Arrest & Detention
Administrative Detention
One of Israel's most notorious means of suppressing the Palestinian people is its widespread use of administrative detention, whereby individuals are detained "without charge or trial authorized by administrative order rather than by judicial decree," as defined by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem. Palestinians are generally issued three- to six-month-long, indefinitely renewable administrative detention orders upon arrest or after a period of interrogation during which they are denied access to legal counsel. (Added 9 October 2006)


Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been arrested since the beginning of the current intifada, which erupted in September 2000, and many of those arrested are not given due process but are instead held illegally without charge in administrative detention. According to the Palestinian prisoners' support and human rights organization Addameer, "Until September 2000, the number of administrative detainees was four. By the end of 2000, this number became 17. Towards the end of 2001, there were 45 administrative detainees, and by the end of 2004 there were over 850."

According to B'Tselem, administrative detention "is allowed under international law, but, because of the serious injury to due process rights inherent in this measure and the obvious danger of abuse, international law has placed rigid restrictions on its application. Administrative detention is intended to prevent the danger posed to state security by a particular individaul. However, Israel has never defined the criteria for what constitutes 'state security.'"

Furthermore, according to the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, Israel's issuing of Military Order No. 1500 in 2002 "gave every Israeli soldier in that area not only the authority to arrest Palestinians without giving him/her a reason, but also without first receiving authorization for the arrest from a superior officer."

This military order, coupled with the already existing Israeli laws relating to administrative detention, has allowed Israel to arbitrarily detain tens of thousands of Palestinians since 2000, causing it to re-open the infamous Ansar III Detention Center in the Negev desert. Palestinian men, women and children have been detained during mass arrests, particularly during large-scale military operations like Operation Defensive Shield when Palestinians were arrested by the hundreds. Palestinians are also arbitrarily arrested at checkpoints or during home invasions in the middle of the night.

According to Al-Haq, "Before an administrative order can be issued, Palestinian detainees accused of 'security' offenses are brought within eight days before a military judge who reviews the evidence against him. 'Serious' charges are tried before three-judge panels while lesser ones are tried before one judge. All judges in the Israeli military court system are serving Israeli military officers, an element that calls into question their independence and impartiality as judges, and the quality of justice that they dispense. Administrative detention can be based on secret evidence, to which the detainee is denied access."

These conditions have "made a charade out of the entire system of procedural safeguards in both domestic and international law regarding the right to liberty and due process," as stated by B'Tselem. In addition to depriving the rights of those held in administrative detention, this practice has left hundreds of households are without a breadwinner and has separated thousands of children from their fathers and mothers.


News and Analysis
  • Administrative detention should be banned, Jeff Handmaker and Adri Nieuwhof (11 November 2005)
  • Human Rights Watch urges Israeli parliament to reject new bill on arrest and detention of Gaza residents, HRW (15 March 2006)
  • Arrest of Palestinian Human Rights Defender, HRW (6 August 2004)
  • Adminstrative detention, risk of ill-treatment or torture, OMCT (31 July 2004)
  • Palestinian human rights defender detained for further 6 months without trial, DCI/PS (3 September 2003)
  • Addameer's WSF representative given four months of administrative detention, Addameer (26 January 2003)
  • IDF holds 1,007 Palestinians in administrative detention, B'Tselem (1 January 2003)
  • Palestinian photographer set free after six months of administrative detention, Arjan El Fassed (23 October 2002)
  • Protest Arbitrary Imprisonmnet, Sam Bahour and Paul de Rooij (22 October 2002)
  • Israel urged again to free Palestinian journalists, Reporters Without Borders (30 July 2002)
  • Israel: placing the Palestinian population outside the protection of the law, OMCT (25 July 2002)
  • Amnesty International calls for a commission of inquiry into mass arbitrary detention of Palestinians, Amnesty International (23 May 2002)


    Statistics
  • B'Tselem: Statistics on administrative detention


    Related Links
  • Amnesty International Administrative Detention Appeal Cases



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