Palestinian administrative detainees continue boycott of Israeli occupation military courts

Occupied Al-Quds – Nearly 450 Palestinian detainees have been refusing to show up for their military court hearings for 58 days in protest of their unfair detention without charge or trial under occupation’s controversial administrative detention policy, Wafa News Agency reported.

The boycott includes hearings for the renewal of administrative detention orders as well as appeal hearings and later sessions at Israel’s occupation Supreme Court.

Also for the second week now, Palestinian administrative detainees with chronic diseases have been boycotting the Israeli occupation prison clinics in protest of their unfair detention without charge or trial.

Palestinian detainees say their action is a continuation of longstanding Palestinian efforts “to put an end to the unjust administrative detention practiced against our people by the occupation forces.”

Under administrative detention, Israeli occupation forces keeps Palestinians without charge for up to six months, a period which can be extended for an indefinite number of times. Women and minors are also among those detainees. The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the Israeli occupation regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.

Palestinians and human rights groups say the administrative detention violates the right to due process since evidence is withheld from prisoners while they are held for lengthy periods without being charged, tried, or convicted.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at the detention. They have also been subjected to systematic torture, harassment and repression all through the years of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

More than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in about 17 Israeli occupation jails. Over 450 detainees, including women and minors, are under the administrative detention. Rights groups describe Israel’s use of the detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and have long called on Israel to end its use.

Raghda Sawas