Last week on 4 December 2017, Israeli occupation forces arrested three lawyers involved with the defense of Palestinian prisoners.

They were Khaled Zabarqah from al-Lydd, in the 1948 territories, Eyad Messk, who is the head of the legal unit at the Commission of Detainees and ex-Detainees Affairs, and Feras al-Sabbah, the director of al-Meethaq for Human Rights organization in Jerusalem. The three lawyers were kept for one week in Petah Tikva interrogation center without receiving any charges.

Today they will be released without charge, as they have been givdn a release order. 

The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders defines a human rights defender as an individual who plays an important role in furthering the cause of human rights through activities such as the documentation of violations, providing support and assistance to victims seeking remedies. Israeli forces routinely target human rights defenders as part of an intensifying campaign against anyone seeking to further the cause of dignity and justice for the Palestinian people.

As part of this, human rights defenders face ongoing forms of indiscriminate and arbitrary punishment long after their release. Requests from them and their families for permits from the Israeli authorities are consistently denied, they face targeted persecution and intimidation, detention and questioning at checkpoints, defamation, and, in some cases, re-arrest.