Ramallah, 21 April 2011 – At 2 a.m. on 21 April 2011, Ahmed Qatamish, a Palestinian writer and political scientist, was arrested by the Israeli Occupying Forces at his home in Ramallah. Addameer is gravely concerned about Mr. Qatamish’s arrest, not only because it appears to be motivated solely by his political opinions and beliefs and as such should be considered a case of arbitrary detention, but also because Mr. Qatamish has been the target of the Israeli authorities before on numerous occasions, notably spending five and a half consecutive years in detention without charge or trial in the mid-1990s. Following a conversation with the Israeli Security Agency regarding the arrest, Addameer fears that he will once again be placed in administrative detention without proper recourse to justice and without any legitimate means to defend himself.
Mr. Qatamish was first arrested by the Israeli authorities in 1969 and held for a few months. He was then rearrested in 1972, this time spending 4 years in prison. After his release, Mr. Qatamish spent 17 years in hiding from 1976 to 1992 to avoid re-arrest. On 2 September 1992, however, he was arrested once more and placed in administrative detention, a form of detention without charge or trial based on indefinitely renewable detention orders. For the next five and a half years, Mr. Qatamish’s detention order was renewed every six months. He was finally released on 15 April 1998 after an extensive international campaign on his behalf, but has been prohibited from traveling outside the occupied Palestinian territory by the Israeli authorities ever since. After his release in 1998, Mr. Qatamish completed his studies in political science and devoted his life to writing and lecturing, notably founding the Munif Barghouti Research Center.
Addameer will continue to closely follow Mr. Qatamish’s case and release further information on his detention.
