An American political analyst says the abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli forces is the direct result of Tel Aviv’s frustration over the presence of Palestinians in the region, Press TV reports.
Lawrence Davidson, a professor at the West Chester University in Pennsylvania, made the remarks during a recent interview with Press TV.
“I think it’s in many ways a function of Israelis being caught between their desire to cleanse the place of non-Jews and their practical barriers to this. The result is their frustration and brutality,” Davidson said.
The comments come as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed concern over the health conditions of seven Palestinian hunger striking prisoners in Israeli jails, particularly Imad Abdelaziz Abdallah al-Batran.
“I think that the Israeli bureaucracy, the Israeli army, the Israel police really hate these people. They hate the Palestinians,” Davidson went on to say.
“They want to essentially hurt them [the Palestinians]. So, they’re frustrated by not being able to kind of clear these people out through massive ethnic cleansing. So, they just kind of brutalize them.”
Earlier this month, the Palestinian Ministry for Prisoner Affairs said Israel is still holding 5,100 Palestinian detainees, including 250 children and 14 women, in 17 prisons.
Many of the inmates are under administrative detention, or imprisoned without trial or charges. This is while the detention order can be renewed for indefinite periods of time.
“Unless there’s some sort of resolution, they will be held, most of them, forever. It is indefinite detention without any kind of habeas corpus rights,” the political analyst added.
