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Israeli Detention & Imprisonment Practices: Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, over 750,000 Palestinians have been detained by the Israeli military. This figure represents approximately 40% of the total male population in occupied Palestinian territory.
Administrative Detention: Administrative detention is a practice used by Israel to detain Palestinians on detention orders that range from one to six months, renewable indefinitely. Detention orders are based on secret information that neither the detainee nor their lawyer have access to. Administrative detention is often used when there is insufficient evidence to try Palestinians under any of the military orders Israel uses to govern the West Bank.
Indefinite Administrative Detention: Indefinite administrative detention is against international law, which stipulates that administrative detention – detention ordered by executive, rather than judicial, authorities – can only take place in emergency cases of real and immediate threats to State security, which can by definition not be indefinite. The longest serving Palestinian administrative detainee, Mazen Natsheh, has cumulatively spent nearly ten and a half years in administratively detention since 1994.
Administrative Detention in Numbers: The use of administrative detention in Palestine has been on the rise since the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000. Just before the intifada began, Israel was holding 12 Palestinians in administrative detention. By the beginning of March 2003, more than one thousand Palestinians were being held in administrative detention.
Between 2007 and 2011, 8,157 administrative detention orders were issued by Israel. As of February 2013, there were 178 Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli custody, including 9 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Administrative Detention & Disrupting the Palestinian Democratic Process:
Administrative detention has also been used by Israel to target democratically elected Palestinian officials, especially those in the Change and Reform bloc, which is considered to be pro-Hamas but includes independent and non-Muslim members. By 2009, nearly a third of PLC members were being detained by the Israelis. Since 2005, 20 PLC members have been placed in administrative detention, six of whom were administratively detained more than once. All Palestinian political parties are considered illegal under Israeli military law, making any politically active Palestinian vulnerable to imprisonment.
Ill-Treatment: Administrative detainees face several forms of ill-treatment, including medical neglect, poor detention conditions, limited access to legal counsel, limited family visitation rights, and torture.
Family Visits: Administrative detainees typically receive few, if any, family visits. Families are often denied visitation for ambiguous ‘security’ reasons. Visitation is also made even more difficult by virtue of the fact that Israel holds administrative detainees in prisons and detention centers in the 1948 Territories in contravention of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of prisoners from occupied territories. This, coupled with Israel’s use of a restrictive permit system to control Palestinian movement, means that many families are unable to visit their relatives in administrative detention.
Torture: Confessions obtained through torture are admissible in Israeli military trials and tribunals. Since 1967, 72 detainees have died while in custody as a result of torture. Under Israeli military law, detainees can be held in interrogation for up to 60 days without access to a lawyer, effectively preventing appropriate checks on interrogation methods. This is a breach of international law.
Legal Apparatus: Administrative detention, originally based on the British Mandate Defense (Emergency) Regulations (1945), is authorized both under Israeli domestic law, which is applied to Israeli citizens living in 1948 Territories and the 500,000 illegal Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, and Israeli military law, applied to Palestinians in the West Bank. In practice, however, the form of administrative detention legal under Israeli domestic law is almost exclusively applied to Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship, who form approximately 20% of the Israeli population and who face systematic discrimination under Israeli law.
Corporate Complicity: Many of the detention centers and prisons where administrative detainees are held are serviced by G4S, the largest security company in the world. Palestinian civil society has called on the international community to boycott, divest from, and sanction G4S as part of the BDS movement, in order to hold the company accountable for its participation in violations of human rights and international law.
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