Israeli authorities issued administrative detention orders — imprisonment without charge or trial based on undisclosed evidence — for 27 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons since the start of June, according to a statement released on Thursday by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
Mahmoud al-Halabi, a lawyer from PPS, said that the majority of the orders issued were extensions of detention orders for Palestinians who had already spent months or years in prison under the controversial Israeli policy.
While Israeli authorities claim the withholding of evidence during administrative detention, which allows detention for three- to six-month renewable intervals, is essential for state security concerns, rights groups have instead claimed that the policy allows Israeli authorities to hold Palestinians for an indefinite period of time without showing any evidence that could justify their detentions.
Israel has renewed detention w/out charge or trial of Palestinian human rights defender Hasan Safadi for 6 months https://t.co/Bv4wU5rQUp
— Ben White (@benabyad) June 8, 2017
Rights groups say that Israel’s administrative detention policy has also been used as an attempt to disrupt Palestinian political and social processes, notably targeting Palestinian politicians, activists, and journalists.
According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, 6,200 Palestinians were detained by Israel as of May, 490 of whom were held in administrative detention.
(Maan, PC, Social Media)
