[Peace-discuss] Fwd: ILM: Palestinian Political Prisoners

[Alfred Kagan]

>FYI
>
>
>Ahmed Abukhater <abu at students.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>
>Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:09:22 -0500
>From: Ahmed Abukhater
>To: cimic
>Subject: ILM: Palestinian Political Prisoners
>
>Palestinian Political Prisoners
>July 2003
>
>"It would be better to drown these prisoners in the Dead Sea if possible,
>since that's the lowest point in the world." - Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli
>Transport Minister[1]
>
>Frequently Asked Questions:
>
>1. How many Palestinian prisoners are there?
>
>As of July 8, 2003, there are 5,892 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons
>or detention camps.[2] Of these prisoners, 351 are children under the age of
>18,[3] 75 are women and 42 are over the age of 50. Of the total number of
>prisoners, 433 Palestinians, who were imprisoned prior to the signing of the
>Oslo Accords, remain in prison despite the Accords' call for th! eir 
>release.[4]
>Of these 5,892 prisoners, only 1,461 have actually been put on trial. The
>prisoners include members of the elected Palestinian Legislative Council as
>well as individuals who helped reach the recent agreement with Palestinian
>factions to halt all violence against all Israelis.
>
>Israel currently has 786 Palestinians detained in prison camps who have not
>been charged with any crime under what is called "administrative detention."
>Administrative detention is illegal under international law.[5] Administrative
>detention orders may last for up to six months, with Palestinians held without
>charge or trial during this period.[6] Israel routinely renews the detention
>orders and may renew the orders without limitation, thereby holding
>Palestinians without charge or trial indefinitely.[7] During this period,
>detainees may be denied legal counsel. While detainees may appeal against the
>detention, neither they nor their at! torneys are allowed access to 
>the State's
>evidence, or know the purpose of the detention - thereby rendering the appeals
>procedure useless.
>
>2. Don't most Palestinian prisoners have "blood on their hands"?
>
>No. The vast majority of Palestinian prisoners are political prisoners who
>have been arbitrarily imprisoned or detained for no legitimate security
>reason, but for political expression or simply because they are Palestinian.
>According to B'Tselem:
>
>"Security is interpreted in an extremely broad manner such that non-violent
>speech and political activity are considered dangerous.. [This] is a blatant
>contradiction of the right to freedom of speech and freedom of opinion
>guaranteed under international law. If these same standards were applied
>inside Israel, half of the Likud party would be in administrative detention."
>[8]
>
>Furthermore, of those Palestinians currently being held, the overwhelming
>majority have been ! put on trial.
>
>Many Palestinians are arrested arbitrarily. For example, from February to
>March 2002, approximately 8,500 Palestinians were arrested arbitrarily. In
>many cities, all Palestinian males from the ages of 15 to 45 were rounded up
>and detained or imprisoned. Palestinians were blindfolded, handcuffed tightly
>with plastic handcuffs and forced to squat, sit or kneel for prolonged periods
>of time. This type of mass arrest and detention has been condemned by Amnesty
>International as a breach of human rights.
>
>The issue of child detainees and prisoners is the most stark example of
>Israel's policy of blanket imprisonment: approximately 2,000 Palestinian
>children have been arrested and detained from September 2000 to the end of
>June 2003.[9] Children as young as 13 are held in Israeli prisons with
>children aged 13 and 14 constituting approximately ten percent of all child
>detainees.[10] Almost all child detainees have repor! ted some form of torture
>or mistreatment, whether physical (beatings or placed in painful positions) or
>psychological (abuse, threats or intimidation).[11] Children are routinely
>held in detention centers under appalling conditions: in some centers up to
>eleven children have been packed into cells as small as five square
>meters.[12]
>
>3. But didn't Israel make "concessions" by releasing long-time Palestinian
>prisoners when the Road Map was announced and by announcing the release of
>additional prisoners?
>
>Releasing political prisoners who never should have been arrested is not a
>"concession" - it is a legal obligation. Respect for human rights should never
>be considered a "concession" and should never be used as a tool to extract
>political gains.
