As Palestinian prisoners were released last week, Israel imposed a ban on their family members celebrating. “Expressing joy,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said, “is tantamount to supporting terrorism.”
Israel portrayed imprisoned Palestinians as “terrorists” and subjected many detainees to abuse.
But of the 300 Palestinian women and children that Israel has identified as likely to be released as part of the humanitarian pause between Israel and Hamas, nearly 80% have not even been formally charged.
An overwhelming majority of Palestinian prisoners have been arrested in a quasi-judicial procedure known as administrative detention, under which Palestinians are initially imprisoned for six months. Their detentions can then be extended several times for an indefinite period without charge or trial.
Most Palestinians, including children, are tried by military courts and given harsh sentences in what critics call sham military trials, because in many cases Palestinians are deprived of lawyers and of due process. In comparison, Israeli citizens are tried in civil courts, highlighting the two-tiered justice system that discriminates against Palestinians.
Here’s a look at the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, how Israel has weaponized administrative detention, and why many Palestinians are forced to go through Israeli military courts.
Who is on the list?
The vast majority of Palestinians – 233 of the 300 prisoners – on Israel’s release list have not been formally charged and have been placed in administrative detention. An overwhelming majority of them are children. The youngest is 14 years old.
Nearly three-quarters of them are from the occupied West Bank, which has seen a wave of arrests since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7. The West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem have already seen an increase in Israeli raids this year, even before the war.
The longest-serving prisoner among the 300 was held for 102 months, or eight and a half years. The most recent prisoner was arrested two months ago.
Nearly half of the prisoners have no affiliation with a Palestinian political or armed group. Others are reportedly affiliated with Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
What are the effects of administrative detention?
Prisoners can be placed in administrative detention indefinitely. During this period, which can extend for years, prisoners, their families and their lawyers may remain in the dark about the charges against the prisoner and the evidence that exists against them.
Israel has arrested around a million Palestinians since its occupation of East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1967, according to a United Nations report released last year. A considerable number of them are believed to be administrative detainees.
Israel has increased arrests since the October 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel, doubling the number of Palestinians in detention to more than 10,000 before releasing some of them. Hamas fighters killed at least 1,200 people during their attack. Israel’s subsequent attack on Gaza killed nearly 15,000 people, mostly women and children.
How does the Israeli military justice system work in the occupied territories?
The Oslo Accords of the 1990s led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), but a Palestinian-led semi-government did not end Israel’s military justice system. Israel still directly controls the majority of the West Bank and has authorized the construction of illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
The PA has been criticized for its security coordination with Israel, under which it is obliged to share information regarding Palestinian armed groups. It has a penal code and a judicial system, but the three million Palestinians in the occupied territories could easily fall under the jurisdiction of Israeli military courts if they are accused of endangering Israeli security. This could include any activity related to the hundreds of Palestinian organizations that Israel has deemed illegal over the decades.
When charges are filed, they routinely include “terrorist” activities, which could include acts against Israeli soldiers or settlers, and “incitement,” which includes influencing public opinion. Traffic violations or illegally staying in Israel for work also lands Palestinians in the military justice system, which has a 99 percent conviction rate.
Unlike Palestinians, Israeli settlers arrested in the West Bank are tried by civilian courts in Israel. This practice has effectively created two legal systems, which human rights groups have described as discriminatory and a form of “apartheid”.
How are Palestinians treated in prison?
Some Palestinian prisoners released under the truce reported being beaten and humiliated by Israeli soldiers before being released.
The beatings became more intense and more frequent after the start of the war, but prisoners’ testimonies over the decades have highlighted a long-standing pattern of beatings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners. prisoners.
Since the start of the war, rights groups have reported that the Israeli Prison Service has also significantly restricted water, food, medical care and common items for prisoners and has restricted, if not completely halted, visits from their families and lawyers.
This means that Palestinian prisoners have effectively lost some of the limited privileges they had gained through years of campaigning and hunger strikes in prisons that are now also severely overcrowded.
How does Israel treat its detained children?
Hundreds of children, some as young as nine years old, have been arrested by Israeli forces, in what many see as a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children fare no better than adults in Israeli prisons, and a range of abuses against them have been documented.
The rights group Save the Children said in a report released in July that 86 percent of children are beaten during Israeli detention, 69 percent are strip searched and 42 percent are injured during arrest. They suffered, among other injuries, gunshot wounds and broken bones.
Some children have reported abuse of a sexual nature, and some are transferred to court or between detention centers in small cages, the London-based children’s rights organization said.
Palestinian children are “the only children in the world who are systematically prosecuted in military courts” and an estimated 10,000 of them have been held in the Israeli military detention system over the past 20 years, according to the group.