Administrative Detention in Israeli Prisons

Administrative Detention in Israeli Prisons

Published on Tuesday, 27 May 2014 16:13

PNN/Ramallah
Palestinian Ministry of Information published today a public release that PNN has received a copy classify the administrative detention, which used by the Israeli authority against the Palestinian prisons.
Administrative detention is a detention without charge or trial that is authorized by administrative order rather than by judicial decree.
 Although Under international law, it is allowed under certain circumstances. However, because of the serious injury to due-process rights inherent in this measure and the obvious danger of its abuse, international law has placed rigid restrictions on its application a matter that Israel ignores and violates.
According to international law, administrative detention can be used only in the most exceptional cases, as the last means available to preventing danger that cannot be thwarted by less harmful means.   Yet Israel uses this form of collective punishment systematically.
On April, 24^th, administrative Prisoners started an open hunger strike which continues until this moment calling to revoke Administrative detention, since there are prisoners been detained for more than 5 years. There are still 150 prisoners on hunger strike facing critical health conditions, without any kind of understanding from the Israeli side regardless of the prisoners’ basic human needs.
Israel's use of administrative detention blatantly violates the restrictions of international law. This kind of detention denies Palestinian prisoners the possibility of mounting a proper defense and moreover it has no upper time limit.
Over the years, Israel has placed thousands of Palestinians in administrative detention for prolonged periods of time, keeping them in jails without trials, without informing them of the charges against them, and without allowing them or their attorneys to examine the evidence.
In this way, the occupation military judicial system ignores the right to freedom and due process, the right of defendants to state their case, and the presumption of innocence, all of which are protections clearly enshrined in both Israeli and international law.
As of the end of June 2012, Israel has detained more than 285 Palestinians in administrative detention.
Over the years, Israel has held thousands of Palestinians in administrative detention, for periods ranging from several months to several years. The highest number of administrative detainees was documented during the first intifada. On November 5^th, 1989, Israel was holding 1,794 Palestinians in administrative detention. In the early and mid-1990s, the number of administrative detainees ranged from 100 to 350 at any given moment. On December 13^th, 2000, two and a half months after the second intifada erupted, Israel held 12 Palestinians in administrative detention. In March 2002, the number stood at 44.
Three pieces of legislation enable Israel to hold Palestinians in administrative detention:
1.     Articles 284-294 of the Order regarding Security Provisions [Consolidated Version] (Judea and Samaria) (No. 1651), 5770-2009, which is part of the military legislation in the West Bank. Most administrative detainees are held under individual detention orders issued pursuant to this order.
2.     The Emergency Powers (Detentions) Law, which applies in Israel and replaced the administrative-detention arrangement established in the Emergency Regulations of the Mandate period. It is rare for residents of the Occupied Territories to be administratively detained under this law.
3.     The Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law, which came into force in 2002. Originally, the law was intended to enable the holding of Lebanese citizens who were being held in Israel at the time as “bargaining chips” for the return of captives and bodies. Now, Israel uses the law to detain without trial Palestinian residents in Gaza Strip, where the military legislation was implemented following the “disengagement” plan, in September 2005.
Human rights organizations position which we believe and support is that the government of Israel must release all administrative detainees or prosecute them, in accordance with due process, for the offenses they allegedly committed. As long as Israel continues to use administrative detention, it must do so in a way that
Comports with international law.