who had been sent to prison for long terms after they were convicted of killing Palestinians. It added that among the Palestinian prisoners from inside Israel who are serving long terms for security-related offenses were a few whose health condition is seriously deteriorating and are on the verge of death. The association named Rushi Abu Much as one of them, in addition to Sami Younis of Ara, Wasfi Mansour of Tireh and Khaled Kanaan of Tamra, all in the Triangle.

Last week, Ami Popper was accorded a 12 hour leave from his prison. Since his imprisonment in 1990, Popper had been allowed to get married to an extreme right wing activist who immigrated to Israel from Canada, where she was a leading member of Kach movement, a radical terror group linked to the Rabbi Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League Popper had also been allowed to have sex with his wife in prison and has since had two children, one two years old and one eight months.

Previous Stories:
  12 hours leave for murderer of Arab workers   (10/21/1997)

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