The terrorists imprisoned in Israeli jails waste hundreds of thousands of cubic meters a year worth millions of dollars, and although the Israel Prisons Service has been aware for years of this crime, the disturbing waste has not stopped.
While the Israeli Water Authority is engaged in a campaign titled, “Israel is drying up,” calling on water consumer to save the precious commodity, an Hakol Hayehudi report, confirmed by IPS officials, says the terrorists intentionally leave the taps open in their cells, in a hostile attack on Israel’s resources.
Recent data reported by Hakol Hayehudi indicate that while, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, an ordinary citizen’s water consumption is about 70 cubic meters per year, while the average water consumption of a terrorist is not less than 248.4 cubic meters per year.
That’s some thirsty terrorists.
This information was presented about a decade ago in the Knesset by MK Danny Danon (Likud), currently Israel’s UN envoy. Moreover, 11 years ago, the IPS announced its plan to “formulate plans to reduce water consumption” by its security prisoners. Needless to say, the plans are yet to be implemented—or drawn, come to think of it—over more than a decade, and the terrorists continue to waste millions of dollars a year in depleting the country’s most essential natural resource.
The IPS issued a response, saying that “in contrast to criminal prisoners, security prisoners in Israeli prisons spend most of the day in their cells. In addition, due to security constraints, the showers and toilets are usually located inside the cells and there are no shared showers in the wing, which makes it possible to overuse the water.
“The IPS is aware of the worrisome phenomenon and has been working for a period of time to limit the use of water and reduce consumption, among other things by separating the water system from the shower system. Shower hours will be significantly limited and consumption will decline. This infrastructure operation is already underway and will continue to be implemented in all security prisons.”
In June, 2017, in his final ruling before retiring from the Supreme Court, then Deputy Court President Justice Elyakim Rubinstein ruled that the state should expand the living space of prisoners in Israel from three square meters to four within a year, and to four and a half within six months. The decision was made in response to a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Academic Center for Law and Business in Ramat Gan, which claimed that the imprisonment of a person in an area of less than four square meters (43 square feet) is inappropriate and contradicts both international law and Israel’s Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.
Rubinstein did not distinguish between criminal and security prisons, and even pointed out the severe overcrowding of the latter. The retiring justice did not relate to the nature of the offenses and the treatment approach towards the prisoners, only to a person’s basic entitlement to proper living conditions.
Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Minister of Information Gilad Erdan (Likud) wants to promote legislation that would separate the two types of prisoners, so that the space goal set by the High Court would not apply to security prisoners – on the grounds that, unlike criminal prisoners, the security prisoners are not Israeli citizens and will not return to Israeli society after their imprisonment, therefore they are not entitled to rehabilitation.