Palestinian prisoner's family fear for his life threats by far-right Israeli politician 'to kill him'

Noureddin Jarbou, 27 years old, is held in the Ramleh prison clinic for severe wounds sustained before his arrest by Israeli forces in April. According to Jarbou's family, on Monday Ben Gvir called and threatened to kill him.
3 min read
West Bank
24 August, 2022
Itamar Ben Gvir has repeatedly assaulted Palestinian prisoners and their families. [Getty]

The family of Palestinian prisoner Noureddin Jarbou said that they feared for his life after the far-right Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir "threatened to kill him".
 
Israeli forces arrested 27-year-old Jarbou in the Jenin refugee camp in early April after seriously wounding him during a military raid into the camp. He has since been held in the Israeli Ramleh prison clinic.
 
On Monday, Jarbou received a phone call from Ben Gvir, in which the far-right Israeli politician "threatened to kill" the prisoner.
 
"The phone that Ben Gvir called was allocated by the Israeli jails authority specifically for Noureddin Jarbou to receive calls from his family," Amani Sarahneh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, told The New Arab.
 
"Nobody knows its number apart from the Israeli jails authority and Jarbou's family," she pointed out.

"This fact made his family consider Ben Gvir's threat seriously because if the Israeli jails authority allowed him to have the phone number, they could allow him to access him personally," she added.

 "We truly fear for Noureddin's life, given Been Gvir's record of aggressions to Palestinian prisoners and their families," Jarbou's brother told The New Arab's sister Arabic publication Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
 
"We demand Israeli authorities release Noureddin, especially due to his health condition from his wounds," added the brother. "Meanwhile, he should be medically treated and provided protection."
 
Itamar Ben Gvir is a member of Knesset representing the "Jewish Strength" ultra-nationalist, religious Zionist party, inspired by the late Zionist extremist Meir Kahana.
 
In 2017, Ben Gvir stormed into a bus transporting families of Palestinian prisoners and verbally insulted them. He also repeatedly lead Israeli settlers' mobs into the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem.

More recently, Ben Gvir tried to break into the hospital room of a Palestinian detainee on hunger strike but was stopped by Palestinians who were present at the moment.
 
The president of the Palestinian commission for Prisoners' Affairs, Qadri Abu Baker, told the Palestinian state news agency, Wafa, that the commission "will deal with Ben Gvir's threat seriously".

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club said Israel "bares full responsibility" over Jarbou's life.
 
Ben Gvir's threat to Palestinian prisoner Noureddin Jarbou comes as Palestinian prisoners launched protests against punitive actions imposed by Israeli authorities, possibly leading to a mass hunger strike in September.