Israel Violates Palestinians’ Rights with Administrative Detention Policy
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners continue to boycott Israeli courts in protests against their illegal administrative detention, according to which they are held without charge or trial in violation of international laws.
Under this controversial policy, Palestinian prisoners are held for an indefinite period of time without trial and without having committed an offense, only on an Israeli assessment that they might break the law in the future.
This measure is supposed to be preventive and has no time limit. There are no legal proceedings. It can come into force following the orders of a regional military commander, based on classified evidence that is not revealed to victims.
This leaves the detainees helpless, facing unknown allegations with no way to disprove them, and not knowing when they will be released.
The Palestinian prisoner, Montaser Shadeed, 51, is one of the 500 administrative detainees in Israeli jails. He has been serving 10 years in administrative detention.
Shadeed’s wife, Umm Umar, narrated the difficult living conditions she suffered from while he is in jail.
Shadeed was first arrested in 1993 and held in administrative detention for six months. He was later released to be arrested a year later, where he was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment.
He was released in 2005 after completing his prison sentence. Shortly after his release, he got married amid hope of building a family.
However, his life was turned into a nightmare after being re-arrested and held in administrative detention till today.
Umm Umar, a mother of four children, said that Shadeed has spent a total of 10 years in administrative detention in separate arrests. He was released for a few months and to be re-arrested again.
The Palestinians commemorate Prisoners Day on April 17 every year because there is no family that has not had a member arrested by Israeli forces.
Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in mid-1967, more than 1 million Palestinians have been arrested.
Some 4,450 are still in Israeli prisons, including women, 160 children, and 500 administrative detainees. Some have spent more than 42 years in captivity. The longest-serving prisoner is Nael Barghouthi.
