Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH — The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees on Friday said that the Israeli occupation authorities decided to bar Palestinian prisoners from taking high school exams, known as the Tawjihi. The ministry said in a press statement that the Israeli Prisons Service (IPS) decided to bar hundreds of prisoners in Israeli jails from taking the exams for this scholastic year. the exams will begin in West Bank and Gaza Strip on Saturday, June 15. It added that the IPS took the decision despite several hunger strikes the Palestinian prisoners launched against it. The ministry said that the IPS's decision “a blatant violation of the Third Geneva Convention” which states that “prisoners must be allowed to receive educational materials, including books, scientific equipment, exams, musical instruments, and other materials that allow them to study.” It called on the international community to intervene on behalf of the Palestinian prisoners to “pressure Israel to cancel the decision.” On last December, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that Palestinian prisoners are not eligible to study in the Israeli Open University or Tawjihi. Judge Asher Grunis, President of the High Court of Justice, wrote the decision regarding Palestinians prisoners who fall under the Israeli category of “security prisoners”. Grunis stated that the Palestinian prisoner's rights to academic studies were not anchored in the Israeli law. He added in the ruling that it was not discrimination to deny such prisoners access to higher education. On July 2011, the Israeli Prison Service announced that Palestinian prisoners will not be allowed to enroll in university studies. The IPS said at the time that the Israeli Knesset's Interior Committee gave the green light for the implementation of the decision. Israel holds some 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in 23 jails and detention camps. The Palestinian Authority (PA) said at the time that the decision was part of the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decision to take away prisoners' privileges in order to pressure Hamas into releasing kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The Israeli soldier was released on October 2011 in exchange with 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu's decision came in response to Hamas's refusal to let the International Committee of the Red Cross International Red Cross visit Shalit. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had repeatedly said the Palestinians will not sign any final peace agreement before Israel shuts down all its prisons and releases all the Palestinian prisoners, which were rejected by Israel. A new Israeli poll, conducted by Smith Research center for the Knesset's Land of Israel caucus, found that 85 percent of Israeli Jews against the PA's demand to release Palestinian prisoners as a precondition for the resumption of peace talks. Asked whether they would support releasing prisoners as a gesture to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table, 57 percent said they would strongly oppose it, 28 percent said were against it, 13 percent said they supported it and just 2 percent said they were strongly in favor of such a move.
