ICSPR calls for ending the policy of administrative detention against Palestinian civilians

Press Release

ICSPR calls for ending the policy of administrative detention against Palestinian civilians

The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights “ICSPR” positively follows the announcement of the prisoners’ committee for the national and Islamic forces in the Gaza Strip regarding the launch of an international campaign to end the administrative detention in the prisons of the Israeli occupation.

On this occasion, ICSPR reiterates the need to exert sufficient efforts to compel the occupation authorities to stop the policy of administrative detention against Palestinians, including releasing and compensating them for the harm they have suffered, and holding the political and military agents of the Israeli occupation forces accountable for their continued violations of their rights, and add the Israeli occupation forces in the blacklists of most violating countries of the rules and principles of human rights.

The Israeli occupation authorities issued thousands of administrative detention decisions against Palestinians, which affected all segments of Palestinian society, including children and women, where official and civil statistics alike indicate that more than a third of the Palestinian people have been imprisoned during the long years of conflict with the Israeli occupation, whether during the first Palestinian intifada in 1987, the second intifada in 2000, the subsequent popular uprisings in Jerusalem and the cities of the West Bank, the arrests that took place at the border crossings of the Gaza Strip, or during the war operations carried out in the Gaza. The number of arrests that took place in Palestinian cities, towns and camps was estimated between 500 and 700 arrests per month, which is a very high percentage compared to previous years.

The number of Palestinian and Arab prisoners and detainees in the prisons of the occupation has reached more than 7000 prisoners in unbearable conditions, where family visits were prevented, the policy of solitary confinement and administrative provisions continued to be applied, university and high school exams continued to be banned, books were banned, food was poor in quantity and quality, and continuous searches and incursions into cells at night, mass transportation and places of detention that lack the minimum conditions for human life, leading to a rise in the list of sick detainees to more than (1,700) prisoners who suffer from various diseases due to the difficult conditions of detention, ill-treatment and malnutrition.

The Israeli military occupation authorities are still holding more than 700 administrative detainees without a charge or trial.

The continuation of the administrative detention policy prompted a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees to engage in an open hunger strike, individually or collectively, in order to pressure the Israeli prison authority administration to stop its systematic policies that violate the most basic rights granted to them under international conventions, especially the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the First Additional Protocol of 1977 to the Fourth Geneva Convention.

ICSPR expresses its solidarity with the Palestinian and Arab detainees in Israeli prisons and with their families who share their suffering, and stresses that the Israeli measures, including the insistence on issuing administrative detention decisions, falls within the framework of a clear and systematic Israeli policy that denies their legitimate rights, and aims to undermine detainees and deprive them of their most basic human rights. ICSPR expresses its support for the international campaign to end administrative detention, and declares its readiness to actively participate in this campaign to end the administrative detention. Therefore:

1-ICSPR calls on the international community to work seriously to ensure the fulfillment of the just demands of the Palestinian detainees until their release.

2-ICSPR calls on the contracting states to the Fourth Geneva Convention to carry out their legal duties to pressure the occupation state to ensure that it respects its legal obligations under international law and international humanitarian law, by stopping the policy of administrative detention.

3-ICSPR calls on the Council of the League of Arab States and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to hold ad hoc meetings to discuss the conditions of Palestinian and Arab prisoners and detainees in the occupation prisons, and to issue binding decisions that will triumph for their legitimate rights.

 4-ICSPR calls on organizations of all kinds to work hard to strengthen the movement of international solidarity with Palestinian and Arab detainees in Israeli prisons, including popular movement throughout the countries of the world, to raise the awareness of governments around the world and various international organizations and agencies of the danger of continuing to implement the policy of administrative detention and arbitrary detention.

5-ICSPR calls on the Palestinian leadership and diplomacy to move urgently towards the internationalization of the prisoners’ issue and to activate and employ the tools of international law to hold the occupation state accountable for its crimes committed against Palestinian detainees and prisoners.

6-ICSPR urges the Palestinian factions to complete the serious work in order to adopt a national initiative to form the (National Committee to Defend the Administrative Detainees in Israeli Prisons), by completing the work on the initiative presented by a number of national figures, with the participation of civil organizations and specialists, which was announced in mid-2013, in order to support the struggle of the prisoners on hunger strike for their objection to the decision of the military occupation authorities to subject them to administrative detention.

Finally, The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights “ICSPR” affirms its readiness to sponsor and coordinate local efforts aimed at supporting detainees, especially administrative detainees in Israeli prisons, in cooperation with all interested Palestinian parties, factions and persons.