Saeb Erekat and the PLO cannot stop lying

The PLO's website says:

The Secretary of the Executive Committee of PLO, Dr. Saeb Erekat, said that the continued detention of Muhammad Majid Hassan Al-Taleb from Birzeit University in the Al-Maskoubiyeh detention center in Jerusalem, despite his diagnosis with coronavirus, is a flagrant violation of international law.

Erekat said that the international community and the Secretary-General of the United Nations have a responsibility to compel Israel to release him immediately to follow up his health and take the necessary measures, again calling for the release of all prisoners, headed by the sick, children, female prisoners and the elderly.

Is it really against international law to not release prisoners who are diagnosed with an illness? That would be pretty remarkable, if true.

Of course, it isn't. Erekat is lying.

But apparently that isn't the only thing he is lying about. I don't think that this person has COVID-19 to begin with.

The first reports of his supposed infection were published on April 24, when the Palestinian Prisoners Society claimed that he got infected in the prison.

But an AFP report published on Saturday quotes the Israel Prison Service in context of the similar rumor that another prisoner, released, was found to have COVID-19 when he came back home.

So far Israel says no cases have been detected among inmates.
...
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club, a Ramallah-based NGO, said dozens of prisoners had been released since the coronavirus arrived in Israel.

The NGO's Amani Sarahneh...said one released prisoner, who had been detained for just four days, later tested positive for the virus.

Israel poured scorn on the claim, saying the man was healthy when he exited the prison.

The Israeli Prisons Service told AFP it had "prepared for months to prevent the entry and spread of the coronavirus in its facilities."

Each prisoner was given two multi-use facemasks and new prisoners are isolated for 14 days, it said, condemning what it called "false reports" in Palestinian media and elsewhere.

If the IPS is denying any prisoners have the virus two days after the Palestinian claim, I believe the IPS any day.

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