Fahima backers launch petition to free her from isolation

Tali Fahima's supporters have organized an international petition demanding that she be released from the isolation she has been subjected to in Neveh Tirza prison since her arrest on August 8, 2004.

"We appeal to women and men of conscience worldwide, especially members of the medical, psychiatric and legal professions, on behalf of Tali Fahima, an Israeli peace activist whose conditions of imprisonment in prolonged isolation threaten her long-term well-being," wrote the petition organizers.

Fahima is on trial in Tel Aviv District Court on charges that include assistance to the enemy in war, delivery of information to the enemy, contact with a foreign agent, possession of a weapon without lawful authority, support for a terrorist organization and contravention of a lawful order.

A spokesman for the Israel Prisons Service confirmed that Fahima was being "kept apart" to protect her from prison inmates. This means she is completely cut off from other prisoners. She lives in her own cell, eats alone, and exercises in the courtyard when no one else is around.

The spokesman said there are hundreds of prisoners kept apart, most of them for their own protection, although many of them live together among themselves. He said he did not know how many prisoners live in complete isolation like Fahima. The spokesman said prison authorities had tried to arrange a roommate for Fahima, but the arrangement did not work out.

Fahima has been remanded in custody until the end of the proceedings against her. Her trial is due to resume on July 17, nearly a year after her original arrest and placement in isolation.

The petitioners wrote that being "concerned about the effects of imprisonment under conditions of total isolation on Ms. Fahima, we appeal for your intervention so that her conditions in prison are normalized in accordance with accepted Israeli and international standards."

The petition was signed by people from Israel, the US, Europe, Canada and Australia. One of the signatories was CNN reporter Charles Glass, who was held in solitary confinement for two months by Hizbullah in 1987. Glass wrote that solitary confinement was "cruel and potentially harmful."

Petition organizers charged that the decision to hold Fahima in isolation was "vindictive harassment." Fahima was arrested after attempting to visit the Jenin refugee camp for the fourth time in a year. She had become a close friend of Zakariya Zubeidi, head of the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades in the area. Fahima was jailed on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack and held for a month. At the end of that period, the authorities ordered her held in administrative detention for four months as a security threat. In December, she was put back in jail, and a few days later the prosecution indicted her. Her trial opened in January.

Tel Aviv District Court Judge Zvi Gurfinkel ordered Fahima to be released to house arrest on the grounds that the charges against her did not establish the allegation that she threatened public security. However, the ruling was overturned a few weeks later by the Supreme Court.