Occupied, Imprisoned, and Pregnant: What to Expect When You’re Expecting Under Israeli Occupation

By Amal Shukr

The Israeli occupation of Palestine has long ago broken colonialist boundaries, as Palestinians have been subjected to a life under military law and arbitrary imprisonment since 1948.[1] But such colonialist advancements faced a particular high when, on March 8, 2021, Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) brutally arrested 25-year-old Anhar Al-Deek near her village, Kufr Nima, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.[2] Despite announcing her pregnancy, Anhar was beaten by the IOF and Israeli settlers during her arrest, resulting in her hospitalization.[3]

At the time of her arrest, Anhar had entered her third month of pregnancy, and suffered from post-partum depression after giving birth to her daughter, Julia, now a toddler.[4] Anhar was enjoying a nature walk on her family’s property when Israeli soldiers attacked her, accusing her of attempting to stab them.[5] The charges against Anhar included assault and possession of a kitchen knife; it is worth mentioning that Anhar’s possession of the kitchen knife only came about during—and not prior to—the altercation with Israeli settlers.[6] A few hours after her hospitalization, Anhar was transferred to HaSharon Prison.[7]

Anhar’s fate only worsened upon her arrest; after facing uninterrupted hours of interrogation, she was subjected to solitary confinement for one month.[8] Thereafter, she was removed to the notorious Damon Prison, where Palestinian women prisoners are chronically exposed to inhumane conditions, tortured, and deprived of their basic needs.[9] During the entirety of her six-month imprisonment, Anhar was afforded only one visit from her husband; even more tragic, she was denied a mere phone call with her daughter.[10] Under the oppressive prison conditions enveloping her, Anhar exploited the only measure of resistance she could muster: her pen. On August 25, 2021, a painful letter that Anhar wrote from her prison cell to family went viral on social media.[11] Anhar writes:                

I am exhausted. I have severe pain in my pelvis from sleeping on the bed of the prison. I   have no idea how I will sleep on it after the surgery, and how I will make my first steps   afterwards with the help of an Israeli jailer who holds my hand with disgust . . .

I do not know how I will look after [baby boy] and protect him from their horrifying voices. No matter how strong I am, I will feel helpless in front of what they do to me and to the rest of my inmates.

I ask every free and honorable person to take action even if it is by only a  word. [emphasis added].[12]

The Israeli Prison Services (IPS) decided that Anhar would be placed under solitary confinement after her delivery on September 20, 2021—deprived from her newborn baby boy—under the garb of COVID-19.[13]  However, on September 2nd, the Palestinian Human Rights Organization Council submitted an Urgent Appeal to the UN Special Procedures, highlighting Anhar’s critical condition.[14] The next day, an Israeli military court ordered Anhar’s house arrest with a 40,000 shekel ($12,500) bond.[15]

Under international law, women prisoners are afforded special rights in conjunction with their respective mental, physical, and maternal needs.[16] Pregnant women prisoners, as one would imagine, are entitled to even more specialized rights to protect the health and sanctity of both the mother and the unborn child. For example, under the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners (the Bangkok Rules),

Non‑custodial sentences for pregnant women and women with dependent children shall be preferred where possible and appropriate . . . with custodial sentences being considered when the offense . . . is violent or the woman represents a continuing danger   and after taking into account the best interests of the child. [emphasis added][17] 

Since zero Israeli settlers were injured during the alleged altercation—and in fact, Anhar was the one who suffered hospitalization—it is quite clear that the seriousness of Anhar’s alleged crime must be undermined, and she does not serve a “continuing” danger to society. By robbing Anhar’s daughter, Julia, of her mother for six months without considering a non-custodial arrangement, then, the Israeli regime completely abandoned Julia’s best interest and violated international standards in the process. Moreover, the Bangkok Rules require “[t]he accommodation of women prisoners . . . have facilities and materials required to meet women’s specific hygiene needs . . . in particular women . . . who are pregnant,” and under the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, “there shall be special accommodation for all necessary pre-natal and post-natal care and treatment.”[18] Throughout her imprisonment, Anhar faced deliberate medical neglect, with no access to prenatal care during her high-risk pregnancy.[19] Anhar spent her final two trimesters in Damon prison and was exposed to harsh and unhygienic conditions, with zero consideration for her pregnant state by the IOF.[20] The Rules further contend that “[d]isciplinary sanctions for women prisoners shall not include a prohibition of family contact, especially with children.”[21] And yet, Anhar missed six months of her daughter Julia’s life; Julia is only two years old, meaning one fourth of Julia’s life was lived motherless at the hand of the Israeli occupation. Perhaps most strikingly, the Bangkok Rules warn that “[p]unishment by close confinement or disciplinary segregation shall not be applied to pregnant women [or] women with infants.” [22] And yet, the IOF subjected Anhar to solitary confinement immediately upon her arrest—knowing she is pregnant, and knowing she is the mother of a small child. The IOF did not contemplate de-escalation measures before resorting to the extreme punishment of solitary confining a pregnant woman as against all standards of international law and common notions of humanity. Undeniably, the IOF managed to infringe upon every right entitled to Anhar as a pregnant prisoner under international law.

