IDF jailers use TV as anti-riot tool

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
IDF jailers at the Ketziot facility in the southern Negev desert, where Palestinian security prisoners are held, have discovered a unique deterrent against disturbances: TV. The soldiers' weekly Bamahane reports in its current issue that in the year since the first TV set was installed in the prison, there have been no serious disturbances that required tear gas for dispersal - a common occurrence up to then. As a result, further recreational activities are planned. The prison commander, identified only as Lt. Col. Avi by the magazine, said the security prisoners spend their time watching television instead of planning disturbances. "The culture of planning hostile activity here is withering away," he told the weekly.