Photographer Tomer Ifrah from Tel Aviv received access to prison in 2011. At that time he worked as a reporter, and his initial task was to make a portrait of one prisoner. After talking with the women who stayed there and completing the work, Iphrakh later returned to prison.
For three months, the photographer spent at least one day in a women's prison every week, listened to and recorded the stories of those serving a sentence.
In 1979, the former Neve Tirtha prisoner, Rasmiah Odeh, a Palestinian accused of two explosions, testified to the UN Committee on Israel and Human Rights.
"Prisoners have different social origins, mainly belong to disenfranchised national minorities. They have to live side by side in tight cells. Most women are serving their second and third terms - they are not able to break out of this vicious circle. "
She saw 150 women in one cell, some of them with children.
Prisoners were deprived of the right to freedom of expression, they were selected any letters, where they wrote about their condition.
Jews and Muslims did not share. Because of this, conflicts arose.
Collective punishment was practiced, including beatings, using gas, depriving visits from relatives and friends.
The photographer says the following: "Women are held by 5-6 people in a cell. Just imagine a tiny camera, which you have to share with five other prisoners. From 7 pm until morning, the doors are closed. In the rest of the time you can go out, but there are also many outside prisoners. It's clear, there are always conflicts and fights. "
"Many people should not be there at all, they need psychiatric help. Most were born not in Israel, but came from Russia, Ethiopia or South America. "
ph: Tomer Ifrah