Prisoners’ organisations: ‘Israel’s courts commit crime of administrative detention’

The Palestinian Commission for Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs and the Prisoners’ Club confirmed that the majority of those arrested after the start of the Israeli war against Palestinians on 7 October were transferred to administrative detention, including women, children, the wounded, the sick and the elderly.

The organisations added in a statement on Friday that more than 8,600 arrests had been recorded since the start of the aggression, including individuals from every mentioned category.

They stressed that over the past seven months, according to the legal team, which tracked thousands of files, the Israeli military courts were and still are an essential part of the occupation’s tools that it uses to impose more surveillance, control and oppression on Palestinians, humiliate them and attempt to undermine the roles of those who could contribute to achieving self-determination for Palestinians. The courts used their role after 7 October, acting as the main arm to commit the crime of administrative detention and contributing to supporting the occupation intelligence in carrying out more arrest operations.

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The two prisoner organisations stressed their position regarding the futility of resorting to the occupation courts at their various levels, specifically in the case of administrative detention. Rather, this gives legitimacy to these unjust courts. The organisations noted: “We continued to follow up on their files with the aim of maintaining communication between the lawyer and the detainee, despite the great difficulties imposed by the Israeli occupation prison administration in terms of visitation, in addition to their increased numbers.”

They explained that the Commission followed up on thousands of detainees between the verification and appeal phases and, recently, the Commission submitted petitions to the Israeli Supreme Court with the names of administrative detainees.

The organisations raised their voices over the years to make a comprehensive national decision to gradually boycott the occupation courts, specifically in following up on administrative detainees, because of its dangerous national strategic dimension when it comes to the fate of detainees.

The institutions concluded their statement by assuring the detainees and their families that they are continuing with the tools they have available to follow up on their cases.

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