PHROC Troubled by the Increase in Administrative Detainees Numbers

The Palestinian Human Rights Organization Council (PHROC) is troubled by the increase in the numbers of administrative detainees in the Israeli occupation prisons while detainees are exposed to violations and deteriorating living conditions. The Council condemns the continuous policy of administrative detention against Palestinian activists as a blatant violation of the International Humanitarian Law and the Human Rights Principles. Meanwhile, the policy deprives detainees of a fair trial due to the excuse of confidential information. The Council forewarns the deterioration of the well-being and health of administrative detainees currently protesting against this continuous policy through hunger strikes.

According to PHROC sources, the number of Palestinian administrative detainees has currently reached 414 detainee, 6 of which are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

The Council reminds us of the open hunger strike conducted by 185 administrative detainees in April 2014 against this policy. But since the latest assault on Gaza in July of the same year, the numbers of administrative detainees has increased to 554 detainee.

The Israeli occupation state uses the administrative detention policy to bargain with Palestinian detainees and exert pressure on them. This policy reflects the abuse of administrative detention and the malleability of laws and procedures to serve political purposes under the allegation of confidential information. Consequently, occupation forces arrested the Palestinian activist Khader Adnan on the 8th of July 2014, and sentenced him to 6 months of administrative detention. The term was thus extended to 6 additional months, but after Adnan’s 8 day hunger strike objecting to the term and the policy in June 2015, the Military Court reduced the term to 4 months. When the 4 months were due, the court renewed the detention to 4 more months to which Adnan announced an open hunger strike as of May 6th, boycotted Military Courts, and abstained from the judicial review hearing on the 9th of May. Khader Adnan has previously committed an open hunger strike that lasted 66 days in 2012 protesting against his administrative detention and was released on April 17th, 2012.

Currently, three detainees are leading a hunger strike against the same policy protesting against the inhumane arrest conditions, namely: Nahed Al-Aqra’a on May 17th 2015; Hamza Sawaween on May 18th 2015 protesting against his solitary confinement; and Mohammad Rashdan on May 21st 2015 protesting against the prohibition of family visits.

In view of these facts, PHROC confirms that the Israeli occupation forces abuse the policy of administrative detention systematically and on a wide range as a means for punishing

Palestinians and exerting pressure on them. PHROC thus affirms that the purpose behind this policy is to perpetuate the occupational grip on the Palestinian people, prevent them from their right to self-determination, and exploit the administrative detainees as hostages of a bargain for political purposes.

The Occupation Power commenced the policy of administrative detention in 1967, and since then over 50,000 administrative detention orders have been issued; 24000 of them were issued between years 2000 and 2014 despite the policy being a blatant violation of International Law. It violates article 87 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and article 71 stating that “no sentence shall be pronounced by the competent courts of the Occupying Power except after a regular trial,” along with article 75 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions preserving their rights as detainees entitled to being treated humanely and enjoying their minimum and basic rights. The use of this policy by the Occupation Power as a punitive act against Palestinian civilians constitutes a grave breach to the Geneva Conventions signed on the 19th of August 1949, particularly article 147, and can be deemed a crime against humanity by article 7, and a war crime under article 8 of the Rome Statute.

As of the concern towards the increase in the numbers of administrative detainees in the Israeli Occupation prisons, PHROC states the following:

1. Affirms that the acts of administrative detention constitute a grave breach of International Humanitarian Law and the Principles of Human Rights, and deprives detainees from a fair trial under the allegation of confidential information.

2. Forewarns the deterioration of the health conditions of administrative detainees protesting against their continuous administrative detention through hunger strikes.

3. Calls upon the International Community for immediate action towards stopping the continuous crimes of the occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including the policy of administrative detention.

4. Reaffirms its demands from the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their responsibilities mentioned under article one of the Convention committing themselves to respecting the it under any circumstances, and staying true to their obligations under article 146 of undertaking “to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches” of the Convention, taking into consideration the war crime breaches mentioned in article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, along with the Additional Protocol preserving the rights of Palestinian civilians to protection in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.