Memorandum submitted by Addameer Prisoners'
Support and Human Rights Association[8]
PALESTINIAN DETAINEES
AND POLITICAL
PRISONERS
1. Since the outbreak of the current Intifada
in September 2000, over 27,000 Palestinians have been detained
by the Israeli authorities, including women and children. By the
end of September 2003, there were approximately 5,500 Palestinians
being held by Israel, including approximately 500 administrative
male detainees and three female administrative detainees (prisoners
held without charge or trial for indefinite periods), 73 women
and over 190 children.
SOCIAL IMPACT
2. Israel has detained and imprisoned over
650,000 Palestinians since the beginning of its occupation of
the Palestinian territories in 1967. This has amounted to approximately
20% of the entire population or 40% of the male population. Israel
has, in effect, "criminalised" the Palestinian male
population. Israel's mass arrests and imprisonment of such large
numbers of Palestinians has affected every household with many
families being left without breadwinners for months and sometimes
years. It has had an extremely damaging effect on the society
as a whole as political and religious leaders, leaders of civil
society, teachers and Palestinian National Authority officials
have been particularly targeted. It has also had a negative impact
on the community's ability to involve everyone in the development
of Palestinian society.
ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION
3. Administrative detention, or arrest without
charge or trial, is being used as a systematic form of collective
punishment by the Israeli military against Palestinians in the
OPT. Between March and October 2002, the Israeli military rounded
up over 15,000 Palestinian males between the ages of 15-45, in
cities, villages and refugee camps during its military incursions
(dubbed "Operation Defensive Shield") in the West Bank.
By October 2002, over 1,050 Palestinians were still in administrative
detention[9].
Administrative detention orders are issued for periods of one
to six months and can be renewed indefinitely. Administrative
detainees are not charged with a crime and are detained on the
basis of "secret evidence" submitted by the Israeli
security services and often provided by collaborators or extracted
from confessions of detainees under extreme duress. Neither the
detainee nor his or her lawyer is given access to this "evidence".
Some of the longest serving administrative detainees have been
held for years under this form of arbitrary detention, including
Ahmad Qatamesh and `Ali Al Jammal who remained in custody for
over six and seven consecutive years respectively, without being
charged with any crime.
CHILD PRISONERS
4. Under the Israeli military regulations
in force in the OPT, a Palestinian child over 16 years is considered
an adult, not 18 years as defined in the Convention of the Rights
of the Child, to which Israel is a signatory. In practice, Palestinian
children between 12-14 years are being charged and sentenced (for
example for throwing stones) in military courts for periods up
to six months. Palestinian children over the age of 14 are tried
in the same military courts as adults and given equivalent sentences,
as there are no specific laws relating to "child offenders"
within the Israeli military tribunal system. There are no juvenile
courts and children often serve their sentences in adult prisons
where they are usually not separated from the adult prisoners,
which is illegal under international law. Children are sometimes
held in cells with adult criminal prisoners.
ISRAELI PRISONS
AND DETENTION
CENTRES
5. The majority of Israeli prisons and detention
centers in which Palestinians from the OPT are held, eg Ansar
III (Ketziot Military Detention Centre) in the Negev or Megiddo
prison, are located within the 1948 borders of Israel. This is
illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Some military detention
camps, such as Ofer, are located in the West Bank. Conditions
in the military detention camps are inhumane and much worse than
in the prisons.[10]
Detainees are held in overcrowded tents that are often threadbare
and do not provide adequate shelter against the extreme weather
conditions in this part of the Middle East. Detainees are given
inadequate and poor quality food rations; they are not provided
with clean clothes or adequate toiletries. Many detainees currently
being held who were injured during their arrest and those suffering
from chronic diseases are not being given the necessary medical
care.
6. Family visits to administrative detainees
and political prisoners coordinated by the ICRC have been in practice
virtually impossible for many people in recent years since permits
are required to enter Israel. Those who are able to visit do so
under difficult and stressful circumstances. The journeys in special
buses are often long; visitors are searched and have lengthy waits
before being able to enter the detention or prison facility for
what is usually a very short visit. Visitors and detainees/prisoners
are separated by wire fences.
7. Palestinian lawyers from the OPT are
not given any special visitor privileges in order to meet with
their clients. They are subject to the same permit and travel
restrictions as all Palestinians from the OPT. Those few lawyers
who are able to visit detainees are often strip searched, humiliated
by soldiers, and sometimes locked up in rooms for hours while
waiting for their clients to be brought to see them.
TORTURE
8. Palestinian detainees continue to be
subjected to physical and/or psychological torture during interrogation;
some have died as a result, such as Abdel Samad Hreizat, who died
in Israeli custody on 25 April 1995 as a result of beatings and
violent shaking during interrogation. The use of practices that
constitute torture during interrogation have been legalized within
the Israeli judicial system and permitted in individual cases
where the Israeli security services decide a detainee is a "threat
to state security" or a "ticking bomb" (a person
who may be contemplating carrying out an attack in the future).[11]
A Palestinian detainee can be interrogated for up to 180 days,
during which visits by a lawyer can be denied for up to 60 days.
Confessions extracted through torture are admissible in Israeli
courts.
