Palestinian inmates imprisoned under Israel’s so-called policy of administrative detention continue their boycott of the Israeli military courts for the 23rd consecutive day.
Faraan: At least 500 Palestinian prisoners have been registering their protest against the controversial policy by refusing to show up for their military court hearings since the beginning of the year, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported on Sunday.
The boycott includes hearings for renewal of administrative detention orders as well as appeal hearings and later sessions at Israel’s so-called supreme court.
Palestinian detainees say their move is a continuation of longstanding Palestinian efforts “to put an end to the unjust administrative detention practiced against our people by the occupation forces.”
Palestinian prisoners also maintain that Israel’s use of administrative detention has expanded in recent years and many women, children and elderly people have been incarcerated under the thorny policy.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are held under administrative detention, in which Israel keeps the detainees without charge for up to six months, a period which can be extended an infinite number of times. Women and minors are among those detainees. The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the Israeli regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.
Palestinians and human rights groups say the detention violates the right to due process since evidence is withheld from prisoners while they are held for lengthy periods without being charged, tried, or convicted. Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at the detention. They have also been subjected to systematic torture, harassment and repression all through the years of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in some 17 Israeli jails, with dozens of them serving multiple life sentences. Over 540 detainees, including women and minors, are under Israel’s administrative detention.
Rights groups describe Israel’s use of administrative detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and have long called on Israel to bring its use to an end.
Palestinian prisoner in coma for 3rd week over medical negligence
In a separate development, a Palestinian commission for prisoners said Nasser Abu Hamid, a cancer patient held in Israeli jails, is in a coma for the third week due to acute pneumonia.
In a statement on Sunday, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs called on human rights and international organizations to urgently intervene and pressure the Israeli authorities to release the49-year old Palestinian prisoner, Wafa news agency reported. The commission further warned that Abu Hamid is facing an imminent risk of death as a result of his suffering from the consequences of a surgery he underwent last year.
On Saturday, Abu Hamid’s brother said the Israel Prison Service (IPS) has not allowed anyone, including family members, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or political figures to visit his critically ill brother in Israeli detention.
