Human rights organizations condemn attack on lecturer Mohammed Ghazal

Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies and human rights and Tadamun foundation for human rights denounced the attack on Dr. Mohammed Ghazal, a leading figure and a lecturer at Najah University, during his return from a hearing in the Israeli court of appeal.

Fouad Khuffash, the director of Ahrar center, said in a statement on Thursday that Dr. Ghazal, 55, who is suffering from several diseases most notably high blood pressure, was attacked by the soldiers of the Nahshon unit.

Khuffash revealed that the occupation authorities have been transferring the prisoners from Megiddo prison to Ofer prison under severe conditions in order to exhaust and humiliate the prisoners in such hot weather.

He called on human rights organizations, Palestinian factions and the Palestinian Authority to immediately and urgently intervene in order to expose the practices of the occupation against prisoners in its jails.

Meanwhile, the researcher at Tadamun foundation Ahmed Beitawi stated that the soldiers attacked Dr. Ghazal when he refused, due to his bad health condition, to enter an iron box inside the bus in which the soldiers crammed 11prisoners.

Beitawi noted that Dr. Ghazal asked the soldiers to consider his serious health condition, but they refused and without any regard for his age, his illness and his academic position, they abused him and he fainted. Yet they did not provide him any kind of treatment until the arrival to Megiddo.

For her part, Dr. Ghazal’s wife demanded the human rights and international organizations to investigate the recent attack against her husband, emphasizing that it was an unjustified and intentional assault designed to infringe on the dignity of the Palestinian people as Dr. Ghazal is one of the prominent figures and enjoys an important academic status.

She also pointed out that the Israeli occupation does not care about the prisoners’ health conditions, calling for putting an end to the suffering of the prisoners, particularly the administrative detainees especially as most of them suffer health problems.

The occupation authorities have been detaining more than 35 university lecturers and academics, mostly held under administrative detention, without charge.