Topic: 2025 – Treatment of Prisoners
Country: Israel
Delegate Name: Nikolai Melnikov
The State of Israel vehemently denies allegations of prisoner abuse levied against it. In regards to the issue of prisoners’ rights, Israel continues to do its part in upholding Israeli and international law. The delegation for Israel hopes to reach a resolution that will pressure other nations to uphold its high standard for penal justice. It also hopes to bring to justice the malicious actors accusing Israel of abuse.
Since 1949, all of Israel’s detainees and detention centers have been overseen by the Israel Prison Service. The IPC takes every measure to ensure Israeli prisons meet the international standard. Inmates are allowed visits from lawyers and family members, as well as voting rights if they are citizens; Male and female inmates have the same rights, and the death penalty is not used. Israel’s prisoners are treated very fairly, in fact they are treated more fairly than those of CAR and Greece. According to a UN report, CAR is dealing with, “Thousands… currently held in overcrowded places of detention across the country, with limited access to food, water, sanitation, and basic healthcare” (OFTC). Additionally, a CPT report called the treatment of Greek prisoners an “affront to their human dignity” (CPT). Israel recognizes the issue of prisoner abuse internationally. It will continue to model a functional, law-abiding prison system, and strives for a resolution that incentivizes other nations to follow suit.
While Israeli prisons all uphold the nation’s laws, it has still become the victim of a malicious disinformation campaign. The slander comes from several corrupt news outlets, such as The Guardian, which headlines, “Cruellest form of torture’: freed Palestinians describe horrors of Israeli jail” (Seham Tantesh). Importantly, Israel is aware of a press release from UN experts which accuse it of “widespread and systemic abuse of Palestinians in detention and arbitrary arrest practices over decades” (OFTC). Israel categorically rejects these accusations as utterly unfounded, and considers them a significant part of the problem at hand. Anyone detained as a security prisoner, Palestinian or otherwise, is apprehended because they pose a threat to the national security of Israel, and is never subjected to systemic abuse per the knowledge of the IPC and the IDF. The misinformation regarding Israel’s human rights has significantly damaged its global reputation and led to retaliation from world powers, like the EU’s proposed sanctions and trade suspension. Israel would look favorably upon a resolution which seeks to stop the spread of disinformation, especially from within the UN, related to Israel’s treatment of prisoners, and which incentivizes nations not to persecute Israel based on a witch hunt.