9. Israel continues to use isolation and
segregation of Palestinian detainees and prisoners as a form of
punishment. Detainees can spend extended periods of time in small
cells isolated from other prisoners and are only allowed out once
a day for no more than one hour. Detainees in isolation are also
subject to other forms of punishment, including continuous shackling
and denial of family visits. Detainees can spend years in isolation,
for example Hassan Salameh who was put in an isolation cell for
four years (1996-2000). Some detainees who have been kept for
long periods in isolation have gone on open-ended hunger strike
(for example Moussa Doudin and Ahmad Barghouti, who were both
held in isolation cells for five and eight months respectively).
PRISONER RELEASE
10. Israel released 400 Palestinian prisoners
at the beginning of May and August 2003 as part of its "good
will gestures" and "confidence building" measures
to promote the Road Map. These releases were seen as derisory
by the Palestinian community. Israel later re-arrested some of
the prisoners who were released and the Israeli military continues
to arrest approximately 300 Palestinians every month.
RECOMMENDATION
11. The Palestinian community regards political
prisoners and detainees as the main issue in any political negotiations
between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The success of future
peace negotiations aimed at resolving the conflict will depend
initially on the unconditional release and return to the OPT of
all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees held in Israeli
prisons or detention camps. Therefore, we recommend that the British
Government support Palestinian efforts and lobby the Government
of Israel to secure the release and return of all political prisoners
and detainees.
Two annexes were submitted with this memorandum—Annex
1: Addameer Briefing on Administrative Detention, 23 October 2002,
and Annex 2: Summary of Israeli High Court Judgement regarding
the detention conditions in "Ofer" Camp (H.C. 3278/02).
These have not been printed. Copies have been placed in the Library.
September 2003
8 Addameer Prisoners' Support and Human Rights Association
is a Palestinian non-governmental human rights organisation. Addameer
was established in 1992 to offer support to Palestinian political
prisoners and detainees and to advocate for an end to Israel's
policy of arbitrary imprisonment and torture of Palestinians in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). It offers free legal
services for prisoners, legal counseling for families of detainees,
and representation on cases concerning arbitrary arrest and torture.
Addameer also advocates for the establishment of a Palestinian
society based on the rule of law and campaigns within civil society
to promote awareness and respect for human rights within the Palestinian
community. Back
9
See Annex 1 for information on the number and conditions of administrative
detainees during this period. Not printed. Back
10
On 28 June 2002, a petition was submitted to the Israeli Supreme
Court by 10 Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations
protesting the inhumane conditions faced by detainees at the Ofer
Military Detention Center. In the summary of the judgment, the
Court stated that "even those suspected of terrorist activity
of the worst kind are entitled to conditions of detention which
satisfy minimal standards of humane treatment and ensure basic
human necessities. We would not be human ourselves if we did not
guarantee a standard of humanity to those detained within our
custody. Such is the duty of the commander of the area in accordance
with the foundations of our administrative law." The court
ruled that detention conditions did not meet minimum standards,
and that there was no justification for this, even if "Operation
Protective Wall", during which the majority of detainees
were arrested, was planned in advance. For the full text of the
summary see Annex 2. Back
11
On 31 May 1987, the Israeli Government established a commission
of inquiry to investigate the interrogation methods used by the
General Security Services (Shabak) to obtain confessions from
Palestinian detainees. The Commission, chaired by retired Israeli
High Court Justice Moshe Landau, concluded that "the interrogation
of prisoners who are accused of carrying out terrorist activities
will not be successful without using pressure." The Landau
Commission recommended the use of pressure that "should principally
take the form of non-violent psychological pressure via a vigorous
and lengthy interrogation ... However, when these methods do not
attain their purpose, the exertion of a moderate measure of physical
pressure cannot be avoided." (Clauses 6/4, and 7/4, Landau
Commission Recommendations, 1987). On 13 January 1999, the Israeli
Government submitted a written response to the Israeli High Court
of Justice regarding appeals against various interrogation methods
used by the Israeli Intelligence Service (Shabak), including "severe
shaking", which resulted in the death of Abed El-Samad Hreizat
on 25 April 1995. That document stated: "The Government decided
to submit to the Israeli Knesset a draft law regulating the authority
for special investigations conducted by the Shabak, including
the authority to use moderate physical and psychological pressure".
On 16 January 1999, the Israeli Attorney General issued an official
statement asserting that the torture methods used by the Shabak
while interrogating detainees, including physical pressure and
severe shaking are "legitimate and vital methods," since
they aim to prevent suicide operations and thus save the lives
of Israeli citizens. On 6 September 1999, as a result of numerous
complaints and petitions by human rights organisations concerning
Israel's use of torture against Palestinian detainees, the Israeli
High Court of Justice banned the use of four methods of torture
which were previously allowed by the Landau Commission. These
included the vigorous "shaking" of a detainee, placing
the detainee in the "Shabeh" position, forcing the detainee
into the "Gambaz" (frog crouch) position, and depriving
the detainee of sleep in a manner other than that which is inherently
required by the interrogation. (HCJ 5100/94, Public Committee
Against Torture in Israel v The State of Israel et al,
and six other petitions; High Court Ruling on GSS Interrogations).
However, the ruling allowed for a loophole in the judgment, whereby
the use of "moderate physical pressure" was allowed
in cases of "ticking bombs". Back
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