Occupied Jerusalem- Since the beginning of this May, Tel Aviv Tribune Net has monitored the occupation courts issuing 26 administrative detention orders against prisoners from the Jerusalem Governorate, and most of these have had their detention extended for a second or third time, while only 3 of them have been issued a new order to serve this sentence behind bars.
Human rights organizations concerned with prisoners’ affairs define administrative detention, which Israel uses against Palestinian prisoners, as arresting a person by order of military commanders and on the recommendation of intelligence after collecting materials classified as “secret.”
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, administrative detention orders are issued in accordance with the state of emergency defense regulations approved by the British Mandate in 1945, after which the occupation legislated a special order for administrative detention, which was subject to several amendments, the last of which was in 2007.
Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7, the pace of arrests in the city of Jerusalem has increased in an unprecedented manner, and the head of the Committee for the Families of Jerusalem Prisoners, Amjad Abu Assab, said that the arrests have affected more than two thousand Jerusalemites so far.
Arrested without charge
Abu Assab added in his interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net that 62 Jerusalemite prisoners who hold the Israeli blue ID have been transferred to administrative detention since the beginning of the war, and after 16 of them were liberated, 46 prisoners remain and are now languishing behind the bars of the Negev, Nafha and Megiddo prisons.
The towns of Al-Issawiya, east of Jerusalem, and Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, have the highest number of administrative detainees, and Abu Assab confirmed that the two municipalities have topped the list of Jerusalem towns in the number of detainees for years.
The elderly Omar Abdel Rahim from the town of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, is considered the oldest administrative detainee, as he is (72 years old) and weeks ago his detention was extended for an additional 4 months. He is followed by the former Minister of Jerusalem who was deported from the city, Khaled Abu Arafa, who is (63 years old). Abu Asab confirms that he suffers from difficult health conditions. He has been detained for more than a year, and his detention was recently renewed for an additional two months.
The occupation authorities are renewed #Administrative_detention Indeed, a minister #Jerusalem Previous Khaled Abu Arafa for two months pic.twitter.com/JPExPiOO16
– Al-Quds International Foundation (@Qii_Media) May 1, 2024
Violent arrests
“One of the lawyers conveyed to me a message from the Jerusalemite prisoners that sick prisoners are being punished by depriving them of medication, and that a Jerusalemite prisoner in administrative detention suffers from neurological problems, and faints every three days, and the prisoners are calling on us to help him,” Abu Assab adds.
Since the outbreak of the war, the arrests in the Holy City have been described as tumultuous and accompanied by severe beatings, abuse, and vandalism and destruction of the contents of homes. Abu Assab confirmed that administrative arrests since October 7th have increased in frequency to a way that the city has not witnessed since its occupation in 1967.
According to the head of the Jerusalem Prisoners’ Families Committee, administrative detention orders are signed by the Minister of the Occupying Army on the recommendation of the area officer and the Israeli Internal Security Service (Shin Bet), and days after signing the decision, the prisoner is presented to the President of the District Court in Jerusalem to approve this detention.
This punishment began to be implemented remarkably against Jerusalemites immediately after the popular uprising that broke out shortly after the martyrdom of the boy Muhammad Abu Khudair, who was burned alive by settlers in the summer of 2014.
Because the people of Jerusalem rejected the horrific way that claimed this child’s life, Abu Assab says that the Israeli government held several meetings led by the Ministry of Justice, in addition to sessions of the Israeli mini-ministerial council for political and security affairs (the Cabinet), during which a series of penalties were approved against the Jerusalemites, the most prominent of which was facilitating procedures for issuing administrative detention decisions. .
This weapon was later used against Jerusalemites again during the electronic gates uprising in the summer of 2017, the Sheikh Jarrah uprising in the summer of 2021, and others, but today this punishment is used in an unprecedented way.
Press coverage The occupation court extends the administrative detention for a period of 6 months for the young man Jaber Jamal Al-Deiri for the third time. pic.twitter.com/RFBNHxADAF
– Quds Network | Prisoners (@asranews) May 24, 2024
Targeting liberated prisoners
Among those affected by the specter of administrative detention during the war were young men about to get married, such as Ishaq Afaneh and Ahmed Al-Bakri, in addition to the wounded Karami Al-Fakhouri, Majdi Al-Abbasi, and others.
When asked who are the Jerusalemites who are usually targeted by the occupation authorities with the penalty of administrative detention, Abu Assab indicated that the occupation targets the liberated prisoners and those who are influential in Jerusalemite society, and those who frequent Al-Aqsa Mosque constantly, or those who have scouting activity and are accepted in their neighborhood or among Jerusalemites in general. .
Thus, according to Abu Assab, the occupation wants to convey a message to Israeli society that the authorities are capable of arresting the elites in Jerusalem and that the arrest extends to liberated prisoners and throws them into prisons without filing indictments against them.
According to data from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, the number of administrative detention orders after October 7 exceeded the 5,900 barrier between new orders and renewal orders, including orders against children and women, while the number of administrative detainees was estimated at more than 3,400 until the beginning of this month of May, compared to about 1,320 Palestinians. Before October 7th.
