Statement – 17th of April marks the Palestinian Prisoners Day

Today, April 17, 2007 marks the Palestinian Political Prisoners Day.

Since 1967, Israel, an occupying power, has detained over 650,000 Palestinians as part of its policy to quash resistance to its occupation and to intimidate the civilian population. This figure forms approximately 20% of the Palestinian population living in the West Bank and 40% of the male Palestinians, who comprise the vast majority of political prisoners[1].

At present, there are some 10,4000 political prisoners in Israeli jails including 27 Palestinian parliamentarians and 6 ministers; 8828 are from the West Bank, 850 are from Gaza, 525 from Occupied East Jerusalem, 142 are from Israel and 55 Arab prisoners. Of the 10,400 prisoners, there are 384 children and 128 women[2]. 367 prisoners were detained before the Oslo Accords, 64 have until today spent over 20 years in detention and 123 have spent between 15 – 20 years. 178 political prisoners have died while in detention.

All political prisoners are charged with security offences under Israeli military orders[3]. The definition of security is so broad that even political expression constitutes a security offence. The Israeli military court system fails to provide political prisoners with minimum guarantees of due process. Among the system’s failures is the set up of military tribunals, which comprise of judges, prosecutors and translators who are appointed by the military commander – the same person who is empowered to make changes to Israeli military orders. Some of the judges do not even have legal training. As such, these tribunals fail to meet the standard required by article 14 of the international Covenant on Civil and Political rights, which calls for a “fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law”.

Israel holds over 800 Palestinians under administrative detention. Administrative detention refers to the detention of individuals for preventive purposes and as exercised by Israel is illegal. Under Israeli law, Israel may detain the accused for a period of up to six months without charge or trial and may routinely renew the detention orders for any number of times, thereby holding Palestinians without charge or trial indefinitely.

Political prisoners are detained in extremely difficult detention conditions that do not meet minimum detention standards. Children as young as 12 and 13 are detained with adults and report some form of torture and mistreatment whether physical or psychological. In some centres, up to eleven children have been packed into cells as small as five square meters. All this is in contravention of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Chid, which also states that Israel is obligated to refrain from imprisoning children except as a measure of last resort and only for the shortest appropriate period of time.

Adults are also detained in the most appalling conditions. In January 2006, a report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur found that:

Prison conditions are harsh: prisoners live in overcrowded and poorly ventilated cells, which they generally leave for only two hours a day. Allegations of torture and inhuman treatment includes beatings, shackling in painful positions, kicking, prolonged blindfolding, denial of access to medical care, exposure to extreme temperatures and inadequate provision of food and water

By continuing to detain political prisoners, Israel as an occupying power is violating among others the following:

 Articles 64 to 77 the 4th
 Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
 Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights on the Child
 Articles 49, 76 and 78 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The release of Palestinian political prisoners is one of the most important issues on the Palestinian national agenda. Of the 3.9 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, there are few who have not been personally affected by Israel’s imprisonment of Palestinians – either through their own imprisonment or that of a family member, friend or colleague.

We therefore call on:

 To live up to its legal responsibility and obligation under international law to ensure Israel’s respect for International law and take all measures necessary in case of Israel’s non-compliance.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority to:

 Demand that Israel immediately ceases from further detaining political prisoners.

Civil society organization in Jerusalem

17. April 2007