HaMoked to the Israel Prison Service: renew family visits to Palestinian “security” prisoners from the West Bank, halted over a year ago

On January 26, 2025, HaMoked wrote to the Commissioner of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to demand the renewal of family visits to Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem who are classified as “security prisoners. There have been no family visits for Palestinian inmates since the outbreak of the war in October 2023. The ban was implemented as part of the overall deterioration of the prisoners’ conditions pursuant to a temporary order of the IPS. HaMoked argued that the implementation of the ban for over a year and on an indefinite basis was an unlawful and disproportionate step of collective punishment against this prison population, adults and minors alike, both those convicted and those never charged or convicted, as well as against their tens of thousands of family members in the West Bank. 

HaMoked reminded the IPS that the prisoners and detainees were protected civilians of an occupied territory, whose rights Israel was bound to uphold, especially while incarcerating them on its soil, as ruled the High Court of Justice in HCJ 2690/09. As part of its obligations as an occupying power, Israel must enable the realization of the right to family ties via prison visits, including the coordination of the relatives passage into Israel and their access to the prisons (a matter which was organized and coordinated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) prior to the war, but Israel has since severed its ties with the ICRC).

In a response of February 11, 2025, the IPS argued that the ongoing visitation ban was justified as family visitations to prisoners constituted “clear contact with the outside, which may contain a threat to the security of the State, the guards and the order in the prisons”. The IPS also claimed that the temporary order banning visits had been upheld by the High Court of Justice – discounting the fact that the cited judgment was issued just a month after the war broke out, i.e., more than a year earlier. 

On February 24, 2025, HaMoked sent a reply to the IPS, asserting that in past severe security situations, Israel had not taken such a step of cutting all contact between inmates and their families for a prolonged period of time. HaMoked clarified that terms such as “a state of emergency” and “security considerations” must not be used to justify casual dismissal of principles of lawfulness, fairness, and due diligence for the purpose of extraneously violating the rights of disadvantaged populations. HaMoked argued that insofar as the policy to prevent family visits is maintained, it must be continued in a proportionate and reasonable manner. It seems that the IPS gave no weight to the rights of the inmates and their families to dignity and family life, and thus its discretion in the matter is unreasonable. HaMoked also noted that the policy was implemented pursuant to an administrative decision, at the lowest level of the legislative and regulatory hierarchy. HaMoked finished by requesting the resumption of family visits or at the very least that the IPS consider proportionate alternatives to the complete visitation ban.