Israeli Policies and Practices Solitary confinement and isolation have often been excessively and inappropriately used against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facilities. At the end of March 2016 there were 15 Palestinians being held in isolation and untold more in solitary confinement.194 Solitary confinement and isolation are often used to refer to two different practices in the Israeli prison system. Solitary confinement is generally used during the interrogation period or as a common punitive measure.195 Prisoners stay 24 hours per day in a small cell with only a mattress and a blanket, and must make a request to a guard in order to be taken to a toilet.196 Isolation, on the other hand, is ostensibly used to separate prisoners who are either a security threat or mentally ill, and can be used to seclude them for an indefinite length of time.197 These prisoners are placed in a cell with an average size of 1.5 x 2 meters to 3 x 3.5 meters and allowed to leave only one hour per day.198 Conditions in these cells are generally appalling, leading the Israeli Bar Association to conclude that conditions in the cells “in most of the various Prisons Service facilities do not meet minimal standards and are not suitable for living and certainly not for an unlimited period of time.”199 “In the investigation centers [where they keep prisoners in solitary confinement or isolation], you will not know what time it is, whether it is day or night or which day it is. The first time you are there, you will get lost, but through experience in these places you begin to learn how to keep track. So at first, you might be there for 5 or 10 days and have no idea what time or day it is. You may be shocked later when you discover only a few days have passed, like you might feel as though you have been there for a long time. You might think you have been there for a month or 40 days. You can’t recognize if it is day or night because there is no natural light. Even in the interrogation offices, there is no indication of time. But you can do things like glance at the watch of the interrogator if you get the chance. But even then, you still won’t know if its day or night, it could say 4 but you won’t know if that is am or pm. We might guess from our experience. But they might deliberately confuse us as well. So they might give us breakfast, and that will be at about 5 in the morning. You 194 Addameer, Isolation and solitary confinement of Palestinian Prisoners, February 2016. Available at: http://www.addameer.org/key_issues/isolation 195 Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Al Mezan, Solidarity Confinement of Prisoners, op. cit., June 2011, page 2-3 196 Addameer, Isolation and solitary confinement of Palestinian Prisoners op. cit., February 2016 197 Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Al Mezan, Solidarity Confinement of Prisoners, op. cit., June 2011, page 3 198 Ibid., page 9 199 Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Al Mezan, Solidarity Confinement of Prisoners, op. cit., June 2011, pages 9-10 55