‘Israeli authorities refuse to allow Jordanian prisoner’s siblings to see him without glass barrier’

AMMAN — Siblings of Jordanian prisoner in Israel Muneer Merie arrived in the jail on Wednesday but did not see their brother, because the prison administration “did not honour the agreed arrangements of the visit”, one brother said.

Shaheen, the brother who is still in Amman, said that family members called on officials at the Jordanian embassy in Israel to arrange a two-hour visit for his siblings without a glass barrier.

“Officials at the administration of the prison said that the deal with the embassy was to arrange a 40-minute visit with a barrier,” Shaheen told The Jordan Times.

Shaheen observed a hunger strike near the Foreign Ministry for 21 consecutive days, starting from November 9, demanding that officials secure a visit to his brother Muneer, who was reportedly attacked by prison guards recently.

He ended the strike after a brother and two sisters received visas to visit Muneer.

Shaheen said one of the visiting sisters has not seen Muneer for 17 years, and the brother for 26 years, noting that their imprisoned brother left Jordan for the West Bank in 1998.

The siblings are currently staying at a hotel in occupied Jerusalem, awaiting a solution, Shaheen said, noting that a Palestinian lawyer they contacted prior to travelling, is their host, and denouncing “the lack of concern shown by embassy officials”.

The assault on Muneer reportedly took place when guards at the Jalbou Prison implemented an inspection on his cell before dawn, violating a “deal” with prisoners to carry out such a procedure during the day.

Muneer, 38, was arrested in April 2003, and is serving five life sentences on charges related to dispatching some men to carry out attacks in Adora settlement in the West Bank’s Hebron.

“I met Mohammad Abu Windi, head of the office of coordinating negotiations at the Foreign Ministry, earlier in the day [Wednesday] and he said he would try to find a solution,” Shaheen said, noting that the duration of his siblings’ visas lasts for one week as of Wednesday.

He also said that five brothers will start an open-ended sit-in and a hunger strike near the Foreign Ministry if their siblings return to the Kingdom without seeing Muneer.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its officials followed up with the Israeli authorities to facilitate the issuance of visas for three family members and to arrange a visit for them on Wednesday to Muneer at Jalbou Prison.

“The prisoner and his siblings refused to meet under procedures set by the Administration of Israeli Prisons, and the Israeli authorities said that such procedures are applied for all visits and cannot be changed,” the statement said.

The statement added that the Jordanian embassy was still in contact with the relevant Israeli authorities to arrange for any possible measures to facilitate the visit.

On Thursday, the National Committee for Jordanian Prisoners and Missing Jordanians in Zionist Prisons, in cooperation with the national committee at the Jordan Agricultural Engineers Association, is scheduled to picket the Foreign Ministry in protest against “its failure to arrange a proper family visit” to Muneer.