Palestinian prisoner dies after falling in the bathroom, Palestinians hold Israel responsible

A 23-year old prisoner in the Negev facility,  Nour Jaber Al-Barghouthi, slipped and fell in a bathroom and later died.

Of course, the Fatah movement and other Palestinian officials are holding Israel responsible for his death, claiming that the prison authorities delayed coming to his aid for a half hour. Is it true? It depends on whether you believe convicted terrorists.

But one detail of his death is interesting. As Palestine Today reports:

The head of the Prisoners and Editors Affairs Authority, Major General Qadri Abu Bakr, ...said: "The prisoner Nour Jaber Al-Barghouthi, who was in room No. 15 in section No. 25, fell yesterday evening in the bathroom of the room and lost consciousness, and the prisoners of the room tried to open the door and were unable to and they summoned the administration that deliberately delayed for more than half an hour and did not show up until after a state of anger carried out by the prisoners where they shouted and knocked on doors."

Why couldn't the prisoners open the door of the bathroom? Could it be that in Israeli prisons, the bathrooms have locks?

The story makes no sense any other way, but if true, that would be amazing. It means that prisoners have private bathrooms. This 1991 book says that each prison cell has its own separate bathrooms. This was confirmed in this 2011 report:

Speaking with JTA in his family home, Issawi said most prisoners are held eight to a cell that is approximately 25 feet by 15 feet. Each cell has its own shower, bathroom, kitchenette and a TV that receives 12 channels, including Israeli channels and several Arabic-language channels, among them Palestinian TV.

This doesn't sound exactly like a Soviet-style prison.

A young man slipped and fell, probably in the shower, probably hit his head, and no one could help him in time.

This is the 223rd Palestinian prisoner to die since 1967. As I've recently shown, that statistic means that Palestinians are safer that virtually every prisoner in the world.

And if you want to know how terrible things are in Israeli prisons, read this list of demands by Palestinians prisoners in 2004.

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