>
>Nevertheless, of the approximately 121 prisoners released by Israel on 3 June
>2003, 100 of them were administrative detainees, most of whom had detention
>orders that expired t! hat same day or had less than 19 days 
>remaining on their
>detention orders. Twenty of the released Palestinians were held in custody
>with no detention orders or charges against them. Israel only released one
>political prisoner who had been tried.
>Israel's announcement that it will release 350 Palestinian political prisoners
>(approximately six percent of all Palestinian prisoners) also rings hollow:
>215 of the prisoners are administrative detainees illegally held without
>charge or trial.[13] Israel has not indicated that it is willing to release
>the remaining political prisoners and continues to arbitrarily arrest
>Palestinians.
>
>4. Why is the release of Palestinian prisoners so important?
>
>No issue highlights Israel's 36-year denial of freedom to the Palestinians
>better than that of political prisoners. The Palestinians have been subjected
>to the highest rate of incarceration in the world - approximately 20 percent
>of the Pal! estinian population in the Occupied Palestinian 
>Territories has, at
>one point, been arbitrarily detained or imprisoned by Israel.[14]
>
>Israel's imprisonment and detention of Palestinians is a manifestation of its
>failure to abide by international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention:
>administrative detentions and imprisonment inside Israel are both illegal
>under the Fourth Geneva Convention.[15] Furthermore Palestinian prisoners are
>routinely tortured by Israel[16] and held in detention centers and prisons
>that do not meet the minimum international standards[17] and are routinely
>denied visitation rights.[18] The vast majority of Palestinian prisoners are
>held without trial and, according to Amnesty International, trials often fall
>short of international fair trial standards.[19] Israel's failure to release
>Palestinian political prisoners and its continued arbitrary arrest of
>Palestinian civilians only serves to highlight that Israel continues to view
>itself above the law and the Palestinians beneath it.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>--------------
>
>[1] Avigdor Lieberman as Israel's Transport Minister offered to bus
>Palestinian political prisoners to the Dead Sea to be drowned. Israel Radio,
>July 7, 2003.
>
>[2] Source: PA Ministry of Prisoner Affairs, 8 June 2003.
>
>[3] The most famous of these child prisoners is Suad Ghazal, who at the age of
>15 was sentenced to 6‡ years' imprisonment. When she was first arrested, she
>spent 17 days in solitary confinement and has been tortured in prison. She is
>now 18 years old.
>
>In 1999, Israel re-instated Israeli Military Order No. 132 which allows for
>the arrest of Palestinian children aged 12 to 14. The Palestinian Prisoner's
>Club has noted that 50% of those arrested and detained by Israel since
>September 2000 are children under the age of 18. See: Defence for ! Children
>International/Palestine Section www.dci-pal.org
>
>[4] Under the Oslo Accords, Israel was obligated to release the vast majority
>of Palestinian prisoners arrested prior to the signing of the Oslo Accords.
>(Interim Agreement, Annex VII). Israel failed to do so. The Sharm el-Shaeikh
>Agreement of September 1999 provided for the establishment a joint committee
>charged with recommending the release of certain prisoners. Despite the fact
>that the committee recommended the release of these 433 prisoners, Israel
>failed to do so.
>
>[5] The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Israel
>is a signatory, provides that:
>
>"Everyone has the right to liberty and security of the person. No one shall be
>subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his
>liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are
>established by law." (Article 9(1)).
>
>"Anyone who is ! arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest of the
>reasons for his arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against
>him." (Article 9(2)).
>
>[6] Administrative detentions are currently carried out on the basis of
>Military Order No. 1229, of 1988. This Order empowers military commanders in
>the West Bank to detain an individual for up to six months if they have
>"reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public
>security require the detention." Commanders can extend detentions for
>additional periods of up to six months. The Order does not define a maximum
>cumulative period of administrative detention, and consequently, the detention
>can be extended indefinitely. The terms "security of the area" and "public
>security" are also not defined. As a result, their interpretation is left to
>the military commanders. Given that these are military orders and not judicial
>orders, they are executed without obta! ining the approval of a judge.
>
>[7] Khalid Jaradat was held in administrative detention for a period of 12
>years, with only a one week release between administrative detention orders.
>Israeli security services confirmed that his detention was for nonviolent
>political expression. See: www.btselem.org
>
>[8] See: www.btselem.org/english/publications/summaries/prisoners_of_peace.asp
>
>[9] Defence for Children International/Palestine Section, Press Release,
>Palestinian Child Arrest Figures Top 2,000 in 2nd Intifada - Torture
>Experienced by Most, 26 June 2003.
