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PALESTINIAN PRISONERS: The Struggle for FreedomNO CHARGE? NO TRIAL? NO JUSTICE!

320 Palestinians are currently held under administrative dete

tion, including 24 members o the Palestinian Legislative Cou

cil.Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Isra

military to hold prisoners indenitely on secret evidence witho

charging them or allowing them to stand trial. It is renewable

denitely or repeated periods o up to six months. Palestiniaheld under administrative detention are not charged with a

crime, nor are they brought to trial even beore the Israeli occu

tion’s rigged military courts.

Palestinians have been subjected to administrative detent

since the beginning o the Israeli occupation and beore that tim

under the British Mandate. The Palestinian hunger strikers who

cases have attracted much recent attention, Khader Adnan a

Hana’ Shalabi, were both held under administrative detention.

MILITARY INJUSTICE: THE MILITARY COURT SYSTEM

Palestinian prisoners rom the West Bank ace a military just

system that is entirely separate rom that or Jewish Israelis,

cluding settlers, who are instead part o the Israeli civil justice s

tem; this military justice system or Palestinian political prison

includes systematic and arbitrary detention without charge, t

acceptance o torture, an almost complete lack o due proce

vague charges, very low standards o evidence including the u

o secret evidence, and widely disparate and harsher sentenci

than the civil justice system. Palestinian deendants acing tria

2010 were ound guilty in 99.74 percent o cases. Proceedings

conducted in Hebrew, which ew Palestinians speak.

Military trials are overseen by three military judges, two o whare not required to be trained in law. The Israeli military reta

or itsel the right to declare any Palestinian organization ‘illeg

and thus prosecute membership or association with that orga

zation. Most Palestinian political parties, as well as countless

bour unions, student groups, women’s organizations, and oth

sectoral groups, all squarely into the category o ‘illegal organi

tions’ and a large number o Palestinian political prisoners w

have been “charged and tried,” are serving sentences or ‘memb

ship in an illegal organization,’ ‘support or a hostile organizati

and similar charges.

SECRET EVIDENCESecret evidence is routinely used in military trials, ‘security trials

Palestinian citizens o Israel, and reviews o administrative det

tion. Palestinian prisoners - and their lawyers - are not permitt

to see this secret evidence, whose secrecy is deemed necessa

or the “security o the state.”

WHO ARE THE PALESTINIAN PRISONERS?

 There are approximately 4,600 Palestinian political prisoners

inside Israeli jails. Palestinians, living under occupation and op-

pression or nearly 64 yars, have been targeted or mass impris-

onmen and detention by the Israeli occupation. Nearly every

Palestinian amily has been touched by political imprisonment- a ather, mother, son, daughter, sister, brother, cousin, uncle,

aunt. Since the occupation o the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

in 1967, over 650,000 Palestinians rom those areas have been

held as political prisoners - one out o every our Palestinians

rom the West Bank and Gaza. Forty percent o Palestinian men

in the West Bank and Gaza have spent some time in occupation

 jails.

Palestinian political prison-

ers are not only rom the

West Bank and Gaza. Pales-

tinians rom the 1948 occu-

pied Palestine, or Palestin-ian citizens o Israel, are also

held as political prisoners,

subject to an apartheid legal

system that allows the use o secret evidence, torture evidence

and gag orders against Palestinian ‘security prisoners’. There are

currently 194 Palestinian political prisoners who are also citi-

zens o Israel.

Palestinian political prisoners are men and women, elderly and

children. There are 5 Palestinian women prisoners, even ater

an October 2011 prisoner exchange deal that was supposed

to ree all o the women prisoners. There are 183 child prison-

ers, including 24 under the age o 16. Child prisoners have beensubject to torture, solitary connement, and other harsh and

inhumane conditions, alongside their adult ellow prisoners.

(While Israelis - including settlers - are considered ‘adults’ at age

18, Palestinians are considered ‘adults’ at age 16.)

Palestinian political prisoners are also political leaders. 27 mem-

bers o the Palestinian Legislative Council, including Popular

Front or the Liberation o Palestine General Secretary Ahmad

Sa’adat, Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi, and the Speaker o 

the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr. Abdel-Aziz Dweik, who

represents Hamas, are held in Israeli prisons. Ameer Makhoul,

one o the Palestinian prisoners who is also a citizen o Israel,was general director o Ittijah – The Union o Arab Community-

Based Associations and the Chairman o the Public Committee

or the Deense o Political Freedom.

Writers, scholars, students and artists are also Palestinian po-

litical prisoners, including Palestinian scholar Dr. Ahmed Qa-

tamesh, who has now been held without trial or charge or

nearly a year, Dr. Youse Abdul Haq, a proessor at An-Najah Uni-

versity whose administrative detention was just extended or

an additional six months, and Ola Haniyeh, a student leader at

Bir Zeit University and a leading political prisoner solidarity ac-

tivist abducted just beore student elections and currently held

under interrogation.

