PHROC condemns the arrest of Deputy Khalida Jarrar

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) firmly condemns the Israeli occupation forces decision issued by the military commander to arrest Khalida Jarrar from her house last Thursday for a six month administrative detention. The council calls upon the International Community, particularly the High Contracting Parties in the Fourth Geneva Convention, to pressure the occupation to release Legislative Council (LC) member Jarrar and all the Palestinian LC members and detainees from the Israeli prisons.

On Sunday 5th of April 2015, the military commander of the occupation forces sentenced LC member Khalida Jarrar to a six month administrative detention period. On Thursday April 2nd 2015, she was arrested from her house in Ramallah city while her mobile phone and laptop were confiscated and she was detained by the Israeli forces. She was interrogated at the Ofer military prison west of Ramallah, and is now detained in HaSharon military prison.

According to statistics from Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, member of PHROC, about 23 women are captivated in prisons, and 15 members of the Legislative Council are in Israeli prisons, 8 of whom are administratively arrested.

PHROC firmly condemns the arrest of Khlaida Jarrar as a policy of the occupation to criminalize Palestinian activists and leaders, and punish them for their struggle and right to self-determination. The PHROC thus affirms the following:

1. Administrative detention as practiced by the occupation is arbitrary, illegal, and deprives Palestinian detainees from their right to fair and regular trials. These practices are deemed war crimes according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, article 8 (2) (a) (vi), where “willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of their rights of fair and regular trial” is considered a war crime.

2. The detention policy practiced by the Israeli forces against politically active Palestinians is a vengeful act against civilians prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention. This policy violates the International Humanitarian Law and the International Human Rights Law, and disengages the occupation from its legal commitments.

accordingly, PHROC calls upon the International Community, particularly the High Contracting Parties in the Fourth Geneva Convention, to pressure the occupation to release LC member Jarrar and all the Palestinian LC members and detainees from the Israeli prisons following their commitment to the articles of the convention especially article 1 committing to respecting the convention, and their commitment to article 146 committing to persecuting whomever commits grave breaches of the convention.