The Israeli regime is well acquainted with violating U.N. Resolutions as if they do not exist.[23] In fact, Israel has been singled out as a chronic violator of women’s rights in a 2017 U.N. Resolution, noting specifically the Occupying Body’s continued confinement of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons, subjecting them to “gender-specific challenges, including inadequate access to medical care, risks associated with pregnancy and giving birth in prison and sexual harassment.”[24] Indeed, Anhar’s case is not an isolated one; since 1972, there have been eight documented cases in which the IOF detained pregnant Palestinian women, all of whom gave birth in prison.[25] Currently, there are around 4,850 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, including mothers, and at least 225 children.[26]

While it is helpful to quote U.N. Resolutions to station Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people within a legal framework, clearly there is nothing the U.N. has ever done to hold the Settler State accountable absolutely for its transgressions against Palestinians; Anhar’s victory is a house arrest with a $12,500 bail.[27] This is the justice she gets after enduring such illegal imprisonment, and after petitioning to the U.N. Special Procedures Committee. This is justice under Israeli occupation. And when Anhar’s case becomes another passing statistic under Israel’s umbrella of offenses, it will all come down to this: which free and honorable person will take action, even if only by a word?

[1] During the tragic Nakba, between 750,000 to one million indigenous Palestinians were forced out of their land and were made refugees by the Israeli Occupation. See Amnesty International, Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories 2019, (Sept. 1, 2021), https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/; See also Virginia Tilley, Beyond Occupation: Apartheid, Colonialism, and International Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 36-54, (2012).

Today, Palestinians only possess a thin sliver of Gaza—which is an open-air prison guarded by Israeli forces—and the scattered remnants of the Occupied Territories on the east side of the region, including the West Bank, in which Palestinians are subject to military law. See Human Rights Watch, Born without Civil Rights: Israel’s use of Draconian Military Orders to Repress Palestinians in the West Bank, (Dec. 17, 2019), https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/12/17/born-without-civil-rights/israels-use-draconian-military-orders-repress.

[2] Palestinian Human Rights Organization Council, Urgent Appeal to the UN Special Procedures on the Critical Need to Immediately Release Nine-Month Pregnant Palestinian Woman Anhar Al-Deek from Israeli Prison (September 2, 2021).

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] MEE Staff, Middle East Eye (September 3, 2021), https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-court-releases-pregnant-prisoner-anhar-deek.

[6] Palestinian Human Rights, supra note 2.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] Under the Bangkok Rules: “Women prisoners shall be allocated, to the extent possible, to prisons close to their home or place of social rehabilitation, taking account of their caretaking responsibilities, as well as the individual woman’s preference and the availability of appropriate programmes and services.” Yet, Damon prison is 86 miles away from Anhar’s home. Damon Prison is also a direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of the population from the occupied territory to the territory of the occupier.

See International Women’s Day: Palestinian Female Prisoners, Addameer (July 3, 2019), https://www.addameer.org/news/international-womens-day-palestinian-female-prisoners-still-crave-freedom.

[10] Palestinian Human Rights, supra note 2.

[11] Painful Message from Palestinian, Days of Palestine (August 25, 2021), https://daysofpalestine.ps/post/17050/Painful-message-from-Palestinian-pregnant-in-her-ninth-month-Anhar-Al-Deek.

[12] Id.

[13] Palestinian Human Rights, supra note 2.

[14] Id.

[15] MEE supra note 5.

[16] Economic and Social Council Res. 2017/63 (March 3, 2017).

[17] Id.

[18] Id.; U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

[19] Palestinian Human Rights, supra note 2.

[20] Id.

[21] Economic and Social Council Res. 2017/63 (March 3, 2017).

[22] Id.

[23] See Human Rights Watch, A Threshold Crossed (April 27, 2021) https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution.

[24] Economic and Social Council Res. 2017/63 (March 3, 2017).

[25] Palestinian Human Rights, supra note 2.; See https://www.addameer.org/news/4484.

[26] TRT World, First Case Since 2008, a Palestinian Set to Give Birth Jail (September 2, 2021), https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/first-case-since-2008-a-palestinian-set-to-give-birth-in-israeli-jail-49644.

[27] MEE supra note at 5.