Seventy Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli prisons have been boycotting Israeli military courts in protest against Israel’s policy of administrative detention without charge or trial.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) announced on Monday that seventy Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli prisons have been boycotting Israeli military courts in protest against Israel’s administrative detention without charge or trial. The boycott includes initial hearings to uphold the administrative detention order, as well as appeal hearings and later sessions at the Supreme Court.
Most of the 70 Palestinian detainees are held in Israel’s Ofer and al-Naqab prisons.
The PPS said that this move comes as a continuation of longstanding Palestinian efforts to put an end to Israel’s policy of administrative detention and amid an increase in the administrative detention orders issued by ‘Israel’ against Palestinians as the policy has expanded in recent years to include women, children, and elderly people.
On the 25th of September, 30 Palestinian administrative detainees announced the launch of a mass hunger strike which lasted for 19 days, rejecting their unjust administrative detention by Israeli occupation authorities and demanding “fresh air, a sky without prison bars, a space of freedom, and a family dinner.”
“No for oppression, no for the Israeli occupation, we will continue our fight against Israel’s unfair policy of administrative detention,” the thirty Palestinian administrative detainees said.
Each of the 70 Palestinian detainees boycotting Israeli military courts says, according to the PPS, “I am boycotting Israel’s mock trials, which receive their orders from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, and I announce that no lawyers represent me in these illegal trials.”
According to Palestinian prisoner’s advocacy groups, since March 2002, the number of Palestinians in administrative detention has never fallen below 100. In 2015 alone, ‘Israel’ issued 1248 administrative detention orders.
In 2020, ‘Israel’ issued 1,114 administrative detention orders while it issued 1,595 administrative detention orders against the Palestinians in 2021.
There are currently 4650 Palestinian detainees held in about 23 Israeli prisons, including 180 minors, 32 women, and 800 detainees held in administrative detention without charge or trial.
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