Four Years Without Charge: the brutal reality of administrative detention

Yesterday Gaza celebrated a rare day of good news when twenty nine male prisoners were finally transferred from southern Israel’s Ketziot prison to the Gaza Strip. Their families were understandably delighted, although this Israeli ‘Good will gesture’ basically amounted to transfer from a closed prison to an open jail.

For the Israeli military in Gaza and the West Bank, it was business as usual yesterday. They were out on the streets, rounding up and arresting Palestinians as they do every day. Since July 16th Israel has arrested 1,050 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, including 52 children.

After accounting for this week’s release of eighty six Palestinian prisoners, figures from the Israeli Central Prison Administration state there are currently 9,507 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, including 94 women and 348 children.

Eight hundred and twenty four of these prisoners are being held in Administrative Detention. These men, women and children are all being detained without charge or trial, in complete violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Addameer is a Palestinian NGO that supports prisoners across the West Bank and Gaza. Yasser Qoud is the Lobbying and Advocacy Officer.
“These prisoners who have just been released were obviously hand picked” he says.
“Almost all these men had already served at least fifty percent of their sentence, and half of them were already scheduled for release either this year or next. A majority were arrested just last year, and none had been convicted of killing or injuring an Israeli. But the real question is: if this was an initiative by the Israeli Government, as it claimed – then why did they not release any women or children?”

Women and child detainees represent a minority of Palestinian prisoners, which is maybe why they rarely make the news. The 94 Palestinian women in jail in Israel include eleven women serving life sentences for murder or attempted murder of Israeli soldiers or settlers. Yasser Qoud says the overwhelming majority of Palestinian women prisoners however have been convicted of either harboring a wanted man, or assisting a suicide bomber. “There are also three women being held in administrative detention” he says, “who have absolutely no knowledge of why they are in jail.”

Administrative detention is the most chilling aspect of the Israeli prison regime. The detention itself is based on secret evidence produced in military tribunals, to which neither the detainee nor their lawyer have access. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians have been held for up to four and half years without charge.

The three Palestinian women currently in administrative detention are twenty two year old Ahlan Qasem, thirty two year old Nahed Al Shafaei and twenty one year old Suad Shyewkhi. They are all being held in Hasharon-Telmond detention centre near Tel Aviv.

Ahlan Qasem and Nahed Al Shafaei have both been held without charge or trial since November last year. Suad Shyewkhi was arrested at her home in Jerusalem in March, and has been in administrative detention for almost seven months.

Fifteen year old Ayat Dbabseh is not in administrative detention, but is also detained in Hasharon-Telmond after being arrested at her home in Hebron on June 20th this year. She is awaiting trial, though Addameer have no knowledge of the charges against this child.

There are also seven Palestinian children currently in Israeli administrative detention. The youngest, sixteen year old Mujahed Says, was arrested in Jenin on August 13th.
Under Israeli military regulations governing the Occupied Palestinian Territories (of which there are approximately 1,500) Palestinian children over the age of sixteen are regarded as adults, though this violates the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, which Israel has signed.

Lawyer Khaled Guzmar has worked with Defense for Children International for twelve years.
“We were very disappointed that no children were released this week” he says. “We believe all Palestinian children in prison should be immediately and unconditionally released, because they are being held against international law, and should never have been imprisoned in the first place.”

Addameer has been supporting Palestinian prisoners since 1992, and knows that Palestinians are tortured whilst in prison, because they have received testimonies direct from the prisoners themselves.
“Palestinians in Israeli jails are deliberately deprived of sleep, food and water, showers and toilets” says Yasser Qoud.
“They are also locked in confined spaces and shackled in painful positions for long periods. Women detainees are dealt with as brutally as men, and subject to the same deprivations, interrogations and torture as male prisoners. But they also face being threatened with rape if they do not confess.”

Palestinian children in Israeli jails have also reported being tortured. Sixteen year old Rashed Radwa was arrested at the Nablus Huwwara checkpoint in April. He was beaten and abused by Israeli soldiers for ten hours, and when he refused to sign a confession in Hebrew, his head was bashed against a desk before he was also taken to Hasharon-Telmond detention centre.

The Israeli Government has no qualms about using the hand picked release of prisoners as political leverage in the run up to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meeting President Mahmoud Abbas, and the autumn Peace Meeting. But the hard facts tell their own story. Whilst publicising its release of 250 Palestinian prisoners in July, Israel actually arrested three hundred Palestinians. Men, women and children across the West Bank and Gaza continue to be imprisoned without due process, tortured, and held hostage under administrative detention.

Addameer regard all Palestinians in Israeli jails as political prisoners who have been incarcerated for resisting the Israeli occupation. But the association has also fiercely criticized the Palestinian Authority for not lobbying on behalf of these prisoners.

“The Palestinian Authority does not care about these prisoners,” says Yasser Qoud. “This is supposed to be one of their priorities, but look at the situation we are facing. Palestinians are being hand-selected for release, whilst the Israeli military continue their campaigns of invasions, arrests, interrogations and detentions. The Palestinian Authority ought to be pressing this issue with all the might it has – because these men, women and children are prisoners of war.”