Ayalon Prison

Ayalon Prison (Hebrew: בית סוהר איילון), formerly known as Ramla Prison, is a maximum-security prison located in Ramla, Israel. It is managed by the Israel Prison Service.

Ayalon Prison
בית סוהר איילון‎

View of a guard tower at the prison, 2010
Ayalon Prison Location within Israel
Status	Operational
Security class	Maximum
Capacity	625 cells (15 wings)
Opened	1950
Former name	Ramla Prison
Managed by	Israel Prison Service
City	Ramla
Country	Israel

The prison was opened in 1950, and was built in the style of the Tegart forts from the British Mandate era. It is one of four high-security criminal prisons operated by the Israel Prison Service.^[1] Ayalon Prison has 625 cells divided into 15 wings, including an isolation wing for prisoners in solitary confinement. It has an educational center with six classrooms for primary education and classes for English, computers and art. The prison also has facilities for meditation, sports, parenting, and drug rehabilitation, in addition to eight factories which employ inmates^[2] and a radio station operated by inmates selected and trained to broadcast rehabilitative and educational content to all other prisons in Israel.

Notable inmates

• Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi German official and major organizer of the Holocaust during World War II; executed in 1962 following his capture by Mossad agents in Argentina. He is one of only two people to be executed in Israel since its independence. His executioner was Ramla guard Shalom Nagar.^[3][4]
• John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian guard at Nazi death camps during the Holocaust; extradited from the United States to Israel in 1986 and imprisoned at Ayalon until 1993.^[5]
• Yigal Amir, an Israeli right-wing ultranationalist who assassinated the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, in 1995.
• Ben Zygier (or Prisoner X), an Australian-Israeli veteran of the Israel Defense Forces and alleged Mossad agent; imprisoned for unspecified crimes and died by suicide while in custody in December 2010.^[4]
• Yishai Schlissel, stabbed marchers at multiple Jerusalem pride parades in 2005 and 2015.
• Meir Kahane, was jailed there in 1980 for six months for planning armed attacks against Arabs. During his time there, he wrote his best-selling and controversial book, They Must Go.

References

1. "פסק-דין בתיק רע"ב 8858/15". elyon1.court.gov.il. Archived from the original on 4 August 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
2. "הקשר בין אסירים בכלא איילון לחנויות יוקרה בכיכר המדינה". הארץ.
3. "Israel readies new death penalty law". Tv7 Israel News. 3 March 2023.
4. Politik (24 June 2010). "Ben Zygier: Mossad-Agent soll Häftling X gewesen sein - SPIEGEL ONLINE". Spiegel.de. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
5. Der Spiegel (9 March 1986). "DER SPIEGEL 11/1986 - Absolute Gerechtigkeit". Der Spiegel. Spiegel.de. Retrieved 19 June 2013.

31.935083°N 34.881270°E / 31.935083; 34.881270 (Ayalon Prison)