The Global Campaign for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day

For more information:

www.addameer.org www.dci-pal.org

www.ufree-p.net www.samidoun.ca

ameermakhoul.wordpress.com freeahmadsaadat.org

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TORTURE AND ABUSE

Palestinians may be detained or up to twelve days with-

out being inormed o the reason or their arrests or being

brought beore a judge. During this period o detention,

Palestinians may be interrogated constantly; ollowing this

period, prisoners may be brought beore a military judge

and charged, sent to administrative detention or released. A

Palestinian detainee may go through 180 days o initial inter-

rogation; or the rst 60 o those days, he or she may not beseen by a lawyer.

 The use o so-called “moderate physical pressure” in Israeli

interrogations is accepted, legal and common. Legalized tor-

ture in Israeli jails includes the use o shortshackling, “stress

positions” - painul positions in which a person is shackled or

periods o time, beatings and squeezing o handcus, as well

as sleep deprivation, exposure to temperature extremes or

extended periods o time, the use o noise and loud sounds,

humiliation and threats, and many other documented tactics

o abuse. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society has estimated that

90% o Palestinian detainees were tortured in Israeli custody,

and conessions and other inormation extracted throughtorture may be used in military courts, ‘security trials’ and as

part o secret evidence dossiers.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT AND ISOLATION

Isolation and solitary connement are requently usedagainst Palestinian political prisoners, including hunger

strikers, political leaders, and other inuential prisoners. Ad-

dameer reports that Palestinian prisoners are held in both

solitary connement and isolation. Solitary connement

and isolation have been deemed to be orms o torture by

the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Detainees and prisoners held in solitary connement are

completely cut o rom the world 24 hours a day. They

are held in an empty cell containing only a mattress and a

blanket. Prisoners held in isolation are held in a cell alone or

with one other prisoner or 23 hours a day. They are allowed

to leave their cell or a daily one hour solitary walk; on the

way to their walk, the prisoners’ hands and eet are typically

shackled.

Isolation cells in the various Israeli prisons are similar in

size – typically rom 1.5 by 2 meters to 3 by 3.5 meters. Each

cell usually has one small window which in most cases does

not allow in sufcient light or air rom the outside. The cell

usually has an iron door, which includes an opening at its

lower part, through which guards insert ood trays. Prison-

ers held in these cells are thus prevented rom having any

eye contact with other prisoners in the isolation wing or

even with guards.

TAKE ACTION!

International governments are complicit in Israel’s ongoing use

mass imprisonment against the Palestinian people when they reu

to speak out - or vocally support Israeli aggression. It is necessary people o conscience to answer the call o Palestinian prisoners a

take action:

INFORM OTHERS. Distribute this yer and others like it (see orga

zations below) in your community, workplace, or school.

HOLD AN EVENT or organize an action or protest at Israeli cons

ates and embassies about political prisoners.

WRITE a letter or op-ed or your local newspaper, blog, or scho

publication, ocusing on the stories o Palestinian prisoners.

CALL your government ofcials and demand they take action

sanction Israel or its abuses against Palestinian prisoners.

 JOIN THE MOVEMENT or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctio

against Apartheid Israel. BDS is a global movement to isolate Israel

ternationally in response to its violations o Palestinian rights. Som

BDS targets ocus on prisons, including: G4S, one o the world’s la

est security companies, provides security or Israeli prisons; Hewl

Packard provides technology to run Israel’s security apparatus.

CONTACT US: april17@palestinianprisoners.org

THE PALESTINIAN PRISONERS’ MOVEMENT

Despite the harsh conditions o imprisonment, the requent use

isolation, ransacking o cells, conscation o media, and denial o a

cess to education among Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian priso

ers’ movement is central to the Palestinian struggle or reedom an

liberation. Palestinian prisoners are not only victims o an unjust a

oppressive legal/military structure - they are part o an entire peop

seeking their reedom and liberation, including the end o occup

tion, the right o return o Palestinian reugees, and ull rights or

Palestinians.

Hunger strikes demanding prisoners’ rights and reedoms have g

vanized the Palestinian and solidarity movements - not only the h

roic actions o Khader Adnan and Hana’ Shalabi in 2012, but or d

cades. Palestinian Prisoners’ Day - April 17- marks the 1974 liberati

o Mahmoud Hijazi, the rst Palestinian prisoner reed in a prison

exchange. This year, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day marks the launch o t

Karameh hunger strike, in which thousands o Palestinian prisone

will join the 10 prisoners currently engaged in an open-ended hung

strike. The prisoners’ demands include an end to solitary conneme

and isolation, allowing amily visits or prisoners rom Gaza, and

end to policies o humiliation and collective punishment.

 The prisoners say, “The aim o the hunger strike is to shit local,

gional and international public opinion. It aims to put pressure

the occupying government and hold it responsible or the health

all prisoners. Palestinian Prisoners are calling on ree people acro

the world to to do everything in their power to support them in th

struggle or rights.”