>
>[10] Defence for Children International/Palestine Section: Palestinian
>Children in the Judicial System,
>www.dci-pal.org/statistics/indstats/legaljune2003.html
>
>[11] Id.
>
>[12] Defence for Children International/Palestine Section, Press Release,
>Israeli Government Fails to Release Child Detainees - 330 Still in Custody, 7
>June 2003.
>
>[13] Agence France Presse,! Israel to Release 350 Palestinian 
>Prisoners, 7 July
>2003.
>
>[14] Defence for Children International/Palestine Section, A Generation Denied
>163 (2001).
>
>[15] The Fourth Geneva Convention provides that:
>
>Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected
>persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or
>that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of
>their motive. (Article 49(1)).
>
>[16] According to Amnesty International:
>
>îAmong the thousands of Palestinians arrested after 27 February 2002, some
>hundreds were transferred to full-scale interrogation by the GSS [Israel
>Security Agency], in centres..Amnesty International has received reports that
>some of the detainees interrogated by the GSS were subjected to prolonged
>sleep deprivation, shabeh (prolonged standing or sitting in a painful
>position), beings and being violently shaken."
>
>A! mnesty International, Israel and the Occupied Territories: Mass 
>detention in
>cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions, at 14 (May 2002).
>
>On 9 September 1999, the Israeli High Court ruled that the Israel Security
>Agency (formerly known as GSS) could no longer use four methods of torture
>(violent shaking, tying prisoners in contorted positions to a small child's
>chair, covering the prisoner's head with a sack and sleep deprivation). This
>ruling was widely reported as an end to Israel's practice of torture. In
>reality, the ambit of the ruling was very narrow: it only applies to the
>Israel Security Agency. The vast majority of torture is carried out by Israeli
>soldiers, police and military police in detention centers (not prisons) where
>the practices to continue to be carried out. Defence for Children
>International/Palestine Section, A Generation Denied 28 (2001).
>
>Furthermore, according to the Public Committee Against Torture in Isr! ael and
>B'Tselem, the practice of torture has not ceased. Approximately 85 percent of
>all administrative detainees are still subjected to torture. Methods of
>torture include: sleep prevention, tying to a chair in painful positions,
>beating, slapping, kicking, threats, verbal abuse and humiliation, bending the
>body in extremely painful positions, intentional tightening of the handcuffs,
>stepping on manacles, application of pressure to different parts of the body,
>forcing the detainee to squat in a painful position ("Kambaz"), choking and
>other forms of violence and humiliation (pulling out hair, spitting etc.), ill
>treatment in solitary confinement include sleep prevention, exposure to
>extreme heat and cold, continuous exposure to artificial light, confinement in
>inhuman conditions.
>
>See: www.stoptorture.org.il/eng/background.asp?menu=3&submenu=2 and
>www.btselem.org
>
>[17] Amnesty International, id at 19:
>
>"Accordi! ng to consistent reports received by Amnesty 
>International, detainees'
>conditions in Ofer and Ansar III/Ketziot are poor and may amount to cruel,
>inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment..In both camps, detainees sleep
>in tents; in Ansar III/Ketziot nights are particularly cold. Conditions in
>Ofer are said to be overcrowded, with detainees sleeping 25 to 30 to a tent.
>In both camps detainees initially slept on pieces of rough wood. Detainees
>were said to be given frozen chicken schnitzels which they had to defrost in
>the sun; a tub of yoghurt, one or two cucumbers and two pieces of fruit
>between 10 prisoners."
>
>[18] Defense for Children International/Palestine Section, Annual Report 21
>(2001).
>
>[19] Amnesty International, Israel and the Occupied Territories (January to
>December 2002). See: web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/print/isr-summary-eng.
>
>Ahmed Abukhater
>Urban and Regional Planning Department
>University of Illi! nois @ Urbana-Champaign.
>Websites: www.arch-ahmed.8m.com
>http://harrappa.urban.uiuc.edu/Users/Sp03/abu/
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own 
>nature into his pictures. ~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
>Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~ Pablo Picasso ~
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
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