Days of Palestine – Ramallah
About 500 Palestinian administrative detainees continue their boycott of the Israeli occupation courts for the 141st consecutive day Saturday to demand an end to the administrative detention policy.
The boycott of the occupation courts creates confusion within the Israeli prisons’ administrations and informs foreign delegations that visit those prisons every period of the issue of administrative detention, thus highlighting it and conveying it to the world.
According to the Palestinian Center for Prisoners’ Studies, the number of administrative detainees in Israeli prisons has recently risen, reaching more than 600 administrative prisoners, the highest since 2016.
Israel uses administrative detention as means of collective punishment against the Palestinian people, without taking into consideration the caveats established by international law.
The Israeli occupation authorities usually take punitive measures against detainees who boycott their courts; such as deprivation of visitation, and the renewal of administrative detention.
The administrative detainees announced the comprehensive and final boycott of all judicial proceedings related to administrative detention (judicial review, appeal, supreme), at the beginning of January 2022.
Administrative detention is detention without charge or trial, and without allowing the detainee or his lawyer to inspect the evidence materials, in clear violation of the provisions of international humanitarian law. Israel is the only government in the world that practices this policy.
The administrative detainee is often subjected to a renewal of the period of detention more than once for three, six, or eight months, sometimes up to a full year, and in some cases up to seven years.
Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawda, 40, continues his hunger strike for the 80th day, and the prisoner Raed Rayan, 27, for the 45th day rejecting their administrative detention.
The Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs had recently warned of the deteriorating health condition of the hunger striker, Awawda, who is currently held in Ramla prison clinic.
The Commission confirmed that Awawda suffers from a severe deterioration in his health: chest pains, vomiting, a significant lack of fluids, blurred vision, severe fatigue, in addition to irregular heartbeat and breathing, and he cannot move except in a wheelchair.
Awawda was frequently moved to Israeli hospitals for medical tests. But, he did not undergo any of them under flimsy pretexts as part of the Israeli policy to press for an end to his strike.
Rayan, for his part, suffers from pain in the head and joints, stomach problems, elevated eye pressure, severe fatigue, constant vomiting, and moves in a wheelchair.
More than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in about 17 Israeli jails. Over 450 detainees, including women and minors, are under administrative detention. Rights groups describe Israel’s use of detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and have long called on Israel to end its use.
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