JERUSALEM — Two prisoners on a rehabilitation program staged a six-hour protest while perched on top of the 200-foot high chimney of a laundry near Afula’s Emek Hospital Tuesday.
The drama ended when the men were eventually persuaded to climb down after lengthy negotiations with senior Prisons Service officials, police and members of their respective families.
The men had been working in the laundry as part of a rehabilitation program and reported there as usual Tuesday morning.
Unbeknown to the rest of the workforce, however, they climbed up the outside of the chimney, apparently to protest their conditions.
They threatened to jump from the top and, reportedly, also took with them a can of gasoline with which to set fire to themselves if anyone tried to approach from below.
It was not clear at the outset what the prisoners, both from the Shatta jail between Afula and Beit She’an, were actually protesting.
According to police sources, it was believed they were afraid of being transferred from the rehabilitation program after drugs were found in recent urine samples.
Water was sent up to the demonstrating prisoners, as well as a mobile phone, to enable communications during the negotiations.
They were persuaded to climb down after being promised their complaints would be investigated.